The Father's Care

By Kenneth E. Hagin

John 17:23 says, “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” I want you to notice particularly the expression “ . . .and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” There’s no truth so far-reaching as the blessed fact that our Father God cares for us. John 17:23 says God loves us even as He loves Jesus!

In the Old Testament, God was Jehovah, Elohim, and El Shaddai to Israel. The children of Israel did not know Him as Father. They did not know Him as a Lover. Under the Old Covenant, He didn’t indwell men; He dwelled only in the Holy of Holies. He dealt with the lawbreakers and the disobedient in awful judgment. They were commanded to love and obey Him, or suffer the consequences.

One Year After The Affair

Seven years ago today, everything changed. With four words, I cost my wife, family and so many around me what seemed like everything.

“I’m having an affair.”

With those words, my sin was exposed and life as we knew it came to an end. Over the next two days, God would crush my pride, give me a heart of repentance and lead me to an amazing Christian counselor.

How Father God Feels About You

by Jack Hayford

The story of the prodigal son, recorded in Luke 15, is often called the parable of the Father's heart. Jesus tells it, along with two other stories, not only in response to the seemingly "heart-less" religionists of His day, but also for you and me to know what is the Father's heart toward us.

Jesus tells of a man with two sons, one of whom asked for his inheritance in advance. The father gave it to him, and the son went out and squandered it, ending up in a pig sty. Finally, Scripture says, the young man "came to himself." He recognized the insensibility of the pathway he'd walked and how foolish he'd been to leave home. He returned, humbled, thinking he would ask to be just a servant at his father's place.

WILL CHRISTIANS WHO COMMIT SUICIDE GO TO HEAVEN?

Serge Roux-Levrat

As the number of suicide increases dramatically in the developed countries, both in the traditional sense, as well as in assisted suicide, many Christians are wondering what happens to believers who take their lives. As always, theologians are divided on this key question. However, if we look at it from the only angle we can – that of love and hope – we will find out that the answer is much more obvious than we think.

What to Do When God Seems Slow to Act

Photo by Rebecca Barlow Jordan

Depending on who you talk to, you’ll hear varied opinions on what God is doing in the world today. Is God about to pull the plug on time as we know it? Are the bad guys winning? How do we make the most of our time here on earth? And when God seems slow to act on our behalf, what’s our next step?

Heavy questions. I was reminiscing about a woman named Martha the other day, and this incident prompted my response to one of those questions:


Several years ago I was with a group in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. On a small-scale “Holy Land” tour that same day, we met a woman regaled in biblical garb and walking about in a cool, dark cave.

She introduced herself as the character “Martha,” a keeper of the cave where Jesus was born. She and her retired husband had moved to Eureka Springs, she told us, with nothing but an availability and willingness to serve God. Her voice increased a few decibels with each sentence as she narrated her familiar script.

A Secret Shame

DOUGLAS WEISS, PH.D.

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(© J0sefino/StockFreeImages.com)

Many men struggle with sex addictions. But in the United States today, a growing number of women also are falling prey to pornography and perversion.

Marsha is a 32-year-old woman who appears to have a perfect life. She is the attractive, healthy wife of a successful doctor in town and the mother of a terrific little boy. She began our first counseling session by saying, "I have everything going for me, but I have a problem I am so ashamed of that I can hardly tell you."

Jack Hayford: Developing Christlike Character

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Jack Hayford, founding pastor at The Church On The Way in Van Nuys, Calif. and the founder and chancellor of The King’s College and Seminary, is known for his keen insights on living for Jesus Christ. His seminar at The Cove, "A New Time and Place" will be streamed free of charge Friday at 7:15 p.m. on The Cove's website.

How do you define Christian character?

Hayford: The thing that makes the difference in Christian character is that we are answering to God foremost. Christian character is character lived out in the reverence for and respect for God, as opposed to simply honoring man. The “fear of God” is the biblical terminology for it. The fear of God is the starting place, but what it boils down to is the willingness to die to our own agendas, to die to our own conveniences.

Genuine Christian character involves sacrifice, and that is something that the culture will not require of us. That is something that only faith will bring us to. We are called to be servants—not just honest people, but servants. Jesus cast it in the most severe terms. He said, “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’” (Luke 17:10, NIV).

Shake Yourself Loose From Condemnation

FRANCIS FRANGIPANE


We tend to boast in the power of faith while minimizing the value of hope. Yet, “faith is the substance of things hoped for” (Heb. 11:1). Without first having a living hope in God, our faith is meaningless. Indeed, the first stage of transformation is the awakening of hope.

Yet, even after we come to Christ, we still fail. Often a downward spiral occurs when sin opens the door to condemnation, and condemnation smothers the voice of hope. Consider the story of Israel's conquest of Canaan. The Lord was about to prosper Israel with the wealth of the Canaanites, but only if the spoils of their first battle at Jericho were completely dedicated to God.

From The Eyes of God

Written by Rev. Daniel Forster

Are you feeling overwhelmed by guilt? Let’s work through it together.

“When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.”  But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’” (1 Samuel 16:6-7, ESV)

Have you heard the saying “perception is reality”? I used to believe that but praise God, He has taught me otherwise. All throughout the Bible we are taught that God does not see the same way that we do.

In 1 Samuel, the king Saul has lost the favor and spirit of the Lord our God because of his disobedience and his lack of repentance in his heart. God instructs Samuel the prophet to go to Bethlehem and seek a son of Jesse there. Samuel does not know his name. He has all of Jesse’s sons brought before him as the Lord directs him in which God will anoint as King of Israel. Today’s passage picks up the story when Samuel is looking on the sons of Jesse.

How Father God Feels About You

by Jack Hayford

The story of the prodigal son, recorded in Luke 15, is often called the parable of the Father's heart. Jesus tells it, along with two other stories, not only in response to the seemingly "heart-less" religionists of His day, but also for you and me to know what is the Father's heart toward us.

Jesus tells of a man with two sons, one of whom asked for his inheritance in advance. The father gave it to him, and the son went out and squandered it, ending up in a pig sty. Finally, Scripture says, the young man "came to himself." He recognized the insensibility of the pathway he'd walked and how foolish he'd been to leave home. He returned, humbled, thinking he would ask to be just a servant at his father's place.

"But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry." (Luke 15:20-24)

How God Values You

"You are of more value than many sparrows." - Luke 12:7

Read Ministry Letter Dear Loved One, The people of Jesus' day lived under the brutality of Roman rule,  diminishing their sense of human worth. So Jesus gave the example of little birds that were cheaply bought and sold to help them understand their own value to God. If not one of these relatively insignificant creatures is forgotten by God, He said, then think of the value God places on people. "The very hairs of your head are numbered," He says. There's no way to count the hairs on a person's head without being intimately close and putting your hand upon them. Jesus is telling us, "Father God is that close to you. He knows every detail, and His hand is upon your life."

Fighting Evil or Seeking Good?

Written by John Grant
 Learn how to listen to God 

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

We recently observed the National Day of Prayer, something officially observed in our land since President Truman signed a proclamation in 1952. There were numerous events but for the most part people kept on doing what they normally do with scant observance of the reason for the day. There was not a word about it in my hometown newspaper.

It seems that all to often there is a lackadaisical attitude about prayer, but the Scriptures admonish us to pray. Hebrews (10:22) tells us to draw near. 

Why Does Hell Have to be Forever?

Pastor Colin Smith

"And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Matthew 25:46

Isn't it reasonable that people should experience hell for a time, but then it comes to an end? You're going to be asked this question someday. How are you going to answer it?  

The reason hell goes on forever is because sinners never stop sinning. If you think sinning stops for the sinner at the end of this life, you haven't really understood the Bible's teaching about sin.

What the Bible teaches about sin

People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. They did not repent of their deeds. Revelation 16:10-11