Month: November 2013

Overcoming Worry & Stress with Thanksgiving

By Betty Miller

Thanking and blessing God in spite of our circumstances.

There are times when we all face incredibly difficult circumstances that have an awesome power to destroy us. The best way to counteract stress in those times is to begin to praise God and thank Him for His countless blessings in our lives in other areas. The old adage “count your blessings” really is true. In spite of everything, there are so many blessings woven throughout our lives that many of us do not even have the eyes to see them. Even if your situation seems hopeless, God is still worthy of all your praise. God delights in a heart that will praise Him no matter what the bankbook says, our family says, our time schedule says, or any other circumstance that would try to exalt itself against the knowledge of God. As we praise and bless the name of the Most High, everything else in this world begins to pale and fade away against the sheer loveliness of who He is.

Think of Paul and Silas, feet bound in stocks in a dark prison with a jailer standing guard over them (Acts 16:22-40). They had just been severely flogged, ridiculed and attacked by a huge crowd of people. Instead of fearing for their lives, or becoming angry at God, they began to praise Him, singing out loud, in spite of who might hear or judge them. As they began to praise Him, their hearts were soon overflowing with the joy of the Lord. The song of those two men who loved God more than life itself began to flow through them like a river of liquid love into their cell and out into the entire prison. Soon, there was a flood of warm light bathing the whole place. Every demon there began to flee in utter terror of that praise and love to the Most High. Suddenly, an amazing thing happened. A violent earthquake shook the prison, the doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose! Praise God! Praise always brings freedom, not only for ourselves, but for those around us who are bound up as well.

We must get our mind off of ourselves and the problems we face and onto the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. One of the miracles of a life transformed by God is that we can be thankful always, and praise Him in all situations. This is what He commands us to do, for He knows better than we do that the joy of the Lord is our strength. The Lord does not ask us to praise Him for the evil things in our lives, because He does not send evil into our lives, the devil does.  But rather we are to keep a thankful and praising heart in the midst of our troubles just as Paul and Silas did.   God has made a way to bring us victory and bless us with every good thing, so is that not a reason for celebration and thanksgiving?

The full article can be read at this link:  What the Bible Says about Stress? http://bibleresources.org/Stress

Dear Internet Friends:

We are so thankful to God for the opportunity to serve the Lord in the Internet Ministry at www.BibleResources.org . The greatest blessing of this ministry has been to communicate with so many people around the world and you are among them. We want you to know how much we appreciate your love, prayers and support over the years. We are thankful to God for you and have included a special Thanksgiving prayer below just for you.

If you are like us, we get more mail this season of the year from friends, family, marketers and ministries and it becomes a challenge to be able to process, read and pray over it all, as to what our response should be. Personally we are unable to answer all of our mail, but we do pray for all who come to our website and contact us.

As to hearing from friends and family, those letters are always a joy, as we are really blessed to know what is going on in your lives.  Receiving the sales letters and a ton of catalogs can be an answer to a gift purchase or a temptation to overspend on our Christmas list.

Then come the letters requesting donations as there are so many needs in the world today.  Requests for donations to worthy causes should be considered, as Christians, we are all called to give. However, where we give is a very important matter, as God wants us to support the ministries and works that are making a difference in the world and that are commissioned by Him.

God has been using Christ Unlimited Ministries in a literature ministry on the new BibleResource.org website.  We have received so many testimonies of how the Lord has used a Bible Answer or a daily devotional to change someone’s life.  The Lord has used our article on “What Does the Bible Say about Suicide?” to literally save lives by preventing people from killing themselves after reading it.

Free Devotional Mobile App Coming Soon

Our latest projects that are almost complete will be the offer of a free devotional mobile app and our launching of the online video ministry on the website. We are also nearing the completion of being able to post the Spanish version of the Overcoming Life Series online. We have had so many requests for a downloadable version of the God’s Wisdom for Daily Living devotional and we will now be able to offer it before the first of the New Year. Please pray with us as we press to finalize these projects.  We just got our new mobile app approved from Apple today.  Praise God!

We were able to do these things because of your prayers and support. Would you consider continuing to support us, or begin to do so, in order that we can communicate with you more frequently and reach out in a greater way?

Ultimately, we must seek God as to which place He is asking us to send our gifts and donations.  We have always walked by faith in regard to the provision we need in the ministry and will continue to do so.   We only ask that you seek God and ask him if you are to help us, as we reach out to a hungry and hurting world that needs Jesus to touch them and the Bible to teach them.   We are his willing servants and will stay on the front lines as long as the Lord enables us to do so.  Thank you so much.

Special Prayer for our Internet Friends:

“Dear Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for the reader of this letter, as we want to bless them with a special prayer during this season. Father, we live in troublous times that were predicted in the Bible so many people are feeling hurt and pain.   Lord, give my brothers and sisters your wisdom and direction at this time. Let them hear your voice in regard to the decisions they need to make. Keep them from deception. Precious Lord, may they have Your clarity in the midst of so much confusion in the world.  Lord, lift them above the pressures of this world into a place of perfect peace. You told us in the Bible that “in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” 

Father, Bud and I believe that you are the Christ Unlimited so there is no problem that you are unable to solve, no fears that you cannot remove, no disease that you cannot cure, no provision that you cannot provide, no relationship that you cannot heal and no hopeless situation that cannot be overcome by YOU, our unlimited God! Father, most of all may this reader, feel Your love and concern for them and know that they are not alone and that you will hear and answer their personal prayers as they turn to you right now in faith.   Amen.”   God bless you.

His grateful servants,

Betty and Bud Miller

From Pastors Bud and Betty Miller

Dear Internet Friends:

We wish you a wonderful New Year in the Lord. Many people are wondering how any of us will be able to see happy and blessed times because of so much violence in our nations, climate disasters, drought and famine, conflicts and wars, along with so many unstable economic forecasts. So as Christians, what are we to do in the midst of the many trials and tribulations? As I was praying on this New Year’s day, the Lord brought to my heart and mind the scripture above from Lamentations and also this one:

John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have Overcome the world.

From these two scriptures we see that — yes, we will experience tribulation of some sort in this world, but the assurance from the Words spoken by Jesus is that we are to be of good cheer, because He (Jesus) has overcome the world and offers us the promise of peace. While inLamentations we read that every new day (not just New Year’s Day) we are offered mercy and compassion when we are in trouble or when we fail God. Even when we fail Him, He is ever faithful to forgive us when we come to Him and ask Him for forgiveness because He is compassionate and merciful. How wonderful it is to serve such a kind God.

He will help us to overcome the weakness and sin that besets us if we seek Him with our whole heart. There is nothing impossible for Him and nothing that He cannot fix, even if our lives are shattered into millions of pieces. He has proven Himself faithful to His own children down through the ages and He will not fail us as we approach the end of this age no matter how ominous things look. Jesus Christ is coming soon as we can see the signs now that are foretold in Matthew 24.

Word for 2013 – Get Back to the Basics

I felt the Lord impressed upon me what His people needed to do this coming year. I got the words – “Get back to the basics.” That might sound rather simplified, but we could all benefit by

1. getting back to the basics of a strong prayer life
2. time spent in studying the Bible
3. and time spent in strengthening our relationships with one another.

Develop a Strong Prayer Life

This is the time to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord and we are going to need to be able to hear God and that is done by listening to Him in prayer (proximity has to do with hearing Him). In the natural, the closer you are to someone, the easier it is to hear what they are saying. The further away we are from someone, the harder it is to hear them. I personally do not want God to have to shout at me.

Read and Study the Bible

We must feed on the Word of God which is like eating organic, nutritious food for physical sustenance, as opposed to eating junk food. You can eat the junk of this world that comes through TV and the Internet and other contaminated sources and soon it will affect your spiritual health, just like the consuming of bad foods and drink in your diet will make you sick. Speaking of food, many people are hearing God to plant gardens and to store up some emergency food. We must individually listen as to what the Lord wants us to do. However, just in the natural, I personally think it would be prudent to have some emergency stores put up, in light of the judgments now coming in the world. Just remember the Lord has a plan for taking care of His people. We must listen and prepare as the Lord speaks to each of us. If you have no way to prepare, remember God fed millions of His people in the wilderness with manna so He has a way to take care of His people. Just stay close to Him if you cannot prepare in the natural so you can hear Him speak to you. He also multiplied food in the Bible. Let us not limit Him, but let us be wise.

Develop and Strengthen Your God Ordained Relationships

Spend quality time with your family and friends. We are going to need one another in the hard times just ahead. We need to strengthen our relationships in the love of God. We need to be where the Lord has spoken to us to be in regard to our job, our church and our geographic location. Do not be fearful to step out in faith and allow God to open a door for a move if that is what He is speaking to you to do. He will go ahead of you and make the way and give you favor.

Our call is to furnish people with the Word of God and teachings online at BibleResources.org so that they can become overcomers. Please pray for us as we continue to develop this website. We are now doing the preparation work for starting our online video ministry. We are behind our schedule in this task, but we are trusting the Lord to help us get this launched as soon as possible. We finally got all the equipment in and are now preparing the video chapel to get it all set up. We do appreciate your support and help. We do pray for all of our givers and prayer warriors daily.

May you hear God clearly and be graced to obey Him in all He tells you to do. We bless you in the coming New Year!

His grateful servants,
Bud and Betty Miller
Christ Unlimited Ministries
BibleResources.org

by Betty Miller

In our high-tech age, we are bombarded from every quarter to give our attention to something. Everyone has a message or a product they are promoting, and many of them are good and beneficial to humanity. However, one of the things I found myself praying about over the year-end holidays was for the Lord to show me my priorities, as I only have so much time and energy. I want to stay focused on the things the Lord feels are the most important things for me to accomplish at this particular time in my life.

What led me to pray this prayer was that my husband and I took a short sabbatical between Christmas and New Year’s this year and I faced the dilemma as to what I should do with this time. My “Things To Do” list was quite lengthy and included personal, business and ministry projects that were all screaming for my attention. Since I wear a number of hats, (as I am sure many of you also do), it is not always easy to know which thing is the most important for me to do at any particular time.

I found the list of priorities in the Bible: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)

The Lord has my heart, soul and mind, as that commitment was made long ago; but how can I love Him more with all of my strength? As Christians, we must all give an account of how we spend our time and energy, as well as our money. According to the above verse, God comes first above all others, which means I need to first give Him my time in prayer, meditation and the reading of the Word. As I do this, He will lead me by the Spirit as to what I am to do daily, and I will then know how to love others properly. This also means that I must give him the first-fruits of my money, since money represents the energy and time we spend in labor (our strength).

The freedom to make our own choices is a very important issue in our society. Every day, each of us chooses to do the things that we do, unless we are in a situation where we have been stripped of our freedom and then we must do as those who have control over us command us to do. This would be the case of those in prison or those who are enslaved by force in repressive societies. Even in these circumstances one still has freedom to make certain choices although they may be limited. For example, one can choose as to what kind of attitude and response one would have to his or her oppressors. Those in prisons can still experience freedom when they have Christ, because true freedom is an act of the soul and therefore we each can make choices in our soul. Other men cannot force us to think wrongly unless we choose to agree with them.

There are other circumstances that can limit our choices because of the authority that exists in the world. One of these would be the choices of school children that are limited to the authorities? decisions and rules. This is also true of the military. These are just two of many circumstances that can limit one?s own personal choices.

However, no matter what our choices are today, they are ultimately creating our future because every choice that we make will either cause us to be blessed or cursed. Another way to put it, is that things will get better or worse for us. All choices have consequences. These consequences will be for our betterment or will work to destroy us. We are also responsible for our choices. The Bible challenges us with this admonition in Deuteronomy 30:19, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”

Messages going forth in our society today have stressed our “right to choose” but have not balanced it with the message that our choices also have consequences (especially in the area of lust and selfishness.) For instance, most movies have glamorized many things that are bad for us and have not generally shown the destructive results of smoking, drinking, adultery, fornication, gambling, abortion, etc.

(For the complete article go to http://bibleresources.org/choices/)