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| Promises & Praise Newsletter March March, 2006, Volume I We will review some of God's promises and offer up our praises to Him every month in this free newsletter. Note: If you would like to receive the "complete" or "full" version of "Promises and Praise" (which includes pictures, graphics, links, etc.)in your Inbox every month, please Click [html]here to enroll. Thanks again for your interest. March, 2006 Promises and Praise Newsletter Volume 1 In This Issue Labor and Rest Thank you, Lord! Be Happy All the Time Special Preview Welcome, friends! Some of you will recognize that greeting from the home page of my main website, www.jes uswillreturnsoon.com, where many may have signed up for this newsletter. This is the very first edition of Promises and Praise and I do hope everyone will receive a blessing from it. I chose the name Promises and Praise because I want to focus primarily on God's promises to us and our praises to Him. With YOUR help we can make this newsletter a delight for everyone. And that brings me to my very first praise: thanks to all of YOU for your support of me, my book, Remember Lot's Wife, and my websites. Without you there would be no book, websites, or newsletter, and without HIM, none of us could do anything! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phillipians 4:13, NIV In His service, Kathy Let's get started! Labor and Rest God's Promises By Kathy S. McBride Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 Ahhhhh, sweet, blissful sleep. There is nothing quite so wonderful or seemingly quite so rare. ABC News recently reported that some 10 million Americans have insomnia while other sources indicate that number may be as high as 60 million. And then there's the matter of those who have all manner of sleeping difficulties exclusive of full-blown insomnia. Perhaps you are one of those sleepless millions. It's common to hear about sleep- deprived people either sited for traffic violations or involved in accidents. In fact, MSNBC recently published a story about the increase in the number of people driving "under the influence" of a popular prescription sleeping pill. Obviously, sleep - or the lack thereof - is an increasingly serious problem. So what's the root cause of all this tossing and turning all night? Experts agree it's a combination of things: depression, stress, lack of exercise, overweight, improper diet, various medical conditions, diseases, prescription drugs, too-much-work-not- enough-play, social isolation, and more. The list is long and varied. If you are among those bleary eyed folks at least you can take heart in that you are not alone. The old adage "misery loves company" may have its place, but when it comes to not sleeping, being in good company is neither comforting nor acceptable. In fact, it's downright dangerous. While doctors and psychologists grapple with what to do while the sleepless try a myriad of remedies, perhaps Jesus' promise of rest is one that should be seriously considered. Notice that He said, "Come to me and I will give you rest." Could it be that so much sleeplessness is due simply to the fact that people just don't trust God any more? How hard is it for you just "to let go" and drift off to blissful sleep? Do you really trust God enough with your problems that you can leave them in His hands long enough to get a good night's sleep? Granted, not all insomnia cases are caused by "lack of faith" but it would be interesting to know how many actually are. Jesus said He will give you "rest." What does that mean anyway? He beckons to the world-weary traveler in this sinful life, offering life-giving refreshment at the foot of the cross. Nowhere is there more love and acceptance than in the arms of Jesus, the Savior of the world. No mortal flesh understands the hardships, trials, and broken hearts of this life like Jesus. No one feels pain, hurt, or the sting of tears the way He does. Jesus - God - passed through life on this earth in human flesh under the cruel oppression of Roman rule only to be abandoned by His closest friends and then crucified under the scathing rebuke of church hypocrites. But remember something very important: He did it all without sin. And when Jesus walked out of that tomb of His own free will, He wrote "VICTORY" across the forehead of every believer for all eternity! Right then and there Jesus prevailed over all evil. Friends, you can trust Him with your deepest concerns. Your most urgent needs are in His faithful hands. You can believe what He says when He promises that He will give you rest from your labors. He is in control: He is in control of this world and in control of your life. Even when things seem to go horribly wrong, Jesus is at the helm and He knows what He is doing. You can trust Him. And for those who may even now be suffering serious bouts of insomnia, a link is provided below where you can find some helpful tips that might be just what you need to get back to peaceful slumber. Otherwise, please talk to your health care provider to rule out any physical causes for your sleep problems. But more importantly, remember the words of Jesus and let His promise of rest bring you both the spiritual and physical refreshing you need. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so He giveth His beloved sleep. Psalm 127:2 Thank you, Lord! Our Praise I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high. I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. Psalms 7:17; 9:1 "I'm grateful that there is a greater plan for my life despite all the bad things that have happened in the past. I'm thankful every day that I'm still here and hope to be a witness or a help to someone else." Mary/Crofton, KY I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalm 34:1 "There is so much to praise the Lord for. The most important is what Jesus did at the cross, loving us so much He was willing to die so we can live with Him in heaven someday. Wow, it's so awesome to understand the power in that and to think that He would want me there. Knowing that brings me to my knees. Praise His name." Linda/Clarksville, TN Be thou exalted, Lord, in Thine own strength: so will we sing and praise Thy power. Psalm 21:13 "It is good to pray and give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your name." Barbara/Hopkinsville, KY My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless His holy name for ever and ever. Psalm 145:21 "My health is better than many at my age of 78 years. So I just praise the Lord and thank Him every day for indeed I am 'fearfully and wonderfully made.'" (Psalm 139:14) Helen/Pembroke, KY And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God Acts 3:7-9 "Praise the Lord for the healing of our daughter who has suffered from depression for 15 years and is now beginning to see it "lift." During all those years she did not feel a connection to God but now she does! Praise His Holy name!" Ray and Betty/Hopkinsville, KY I will call on the Lord, Who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. II Samuel 22:4 "Praise the Lord! Praise His Holy Name, all who are on the earth! He is great and marvellous, too kind and wonderful even to imagine! Thank You, Lord, for so many blessings every day. Thank You for good health, food and shelter, love and family, laughter and friends, and so many things taken for granted without even a thought. Thank You for the opportunity to write and to produce this newsletter. Thank You for the people who want to receive it. Thank You for the doors of opportunity still to open for me. And thank You, Lord, for my sweet and precious little kitty, Rocky. Thank You most of all for Your mercy and grace and endless love, offering salvation to us all." Kathy S. McBride . . .Praise the Lord, call upon His name, declare His doings among the people, make mention that His name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord; for He hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. Isaiah 12:4,5 Jesus is coming again soon: all the "signs" proclaim His Second Coming is near (see Matthew 24 and Luke 17). Are YOU ready to meet your Lord? Be Happy All the Time Rejoice Luke is my favorite of the four Gospels, always has been. While I can't pinpoint exactly what it is that draws me there, I just know it fits me somehow like a comfortable old shoe. I tend to draw a lot of my writing from the book of Luke, quite unwittingly. I will think of a text I want to use or a biblical story or principal, and when I look it up in the concordance, more often than not, it's somewhere to be found in Luke. Perhaps it's the way Luke, the educated Apostle, formed his words that strikes me so. Luke, the beloved physician (Colossians 4:14), had a writing style and a way of recording the events in the life of Jesus that is simple yet beautiful. In fact, Luke chose to include The Beatitudes in his account of the Gospel. You may read them yourself in Luke 6, beginning with verse twenty. There in those powerful scriptures, Jesus told the world what to expect, both those good and those evil, and how we are to react to what happens to us. Jesus went so far as to say that His followers are to rejoice when they are persecuted, reviled, reproached, and separated from the company of chief family and friends for His sake (Luke 6:22,23). Rejoice? Jesus said to rejoice -and also to leap for joy - when evil people say and do things against us because of our faith in Him. The reason, He said, was not because He didn't think hurtful words or even physical pain mattered but rather because they did the same thing to the prophets. Jesus was pointing out that His people have always been the outcasts, have always been persecuted, and always will be. Notice he said in verse 23, "behold, your reward is great in heaven." We are ever to be thinking of our dear Lord and the eternal home waiting for us. That is the secret to being happy all the time. Rejoicing is a matter of attitude not circumstances. Few of us will go through this life unscathed by its troubles and cares, heartbreaks and tears, disappointments and pains, but no matter what happens we can still rejoice. Jesus told us to rejoice when bad things happen because, ultimately, everything bad that happens is a result of sin and Satan, and Satan is the enemy of Christ. The enemy of Christ is our enemy as well so he attacks us in as many different ways as possible to make us miserable. But we still need to rejoice no matter what happens. We must learn to think in terms of "eternity" not just this brief moment here in this life. That makes all the difference. When death, sorrow, heartbreak, unemployment, poverty, destruction, loss - whatever - comes our way, remember what Jesus said: we are a reproach to the enemy for the sake of faith in Christ so we suffer as did the prophets before us. Don't forget that Jesus Himself suffered most when He, the sinless Son of God, died on the cruel cross. Rejoice. Rejoice in that you are worthy to suffer persecution for your Lord and then keep the rewards of eternal life ever before you. As for me, I am learning [so often the hard way] that it is just as easy to say, "Praise the Lord," when bad things happen to me as it is to get all down in the dumps and throw a little pity party. Ok, a big pity party sometimes. But notice I said that I am learning. I would like to share my thoughts about rejoicing in hard times and what I have learned so far with each of you. I have written a short ebook entitled, Rejoicing in the Moment, and I will give it to you as a bonus gift if you will order my current book, Remember Lot's Wife, on Amazon.com for the modest price of only $15.50. In addition, I have a number of other no-cost, no- obligation gifts (over $400 in retail value) all yours for the taking just to say 'thank you' for buying a copy of Remember Lot's Wife. All the bonus gifts, including, Rejoicing in the Moment, are available to download at my website. There is a link directly below that will take you there where you can learn more about both books, the bonus gifts, how to order, and then how to download your gifts. I hope all of it will be a blessing to you. Find something to be thankful for every day. Thank God for the good in your life and trust Him with all the rest. Rejoice! And stay happy all the time. Thanks again to all of you. Kathy S. McBride Special Preview Kathy S. McBride's new book (untitled) My next book (as yet untitled) concerns a familiar topic: the story of the prodigal sons. Yes, that is another story out of the book of Luke, and, yes, I said prodigal sons. There were two brothers in that parable, you know. In this book I will address the issues of both the "sinful" son and the "good" boy who stayed home to help dad on the farm, and the spiritual implications for us today. Here's an excerpt: "But now, back to the main story. The younger of the two sons grew weary and restless, tired of the hard work and daily grind of boring life on the farm. He was young and foolish, dreaming of all the wonderful things life held in store for him - that is, if only he could get off that miserable farm and away from his parents! He thought and schemed until finally he had a plan. It was so simple it was brilliant. He would just ask dad for his part of the inheritance now instead of waiting until his father's death to receive it. What difference would it make if he got it now or later? If he got it early he could live it up a little, see the world, maybe even invest a little and have something of his own by the time his father passed. Genius. Pure genius. He couldn't wait to be his own man. So one day the boy presented his plan to his dad - and probably to his surprise - the wise father agreed to the arrangement. He gave the younger son his portion of the inheritance, and, like a rocket, the kid was out of that place! Life is too short, you know, live a little while you're still young enough to enjoy it. Surely that must have been the young man's thoughts as he raced away, free from the chains that bound him there. Or so he thought. He fled far away into a distant land where the bright lights, painted lips, and noise of the parties enthralled him. It was no different than today. The same attractive hand of sin still beckons to all who will be lured and - ultimately - ensnared by it. The young man partied and drank and played fast and loose with the women until one day his money was all gone. Suddenly the noise of the parties was gone too. And so were all his girlfriends. There he was flat broke and stranded in a foreign land with no job and no friends. Oh, he had had friends all right, plenty of them when he was buying the drinks and the lavish dinners, but when the cash flow ended and the parties stopped, so did the friendships. The working girls needed payment and had no time for a 'John' with no money while the boisterous drinking crowd went on to clean out the next sucker's wallet. To make matters worse, Jesus said, just when the young man's money ran out a terrible famine struck the land. And those friends and harlots who so readily took the boy's money were no where to be seen when he was on hard times, needing a meal and place to lay his head. How pitiful. And how so like us. Does anything ever change? The Bible warns, ". . .be sure your sin will find you out." We are a miserable lot, the human race. Rebellious and headstrong, thinking we know it all when in fact we know nothing. We are exactly like the prodigal son in Jesus' story. All of our best laid plans fall into shattered pieces at our feet, dashing our hopes, and devastating our dreams. We lurk about pitifully trying to go on, hoping to grasp onto and ride the wave of "the next big thing." It seems most of us live our lives in cycles of desperation of varying degrees, urgently seeking something to satisfy that God-sized longing deep in our hearts. The young prodigal also searched in the wrong places. And when the money ran out and the good times ended, he eventually came to his senses. The hungrier the young man got, the more desperate he became. It occurred to him that he at least needed a job in order to buy food. No doubt pointing out his own agricultural background on his resume, he was able to land a job at another farm, this time feeding the hogs. As he watched swine snort and grunt and gobble down those husks of corn, it dawned on him that pigs fared better than he. He drooled over the scraps slopped to hogs as though it were a king's feast. While his stomach growled and his mouth watered, no one offered him a bite to eat - not even the greedy swine. The now much-more-experienced boy had a thought: he would go home again and ask his own father for a job. Why, his father's servants had plenty to eat and then some; there was no starvation there. And he would not stoop so low as to ask forgiveness: he would just "disinherit" himself and gladly work as one of his father's servants. When conviction hit him - brought on by the reality of an empty stomach with no way to fill it - the younger son realized that he had sinned against both his Fathers, Heavenly and earthly. Repentance gave him the heart to go home again and seek - not forgiveness- but employment. He was so humbled by his experience that he knew the solution to his problem was that of becoming a servant to his father. And that should be our experience as well: to be so humbled by our sin soaked lives that we seek to be servants to our Heavenly Father. Right then and there the wisdom of the young man's father became apparent. "How is that?," you might ask. When the boy first approached his dad asking for his inheritance ahead of time, the father knew the reason for the request - as well as the folly of it. But he also knew, as parents always do, that nothing he could say would change his son's mind. In fact, he knew that the more he spoke against it, the more the boy would "dig in." The wise father knew that his son had to make his own mistakes and learn the hard way. Just like us. Again, nothing changes. So dad gave young son the money and watched him leave. And while the father tearfully watched his son until there remained no sight of him on the dusty trail leaving the farm, he never took his eyes off the horizon. Deep in his heart he knew. He knew one day the party would be over and the boy would have no recourse but to come home. Time was on his side. So he waited. And he watched." Well, that's a sampling of my current book so watch my websites and this Promises and Praise newsletter for updates. I hope you like it! Kathy Truly, I appreciate each and every one of you, and I ask you to send in YOUR praises for inclusion in upcoming issues of Promises and Praise. For protection of your privacy, only your first name and your city and state will be published with your comments. Also, your e-mail address or contact information will never be sold or provided to outside sources. Please let me hear from you if this issue of Promises and Praise has been a blessing to you. Also, if you haven't already signed up to receive this newsletter on a regular basis, I invite you to join my mailing list now (and don't forget to tell others about it!). If anyone does not want to receive Promises and Praise anymore, please click the "SafeUnsubscribe" link at the bottom of the page. Thank you again for your interest in my newsletter, Promises and Praise, my book, Remember Lot's Wife, and my websites: www.jes uswillreturnsoon.com and www.ksmcbride. com Praise the Lord! He is coming soon! Forever in His debt and service, Kathy S. McBride Promises and Praise ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- email: kathysmcbride@ksmcbride.com phone: 270-890-8938 web: http://www.jesuswillreturnsoon.com Save 100% The bearer of this coupon is entitled to eternal life in the presence of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is non-transferable and redeemable only by the bearer. The full face value can only be determined by Christ the Lord, Who paid the full price for the bearer's redemption with His own blood. Coupon void if bearer fails to act in good faith. Find out more about how to redeem it here Offer Expires: At the end of this present life Promises and Praise Newsletter | P. O. Box 847 | Hopkinsville | KY | 42241-0847 |
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