Tag Archives: Encourage

Be Encouraged

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Today, I just wanted to share with you a quick verse of encouragement, verses that mean a lot to me personally.  Listen to what Paul writes this morning in Ephesians 2:4-7:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

product_thumbnailThe two things that encourage me in this passage are this are first, when we were dead in our sins, Christ died for us. At our moment of greatest weakness and failure, it as at that exact moment that Jesus died for us.

Jesus didn’t die for us because we were lovely.  He died for us because we weren’t.  He died for us to make us into the people that God created us to be.

And second is this, that God created us to know Him.  He wants us to know His grace and His kindness. God really does want us to know just how much we are loved. We are created to know that love, that mercy, that grace, that kindness.

You are made for this.  He made for you for that.

So, be encouraged. Jesus died for us at are weakest.  Because He loves us.

And Go wants us to know, in the depth of our souls, just how much that we are loved.

Today, be encouraged.

Don’t forget, you can click here to download Asbury’s mobile app and read these devotionals, as well as listen to my sermons on your smart phones.

Make a Difference

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One of my favorite characters in scripture is Barnabas.  He doesn’t get all the attention that Paul gets in Acts, but without him, Paul wouldn’t be Paul. We see their friendship start today in Acts 11:

25Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians.’

Paul had one of those dramatic conversion experiences. When he got saved, he got saved.  He went from being someone out to get the church; someone trying to destroy the church, to someone that was trying to grow the church.

He went from someone that was trying to stop the working of the Holy Spirit to someone that was a being led by the spirit.

And that’s awesome. Except that people didn’t know what to think. People didn’t know if they could trust him.  Not long before, he had been involved with the murder of Stephen. And now he’s on our side?

And in comes Barnabas.  You know what he did that was so awesome?  He simply loved on Paul.  He was his friend.  He encouraged him.  He walked beside him.  He was there for him.

He made a difference.

By being a friend.

Today, you can make a huge difference.  You don’t have to climb the mountain.  You don’t have to swim the ocean.  You don’t have to perform feats of unusual strength.

You can simply be nice to someone. Encourage someone.  Give a smile.  A hug.  A warm word.

And you may never know the difference that would make.  Today, you can be a Barnabas to someone.

Without Barnabas, there was no Paul. Without Paul, there is no Gentile Church. Without Paul, the Gospel would not have spread across the world.

Barnabas made a huge difference simply be encouraging someone.

Today, so you can you. Today, you can make a difference.

Today, you can change the world by touching someone’s life!