Sometimes the hardest part of life is not physical, but mental. It is in the mind that the real battlefield of the soul takes place. Our bodies can endure as much as our minds can take. As long as we do not allow our minds to cave in and give up, there is nothing that can come against us to cause us to fail. In our text Paul is on the way to Rome as a prisoner. His ship is lost at see and they wash up on the shores of a small island. This was not part of the plan. The elements came against them and disrupted their plans. God was able to take that unplanned stop at Malta, and use it to His benefit. Paul and his traveling companions did not expect to go to Malta, but Malta needed Paul.

The trip had gone from bad to worse for Paul. He was traveling with people who would not listen to good advice. Once underway, what Paul had predicted would happen did happen. The ship was lost. They washed up on the shore of Malta. While warming themselves by a fire, he is bitten by a snake. A storm, a shipwreck and a snakebite does not sound like a recipe for a revival, but that is in fact what it was. Of all the things that are happening to us, how is God trying to position us for a revival? Could it be that God is just needing a witness that we can survive all these tings and still rejoice in the Lord? Could it be that we are going through all these things because someone needs to see us survive?

What has God already brought us through? If we can make it through those things, we can make it through whatever is in front of us. We have come too far to turn back now. How we handle the storms, shipwrecks and snake bites of life determine our outcome in life. In a storm, we just have to live through it. We can wish it way, but the storm will go on. We simply have to endure. The shipwreck was next. Everything came apart. When the shipwreck happens, grab whatever you can and hold on. God is not going to save us on what was, but he will save us on what is. We can make it with whatever is left. Hang on because we can make it. Now the snakebite. Paul was trying to to make things better. Why would God let the snake bite the man who had his hand to a good work? He was bit because he had busy hands. The devil hates someone who is working to make things better. What do we do with a snake bite? Do what Paul did: shake it off. The snake bite hurts, but we have to move on. Put it in the fire where it belongs. This means that we have to be close enough to a fire to shake it into. There are a lot of things in life that will try to latch on to us and inject it's venom. We have to shake it off and put it in the fire.

What happens in life we may regard as a tragedy. It is not really a tragedy, but a setup for God to do a good work. When it is all falling down and everything seems to be against us, we should be looking ahead for a revival. Three is not tragedy that comes to our life that is nto God's way to bring us to a place for blessing. if we can do this, we can do anything.

Sometimes the hardest part of life is not physical, but mental. It is in the mind that the real battlefield of the soul takes place. Our bodies can endure as much as our minds can take. As long as we do not allow our minds to cave in and give up, there is nothing that can come against us to cause us to fail. In our text Paul is on the way to Rome as a prisoner. His ship is lost at see and they wash up on the shores of a small island. This was not part of the plan. The elements came against them and disrupted their plans. God was able to take that unplanned stop at Malta, and use it to His benefit. Paul and his traveling companions did not expect to go to Malta, but Malta needed Paul.

The trip had gone from bad to worse for Paul. He was traveling with people who would not listen to good advice. Once underway, what Paul had predicted would happen did happen. The ship was lost. They washed up on the shore of Malta. While warming themselves by a fire, he is bitten by a snake. A storm, a shipwreck and a snakebite does not sound like a recipe for a revival, but that is in fact what it was. Of all the things that are happening to us, how is God trying to position us for a revival? Could it be that God is just needing a witness that we can survive all these tings and still rejoice in the Lord? Could it be that we are going through all these things because someone needs to see us survive?

What has God already brought us through? If we can make it through those things, we can make it through whatever is in front of us. We have come too far to turn back now. How we handle the storms, shipwrecks and snake bites of life determine our outcome in life. In a storm, we just have to live through it. We can wish it way, but the storm will go on. We simply have to endure. The shipwreck was next. Everything came apart. When the shipwreck happens, grab whatever you can and hold on. God is not going to save us on what was, but he will save us on what is. We can make it with whatever is left. Hang on because we can make it. Now the snakebite. Paul was trying to to make things better. Why would God let the snake bite the man who had his hand to a good work? He was bit because he had busy hands. The devil hates someone who is working to make things better. What do we do with a snake bite? Do what Paul did: shake it off. The snake bite hurts, but we have to move on. Put it in the fire where it belongs. This means that we have to be close enough to a fire to shake it into. There are a lot of things in life that will try to latch on to us and inject it's venom. We have to shake it off and put it in the fire.

What happens in life we may regard as a tragedy. It is not really a tragedy, but a setup for God to do a good work. When it is all falling down and everything seems to be against us, we should be looking ahead for a revival. Three is not tragedy that comes to our life that is nto God's way to bring us to a place for blessing. if we can do this, we can do anything.

Paul writing to the church at Ephesis talks about the relationship that we can all have with God. Living for God was never intended to be something that was hard to do. The biggest battle we have with living for God is the battle with our own flesh. We are all saved by grace. Some believe that we live by grace. That is not what the bible says, it says we live by faith. Faith is the conviction that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. God wants to bless us, not because we deserve it, but because we are his child. The world believes that the blessings of God to His people represents His grace. That is not grace, but the blessing of being part of the family. Grace is not a license to sin. Grace may have gotten us through the door, but once we go through the door, we are part of the family and walk in faith. God loves us in spite of our shortcomings and blesses us because we part of His family. Along with the privilege of being part of God's family comes great responsibility. Who is really worthy of being part of God's family? The word used in the Greek for worth refers to the market place where goods were weighed on a balance beam. The word means literally to balance. Paul offers advise for maintaining life's balance: lowliness, meekness, long suffering, forbearing.

Paul writing to the church at Ephesis talks about the relationship that we can all have with God. Living for God was never intended to be something that was hard to do. The biggest battle we have with living for God is the battle with our own flesh. We are all saved by grace. Some believe that we live by grace. That is not what the bible says, it says we live by faith. Faith is the conviction that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. God wants to bless us, not because we deserve it, but because we are his child. The world believes that the blessings of God to His people represents His grace. That is not grace, but the blessing of being part of the family. Grace is not a license to sin. Grace may have gotten us through the door, but once we go through the door, we are part of the family and walk in faith. God loves us in spite of our shortcomings and blesses us because we part of His family. Along with the privilege of being part of God's family comes great responsibility. Who is really worthy of being part of God's family? The word used in the Greek for worth refers to the market place where goods were weighed on a balance beam. The word means literally to balance. Paul offers advise for maintaining life's balance: lowliness, meekness, long suffering, forbearing.

When playing a game of cards, we do not choose the cards we receive. Sometimes the cards are good and other times they are not. In some games we can discard and draw new cards; other times we cannot. In some games you have a partner and even though your hand may be bad, theirs can compensate for that disadvantage. In life we face similar circumstances. We have all been dealt things in life. Some times we can change those things. Most often, we have to play the hand we are dealt. We may have not had the best childhood. We may have not been able to go to college. We may have not gotten the job we wanted. Many things that happen to us are not the result of choices we have made, but rather just life. Life happens to everyone. Life happens to good people and bad people. Rain falls on the just and the unjust. No one is exempt to issues that come along in life. It is simply the hand we have been dealt. The experience in life comes down to how we play the hand we are dealt; eternity comes down to how we play the hand we are dealt. God is our partner in the game of life and even if our hand is not great, His hand can compensate for that. God's hand cannot lose.

In our text, Jesus encounters a man in the synagogue with a withered hand. We do not know how he came to be in this condition or for how long. Historians tell us that this man was a mason, and not having the use of his hand was a large obstacle in his life. We know that despite the hand he had been dealt, was in the house of God. He had surly been frustrated by his condition. The bible does not tell us that the man questioned, or argued when Jesus told him to stretch it forth. He did not question or try to explain that he could not. He simply obeyed. God healed him immediately. With God all things are possible. This man entered the house of God with a bad hand, but because of His faithfulness, he left whole.

No matter what we have been dealt in life, Jesus has the cards to compensate for our situation. Jesus is the answer when life deals a bad hand.

When playing a game of cards, we do not choose the cards we receive. Sometimes the cards are good and other times they are not. In some games we can discard and draw new cards; other times we cannot. In some games you have a partner and even though your hand may be bad, theirs can compensate for that disadvantage. In life we face similar circumstances. We have all been dealt things in life. Some times we can change those things. Most often, we have to play the hand we are dealt. We may have not had the best childhood. We may have not been able to go to college. We may have not gotten the job we wanted. Many things that happen to us are not the result of choices we have made, but rather just life. Life happens to everyone. Life happens to good people and bad people. Rain falls on the just and the unjust. No one is exempt to issues that come along in life. It is simply the hand we have been dealt. The experience in life comes down to how we play the hand we are dealt; eternity comes down to how we play the hand we are dealt. God is our partner in the game of life and even if our hand is not great, His hand can compensate for that. God's hand cannot lose.

In our text, Jesus encounters a man in the synagogue with a withered hand. We do not know how he came to be in this condition or for how long. Historians tell us that this man was a mason, and not having the use of his hand was a large obstacle in his life. We know that despite the hand he had been dealt, was in the house of God. He had surly been frustrated by his condition. The bible does not tell us that the man questioned, or argued when Jesus told him to stretch it forth. He did not question or try to explain that he could not. He simply obeyed. God healed him immediately. With God all things are possible. This man entered the house of God with a bad hand, but because of His faithfulness, he left whole.

No matter what we have been dealt in life, Jesus has the cards to compensate for our situation. Jesus is the answer when life deals a bad hand.

Sis. Melissa Fross comes tonight to tell us about her work as a Metro Missionary to Quebec City in Quebec Canada. Metro Missions is a project to send missionaries into metropolitan areas that have few or no Pentacostal churches. Quebec City is a city of 900,000 people and there are no apostolic, spirit filled churches…yet.

Sis Fross goes on to teach from the book of Joshua and Judges that God wants us on offense. Using a clever football analogy, Sis Fross demonstrates how the children of Israel went from being on offense to subliming to the defense simply by not dealing with the resistance. God wants us to stay on offense.

For more information about the Metro Missions: Quebec City, visit the page on Facebook and consider contributing to this work.

https://www.facebook.com/metromissionsquebeccity/?fref=ts

Sis. Melissa Fross comes tonight to tell us about her work as a Metro Missionary to Quebec City in Quebec Canada. Metro Missions is a project to send missionaries into metropolitan areas that have few or no Pentacostal churches. Quebec City is a city of 900,000 people and there are no apostolic, spirit filled churches…yet.

Sis Fross goes on to teach from the book of Joshua and Judges that God wants us on offense. Using a clever football analogy, Sis Fross demonstrates how the children of Israel went from being on offense to subliming to the defense simply by not dealing with the resistance. God wants us to stay on offense.

For more information about the Metro Missions: Quebec City, visit the page on Facebook and consider contributing to this work.

https://www.facebook.com/metromissionsquebeccity/?fref=ts

Our text concerns an event early in the Davids reign as King. The city of Jebus was one of the great strongholds of Canaan. It was an extremely powerful, almost impregnable city. The Jebusites had held the city since before Israel came to the land of Canaan. The city is situated between three mountains. The natural surroundings worked to the advantage of he security of the city. They had great confidence in their security. Even though Israel had taken most of the land, they were not able to take Jebus. David sought to take it for Israel. The inhabitants of the city were so confident that they would win that they began to taunt and jeer. They were so arrogant, that they left the security of the city to the lame and the blind to mock David. The bible tells us that David came on anyway. Scholars to this day cannot explain how David accomplished it, but the city fell to him. The enemy of our soul will mock us in the same way. The devil is counting on the fact that we will believe that becoming what God wants for us to be will be too much and we will give up. When faced with these challenges, we must be like David and do it anyway. The devil has so entrenched himself in life and has become so arrogant that he tells us "You will never overcome this" ; "You can't recover from this." We need to rise up and praise God anyway. If the devil is telling us that we can't it is a good indication that we CAN because the devil is not going to waste his time telling us that we cannot do something that we can't. He knows that we can live for God. He knows that God will forgive. He knows that God will see us through. That is why he tells us that we can't. We have to do it anyway.

Our text concerns an event early in the Davids reign as King. The city of Jebus was one of the great strongholds of Canaan. It was an extremely powerful, almost impregnable city. The Jebusites had held the city since before Israel came to the land of Canaan. The city is situated between three mountains. The natural surroundings worked to the advantage of he security of the city. They had great confidence in their security. Even though Israel had taken most of the land, they were not able to take Jebus. David sought to take it for Israel. The inhabitants of the city were so confident that they would win that they began to taunt and jeer. They were so arrogant, that they left the security of the city to the lame and the blind to mock David. The bible tells us that David came on anyway. Scholars to this day cannot explain how David accomplished it, but the city fell to him. The enemy of our soul will mock us in the same way. The devil is counting on the fact that we will believe that becoming what God wants for us to be will be too much and we will give up. When faced with these challenges, we must be like David and do it anyway. The devil has so entrenched himself in life and has become so arrogant that he tells us "You will never overcome this" ; "You can't recover from this." We need to rise up and praise God anyway. If the devil is telling us that we can't it is a good indication that we CAN because the devil is not going to waste his time telling us that we cannot do something that we can't. He knows that we can live for God. He knows that God will forgive. He knows that God will see us through. That is why he tells us that we can't. We have to do it anyway.