God's Goodness

Matthew 7:11 ~ Just ask Him! ~ God’s Goodness

12:00 AM

Saturday, March 16, 2019



Welcome to Scripture Saturday!

This coming week's memory verse is Matthew 7:11...

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! (NKJV)

 God is good and will answer our prayers, but we must first ask, seek God’s will, and then obey Him fully. “Good” fathers on earth may do many “good” things for their children, but they fall short. Only God “knows how to give good gifts” to His children. He is the One Good and Perfect Father.  He will not only give us temporary “good things”, such as food, drink, and clothing, but all spiritual good things…all things pertaining to life and godliness. He knows what we need, what we desire in our hearts, and what is right for us.  

 Have a blessed day and week everyone!

El Quana

Warning!! {Nahum}

8:00 PM



If you've ever read the book of Nahum, I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say, “I honestly don’t think this book would make the top of anyone’s favorite books of the Bible.” Many may have never read it before, but there’s at least one very important message within these three short chapters that everyone needs to know!

Nahum was written to reveal the angry side of God as He rails against Assyria (2:13; 3:5) and speaks of Assyria’s destruction. You see, many years before, The Lord had sent a reluctant prophet named Jonah to preach to Nineveh, and during that time the people repented, and the city was spared.

But now, Nahum comes to demonstrate that with God, there are few things worse than repenting of repentance. Since the days of Jonah, Nineveh and the whole nation of Assyria have turned away from God and back to the ways of their forefathers. And to make matters worse Assyria then chooses to attack Israel, and God is determined to punish them.

Do you know someone who at one time repented of their sins and chose to follow after Jesus, only to have turned back to their old ways after a time? Does that same person(s) tend to now attack, ridicule or demise the things of God and His people? The message of Nahum is truly a warning for them and a sweet reminder to His people.

Unfortunately, I know more than one who had at one time professed to be a believer, but have now turned their back on Christ and His ways; preferring their old ways once more, and their defection always seems to raise the question in me of whether they are simply a wayward Christian at the moment, or had they never truly believed. Either way, they will find out one day that the Lord never lets sin go unpunished.

Nahum begins by reminding us that, “The Lord is slow to anger", but He is also just,

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
    and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
    and the clouds are the dust of his feet…
6 Who can stand before his indignation?
    Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
    and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
7 The Lord is good,
    a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
8     But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries… Nahum 1:3, 6-8

WHY? Nahum tells us in verse two. “God is jealous.” (Nahum 1:2) He is El Quana.


Your Lord is very jealous of your love, O believer. Did he choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did he buy you with his own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that he would not stop in heaven without you; he would sooner die than you should perish, and he cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart’s love and himself. He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you.
When we lean upon him, he is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend—worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, he is displeased, and will chasten us that he may bring us to himself.
He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. – Charles H. Spurgeon  


But this jealousy The Lord has for us should also be a comfort to us, for He loves us so much that we can be certain that He will not allow us to suffer harm, but will protect us from all our enemies.
Assyria had turned away from God and now were threatening to harm His people, and The Lord, El Quana was not about to allow it!

The message of Nahum should bring His children comfort, but a stern warning to the one who has spurned His love for something they believe to be better, for there will be a day coming when the Lord declares, "Enough!"

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Do you yearn to experience more of the love of Jesus in your life this fall? Come join our New Testament study with an eclectic group of women from around the world!

Together we'll read through the entire New Testament and grow to love our Lord & Savior even more! Trust in Him, and begin an adventure that will transform your life and maybe others as well!
Begins August 31st! on Women in the Word.


Angie Benjamin

When life gets blurry, adjust your focus!! {Psalms 102:1-104:35}

2:56 AM



Today's reading is simply beautiful,

In Psalm 102, We see David being overwhelmed by trouble and pouring our his heart and problems before the Lord.

We've all been there. Moments of deep pain and despair, in which we don't even care about the basics needs such as eating.

Moments in which the heartache is so bad that we begin to feel rejected by God Himself. We start wondering, where is He?...

But our beautiful God and creator is eternally with us and will keep all of his promises, even though we may feel alone.

The word of God says that this world (and its problems) will perish, but God and His love for us will remain.

In those times of need God alone can be our comfort and our strength. It is beautiful to know that even when we are too weak to fight, we can trust and lean on Him.

I believe it is when we recognise and acknowledge our shortcomings and weaknesses that God's great power becomes available.

Only when we realise that we have come to the end of ourselves we allow God's power to manifest in our lives and in our situations.

So what to do when everything seems so dark and gloomy?

PRAISE




In Psalm 103, David praise focuses on the things God had done and was still doing for him.

I think this is key. Telling our soul and redirecting our thoughts to the goodness of God. Remembering the good things that He has done and remembering how far He has taken us from.

It is very easy to complain about life. After all, our world seems to be upside down...but David reminds us that there are far many more things to be grateful for and to praise God for, such as:


  • He forgives our sins.
  • Heals our diseases.
  • Redeems us from death!
  • Crowns us with the love and compassion.
  • Satisfies our desires.
  • Gives us righteousness and justice.


And the best of all? We receive all these without deserving any of them!

We can go through life resting assured that regardless where we are in our life's journey, we can count our past, present and even future blessings!

So when things are not going quite right and you're feeling down, please go back to David's list.

Train your thoughts to focus and redirect your attention to PRAISE!

So as a photographer, I've learnt a very important lesson in life...









2 Peter

Climbing Faith's Ladder {2 Peter 1}

12:00 AM

Just as with Paul in writing his 2 second letter to Timothy, we find Peter writing to all of us, knowing he hasn’t much time left on this earth (2 Peter 1:14). for that reason, I tend to view his words here as weightier, since he knows these are most likely his last. After all, if you knew you had only days left to live what would your conversations key on? What would be of greatest importance to you?


For Peter, it seems he’s most concerned about false teachers with their bogus doctrines and sinful lifestyles leading believers astray, and Peter has determined the best way to combat all of that is to make sure we are growing up in our faith! Notice:

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and goodness.Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
“For this very reason, be diligent to add to your faith goodness;
and to goodness, knowledge;
and to knowledge, self-control;
and to self-control, perseverance;
and to perseverance, godliness;
and to godliness, brotherly kindness;
and to brotherly kindness, love.
“For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
“Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall,and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” -2Peter 1:4-11

I borrowed this from my HCSB study Bible: Because of God's generous provision in Christ, Peter encouraged his readers to build upon their foundation of faith—their initial acceptance of God's love—with the Christian virtues of goodness... knowledge... self-control... endurance... godliness... brotherly affection, and love. These graces, sometimes called the "ladder of faith," are the fruit of sharing in the divine nature. Each successive quality seems to spring from the previous one.

Did you also notice that his exhortation to us also includes a great promise? “...be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall,and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”- 2Pt 1:10-11

With all this in view, I thought it would be wise to break down our “building blocks” of faith to make sure we’re applying each to our lives today, for we must always be growing, and not merely talking about it. After all, according to James- faith without works is a dead faith.
I thought it would be best to begin by defining the word diligence- which basically means, “come up with all the determination you can muster...be persistent, earnest, painstakingly pressing on”. (Hmm… can you see why Peter may have felt the need to add a promise? No slacking allowed in the Christian faith!)
Be diligent to add to your faith...
Goodness or Moral excellence- a quality by which one stood out as excellent, fulfillment of purpose. Found in the Proverbs 31 women and can’t be produced without faith, for it is also a fruit of the Holy Spirit -(Gal 5:22-23)  
“His death saved us but His life transforms us; Everyone has a standard of virtue- humanists say-“you can do it; Jesus says “I’ll do it thru you, with your cooperation” Mjr. W. Ian Thomas in The Saving Life of Christ:

Knowledge- understanding, a recognition, or an acknowledgment. To “know” something is to perceive it or to be aware of it. Many times in Scripture, knowledge carries the idea of a deeper appreciation of something or a relationship with someone. It can only develop with moral excellence and comes as we obey the Word of God.

Self-control- physical and emotional self-mastery, particularly in situations of intense provocation or temptation (1 Cor 9:25) and arises from our knowledge which comes from obedience to the Word of God, out of the faith God has given us.

Perseverance- The ability to bear up under and deal with circumstances and with others; long-suffering in dealing with people. (Rom 5:3)

Godliness - is the reverent awareness of God's sovereignty over every aspect of life, and the determination to honor him in all one's conduct. "Godliness" and "holiness" denote one reality (the terms are joined in 1 Tim 2:2) In Rom 12:1 and 2 Tim 3:5, godliness is evident in deny ourselves (desires, rights, opinions, etc.) and laying down our life to Christ's supremacy.

Brotherly Kindness- The Greek word for brotherly kindness is transliterated "philadelphia," a compound word involving two words: "phileo" (love) and "adelphos" (brother). Therefore it is a love for the faithful and a by-product of true godliness.

Love is agape love (God’s love) and is an action, not a feeling. It’s defined in 1 Cor 13:4-8.

Peter wants us to understand that growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ is a process- sort of a spiritual construction project. We were all saved by faith, but that’s just the beginning to this new life in Christ! God plans for all of us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29). Therefore, He begins by adding to our faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, and godliness, which will become evident through our brotherly kindness and love towards others.

“A deeper knowledge of the Person of Jesus is the surest safeguard against false doctrine.” - Michael Green. Therefore we should make sure that we are “diligently” following Peter’s advice and building on our faith daily! So let me ask you,
__Do you possess the faith in Jesus that Peter has written about? Have you trusted in Him as your only means of salvation?
__ Are you submitting/surrendering to Him as the Lord over your life?
__Are you growing in your knowledge of God through knowing Jesus as Lord?

These are the foundations of our faith! As you look back over each try to determine just where you would place yourself in your walk with Him? Which one are the two of you working on just now?