Link to YouTube

Saul has uploaded some clips from their Christmas program on to YouTube. Also, for those of us that don’t speak Urdu he has added a rolling subtitle line to translate it for us. You have got to check it out!! God bless.

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Quote for the day

 ”It’s not that the Christian faith has been tried and found difficult, but rather it’s been found difficult and left untried.”- G.K.Chesterton

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Why do we doubt Him??

Cool story that came my way through a Christian support/prayer group. Enjoy and God bless!!

When faced with a problem, how often we forget what God has done for us. “How often they defied and rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert! And time and again, they turned back and tempted God, provoking and incensing the Holy One of Israel. They remember not the day when He delivered them from the enemy” Psalm 78:40-42 This example of the Israelites grumbling and complaining at God, even wanting to return to Egypt, points out their disrespect and irreverence  produced by the fruit of limiting His willingness and power to provide for them in any situation. They were limited by what their thoughts of what God would and could do. Mentally, they drew the line, believing God would NOT provide for them. Actually, limiting God creates idolatry, since we then turn to another source. This is the very basis of idolatry: a self-willed person who refuses to surrender to God. Nothing limits God. The joy of knowing God is understanding that He grants us security in His love, His mercy, His power to heal and comfort in the times of need. By our own volition, we miss out on experiencing Him working through us. We limit God when we live by fear, distrust, and unbelief, rather than by faith. How often we rely on our own resources to solve problems before us. In trusting our own solutions, rather than trusting God, we become preoccupied with the problem itself.  Any solution to the problem of human existence that does not trust in God, is an expression of pride.  (Niebuhr) The past few of days, I have been searching and trying to figure out an answer to a big problem. About all I had came up with was more frustration. For close to three years we have been trying to sell our home. Very few people have even come to look. We have had four different real estate agencies try to sell it. We have lowered the price in half and still no buyers. To put salt in our wounds, more than one acquaintance would tell me that it only took a few days to sell their house. The equity is our retirement money. For this period of time, we have been going backwards financially about $1,000 to $1,5000 per month. We have been eliminating as many expenses as possible. At the same time, unexpected expenses occur, depleting our very limited savings even more.  Why Lord?  we asked. This sounds like doubt and the beginning of distrust to me. How easy it is to forget what He has done for us in the past. Let me tell you a story from our past: Years ago we lived in a very small house with two young children. When I say small, it was small (about 400 square feet). In Southern California, this was not the norm. I was trying very hard to establish a ministry, so we had very little money. One afternoon, Maggie sat down with our two children and prayed that somehow we could get a TV. Our car hade broken down, and had been sitting for more than four months. We walked everywhere. I know, some of you are saying,  big deal.  This was Southern California, where it can take 30 minutes or more to drive anywhere. Back to my story. That evening after they prayed, we went for a walk around the block. We had moved barely a few feet down the sidewalk, when we heard a voice,  “Hey! Do you want a TV?”  I looked at Maggie and asked if she heard it. YES! We couldn¹t see anyone, so we started to walk on. Then again, ”Hey! Do you want a TV?”  This time we could see the silhouette of an elderly woman standing behind a screen door. She told us her son had purchased a new TV for her. “Did we want her old one?” God has supplied our needs so many times. Why do we doubt that He will not continue now?

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