The Apple Tree
by Dion Todd January 27th, 2016
For there is no good tree that brings forth rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that brings forth good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don't gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. Luke 6:43 WEBWe find it humorous when we get cut off in traffic by a rude driver and they have a Christian fish symbol on their bumper. At other times, we see...
Trust
by Jeffrey Smith January 23rd, 2016
Jeremiah 40:18-I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the Lord.Matthew 11:28-come to me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest
If you have ever been betrayed in the world, trust is a tough concept. Those betrayals really hurt and they can leave scars for years. We have all heard that we must trust God, but for...
The Wedding Day
by Dion Todd January 22nd, 2016
I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns! Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let us give the glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.' Revelation 19:6 WEBI have a great wife, and we have been...
The Love Dare: Day 10
by Sylvia Todd January 21st, 2016
Day 10
Love is Unconditional
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us. – Romans 5:8
If someone were to ask you, “Why do you love your wife?” or “Why do you love your husband?” – what would you say?
Most men would mention their wife’s beauty, her sense of humor, her kindness, her...
The Love Dare: Day 9
by Sylvia Todd January 21st, 2016
Day 9
Love Makes Good Impressions
Greet one another with a kiss of love. – 1 Peter 5:14
You’ve covered some serious ground so far in this journey. Learning to demonstrate aspects of love patience, kindness, and encouragement are not always easy but are certainly crucial to a healthy relationship. So dealing with the way you greet your spouse...
The Love Dare: Day 8
by Sylvia Todd January 21st, 2016
Day 8
Love is Not Jealous
Love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire. – Song of Solomon 8:6 NIV
Jealousy is one of the strongest drives known to man. It comes from the root word for zeal and means “to burn with an intense fire.” Scripture pointedly says, “Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood,...
The Love Dare: Day 7
by Sylvia Todd January 21st, 2016
Day 7
Love Believes the Best
[Love] believes all things, hopes all things. – 1 Corinthians 13:7
In the deep and private corridors of your heart, there is a room. It’s called the Appreciation Room. It’s where your thoughts go when you encounter positive and encouraging things about your spouse. And every so often, you enjoy visiting this special...
The Love Dare: Day 6
by Sylvia Todd January 21st, 2016
Day 6
Love is Not Irritable
He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city. -Proverbs 16:32
Love is hard to offend and quick to forgive. How easily do you get irritated and offended? Some people have the motto, “Never pass up an opportunity to get upset with your spouse.” When something...
The Love Dare: Day 5
by Sylvia Todd January 21st, 2016
Day 5
Love is Not Rude
He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be reckoned a curse to him.
—Proverbs 27:14
Nothing irritates others as quickly as being rude. Rudeness is unnecessarily saying or doing things that are unpleasant for another person to be around. To be rude is to act unbecoming, embarrassing, or irritating. In marriage, this could be a foul...
The Love Dare: Page 4
by Sylvia Todd January 21st, 2016
Day 4
Love is Thoughtful
How precious also are Your thoughts to me. . . . How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. —Psalm 139:17–18
Love thinks. It’s not a mindless feeling that rides on waves of emotion and falls asleep mentally. It keeps busy in thought, knowing that loving thoughts precede loving actions.
When you first...
The Love Dare: Day 3
by Sylvia Todd January 21st, 2016
Day 3
Love is Not Selfish
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor. —Romans 12:10
We live in a world that is enamored with “self.” The culture around us teaches us to focus on our appearance, feelings, and personal desires as the top priority. The goal, it seems, is to chase the highest level of happiness possible. The danger...
The Love Dare: Day 2
by Sylvia Todd January 21st, 2016
Day 2
Love is Kind
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32
Kindness is love in action. If patience is how love reacts in order to minimize a negative circumstance, kindness is how love acts to maximize a positive circumstance. Patience avoids a problem; kindness creates a blessing. One is preventive,...
The Love Dare: Day 1
by Sylvia Todd January 21st, 2016
Thank you for joining us in The Love Dare! I pray that you will be blessed and that going through this will be a vital part of your growth in your relationships and in your walk with the Lord. As an additional resource, Guideposts has generously provided us with their resource, "Strength for Relationships". If you go to the page, you can either read it online, or download the PDF. Thank you for being...
The Main ingredient
by Jeffrey Smith January 21st, 2016
Galatians 5:4- You who have been trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
Most people are looking for a way to eat rich food, but not gain weight. I myself have looked at the eyebrow lifting claims of sugar free brownies, and fat free foods in an attempt keep the athletic body I imagine I have in my own mind. I read the labels intently looking...
Come to Jesus
by Jeffrey Smith January 19th, 2016
John 6:37 "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away."
To be rejected by man is temporary. To be accepted by Jesus is permanent. When you feel rejected, know that something much higher, much bigger, with much more pull in this world is with you. Remember that nobody in heaven is rejecting you. His promise is to not to drive us away, ever. We have...
Press into your call
by Jeffrey Smith January 18th, 2016
Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."Matthew 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
I met two amazing people over the week, one on purpose and...
Wait Here
by Dion Todd January 18th, 2016
Elijah said to him, Elisha, please wait here, for Yahweh has sent me to Jericho. He said, As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho. 2 Kings 2:4 WEBElisha had worked serving the prophet Elijah for several years when he suddenly asked him to stay behind. Elisha said no and kept following him. Three times in a row Elijah asked him to stay behind somewhere,...
The Veil is Gone
by Dion Todd January 17th, 2016
Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit. Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split. Matthew 27:50 WEBUnder the old covenant, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies in the temple, where the manifest presence of God dwelt, once a year on Yom Kippur ( The Day of Atonement ).There was a thick veil (curtain)...
By Sunrise
by Dion Todd January 12th, 2016
They said to the messengers who came, Thus shall you tell the men of Jabesh Gilead, Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have deliverance. The messengers came and told the men of Jabesh; and they were glad. 1 Samuel 11:9 WEBThe Ammonites besieged Jabesh Gilead, and it looked pretty hopeless for the people living there. They told the people to give up and come out, but they held on and sent...
Be a "will be"
by Jeffrey Smith January 11th, 2016
2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Are you a has been, or a will be? I have referred to myself in the past as a this or a that. For example, I was a collegiate athlete, and that is great, but it does not define who I am now. I used to drink a lot, but it does not define me today. I have talked with a lot of people who are...
Dry Bones Live
by Jeffrey Smith January 8th, 2016
Ezekiel 37:1-3: The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, Son of man, can these bones live? I said, O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.
We all have a call on our lives from...
RHM January 2016 Newsletter
by Dion Todd January 7th, 2016
He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.” Revelation 21:6–7 WEB
RHM January Newsletter - 2016
Hello there,
Welcome to 2016! It is a new year and we are excited to...
Bad Note Blues
by Dion Todd January 7th, 2016
For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, Don't be afraid; I will help you. Isaiah 41:13 WEBWe have a proverb that we live by in music while performing: "If you hit a bad note, hit it good.' (technically, it would be "hit it well", but that's what the phrase is here). Do not let the fear of failure keep you from performing your best. If you are going to fail at something, let...
Value
by Jeffrey Smith January 6th, 2016
Luke 5:27-28, 30: After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. Follow me, Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. 30- But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?
I was on a run in the battlefield park near...
Reach out to Him
by Jeffrey Smith January 5th, 2016
Mark 5:25-34- A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, If I just touch his clothes,...
Fools for Christ
by Jeffrey Smith January 4th, 2016
2 Samuel 6:22: I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.
When we allow ourselves to let go of our perception of dignity, in exchange for worship that goes beyond our limits, we will never be in a position of dishonor. We can often get caught up in the idea that we are above a certain level...
Arguing with an Ass
by Dion Todd January 3rd, 2016
Yahweh opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, 'What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?' Balaam said to the donkey, 'Because you have mocked me, I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would have killed you.' The donkey said to Balaam, 'Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long until today? Was I ever in the habit of doing...
A Line in the Sand
by Dion Todd January 1st, 2016
Yahweh said to Joshua, 'Get up! Why have you fallen on your face like that?' Joshua 7:10 WEBJoshua lay on his face before the ark of the Lord all evening. Yesterday he was a mighty warrior, but now Israel had lost the first battle at Ai because one of the men with him had broken the Lord's commandment concerning Jericho. When they crossed the river into the promised land, Jericho was the first city...
Invite the Lord in!
by Jeffrey Smith December 31st, 2015
2 Samuel 6:11-18: The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household. Now King David was told, The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God. So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing.
Do you want...
God's Way
by Jeffrey Smith December 28th, 2015
2nd Samuel 14:14-Like water spilled on the ground that can never be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways that a banished person may not remain estranged from Him.Isaiah 59:2- But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.John 19:28- Later, knowing that all was now completed, and...