Simply Salsa

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“No amount of fear can increase our bank accounts, and no amount of losses can decrease God’s provision”—quote from Simply Salsa: Dancing Without Fear at God’s Fiesta.
Brief review:
“Few women have experienced a seemingly endless string of tragedies like those that shattered the life of Janet Perez Eckles. But in a lively tone that reflects her vivacious personality, Janet teaches us how to reclaim our joy through biblical principles and real life examples. In reading Simply Salsa and applying the scriptural lessons, everyone whose heart has been broken or whose body has been afflicted by devastating illness will find herself dancing to the music of our Heavenly Father. Louise M. Gouge, author of At the Captain’s Command
For only 24 hours Tuesday, August 9, order this life-changing book from Amazon.com and receive lots of bonus gifts and a chance to win a $100 American Express gift card or a round-trip airline ticket.
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What Every Dream Means by Scott M. Shafer

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LETTING THEM LEAD BY JILL BRISCOE

“Give us the tools, and we’ll finish the job”. Said Winston Churchill. He was referring to the weapons that England would need to win the war against Germany.

What was true for England is true for the church. The Father sent the Spirit to give us the gifts so we’ll finish the job. Spiritual gifts are the tools the church will use to win the war against evil. Spiritual gifts are very important. The church’s job is the evangelization of the world, and it is the exercise in futility to try and serve God’s cause without exercising spiritual gifts.

The giver of the gifts is God himself. He has demonstrated his generosity by the way he gave the world the greatest gifts of all – his only Son (John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”) He not only gave his only Son, but he also gave his Holy Spirit. He delights in giving good gifts to his children – all his children. Even small children can delight in the spiritual abilities God gives them to serve him. When they help Jesus, they experience a lot of joy and fulfilment, just like we do!

Not only did God give us himself, but he gave us other gifts as well. He gave the church gifts in the shape of leaders. These particulars people are called apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers. “Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his responsibility incudes training our children to lead as well.

According to 1 Corinthians 14:3 “ But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.” A prophet’s job is “helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them.”

Today, we call that Spirit-empowered preaching. Bothe men and women received and exercised these gifts, as indicated by Philip’s four daughters in Acts 21:9 “He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.” Evangelists, on the other hand, preached to unbelievers, gathered the converts together, and established churches. They would be similar to today’s evangelists and pioneer missionaries. Perhaps, like Philip, we have children who love Jesus and want to use their gifts to serve him. Philip’s girls understood that the Holy Spirit had given them gifts with which to serve Jesus. As we give our children chances to serve him, even at a young age, they will blossom in every dimension of their lives.

Blessings,

Sana Edoja

CONFIDENCE BUILDING inspired by Jill Briscoe and myself

How do we help our children to feel good about themselves! One way is to give them good information. Children who struggle with low self-worth feel unable to love themselves, or they feel they are not loved nearly enough by others. They wrestle with believing that God loves them. They often believe the world in general is against them. In fact, they are often their own worst enemies, accusing themselves of all sorts of inadequacies in the face of the challenges of life. They need biblical information in order to give the Holy Spirit an opportunity to convince them of their worth in God’s sight.

Paul gives some exciting promises: “If God is for us, who can ever be against us? ... Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?” (Romans 8:31, 33). The Holy Spirit can take those promises – passed on by parents, teachers, preachers, or youth leaders – and convince your children that god loves them. This is the key to building your children that God loves them. This is the key to building your children’s self-worth. They need to know that however much they are down on themselves. God is up on them. They need to know that they are beloved of God. We should be sure our children are told that Jesus “died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honour next to God, pleading for us” (Romans 8:34). And God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – will work in their lives to help them believe it.

Give your children the promises of God’s word. It is your job to give it, and the Holy Spirit’s job to use it to build your children’s self-confidence. Helping our children appropriate God’s truth into their lives is the best confidence builder I know. We must make sure that our children know the wonderful fact that our great God is “for us.” And “if God is for us, who can ever, be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

I struggled with self-esteem for years as a child until my adulthood. Having being raised in an environment where I got spoken negative comments at school and at home, each time I failed. Fortunately, when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, He revealed to me that He loved me and He had created perfectly. He told me that I was beautiful and intelligent. Philippians 4:13 “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” I could succeed in life by believing I could do everything through Christ that strengthens me. Psalm 139:14 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Blessings,

Sana Edoja

SAVED FROM WHAT ? (INSPIRED BY JILL BRISCOE AND MYSELF)

What does it mean to be saved ? And saved from what? We need to be saved from our sins. The sin problem began back in the Garden of Eden.

When the word began, everything was perfect. God planted an incredibly beautiful environment for his perfect man and woman to enjoy. Genesis 2:8 “Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of”. God, Adam, and Eve walked and talked together in perfect harmony and exquisite delight. One of the perfect things about God’s garden was the endowment to human beings of a free, willing spirit that says, “I’m free to live as I please,” but rather, a free, willing spirit that says, “I’m free to live as God pleases.” Pleasing God was the key to living a perfect life in a perfect environment. To please God, Adam and Eve only had to obey him, thereby proving their love and submission and acknowledging his supremacy in their lives. But despite God’s perfect blessings, Satan tempted Eve to disobey the only rule the Lord God had given (Genesis 2:16-17 “And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good.”

Genesis 3: 1-6 “1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it).

Eve listened to Satan, broke the rule, and persuaded Adam to do the same. The perfect God could no longer have fellowship with these rebellious, disobedient people.

Sin spoiled the relationship between God and humankind. The Bible teaches that Adam’s sin affected the entire human race – that’s you, me, and everybody else (Romans 5:12 “, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, ...”).

Every child born since Adam is born with a sinful bias, and it doesn’t take long to put that sinful bias into action! Because of our sin and rebellion against God, we are under his punishment. But Christ changed all that. Romans 5:15 – 17 says, this… man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many… All who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.” Because Jesus is the perfect Son of God, he has taken the penalty for that sinful bias upon himself. He took our punishment so that we would be able to have a relationship with God. Salvation bridges the gap between sinful humanity and a holy God? Christ died so that those dead in sin can be made alive. Would you accept the salvation God wants to give you? If so, you can do that with a simple prayer:

Lord, I’m coming, I’m coming to say I’m sorry that you had to die to pay the punishment for sins you didn’t commit – mine! Thank you, Lord Jesus. Lord, I’m coming. I’m coming to say I’m done with trying to “buy” influence with you. I’ve run out of currency – I’m bankrupt. “Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to your cross I cling. “Jesus, I’ve come – here I am – forgive me, come into my heart, enter my life, and give me eternal life. Thank you Lord Jesus! Amen.

My version is:

If you don’t believe in God, I challenge you to ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Get prepared for an answer and a change in your life that you will never regret. When I accepted Christ as my Lord and Saviour, I felt so cleaned from my sins as I had found a Friend and Father in God.

Since that encounter, I can’t stop feeling for those that are lost and depressed, they need to know that there is a God that is waiting to love and help them. I was in tears this morning when I read the newspaper about the terrible things that are happening since the earthquake in Japan. I wish I could comfort those people, I wish I could tell them the good news of the Gospel of salvation of Jesus Christ.

God has given me a heart that feels for those who suffer in their lives. Each Thursday, we pray at church for those that need to know Christ, for those that are persecuted. It is a good feeling to do the will of God, to share our burdens with other Christians; we get encouraged also by other believers. Sometimes, it will be good to give up everything and just pray, worship and be listening the good word of God. It is a good time to forget our problems and focus on the plan of God of salvation for humanity. It is similar as being in Heaven

POSITIVE PEERS BY JILL BRISCOE AND MYSELF

Peers have so much power with our children. Young people who hang around together exert enormous influence on each other. It’s difficult not to go along with the group’s decisions. Peers so often take precedence over parents.

I asked a teenager in my Sunday class one day, “What have you been doing with yourself?”

“Oh, just hanging around”, was the reply.

“With whom?” I asked.

“Jamie and Karen and some other guys,” was the response.

“That’s not a good idea,” I said, knowing these particular young people were ungodly and always getting into trouble.

“But they like me, and they make me feel good,” objected my young friend.

“Only for a season-a little time,” I answered? “And they may get you into trouble.”

Romans 1:32 came to mind: “They are fully aware of God’s death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway. And, worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.” My young friend needed to realize that he could well find himself encouraged to join his friends in sin. I also remembered Psalm 1:1 – and, knowing my teenager knew his friends well enough to understand, I shared it with him: “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners.”

“But why not? he replied stubbornly. “I don’t do the things they do. I usually know what’s right or wrong.”

“One reason you should hang around with more positive peers is the advice you’ll get when an occasion arises where you don’t know what to do,” I answered. “What sort of advice do you think you’ll get from ungodly folk? They’ll probably provoke you into stepping over the line along with them. It’s better to make godly people your closest friends and hang around them! That’s the road to real, lasting happiness.”

Whether we’re teaching the faith to our own children or to other people’s children, we must make every effort to create opportunities for positive peers to hang around together. This way they will avoid many pitfalls and be encouraged in their faith.

On a personal note, my son recently got beaten up repeatedly by one of his friends on his legs at school. He told his aunt and uncle but wouldn’t tell me because he didn’t want to see his friend punished by his teacher. He was afraid of losing his friend. If we love somebody, we have to correct them by telling them that they are doing something wrong and eventually consequences have to be applied for discipline.

I and my family told my son to report the incident about the bullying to his teacher on numerous occasions. He refused to do so and I learnt recently that this same friend was now beating him on his belly for fun. As a protective mother, I made a wise decision to report the bullying incident to the teacher. The teacher will apply discipline and explain to this little boy that his behaviour is not acceptable. Let’s take action against bullying by taking a positive action. Let’s report it before it goes any further. Lots of kids die as a result of bullying. Let’s also bring awareness to our children and teach them that it is not acceptable, there are a lot of videos on the internet that bring awareness about bullying at school. Children need to be respected and they deserve to know that their worth will never be taken away when somebody treat them badly. God still considers them worthy and has a plan for their lives. It is important to talk about bullying with our children and to take action with the school as a deterrent and prevention.

SPIRITUAL MOTHERHOOD BY JILL BRISCOE

I was teaching in a tough part of Liverpool and had just taken my life in my hands – it was my turn to do playground duty! As I watched those little rascals being themselves. I thought of the churches in the area, mine included. I thought of the churches in the area, mine included. They offered nothing that was remotely on those children’s wavelength. The situation seemed hopeless. Dead churches don’t reach lively kids.

Then I read about the God of life and fruitlessness, who caused a baby to be born to two old people. Couldn’t he also cause life to spring out of deadness for these children of the twentieth century? God had shown me demonstration of his person and power, but could I dare to believe he would do for me what he did for Sarah? Would he give me spiritual children in the barren womb of my own situation?

I timidly told him I believed that what he had promised he was able to perform. Then I went ahead in trust and started a club for the kids.

Confused and frightened, old before their time, these children did not understand the truth about the God who would satisfy them. But they came, they listened, and they believed. Though the off-spring of my efforts were not nearly as numerous as Abraham’s, life sprang out of darkness, and God was delighted! The kids and I were delighted, too. They had found the God in whom they could trust.

Those of us who know the Lord need to reach out beyond our own families and realize that some people have never been prayed for by name even once. They need to be reached for Christ and his Kingdom. Single people can become spiritual mothers, too! Look around you. Do the children in your neighbourhood look as though they wouldn’t be interested in Jesus? Don’t you believe it. God still brings life into the most impossible situations. Step out in faith – the children are waiting for you.