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CURRENT RADIO SERIES Dare to Believe   CURRENT TV SERIES All Things New

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. --James 1:2-3 I’m not sure about you, but most people probably wouldn’t welcome an intruder as a good friend. But as crazy and backwards as that sounds, it’s exactly what James asks us to do when it comes to welcoming the problems and trials that come into our lives. Today’s verses tell us that problems and troubles are going to come.  James said “when” we encounter trials, not “if.” Everybody has problems. What makes Christians different is the way we handle these challenges. We can joyfully accept hardships and trials because we know that God is going to use them to deepen our faith and strengthen our endurance. I’ve always said that a faith that can’t be tested is a faith that can’t be trusted when the chips are down. The Christian life is a series of new beginnings, and more often than not those new beginnings begin with a trial or crisis of some sort. Those times are an opportunity to demonstrate our faith in God. So don’t be surprised “when you meet trials of various kinds.” Remember, God has promised you His presence in the midst of your trials, not an absence from them. You can’t avoid problems, but you can overcome them in the power of Christ.

God’s Amazing Mercy

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.”
Numbers 23:19–21

When Balak, the king of Moab, saw the vast host of the children of Israel moving near his lands on their way to Canaan, he was afraid. So he attempted to hire the noted prophet Balaam to come and pronounce a curse on them. God told Balaam not to go, but after Balak increased his offer, the disobedient prophet made the fateful decision to travel to Moab, although he warned the king that he would only say what God wanted him to say. Instead of a curse, Balaam pronounced a lengthy blessing on the Israelites, which also included some wonderful statements about God’s nature and the way He views us.
When Balaam said that God did not see any sin among the Israelites that was certainly not a declaration of their wonderful and sinless spiritual condition. The Children of Israel were constantly rebelling, disobeying, and complaining. They often angered God by their refusal to follow His commandments, and He often brought judgment on them. Yet God extended them mercy which changed the way He saw them.
Likewise, it is the mercy of God that keeps us from receiving the just consequences of our wrongdoing. It is the mercy of God that views us as righteous through the blood of Jesus Christ that is applied to our account. David wrote, “Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile” (Psalm 32:2).
 

Today’s Growth Principle: 

Rejoice today in the mercy of God through the blood of Christ that prevents us from suffering His just punishment of our sins.