DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT WEDNESDAY – THE BASICS OF LIFE IN CHRIST. Part 2.

Kim Linehan holds the world record in the Women's 1500-meter freestyle. According to her coach, Paul Bergen, the 18-year-old is the leading amateur woman distance swimmer in the world. Kim does endless exercises and swims 7 to 12 miles a day. The hardest part of her regimen? "Getting in the water," she says. - Texas Monthly.

By now you should have been teachers, but once again you need to be taught the simplest things about what God has said. You need milk instead of solid food. - Heb 5:12. (CEV)

Thomas A. Edison was working on a crazy contraption called a "light bulb" and it took a whole team of men 24 straight hours to put just one together. The story goes that when Edison was finished with one light bulb, he gave it to a young boy helper, who nervously carried it up the stairs. Step by step he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. You've probably guessed what happened by now; the poor young fellow dropped the bulb at the top of the stairs. It took the entire team of men twenty-four more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs. He gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one. That's true forgiveness. - James Newton.

In Part 1, we studied two of the basics for life in Christ, and today we cover the last two...

WHERE THE ACTION IN YOUR LIFE IS, GOD IS PRESENT AND ACTIVE
I won't leave you like orphans. I will come back to you. - John 14:18. If you are searching for God, the first place to look is where the action in your life is right now. Are you struggling with depression? Then there is probably nothing of greater significance in your relationship with God than that core struggle.

Because He has a stake in what you make of yourself, the areas of your life that most absorb your attention are the areas of interaction with Him. Ask yourself, “What is the opportunity God is offering me here? What gift is God trying to give me?”

Somerset Maugham, the English writer, once wrote a story about a janitor at St Peter's Church in London. One day a young vicar discovered that the janitor was illiterate and fired him. Jobless, the man invested his meager savings in a tiny tobacco shop, where he prospered, bought another, expanded, and ended up with a chain of tobacco stores worth several hundred thousand dollars.

One day the man's banker said, "You've done well for an illiterate, but where would you be if you could read and write?" "Well," replied the man, "I'd be janitor of St. Peter's Church in Neville Square." - Bits and Pieces.

GOD DOES NOT SEND YOU PAIN AND SUFFERING, BUT WORKS WITH YOU IN THEM FOR THE GOOD
We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him. They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose, - Rom 8:28. It is not God who willed or caused your sexual abuse as a child, or sends cancer or AIDS. It is not God who brought about your divorce, took your child, or caused you to be lonely.

God is at your side grieving with you, as anyone who loves you would. He is working with you to bring forth all possible good from the evils you suffer. And He is calling all of us to change the conditions that produce these evils, in your life and the lives of others.

A famous evangelist told the following incident: I have a friend who in a time of business recession lost his job, a sizable fortune, and his beautiful home. To add to his sorrow, his precious wife died; yet he tenaciously held to his faith -- the only thing he had left. One day when he was out walking in search of employment, he stopped to watch some men who were doing stonework on a large church.

One of them was chiseling a triangular piece of rock. 'Where are you going to put that?' he asked. The workman said, 'Do you see that little opening up there near the spire? Well, I'm shaping this stone down here so that it will fit in up there.' Tears filled my friend's eyes as he walked away, for the Lord had spoken to him through that laborer whose words gave new meaning to his troubled situation. - Our Daily Bread.

BE ACTIVE IN CHRIST AND KNOW THAT HE IS WORKING WITH YOU!

Loving Father, help me by the power of the Holy Spirit, to get back to the basics of my walk in Christ that I may start again, and be on fire for Him. Heal my Spiritual deafness that I may once again be more like my Master Jesus, in whose wonderful name I pray! Amen.

Be encouraged!
GBYAY