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	April 30, 2007 God meant it for good by Jon Walker “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result.” (Genesis 50:20 NIV) Joseph’s life was anything but peaceful. It was complicated by youthful folly, broken dreams, and the mean-spirited actions of others. Sold into slavery by jealous brothers. Thrown into prison on false charges. Yet he remained a man remarkable for his lack of bitterness or regret, always seeing God as the “Great Engineer” behind even the worst of circumstances. In a final confrontation with his brothers, he graciously noted, “You meant it for bad; God meant it for good.” The theology packed in that statement is astounding. “God meant it for good” means: You can accept the past – No sin, no action, no choice on your part is too big for God to handle – or too big to be worked for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) Just ask Joseph! Better yet, ask his fearful and famished brothers, who were forced to rely on him for survival. You can embrace the present – There’s no need to play the “what if” game. The past is gone, and no energy you expend will ever change it. The future is in God's omnipotent hands, so you’re free to focus on the present. Your job is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, trusting him to forgive the past and transform the future. Martyred missionary Jim Eliot once wrote, “Wherever you are, be all there” – not living in the past and not fantasizing about the future. God wants you in the present because that’s where his grace will flow. You can look expectantly toward the future – Even if you make mistakes today, God still controls your future. Walking in the Spirit, you can live life to the fullest, unafraid of making mistakes and unconcerned that you may stumble into some terrible circumstance that takes you out of God's control. Even when things appear to be terrible, you can trust that God is working out some divine plan through you. So what? · No matter how bad things get – God is still able to bring good out of it. Today, thank God that nothing – no disaster, no delay – is bigger that his ability to turn it into something good and godly. · Thank God and let go – Thank God that he is sovereign over your past, your present, and your future. Give God the circumstances, disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins from your past. Give God your current situation, your disasters, hindrances, hurts, and sins of today. Praise God that he can work anything in your future for godly good, that you can walk in confidence that there is nothing anyone can do to you, or anything you can do that will be beyond the reach of God’s grace and redemption. · Look for God’s hand – Walking by faith means you see God’s hand even in the most difficult of circumstances. You trust his ability and his willingness to transform the bad into godly good. God is not limited by people’s motives. In other words, it doesn’t matter why someone hurt you, God still can transform a deliberate, mean-spirited situation into something for his good. · What will you allow God to change? – There it is: some situation, or event, or person in your life that, as far as you can tell, was “meant for bad.” How do you think God meant it for good? Ask God what he wants you to do with this situation (event or person). When he answers, do it. We’re praying for you now. © 2007 Jon Walker. All rights reserved. Jon Walker is a pastor-advocate living in Southern California and the former pastor of communications at Saddleback Church. Click HERE for a free subscription to The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotional, your daily inspiration via email. Click HERE for a free subscription to The Better Life, your spiritual growth e-newsletter with articles by Rick Warren and others. To see a sample click HERE. Click HERE for information on Mobile Devotionals sent to your cell phone ($3.99 a month).   © 2007 Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved.

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This is something which might be of interest to those of you who have questions, comments etc about why should anyone believe in Jesus

"WayoftheMaster.com Newsletter" <newsltr@wayofthemaster.com> wrote:

From: "WayoftheMaster.com Newsletter" <newsltr@wayofthemaster.com>
Subject: ABC Reschedules Debate About God
Date: Thu, 03 May 2007 18:25:01 -0400

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May 3, 2007 ABC Reschedules Debate About God Please remember to pray for Kirk and Ray as they debate two atheists in New York for ABC television this Saturday. The debate will be filmed for Nightline in New York City, and will be streamed LIVE on their website on Wednesday, May 9. This notice is to let you know the network recently changed the streaming time from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 pm EST. We would be grateful if you would forward this newsblast all over the internet. This is a wonderful opportunity for the gospel. We will send out another blast next week with more details. Thank you. Actor Kirk Cameron and best-selling author Ray Comfort will square off with two atheists in New York on Saturday, May 5. ABC originally planned to stream the 90-minute debate LIVE on their website, but decided to reschedule the broadcast to capture a larger audience. They will broadcast the entire debate on ABC.com on Wednesday, May 9 at 2:00 p.m. EST. The debate will be moderated by Martin Bashir, and on May 9 a shortened version of the debate will be aired on Nightline also on Wednesday 9th. Comfort -- who claims he can prove the existence of God, scientifically, without mentioning faith or the Bible -- stated, "The network originally offered me only four minutes to present my case. After speaking with Kirk and conferring with the atheists, they settled on 13 minutes. I'm ecstatic. I can prove the existence of God in that amount of time. "We are very grateful to ABC for taking this courageous step," Comfort continued. "As far as we know, nothing like this has ever been done before. ABC's website is already the 7th most visited news site, with 19 million visitors every month. But with more than 177 million people in the U.S. who call themselves Christians, we are sure that it will draw an even larger viewing audience. Is there actually evidence for God? That's the most important question any of us will ever consider." Cameron added, "We are excited that the network has decided to do this, because we have something very relevant to present. Most people think that belief in God is simply a matter of blind faith, and that His existence can't be proven. We will not only prove that God exists, but as an ex-atheist I'll show that the issue keeping so many people from believing in God -- Darwinian evolution -- is completely unscientific. It's a fairy-tale for grownups." The debate came about after ABC ran a story in January about hundreds of atheists videotaping themselves blaspheming the Holy Spirit. "But," Comfort continued, "there is something more sinister here than a few people not believing in God. Why would so many be so bitter against Christianity in particular? Why aren't they making videos that blaspheme Buddha or Mohammed or Ghandi? We made our own video clip and posted it on www.Hollywoodblasphemy.com to expose why. As of May 2 there is still an opportunity for people to join in the debate, by submitting questions that will be passed on to the panelists. ABC will limit the live audience to 100 people, evenly divided between atheists and believers. For further information, contact mark@livingwaters.com.

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