GOOD MORNING!  AN EMPTINESS IN THE SOUL    The lives of many people are often full of disillusionment, hopelessness and desperation. There is a great emptiness in the soul.   The emptiness in the soul is so real that, even when life seems to be going well, there’s still that feeling that something is missing; a feeling that there must be something more, something that brings real joy, sure hope, and a reason to live.    According to the Bible, all that we seek is found in God. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart.” What does that mean? It means that God created each of us for Him, with a longing for eternity and spiritual reality. In other words: everyone has a restlessness, arising from the emptiness in their soul, which only God can satisfy.   Trying to satisfy the emptiness of the soul with external things is a total waste of time and effort. Whoever insists on trying only increases that emptiness, frustration, and loneliness.   An endless pursuit for “more, more, more!” does not satisfy the soul. In Isaiah 55:2 God himself says, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”   The emptiness is filled when the soul turns to the Lord. The way to turn to God is through his Son, the Lord Jesus. Jesus declared in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”   Jesus is not one among many options to fill the emptiness in your soul, He is the ultimate solution you seek. When you give yourself totally to Him, you discover a full, abundant, and joyful life.   Come to Jesus!   Have a good day! 

GOOD MORNING!  WHEN GOD SENDS A WARNING  The Bible contains noteworthy accounts of occasions when God issued a warning to nations or individuals concerning their sinful life. He warned them to abandon their wrong way of living, or face severe consequences.  Here are just a few examples: For 120 years, God warned the people of Noah's day about their sins, but they did not listen, and the flood overtook them. God warned Pharaoh through a series of ten plagues, but he did not listen and all of Egypt was devastated. Over the course of many years, God warned Israel of their idolatry, but the nation did not listen to Him and was forced to endure a bitter captivity.  We find another example in Daniel chapter 4. God gave King Nebuchadnezzar a dream to warn him of his wrong. After Daniel interpreted the dream, in verse 27 he spoke to the king, saying: “Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.” Unfortunately, Nebuchadnezzar paid no heed and the word spoken against him was fulfilled.  God warns all of us in Proverbs 16:25, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” Therefore, if you know your ways are not pleasing to the Lord, repent and change your way of life now. Remember the warning from Hebrews 3:8 that says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts..."  When God sends a warning, it is because He loves you and seeks your good. Listen and pay careful attention to God’s warning and immediately change your life.  Have  a good day! 

GOOD MORNING!  HUMBLE YOURSELF BEFORE THE LORD!   We are all sinners, desperately and constantly in need of God's mercy, goodness and grace. However, very few people practice rigorous, honest self-examination before God. We need to humble ourselves and examine our heart and our behavior before the Lord. James 4:10 declares, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” In 1 Peter 5:6 the apostle teaches, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.”   We do not humble ourselves before God because of our pride. Pride is the mother of all sins, and the worst among them. Pride stands reality on its head. True humility says, “God is God—I am not God and must not act as if I were.” The sinner, having confessed his sin, says with newfound wisdom, “God is all holy; I have no holiness in myself, and am unable to please God apart from Christ. Therefore, I must humble myself and find reconciliation. I must draw near to Him. I must live by all He teaches.”    God loves the humble and works for their good. He is never more present and real than when someone seeks to draw near to Him in humility. Isaiah 57:15 states, “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”    God, therefore, is looking for you to humble yourself before Him with a broken heart, confessing your sins and changing your attitudes. When you bring yourself low before him, He will lift you up, forgive your sin, turn your mourning to rejoicing and transform your life.   God is always ready to pour out His great mercy, to bless and to receive with open arms all who humble themselves before Him.   Humble yourself before the Lord!  Have a good day! 

GOOD MORNING!  DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE   Our greatest need in life is God Himself. Fame and fortune, or whatever delights this world may offer, apart from God, are worthless. Augustine wrote, "Earthly riches are full of poverty." In Psalm 16:11, David declares, "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."    We were created by God and for God. In Him life finds purpose and the soul finds rest. In Him is everything we seek. In Psalm 4:7, David recalls, "You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.”   What we urgently need is more of God; more of his teachings; more of a focus on Him and for Him. We need to be in His presence. We need to rejoice in Him. The psalmist stated in Psalm 68:3, “But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!”   There is a life more abundant than the life we call life. There is real life beyond this routine life. Life is in God. Solomon concluded his book with these words in Ecclesiastes 12:13, "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."   Don't make your life an end in itself. Don't make an idol out of your own life. Don't waste your life. God is the author of your life, and through the Lord Jesus life can become what He designed it to be. As Jesus himself declared in John 10:10, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."   As John Piper reminds us, “Remember, you have one life. That's all. You were made for God. Don't waste it.”  Have a good day! 

GOOD MORNING!  PRIORITIZE GOD’S WORD   God did not give us his word to inform us, but to transform us. Reading and listening to his instructions is not enough; we also need to put it into practice. James 1:22 states, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."   In the Bible we have God’s wisdom. His wisdom is perfect and points us in the way we should go. His wisdom teaches us how to live in this life and directs our steps toward eternity. In order for us to appropriate God’s wisdom, we need to establish the habit of reading and listening to his Word, keeping it in our hearts and in our minds, and doing it.   Our main problem is that we tend to forget the truths of God’s Word. Why is this so? We usually only remember what we think is important. If the truths of God's Word are not a priority in our lives, we will surely forget them.   So, prioritize God’s Word in Your life. Pay attention to everything that God says. There are great benefits for every area of your life when you make the decision to prioritize God’s Word. The Psalmist stated in Psalm 19:9 and 11, “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether… Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”   Read, listen and pay careful attention to God’s instruction to us in His Word. Determine to practice it—obey it. Make the Bible your rule for life and be guided by it alone. B.B. Warfield declared, “The Bible is authoritative, for it is the Word of God… Because it is the Word of God in every part and element, it is our constant law and guide.”   Determine, therefore, to give God’s Word the priority in your life.  Have a good day! 

GOOD MORNING!  DEAL WITH YOUR HEART  The Bible defines a person’s “heart” as the seat of all his desire, affection, emotion, passion, goals, thoughts, interests, perceptions, purposes, imagination, skills, knowledge, beliefs, ideas, values, reasoning, memories and conscience.   The Bible also makes it clear that all man’s problems originate from the “heart”. Jesus says in Mark 7:21-22, “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.”  The human problem is a moral problem. The human problem is not located in other people, in one’s circumstances, in what you have or don’t have, in who you are or have failed to become, in abundance or necessity, in spouses, parents, or society; in the government, the devil or anything else. Man’s problem is within himself: his own heart is contaminated and deceitful.  Each person must deal with his own heart before God. As David prayed in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  If you want your life to be different, you need to first deal with your heart; you must see yourself as God sees you; ask Him to reveal to you who you really are.  Stop making excuses! Stop blaming other people! Stop complaining about your circumstances! Don't take life sitting down! Confess your sins, purify your heart and turn to God.  When you have dealt with your own heart before the Lord, then you will see profound transformation in your life.  Deal with your heart!  Have a good day! 

GOOD MORNING!  YOUR PART   In John 5:8, Jesus commanded a paralytic, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk." After Jesus told the paralytic to get up, we see, in verse 9, the visible effect: "And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked." What power the Lord Jesus has! Nothing is difficult for Him! The paralytic's world changed “at once.”   We learn in this biblical account that there is nothing the Lord Jesus cannot do. The Bible encourages us to believe that all things are possible in Him. In Mark 5:36, Jesus said to Jairus, upon receiving the news of his daughter's death, "Do not fear, only believe."   Are there circumstances in your life before which you find yourself “paralyzed”? Jesus orders you, "Get up and walk!" Are you overwhelmed with fear? Jesus replies, "Do not fear, only believe!" Your responsibility is to hear and promptly obey His command. Jesus honors obedience.   Don’t just lie there doing nothing at the voice of the Lord Jesus. He expects you to believe and to get up despite the fear and move forward. Nothing comes into your life without a purpose from God. He is in complete control. In John chapter 9, Jesus encountered a man born blind. He explained to his disciples the purpose for the blindness was “that the works of God might be displayed in him."   Jesus gave to the paralytic, to the daughter of Jairus, as well as to the blind man, new life and a wonderful future. He accomplished in them His will in His time.   Remember your part is not to say how or when He should act. Your part is only to believe and obey. Your part is to give everything to Him. Your part is to wait on Him to act. Your part is to not fear. Your part is to do your part: get up and take the next step without fear, obeying and trusting totally in the Lord Jesus.  Have a good day! 

GOOD MORNING!  WHO WILL GO TO HEAVEN?   It is common to refer to heaven as “the place where good people go.” However, the Bible contradicts this popular opinion.   Heaven is God’s dwelling place. He is holy, pure, just, and perfect. No human being is holy. To be human is to be a sinner. Romans 3:23 states, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Even "good" people, according to God, are sinners and cannot enter His heaven without first dealing with sin.   Sin is the big problem between God and man. Sin condemns forever. Romans 6:23 says, "the wages of sin is death." Because God is holy, pure, just, and perfect, sin needs to be dealt with, but no one is able to deal with their own sin alone.   To solve the problem of sin, God in Christ became a man. Being God and having no sin, He became a man and carried the punishment of our sin upon Himself on Calvary's cross. Through the death of Jesus Christ, those who acknowledge, repent and confess their sins to God, trusting only in Christ’s work on the cross, receive forgiveness and gain the right, through the work of Christ, to enter and remain forever in God's heaven.    People who go to heaven recognize that they are not "good." They are convinced of their sins and have repented of them, placing their faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3:36 states, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life."   Heaven, according to the Bible, is a gift and not an achievement. Therefore, repent of your sins and trust alone in the work of Jesus on the cross for you. In this way, you can be assured that you will go to heaven when you die.  Have a good day! 

GOOD MORNING!  DECIDE TO TRUST THE LORD   Solomon counseled his son, in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”   Self-reliance and self-dependence are the bane of humanity. “I did it my way” has ended in disaster for so many people. Solomon, knowing that God alone is trustworthy, taught his son that the way of genuine wisdom and success in life begins with the truly wise decision to trust the Lord with all your heart.   Trusting God with all your heart means making a decision to reject your own understanding, and your own ideas and deciding to trust God's understanding, as stated in His word.   God is in sovereign control over everything. He knows the times and the seasons of your life, so you can trust Him. He sees your life from the perspective of eternity and has perfect knowledge of your beginning and your end. Knowing that God knows, now your only task is to trust Him. Trust in His wisdom, power, providence, control, promises, love, and kindness.   Remember your tendency is to trust yourself—your feelings and your emotions. Your tendency is also to look to other people or your circumstances for your confidence. Your natural tendency is not to trust the Lord.    To change all that, recognize that the Lord is God. Recognize that He is good and that He is working in your life. Believe that He will show you the way you should go.   So make the decision to trust the Lord with all your heart. Decide to honor Him in everything you do and desire. Decide to obey Him. Decide to be led by the Holy Spirit. Decide to trust the Lord as the new pattern and the only standard for all your life’s decisions.   Make the decision to trust the Lord!  Have a good day! 

GOOD MORNING!  THE PURPOSE OF TRIALS   James 1:2-3 exhorts: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”   In a nutshell, James teaches us that we must pass life’s tests with “joy.” “Joy” does not mean throwing a party or laughing out loud about our problems. "Joy" in the face of trials means trusting that God is bringing something good as a result of the tribulation. Like physical exercise, our tribulations bring rewards and produce in us greater spiritual “muscle.” This is the ultimate reason for our joy in trials.   The text does not say that trials are easy or that we are strong enough to handle them. The point is that every trial given to us is intended to take us to higher and more solid ground in life. God uses these trials for the development of our spiritual character.     In Genesis 22, Abraham is put to the test by God Himself. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, for whom he had waited so long, and whom he loved so much. The test was designed to demonstrate whether Abraham loved the Blesser, God, more than the blessing, Isaac. Abraham passed the test. He loved God more.   God did not exempt Jesus, His beloved Son, from trials. The book of Hebrews tells us the details of Christ's sufferings. In Hebrews 2:18, we are reminded: "For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."   The question in the face of trials is always linked to your attitude. Because of the pain that the trial brings, you may give into resentment, anger, and discouragement. Be careful guard your heart and ask the Lord for grace, strength and wisdom. At the same time, face trials with joy and trust in Him, remembering that everything will pass and something good—very good—will come!   Have a good day!