A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (April 13,2018)
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)
Now, you may think that the title to our devotion today is silly and outrageous. Of course being happy is not a sin, but some religious people think otherwise.
One of the things that we do at New Life Network is to assist Joyce Meyer Ministries with people that are looking for a good local church. We have done that for over twenty years and her ministry refers an average of 5-6000 people each year for us to assist with this task. Many times this results in praying and counseling with people. These people are mostly from the United States and Canada but some are from other countries like the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, Australia, and India. It is amazing what some of these people have been taught to believe.
This week we received an email from a lady in the United States that went to a Christian school as a young person. She was taught in the fifth grade that being happy was a sin. She took that teaching in as truth and it negatively affected her entire life. It wasn’t until she started listening to Joyce Meyer’s teachings, and reading the Bible, that she realized she had believed a lie all these years. This one lie had resulted in depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and a lot of visits and money spent on psych doctors to no avail.
It is important for all of us to realize that it is the truth that will set us free. Doctors are good in some situations, but in others they are useless. It is imperative that you read the Word of God and know Jesus for yourself. God wants you to be happy, not sad. He wants you to prosper and be in health, not poor and diseased. He wants you to be full of hope and not despair. There is nothing holy about living in poverty and being constantly reminded of what a wretched person you are.
We still have many churches today that teach and concentrate on sin consciousness. We don’t recommend those churches. We recommend churches that teach righteousness consciousness. Yes, we have all fallen short of the glory of God, but we do not have to stay there. You will never hear Jesus describe any of us as worms. He has a plan for your life. We do not have to stay down. Once you grab hold of the truth about how God sees you then you can walk out of all those low places.
God called us to be the head and not the tail. All we have to do is believe. Believe Jesus is who the Word of God says He is. Believe that His plan for you is for good and not for evil, to give you hope. Believe that Jesus came to preach Good News to the poor. Don’t accept the lies of the enemy which always puts you down and tries to keep you down. Don’t believe the lies of some religion that constantly reminds you of how rotten you are. There is no hope in that. God wants to set you free. He wants to take you higher than you ever thought possible. You just have to believe!!!
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:5-6)
