THE SECRET OF ONE

THE SECRET OF ONE

In I Kings 17: 8-16 God has given us an event in the life of the prophet Elijah.  In this event, God choose one person to make a big difference in the life of Elijah.

The Lord told Elijah that He had chosen a poor widow woman who had a young son to take care of him during a famine.  She was probably the most unlikely person to take care of someone else because she could not even take care of herself and her son.

When Elijah arrived at her village she was gathering sticks to cook one last meal for her and her son and then she would be completely out of food.  Elijah asked her for a drink of water, which was also scarce at that time.  The woman turn to go and find him a cup of water, and then Elijah stopped her and ask her for a small amount of bread.

The widow women, told Elijah that she only had enough food for one more meal for her and her son and that the two sticks she had was to build a fire to cook their last meal.

Then Elijah told her if she would do this one act of faith that God would bless her for many days.

There are a lot of ones in this message to us from God's Word.  

First of all, there was one prophet.  At times He felt he was the only one left that was serving God. 

And he said, I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life. (I Kings 19:14). The Lord reminded Him, that he was not alone, that there were seven thousand other people who were still serving Him.

Maybe you feel you are the only one left trying to live right and do right.  The Lord Jesus message to you is that is that you are not alone.  I am with you always, even unto the end of the world   (Matthew 28:20).

Another one in this story was the widow woman.  She probably felt she has fail in her life and had fail her son, because they both would soon die of hunger and there was nothing she could do about it.  What she did not know was that God was preparing a way for her to meet her needs. For your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him.  Matthew 6:8.

Then there was the one barrel and one cup.  Before Elijah got to this ladies house, they were almost empty.  After she  did what the Lord told her to do, both of them were full.  

You may not think you have much today to offer the Lord.  You may be hanging on by a thread.  But you still have one thing more you can do, one more prayer you can pray, and one more promise from God's Word you can depend upon.

The secret of One is that you and God are a majority.  You have all the resources of Heaven on your side. You can become God's partner in accomplishing things on Earth that God wants to do. You are only one person, but you can allow God to use you to meet the needs of another person who feels that they are only one.

A young boy went to hear the Lord Jesus speak.  He was not expecting that the little that he had could be used to bless so many.   Even the disciples did not feel he had anything to contribute. He was just one little boy.  There is a lad here, which has five barley loaves, and two small fish: but what are they among so many? (John 6:9).  The bread and fish did not seem like much, but when Jesus blessed it, five thousand men were fed, not counting the great number of women and children.

The Lord Jesus observed a poor widow giving two of her last coins into the offering at the temple.    And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury,  and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.  So He said, Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all;  for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had. (Luke 21: 1-4).

God likes to use individuals.  He likes to take one person to accomplish things for His glory and to meet the needs of others.  And when He chooses that one person, it is usually the person who others would be dismissed as weak or unable to perform the task.

Think of all the people in the Bible that God called individually to do a job.  One man named Noah decided to live a righteous life, and he saved humanity. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.. and the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth...But Noah, found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  And Noah did  according unto all that the Lord commanded him. (Genesis 6: 5,7,8, 22). One boy named David, killed a giant military  soldier  who was 9''6 tall and changed the history of his country.  David told him: You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, who you have defied (I Samuel 17:45).  

IThe secret of one is that God loves you.  You are special to Him.  Even if you have been away from God, He is looking for you today.

He is drawn to people who are weak and admit it, and who ask for help from Heaven.  My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.   (2 Corinthians 12:9).

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!  I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.  (Luke 15:4-7).

ETERNITY CLOSER THAN YOU THINK!!

ETERNITY 

 CLOSER THAN YOU

THINK!!

Before the mountains were brought forth,  Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,  Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.  (Psalms 90:2 

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ gave us something that will never end. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of My hand. (John 10:28).

Eternity can be divided into two parts.  The eternity which is past, and that eternity which is to come.  God, the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit alone are the only ones who have experienced the eternity of the past.  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.Revelation 1:8.

What is eternity? It is hard to understand.  In comparison to the ocean, a life lived to be a hundred years would only be a drop of water in that ocean.  Suppose all the mountains in the world would be annihilated, reduced to nothing, one grain of sand every thousand years, this would still not be the end of eternity.

 We were made to live for eternity, that is the eternity which is to come.  When you have lived a million years in heaven, your life with Jesus will have just begun and only started in eternity.

When we speak of our immortal spirits, our souls, that part of us which Christ has died for, it will be with the Lord and our loved ones in Heaven for eternity.    When our body returns to dust, we will be with the Lord in Heaven.  Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7).  For the Christian, at the moment of death it will be unspeakably happy.

We can only see the things within the distance of our physical eyes.  Our physical eyes cannot see at the moment the beauty of the mountains or sense the sounds or power from Niagara Falls.  

But regardless, the beauties and the sounds are there whether we see them or not.  But the experience really has no effect on us unless we are there.

For the same reason the mind does not see the beauties of eternity. We are not affected by them, because they are so distant from us.  Because we cannot see them, they become as if they had no existence.  Therefore, we are wholly taken up with things of the present 

unless we look through the eyes of faith to see eternity. If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. (Colossians 3:1-2).  A Christian 

should live a life that is headed toward eternity.

Faith places the unseen, the eternal world, continually before our face.  We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Do we value ourselves on our earthly possessions?  After Job had lost all his possessions, he made this statement which is true today.  Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return to God; the LORD has given, and the LORD has taken away, blessed be the name of the LORD.  (Job 1:21).

Time is completely different with God.  He is not locked into minutes, hours, or years.  Jupiter takes 12 years to orbit the sun and therefore if a 100 year old person could live there, they would be about 8 years old.  So time is relevant to where you live. But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8).  If one of your loved ones has died in the last 50 years, they are not even a day old in Heaven.  Their eternity is just beginning.  It may seem like they went to Heaven a long time ago, but by the time you get there, both of you will feel like it was just minutes ago that you were separated from each other.

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, gave us this promise:  Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also (John 14: 1-3).

My question to you is why would you reject this great gift of eternal happiness?  Why would you live a life apart from God for a few years on earth and miss all the blessings God has for those who love Him.  It is written; Eye has not seen, or ear heard, Nor has it entered into the heart of mankind, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. (I Corinthians 2:9).

Sometimes we forget that God is not a man  When he promises something, He never forgets, and always fulfills His promises.  While you are on your brief journey on Earth, remember you are never, ever, out of God's thoughts, or away from His love.  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11).  When you begin to fear that your past mistakes in life will cause you to miss eternity remember this promise to His children:  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from th love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

DOES PRAYER REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

DOES PRAYER REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Jesus counted on prayer as a source of strength that equipped Him to carry out a partnership with God the Father on earth

Prayer makes a difference in receiving forgiveness for your sins.  It is a second chance that is given to you every time you go to your Heavenly Father.

Prayer is more than a social skill.  The main purpose of prayer is not to make life easier, nor to gain magical powers, but to know God.  It is more than a useful exercise.  God invites a steady and honest flow of communication from you. “"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18).  Prayer is not just for those who think they are “good people”, it is for those who have problems. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).. 

Prayer makes a difference in what we can receive from God.  “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2)

But that asking should be as a loving child who is asking for things to make him a better person and better serve his Father.

Some speak to God as he would to a bank manager.  We speak to Him politely, visited Him intermittently, occasionally asking him for a small favor for a overdraft, to get myself out of difficulty, thanking him for his assistance, letting him know that I will be one of his reliable customers, and will maintain contact on the grounds that one of these days he might be useful. We do not pray to tell God what he does not know, nor to remind Him of things He has forgotten.  Prayer is a cooperation with God, a consent that opens the way for grace to work.  

Prayer makes a difference in our relationship with the creator of the world.  I spend time with my closest friends not because of what they can do for me, but for the pleasure of their company.  How can I do that with God!  You start with Prayer.  In one hand I hold the truth of God’s vastness, and in the other hand I hold the truth of God’s desire for intimacy.  Prayer that is based on relationship and not transaction may be the most freedom-enhancing way of connecting to a God who’s vantage point we can never achieve and can hardly imagine.  “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer”. (I Peter 3:12)

Prayer makes a difference in feeling the presence of God in your life.  Prayer is not my way of establishing God’s presence, rather as my way of responding to God’s presence that is a fact whether or not I can detect it.  My feelings of God’s presence – or God’s absence- are not the presence or the absence.  Prayer means keeping company with God who is already present.  God has time for you.  A God unbound by our rules of time has the ability to invest in every person on earth.  God has, quite literally, all the time in the world for each one of us.  “For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night” (Psalms 90:4).  Contact with Him is not our achievement.  It is a gift coming down to us from on high like a meteor, rather than rising up like a rocket.  God finds ways to communicate to those who truly seek God.  I need to think more about God than about myself when I am praying..

Prayer will make a difference in our lives in increasing our faith.  Before the words of prayer come to the lips, the mind must believe in God’s willingness to draw near to us, and in our ability to clear the path for His approach.  Such belief is the idea that leads us toward prayer.  “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6). The more we pray, the more faith we will have. 

Prayer makes a difference in our relationship as children of God with our Heavenly Father.  Apparently God is the kind of friend and Father who rewards friendship and relationship with Him.  No one in the Old Testament directly addressed God as “Father”, but Jesus did so 170 times. That relationship was opened to us because of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.   

He taught us how to pray.  "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.” (Matthew 6:9). 

Prayer will make a difference in how much and how effective we will be in our service for the Lord.  Prayer is more than a reflective time to consider God’s point of view.  It is also a time to find a way to accomplish God’s will in the work He calls us to do.  

After entrusting the human species with the gift of free choice, God invited them to act as partners, even to argue and wrestle with the One who created them.  

And as God’s coworkers we are encouraged to submit our requests, our desires, our petitions in prayer.  He asks us to pray for that which He wants to do.

Jesus prayed because He came to do God’s will and work.  "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4). 

YES, PRAYER DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!