Month: December 2013

We, along with our dedicated staff, wish you a Happy and Blessed New Year in the Lord. It is up to us to be happy, while blessings come from God. Happiness is a state of mind that comes, as we choose not to yield to the negative influences in our lives, but rather choose to rise above those things.

The definition of the word “happy” from the online Webster’s Dictionary is:

1) feeling pleasure and enjoyment because of your life, situation, etc. 2) showing or causing feelings of pleasure and enjoyment 3) pleased or glad about a particular situation, event, etc.

As Christians, we have a helper in us, the Holy Spirit, who gives us the grace and strength to do things which in the natural are impossible. One of those things is we are to find our joy and happiness in Christ that is not subject to our circumstances.  If we think about some of the things that the Bible tells us to do, without God, we could not accomplish them.  As Christians, we are told in the Bible that:

• The highest way to love is to forgive our enemies and those that hate us and despitefully use us. Luke 6:27 “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you”
• The way up in the Kingdom is to go down and humble ourselves to serve others.  Mark 10:44: “And whosoever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant of all.”
• The way to receive is to give. Luke 6:38 “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
• The way to be blessed is to bless others.
• The way out of our troubles is to get into Jesus.
• The way to be forgiven is to forgive others. Matthew 6:14:  “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”
• The way to overcome is to yield to God’s will.
• The way to receive answers to our problems is to pray. Matthew 7:7-8: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

The list could go on, but the point is that we all need Jesus to do the impossible and to receive the impossible things we have need of.  With God all things are possible! If you need a miracle, remember – that is God’s specialty!

Now the first of every year there is talk of making New Year’s resolutions.  This is not a bad thing, but without Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, most resolutions are broken before the month of January is over. Even Paul in the New Testament made this statement:

Romans 7:21-25:

²¹I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. ²²For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: ²³But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? ²⁵I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

From these verses, we see that it is through Jesus Christ our Lord that we will prevail. I have some habits in my own personal life that I would like to change and it reminded me of what I heard a preacher say years ago, “If we want change in our lives, remember that if any changing is to be done it is on our end to do the changing, as God never changes.”

We have to line up with God’s Word, as that is our standard.  As we cry out to God that we are unable to overcome something and invite Him into our life to help us, we will find Him there empowering us to make the changes we desire.

As Christians, I know we would all like to be able to pray more, read the Bible more and do more for God. If that is your desire, in order for this to happen, BibleResources.org is available to help you do this. We have many online helps on the website that can assist you. Below is a list of those helps.

We want thank each of you who have stood with us over the last year.  It was not an easy year for many people, but as Christians, God is with us and we can declare His faithfulness and love that continues to prevail over anything the enemy brings our way. GOD IS GOOD!  We are praying that each of you will find the Lord’s grace and mercy over your lives as He directs you into His perfect will!  We pray that www.BibleResources.org  will be a resource for you to grow in the Word of God and become an overcomer in Christ Jesus! We do not know all the Lord is going to do in 2014, but we are expecting great things to happen for His people for the advancement of the kingdom of God!

We do appreciate all who have written to us or visited the BibleResource.org website.  We also thank each one of you who have donated to our ministry on the Internet. We continue to need your support of your prayers, as well as your financial support.  As we all stand together, we can see the Lord move in the world in greater ways. Click here to DONATE ONLINE.   You can use the address below for mail donations.  Thank you so much and may our Lord reward you greatly for caring.

His grateful servants,
Betty and Bud Miller
Christ Unlimited Ministries
P.O. Box 850
Dewey, AZ  86327

Dear Internet Friends:

We greet you in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ!  We are so thankful that God sent His Son to the earth to save us and every year we have the privilege to celebrate His birth.  We are also thankful to be called to serve the Lord through this Internet ministry.  We have so many pleasant memories of past Christmas gatherings with our family and friends, as we know you must also have.  We long for the more simple days when Christmas was truly a Christian celebration of the Christmas story recorded in the book of Luke in the Bible and not the commercialization and partying that we find today. I believe others are looking for an old fashioned Christmas as well.  Here are some of my personal memories of those times. Perhaps this will help you as you plan your Christmas celebrations.  Perhaps you are already doing these things as well.

An Old Fashioned Christmas

As a child, our Christmas traditions started with our church celebrations.  The weekend before Christmas day, the youth who had been practicing Christmas hymns would meet to go caroling in the neighborhood on Saturday evening.  Earlier in the day, members of the church came together to host a free Christmas meal to all the poor in our neighborhood. There was also a time of ministering and praying for all who had needs. The church had taken a special Christmas offering to help the poor and we found great joy in reaching out to the needy.

The next day we attended church services which revolved around the pastor reading from the Bible about the birth of Jesus. Then we sang all the wonderful Christmas hymns such as Silent Night, Away in a Manager, We Three Kings, and many more that told the story in song of our Savior’s birth. After breaking for lunch, we returned for the evening service which was a live enactment of the nativity scene with all the children dressed like the Bible characters.  I felt really special as a child to play the role of Mary. I never remember sitting in Santa Claus’s lap asking for a gift. After I was saved at 12 years of age, Santa was never included at Christmas.

The Christmas church services were the prelude to Christmas Day which was then spent with family and church friends in our homes around a wonderful home cooked meal, made from scratch, which consisted of the traditional turkey and dressing meal with all the trimmings.  We then gathered around our grandfather and grandmother’s Christmas tree to open the modest gifts we had for one another, which many of them were homemade. It was a wonderful, peaceful and joyous day as we talked and visited with one another. Those old fashioned Christmas seasons still live in our hearts today.

 

Keeping Christ in Christmas

Bud and my prayers for God’s people are that we will not get caught up in the worldly Christmas parties, the endless hours of football games, frenzied shopping and extreme decorating projects to the point that we are exhausted.  God wants us to enjoy our friends and families and take time to focus on the reason for the season which is Jesus.  Christmas should revolve around Jesus, family and friends.

We have noticed that every year the devil attempts to distract people from the celebration of the birth of Jesus.  Shopping for cards this year, it was hard to find a suitable greeting as most of the cards depicted snowmen, Santa, decorated trees, Christmas lights, etc.  In one store there were over 30 boxes of cards and only 2 of them had anything about Jesus.  Also, the greetings were “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” with only one that had “Merry Christmas” on the face of the card.  As Christians we need to offset this by wishing people a “Merry Christmas” and share about Jesus as the Lord leads.

Coming Soon:

 FREE!  A New Devotional Mobil APP God’s Wisdom for Daily Living

Please come to our new website at www.BibleResources.org to hear a special video message from us.  We also will have a free mobile devotional app that you can download from the site ready by the first of the year. It will also be listed in the Apple Mobile App store.   This is our special gift to you. It is a 365 daily devotional that is currently posted on the website that is based on the book of Proverbs and is entitled “God’s Wisdom for Daily Living.”  We all desperately need God’s wisdom in a world that is spinning out of control. The devotional is a five minute read.  We have many testimonies of how this devotional has changed people’s lives and given them the direction they needed for the day.  We do pray for you and appreciate your prayers and support you have given us over the years. We are thankful for good health at our age. May you and your loved ones be blessed in a special way this coming year with health and prosperity.  We pray you have a blessed and Merry Christmas!

Our love and blessings,

Betty and Bud Miller
Christ Unlimited Ministries
http://www.BibleResources.org

The Greatest Gift

The Birthday of The King

By Betty Miller

The Greatest Gift

God is a giver, not a taker. Throughout Scripture, we find evidence of His great generosity towards His creation. From the beginning of time as we know it, when He called forth Creation — when He gave existence to things that had never before existed — we can see the true heart of God. He literally gave of Himself to make each one of us. “The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

The very nature of God is to give, to create, and to bless His creation. Unfortunately, many of us are so self-absorbed and greedy for gain that we do not even have the eyes to see the countless gifts that God has already worked into our lives. Yet, God wants us to be givers too. He created us to be like Him – to pour of ourselves into other people, and to reciprocate His love for us. God created us with the power to be able to give back to Him! When I really stop and think about this, it truly amazes me – that God – the sum of ALL good things, who holds ALL power and authority, would humble Himself in this way.

He didn’t make himself entirely independent of His creation, or set Himself up as a mere casual observer of humankind, though He certainly had the power to do so. Instead, He allowed Himself to love us to the point where our returned love would be a blessing to Him. Each one of us, little and insignificant as we are, has been given the profound gift of the ability to bring joy to the heart of God. It is extremely humbling to me, when I stop and consider that God has thus set the laws of His creation into motion. That the One who is Love personified, would actually be blessed by the love that I could offer Him. This is the greatest gift of all, and it is given to every human being who has ever lived or will live–the ability to give of ourselves to God and to each other. Without this gift, life would be very empty indeed.

Click here to read entire article

Topic: What the Bible Says about Christmas
Related Topics: The Origins of Christmas Traditions; Keeping Christ in Christmas; A Simple Christmas – Review; Christmas Giving – Poem; Unholy Christmas Traditions

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