Today's Verse : Romans 16:25-27

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December 28, 2007

VERSE:
Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the
proclamation of Jesus Christ ... to the only wise God be glory
forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
-- Romans 16:25-27

http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=Romans+16:25-27

THOUGHT:
God doesn't just bless us. He establishes us! He makes us
strong! He matures us into solid and true disciples. He does this
in many ways. One of the most important, however, is through the
words the Holy Spirit inspired and shared with us through Jesus'
early disciples. As this year moves towards its close and another
stands at the door, let's make a renewed commitment to spend time
each day in the Bible. Let's not let this powerful tool and great
resource for living be relegated to being a coffee-table book or a
good luck charm to take with us to church.

PRAYER:
I thank you, O God, for your Spirit that breathed out your
message through human agents. I thank you for those human partners
who shared the Spirit's message with us in Scripture. I thank you
for the many fine translations of the Bible that are available to
us today. I thank you for the freedom to have a copy of the Bible
in my home. Please help me not squander the incredible blessing of
your written word. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/todaysverse.cgi?day=20071228

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SEE THE MORNING, by Chris Tomlin
Award-winning artist Tomlin offers a whole new set of soul-inspiring
easy-to-sing songs about God's faithfulness.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?260

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Today's Verse is written by Phil Ware <phil@heartlight.org> and is
part of HEARTLIGHT Magazine, the leading Christian living e-zine
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Today's KJV Verse : Romans 16:25-27

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December 28, 2007

VERSE:
Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my
gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the
revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world
began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the
prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made
known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise,
be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
-- Romans 16:25-27

http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=Romans+16:25-27&translation=kjv

THOUGHT:
God doesn't just bless us. He establishes us! He makes us
strong! He matures us into solid and true disciples. He does this
in many ways. One of the most important, however, is through the
words the Holy Spirit inspired and shared with us through Jesus'
early disciples. As this year moves towards its close and another
stands at the door, let's make a renewed commitment to spend time
each day in the Bible. Let's not let this powerful tool and great
resource for living be relegated to being a coffee-table book or a
good luck charm to take with us to church.

PRAYER:
I thank you, O God, for your Spirit that breathed out your
message through human agents. I thank you for those human partners
who shared the Spirit's message with us in Scripture. I thank you
for the many fine translations of the Bible that are available to
us today. I thank you for the freedom to have a copy of the Bible
in my home. Please help me not squander the incredible blessing of
your written word. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/todaysverse.cgi?day=20071228&ver=kjv

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SIMPLY CHRISTIAN: WHY CHRISTIANITY MAKES SENSE, by N. T. Wright
Destined to become a classic alongside Lewis's Mere Christianity - a
fascinating and accessible apologetic for modern seekers.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?255

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Daily Wisdom NIV : Malachi 2:16

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"I hate divorce," says the LORD God of Israel, "and I hate a
man's covering himself with violence as well as with his
garment," says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your
spirit, and do not break faith.

Malachi 2:16, New International Version
http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=Malachi+2:16

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Daily Wisdom KJV : Malachi 2:16

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For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD
of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not
treacherously.

Malachi 2:16, King James Version
http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=Malachi+2:16&translation=kjv

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Mustard Seed Thought: Surgery

The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your
descendants, so that you may love Him with all you heart and with all
your soul, and live. Deuteronomy 30:6 NIV

Did you know God was a heart surgeon? He is! And He is ready to perform one on you!

God will operate on your heart, so that you can love Him more fully, and so you can live.

I have known quite a few people who have had heart surgery. Basically,
as I understand it, part of the heart actually dies. A surgeon will
literally cut on the heart in order for new life to come. The person
with the bad heart will suffer some, often for many months, but will
most times live stronger and healthier after recovery.

God wants to operate on you! He wants to cut away the bad part of your
heart, circumcise it, so that He can place within you His presence
through the Holy Spirit. God wants to take up residence in you, and in
order for that to take place, you must be made new again.

God cannot live where there is sin. He is holy, which means absent of sin. The penalty for sin is death, but the gift of God, through Jesus, is eternal life.

God's greatest desire is for you to experience Him granting you new life!

But, to make that happen, you're gonna need a little surgery. It's okay! You're in the best of hands!

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Quotemeal: "The most extraordinary ..."

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The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and
an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.

-- G. K. Chesterton

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WILD AT HEART, by John Eldredge
Helping men rediscover their masculine heart, this is a guide to
understanding Christian manhood and Christian men.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?153

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Daily Heartlight -- December 27, 2007

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December 27, 2007

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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================

It's Still Christmas, by Rubel Shelly

There is a wonderful line from the American scholar Stephen L. Carter
that is worth pondering this Christmas season: "Religion is, at its
heart, a way of denying the rest of the world." He is astutely and
gloriously correct.

Faith's view of this world is strangely skeptical. No, more than that.
It is a posture of unequivocal distrust leading to rejection! When the
world recites its mantras -- you matter only if you are beautiful, the
most important thing is money, winning is everything, Look Out for
Number One -- faith protests them all. It adopts a posture of doubt and
incredulity. It rejects them.

I refuse to believe that selfishness is acceptable or that it is
permissible to resent another's good fortune. I will not swallow the
world's way of thinking in order to justify prejudice, aggression, and
hatred. No believer can be anything but incredulous about this world's
claim that she is entitled to anything she can get her hands on or that
he should not feel guilty about exploiting and using people.

So distrust the alleged certainties of sense that cancel the mysteries
of faith. Fight the tendency of the masses to look forward only for the
sake of declaring the impossibility of living with hope. Deny the
inevitability of such greed, hatred, and violence in the world that we
cannot prove the reality of love.

The Bible warns against being blinded by this world and speaks of the
danger of the blind leading the blind. That warning puts us on notice
that things, people, and ways of thinking totally rooted in the finite
world of time, space, and matter will keep us from discovering,
experiencing, and delighting in the greater realities of God, spirit,
and eternity that can only be known by faith.

Faith isn't self-talk or self-deception. It is neither wish projection
nor wishful thinking. It is our willingness to hear and stand with the
things God has shown us through events and people as awe-inspiring as a
trembling, smoking mountain in the desert and as modest as a baby's
first cry in the village of Bethlehem.

See Immanuel!

So let Christmas deny the hold of this world on your heart. Let it open
your eyes to what the willfully blind will never see, your ears to
things the incorrigibly deaf can never hear.

See Immanuel -- and know God is with us.

Hear the song of angels -- and receive God's peace offered to anxious
hearts.

Hold the confusion, cynicism, and antagonisms of this troubled world
suspect -- and choose God's rule as your way of affirming the true
realities.

It's still Christmas, if you will let Jesus open your heart!

---------
(c) 2007 Used by permission. From Rubel Shelly's "FAX of Life"
printed each Tuesday. See Faith Matters for previous issues of
the "FAX of Life."

RELATED LINKS:
* Keeping Christ in Christmas

http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200711/20071128_Christmas.html
* What Is It You See in Christmas?

http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200612/20061224_seeinchristmas.html
* Too Busy with Christmas for Church

http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200512/20051222_toobusy.html
* RubelShelly.com

http://www.rubelshelly.com/

This article can be found on the web at:
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200712/20071227_stillchristmas.html

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WOW HITS 2006, by Various Artists
They're here---all the chart-topping radio hits by your favorite
Christian artists! Two CD boxed set.
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Morning & Evening -- Job 8:11 and Isaiah 58:11

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Thursday, December 27, 2007

MORNING:

"Can the rush grow up without mire?"
-- Job 8:11

The rush is spongy and hollow, and even so is a hypocrite; there is no
substance or stability in him. It is shaken to and fro in every wind
just as formalists yield to every influence; for this reason the rush
is not broken by the tempest, neither are hypocrites troubled with
persecution. I would not willingly be a deceiver or be deceived;
perhaps the text for this day may help me to try myself whether I be a
hypocrite or no. The rush by nature lives in water, and owes its very
existence to the mire and moisture wherein it has taken root; let the
mire become dry, and the rush withers very quickly. Its greenness is
absolutely dependent upon circumstances, a present abundance of water
makes it flourish, and a drought destroys it at once. Is this my case?
Do I only serve God when I am in good company, or when religion is
profitable and respectable? Do I love the Lord only when temporal
comforts are received from his hands? If so I am a base hypocrite, and
like the withering rush, I shall perish when death deprives me of
outward joys. But can I honestly assert that when bodily comforts have
been few, and my surroundings have been rather adverse to grace than at
all helpful to it, I have still held fast my integrity? then have I
hope that there is genuine vital godliness in me. The rush cannot grow
without mire, but plants of the Lord's right hand planting can and do
flourish even in the year of drought. A godly man often grows best when
his worldly circumstances decay. He who follows Christ for his bag is a
Judas; they who follow for loaves and fishes are children of the devil;
but they who attend him out of love to himself are his own beloved
ones. Lord, let me find my life in thee, and not in the mire of this
world's favour or gain.

EVENING:

"And the LORD shall guide thee continually."
-- Isaiah 58:11

"The Lord shall guide thee." Not an angel, but JEHOVAH shall guide
thee. He said he would not go through the wilderness before his people,
an angel should go before them to lead them in the way; but Moses said,
"If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." Christian, God
has not left you in your earthly pilgrimage to an angel's guidance: he
himself leads the van. You may not see the cloudy, fiery pillar, but
Jehovah will never forsake you. Notice the word shall-"The Lord shall
guide thee." How certain this makes it! How sure it is that God will
not forsake us! His precious "shalls" and "wills" are better than men's
oaths. "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Then observe the
adverb continually. We are not merely to be guided sometimes, but we
are to have a perpetual monitor; not occasionally to be left to our own
understanding, and so to wander, but we are continually to hear the
guiding voice of the Great Shepherd; and if we follow close at his
heels, we shall not err, but be led by a right way to a city to dwell
in. If you have to change your position in life; if you have to
emigrate to distant shores; if it should happen that you are cast into
poverty, or uplifted suddenly into a more responsible position than the
one you now occupy; if you are thrown among strangers, or cast among
foes, yet tremble not, for "the Lord shall guide thee continually."
There are no dilemmas out of which you shall not be delivered if you
live near to God, and your heart be kept warm with holy love. He goes
not amiss who goes in the company of God. Like Enoch, walk with God,
and you cannot mistake your road. You have infallible wisdom to direct
you, immutable love to comfort you, and eternal power to defend you.
"Jehovah"-mark the word-"Jehovah shall guide thee continually."

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LOOK GREAT, FEEL GREAT: 12 KEYS TO ENJOYING A HEALTHY LIFE NOW, by Joyce Meyer
Joyce guides us to a healthier way of living, reminding us that turning
every issue over to God gives us the strength to make lasting changes.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?250

Find more great books, CDs and videos at the Heartlight store! With
each purchase you make, you're helping to support Heartlight's
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My Utmost For His Highest : "Where The Battle's Lost And Won"

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December 27, 2007

WHERE THE BATTLE'S LOST AND WON

II thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord... .

Jeremiah 4:1

http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=jer+4:1&sr=1

The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before
God, never first in the external world. The Spirit of God apprehends
me and I am obliged to get alone with God and fight the battle out
before Him. Until this is done, I lose every time. The battle may
take one minute or a year, that will depend on me, not on God; but it
must be wrestled out alone before God, and I must resolutely go
through the hell of a renunciation before God. Nothing has any power
over the man who has fought out the battle before God and won there.

If I say, "I will wait till I get into the circumstances and then put
God to the test," I shall find I cannot. I must get the thing settled
between my self and God in the secret places of my soul where no
stranger intermeddles, and then I can go forth with the certainty
that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity and disaster and
upset are as sure as God's decree. The reason the battle is not won
is because I try to win it in the external world first. Get alone
with God, fight it out before Him, settle the matter there once and
for all.

In dealing with other people, the line to take is to push them to an
issue of will. That is the way abandonment begins. Every now and
again, not often, but sometimes, God brings us to a point of climax.
That is the Great Divide in the life; from that point we either go
towards a more and more dilatory and useless type of Christian life,
or we become more and more ablaze for the glory of God - My Utmost
for His Highest.

|-- Overcoming Infidelity ---------------------------------|

Divorce Destroys and Infidelity Can be Cured.
Almost 90% of the couples completing our program not
only enjoy restored marriages, they report a much higher
level of marital satisfaction. Click below to find
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WOW WORSHIP 2006, by Various Artists
Fly away on the wings of the year's best worship songs! Two CDs.
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MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST - by Oswald Chambers /\/\
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Praying with Paul : "Unceasing Prayer"

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UNCEASING PRAYER

Colossians 4:2-6

http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=Colossians+4:2-6

Dear Father, who answers our prayers,

Help me to be steadfast in my praying to you, even to stay awake
that I may pray!

Fill my life with thanksgiving to you.

O God, I pray for all your servants everywhere that you may open a
door for us to proclaim your Word, to declare the now-public secret
- Christ crucified, glorified, and coming - and to make the message
clear, as we ought to speak.

In the name of Jesus I ask you to fill our lives with your holy
life and to claim all our motives and deeds as your own. Amen.

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CAPTIVATING: UNVEILING THE MYSTERY OF A WOMAN'S SOUL, by John & Stasi Eldredge
Many Christian women are tired, struggling under the weight of the
pressure to be a "good servant," a nurturing caregiver, passionate
lover, or capable home manager. What Wild at Heart did for men, this
book can do for women.
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PRAYING WITH PAUL from HEARTLIGHT /\/\
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WJD! -- Nonsense? -- Luke 24:9-12

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Thursday, December 27, 2007

Nonsense?

The women left the tomb (grave) and went to the eleven
apostles and the other followers. The women told them
everything that happened at the tomb. These women were Mary
Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James, and some other
women. These women told the apostles everything that
happened. But the apostles did not believe what the women
said. It sounded like crazy talk. But Peter got up and ran to
the tomb to see. He looked in, but he saw only the cloth that
Jesus' body had been wrapped in. The cloth was lying there
alone. {Jesus was gone.} Peter went away to be alone,
wondering what had happened.

-- Luke 24:9-12 (ERV)

KEY THOUGHT:
These women have been more faithful than any of Jesus' male disciples
in standing by the Lord in his journey to the Cross and to his tomb.
When these faithful women go and tell the disciples what has happened,
their testimony is dismissed as mere nonsense. It sounded like nonsense
to most of the male disciples. Yet all of us, male and female, must
realize that the earliest witnesses of the resurrected Jesus were the
women who stood by him through his ministry and through his death all
the way to his resurrection. These trailblazing heroes of our faith in
the resurrected Savior include "Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother
of James, and several others." I don't know about you, but there are a
number of women who have pioneered the way for my faith to find the
resurrected Jesus, as well.

TODAY'S PRAYER:
Father, thank you so much for the influence of faithful women who have
blazed the trail that has led me to believe in your risen Son. Bless
them in ways that help them know the eternal difference they have made
in my life. In Jesus' name. Amen.

>> NEW: Phil's What Jesus Did devotional is now
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>> The WJD! web page has related scriptures and the
>> full text of today's key passage. Read it at:

http://www.heartlight.org/wjd/luke/1227-wjd.html

>> For further study of today's passage, use our
>> online Bible study site: SearchGodsWord.org!

http://www.SearchGodsWord.org/desk/?query=Luke+24:9-12&sr=1&t=erv

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SIMPLY CHRISTIAN: WHY CHRISTIANITY MAKES SENSE, by N. T. Wright
Destined to become a classic alongside Lewis's Mere Christianity - a
fascinating and accessible apologetic for modern seekers.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?255

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WHAT JESUS DID! from HEARTLIGHT /\/\
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What Jesus Did! is a 365-day devotional through the book of Luke.
It is written by Phil Ware <phil@heartlight.org> and is part of
HEARTLIGHT Magazine, the leading Christian living e-zine on the
Web. Visit HEARTLIGHT on the web for even more articles, plus
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