All Things New

by Dr. David C. Cooper

One of the greatest needs in our lives is the need for restoration. To restore means, "to bring something back into existence or effect again; to bring back to a former or original condition; to put back in a former place or position; to reinstate; to return." We talk about restoring relationships, renovating antique furniture, reinstating a political leader and returning something that was stolen or lost. These all demonstrate the idea of restoration. The essential meaning of salvation is restoration. To be saved means that we have experienced the miraculous restoring power of God to make all things new in our lives spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, and relationally.

From Genesis to Revelation, we see the God of restoration. We hear God's message to the nation of Judah: "I will restore your judges as in days of old, your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City" (Isa 1:26).

The Psalmist prayed, "Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me" (Ps 51:12). God promises, "I will restore you to health and heal your wounds" (Jer 30:17a). Paul the Apostle declares, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are new" (2 Cor 5:17).

When the Apostle John received the Revelation on the Isle of Patmos concerning the restoration of all things and the beauty of the new heaven and the new earth, he says, "And he that sat upon the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new'" (Rev 21:5). As you surrender your failures, problems and challenges to your Heavenly Father in faithful prayer, He will make all things new for you.

Dr. David C. Cooper serves as Senior Pastor of Mount Paran Church of God in Atlanta, GA. He received his bachelor's degree from Lee College, his Master of Education from the University of Georgia, and his Doctor of Ministry from Erskine Theological Seminary. Currently, Dr. Cooper serves as chairman of the Board of Directors and as an instructor in Counseling at the Psychological Studies Institute in Atlanta, Georgia.

© Dr. David C. Cooper all rights reserved.

Ask God For What You Want!

Image by marcp_dmoz via Flickr

Bishop E. Earl Jenkins

"The reason you don't have what you want is...you don't ask God." James 4:2 TLB

Imagine walking into a restaurant on a whim and asking if your order is ready. "When did you call it in?" the server asks. "Oh I didn't," you reply, "I just thought perhaps you'd have something with my name on it." Sound ridiculous? No more so than expecting God to answer requests you haven't made - or made in faith believing. James says, "The reason you don't have what you want is...you don't ask God." Does that mean He'll automatically give you everything you ask for? No. James adds, "Even when you do ask you don't get it because...you want only what will give you pleasure" (Jas 4:3 TLB). Your motives need to be in tune with what God knows is best for you. John says, "This is the confidence...we have in Him...if we ask anything...according to His will...He...hears" (1Jn 5:14 AMP).

Sponsor AdLamentations 3:25 says, "The Lord is good to those who wait...expectantly for Him" (AMP). Expectant prayer demonstrates confidence in God's goodness. Instead of fretting and taking matters into your own hands, when you say, "Lord, I'm going to trust you with this, regardless of the outcome," He'll honor your faith. Paul says, "Pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks" (Ph 4:6 NCV). Do you need a job? Help overcoming a problem? Salvation for your loved ones? A deeper walk with God? Physical or emotional healing?

Jesus said, "It gives your Father great happiness to give you the [benefits of his] Kingdom" (Lk 12:32 NLT). God wants to be good to you, so tell Him the "desires of your heart" (Ps 37:4 NKJV). And thank Him that the answer will come - in His time!

I Have A File

Cindy Beall

I'm realizing every day just how many women need hope.

I have spoken with numbers of women over the last 7 1/2 years about marriage issues and crises they are facing. So many so that I don't even remember who they all are. And that can get embarrassing when you meet them face to face.

I tell you that because a lot of these women are referred to me because they are now "going through" what I "went through". So, I visit with these women, mostly on the phone, sometimes via email, occasionally in person, and try to help them make sense of something that is absolutely senseless. When someone brings up pornography or infidelity around these parts where I live, a lot of my friends say, "You should talk to Cindy Beall."

Because you see, I have a file.

Sponsor AdMy file is 7 1/2 years old. It's got information in there that will make your head spin but will most certainly bring you unspeakable joy. My file is thick and gets thicker by the day with each story I hear and with each step I take. My file is a little tattered but is holding together fairly nicely because of the holy adhesive used to secure the frayed edges.

I've got a file.

My all-time favorite Bible teacher, Beth Moore, was speaking one time about a situation in which she was asked to participate. As she was preparing to go and minister, she told God, "But I don't have a file on this!"Beth Moore had never walked the road of those to whom she was about to minister. She did not have a file.

You may not have a file about something through which your best friend is enduring or what your child is experiencing or what your spouse is going through. But let me tell you what you do have.

The Holy Spirit.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory. Eph. 1:13-14

If you are a Christ follower, you have the Holy Spirit inside of you ready and willing to lead you down the path that you don't think you have any business traveling.

Ephesians 5:18 tells us, "be filled with the Spirit." As we yield our lives to Him and allow Him to come in, he will become our file.

God allows us to use our past hurts to help others. But, don't sell yourself short on how God can and will use you. And don't forget, my fellow Christ follower, that according to 2 Peter 1:3, His divine power has given you everything you need for life and godliness.

Last time I checked, everything meant everything.

God Will Use Your Test To Create Your Testimony!

Pastor Paula White

God's purposes cannot miscarry. God will never fail; He will never falter. And He will be revealed through a remnant that will rise up - that is, in fact, already rising up - to reveal His image, His glory, and His will on earth.

But that remnant will go through things. That remnant will be tested. That remnant will experience loss, trial, shake-up, chaos, and confusion...as God brings changes to our world. That remnant will have a testimony of God's power of transformation, salvation, and redemption.

If you are being tested today...it's because God will be using your testimony tomorrow!

Sponsor AdWe are in a very strategic, critical time in the body of Christ. Anyone and everyone with any spiritual discernment at all can see that we are in transition - that it's not like it used to be. We've are in a different place.

God is raising up a remnant out of the crevices, the darkness. If you are being tested...going through changes...experiencing a shake-up...and through it all, you are still hungrily seeking what it is He has to say - following His Word... and standing (-- or kneeling -- or laid out on the floor in prayer!) in the face of every attack of the enemy of your soul...then you are part of that remnant.
And right now He is positioning you for destiny...because He is about to have His grandest display of glory on the earth - and you are it! He has chosen you! And your test will become part of the testimony He will use so that others might see His glory... His faithfulness...His sovereignty...His grace - in your life.

God is taking us through a process where those who will rise up to the test will be purified and perfected...they will have persevered - and come forth very powerful.

God is raising up a people - His People - and they will represent His company. It is a heavenly summons...this is not the beckon or the call of a man. This is a moment in God that He chose, He observed, and He reserved. He placed and He planted you in the earth, and heaven has now summoned you: it is an upward drawing by the Holy Spirit to the top of Mount Zion. Zion is a place...and Zion is a people! And the people of Zion will remain steadfast to share the glory of God and His will -- through their wisdom... ...their love...their forgiveness ...their testimony.

So, as part of His remnant of Zion, begin today, to accept your test as part of walking in the destiny He has summoned you for. And no matter what these days, times or seasons look like, continue to stand firm on His Word and His promise...and you will see God use your test to create your testimony...to bring forth His purposes and His will in your life and on our earth!

Tell Them

Bishop Donald Hilliard

"I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ." 1 CORINTHIANS 9:22 TLB

Josh McDowell writes "An executive 'head hunter' who goes out and hires corporate executives for other firms once told me, 'When I get an executive I'm trying to hire for someone else, I like to disarm him. I offer him a drink, take my coat off, then my vest, undo my tie, throw up my feet and talk about baseball, football, family, whatever, until he's all relaxed. Then when I think I've got him relaxed I lean over, look him square in the eye and say - what's the purpose in your life?' It's amazing how top executives fall apart on that question.' Well, I was interviewing this fellow the other day, had him all disarmed with my feet up on my desk talking about football. Then I leaned over and said - what's the purpose in your life, Bob? Without blinking an eye he said 'To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can.' For the first time in my career I was speechless."

Sponsor AdThere are basically five reasons why we don't share our faith more often, and not one of them will hold up when we stand before Christ:

(1) We think it's the preacher's job.
(2) We aren't sure of our salvation.
(3) We fear being rejected.
(4) We've never taken responsibility for learning how.
(5) Our love for Christ has grown cold.

But not Paul: he said, "Whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him."

Can you say that?

Share Your Faith - Somebody Needs It!

Bishop E. Earl Jenkins

"Then I will teach transgressors your ways." Psalm 51:13 (NIV)

Sponsor AdRoger Simms was hitchhiking home when he was picked up by Mr. Hanover. As they drove towards Chicago, Roger felt God urging him to share his faith. When he overcame his fear and asked the man if he would like to receive Christ, Mr. Hanover stopped, bowed his head on the steering wheel, began to cry, and accepted Christ. "This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me," he said.

Shortly afterwards he dropped Roger at his house and went on to Chicago, which was about an hour down the road. Years later, while preparing for a business trip to Chicago, Roger came across the gold-embossed business card Mr. Hanover had given him years earlier. When he arrived in Chicago he decided to look up Hanover Enterprises and found it located in a skyscraper downtown. When he asked the receptionist if he could see Mr. Hanover, she said, "No, but his wife is here."

"You knew my husband?" the woman in her 50's asked. Roger explained that her husband had given him a ride and how he'd led him to Christ. "When was that?" she asked. "May 7th, five years ago, the day I was discharged from the army." She began to sob. After several minutes she regained control and said, "I prayed for my husband's salvation for years, believing God would save him. But right after he let you out of his car, on May 7th, he was killed in a head-on collision. I thought God had not answered my prayer, and I stopped living for Him five years ago." That day she recommitted her life to Christ.

Share your faith - somebody needs it!

What Are You Willing To Believe God For?

Bishop Vashti McKenzie
When trouble strikes, what are you willing to believe God for?

• When the tapestry of the 21st century is stained with the blood of the innocent and unsuspecting
• When our community is raped by unprecedented violence so bitter that bombers chose death over life in suicide attacks
• When evil masquerades as good
• When the sounds and rumors of war dominate our lives
• When too many of our children go off to defend, protect and serve but never come home from foreign soil
• When God seems to be silent, troubles rise, hearts ache, minds break and sickness comes without an invitation
• When death calls a family member's unlisted telephone number
• When ships fail to come in, checks bounce, friends disappoint and families feuds
• When members cleave while others leave, pews empty, budgets are short, and bills long
• When you can't make ends meet, the way gets dark, load gets heavy; nights become restless, days become nightmares

What are you willing to believe God for?

• When greed is allowed to wreck the American economy
• When distractions take away the seriousness of health care, global warming, war, and jobs going overseas, from public education to prison pipeline, or injustice and fair play in the courtroom

What are you willing to believe God for?

• Hannah wanted to believe God for a baby from a barren womb
• The man by the pool of Bethesda wanted to believe God for healing
• The blind man wanted to believe Jesus for sight; the lepers wanted to believe God for a cleansing; and the centurion wanted to believe his child would live again

At the core of all that I have mentioned is the most crucial element in our spiritual walk - our faith. What life requires now is more than the average faith, but a radical faith. Radical faith is the total dependence upon God - that becomes supernatural in its working. Radical faith enables you to believe without seeing, go without knowing, do without understanding, trust without wavering, and be secure in uncertainty.

It is difficult answering this question without faith: Hebrews 11:6 - says it is impossible to please God without it. Salvation is impossible without faith - for it is by grace through faith that we are saved. Prayers go no further than the ceiling without faith - for we must believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. For faith is the substance of what we hope for, and the evidence of what has yet to arrive.

Noah was willing to take God at his word. Faith is seeing things differently, therefore, you believe differently. It is seeing with our spiritual eyes and not our natural eyes. Our natural eyes tells us that all hell has broken lose, nothing is ever going to work out, or it is as bad as it gets. Our spiritual eyes look through the lens of faith that no matter how bad it seems, God is still able to do more abundantly than which we ask. No matter what- all things work together for good to them who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.

God spoke the judgment and grace. He articulated the salvation strategy and Noah believed God's word.
Are you willing to take God at his word? Are you willing to believe what God's word says about your prayers, salvation, perseverance, blessings, obedience, grace, divine favor, suffering, pain or eternal life? Remember nothing is impossible with God.

By faith, what impossible things are you and God going to do today?

Psalm 91

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. [a]
2 I will say [b] of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."
3 Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you make the Most High your dwelling—
even the LORD, who is my refuge-
10 then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."