Sunflower

“Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.” – First Chronicles 29:14

NEW ZEALAND BIBLE MONTH – JULY 2014

“Librarians connecting children and books everyday,” it says on the bookmark I picked up today at our local library here in Kaitaia.

When I read or hear about books, I am thinking straight away about “THE BOOK OF BOOKS.”

An anonymous hymn writer wrote the following words:

FOOTSTEPS

“The B-I-B-L-E,

Yes, that is the book for me;

I stand alone on the Word of God,

The B-I-B-L-E.

The B-I-B-L-E,

Yes, that is the book for me;

I’ll read and pray and then obey

The B-I-B-L-E.

Four questions: Is the Bible also the book for you? Are you standing alone on the Bible? Are you reading the Bible? Are you obeying the Bible?

In a very old book called “Good in everything,” by H. L. Gee, I found what Henry Williams Baker said,

“Lord, Thy word abideth,

And our footstep guideth;

Who its truth believeth

 Light and joy receiveth.”

JULY 2014 is New Zealand Bible Month.

Let us pray especially during the month of July that parents connecting their children and THE BOOK OF BOOKS everyday.

FIFA WORLD CUP IN BRAZIL (On what is your Focus?)

Upon what are your eyes? Millions of eyes are upon Brazil at this time.

On what is the focus of millions of people? Only one team will lift the trophy and the focus is on that trophy.

180 million of Brazil’s 200 million people claim to be Christians. A quarter of the population are evangelicals.

Christians in Brazil are great prayer warriors, open to spiritual things and not afraid to preach the gospel.

From all over the world mission teams, churches and Christians have arrived in cities where the Football matches are taking place and preaching now the gospel.

The Bible tells us to fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:2).

My focus and the focus of Christians around the world is on the glorious “prize” that lasts in all eternity.

Pray that many will find that “prize” during the World Cup in Brazil 13th June to 14th July 2014.

( source: World Watch, WEC International, July) 

“That day David first committed to Asaph and associates

First Chronicles 16:7-13

Intr.:

this psalm of thanks to the LORD:

1.  Give thanks to the LORD,

2.  call on his name;

3.  make known  among the nations what he has done.

Missionaries making known in THAILAND what he has done

Picture / Alan Collingwood

4.  Sing to him,

5,  sing praise to him;

6.  tell of all his wonderful acts.

7.  Glory in his holy name;

8.  let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

9.  Look to the LORD and his strength;

10.  seek his face always.

11.  Remember the wonders he has done,

12.  his miracles, and

13.  the judgments he pronounced,

End:

O descendents of  of Israel his servant,

O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.”

In The New Zealand Herald, Friday, June 27, 2014, I am finding the “number of people whose convictions have been hidden from potential employers under the act [Clean Slate Act] since November 2004.”

The number of the people is 115,079.

In the BIBLE we are reading that the Holy Spirit has come to convict the world of guilt.

All of us are guilty before God.

I like this SERMON OUTLINE straight from the Word of God (John 16:8-11).

“WHEN HE [THE HOLY SPIRIT] COMES

THE CROSS

Intr.:

he will convict the world of guilt in regard to

1. SIN and

2.  RIGHTEOUSNESS and

3.  JUDGMENT

– in regard to SIN, because men do not believe in me;

– in regard to RIGHTEOUSNESS, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer, and

– in regard to JUDGMENT, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”

End:

We can hide our convictions from people, from potential employers for example, but we cannot hide our guilt from God.

 PLANS IN A MAN’S HEART

“Man with a plan,” is a recent article in our local paper, THE NORTHERN NEWS, called.

THE LORD’S PLANS

In the BIBLE I am reading about the plans the Lord has for me:

• That are plans to prosper me.
• That are plans not to harm me.
• That are plans to give me hope.
• That are plans to give me a future.

Our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is our most important relationship!

In Proverbs 19:21 the BIBLE says,

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose* that prevails.”

*Purpose:

fixed design, idea,

plan