Quote from Forum Archives on April 12, 2010, 10:00 am

Posted by: feedtheflockad <feedtheflockad@...>

#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa td{color: black;} #AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 td{color: black;} @font-face {font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}@font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}@font-face {font-family:"Arial Rounded MT Bold"; panose-1:2 15 7 4 3 5 4 3 2 4;}@font-face {font-family:"Berlin Sans FB"; panose-1:2 14 6 2 2 5 2 2 3 6;}@font-face {font-family:"Bookman Old Style"; panose-1:2 5 6 4 5 5 5 2 2 4;}@font-face {font-family:"@Arial Unicode MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;} #AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 p.MsoNormal,#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 li.MsoNormal,#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 div.MsoNormal {margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 a:link,#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; text-decoration:underline;}#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 a:visited,#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; text-decoration:underline;}#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 p {mso-style-priority:99; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0cm; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0cm; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 p.MsoAcetate,#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 li.MsoAcetate,#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 div.MsoAcetate {mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-link:"Balloon Text Char"; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:8.0pt; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";}#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 span.BalloonTextChar {mso-style-name:"Balloon Text Char"; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-link:"Balloon Text"; font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";}#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 span.EmailStyle20 {mso-style-type:personal; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:windowtext;}#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 span.EmailStyle21 {mso-style-type:personal; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D;}#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 span.EmailStyle22 {mso-style-type:personal; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D;}#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 span.EmailStyle24 {mso-style-type:personal-reply; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D;}#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; font-size:10.0pt;}@page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;}#AOLMsgPart_3_bac22b2f-afbd-49c0-89d1-e0e3135f59aa #AOLMsgPart_3_705feba3-5704-4255-8cda-aee453ef6614 div.Section1 {page:Section1;}

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." - James 1 : 2 - 4 The question of character has come up a lot lately, especially where it concerns our national leaders.  Have you ever taken a good, hard look at your own character?  Have you ever thought about what it takes to develop what we call character?  Have you ever considered what it means to be "mature and complete, not lacking anything"? When James makes this statement, he doesn't say "if" you face trials; he says "whenever" you face trials. Trials -- problems, crises, tragedies - will occur in our lives.  So, is he saying that we have to walk around with a silly grin on our faces and fake happiness when we're in the middle of the most difficult thing we've ever faced?  No. This is when the difference between "happiness" and "joy" becomes most evident.  "Happiness" is that which we have when everything in our lives is going smoothly - the world is functioning around us just as we would like for it to.  But happiness is fleeting. It rarely lasts, in entirety, for more than a day or so.  Because something - large or small - is going to come along to mess up that feeling of happiness. Joy, on the other hand, can be with us even in the midst of tragedy. Because joy comes from having total faith in Jesus, from knowing that God's hand is directly on the situation in which we find ourselves, from the depth of our knowledge that God causes all things to work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, from being so centred on our Lord that nothing, absolutely nothing, can interfere with the peace, hope and joy we find in Him, and from our desire to learn and to grow as a result of the tests and trials that He allows to come our way. So, what kind of character are you allowing the Lord to build in you? The kind that is constantly searching for "happiness" or the kind that is filled with His eternal joy? Note: This is a repeat of a devotion originally sent on 31 March 2006         "The best sermons are the sermons which are fullest of Christ. A sermon without Christ, it is an awful, a horrible thing." - Charles Spurgeon "The ministry demands brain labour. The preacher must throw his thought into his teaching, and read and study to keep his mind in good trim. Above all, he must put heart work into his preaching. He must feel what he preaches. It must never be with him an easy thing to deliver a sermon. He must feel as if he could preach his very life away before the sermon is done." - - Charles Spurgeon. There is no mode of life in the world more pleasing and more full of delight than continual conversation with God. -- Brother Lawrence                            Devotional Archive         |                       Subscribe                          |                         Forums                                        Comments/Feedback     |                              Website                              |                         Contact us         Find SCOM on:          Facebook      |         Friendster         |       Myspace      |      Twitter       Help spread God's word, please forward the devotion to as many friends and relatives as possible and encourage them to subscribe free of charge. If this was forwarded to you, you can subscribe by sending a blank email to the following address: [email protected]

 

---

To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]