Inspirational Video Moment: Have a Prayer Answered

Mondays are Inspirational Video Moment days at 

New Life Today Blog.  

Visit us every Monday to view the 

new Video of the Week.

ARAND Video Services

Humble Yourself

This prayer was written by Joyce Adejumo of Mitchie's Gallery in Austin, TX.

Father in Heaven, I humbly come

before you - surrendering all I am.

Thank You for loving me as I am.

Thank You  for the many gifts and miracles You have given me throughout my life.

Thank You for sheltering me and protecting me from harm.

Thank You for carrying me when I did not

have the strength to carry myself. Thank You for

granting me wisdom and knowledge to complete the

tasks You for predestined for me.

Thank You that no one can take from me what You has claimed is mine.

Father, keep me close to You and watch over me as I

submit every aspect of life to You.

In Jesus' Name.

Amen.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

James 4:10

English Standard Version (ESV)

When the Soul Bleeds by Sharon Jaynes

When the Soul Bleeds
Sharon Jaynes

Today's Truth

[Jesus said] "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering" (Mark 5:31-34 NIV).

Friend to Friend

When we read the story of Jesus healing the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years, it is hard for us twenty-first century women to imagine such a condition lasting for so long. Medical science has progressed far beyond the rudimentary knowledge of Jesus' day. It is simply unthinkable today.

Graphic Credit:
http://www.jeremiah-2911.com/2011/07/women-of-bible-woman-with-issue-of.html

But I suggest there are still many women with chronic bleeding of a different sort. We bleed from the heart.

From the time Sarah was six-years-old, her father crept into her bedroom in the dark of night and violated her little body. Now, as an adult, her heart bleeds.

When Beth was walking to her dorm room from the college library, a lurker jumped from behind the bushes, dragged her to a nearby shed and raped her at knife-point. Now, ten years later, her heart bleeds.

After twenty-years of marriage, Lucy accidentally stumbled upon an in-town hotel receipt in her husband's wallet. Suspecting the worse, she uncovered past e-mails, supposed meetings that never occurred and a trail of deceit. When presented with the evidence, her husband admitted to having a three-year long affair. And her heart bleeds.

Laura was laid off from her job and her mother's words re-emerge like sewage leakage from an underground septic tank. "You're no good. You'll never amount to anything. You're a loser just like your father." And because of the lies, her heart bleeds.

Melissa holds her newborn little girl in her arms and coos her to sleep. Interrupting the sweetness of the wee hours of the morning, she hears her aborted child crying from the grave. Guilt presses down as the ever-present weight deflates her joy. And her heart bleeds.

Women - hoping the pain will go away. Awakening each day with a memory that cuts a fresh wound. Women-longing to hear the words, "Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

The woman with the issue of blood was no different from you and me. While her apparent illness was physical, her inward suffering ruled her life. She had lost her family, all her money, and her standing in the community. She was viewed as an unclean, untouchable outcast. But in one radical moment, one momentous decision, she reached out to Jesus and grabbed hold of her healing.

He wants to set you free from your suffering, but he will not push you out of the jail cell or yank the chains off your neck. He unlocks the door, but you must walk out the door. He unlocks the chain, but you must stop wearing them around your neck.

Graphic Credit:
http://cccooperagency.wordpress.com/
2012/03/16/what-are-you-looking-at/ 

We can choose to bleed. We can choose to remain in our suffering and pick at the scabs of the past. But hear me dear friend, it is a choice. Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life and have it to the full" (John 10:10). That's what he wants for each of us. But we have to embrace the truth and, like the woman with the twelve-year-bleeding, reach for our healing.

In John, chapter five, Jesus 
encounters a lame man sitting by a pool of water where the paralyzed, blind, and afflicted gathered. Then Jesus walked up to him and asked a strange question, "Do you want to get well?" (John 5:6b).

Perhaps it wasn't such a strange question. Many times we get used to being emotionally sick, and we wear the sickness like a shroud. We become walking wounded, picking at emotional scabs – not allowing them to heal.

Jesus said to the woman, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering." That is the same healing he offers to you and to me. What will you do?

Let's Pray

Dear God, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I reach forward today, touch the hem of Your garment, and receive my healing. Yes, I want to get well. Give me the faith to walk in freedom and victory.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen.

Now It's Your Turn

Is there pain in your life that you have refused to let go of?

Do you want to get well?

That is a risky question. It took a lot for the man who had been lying by the pool to get up off that pallet. He had to learn how to walk, get a job, and learn to live like a healthy person. That's a big change after 38 years. But you can do it! You can let go of the past and begin to live in victory and freedom! Let's start today!

If you are ready to reach out to Jesus and grab a hold of your healing, log ontowww.facebook.com/sharonjaynes and say, "I'm grabbing hold."

Re-posted by permission from Sharon Jaynes' blog at www.sharonjaynes.com

Today's devotion was taken from my book, What God Really Thinks about Women: Finding Your Significance through the Women Jesus Encountered.We tend to read the gospels with our twenty-first century eyes. But when we understand how oppressive the culture Jesus stepped into was against women, we begin to understand just how radical Jesus' ministry, messages, and miracles were at setting women free. He risked His reputation to save theirs…and yours.

1 Peter 4:11-13 

(New International Version) 

¹¹ If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Suffering for Being a Christian

¹² Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³ But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

Second Chance to Be Made New -Testimony Tuesday

Second Chance to Be Made New

by Marijo Phelps 

There have been several “second chance” moments in my life. 

Remembering back to those days when we lived for the weekends…. Drinking, playing poker, having bar-b-ques, smoking dope, dancing, baking brownies…. It seemed like fun until we got pulled over by the cops for erratic driving or were in the bathroom lying prone of the floor waiting to throw up yet again. I think the only reason I missed going to jail was because they had no matron on duty that night. I wasn’t driving the car but had passed out in the back seat and Jim was driving only he passed out in the front seat – in the fog on a major California highway. We could have been hit by a semi and killed but fortunately the highway patrol were the ones who saw us and had each of us “walk the line”. I think we both flunked. Jim got a night in the hoosegow and I drove the car home with two policemen following me, in the fog, as I proceeded to run a stop sign but managed to make it home and the officers helped me to my front door.
On that foggy night the party we’d been to didn’t seem so much fun but that didn’t stop me the next time. It was actually a number of years…. The second chance part comes later.

Graphic Credit:  my2ndheartbeat.wordpress.com

The next second chance I had involved relationships and doing it right. I certainly didn’t do it right BEFORE. My ex husband and I lived together two years before we finally got married. I was gun shy having been married once before. I messed up that first marriage royally. The divorce was my choice and my fault. The only reason I ended up getting married the second time was because I had asked for and been granted a month vacation in August – during “prime vacation time” only because we were getting married. I had wanted to change my mind about tying the knot but our parents would have been devastated and I wouldn’t have been able to go on that vacation, all great reasons to get married, right?

The second chance came for both of those lifestyles when my little atheistic self began to realize that there was something more. That there was someone who was smarter than I, that there was a being who loved like I had never been loved before. His name is Jesus. I hit bottom one day while walking in a park before going in for PM shift at the hospital. I didn’t cry often but when I did there was usually a relief and release. That day it seemed like my tears were made of mud and the more I cried the messier I got.

I went home to get ready for work and in the bathtub began talking to the God I didn’t think existed… I got to the point where I asked forgiveness and confessed what a mess I was making of my life asking Jesus to take over. I didn’t realize it but I had been in that tub for 1 ½ hours and the water had turned stone cold. I wasn’t emotional when praying but afterwards a huge weight seemed to lift off my shoulders, I felt a solid peace that I had never experienced before and something had definitely changed.

It was after this being “made new” many things fell into place and I got a number of second chances. I was able to go to people I had wronged and ask forgiveness. This led to greater freedom and more release.
Numbers of years later, I met a wonderful guy. We had both been married before and this time wanted to do it right. We wanted to wait until we married to give each other that ultimate gift of intimacy. With God’s grace and help we were able. 

Graphic Credit:  alaknowsbest.wordpress.com

This is a piece I wrote back at that time:
Lord, there is an incredible gift wrapped and set aside for our upcoming wedding from you to us and then us to each other. I beseech you to let your strength be evident in our weakness! Let not even a corner of the paper be torn or wrinkled. Help us, I pray to cherish, trust, WAIT and not gobble. Oh, Jesus, help our focus to always be looking up to you. Father hear my cry. AMEN

Was it easy? Nope. Was it possible to “not awaken our love before its time”? Definitely. 

I was given a second chance at life and also at being able to wait having our honeymoon AFTER the marriage.

All this worked and we were blessed because of our most incredible Lord Jesus and the price He paid to set us free!

Some people never receive a second chance so if you don't know the Lord Jesus please, please take time to make that eternity changing choice today! We do not know how much time we have, do we? He loves you so very much!!!

© Marijo Phelps all rights reserved –

Come visit her blog: http://myincrediblelord.blogspot.com/

Psalm 70:4-5

New International Version (NIV)

⁴ 

But may all who seek you 

    rejoice and be glad in you;

may those who long for your saving help always say,

    “The Lord is great!”

⁵ 

But as for me, I am poor and needy; 

    come quickly to me, O God.

You are my help and my deliverer; 

    Lord, do not delay.

Barabbas Saved from Crucifixion - Inspirational Video Monday

Video Credit: Youtube video uploaded by intrvids 

Mark 15:6-15

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. ⁷ A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. ⁸ The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
⁹ “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?”asked Pilate, ¹⁰ knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. ¹¹ But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
¹² “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
¹³ “Crucify him!” they shouted.
¹⁴ “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
¹⁵ Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

Do not be anxious about anything - Inspirational Quote of the Day

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; 

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

John 10:10 (NIV)

D.L. Moody once said that “If you partner with God, Make your plans big!” I encourage you today to make God your partner. Whatever your burden is that caused you to search for strength, give it up to him now. Do not let another minute go by without completely surrendering your burdens to Him. God wants to be your strength. Surrender to Him in your weakness and let Him show Himself strong. Remember if God brings you to it, He will bring you through it!

Christian Quote About Strength

Inspirational Quote of the Day

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,  as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18  

Inspirational Quote of the Day

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33  

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

Deuteronomy 31:6

Inspirational Quote of the Day:

And Jesus answered them,  “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.

Matthew 21:21

Inspiration Video Monday: God's Love Letter to You

Sermon Sunday - T.D. Jakes: The Blessed Test