Dec. 6 SparkysHeart — I THESSALONIANS 1-5

Dec. 6 SparkysHeart — I THESSALONIANS 1-5 Sparky's Prayer: Lord God, help us to always live in the light of Your second coming and to be prepared for that great day, and help our lives exhibit what it means to follow You daily. Help us to have respect for our spiritual leaders. Help us to work while we are waiting for Jesus' return. Help us to have joy and gratitude to be trademarks of our faith. Lord, help us to rejoice regardless of our hard times and have respect for spiritual things. In Jesus' saving name, we pray. Amen.
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Colossians 1:5-8 — Harvesting Faith, Hope, Love
PAUL'S PRAYER: Dear Father, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: Thank You for the fruit Your Word is bearing throughout the whole world. Thank You that this Gospel, the Word of Truth, has power to touch human hearts today even as at the beginning. Let its fruit grow among us. Let all Your faithful ministers stir us up to more fruit-bearing. Let us grow in the Holy Spirit. Give us a deep passion, Lord, to fill our lives with faith, hope, and love. Give us a holy longing for the Holy Spirit to guide everything we do. In Jesus' mighty saving name and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.
http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/praying_paul/pwp.pl?340

VERSE: I tell you that One greater than the Temple is here. ~ Matthew 12:6 (NIV)
THOUGHT: What is the greatest construction project built by human hands? Jesus is greater still! What is the most "holy" place you have been? Jesus is far holier still! What is the most awe-inspiring site you have visited? Jesus is far more awesome and holy! What is the most inspiring event you have ever attended? Jesus is far more ... Jesus is the One Who Is Greater! Nothing else, no one else, can hold a candle to Him. As John the Baptist reminded us, the greatest religious leaders of all time are not even worthy to unlatch His sandals.
PRAYER: Thank You, Father God for revealing to us the Way, the Truth, and the Life through Jesus. Forgive us for the times we will have misused His Name or underestimated His glory. Restore in us the child-like sense of joyous wonder that we need to have in His presence. In the holy and awesome mighty saving name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
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WHAT JESUS DID! — The Prophets Frame It All
Matthew 26:55-56 (NLT) Then Jesus said to the crowd, "Am I some dangerous criminal, that you have come armed with swords and clubs to arrest Me? Why did you not arrest Me in the Temple? I was there teaching every day. But this is all happening to fulfill the words of the prophets as recorded in the Scriptures." At that point, all the disciples deserted Him and fled.
WJD THOUGHT: Those who left everything to follow Jesus now leave Jesus to save themselves. It is a crucial reminder to us of how easy it is to abandon what we hold dear to preserve that, which we cannot save. Of course they come to Him at night and not when the crowds are around. They are afraid of the crowds. Of course they come to Him as if He were a criminal and robber, because they know of no other way to control His power. Of course they come to Him in the cover of darkness and secrecy because they walk in darkness and serve the dark prince. But as Jesus had warned, the disciples abandon Him. They run. He is all-alone. But He goes to face this fate knowing it will happen, because His whole life has been framed by the truth: "It will come about just as the prophets wrote."
WJD PRAYER: O Father God, help us to never forsake Jesus, Who has done so much and given up so much to bring us into Your family. Forgive us when we deny our commitment to Him by selfish and weak actions and reactions and please mature us to be more like Him. In Jesus' mighty saving name and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.
http://www.heartlight.org/wjd/matthew/1206-wjd.html

WHAT JESUS DID! — The Gamble
Mark 15:24 (NLT) Then they nailed Him to the cross. They gambled for His clothes, throwing dice to decide who would get them.
WJD THOUGHT: Just as the soldiers at the foot of this cross-gambled for Jesus' clothes, people still gamble on the Cross of Christ today. Anytime people refuse to recognize Who was crucified on that Cross, they gamble their future — their eternal future — assuming that Jesus is only just another man. The stakes of this gamble are incredibly high. Either Jesus offers eternal life with God or He is a delusional, self-appointed Messiah. Skull Hill leaves no other places for us to place a wager. For those who believe in what Jesus did at this Cross, their faith promises them life. For those who do not believe, there is only a horribly risky gamble that this Jesus was just another man. We know what the soldiers decided. What have you decided about this Jesus and His Cross?
WJD PRAYER: Father in Heaven, we believe that Jesus died on the Cross to save us from our sins. We have been baptized to share in His death and we have been raised to walk a new life trusting in Your saving power. We believe that Jesus' death and resurrection broke the power that Satan and his demons had over us through death. Please help us to keep dead the old life we have left. Empower us by Your Holy Spirit so that we can be a living witness to the power of Your Son's love and Your grace. In Jesus' mighty saving name, we pray. Amen.
http://www.heartlight.org/wjd/mark/1206-wjd.html

WHAT JESUS DID! — True!
Luke 22:28-30 (NLT) "You have remained true to Me in My time of trial. And just as My Father has granted Me a Kingdom, I now grant you the right to eat and drink at My table in that Kingdom. And you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
WJD THOUGHT: While most, if not all, of Jesus' disciples will forsake Him and run away during His arrest, trial, and crucifixion, they have been true to Him through His ministry to this point. He lets them know that they have places of honor in the coming Kingdom. While they cannot know all that will happen in that Kingdom, they do know that they will be in the presence of the Lord, will eat at His table, will reign on thrones, and will judge the 12 tribes of Israel. While their earthly struggles are great and their rewards in this life seem worthless, Jesus assures them that they will reign with Him in glory.
WJD PRAYER: Father God, give us the faith to wait for the dawning of Your day of victory. Help us to not give up when we are discouraged. Keep us passionate as we seek to serve You with all of our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. We know that all that we offer to You will be small in the face of all that awaits us in Your presence. In Jesus' mighty saving name, we pray, praise and thank You. Amen.
http://www.heartlight.org/wjd/luke/1206-wjd.html

WHAT JESUS DID! — A Witness So We Can Believe
John 19:35-37 (NLT) This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account; it is presented so that you also can believe. These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, "Not one of His bones will be broken," and "They will look on Him Whom they pierced."
WJD THOUGHT: Our faith is built on the eyewitness accounts of those who saw Jesus daily and told His story at great personal cost. Our faith is built on the trustworthiness of God, Who is faithful to fulfill His promises. We do not believe on a blind hope or a broken psyche desperately in need of some magic fix. While the human condition is sick beyond human repair, our faith in a heavenly solution is rooted in God, Who became flesh and walked in our world and died our death to give us His life. The changes in ordinary men and women who watched that life are part of the chorus of testimony on which, we build our faith. Believing in Jesus as the Son of God will be a leap of faith, but it is not a blind leap! It is a leap based on the testimony of witnesses who had seen this life and found their lives changed and enriched in the process.
WJD PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we know that even our faith is a gift of Your grace. We thank You that this faith is not something we have had to do on our own. We thank You for a heritage of faith in people who have shared the story of Jesus with us. We thank You that this heritage goes all the way back to men and women who ate, talked, and witnessed the life and death of Jesus. Even more, we thank You that this story does not end in their witness to His death, but in His resurrection. We thank You for the faith handed to us. We pray that we will share it and pass it on to others. In Jesus' mighty saving name and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.
http://www.heartlight.org/wjd/john/1206-wjd.html

Daily Guide to Miracles from Oral Roberts Ministries
Constructive Anger — by Lindsay Roberts
When Jesus healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, the Bible says, When He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. Mark 3:5 (NKJV)
Christ angry? Yes! But His anger was not an outburst of carnal temper. His anger stemmed from grief and hurt at His critics' insensitivity to human need.
When Jesus drove out the money changers in the temple and overturned their tables, no doubt He was angry with them, for He said. Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, "It is written, `My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a `den of thieves.'" Matthew 21:12-13 (NKJV) Anger is a God-given emotion, divinely implanted in you, to be used for constructive spiritual purposes.
Have you always thought of Florence Nightingale as a little angel of mercy? That is the way she is usually presented. But Florence Nightingale got angry because hospitals were horrible and the care of the wounded was disgraceful. A recent biographer describes her as a stubborn, high-tempered woman with a clear call of God, who fussed and hounded government officials into providing treatment for the wounded and the dying until those officials came to tremble at the mention of her name.
Never pray for anger to be eliminated from your life. Rather, pray for your temper to be cleansed and directed toward that, which is good and right so that you will be a productive Christian.
My Declaration of Faith for Today: I use my God-given emotion of anger for good, not to hurt others.
Remember, "Something GOOD is going to happen to you!"
prayer@orm.cc
Visit the Make Your Day Count website: http://www.makeyourdaycount.com

Computer Fallout
Hebrews 3:12a — So watch your step, friends. Make sure there is no evil unbelief lying around that will trip you up and throw you off course, diverting you from the living God. (MSG)
You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I am telling you why! "Santa" might bring you a new computer!
Thousands of people spend time in hospital emergency wards every Christmas, because of computer injuries. A foot trips over the cord. The unit lands on a toe. A hand gets pinched. Sounds funny, does it not? People get hurt while carting around an endless supply of knowledge. We need to be careful.
But sometimes, Christians are too careful not to get hurt. For example, I always have my Bible at the ready. A wealth of godly information lies well within my reach. However, when I come across advice I do not like, I have been known to skip that psalm, that proverb, that commandment — for surely God did not mean that for me ... did He?
Well ... of course He did. The Bible is full and entire and complete. We do not get to pick out the parts we do not like. God uses them to point out the cords that trip us up, the weights that drag us down, and the hands that are in the wrong places. He has to. They divert our attention.
By all means, let us enjoy our new Christmas computers, but be ever mindful of the steps we take while carrying them. Let them remind us always to be careful of the steps we take with God.
We come in agreement with Brenda’s Prayer: Lord God, when our life does not line up with Your endless supply of knowledge, please point out our error. Do not let us be diverted from You, the living God. In Jesus’ mighty saving name, we pray. Amen.
Brenda Wood — brenda.w@nextcom.ca
Sandycove Acres, Innisfil, Ontario, Canada
http://daily.presbycan.ca/

WHAT JESUS DID! — When the natives saw the little animal hanging from his hand
Acts 28:3-4 Now Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and he was laying them on the fire when a viper crawled out, because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. [4] When the natives saw the little animal hanging from his hand, they said to one another, "Doubtless this man is a murderer, for though he has been saved from the sea, Justice [the goddess of avenging] has not permitted that he should live."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IBGN-IBEGOODNOW-NEWSLETTER/