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

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything. --1 Corinthians 6:12 I’ve noticed something every time we have moved to a new home. We wind up getting rid of things we didn’t need and were just cluttering up the house. Some people are keepers and some are throwers—and they usually marry one another! The keepers hang on to things because of the comfort of the known and the emotional attachment to these items. The throwers toss stuff away because they know it isn’t needed and will slow them down. I want to propose to you today that we all need to be spiritual throwers. When God wants us to move on to another place in our spiritual lives, we should throw out all of the clutter we have accumulated—old ideas, attitudes, and habits from the past that just weigh us down.  Let’s get rid of anything that isn’t necessary to keep living and moving forward for Christ. To not be enslaved to anything. When a tall building is built, there’s usually scaffolding that goes all the way to the top. But when the building is finished, the scaffolding isn’t needed. It would be silly and unnecessary to keep scaffolding up around a finished building; but that’s what a lot of believers are doing in their spiritual lives. Don’t be attached to or dependent upon unnecessary things. When God wants you to move on, drop everything that holds you back and go forward in faith and obedience! Be a spiritual “thrower,” ridding your life of anything that keeps you from moving forward with Christ.

The Dividends of Faith

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Jeremiah 17:7–9

Because we live in a world that is fallen and under the curse of sin, we have never known what it is like to live in an environment where things are balanced as God originally intended. Here in California we went through several years of extreme drought followed by periods of very heavy rain that produced serious flooding. The drought tested various plants. Those that had strong root systems could pull up water from deep underground, and were able to survive many days without rain.
Just as drought in the physical world stresses vegetation, in the spiritual world people face times when things are not going well—when there is a drought. The resources that we need in those situations are only available when we have strong roots. Those roots of faith allow us to tap into the vast and unlimited resources of God and remain fruitful.
When God commanded Abraham to offer his son Isaac, it was a time of severe testing. But in faith Abraham prepared to do as God said. Only after the altar was built and Isaac placed on it, did God provide the substitute. Because Abraham’s faith did not waver, he saw God’s power on display to meet his need. “And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen” (Genesis 22:14).
 

Today’s Growth Principle: 

If we trust in God rather than in our own wisdom and plans, we will find that we can be fruitful even in hard times.