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TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY

Shame-based thinking (2)
‘Do not merely listen to the word…Do what it says.’

James 1:22
The UCB Word for Today - 3 Aug 2017

Shame grows in the dark, but once you expose it to the light of God’s Word, it loses its grip on you. Feelings can be so fickle.

And often they’re triggered by everyday things like a familiar song, the mention of someone who hurt you, an anniversary, a birthday, a holiday such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day.

That’s why James tells us, ‘Do not merely listen to the word…Do what it says.’ One counsellor writes: ‘Shame can hold us back, hold us down, and keep us staring at our feet…Many systems and people are controlled by it and want us to play their game…

Compulsive behaviours, sexually addictive behaviours, overeating, chemical abuse, and addictive gambling are all shame-based behaviours…Our past experiences, and the brainwashing we may have had, put shame on us. “Don’t think…don’t feel…don’t grow or change…don’t feel alive…be ashamed!” Be done with shame! Attack it.

Go to war with it. Learn to recognise and avoid it like the plague.’ The Bible says, ‘Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?’ (Romans 8:33 AMP). Whether you committed the offence or the offence was committed against you, ‘the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin’ (1 John 1:7 NKJV).

Note the word ‘all’. Instead of talking about how you feel, start talking about what you know! God’s Word, which is God’s opinion of you, is the greatest healing force on earth.

So read it, believe it, speak it, and stand on it. As you do, you’ll begin to rise above your shame-based thinking.

Job 25-27, 1 Cor 5

[ebankole]

TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY

Be careful whom you confide in
‘Those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence.’

Proverbs 11:13
The UCB Word for Today - 4 Aug 2017

If you need help with a problem in your personal life, your family, or your career, keep the following things in mind: 1) Bad news is often remembered longer than good news. Long after you have resolved the issue and moved on with your life, the wrong people will continue to focus on it and talk about it.

That’s why God’s Word says, ‘Those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence.’ 2) Be careful who advises you. ‘The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceitful’ (Proverbs 12:5 NKJV).

Be sure you reach for the right person. There are many sources of wisdom in this world, ‘but the wisdom that is from above is…pure…peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and…hypocrisy’ (James 3:17 NKJV).

Note the words, ‘the wisdom that is from above’. Confide only in a counsellor who walks according to the principles of God’s Word. 3) Make sure the person you trust isn’t confiding in others you wouldn’t trust.

They say you can tell a man by the company he keeps. And it’s true! The Bible says, ‘Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly’ (Psalm 1:1 NKJV). 4) ‘Problem talk’ can portray you as a victim instead of an overcomer.

Nobody wants to back a loser. When Job lost everything, almost everybody avoided him. It was only after God doubled Job’s blessings that they returned to participate in his life and bring him gifts. It’s always wise to control your mouth, your thoughts, and your focus. Remember, silence can never be misquoted.

Job 28-29, 1 Cor 6

[ebankole]

TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY

God’s remedy for stress
‘Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.’

1 Peter 5:7
The UCB Word for Today - 5 Aug 2017

Are you feeling stressed? Is your mind besieged with worries? If so, God wants to relieve your stress. Read the following Scriptures slowly and prayerfully: ‘I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed’ (Psalm 57:1 NIV 2011 Edition). ‘You have been a refuge for the poor…for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm’ (Isaiah 25:4 NIV 2011 Edition). ‘I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go…I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you’ (Genesis 28:15 NIV 2011 Edition). ‘The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms’ (Deuteronomy 33:27 NIV 2011 Edition). ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand’ (Isaiah 41:10 NIV 2011 Edition). ‘Even to your old age…I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you’ (Isaiah 46:4 NIV 2011 Edition).

So here’s God’s prescription for stress relief: 1) Believe God truly ‘cares for you’. 2) Make a conscious decision to ‘cast all your anxiety on him’. If you’re on overload, ask God for wisdom to change your schedule.

When the problem you’re facing is too big for you to handle, give it to Him - and don’t take it back.

Let Him think His thoughts through you, and allow His peace, power, and patience to take charge of your mind.

Practise doing this at the beginning of each day, and as often as you need to throughout the day. It’s God’s remedy for stress!

Job 30-31, 1 Cor 7:1-19

[gracefilled]

This WORD if for me. I am passing through some serious stress right now but thank You Jesus for this. I lay all down at your feet; take the wheel and take charge.

[ebankole]

TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY

Science proves the Bible true (1)
‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’

Genesis 1:1
The UCB Word for Today - 6 Aug 2017

To say that true science and the Bible are contradictory is simply not so. If there’s even one chance in a million that God, heaven, and hell are true, wouldn’t you want to know? After all, one day you’re going to die. What then?

And furthermore, since our children and grandchildren are increasingly exposed to secular teaching, don’t you want to be able to answer their questions when they come home from school or college, and steer them in the right direction? Well, guess what?

Science proves the Bible true! For the next few days let’s talk about it: 1) The Bible tells us the earth floats in space. There was a time when people believed it sat on a large animal or giant. Seriously! But fifteen hundred years before Christ, the patriarch Job said, ‘He…hangeth the earth upon nothing’ (Job 26:7 KJV).

Think about that: you can’t even hang your hat on nothing! The fact is, science didn’t discover that the earth hangs upon nothing until AD 1650. 2) The Bible tells us the earth is composed of atoms. ‘By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen are not made of things which are visible’ (Hebrews 11:3 NKJV). Only in recent years has science discovered that everything we see is composed of things we can’t see - namely, invisible atoms.

Yet the Bible, written more than two thousand years ago, said it was so. Now, the Bible doesn’t need science to prove that it’s true - it just so happens that it does.

Luke 14:25-35, Ps 79-80

[ebankole]

TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY

Science proves the Bible true (2)
‘He…sits above the circle of the earth.’

Isaiah 40:22
The UCB Word for Today - 7 Aug 2017

The Bible tells us the earth is round. ‘It is He who sits above the circle of the earth.’ The word circle comes from a Hebrew word which can also be translated as ‘circuit’. The book of Isaiah was written about seven hundred years before the birth of Christ.

That’s at least three hundred years before Aristotle suggested in his book On the Heavens that the earth might be a sphere.

It was another two thousand years later, at a time when science believed the earth was flat, that Scripture inspired Christopher Columbus to sail around the world.

He wrote: ‘It was the Lord who put it into my mind…I could feel His hand upon me…There is no question the inspiration came from the Holy Spirit because He comforted me with rays of marvellous illumination from the Holy Scriptures’ (from the diary of Christopher Columbus, in reference to his discovery of the New World). The Bible teaches oceanography.

In the nineteenth century, Matthew Fontaine Maury, who is called the ‘Father of Modern Oceanography and Naval Meteorology’, read the words of David describing ‘paths of the sea’ (Psalm 8:8).

He said, ‘If God said there are paths in the sea, I am going to find them.’ Today we’re indebted to his discovery of the warm and cold ocean currents. His book on oceanography remains a basic text on the subject and is still used in universities.

So next time you meet someone who questions the accuracy of the Scriptures, smile graciously and tell them, ‘Science proves the Bible true.’

Job 32-33, 1 Cor 7:20-40

[ebankole]

TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY

Science proves the Bible true (3)
‘Can you send out lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, “Here we are!”?’

Job 38:35
The UCB Word for Today - 8 Aug 2017

The Bible predicted modern telecommunications. Does that sound incredible to you? If so, consider this verse: ‘Can you send out lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, “Here we are!”?’ Fifteen hundred years before Christ, in the book of Job, God said light could be sent, and manifest itself in speech.

And along those same lines, did you know that all electromagnetic radiation - from radio waves to X-rays - travels at the speed of light (about 186,000 miles per second)? That’s what gives us instant wireless communication with someone on the other side of the world.

The fact that light can be sent and translated into speech wasn’t discovered by science until 1864 - 3,300 years later - when British scientist James Clerk Maxwell suggested that electricity and light waves were two forms of the same thing (see Modern Century Illustrated Encyclopedia).

Samuel Morse, who invented the first telegraph and forever changed the world of communication, was a Bible-believing Christian. A few years before he died, he said, ‘The nearer I approach the end of my pilgrimage, the clearer is the evidence of the divine origin of the Bible.

The grandeur and sublimity of God’s remedy for fallen man are more appreciated, and the future is illuminated with hope and joy.’ In life you’ll meet ‘doubting Thomases’, and God loves them. In fact, Jesus made a special appearance after His resurrection just to resolve Thomas’s doubts. And He still does that today! So, get acquainted with your Bible, then let every sincere, questioning heart know that science proves the Bible true.

Job 34-35, 1 Cor 8

[ebankole]

TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY

Science proves the Bible true (4)

‘To the place from which the rivers come, there they return again.’

Ecclesiastes 1:7
The UCB Word for Today - 9 Aug 2017

The Bible talks about the water cycle. ‘All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again.’ Every day the Mississippi River dumps approximately 420 billion gallons of water into the Gulf of Mexico.

And when you think about the Thames, the Nile, and the Amazon, every day the same thing is happening in rivers all around the world.

So, where does all that water go? The answer lies in the hydrologic cycle, which the Bible introduced almost three millennia ago. The wise King Solomon wrote, ‘If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth’ (Ecclesiastes 11:3 KJV).

Amos the prophet said, “He…calls the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the face of the earth” (Amos 9:6 NKJV).

And Job’s friend Elihu said, ‘Behold, God is great…He draws up drops of water, which distil as rain from the mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man’ (Job 36:26-28 NKJV).

The idea of a complete water cycle was not fully understood by science until the seventeenth century. Yet more than two thousand years prior to the discoveries of brilliant minds like Pierre Perrault, Edme Mariotte, Edmond Halley, and others, the Bible clearly explained the water cycle.

The truth is, your Bible is inspired, inerrant, reliable, and more up-to-date than tomorrow morning’s newspaper.

Every newspaper has a correction column acknowledging its printed errors. Not the Bible! You can trust it to guide you right in every area of your life.

Job 36-37, 1 Cor 9

[ebankole]

TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY

Science proves the Bible true (5)
‘The earth will grow old like a garment.’

Isaiah 51:6
The UCB Word for Today - 10 Aug 2017

The Bible addresses the first law of thermodynamics (known as the Law of Conservation of Energy), which states that while energy can be changed from one form to another, it can’t be created or destroyed.

This law disproves Sir Fred Hoyle’s ‘steady state’ or ‘continuous creation’ theory, which has been discarded by scientists.

Hoyle stated that at points in the universe called ‘Irtrons’, matter (or energy) was constantly being created. But the first law of thermodynamics states the opposite: there is no ‘creation’ ongoing today.

The Bible says, ‘Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them’ (Genesis 2:1 KJV). The word finished in the original Hebrew indicates an action completed in the past, never to occur again.

The second law of thermodynamics says that in all physical processes, every ordered system over time tends to become more disordered.

In other words, everything is running down and wearing out as energy is becoming less and less available for use.

The psalmist wrote: ‘You laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

They will perish, but You will endure…they will all grow old like a garment…But You are the same, and Your years will have no end’ (Psalm 102:25-27 NKJV).

The more scientists learn about life on earth, the more they discover the truth of what the Bible has clearly taught for centuries.

No matter how sincere you may be or how hard you try, in order to open a locked door, you must use the right key. Your Bible is the key that unlocks the door to understanding all of life, and God’s plan for you.

Job 38-40, 1 Cor 10:1-17

[Gracemohau]

TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY

Science proves the Bible true (6)
‘Build a large boat…450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.’

Genesis 6:14-15
The UCB Word for Today - 11 Aug 2017

The Bible detailed the original blueprint for shipbuilding. In Genesis, God told Noah to build a 1.5-million-cubic-foot ship and fill it with enough people and animals to repopulate the earth. And the specific dimensions God gave Noah turned out to be significant.

In 1609 in Hoorn, Holland, a ship was built in the same proportions and it revolutionised shipbuilding.

According to Lloyd’s Register of Shipping (see The World Almanac), by 1900 every large ship on the high seas was inclined towards the proportions of Noah’s Ark. And by the way, if you think it’s not sophisticated or educated to believe that the world was once destroyed by a universal flood, think again. About 85 per cent of the rock surfaces around the world are composed of sedimentary rock, indicating that at some time in the past the world was covered by water.

Consider also the Bible and meteorology. Solomon wrote, ‘The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and…returneth again according to his circuits’ (Ecclesiastes 1:6 KJV).

The air around the earth turns in huge circles, anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. As a result, your local meteorologist can tell you with a high degree of accuracy what the weather will be like so you can dress accordingly. The Bible - there’s simply no other book like it!

When you believe its central message of salvation through Christ you have peace and joy now, plus you get to live in heaven with God for eternity when you die. It doesn’t get better than that!

Job 441-42, 1 Cor 10:18-33