Hold Fast To What You Claim: Your Faith!

                                         Hebrew 10:23
              "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
                      wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;"

        The author of the Book of Hebrews is unknown. However, it is thought to have been written by different people at different times. The traditional positional still holds that Apostle Paul wrote Hebrews from the beginning. The purpose of this letter was to focus on doctrinal issues and practical living. The letter contain several warnings to Jewish Christians not to revert back to Judaism and that type of worship. It was event that the believers were weak in their faith; when they should have been teaching others, when they themselves still required teaching.
        My friends; that still goes on today! Our Church's are full of Christians that go and hear the sermon on Sunday and some Church's on Wednesday. The problem being is that they never crack open their Bible to follow the Sermon or take notes. Oh' I'm sure that some take home some knowledge with them; but when they begin to share it with others or help someone to find Christ; "Can They Do It."  Some may say; "It's not my problem!"  If we profess to be Christians and have faith in the Saving Power of Jesus Christ.  I'm here to say it is!
        Let us approach the presence of God with a heart wherein the truth dwells and with the full conviction of faith, let us hold fast to the hope of our creed. For we can rely absolutely on him who made the promises; and let us put our minds to the task of helping each other on in love and deeds. Let us encourage one another, and all the more so as we see the Day approaching.
        Amen!!

Reading: (Heb. 10:19-39)

                                      May God Bless You
                                       And Your Families

                                                    Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.
                                                    The Cross Life Ministry    
                     

The Run Of Your Lifetime

                                          1 Corinthians 9:24
                "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but
                    one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain."

        Many of the Corinthian converts had, no doubt, seen, or even taken part in a race. The previous portion of the verse opens the minds of the Corinthians, to their familiar knowledge of the arena and the competitors, "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?" He would have them picture the eager racers, with every muscle strained, and the one victor starting to the front; of the pack, and then he says, "Look toward the front, the first place position. That is how you should run.  So run meaning not, "Run so that you "may" obtain the prize," but "Run so" as the victor does, in "order" that you may obtain. So, then, this victor is to be a lesson to us, and we are to take a leaf out of his book. Let us see what he teaches us.
        Paul gives us one valuable thought out of this, and it is this. If people would work half as hard to gain the highest object that a man can set before him, as hundreds of people are ready to do in order to gain trivial and useless objects, there would be fewer stunted and half dead Christians among us. "That is the way to run," says Paul, "if you want to obtain."
        So, the larger portion of most lives goes to getting the wheels to move forward, and there is very little left, in the case of many of us, in order to help us towards God, and bring us closer into communion with our Lord. ‘Run’ for the crown as eagerly as you ‘run’ for your incomes, or for anything that you really, in your deepest desires, want. Take yourselves for your own patterns and your own rebukes. Your own lives may show you how you can love, hope, work, and deny yourselves when you have sufficient incentive.
         If you would run for the incorruptible prize of effort in the fashion in which others and yourselves run for the corruptible, your whole lives would be changed. Why! if Christian people in general really took half of half? Yes!  A tenth part of the honest, persistent pains to improve their Christian character, and become more like Jesus Christ, there would be a new life for most of our Christian communities. Hours upon hours are never too much to give to our Lord; how many moments do we give to the other? "So run, that ye obtain."
        Amen!!

Reading: (1Cor. 9:1-24)

                                     May God Bless You
                                      And Your Families

                                                   Minister Robert A. Lail
                                                   The Cross Life Ministry        

Wisdom's Call

                                           Proverbs 1:33
                     "But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell
                       safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil."

        "The security of fools," by which they think they are safe, However that thought will soon, "destroy them."  No man is in such danger as the careless man of the world who thinks that he is all right. A traveler along the edge of a cliff in the night, who goes on as if he walked a broad road and takes no notice to his footing, will soon find himself at the bottom, mangled and bruised. A man who in this changing world thinks that he sits as a king, and sees no sorrow, will have a rude wakening. When just a moment of thought would save hours of pain.
        The alternative to this folly is in listening to Wisdom’s call. Whoever does that will "dwell safely," not just in earthly security, but real security; and in his heart there will be no need of unrest from feared evils, for he will have hold of a spirit which turns evils into good, and with such a guide he cannot go wrong, nor with such a defender be wounded to death, nor with such a companion ever be alone. If Christ be our Light, we shall not walk in darkness. If He be our Wisdom, we shall not be wrong. If He be our Life, we shall never see  the second death. If He be with us, who can be against!
        Amen!!

Reading: (Prov. 2:1:22)

                                    May God Bless You
                                     And Your Families

                                              Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.
                                              The Cross life Ministry

The Lord Hears The Cry's Of The Righteous

                                           Psalm 34:19
                   "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but
                         the Lord delivereth him out of them all"

        This does not mean that the afflictions of the righteous are more numerous or more severe than the afflictions of other men, but that they are subjected to much suffering, and to many trials. Religion does not exempt us from suffering, but it sustains us in it. Religion does not deliver us from all trials in this life, but it supports us in our trials, which it teaches us to consider as a preparation for the life to come.
        There are, indeed, sorrows which are counted to the righteous, or which come upon us in virtue of our religion, as the trials of persecution; but there are sorrows, also, that are counted to the wicked such as are the effects of intemperance, dishonesty, crime. The latter are more numerous by far than the former; so therefore it is still true that the wicked suffer more than the righteous in this life.

        Amen!!

Reading: (Ps. 34:1-22)

                                        May God Bless You
                                         And Your Families

                                                        Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.
                                                        The Cross Life Ministry 

Let Go! Acquaint With God!

                                           Job 22:21
                "Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace:
                           thereby good shall come unto thee."

        Eliphaz opens the discussion with a speech altogether too hard and cruel. He begins with Job’s  misdeeds. The fundamental position with Eliphaz was the absolute, even-handed justice of God. God at least was unimpeachable; and therefore, however Job might affirm the contrary, he must have deserved the chastisement which had befallen him.
         Evil men are always anxious to think that God does not notice them. This was, says Eliphaz, the policy of those who were destroyed by the Flood. They attempted to build society on atheistic lines, though he filled their houses with good things. The inference, of course, was that Job had been guilty of the same offense. Eliphaz concludes with a gestures of a holy life; To be reconciled to God, to obey His Word, to put away iniquity and trust in earthly riches, "are the conditions of blessedness." We shall gain more than we lose, We shall inherit the confidence and joy of His presence,  Our prayers will be answered; we shall walk “in the light;” and our ministry to others will be full of helpfulness. Let us, then, acquaint ourselves with God and be at peace!
        Amen!!

Reading:(Job 22:1-30)

                                     May God Bless You
                                      And Your Families

                                                    Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.
                                                    The Cross Life Ministry 

                                                

Hearing "It Is Finished" We To Shall Rest!

                                           Hebrew 4:1
                   "Let us therefore fear, least, a promise being
                        left us of entering into his rest, any of
                          you should seem to come short of it"

        The good news of Canaan’s rest was preached to Israel but availed nothing, because the hearers were destitute of faith. They said, Can God? instead of, God can!  Does that phrase sound familiar! Christians today may not say, Can God?  However you might hear; You think God will? or I Hope God Will?  No matter how we put it, if we are doubting God it is destitute of faith, and God is out of the account!  Rest in God is total faith in God! .
        To all of us Christ offers rest, not in the other life only, but in this. ( Heb 4:3; Heb 4:11).  Rest from the weight of sin, from care and worry, from the load of daily anxiety of life.  The rest that arrives from handing all worries over to Christ, and receiving from Christ all we need.  Have we entered into that experience?  (In Heb 4:6, 11 "entered not in because of "unbelief," is here referring to "disobedience."
        If we disobey, we cannot believe; but when we believe we are sure to obey. (In Heb 4:10) we are directed to our risen Lord, who has finished the work of Redemption and rests, as God did when He pronounced Creation to be "very good." When we understand what He meant by "It is finished," we, too, shall rest.
        Amen!!

Reading: (Heb. 4:1-16)

                                     May God Bless You
                                      And Your Families

                                                Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.
                                                The Cross Life Ministry

God Takes Care Of His Own

                                          Psalm 68:6
                      "God setteth the solitary in families:"
                     
        God is the friend of the orphan and the widow; and, also he is the friend of the cast out, the wandering, and the homeless;  he provides for them a "home."  The meaning is, that he is benevolent and kind, and that they who have no other friend may find a friend in God. At the same time it is true, however, that the family organization is to be traced to God. It is his original appointment; and all that there is in the family that contributes to the happiness of mankind.
        And all that there is of comfort in the world that depends on the family organization is to be traced to the goodness of God. Nothing more clearly marks the grace and the wisdom of God than the loving care in the arrangement He has provided. Instead of being solitary wanderers on the face of the earth, with nothing to bind them in sympathy, in love, and in interest to all, are grouped together in families.
        Amen!!

Reading: (Ps. 67:1-7)
               (Ps. 68:1-8)

                                    May God Bless You
                                     And Your Families

                                                   Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.
                                                   The Cross Life Ministry