God’s Challenge…
“If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” Mark 3:25

Our Response…
Pray for families in your community and across the nation. Ask Him to strengthen marriages, encourage parents toward His priorities, heal relationships and secure traditional  values in the home. This God-ordained institution has the potential to impact the culture mightily as husbands, wives, parents and children embody the love, grace and truth of Christ.

Please watch this short video below and let’s pray together for our Family.

God Bless you,
Pastor Don Dukes

“When we read in the newspaper about young people stealing, killing, destroying property, or being sexually promiscuous, we can be sure that those individuals do not have a healthy fear of the Lord, nor a good understanding of His ways, nor a hunger for the things of God. Some of these young people may even be from Christian families and have received Jesus, but because they haven’t been taught to fear God and desire His presence they are controlled by their flesh. Fearing God means having a deeply committed respect, love, and reverence for God’s authority and power. It means being afraid of what life would be like without Him and being grateful that because of His love we’ll never have to experience such despair. It means hungering for all that God is and all that He has for us.”

WEAPONS OF WARFARE

• Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. MATTHEW 5:6
• The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death. PROVERBS 14:27

Adapted from Omartian, Stormie (2010). The Power of a Praying® Parent (Power of Praying) -

(Kindle Locations 1053-1061). Harvest House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Christ is the vine, and God is the gardener who cares for the branches to make them fruitful. The branches are all those who claim to be followers of Christ. The fruitful branches are true believers who by their living union with Christ produce much fruit. But those who become unproductive- those who turn back from following Christ  after making a superficial commitment will be separated from the vine. Unproductive followers are as good as dead and will be cut off and tossed aside.

Commentary from The Life Application Bible

Scriptures mentioned:
John 15:1-5 (NLT) “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. 5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

God promised to restore Israel not only physically, but spiritually. To accomplish this, God would give them a new heart for following him and put his Spirit within them (see Ezekiel 11:19-20; Psalm 51:7-11) to transform them and empower them to do his will. Again the new covenant was promised (Ezekiel 16:61-63; Ezekiel 34:23-25), ultimately to be fulfilled in Christ. No matter how impure your life is right now, God offers you a fresh start. You can have your sins washed away, receive a new heart for God, and have his Spirit within you—if you accept God’s promise. Why try to patch up your old life when you can have a new one?
Life Application Bible Notes

Scriptures mentioned above:
Ezekiel 11:19-20 (NLT) 19 And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart,[a] 20 so they will obey my decrees and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God.

Psalm 51:7-11 (NLT)
7 Purify me from my sins,[a] and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Oh, give me back my joy again;
you have broken me—
now let me rejoice.
9 Don’t keep looking at my sins.
Remove the stain of my guilt.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit[b] from me.

Ezekiel 16:61-63(NLT) 61 Then you will remember with shame all the evil you have done. I will make your sisters, Samaria and Sodom, to be your daughters, even though they are not part of our covenant. 62 And I will reaffirm my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord. 63 You will remember your sins and cover your mouth in silent shame when I forgive you of all that you have done. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

Ezekiel 34:23-25 (NLT) 23 And I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David. He will feed them and be a shepherd to them. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among my people. I, the Lord, have spoken! 25 “I will make a covenant of peace with my people and drive away the dangerous animals from the land. Then they will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear.

The Bible says in John 7:38: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

I am standing right now at Glacier National Park in Northwest Montana, by a river of rushing waters.

But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the

teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night. And he shall be like a tree firmly planted (and tended) by the streams of water, ready to bring forth it’s fruit in it’s season; it’s leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper ( and come to maturity). Psalm 1:2-3.

Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You…I will meditate on Your precepts and have respect to Your ways (the paths of life marked out by Your law). Psalm 119:11,15.

Computers play a large role in our lives! It’s not uncommon for households to have no less than two or more computers being used for everyone in the house to do and to accomplish many things in our lives! When it comes to the use of computers, It is said…”garbage in-garbage out!”. We can accept this saying with these machines we use everyday, but have a hard time grasping this concept when it comes to ourselves! We read the Bible a little or a lot and often times after our reading we’ve forgot what we’ve read! The Bible tells us that “out of the heart flows the issues of life.” The only way to deal with these issues is to stop and take time out of our busy schedules to meditate on God’s Word to help us deal with these issues! I like to use a Scripture Confessions Book along with my Bible to help me pray the Word that is categorized in topics so I can focus my prayer scripturally on the issue. wait on the Lord. “Prayer with Meditation decreases worry and hesitation!” God Bless You as you wait on Him. He will respond!

Though the rejection of Christ was universal, individuals did respond personally—some believed him and accepted him as the Son of God, the Savior. To them he gave the right to become children of God. In Greek right means “authority or permission.” In this context, it speaks of God granting the right or giving the privilege for the new birth. No one can attain this new birth by his or her own power, merit, or ability. Only God can grant it. One is not in God’s family because he or she is a Jew by physical birth (or even born into a Christian family). The new birth cannot be attained by an act of human passion, and it has absolutely nothing to do with any human plan. It is a gift of God.
Many believed superficially in Jesus when they saw his miracles, but they did not believe in Jesus as the Son of God. They “believed” in him while he fulfilled their expectations of what the Messiah should be, but they left him when he defied their preconceived notions. We must believe in Jesus as Jesus, the Son of God; we must wholeheartedly believe in Jesus, not limiting him to our ideas and misconceptions; we must regard Jesus as the Bible truly presents him.
FROM LIFE APPLICATION BIBLE NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY