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Greetings from True Hope!
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Greetings!
This week one of our students shared a "Faith Article" that he recently authored which I believe will bless you as it did me.
THE PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
By Michael Cochran
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
There is no greater reward, no deeper satisfaction, than that of seeing his sheep contented, well fed, safe and flourishing in his care. He goes to a great deal of trouble to provide them with the finest grazing, ample winter feed and clean water. He provides shelter from storms, protection from the enemies and the diseases and parasites to which his sheep are susceptible. That is what a good shepherd is all about and he gives everything to it.
Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.” John 10:11.
“He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.”
Sheep will refuse to lie down unless these requirements are met. (1) They must be free from all fear. (2) There must be no tension between the members of the flock. (3) They must not be aggravated with flies or parasites. (4) And they must be free from hunger. But when a sheep has eaten enough, when it is free from fear, tension and aggravation, it will lie down.
Our shepherd provides us with the spiritual food we need. If we hunger and thirst after righteousness, he has promised to fill us. All our needs are met in Christ. That's why “he makes us to lie down in green pastures.”
He also “leads us beside the still waters.” Just as sheep need water to survive. Jesus made it clear that the thirsty souls of men and women can only be fully satisfied by coming to Him. In John 7:37, He stated, “If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Our Shepherd leads us beside the still waters.
“He Restores My Soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness.”
There is an Old English shepherd's term called a “cast” sheep. A sheep will turn over on its back and can't get back up again. It will lie there with its feet flaying frantically in the air and if the shepherd doesn't arrive within a short time, the sheep will die. Hence, the thought behind the parable of the ninety-nine and the one that went astray. If one is missing, he thinks, “One of my sheep is cast and I've got to find it.” When he finds it lying helpless. He will turn the sheep over on its side, rub its legs to restore circulation, then lift it to its feet. After a while the sheep will stumble and stagger, and eventually walk steadily and surely.
Isn't that how the Lord treats us? We stumble and fall, we become so helpless. And yet our shepherd is patient and tender in getting us back on our feet.
“All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his own way.” Isaiah 53:6.
So, we need a shepherd who can lead us in paths of righteousness, and our Lord does just that. Our shepherd doesn't stand behind us telling us to go on and do this or to do that. But, he leads the way for us. “For to this you were called, because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps.” 1 Peter 2:21.
Our Lord will always lead us in the paths of righteousness. He said, “ I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me.”
There are going to be valleys in life for all of us. Some of us will have many valleys, some few. Some of us have deep valleys, some not so deep. But, somewhere in our journey, we must all cross the valley of the shadow of death, for “It is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Its time may be unknown, but it's certain to come. And, we must walk it one by one, unless we walk it with Christ.
“Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
To those of us who are God's sheep, the authority, power, might and guidance of the Lord are indeed a comfort.
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”
The Lord takes care of us in the presence of our enemies. In effect, He has gone ahead of us and checked things out. He has already been “tempted in all points like as we are” Hebrews 4:15. He has known our sorrows and endured our struggles in order to help us through.
“You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.”
In fact, the Lord gives us everything we could need and more. Paul expressed that thought in this way, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” Ephesians 3:20.
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.”
The sheep with a shepherd like this knows that he is in a privileged position. Our Lord truly cares about us as a good shepherd. No matter what else may happen, we know goodness and mercy will follow us.
Then we can say with confidence, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever." For "The Lord is my Shepherd."
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Many Blessings!
Dr. Timothy
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From Dr. Timothy D.TH
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Would A Good Shepherd Break Your Leg?
THOUGHT: Why does Jesus refer to those of us who are His - - as sheep? Because sheep do two things very well: Follow or go astray! In fact, sheep are always either part of the flock or are wandering off and getting lost! And isn't' that the way we are as well?
From the previous issue ...
Here is something that people - the sheep - often forget: The shepherd is a shepherd regardless of if an individual sheep remains in the flock or not!
God does not need people to be God! His existence does not depend upon us and there are multitudes of creatures that worship and serve God whether humans ever do or not! So what God is concerned about is US and not Himself!
People need God to exist! Man is originally the creation of God and was created to be loved by God and to share in a love fellowship with God. And God made a way by which we can be reconciled to God, reunited with Him in that love fellowship! And once we say that we want His love, He believes us and begins doing what is in our best interest - - which is ultimately to be under His care in His kingdom!
The question is, then, do we really want God to do what is in our best interest? If so then we need to come to grips with how God loves us!
First of all, it has been said that God loves us unconditionally ... this is both true and false!
- - True because it matters not the condition in which we are found when we first accept God's love - - Jesus Christ.
- - False because God's love changes lives and while He first loves us regardless of our condition, He loves us far too much to let us continue in that same condition!
So then, how does God love us? By changing our condition - from the inside out!
God is not concerned with our physical wealth and health nearly as much as He is concerned with our spiritual wealth and health! He begins by changing the inner person so that our outer lives bear witness to the power of His love!
God's love works in our lives to FIRST secure our eternal residence with Him and SECOND to work through the balance of our earthly lives until that time when we leave this life! Physical benefits are secondary to spiritual transformation and growth! John stated the he desires that we prosper and be in health JUST AS OUR SOUL PROSPERS!
So then, assuming that God is first concerned with the condition and wellness of our inner being (soul) since that is the true person we are, and the visible life we live is a result of the inner person we are, then we must realize that God's focus is on the person we are in order that our lives be pleasing to Him and the best for us!
IF we realize this it should then become clear that if our inner person insists on pursuing external things that prevent, hinder or even derail us from realizing the maximum reality of being God's child that we were born again to become ... THEN wouldn't it make sense that God would "break our leg" not to punish us but rather so that during the time of mending the process of bonding is so accomplished that we would lose our desire to stray from the Shepherd of our souls?
- Hosea 6:1-3
Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
... ... ... Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
- Psalms 51:7-13 7.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
- Hebrews 12:5-7
"... ... ... My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
(Do a word study on "scourgeth" sometime ... "it ain't a scolding!")
God does not inflict pain simply because He can - - rather He punishes in order to correct and heal what is wrong with us to that our lives can be made into that which proves He has our best interest at heart!
In closing let me pose these questions to you: Would you rather God "break your leg" or Him let your life, mind and heart devoured and destroyed by satan because you followed a destructive path? If by "breaking your leg" God prevents you from being destroyed by satan, when you realize that this is what God did, wouldn't you break out in praise and thanksgiving?
Let me pose it to you this way: If your own child kept wandering into a busy street, and you saw that he/she was about to get hit by a truck but the only way you could prevent this from happening was to tackle him/her in such a way that you knew there would be broken bones - - and what's worse, knowing that people would call you all kinds of hateful names because your actions broke your child's bones, what would you do ... let them get hit or tackle them?
Many Blessings!
Dr. Timothy
P.S. You are invited to join us for the interactive Wednesday night Bible studies called True Hope Live! 7pm central time and it is free! Join us by computer/internet or by phone conferencing! Find out how by clicking here! We would love to have you with us!
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Romans 1:21-25
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Huffington Post Promotes ‘Queer Christ’
http://newsbusters.org
Those who adhere to the gospel of liberal sexuality fall into two different camps when they discuss Jesus. Religious feminists argue that Jesus Christ had a relationship with Mary Magdalene. Religious homosexuals, on the other hand, portray Christ as gay, as the Huffington Post’s Kittredge Cherry did in a piece titled “Queer Christ Arises to Liberate and Heal.”
Cherry, herself a lesbian writing in the HuffPost Gay Voices section, launched her piece with a provocative and ridiculous claim: “Visions of a queer Christ are on the rise as Easter approaches this year – because the conventional Jesus is no longer enough.” The article supplemented that ‘vision” with a depiction of Jesus on the cross with the word “faggot” at the top, instead of “INRI,” like it appears in the Bible.
That would be news to the millions of Christians who do find the conventional Christ more than “enough” for their spiritual fulfillment. But what Cherry really seems to be arguing is that Christ needs to be converted into a gay icon in order to better promote the homosexual agenda.
Cherry’s argument then dives deep into the realm of hallucination, declaring: “Nobody knows for sure whether the historical Jesus was attracted to other men or felt like he was female inside. Some progressive Bible scholars do argue that Jesus had a homosexual relationship.”
So, based on the speculations of radical left-wing theologians which run contrary to 2000 years of Christian thought, Christ is clearly a homosexual.
Cherry continues by making Christ into an everyman figure for the homosexual community in a comment reminiscent of Tom Joad in “The Grapes of Wrath.” “Whenever anyone commits violence against another, Christ is crucified – including when LGBT people are attacked or killed for loving someone of the same sex,” she wrote.
This line of argument is laughable, coming from a community led by people like Dan Savage, who invents terms to slime his opponents and consistently describes his enemies in foul terms – when he isn’t busy hoping to hate f*** his enemies or inviting them to s*** his d***.
Cherry is absolutely correct to say that anyone who harms someone for having homosexual inclination is engaging in sinful behavior. But it is not “attacking” someone to say that a particular behavior is wrong and harmful to the person and others. Indeed, Christians view correcting others’ faults in a spirit of loving charity (called admonishing the sinner) as a Christian duty.
Cherry began her last paragraph with this ridiculous quote: “Being human, Jesus must have had sexual feelings. Being divine, Christ lives in every individual of every different shade of sexual orientation and gender identity.”
But being the perfect human, Christ was able to direct and control His impulses. Homosexuals are indeed welcomed by Christians – and can and do live happy and fulfilled lives – while still holding to Christian teachings on homosexuality.
Being divine, Christ “created man in his own image,” (Genesis 1:27), and declared to His followers: “from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female” (Mark 10:6) There are only two gender identities in Christ’s world: male and female.
Cherry’s article is riddled with distortions, half-truths, fantasies, and baseless speculations.
By attempting to re-envision Christ as a homosexual, Cherry and her fellow homosexual activists attempt to remake God in their own image. And their image of Christ bears little resemblance to the Christ of the Bible.
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Silent Scream: The Sudan Ethnically Cleanses Its Christians
http://www.americanthinker.com
The government of the predominantly Muslim nation of Sudan has stripped its 500,000 to 700,000 Christians of citizenship and has put them on notice that they have one week to leave the country. Even sub-Jim Crow dhimmi status is to be denied them.
According to an ENI report, the government of Sudan has declared that all whose "parents, grandparents or great grandparents [were] born in the South Sudan or [who] belong to any southern ethnic group" are no longer citizens of Sudan and must leave by April 8...or else.
There's more to this than meets the eye, of course.
The Sudan has always been a borderland between Arab and black African, between slavemaster and slave. And increasingly, between Muslim and Christian. During the decades-long jihad by the Sudan between the early 1980s and today against the black Africans to the east in Darfur and in the south, conservative estimates put the death toll at over 2 million. Al-Bashir has already been indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide, something the Arab League has thumbed their noses at, with al-Bashir able to freely attend meetings and travel all over the region without fear of arrest.
The charges he was indicted for -- the mass rapes, the slavetaking, the wanton murders -- make what's going on now in Syria look like a particularly sedate bridge party.
In July 2011, the jihad officially ended when the largely Christian South Sudan achieved independence, although sporadic attacks by al-Bashir's military and aircraft still continue in places like the Nuba Mountains and along the South Sudan borders.
Due to the discord caused by the breakaway, al-Bashir is under pressure to turn the Sudan into a extremist fundamentalist, Muslim Brotherhood-ruled Islamist state.
The key figure involved is a Muslim cleric by the name of Hasan al-Turabi, who leads the Sudanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Turabi is an interesting figure, rather like our old friend, the late and unlamented Imad Mugniyeh, in that he has the ability to transcend the usual Sunni/Shia divide and stay on good terms with a lot of different players and factions.
Al-Turabi comes from an influential and wealthy family and has a legal background, having studied at Khartoum University, the University of London, and finally at the Sorbonne in Paris.
As what passed for the Sudan's attorney general, al-Turabi has been credited both with starting the civil war by forcing the introduction of sharia law into the Sudan in 1983 and with providing its religious wrapping, that of jihad. It was al-Turabi's brother-in-law, Sadeq al-Mahdi, who was the Sudan's dictator during the early stages of the civil war from 1985 until 1989, when the current strongman, Lt.-Gen. Omar al-Bashir, overthrew al-Mahdi in a military coup with al-Turabi's assistance.
In the past, he's been an ally of secular dictators like Saddam Hussein, as well as terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. He was on good terms with Osama bin Laden (bin Laden reportedly was married to one of Turabi's nieces), remains on excellent terms with current al-Qaeda head Ayman Zawahiri, and was instrumental in inviting both to come to the Sudan and set up training camps during the Clinton years.
He's also on good terms with Shiite entities like Iran and Hezb'allah, and he was instrumental in cementing the alliance between Iran and the al-Bashir regime.
The Iranians already have an arms factory in the Sudan to supply Hamas and their allies in Somalia, Yemen, and Central Africa. If my sources are correct, they also maintain training camps staffed by Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezb'allah members, some of whom have been killed by Israeli air strikes on arms convoys headed north in the desert towards Sinai and Gaza.
What al-Turabi and his allies want from Bashir is a full-on Muslim Brotherhood-ruled sharia state, comparable to Iran, Gaza, Saudi Arabia, or Afghanistan under the Taliban.
After South Sudan seceded, the Islamists demanded that Bashir implement this, and they have pledged to drive him from power if he doesn't. They formed a party headed by al-Turabi known as the Islamic Constitution Front and drafted a sharia-based constitution that the imam of Khartoum's Grand Mosque endorsed, saying Bashir must "either rule by Islam or go."
Picture if you will the beginnings of a Muslim Brotherhood-ruled caliphate, with Libya's and the Sudan's oil wealth combined with Egypt's and Gaza's manpower and strategic locations...especially if it's allied with a Shi'ite bloc consisting of Iran, Lebanon, and Syria.
That's what al-Turabi has been working for and what he may end up being instrumental in creating.
The ethnic cleansing of over half a million Christians is only a first step.
What's notable about this is the hideous silence. There's little or nothing being reported in the media on this. For all the noise about the new Responsibility to Protect Doctrine that was evoked on Libya, the United Nations has nothing to say about what's happening in the Sudan, even though it violates the organization's own charter.
No one is talking about a no-fly zone to protect black Christians under air attack in South Sudan by the Bashir regime, even though our huge air base in Djibouti is within flying distance. The infamously misnamed U.N. Human Rights Commission is preoccupied with Israel to the point of derangement, and the Muslim countries running it will see to it that it stays that way.
And President Obama is utterly silent. No speeches, no talk of sanctions or aid to the Sudan's Christians, not even any outrage expressed...not a word.
Read the complete article here!
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Ministry News & Notes:
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TRUE HOPE CHURCHES & MINISTRIES IS NOW IN MISSOURI!
With Arkansas Department of Higher Education telling us that we could not state that THBI is so much as Biblically Accredited - - that we had to leave all references to our being legitimately accredited unless by an organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education or else they would not renew the school's exempt religious status - -
- - we accelerated our move completion date meaning that as of April 11, 2012 the operations of all ministry extensions are now completely based in Springfield Missouri!
Our target completion date was still a bit in the future but with the attitude of the ADHE, we felt that we should just get it done! So, we did!
Praise God!
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Jesus Christ the Lord - - mankind's ONLY True Hope!
++++++++++++
YOU CAN HELP US GET IT PUBLISHED BY A NATIONAL PUBLISHER!
Order your copy today and help us get it published by a well known Christian Publisher!
FAITH in FOCUS - Various Studies in Applied Faith
Written for Christians who desire to find faith that "works" on the level of their everyday lives in the questions, concerns, issues and circumstances
we all deal with, "Focus in Faith" covers eight areas of concern with a total of 32 chapters, each addressing a particular topic/issue/question. "Focus in Faith" answers questions such as "Are You a Saint?" to "Does God Demand Blind Faith?" and addresses life issues such as "Can't Forgive?" and we are born again to be "Sons Not Servants!"
Each of the individual chapters are actually study articles that have been read by hundreds of people through private distribution with the result being many messages from readers of appreciation for being encouraged as well as being provoked to study Scripture to verify the truth of what the studies say. This is a book for those who are already Christian seeking a more meaningful, practical and understandable spiritual experience.
More than 120 pages compiled from studies and articles by Dr. Timothy's works for over 3 years!
Order yours today - - it will be a blessing!
With each order receive a FREE COPY of FREEDOM OF FORGIVENESS!
Dr.
Timothy first published Freedom of Forgiveness in 1993 which has since been freely distributed in a
number of countries!
Don't keep living being trapped in the bondage of bitterness, discover how to live in the freedom of forgiveness!
AS SOON AS WE GET 100 COPIES SOLD, WE WILL BE ABLE TO HAVE IT PROFESSIONALLY PUBLISHED BY A WELL KNOWN, NATIONAL CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY!
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Messages from: Leaders in Ministry
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Not asking for Anything A.W. Tozer
I love the LORD, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications,
Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live!
—Psalm 116:1-2
I think that some of the greatest prayer is prayer where you don't say one single word or ask for anything. Now God does answer and He does give us what we ask for. That's plain; nobody can deny that unless he denies the Scriptures. But that's only one aspect of prayer, and it's not even the important aspect. Sometimes I go to God and say, "God, if Thou dost never answer another prayer while I live on this earth I will still worship Thee as long as I live and in the ages to come for what Thou hast done already." God's already put me so far in debt that if I were to live one million millenniums I couldn't pay Him for what He's done for me.
We go to God as we send a boy to a grocery store with a long written list. "God, give me this, give me this, and give me this," and our gracious God often does give us what we want. But I think God is disappointed because we make Him to be no more than a source of what we want. Even our Lord Jesus is presented too often much as "Someone who will meet your need." That's the throbbing heart of modern evangelism. You're in need and Jesus will meet your need. He's the Need-meeter. Well, He is that indeed; but, ah, He's infinitely more than that.
Father, forgive me for so often just coming to You with my grocery list. You've been so faithful; You've given me so much; You've blessed so richly. I realize my incredible debt to You, and I simply worship at Your feet. Amen.
A. W. Tozer,
Tozer on Christian Leadership:
A 366-Day Devotional, (Camp Hill, PA: Wingspread, 2007), WORD
search CROSS e-book, 105-106. |
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