I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
Encouragement that Builds
Have you ever regretted not saying something to someone? Maybe they were going through a hard time and you didn’t know what to say, but you felt like you could have said something.
When Paul, the author of 1 Thessalonians, is writing to the church in Thessalonika, he gives them some practical advice.
Paul tells the church to continue to encourage one another. This was something they were already doing, but Paul felt it necessary to remind them to keep doing this.
Encouragement can change someone’s attitude. It can lift someone out of a dark place. Encouraging someone can give them the hope and determination to push through a hard season.
Maybe you can remember a time when someone encouraged you when you were going through a hard time, and the difference it made in your own life. Paul is encouraging us to do that for others.
The Church is meant to be a place of encouragement. We should never leave any encouragement unspoken, but we should generously uplift one another.
Spend some time today thinking about someone in your life who you can encourage. It might be someone who is going through a hard time, or it might be someone who needs to be reminded that others care about them. Never let encouragement go unspoken, as it is one of the ways we can build each other up.
Luke 10
“After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: and heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But into ...
God Is With You
The prophet Isaiah wrote the words of Isaiah 7:14 nearly 600 years before Jesus was born. At the time of this writing, the Israelites were doing all the right religious things, but weren’t practicing justice as God commands. Like many prophets during Isaiah’s time, this was a warning against that injustice. But among that warning was a glimmer of hope that God would set things right.
Here, the prophet Isaiah is giving the people of Israel a reason to hope because of God’s good promise—the promise that He will provide a sign and He will show up for us. Because that’s what Immanuel means: God with us.
But what does “God with us” mean for us today?
It means we can share in that hope by fixing our eyes on Jesus and trusting in Him. We can trust that from Christ’s birth to His current reign in Heaven—Jesus is God with us.
He’s with us in our pain when we lose a loved one.
He’s with us in our anger when we see injustice and don’t know where to turn.
He’s with us ...
