Luke 12:6-7 (NLT)...

FROM TODAY’S READING (1/31/2019)...

“When you start seeing your worth, you’ll find it harder to stay around people who don’t.”

Unknown Author

Luke 12:6-7 (NLT) What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.

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1 Thessalonians 5:11-23 (NLT)...

FROM TODAY’S READING (1/30/2019)...

ENCOURAGER'S CHECKLIST (edited from Life Application Bible Notes)...The command to "encourage" others is found throughout the Bible. In 1 Thessalonians 5:11-23, Paul gives many specific examples of how we can encourage others.

- Build each other up (11)

- Honor leaders (12)

- Show leaders great respect (13)

- Live in peace (13)

- Warn the lazy (14)

- Encourage the timid (14)

- Help the weak (14)

- Be patient (14)

- Resist revenge (15)

- Be joyful (16)

- Pray continually (17)

- Give thanks (18)

- Do not stifle the Holy Spirit (19)

- Do not scoff at prophecies (20)

- Avoid every kind of evil (22)

1 Thessalonians 5:11-23 (NLT)...

11. So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. 

12. Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. 

13. Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other. 

14. Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone. 

15. See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people. 

16. Always be joyful. 

17. Never stop praying. 

18. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 

19. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. 

20. Do not scoff at prophecies, 

21. but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. 

22. Stay away from every kind of evil. 

23. Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

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Romans 8:18-19, 26-28 (NLT)...

FROM TODAY’S READING (1/29/2019)...

“Sometimes when we are suffering heartbreak, tragedy, disappointment, frustration, and bereavement, we wonder what good can come out of it....Our lives are not controlled by impersonal forces such as chance, luck, or fate, but by our wonderful, personal Lord, who is ‘too loving to be unkind and too wise to err.”

Wm McDonald (Believer’s Bible Commentary)

Romans 8:18-19, 26-28 (NLT) Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

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1 Timothy 4:7-10 (NLT)...

FROM TODAY’S READING (1/28/2019)...

THE SEVEN SOCIAL SINS

1. Wealth without work.

2. Pleasure without conscience.

3. Knowledge without character.

4. Commerce without morality.

5. Science without humanity.

6. Worship without sacrifice.

7. Politics without principle.

Gandhi (“The Young India” newspaper, October 22, 1925)

1 Timothy 4:7-10 (NLT) Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.

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Ephesians 5:15-20 (NLT)...

FROM TODAY’S READING (1/25/2019)...

“The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”

Author Unknown

Ephesians 5:15-20 (NLT) So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 (The Message)...

FROM TODAY’S READING (1/24/2019)...

“Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”

Charles Schulz

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 (The Message) I don’t think, friends, that I need to deal with the question of when all this is going to happen. You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other—“We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!”—suddenly everything will fall apart. It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.

But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

God didn’t set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ. He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we’re awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we’re alive with him! So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it.

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Job 37:15-18 (NLT)...

FROM TODAY’S READING (1/23/2019)...

“The latest authority among men of science says that little is known of the causes which balance the clouds in the air. They are formed of water, and water, however minutely divided or blown into bubbles, is always heavier than the air. And yet these flying fountains of all the rivers of earth, these armed and thundering legions of the storm, that beat down the forests with hail and bury the mountains in snow, and flood the plains with water, go floating over us at vast heights with all their mighty magazines when all our philosophy would require them to sink to the earth.”

Daniel March, "The Balancings of the Clouds (1869)

Job 37:15-18 (NLT) Do you know how God controls the storm and causes the lightning to flash from his clouds? Do you understand how he moves the clouds with wonderful perfection and skill? When you are sweltering in your clothes and the south wind dies down and everything is still, he makes the skies reflect the heat like a bronze mirror. Can you do that?

Psalms 104:1-9 (NLT) Let all that I am praise the Lord. O Lord my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and majesty. You are dressed in a robe of light. You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens; you lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds. You make the clouds your chariot; you ride upon the wings of the wind. The winds are your messengers; flames of fire are your 

servants. 

You placed the world on its foundation so it would never be moved. You clothed the earth with floods of water, water that covered even the mountains. At your command, the water fled; at the sound of your thunder, it hurried away. Mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed. Then you set a firm boundary for the seas, so they would never again cover the earth.

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