Christian Humour - The Virgin Mary

Text: Philippians 4:4; Psalm 32:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16

***Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused. Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others. ***

Little Kiana, under the tutelage of her grandfather, was becoming quite knowledgeable about the Bible.

Then one day Kiana floored her grandfather by asking, "Which virgin was the mother of Jesus? The virgin Mary or the King James Virgin?"

*** Copyright David Tait | 'Laughing At Ourselves' | Walking With Jesus Ministries ***

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If God Is Your Father, Please Call Home

The place of prayer in the life of a Christian cannot be trivialized. It is the very link that connects the soul of a believer to heaven. It strengthens our fellowship with God and takes us to the throne of grace where we can ask for our daily needs.

It's no doubt that prayer brings momentum. It lifts the heart above the challenges of life and gives it a view of God’s resources of victory and hope. Prayer provides power, poise, peace and purpose for a person’s purpose, plans and pursuits.

The most powerful energy anyone can generate is prayer energy. This energy satiates us from within and empowers us as Christians to continue in the faith and daily walk in the Spirit.

"The devil smiles when we make plans,

He laughs when we get too busy,

But he trembles when we pray" ~ Corrie Ten Boom

"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything;

Tell God your needs and don’t forget to thank Him for His answers.

If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful

Than the human mind can understand" ~ Philippians 4:6-7 TLB

Whatever is worth worrying about is worth praying about. God is never more than a prayer away from you. When you feel swept off your feet, get back to your knees.

"If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room,

I would not fear a million enemies. Yet, distance makes no difference.

He is praying for me" ~ Robert M. Nccheyne

Heaven is ready to receive you when you pray. “Time spent in communion with God is never lost” – Gordon Lindsay.

"I have so much to do today that I shall spend

The first three hours in prayer" ~ Martin Luther King Jnr

Common people do not pray. They only beg. So pray, don’t beg. When we pray, we link ourselves with God’s inexhaustible power and insight. “Wishing will never be a substitute for prayer” – Edwin Louis Cole.

Remember that prayers can’t be answered until they are prayed. “Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them (Mark 11:24 NKJV).

"A day hemmed in prayer is less likely to unravel"

When we pray, we must simultaneously position ourselves to be willing to take action that God requires as answers to our prayer because “prayer is not monologue but dialogue; God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential part” (Andrew Murray).

The prayers a person lives on his feet are no less important than those he says on his knees.

"Practical prayer is harder on the sole of your shoes

Than on the knees of your trousers" ~ Osten O’Malley

The strongest action that you can take in any situation is to go to your knees and ask God for help. The highest purpose of faith or prayer is not to change your circumstances but to change you.

Pray to do the will of God in every situation. Nothing else is worth praying for. That you desire a dream car, a house, a job, pay increase and promotion, and business boom are good but not good enough to make heaven smile at you. But to do the Father's bidding and ask for anything according to His will gladdens Him.

"Do not have your concert and tune your instruments afterwards.

Begin the day with God" ~ James Hudson Taylor

The Scripture urges us to “rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for us in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). However, prayer may not change all things for you, but it sure changes you for all things.

Prayer is the stop that keeps you going; it's the force that keeps you soaring. So, whatsoever you may be going through - be it barrenness, joblessness, depression, heartbreak, hardship or lack, if God is your Father, please call home today.

*** Written by John Mason | Edited by Jacobs Adewale (Admin) ***

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What Happens When You Boast In Self

Text: Matthew 23:12; Galatians 6:3; Ezekiel 28:2

Key Verse: “Therefore, as it is written: let the one who boasts boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31)

One day a local evangelist bragged during a crusade that his God was more able than all the other gods in the town and the powers of the universe that the villagers worshiped put together. Just then, a rainstorm started, threatening the progress of the crusade. The evangelist lifted up his voice and declared with confidence that if the rains fell, then he wasn't a man of God; he would stop preaching!

Before he could finish his bluff, the rains began to hit the crusade grounds so vehemently, apparently in disregard to his declarations. The whole town left the crusade grounds to their houses, shaking their heads in disappointment and dismay.

The evangelist, so distraught and angry, packed his belongings and left the town the next day. On his way through the next town, he checked into a local drinking spot and drank himself to stupor. As he laid on the ground cursing God, an old seedy looking man tapped him gently on the shoulder. "Man of God", the old man began. But the evangelist quickly cut in, "don't mention the name of God to me. He is fake. He is unreliable. I am no longer a believer in this God. A God who chooses to disgrace his servants. Leave me alone!"

But the old man would not let him be. He continued,"I am the fetish priest in the village you just preached at. During your one week stay in that village, you destroyed all the charms I had made on the people for 45 years. Your prayers and your words always came with some fearful fire and power. I tried so many times to eliminate you but I couldn't. My last chance came yesterday.

I had loaded my gun with gun powder lying in wait on the mountaintop where I had a very clear view of you. My plan was to shoot you from a distance since I couldn't get close enough to you due to the fire around you. But just when I lifted the gun, the rains came from nowhere, wetting my gunpowder and covering you in a cloud so that I couldn't even see you. All I saw was a bright man holding a sword in front of you.

I was so terrified. I concluded that your God was indeed all powerful and Almighty. That is why I have been looking for you since then. I want to follow this your God!" The ex-evangelist bowed his head in shame!

Beloved in Christ, sometimes, it is just wise for us to believe that our Father knows the way He is taking us. We should just trust His leading. Let our boast be in the Lord, not in ourselves. If we decree a thing and it doesn't happen, let us not see it as disappointment or dishonor from the Father. Let us just believe that the Father wants his perfect will to be done in all things.

Please share this if you feel it's worth sharing. You just might bring a brother or sister in Christ back to light and revive his or her faith in the Lord.

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Fellowship With The Father

Text: 1 John 1:1-4

Key Verse: “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).

Why is it that some Christians seem to be transformed by contact with Jesus Christ, but others are not? Some Christians, even Christians of long standing, still seem to be very much conformed to the world around them, even deformed in their views and outlooks. Yet all of them stoutly assert that they are Christians, that they too have been born again by faith in Jesus Christ. It is not strange that the world asks, What is wrong? Why is this condition true? The secret, John says, is fellowship.

What is fellowship? In the Navy we used to say it was two fellows on the same ship, and there is a sense in which that is true. They do have something in common—the same ship. That is the basis of fellowship, for essentially this word means to have all things in common. When you have something in common with another, you can have fellowship with that person. If you have nothing in common, you have no fellowship.

We all have things in common. We share human life in common. Most of us share American citizenship in common. But John is talking about that unique fellowship that is the possession only of those who share life in Jesus Christ together. This makes them one, and this oneness is the basis for the appeal of Scripture: to live together in tenderness and love toward one another. Not because we are inherently wonderful people or remarkable personalities or that we are naturally gracious, kind, loving, and tender all the time—for at times we are grouchy, scratchy, and irritating to others. But we are still to love one another. Why? Because we share life together. We have something in common. We share the life of the Lord Jesus, and therefore we have fellowship with one another.

We must understand the difference between relationship and fellowship. Relationship is becoming a member of the family of God by faith in Jesus Christ. It is established by asking Him to come into your life and heart. John makes that clear at the end of this letter. He who has the Son has life (that is relationship); he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (he does not have a relationship) 1 John 5:12.

The Christian life starts right there with this matter of relationship. Relationship is accepting Christ; fellowship is experiencing Him. You can never have fellowship until you have established relationship, but you can certainly have relationship without fellowship. Relationship puts us into the family of God, but fellowship permits the life of that family to shine through us. That is what marks the difference between Christians.

Fellowship is the key to vital Christianity. That is why this letter of Apostle John, which calls us back to fundamental issues, focuses first on that. The important question is, as a Christian, are you enjoying fellowship with the Father and with His Son?

*** Culled from Ray Stedman Ministry Daily Devotional | www.raystedman.org ***

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Welcome To May!

From The Truth Media family,

Happy New Month!!!

All your worries, all your pains,

The Lord has promised they won't stay;

He knows the height you wish to gain,

He feels your woes of yesterday,

He understands your every fear,

He sees them all: your sighs and tears

And only asks you trust, obey

His Word today and everyday;

To daily walk with Him by faith,

To simply trusting everyday.

At you the world has mocked and called a wraith,

Just keep on trusting everyday.

As you enter this month of May,

Please don't relent to watch and pray,

And miracles only shall you see

In all your ways in Jesus' name. Amen.

*** Written by Jacobs Adewale (Admin) ***

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Religious Or Righteous?

Text: Matthew 23:1-7

Strict observation of religious activities like giving of alms, praying and fasting, regular church attendance, payment of tithes and offering, and so on, without genuine repentance should not be mistaken for righteousness.

There are many church people who practice these things and still continue in sin – secret and open. The Lord will not accept any of them in lieu of godliness.

However, righteousness comes when a sinner hears the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, becomes convicted of sin and makes a decision to turn to God for pardon and forgiveness. God has promised to forgive every repentant sinner. He says: ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9).

Those who refuse to accept Christ but continue in religious activities which do not save will eventually regret at the end of their lives. According to the Scripture, God is angry with such people and if they die in that condition, they will spend eternity in hell where Satan will torment them forever.

But the sinner who believes God’s promise to forgive and cleanse, he or she will receive pardon on the merit of Christ’s atonement on the Cross. The pardoned believer will have a witness of the Holy Spirit that he or she is born again and has become a child of God. Therefore, a new lifestyle will begin: ‘Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new’ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

In this renewed state of being, the believer will not only be religious but righteous, godly, holy, kind, loving, gracious and God-fearing. His everyday life will be different from what it used to be. His passion and pursuit will be centered on God and he will labour to get to heaven on the last day.

The question now is this: ‘are you merely religious or righteous?’ This is a question for you and me and for everyone who professes to be in Christ. Now is the best time to ‘examine yourself to know whether you are in the faith; prove your own self… (2 Corinthians 13:5). Yet, don’t deceive yourself thinking nobody knows and sees you; ‘God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap’ (Galatians 6:7).

And ultimately, ‘…the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity’ (2 Timothy 2:19).

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Fear Not

Text: Isaiah 35:4; John 14:27; 2 Timothy 1:7

Fear not, fear not, O be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

I will strengthen and guide thee, and help thee to stand,

Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,

My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.

The flame shall not hurt thee; my only design

Is to make you more holy, more pure, and refined.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,

I will not, I cannot desert to its foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,

It mattereth not, for I’ll never, never forsake.

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Stop And Behold

The Bible teaches that "old things have passed away, behold, all things become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). This verse is telling you to stop what you're doing and take notice of what God is doing. If you don't like what's been happening, then behold, stop and take notice.

This is precisely what you are to do on this first day of the rest of your life. God is telling you that now is the time to stop and behold. Do not look at what is seen but stop and look at what is unseen. Look at life through the eyes of faith.

There is a physical world and there is a spiritual world. The physical world is temporary and the spiritual world is eternal. Why look at what is here today and gone tomorrow? No, with eyes of faith stop and behold that which lasts forever. Look into the world of the eternal.

Sometimes the bad things in life can overwhelm you. It appears that your problems are bigger than you are and, in truth, sometimes they are. But how much more in awe should you be and overwhelmed by what takes place in the realm of the spirit?

The difference between a natural person and a spiritual person is what's on their mind. The natural person looks at what is temporary and the spiritual person looks at what is eternal. The question to be asked is, "What's on your mind?"

What you think about determines the direction your life will take. "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). Your life is programmed to go in the direction of your most dominant thought. What you think about determines what you'll do, where you'll go, and what you will become. Never minimize the value of a Godly thought. Your thoughts become your desires and the Bible says that God will give you the desires of your heart. The key is to stop and behold.

When you woke up this morning did you like everything you saw around you? If not, then stop and behold. Those things are subject to change. They probably won't change instantly. The Bible says old things "become" new. And when does this change occur? When you look at life through the eyes of faith.

You may not like everything you see in your life today. Most likely there are many things in your life that are not as they should be. But when you look into the eternal you will see God moving on your behalf. What you don't like in the natural world will soon be gone and will be replaced by that which no man can touch. You must not look at where you've been but must stop and behold where you're going. This is the key to success.

As you look ahead you will see a future that is bright, a future fueled by and sustained by the glory of God. With eyes of faith you will see His goodness and His favor overwhelming you like never before. You also will see the devil stepping in and trying to put a damper on those plans. Rest assured, he will not be successful as long as you look at the situation with eyes of faith.

You can counter his evil schemes by taking a moment to stop and behold all that God has already done for you. As you do that, old things pass away and the things of God become new. Before long you will see them manifesting before your very eyes. The things of the devil don't have a ground to stand on but the things of God are founded on a Rock!

The reason many people are vagabonds and drift around in life aimlessly is because they haven't taken the time to stop and behold. They do not know which direction their life will take because they don't know where they're going. They focus too much on the past and present and never take the time to stop and see where God is taking them.

Their attitude is "whatever will be, will be" and "it is what it is." They believe they have no power to control their future but they are wrong. This power comes when they take the time to stop and behold. This power is supernatural and like a giant locomotive it has the ability to pull you through your current circumstances to a life that is filled with the glory of God.

Sad to say, the world is filled with people who like to be controlled like a puppet on a string. It's easier to let other people and certain events dictate which direction their life will take. Do not let this happen to you. God has given you one life to live and you must rise up and take stewardship of that which you've been given. You do that when you see into the realm of the spirit and by faith allow the Lord to order your steps accordingly.

Your responsibility is to obey the direction of the Lord and have the courage to put one foot in front of the other. As you do that consistently, in time you will arrive at the place you saw when you took the time to look at life through the eyes of faith.

For sure, this is a glorious place. It has to be because the Lord brought you here. A heavenly aroma fills this place and the smell of victory is everywhere. There are no weights holding you down and in the spirit you feel light as a feather.

You have come to be in the perfect will of God for your life and there is no more glorious place to be. It's wonderful! It's radiant! It's exciting! It's glorious! You have no worries here, no frets or concerns. You are in the arms of your beloved Jesus. He is your shepherd and you shall not want. Old things have indeed passed away and most certainly all things that pertain to your life have become new.

With the arms of Jesus around you it really doesn't matter what your circumstances are. What matters is that you let Jesus take you where He wants you to go. What you think is important today won't be important tomorrow. What is important is that you find your "secret place" where the presence of God dwells and by faith and obedience you go where He tells you to go and stay where He tells you to stay.

This is what the spiritual life is all about. God always leads you in triumph and in Him you go from glory to glory. Is there a better future than this? Certainly not!

Never let yourself get too caught up in the hustle and bustle of life. Your life and the days you live are more important than that. Stop and smell the roses. There is a whole other life out there waiting to be lived and you can live it when you slow down and take notice of what's out there.

Your godly thoughts and faith-filled imagination will become a photograph of the direction your life is taking. It tells you where you're going and what your life will become. There are no limits here and you can go as far as you want. Don't accept second best. Slow down, stop and behold, and become all you were meant to be. It's called living the good life.

*** Written by Randall J. Brewer ***

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Christian Humour – As Jesus Did

Text: Philippians 4:4; Psalm 32:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16

***Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused. Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others. ***

Old Pastor McTavish was dying. He sent a message for an IRS agent and his lawyer, both church members, to come to his home. When they arrived they were ushered up to his bedroom.

As they entered the room, Pastor McTavish motioned for them to sit on each side of the bed. Then he grasped their hands, sighed contentedly, smiled and stared at the ceiling.

For a time, no one said anything. Both the IRS agent and Lawyer were touched and flattered that the old preacher would ask them to be with him during his final moments. But they were also puzzled because Pastor McTavish had never given them any indication that he particularly liked either of them.

They both remembered how his many long, uncomfortable sermons about greed and covetousness had made them squirm in their seats.

Finally, the lawyer said, "Preacher, why did you ask the two of us to come?"

Pastor McTavish smiled weakly and said, "Jesus died between two thieves, and that's how I want to go, too."

*** Copyright David Tait | 'Laughing At Ourselves' | Walking With Jesus Ministries ***

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Christian Humour - Only One Miracle Today

Text: Philippians 4:4; Psalm 32:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16

***Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused. Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others. ***

Grandma Deanie took her little grandson Billy to the beach. They were having a good time until a huge wave came in and swept Billy out to sea. Grandma Deanie fell down on her knees and pleaded to the heavens, "Please return my grandson, - that's all I ask! PLEASE!!!"

A moment later, lo and behold, a wave swelled from the ocean and deposited the wet, yet unhurt child, at her feet. She checked him over to make sure that he was okay. He was fine. But still she looked up at the sky with an annoyed expression and said, "When we came he had a hat!"

*** Copyright David Tait | 'Laughing At Ourselves' | Walking With Jesus Ministries ***

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