JOVENES PARA CRISTO

February 29, 2012 Mary Southerland Today's Truth "Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be" ( Psalm 139:16 , NIV). Friend to Friend We all want to be successful in our work. Your office may be downtown or just inside your front door. Your work clothes may be an elegant suit or ragged jeans and a stained t-shirt. You may be paid in cash or with crayon drawings and sticky kisses. It doesn't really matter because none of these things alone makes us successful in the work place. Many people never experience success in their work because they are in the wrong work to begin with. Not me. As a high school student, I knew exactly what I wanted to be – a nurse. My mother was a nurse and I wanted to be just like her so I signed up to be a student volunteer at the hospital where my mother worked. When I told her the good news, she thought for a moment and then simply said, "That's...

February 29, 2012 John 4:34-38 Think about everything that contributed to the story of how you came to know Christ as your Lord and Savior. It's probably not possible to fully count all those spiritual seeds that God used to draw you to Him. And not all the people who sowed good seed into your life knew what the outcome would be. We also have the opportunity and privilege--every single day--of sowing seeds into the lives of others, such as our friends, co-workers, children, grandchildren, or even strangers. God takes what you plant and adds to it. He leads others to sow further seed or "water" the ground. Little by little, truth gets cultivated in their lives. What greater thing could you do? Conversely, you might focus on providing your kids with plenty of material security and send them to the best schools and colleges--and yet it would count nothing for eternity. But when you sow into their lives the things of God and the qualities of Jesus, you're f...

Today's reading: John 21 Whatever happened to the "Son of Thunder"? John 21:24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. The disciple John had been favored to share private moments with Jesus. As part of an inner circle of three, he saw Jesus transfigured, watched him bring Jairus's daughter back to life and waited for him in the Garden of Gethsemane. After Jesus was arrested, John witnessed the sequence of his trials. He was the only disciple mentioned as being near the cross at Jesus' death and one of the very first to learn of Christ's resurrection. Somehow, this process changed John. From Thunder to Love John bore an amusing nickname, "son of thunder" (see Mark 3:17 ), and several incidents in the Gospels hint that this name reflected his stormy personality. John jealously resented competition from rival miracle workers (see Mark 9:38 ), and he insisted on the best ...

Leer hoy mi familia: Mateo 7; Éxodos 37,38; Proverbios 17. En mi angustia invoque al Señor , Salmos 120:1. Dios te bendiga! Confía en Dios y el te ayuda confirmado. Este grupo tiene poder. Mi dolor de muela lo ando buscando se me perdió . Gloria a Dios por mi grupo de oración. Amen!

Billy Graham's Daily Devotion I, even I, am he that comforteth you . . . –Isaiah 51:12 There is also comfort in mourning, because in the midst of mourning God gives a song. His presence in our lives changes our mourning into song, and that song is a song of comfort. This kind of comfort is the kind which enabled a devout Englishman to look at a deep dark hole in the ground where his home stood before the bombing and say, “I always did want a basement. Now I can jolly well build another house, like I always wanted.” This kind of comfort is the kind which enabled a young minister’s wife in a church near us to teach her Sunday school class of girls on the very day of her husband’s funeral. Her mourning was not the kind which had no hope—it was a mourning of faith in the goodness and wisdom of God; it believed that our heavenly Father makes no mistakes. PRAYER FOR THE DAY Oh heavenly Father, who knows what agony and grief are because of the sacrifice of Your beloved Son, Jesus...

    Dear Jorge, An Iran armed with nuclear weapons would be an unacceptable threat to both Israel and America. And for years we’ve been asking our leaders to prevent this.  Yet they still don’t get it!  Earlier this month, General George Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that, “we are of the opinion that Iran is a rational actor.”  Such talk implies that we might be able to live with – and contain – a nuclear Iran.  At the end of January, President Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, acknowledged that Iran is pursuing nuclear “capabilities.”  But then he added that, “We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons.”  Such talk implies that we might allow Iran to develop all of the parts of a nuclear bomb – the ‘capability” – so long as they stop short of actually putting these parts together.  In response to such continuing confusion, a group of Unit...

Donate Now | Tell a Friend February 28, 2012 Next week Jews celebrate the holiday of Purim , a day that recalls the deliverance of the Jewish people from their enemies nearly 2,400 years ago. The Purim story, found in the biblical book of Esther, tells of Queen Esther’s brave rescue of the Jewish people from the evil plans of Haman, the king’s top advisor. One of the messages of Purim is that in a world with no shortage of "Hamans," we need more "Esthers" committed to standing humbly before God and seeking to defend His people in the face of difficulties. As we think about those difficulties that linger for Israel and Jews to this day, let us join in prayer for God’s protection and provision – and for the strength to be like Esther. Pray that God would protect Israel from her modern-day Hamans – Iran’s Ahmadinejad, the terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah, and all those filled with anti-Semitic hatred. “ The Lord protects and preserves them – they ar...

February 28, 2012 2 Corinthians 4:1-18 The apostle Paul often wrote about perseverance. He urged believers not to tire of following Christ and doing good, even when persecuted. The reason was that in time, their faithfulness to plant seeds would produce an amazing harvest. If anyone had a right to say that, it was Paul. He'd been beaten, stoned, whipped, and driven out of town. He'd survived riots, shipwrecks, illness, and abandonment. He had a thousand reasons to be disheartened and want to give up, yet he knew his obedience to God wasn't in vain. Some might surmise, Well, it doesn't look as if he reaped much: he was persecuted, moved from prison to prison, and eventually executed. But if we assume that rewards come only in material terms, we miss a powerful truth. Consider the awesome harvest that actually resulted from the apostle's faithfulness. For one thing, the gospel spread across the Roman Empire, and the early church grew far beyond the Jew...

Donate Now | Tell a Friend    JORGE L , In far too many Jewish households, Passover brings no relief from the daily struggle for survival. Tragically, thousands of impoverished Jewish men, women and children throughout both Israel and the former Soviet Union — including elderly Holocaust survivors — are living in shocking poverty, unable to afford life’s necessities like heat, medicine and basic foods, much less the special items, such as matzah , needed to celebrate Passover. That is why The Fellowship urgently needs you to join with us and help deliver 40,000 Passover Food Boxes during this year’s Fill the Pantry food drive. My friend, with your support we will fill each box with lifesaving staples including flour, sugar and rice along with special foods needed to celebrate the Passover Seder .  Your gift will provide both comfort and spiritual nourishment during this holy time of year.  So pl...

February 27, 2012 James 3:9-18 In all our daily choices, we either "sow to the flesh" or "sow to the Spirit" (Gal. 6:8). With our actions and thoughts, we plant seeds that affect what kind of person we're growing into and the level of impact our lives will have for God. "The flesh" is the part of us that wants to live and act independently of the Lord. As humans, all of us have to deal with the pull of this attitude; we don't lose it automatically when we're saved. However, the Holy Spirit frees us from slavery to the flesh. He begins to change us so we can turn from the deceptive lure of living for self and instead start to live according to the truth. The choices we make contribute to the process of transformation, and when they're in alignment with the Spirit's work, they plant good seed that results in even more new growth. When you're sowing to the Spirit, you're accepting God's truth into your mind a...

Leer hoy: Mateo 6:19-34; Éxodos 35,36; Proverbios 16. Dios no nos ha dado un espíritu de timidez, 2 Timoteo 1:7. Pido oración por mi dolor de muela y pido oración por todos ustedes, Gracias por todo su apoyo y por sacar tiempo para hablar con Dios. Los quiero mucho de corazón se los digo! Dios los bendiga! Amen!!

The true story of a pastor, imprisoned and tortured for his faith in Christ ...it will ABSOLUTELY shock you! The Voice of the Martyrs invites you to request a complimentary copy of Richard Wurmbrand's international bestseller, Tortured for Christ . This email was sent by: Bible Gateway 5300 Patterson Avenue SE Grand Rapids, MI, 49530, USA You received this email because you signed up to receive updates and offers from Bible Gateway or Reverend Fun partners. If you wish to unsubscribe or change your subscription options, please click "Manage Subscriptions" below. Alternatively, clicking "Unsubscribe" will permanently remove you from all of our lists. Update Profile | Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe If you have any questions or problems unsubscribing, please contact us at http://www.biblegateway.com/feedback/general.php

February 25, 2012 Galatians 6:7-10 Satan wants us to believe the lie that our actions have no natural results or consequences. But the truth is that you can't rebel against God and not reap the fruit of that choice later. You also can't obey God without eventually receiving the blessing. The choices you make are the seeds you plant, and they determine the kind of crop you're going to reap in the future. The heart of this principle is that all our choices are important. How we think and act matters, and not only for ourselves. our choices always impact other people, for good or bad. Think about the seeds others sowed that affected your view of yourself and the world. You either rejected or accepted them, and the things you accepted eventually manifested in your life. At some point, we all have made choices we've regretted. Since consequences never simply evaporate, you may find yourself harassed or even governed by things you've seen, said, or particip...

Listen now | Comment | Tell a Friend | Donate     Hebrew Word of the Day zchut (privilege) Hear Translation » February 27, 2012 "‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.’ When they were but few in number, few indeed, and strangers in it, they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another." — Psalm 105:11–13 For thousands of years, since the Jews were expelled from their land by the Romans in 70 C.E., the people of God have, indeed, wandered from one nation to another. As they tried to settle, raise their families, and live according to God’s word and law, they remained strangers, often facing persecution, opposition, and hardships. Even after two thousand years of exile from their homeland, the Jews were not accepted into the fabric of society. By the mid-1800s, Jewish thinkers came to the stark conclusion: “The Jews have lived and labored among the nations for almost two thousand yea...

February 27, 2012 Mary Southerland Today's Truth God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing ( Ephesians 2:10 , NCV). Friend to Friend The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are made of the same water that flows down, clear and cold from the heights of Hermon and the roots of the cedars of Lebanon. The Sea of Galilee is a place of great beauty because it has an outlet. It gathers in its riches and then pours them out again to fertilize the Jordan plain. However, the Dead Sea, with the same water creates horror. The Dead Sea has no outlet. It gets to keep. When we come to God, one of our first "natural" responses is to serve Him. In fact, our service to God should be spontaneous, enthusiastic and tireless. If there is no desire to serve or we find it hard to serve, then there is something wrong in our relationship with God. One summer, our air conditioner was not workin...