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Includes Current Free Read for Review Book Offering! Sign up for this daily message or place it on your site so it automatically updates each day. Go HERE. |
| | Do Not Fear!!! Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 ESV
All Eyes on Jesus! |
| | ... in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them... 2 Cor 5:19
... Through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Acts 13:38
"I will forgive their iniquity, I will remember their sin no more.” Jer 31:34b
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| | Today's Devotional
He is Risen!
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| | | Do You Really Want to Get Well? Michael Edwards “After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters… A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, ‘Do you wish to get well?’” (John 5:1-3, 5-6, NASB)
Thirty-eight years. That’s how long the man lay by the pool of Bethesda, waiting for a miracle he could never reach. When the waters stirred, someone else always stepped in first. His excuse was ready: “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool…” (v. 7). But Jesus’ question cuts deeper than the surface: Do you wish to get well?
It seems obvious—of course he wants healing! Yet Jesus knew the hidden cost. Getting well meant leaving the mat, the identity, the pity. No more sympathetic nods, no more alms from passersby. For decades, his affliction defined him. It gave him stories, attention, a strange kind of love. Healing would demand a new life: work, responsibility, perhaps even a calling from God he wasn’t ready to face.
We clutch our wounds too. The broken marriage we won’t forgive. The addiction we won’t release. The bitterness we nurse because it keeps us central. Attention feels like love, but it’s a counterfeit. True love, God’s love, calls us to wholeness—even when it hurts.
“Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.’ Immediately the man became well…” (vv. 8-9). Obedience preceded understanding. The man didn’t argue or negotiate; he simply stood. Healing wasn’t just physical—it was surrender.
What “pool” are you waiting by? What excuse keeps you stuck? Jesus stands before you today, asking the same piercing question: Do you wish to get well? Not just to feel better, but to be better—to trade pity for purpose, victimhood for vocation.
Getting well means carrying your mat instead of lying on it. It means conversations shift from complaints to gratitude. It means God may ask you to serve, give, risk—things your sickness excused you from. But it also means freedom.
Today, hear His voice: “Get up.” The water isn’t coming. The Healer already has.
Prayer: Lord, expose the ways I cling to my pain for comfort. Give me courage to want true healing more than false attention. I choose to rise, by Your strength. Amen.More New Covenant Bible studies HERE. |
| | | Free Reads for Reviews
Be inspired while you encourage and support new Christian authors. Read great Christian books for FREE in exchange for a brief review.
This is one of many great Christian books you can read for free in exchange for a simple review on Amazon. New books come into the program on a regular basis.
Below is today's featured book in Free Reads for Review.
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| A Place in the Son: Fitly Joined Together in Love and Growing in Christ Clarence Ogle "A Place in the Son: Fitly Joined Together in Love and Growing in Christ" is a guide to growing in Christ in harmony with other true believers.
Go HERE to see today's book.
Go HERE to learn how Free Reads works. |
| | Offer Life to the Lost!
Always Free E-Book Share with Anyone Who Does Not Believe or Encourage the Faith of Those Who Do Believe. Send to inmates direct from Amazon.
Perfect to equip the believer for defending their faith. Ideal to send to a skeptical friend, family member or inmate (free e-book or $3.99 print copy). Great for teens and young adults who have never reviewed the objective evidence for God's existence and identity. God has used Gravity to help lead many to Christ, even atheists. It is being used in over 1,300 prisons, by the Navigators on numerous college campuses and online in several languages.
"Michael, I have ordered books a couple times now and have had nothing but good responses from the inmates that read it. I had one approach me with tears in his eyes thanking me for giving him a book that answered questions he has always wondered about regarding the Bible. I had another one ask me for another copy so he could mail it to his family to read. Another one told me that everyone in his pod was passing it around reading it, the cover made people ask what he was reading. He then asked if I could get more. I would like twenty more books please. It's nice to be able to give a concise apologetic at an affordable price." Gordon, a prison guard who has ordered books."
"If false, Christianity is an irrelevant hoax. If true, Christianity is the most important fact for every human being. This little book concisely shows you why Christianity is true and what that means for you. No fluff, just the facts!" Dr. Frank Turek author/co-author of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist
"After reading your book, and being that I’m a cop, the evidence was compelling so the choice became easy. Thank you for being a big part of saving my life and seeing the truth about Jesus. My life has drastically changed for the better!!! I’ve handed out many of your books already, and can hardly wait to give more away! Thank you. And God bless!"
"For anyone on the fence, backsliding, or doubtful this book clarifies misunderstandings, perceived contradictions, and outright lies. I was led to read this book at a time when I thought I was over Jesus, but truth defeat lies every time and never forsakes the believer.”
Maybe you know someone in prison or just a lost soul that you love who needs to trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior or needs to have their faith encouraged? You can ship single paperback copies directly from Amazon for $3.99 each to an inmate or anyone. For inmates, you just need their facility name, address, inmates name and id number. Most prisons and jails will accept packages directly from places like Amazon. If you are a member of Amazon prime it would ship for free. Just add the person's shipping address when you check out and it goes directly to them. If you try to send it from a personal address, it will be rejected.
GO HERE to order your copy of Gravity to be sent to your lost friend or family member who is (incarcerated or not) and needs Jesus. Offer them the gift of eternal life in Christ for $3.99. What a great investment. For orders of 10 or more, go to my website and you will get them at my cost of about $3.00 each, including shipping.
An in-depth study of the factual evidence leads a person to realize how little faith they need to believe, while it gives them great faith at the same time.
Free e-book and print copies at our cost for orders of ten or more HERE. |
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| | WRITE FOR JESUS!
Be a Better Christian Writer Six Month Program The world desperately needs more excellent Christian writers. FaithWriters is offering a plan to dramatically improve your writing for Jesus in six months. Go HERE to learn more. |
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Now available in over 100 languages.
Unique Free Gospel tract that you can copy and reprint. This tract is being used in many locations around the world, producing incredible amounts of fruit, once again proving that God uses the simple things of the world to produce great fruit. Print one out in your own language and then make copies to hand out. |
| | Share Jesus Without Fear (Copy and print out for use.)
The steps to share your faith without fear – no confrontation. Pray and then get them alone. Ask these five questions to help discover their personal spiritual condition. Do you have any kind of spiritual belief? To you, who is Jesus? Do you think there is a heaven and a hell? If you died right now, where would you go? If what you believe were not true, would you want to know it?
Listen to their answers in a calm and open way. You are asking their permission to share Christ with the last question. If they say no, you can drop it – no confrontation. You have still done the work of Christ and offered the truth.
Here are a series of five Bible verses to ask the lost person to read aloud if you have their permission. Let them read them and remain silent. After each verse they read, ask them what it says to them. If they misunderstand, ask them to read it again until they admit the truth in the verse.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 ESV
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 ESV
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 ESV
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 ESV
if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.… Romans 10:9-10 BSB
Then ask them a series of five questions that summarizes the truth of the verses and lead the lost person to the point of decision.
Are you a sinner? Do you want forgiveness for your sins? Do you believe Jesus died on the cross for you and rose again? Are you willing to surrender yourself to Christ? Are you ready to invite Jesus into your heart and into your life?
Lead them in the Sinner's Prayer if they are ready to make a decision. Stay in touch and get them discipled or connect them with a local fellowship or small group for future growth.
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| | | Use the Good Person Test to share your faith. It is very powerful. Go HERE. |
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