Why don’t we as Christians be as persistent to read our Bible, pray, and determine to walk in the truth we know as this bear was in trying to get to his prize. Our prize is much greater than just a temporary bit of satisfaction that will not last for long before we need to find something else.

Proverbs 3: 1-8

My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:

For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

Read and study the above verses carefully, because they have an awesome message. You won’t regret giving up doing things your way and letting God show you the right path. No, you won’t always be able to see the end result from the beginning of the path, but God wants you to get to the point where you trust Him so much that you have no doubt He is leading you in the right direction.

When the people of Israel were in the wilderness after they had left Egypt, God sent them a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to show them He was always there to protect and guide them. He wanted them to come to the place of total obedience on Him to carry out His plans. When the cloud started to move, they were to break camp and follow it until it stopped, only then making camp again.

God knew where He was taking them, and had better much things in store than what they had in Egypt even though they couldn’t see them at the time. All they had to do was follow, and eventually they would come to the land of Canaan, the ultimate place of peace and refuge God had in mind for them.

Don’t let the fact that you can’t always see the end keep you from following God’s leadership even if it looks like you might be walking over some rocky, steep terrain.

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When God tells you to do something it might not be easy, but if you trust Him He will give you everything you need to attain the victory. He will bring to pass what He has already promised to do.

Don’t ever let others talk you into giving up on something God has already promised the victory for. You can’t see through His eyes, so believe in faith that He will bring it to pass when the time is right. Turn a deaf ear to any criticism that might keep you from getting God’s Best.

THE FROG WHO WOULD NOT GIVE UP

Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a running competition.  The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.

A big crowd gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants.  The race began but no one in the crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. You heard statements such as:

“Oh, WAY too difficult!!”
“They will NEVER make it to the top.”
“Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!”

The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one, except for those who, in a fresh tempo, were climbing higher and higher.

The crowd continued to yell, “It is too difficult!!!  No one will make it!”

More tiny frogs got tired and gave up. But one continued higher and higher and higher.  He just wouldn’t give up!

At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!

All of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it.  A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal.

It turned out that the winner was deaf.

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1. A Good Story of God’s Grace

When there was a fire many years ago in the little town of Delft, in Holland, it occurred in a house upon the top of which a stork’s nest had been built. Now, the storks are very affectionate to their young, and it was observed that as the flames went up, the storks tried first of all to carry off their young, but when that could not be done, both parents kept flapping their nests with their wings, as though to cool the young ones, and when the flames drew nearer, both parents set themselves down over the top of the nest and there died with their young ones. Can it be possible that our God could have less affection for his own children than these poor birds had for the offspring of their nest? Impossible! He will cover us with his feathers, and under his wings will we trust; his truth shall be our shield and buckler.

From a Charles C Spurgeon sermon entitled “Heart’s-Ease,” delivered August 27, 1865.

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1. A Story – God Answers the Prayer of a Righteous Person even Years Later
2. A Story – God Protects Us In Ways We Could Never Imagine!
3. A Good Story of God’s Grace

The ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That’s two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house.

Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold. A contractor by trade, Huibers built the ark of cedar and pine. Biblical scholars debate exactly what the wood used by Noah would have been. Huibers did the work mostly with his own hands, using modern tools and with occasional help from his son Roy.

Huibers, a Christian man, said he hopes the project will renew interest in Christianity in the Netherlands, where church going has fallen dramatically in the past 50 years.

Mr Huibers spent nearly two years building the ark. He began building in May 2005, after he dreamed of the Netherlands being flooded.

“In February 1992, I had a dream that Holland will become flooded. The next day, I found a book about Noah’s Ark in the local bookshop, and since then, my dream has been to build the ark,” he said.

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Many times we don’t realize that it is controlling us until it is almost too late.

Sin Crouches at the Doggie Door
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Victoria_Day]Victoria Day

My husband and I have been watching, for several months now, a little bird who has found a treasure chest of easily available dinners (our dog’s dry food) on the floor in the middle of our kitchen. He found he was able to jump through the doggie door, snatch his prize, and easily make his escape without notice.

In the beginning, the little bird was very much aware that this was the home of two humans and three dogs – dogs that have had many a fine feathered meal, and he would wait until the house was quiet and the danger less. Recently, however, there has been a change. The little bird seems to have grown “accustomed to our faces.” He has been becoming bolder – flying around our house with abandon, landing on counters, hopping on the floor and snatching a morsel right in front of our view. Recently, he has even been bold enough to land on both of us while we slept! One night, I thought a mouse was running across my back! The bird is losing his fear of us and is enjoying his easy meals – but is this wise?

Our dogs, who have thus far tolerated this aviary intrusion, are still his biggest threat. I dread the day when I awake to find nothing left of this bird but a few feathers near the food dish. If the bird continues as he is, it is inevitable. Just as it is the law of nature that the dogs will eventually devour the trusting little bird, it is the law of God that sin will devour us if we allow ourselves to be seduced by it. Sin is a snare that always awaits opportunity.

“If you do well, will not {your countenance} be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Genesis 4:7

Sin crouches at the doggie door. It gives us the false impression that we can taste its fruit without fear and emboldens us to pursue it, even in the presence of the dogs! Sin is the great seducer and the great destroyer.

CHRISTIAN! Are you stealing bites out of the doggie dish? Are you sneaking in through the doggie door to satisfy your appetite for worldly pleasure? Have you succumbed to the lust of the flesh? Has your familiarity with the ways of the world seduced you into living an immoral lifestyle? Has an addiction kept you in bondage? Do you find it easy to lie, gossip, steal and justify these things?

Like the bird, we begin with caution, but as we continue to eat stolen morsels of worldly pleasures and participate in the sins of the world even under the watchful eyes of the dogs, our boldness increases. We fly freely in territory that poses a great threat to our spiritual well being. We ignore the consequences of our disobedience and care little for upholding our testimony before men. The world, covered in darkness, desperately seeks to find Christ in us.

Because it seems like we are temporarily getting away with our sin, we feel safe. But just as the bird began to feel confident that he could enter the house of his enemies and partake of their food without harm, sin can seduce us into a false sense of security. If we become too comfortable with it and eat the food of dogs, we will inevitably find ourselves the food of devils and pay the consequences for our own disobedience and lack of control.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

Victoria Day is an accomplished artist and writer residing in Southern Arizona.

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1. Have you ever been mesmerized by sin?

Satan anxiously awaits those times. He knows that you are vulnerable if you do not have on the full armor of God for protection.

Ephesians 5: 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Ephesians 5: 14 – 18 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

The Pit Bull in the picture below obviously thought that since he was much bigger he would have no trouble going up against a porcupine, who was much smaller. He got a huge surprise, though.

A vet had to sedate the dog to remove a total of 1,347 quills, but he survived. I’ll bet he won’t go near a porcupine again.

Will we as Christians learn the importance of never being without our armor securely in place? You might think you are bigger than that small sin, but it can surely come back to bite you in the long run. Satan is very patient and bides his time, waiting for that perfect opening. When it comes, he pounces and sometimes we don’t even know what hit us.

Determine each day that you will proudly put on your armor. Let God help you win the battles of your life. There is nothing that He doesn’t care about that concerns you. Don’t try to overcome sin in the flesh just because it seems small and insignificant.

Like the dog realized, just because you are bigger doesn’t mean you will always win. Don’t let Satan hinder you from doing God’s work by sticking you all over with quills so that you can’t see and think straight.

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They have 5 cats and 2 dogs that are a part of their household. This post is about Little Bit. She just came into their yard one day when she was a tiny kitten. She was terrified of everyone and everything and for a few days they really didn’t know what she was. All they could see was a flash running to hide when they came near.

They had to put out her food and hide to watch her eat, and it took several weeks for her to come near them. Gradually she started to be more friendly, but never got to the point where she would jump into their lap and love on them like most cats would. They could let her in the house for awhile and pet her, though. She still does not like to be around strangers.

In time, she became more comfortable around all the other cats and dogs and started to fit into everyday life. She played, slept, and liked to hunt mice.

The ‘liking to hunt mice’ is what got her into trouble.

On January 21, 2008 she was out hunting for mice. She climbed up into a trailer to catch one that she heard running around. The bad thing about doing that was there is a boat on it that is turned upside down and covered with a tarp for protection from the weather. The boat was hanging off the edge of the trailer just enough that she could climb inside to go after the mouse.

The seat is made so that you can lift it up for storage inside. Since the boat was upside down, the top of the seat had swung open. Little Bit could push through it to get to the mouse, but when she tried to get out it wouldn’t swing back the other way.

It had been covered tightly with a tarp and even had stakes driven in the ground so it could not blow off.

Now back to Milton and Earleen – they always look for all the cats every night to make sure they are back at the house. Two of them stay inside, but the other 3 stay out during the day and sleep on the back porch at night.

Little Bit had not come up by dark, so they looked and called for her until late in the night. They even walked through the woods around the house, but never found her. They were both extremely upset. In the days that followed, Earleen thought she heard her several times, but because the tarp was over the boat, her cry was muffled and she thought it was coming from somewhere down in the woods. She would walk all over the woods, but never found her.

Naturally, they started praying for her right from the start. At first they prayed to find her; then as the days rolled on they prayed that if she was alive God would protect her and if not, that they might somehow find her in order to bury her. They thought that maybe some coyotes or wild dogs had attacked her in the woods, but they just wanted to have closure.

They prayed numerous times every day for the whole time she was gone, knowing that God cares when they hurt and that everything that is important to them is also important to Him.

On the 20th day of the absence of Little Bit, Milton was working outside and heard her faint cry as he passed by the boat. He got very excited and quickly called Earleen. They uncovered the boat and out shot Little Bit like a bullet. She had lived 20 days in almost complete darkness without any food or water. She had also lived in maybe a 4 feet by 3 feet space for all that time. This is where she was trapped:

She was trapped on this end of the boat. The trailer has three sides, and the boat was just slipped onto the trailer.

She climbed into the boat here and couldn’t get out. I wonder if she has nightmares after that ordeal. I’m just glad the tarp didn’t completely cover the whole boat and trailer, but I think God had to take care of giving her enough air to last for 20 days.

She had been a “fat cat” before she went after the mouse. Now she was extremely skinny but seemed to be alive and well, and ate a huge meal.

It is a true miracle that a cat lived 20 days with no water at all and still had the energy to run out from under the boat. She knows that Milton and Earleen saved her and now she lets them pick her up, hold her, and love on her.

They know that God answered their prayers and protected the cat that they love. They were also excited to tell all their friends about the wonderful thing that had happened, and they gave him all the glory.

God truly wants to bless His children and He always wants the very best for them.

To me, this story is a very good example of Who God Is. He is not just waiting for His Children to do wrong so that He can ZAP! them to keep them in line. He truly wants to give them His Very Best.

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