"Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept your will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to you to be yours forever.  Fill me and seal me with your Holy Spirit. Use me as you will, send me where you will, work out your whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever. In Jesus' name, Amen." (Prayer of Betty Scott Stam)

​We do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with have the power to demolish strongholds ✦ For our war is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil ✦ It is God who arms me with strength. He is the God who avenges me…who saves me from my enemies ✦ Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified or discouraged, for the Lord Your God will be with you wherever you go ✦ Do not be afraid of them for the Lord Your God himself will fight for you ✦ Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. ✦ The Lord is my strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my shield, my stronghold ✦ No weapon forged against you will prosper and you will refute every tongue that accuses you — this is the heritage of the Lord’s servants ✦ For the battle is the Lord’s ✦ Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground ✦ And in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.

​Courtesy

​Jesus Became Poor To Make You Rich

2 CORINTHIANS 8:9 LB 9 You know how full of love and kindness our Lord Jesus was: though he was so very rich, yet to help you he became so very poor, so that by being poor he could make you rich.

Many Christians consider being poor the will of God. Scripture actually gives a quite opposite picture.

Although there are many warnings in Scripture against the love of money and its misuse, the fact remains that financial prosperity is considered a blessing from God in the Bible.

PSALM 35:27 NKJ 27 Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, "Let the Lord be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant."

(Certainly there are dangers in being prosperous. With more money you can make more choices, and buy more trouble. However, money itself is not evil. The person using money determines whether it will be a force for good or a force for evil.)

You do not have to convince God to prosper you. No arm-twisting will be necessary, as He has already made the provision. Through the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ, prosperity already belongs to you.

I can almost hear the objections: "If I am rich, where is it? Why do I have all these debts and bills?"
The answer is simple actually. The devil has stolen it away from us because of our ignorance.

You can reclaim it by faith, but you will have to feed on the Word for your faith to continue strong and effective. So, to receive the blessings available to us through Christ, we have to draw near to God.

Some maturity is required to receive God's provision and to keep the devil from stealing it. This insures that immature believers will not have more money than they can handle and thus have their lives ruined by it.

Nevertheless, according to the Bible you are rich. You may not have ready access to it, but in Christ wealth is yours -- just as surely as a young heir is rich even though his money is held by trustees and he cannot have it until he matures.

SAY THIS: Jesus Christ became poor to make me rich. I am rich in Christ Jesus.

adevotion.org

“He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing." (Deuteronomy 10:18)

"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed." (Psalm 82:3)

"Defend the cause of the fatherless..." (Isaiah 1:17)

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8-9)

"You are the helper of the fatherless." (Psalm 10:14)

"Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds--his name is the LORD-- and rejoice before him. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling." (Psalm 68:4-5)

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:27)

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Galatians 6:10)
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Charles Spurgeon:

Heavenly Wealth
 
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. (Psalm 84:11)
 
Many pleasing things the Lord may withhold but "no good thing." He is the best judge of what is good for us. Some things are assuredly good, and these we may have for the asking through Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
Holiness is a good thing, and this He will work in us freely. Victory over evil tendencies, strong tempers, and evil habits He will gladly grant, and we ought not to remain without it.
 
Full assurance He will bestow, and near communion with Himself, and access into all truth, and boldness with prevalence at the mercy seat. If we have not these, it is from want of faith to receive and not from any unwillingness of God to give. A calm, a heavenly frame, great patience, and fervent love--all these will He give to holy diligence.
 
But note well that we must "walk uprightly." There must be no cross purposes and crooked dealings; no hypocrisy nor deceit. If we walk foully God cannot give us favors, for that would be a premium upon sin. The way of uprightness is the way of heavenly wealth-wealth so large as to include every good thing.
 
What a promise to plead in prayer! Let us get to our knees.
 
​

The redefinition of marriage is most definitely about children's rights, the defense of the fatherless and motherless. As Australia debates the radical and unusual proposition to change the legal definition of marriage, this new and timely book by Bill Medley offers helpful insight, to Christians and non-Christians alike, on this seemingly harmless, yet deeply divisive and destructive proposal. Any law which will institutionalize the making of orphans requires courageous opposition from responsible adults. This is a book which will help you to stand boldly and act on behalf of the fatherless and motherless. "It may be critical to the future of our society in the next generation."
​
​The 82 page book is available at Koorong or Word bookstores for A$7.99.

To add to the growing poverty and general hopelessness in Malawi the poor are again under intense pressure as the government increase the price of the country's staple maize by 127%.
A 50 kilogram bag has increased in price from K5,500 to K12,500.

The impact on inflation and the economy is expected to be far reaching, with the hardest hit likely to be those already in extreme poverty who will simply be unable to pay the increased price.

​Prayer and action is required.

http://mwnation.com/apm-orders-127-maize-price-hike/
​http://www.nyasatimes.com/maize-prices-127-admarc-depots-opens-monday/

​Christians are Being Urged to be Praying and Fasting for Australia, for Marriage, Family, Children and Freedom Every Day Throughout October 2016.

 Australia is a great country in a world of increasing chaos. This did not just happen by accident. The foundations which have allowed this are currently under unprecedented attack from within. We are stewards of the Australia we have been blessed with. Blood has been spilled to pass this legacy onto us, and we have a duty to preserve it and pass it on to the next generation.

​The forceful rainbow/gender confusion ideological movement imposing itself on our society, demanding that we accept their divisive and destructive ideas about human autonomy, liberty, marriage, family, gender, politics, governance, education, finance, democracy (ideas which are inimical to the ones found in our foundations), and submit to their attempted takeover of our society, want us to go quietly. No debate. No conversation. No requests, just forceful demands to submit or else.

​If we do, we will wake up being unable to speak freely, educate our children freely, raise our children freely, associate freely, worship freely, and eventually vote freely and maybe even travel freely, own property, invest, create and prosper.

​This rainbow movement will not stop at marriage. Authoritarian movements never do. They can sense victory and are doing everything they can to remove the people's vote (plebiscite) on marriage. Knowing that they have stacked the parliament by stealth and intimidation (who in parliament are brave enough to publicly go against the gay media and political mob?), they want to force through a parliamentary vote. They know the stakes are high. They also know that the people will possibly put an end to their attempted coup in a plebiscite.

​If they gain power they will take our freedom. Churches will be labelled centres of "hate" speech. The Bible will be labelled "hate" literature. Preachers will be imprisoned if they preach on certain sections of the Bible. This has happened before.

Ultimately they can't win though. This gender confusing, anti-marriage, anti-family, man-centred, anti-God, authoritarian social experiment is doomed to fail, just like it did in socialist Russia in the 1920s, and the only true hope for men will continue to be found only in one place. Thank God for that!

​God's people are not to be silent. Like Jesus clearing the traders from the temple, we too are allowed to get a bit animated now and then. John Calvin once said, “Even a dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.”  This rainbow movement will impose itself on our society until we are subjugated and prevented from being free to carry out the Great Commission in a free land. Why would we let that happen without some resistance?

So, what to do?

​The best thing to do, and our first priority, is always to pray. We acknowledge Jesus is Lord of all and so we must seek His mercy on our land. We can also then act in other ways too. Contact politicians; start blogs; actively post, re-tweet and share on your social media; print out your own heartfelt defence of marriage, family and children and letter box drop it around your neighbourhood.

​Millions of Christians around Australia and the world are preparing to spend the whole month of October 2016 in prayer and fasting to ask God to protect and preserve our free Australia. Please join them.

​From the Canberra Declaration ministry: "To give you insight and encouragement in your courageous decision to pray and fast for marriage and family you can download this free e-book by John Piper called "A Hunger for God: Desiring God Through Fasting and Prayer."
​
Use this Link: http://document.desiringgod.org/a-hunger-for-god-en.pdf?1446646561

To give you some inspiration for your own marriage download this free e-book called "31 Days to a Better Marriage." Use this link: http://cdn2.hotholyhumorous.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/31-Days-to-a-Better-Marriage-Ebook.pdf

To gain some insight into the powerful benefits of marriage between a man and a woman from the social sciences download this free e-book called "21 Reasons Why Marriage Matters." Use this link: https://www.familyfirst.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2009-21-REASONS-WHY-MARRIAGE-MATTERS.pdf

We pray that this will be a time of renewal of your love for God, family and extended family. We ask that His love may overflow to them as you participate in this time of prayer."

May God bless Australia and keep us a land of freedom and light in an increasingly lost and dark West.

Canberra Declaration ​​

News from Malawi on the ABC on 21st September 2016

Hope fades in Malawi as severe drought leaves millions suffering

​By freelance correspondents Kayla Robertson and Max Greenstein in Chikwawa
Wed 21 Sep 2016, 8:52am

"There have been plans to drought-proof the nation. One, called the Green Belt Initiative would have irrigated one million hectares of farmland, but it withered through lack of funding.

Critics point to endemic corruption in the country, which has seen an estimated $550 million stolen from government coffers in the past 10 years and siphoned away from vital programs."

​Read the full article -->>

​Practical Christianity requires a selfless heart. To love others requires a selfless and giving heart. Giving is love in action, the opposite of selfishness. Because of sin, we don't have this heart, so God starts to give his  people selfless and giving hearts when he rescues them from their selfish, self-seeking and lost ways.

God's ways work, fallen man's ways most often don't. God works his generosity to his people through having his people be generous to other people. The worldly will seek to gather by all means and then hoard. But what good does that do on the last day? Someone else just gets to enjoy it. Better to empty your silos while you live and bless others in doing so. God confirms this by filling his people's silos faster than they can empty them. His ways work.

​God is wise and therefore his people should seek to be wise givers not foolish givers. This sometimes takes effort, but is required if your giving is not to perpetuate corrupt and futile practices, which may give you a warm feeling for a time but helps neither the intended poor recipient nor the corrupt wealthy interceptor of your giving.

MATTHEW 6:33 NIV  "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

PSALM 122:5 NLV "Good will come to the man who is ready to give much, and is fair in what he does."

LUKE 6:38 NIV 38 "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

PROVERBS 3:9-10 NKJV 9 "Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruits of all your increase; 10 So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine."

MATTHEW 10:42 NIV 42 "And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

2 CORINTHIANS 9:6-8 NIV 6 "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."

HEBREWS 6:10 NIV 10 "God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them."

ACTS 20:35 NIV 35 "In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: `It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

"When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go.." 1 Kings 2:1-3

"Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” Daniel 9:18-19

Presbyterian Youth Victoria (PYV) Proposed Mission Trip to Malawi in 2017: In June/July 2017 PYV plans to send a team to Blantyre, Malawi to work at the Orbus Centre. The team will be spending time contributing to some educational and practical needs of the Orbus Centre, and will also be involved in Bible teaching and children's ministry. The team will also visit local churches to encourage, and participate in gospel ministry. If you would like to read more preliminary details about the trip please click here. Any questions please call Emily Venning on 0401659336 or send an email to e.g.venning@gmail.com
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​Guardian of the Fatherless

In God the orphan finds mercy. (Hosea 14:3)

When a child is left without its natural protector, our God steps in and becomes his guardian: so also when a man has lost every object of dependence, he may cast himself upon the living God and find in Him all that he needs. Orphans are cast upon the fatherhood of God, and He provides for them. No trust is so well warranted by facts, or so sure to be rewarded by results, as trust in the invisible but ever-living God.

Better have God and no other friend than all the patrons on the earth and no God. To be bereaved of the creature is painful, but so long as the Lord remains the fountain of mercy to us, we are not truly orphaned.

Lord, let me find mercy in Thee! The more needy and helpless I am, the more confidently do I appeal to Thy loving heart.
​
Charles Spurgeon

Are You Afraid You've Failed?
by Billy Graham

​You may be headed in the wrong direction. I am asking you to come God’s way.

You say, “I am afraid that I have already failed.” All right, let me tell you what to do. Ask God to forgive you. He will. When the woman taken in adultery was dragged before Jesus, He did not condemn her. He gave her a hope that she could face tomorrow without sin. He said, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11, NKJV).

Christ will forgive all the past. That is why He died on the cross. When those nails went into His hands, it was for you. He took the judgment, the hell, the death, the suffering that you and I deserve because of sin.

Ask God today to cleanse and forgive and change you, and give you the capacity to say “No” and to live a pure, wholesome life—the kind of life God meant for you. If you wait, your heart will harden. God is speaking to you. Come to Him now.

(Adapted from “The Days of Youth” by Billy Graham)

   

“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” (Proverbs 3:5-8)

Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. (Matthew 5:7)
 
It is not meet that the man who will not forgive should be forgiven, nor shall he who will not give to the poor have his own wants relieved. God will measure to us with our own bushels, and those who have been hard masters and hard creditors will find that the Lord will deal hardly with them. "He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy."
 
This day let us try to give and to forgive. Let us mind the two bears-bear and forbear. Let us be kind, gentle, and tender. Let us not put harsh constructions upon men's conduct, nor drive hard bargains, nor pick foolish quarrels, nor be difficult to please. Surely we wish to be blessed, and we also want to obtain mercy: let us be merciful, that we may have mercy. Let us fulfill the condition, that we may earn the beatitude. Is it not a pleasant duty to be kind? Is there not much more sweetness in it than in being angry and ungenerous? Why, there is a blessedness in the thing itself! Moreover, the obtaining of mercy is a rich reward. What but sovereign grace could suggest such a promise as this? We are merciful to our fellow mortal in pence, and the Lord forgives us "all the debt."
 
Charles Spurgeon​

"Because of sin, things in this world are not always fair and sad things happen. Because of sin, people have problems. There have always been people who are poor and do not have what they need. There always will be poor people, until Jesus comes again. When we have all we need, it is easy to ignore others who do not have what they need.

​Sometimes people are poor because they have not worked hard, as God says we should. But often people are poor because of things they cannot change. Such people need our help. God wants us to remember that the poor are human beings too. We must respect them because He made them in His image. He wants us to do whatever we can to help them."

"Whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker; whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.' Proverbs 17:5

"Training Hearts. Teaching Minds," Starr Meade, P&R 2000, pg 246.