God Is Our Daily Source Of New Energy

Proverbs 29:13

"The poor and the deceitful man meet together:

the Lord lightenth both their eyes."

    To often human beings; Sinners and Christians alike think they can make it or continue functioning definitely, just on their own power without any need of a new source of energy. Even though we acknowledge, that God created us and knowing at some point in our life here on earth will come to its end. However, a lot of us between life and death try to run on our own power, and that my friends is negative energy and effort in our life. 

    We believe that we are self sufficient. God gave all of us sight and other abilities in the past but continues giving them to us today in the present. If God should withdraw from us today, tomorrow or anytime it would be devastating. We need God in our life each day for He is the only real true source of energy we have in this life. 
    My Friends, God doesn't just create something, and then just set back and wait to see what happens to it. God is continually watching over His creation, and sustaining all it contains. God is directing creation toward the "Final Fulfillment Of His Will."  Are We All Ready For This To Happen At Anytime?
Amen!

Reading: (Prov. 29:1-13)
Ref: (HG SB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

     

  

    

God's All Sufficient Grace

2 Corinthians 12:9 

"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength

is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather

glory in my infirmities, that the power of

Christ may rest upon me."

     Paul prayed that it might be taken from him, but God answered that prayer as he answers so many prayers he did not take the thing away but gave Paul strength to bear it. That is how God works. He does not spare us things, but makes us able to conquer them. Paul experienced the promise and the reality of the all sufficient grace. Now let us see from his life some of the things from which that grace was sufficient.

    It was sufficient for his physical weariness. It made him able to go on. It was sufficient for physical pain. it made him able to bear the cruel stake. It was sufficient for opposition. All his life Paul was up against it and all his life he never gave in. No amount of opposition could break him or make him turn back. That was the work of God's all sufficient grace. 

    My friends, there is nothing so hard to face as misinterpretation and cruel misjudgment. God's all sufficient grace should make us not care what other people may think about us and what we are, but be what God knows us to be. It is the glory of the gospel that in our weakness we may find this wondrous grace, for always man's extremity is God's opportunity.

Amen!

Reading: (2 Cor. 12:1-12)

Ref: (HG SB; DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

"Get Thee Out"

2 Corinthians 6:17  

"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, 

saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; 

and I will receive you,"

    The whole passage is a summons not to hold any fellowship with unbelievers. It is a challenge to the Corinthians to keep themselves unspotted from the world. The history of Israel is in the words, "Get thee out!" That was the word of God that came to Abraham as the King James Version has it. "Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:." (Gen. 12:1). That was also the warning that came to Lot before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Gen.19:12-14). There are things in the world with which the Christian cannot and dare not associate himself.

    It is difficult to realize just how many separations Christianity meant for the people who first accepted it. Often it meant that a man had to give up his trade. Suppose he was a stone mason. What was to happen if his firm received a contract to build a heathen shrine? Suppose he was a tailor. What was to happen if he was instructed to cut and sew garments for priests of the heathen gods? Time and time again in the early Church the choice came to a man between the security of his job and his loyalty to Jesus Christ. 

    My Friends, "Where is your loyalty today, your job or to Jesus Christ? Let me make the answer to that question easier.  No man is keeper of another man's conscience. Every man must decide for himself if he can take his trade to Christ and Christ with him to his daily work. However hard it may be, it will always remain true that there are certain things a man cannot do and be a Christian. There are certain things from which every Christian "must get out."

Amen!

Reading: (2 Cor. 6:14-18)

Ref: (HG SB; DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

 

Defending The Christian Faith

2 Corinthians 5:17  

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: 

old things are passed away; behold, 

all things are become new."

    Paul is defending himself and trying to persuade men of his own sincerity. He has no doubt whatever that in the sight of God his hands are clean and his motives pure. But his enemies have cast suspicion on them, and he wishes to demonstrate his sincerity to his Corinthian friends. This is not from any selfish desire to vindicate himself. It is from the knowledge that, if his sincerity is questioned, the impact of his message will be injured. A man's message will always be heard in the context of his character. That is why the preacher and the teacher must be beyond suspicion. We have to avoid, not only evil, but the very appearance of evil lest anything make others think less, not of us, but of the message which we bring. 

    In verse 13, Paul insists that behind all his conduct there has been one motive only; to serve God and to help the Corinthians. More than once Paul was thought to be crazy (Acts 26:24). He was suffering the same misunderstanding as Jesus suffered (Mark 3:21). The real enthusiast always runs the risk of seeming crazy to lukewarm people.
    The real enthusiast does not care if others think he is a fool. If a man follows out the Christian way of generosity, forgiveness and utter loyalty, there will always be worldly wise people who will bluntly call him crazy. Paul knew that there was a time for calm, sensible conduct, and he knew, too, that there was a time for the conduct which to the world looks mad. He was prepared to follow either for the sake of Christ and of men.

    To Paul the Christian is, in his favorite phrase, in Christ, and therefore the old self of the Christian died in that death and he arose a new man, as new as if he had been freshly created by the hands of God. In this newness of life he has acquired a new set of standards. He no longer judges things by the standards the world uses. There was a time when Paul had judged Christ by human standards and had set out to eliminate the Christian faith from the world. But not now. Now his standards are different. Now the man whose name he had sought to obliterate is to him the most wonderful person in the world, because he had given to him that friendship of God which he had longed for all his life. My Friends, we have a friendship with God, and we must stand and not let the Christian faith be obliterated from our Nation.

Amen!

Reading: (2 Cor. 11-19)

Ref: ( HG SB; DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

 

The Secret Of Endurance

2 Corinthians 4:17 

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for

us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;" 

    All through life a mans body and strength begins to fade away. But through life a mans soul continues to grow. The sufferings that leave our body's weak may well be the very thing that gives strength to the fibrous tissue of our soul. From the physical point of view life is a slow but down hill slid that leads to death. But from the spiritual point of view life is climbing up the hill that leads to the presence of God. We should not fear the years ahead, for they bring us nearer, not to death, but to God. Paul was convinced that anything he had to suffer in this world would be as nothing compared with the glory he would enjoy in the next, and so should we. Earth's suffering is forgotten in the glory of heaven.
    It is a notable fact that Jesus never foretold his death without foretelling his Resurrection. He who suffers for Christ will share his glory. For that very reason, a man's eyes must not be fixed, on the things that are seen, but on the things that are unseen. The things that are seen, the things of this world, have their day and cease to be; the things that are unseen, the things of heaven, last forever. 
Amen!

Reading: (2 Cor. 4:16-18)
Ref: (HG SB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

  

Place No Veil Upon Your Face

2 Corinthians 3:17  

"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the 

Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

    Paul say's that we see the glory of the Lord with no veil upon our faces, and because of that we, too, are changed from glory into glory. What Paul means is that, if we gaze at Christ, we in the end reflect him. His image appears in our lives. If we remain Christ, minded, in the end we come to reflect him in our Heavenly Fathers eyes. 

    "The Lord is the Spirit." Here Paul identifies the Risen Lord and the Holy Spirit. We must remember that he was not writing theology; he was setting down experience. And it is the experience of the Christian life that the work of the Spirit and the work of the Risen Lord are one and the same. The strength and guidance we receive come alike from the Spirit and from the Risen Lord. 

    Where the Spirit is, there is liberty. So long as man's obedience to God is conditioned by obedience to a code of laws he is in the position of an unwilling slave. But when it comes from the operation of the Spirit in his heart, the very center of his being has no other desire than to serve God, for then it is not law but love which binds him. Many things which we would resent doing for some stranger are a privilege to do for someone we love. Love clothes the humblest and the most menial tasks with glory. "In God's service we find our perfect freedom." 
Amen!

Reading: (2 Cor. 3:12-18)
Ref: (HG SB; DSB)

May God Bless You

And You Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

Would You Make Your Home A Church?

1Corinthians 16:19  

"The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you 

much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house"

    These two people, man and wife, move across the background of Paul's letters and the Book of Acts. They were Jews, and, like Paul, were tent-makers. One of the interesting things about Aquila and Priscilla is that they show us how easy and natural travel was even at that time. They followed their trade from Palestine to Rome, from Rome to Corinth, from Corinth to Ephesus, and from Ephesus back to Rome.
    There is one thing about these two. In those early days there were no church buildings. It is, in fact, not until the third century that we hear about a church building at all. The little congregations met in private houses. If a house had a room big enough, it was there that the Christian fellowship met. Now wherever Aquila and Priscilla went, their home became a church. When they are in Rome, Paul sends greetings to them and to the church that is their house, "Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ," (Rom. 16:3-5).

    Aquila and Priscilla were two of these wonderful people who make their homes centers of Christian light and love, who welcome many guests because Christ is always their unseen guest, who make their houses havens of rest and peace and friendship for the lonely and the tempted and the sad and the depressed. The Christian wayfarer always found an place of peace where Aquila and Priscilla lived. God' grant us the wisdom to make our homes like that now, and in the troubled times ahead! 

Amen!

Reading: (1 Cor. 16:13-24)

               (Rom. 16:1-16)

Ref: (HG SB; DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

  

Being Complacent

Genesis 18:20-21 

"And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and

because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether 

they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which

is come unto me; and if not, I will know."

    Sodom and Gomorrah; two sin filled cities, destroyed by God's wrath. Why did God destroy the two cities? After all they were just brick and mortar, We don't need to look deep in God's Word, it's right in front of us in the second line of Scripture, "because their sin is very grievous." In other words it means their sin was very bad (i.e.) great, and the people there was satisfied with the way they lived and the situation around them, without the thought of some potential danger or defeat. And remember Lot and his two daughters where the only people that God spared.
    I'm sure somewhere in our Christian walk we all or most of us has heard a preacher tell his congregation to be content. Is the harmful to say that to your church? I will not give a yes or no on that, but I will say; "that this can cause and encourage complacency instead of True Biblical Contentment."
    How can we reach True Biblical Contentment? How can we be content in any and all situations? Apostle Paul has that answer for us. Paul always strived to do what God had called him to do. At the end of the day, he had done everything he could do to be faithful to God's calling on his life. "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing," (Phil. 3:12-16).
    My friends, if we want to experience the contentment that Paul describes in Philippians Chapter 4:10-23, we must use all the gifts and talents God as given us through our individual calling to bring maximum return for God. Real contentment is not being satisfied with what you have or where you are in life. It is working diligently to glorify God, serve the common good, and further the Kingdom of God in everything we do. There is no complacency in Paul's contentment, and neither should there be in ours. "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," (Phil. 4:11).
    When we do our best to improve the creation by using the resources that God has given us, we are like the two talent and five talent servants who invested the money their master had given them. Listen my friends; we have something to offer the world. When we use the gifts God has given us, we have the opportunity to create something that can glorify God and improve other people's lives.
Amen!

Reading: (Phil. 3:12-16; 4:10-23)
               (Gen. 19:1-26)
Ref: (HG SB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry 

Right Things From The Wrong Motive

Matthew 6:1 

"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be

seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward

of your Father which is in heaven"

    To the Jew there were three great cardinal works of the religious life, three great pillars on which the good life was base; almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Jesus would not for one moment have disputed that; what troubled Him was that so often in human life the finest things were done from the wrong motives.

    It is a strange fact that these three great cardinal good works easily lead themselves to wrong motives. Jesus was warning that, when these things were done with the sole intention of bringing glory to the doer, they lost by far the most important part of their value. A man may give alms, not really to help the person to whom he gives, but simply to demonstrate his own generosity, and to bask in the warmth of some one's gratitude and all men's praise. A man may pray in such a way that his prayer is not really addressed to God, but to his fellow men. His praying may simply be an attempt to demonstrate his exceptional piety in such a way that no one can fail to see it. A man may fast, not really for the good of his own soul, not really to humble himself in the sight of God, but simply to show the world what a splendidly self disciplined character he is. A man may practice good works simply to win praise from men, to increase his own prestige, and to show the world how good he is. As Jesus saw it, there is no doubt that this kind of behavior does receive a certain kind of reward. Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, They have their reward." (Matt 6:2e).

     What Jesus is saying is this: "If you give alms to demonstrate your own generosity, you will get the admiration of men, but that is all you will ever get. That is your payment in full. If you pray in such a way as to flaunt your piety in the face of men, you will gain the reputation of being an extremely devout man, but that is all you will ever get. That is your payment in full. If you fast My Friends, What Jesus is saying is this; "If your one aim is to get yourself the world's rewards, no doubt you will get them." If so you will be a sadly short sighted creature who grasped the rewards of time, and let the rewards of eternity go.

Amen!

Reading: (Matt. 6:1-4)

Ref: (HG SB; DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry 

What The Eye Sees

Matthew 6:22

"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore

thine eye be single, thy whole body

shall be full of light." 

    The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, which is translated from the Greek word "Haplous." So what does it mean by thine eye being "single?" It means singleness, simplicity, absence of folds.  In other words it means the eyes are clear, what the eye sees, it then enters the mind, for the mind is the seat of intellectual and spiritual activity it thinks but also controls one's thoughts, or one's inner attitude of mind. And then to the heart which is the seat of passions where the Holy Spirit dwells. 
    What the eye sees does not involve stupidity when it comes to Christians, but prudence. Knowing how to deal with fellow humans and the circumstances of life. There is no duplicity and he is prudent, sensible, using practical wisdom without the willingness to hurt the fellow man.
    Remember the old saying, "My eyes or mind are playing tricks on me? But you never hear one say, my heart played a trick on me today. That's because the heart don't play tricks, because God don't play tricks! My Friend, God gave us the ability to see, think and to have passion, but when we use these ability's the eye must be clear, if not, the mind can and will process it to be something that it's not. Which could change our feelings and passions from being incorruptible to corrupted nature.     
    My Friends, stay in union with God and all shall be well! "For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.  And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you," (Rom. 16:19-20).
Amen! 

Reading: (Matt. 6:22-23; 10:16)     
               (Luke 11:34-36)
Ref: (HG SB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

               

Be Zealous About Giving Fourth The Word Of God

1Corinthians  14:3-4 

"But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, 

and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth 

himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church."

 

    When we preach God's Word;  It must be encased with the Blood of Jesus Christ, His Death and Resurrection; to build up and to increase a man's knowledge of Christian truth and his ability to live the Christian life. It must aim to encourage! In every group of people there are those who are depressed and discouraged. Dreams will not come true; effort seems to have achieved so little; self-examination serves to show nothing but failures and inadequacies. 
    Within the Christian fellowship, a man should find something to cheer his heart and mend a broken spirit. A service may begin by humbling a man through showing him his sin, but it is a failure unless it ends by pointing him to the grace of God that can enable him to conquer it. It must aim to comfort. In any company of people there will always be some whom life has hurt; and within the Christian fellowship they must be able to find beauty for their ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of their heaviness. 
    The Scriptures gives us the things which for Paul were the background and the substance of all preaching and we as Preacher's, Teacher's, Missionary's and soul seekers that go daily and speak to others about Jesus Christ.  My Friend, The Holy Bible is our Road Map And The Holy Spirit is our Guide.  It must be remembered; "it comes from a direct revelation from God." "No man can speak to others unless God has first spoken to him." 
Amen!

Reading: ( 1 Cor. 14:1-25)
               (Acts 2:4, 6, 8; 10:46; 19:6)
Ref: (HG SB; DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

         

The Body Of Christ

1Corinthians 12:31  

"But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet 

shew I unto you a more excellent way." 

    Paul says, "You," "are the body of Christ." Christ is no longer in this world in the body; therefore if he wants a task done within the world he has to find a man to do it. If he wants a child taught, he has to find a teacher to teach him; if he wants a sick person cured, he has to find a physician or surgeon to do his work; if he wants his story told, he has to find a man to tell it. Literally, we have to be the body of Christ, hands to do his work, feet to run upon his errands, a voice to speak for him.  Here is the supreme glory of the Christian man; he is part of the body of Christ upon earth. 
    We ought to realize that we need each other. There can be no such thing as isolation in the Church. Far too often people in the Church become so engrossed in the bit of the work that they are doing and so convinced of its supreme importance that they neglect or even criticize others who have chosen to do other work. If the Church is to be a healthy body, we need the work that everyone can do.
    We ought to respect each other. In the body there is no question of relative importance. If any limb or any organ ceases to function, the whole body is thrown out of gear. It is so with the Church. "All service ranks the same with God." Whenever we begin to think about our own importance in the Church, the possibility of really Christian work is gone.
    We ought to sympathize with each other. If any one part of the body is affected, all the others suffer in sympathy because they cannot help it. The Church is a whole. The person who cannot see beyond his or her own organization, the person who cannot see beyond his or her congregation, worse still, the person who cannot see beyond his or her own family circle, has not even begun to grasp the real unity of the Church.
    My Friends, The Church as a body. A body consists of many parts but there is in it an essential unity. Plato pointed out that we do not say, "My finger has a pain," we say, "I have a pain." There is an I, a personality, which gives unity to the many and varying parts of the body. What the I is to the body, Christ is to the Church. It is in Christ that all the diverse parts find their unity. 
Amen!

Reading: (1 Cor. 12:12-31)
Ref: ( HG SB, DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

 

Spiritual Gifts

1 Corinthians 12:4-7 

 "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  And there are differences 

of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of 

operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given 

to every man to profit withal."

    Each believer, being a heir of God, has the same amount of grace placed to his credit in the heavenly bank, on which he can draw in time of need. Remember the parable of the Ten pounds, each servant received the same amount, one pound. But there are great diversities in the gifts with which we are endowed. Some have five, others two, and most only one. Spiritual Gifts are given from (v8-11) and it is a comfort to learn that to everyone something is allotted, "But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." (1Cor. 12:11).
   Scripture tells us that  these gifts are given by the Holy Spirit "dividing" to every man as he will. We do not know what time or place this Divine event will happen to us? Perhaps at the moment of our regeneration, (being saved). However, it is important to bear in mind that our gifts will probably correspond with our natural endowment. Hence our Lord tells us that to every man was given according to his several ability, "And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey." (Matt.25:15). My Friends, May God Richly Bless You As You Take Your Journey With Our Lord! And remember the parable of the Ten pounds! Use what God gives you or you could lose it all.
Amen!

Reading:  (1Cor.12:1-11)
                (Luke 25:11-27)
                (Matt. 25:14-30)
Ref: (HG SB, DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry