Can Christians Have Sex If The Wedding Date Is Set? John Piper Weighs In

Can Christians cohabit and have sex if their wedding date is already set? That was the question put to famed US pastor John Piper this week on the Ask Pastor John podcast, published at Desiring God today.

Piper said the idea was 'merely fleshly, worldly pragmatism' and that those wh

IDEAS WILL PROMOTE YOUR DESTINY - 1, Dr Segun Oshinaga

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BREAKTHROUGH SEEDS - 13 - IDEAS WILL PROMOTE YOUR DESTINY - 1

Ideas will change your status in life. Dig for ideas and you will come up with something more than gold, more than oil. You will come up with your tremendous potential that will contribute meaningfully to the world.

"The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto they land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow."

Deuteronomy 28:12

TOTAL RECOVERY 4 - A.T JOEL

The second in the 4Ps series is PURSUIT.

Spiritual pursuit takes place when you put your prayer into action by moving upon what you believe in. David prayed and then he acted in faith.

In Aramaic, the word for faith is faithing, which means ‘faith that is acting.

Faith acts, faith is not faith unless it is moving and living faith, Heb 11:1.

David pursued his enemies by acting upon what God said to him in 1 Sam 30:9, following through with what God had spoken for Him to do. He didn’t not sit idly, hoping for something to happen. He pursued his enemy, and God gave him the victory.

God girds us with strength to the battle, and He will subdue those who rise up against us  Psalm 18:39.

TOTAL RECOVERY 3 - A.T Joel

We start off with the 4P’s of Recovery, first of which is praise.

David’s decision to praise the Lord, even in the midst of his troubles, and even while surrounded by his unlikely 3D army, became a crucial turning point in his life.

How bad did it get? After the struggles in the cave and the battles with Saul, things kept getting worse.

David experienced emotions that overwhelmed him, and he faced great trouble to the point that he wept with sorrow. But when his crying was done, something mighty happened, 1 Sam 30:6.

When David remembered to praise God, regardless of the situation, everything began changing.

David was in a desperate place, but David did not focus on his trouble, instead, he looked at what God could do through it. In other words, he began praising God in the midst of his trouble, the psalms are filled with praise and worship, despite his often dire situations.

BREAKTHROUGH SEEDS - 3 - OPPOSITION IS THE TEST OF A GREAT VISION - 3

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(A Revelational & Inspirational Devotional)

Mockery is a wicked and mean strategy of opposition. Men that cannot stand mockery cannot see their vision prosper. If you have a vision, get ready for mockery and for opposition. But bless God for Nehemiah. The more they mocked, the more he worked.

"So built we the wall and all the wall was joined  together unto the half thereof for the people had a  mind to work." Nehemiah 4:6

My God, my God, their minds were not discouraged or even give up. They had a mind to work.

OPPOSITION IS THE TEST OF A GREAT VISION - 2

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BREAKTHROUGH SEEDS - 2 - OPPOSITION IS THE TEST OF A GREAT VISION - 2

We can see this truth illustrated in the life of Nehemiah. Nehemiah demonstrated that a man of vision must confront opposition to keep his dream a reality.

"But is came to pass, that when Sanballat heard that we builded the wall, he was wroth, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews."

Nehemiah 4:1

There are always opposition to every idea that God gives you. Sanballat was "wroth" when he heard that Nehemiah had a great vision - the rebuilding of the wall. He took great indignation to a great vision.

HAMAN MUST FALL

"And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him" (Esther 6:13). 

It is interesting how much is known in the camp of the enemy about the measure of grace and power God has bestowed on His children. If you are a believer, understand that Satan knows you more than you know yourself, and he will always try to exploit your knowledge deficit. Of course, the enemy will not readily acknowledge the good things he knows about you. 

THE GREATEST CHRISTIAN ALIVE - DAVID BAKER

If you were asked to suggest the greatest Christian people alive today, who would you put into your 'top five'?

And if you were given the enormously difficult task of singling out one of them above all the others, what name would you come up with? Billy Graham? Pope Francis? Desmond Tutu? Joyce Meyer?

I won't keep you in suspense – I will tell you who I think the greatest Christian alive today is a little later on in this article!

But when we come to think about what Jesus considers to be greatness we are in for a shock, as so often. Because Jesus subverts and upends our human notions of the idea. The Kingdom of God, it turns out, has rather different values from how most of us instinctively tend to think.

BREAKTHROUGH SEEDS: OPPOSITION IS THE TEST OF A GREAT VISION - Dr Segun Oshinaga

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BREAKTHROUGH SEEDS: OPPOSITION IS THE TEST OF A GREAT VISION

It is amazing how many people expect to accomplish great things with little or no opposition. Because they are not expecting opposition, they usually overact or blow it completely out of proportion when they encounter opposition.

Nobody talks about a nonentity. No one opposes a nobody, There is no opposition as long as you are not doing something substantial with your life.

"Ye are of God, little children and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world"

1 John 4:4

BUILDING YOUR FAITH: WHEN STORM COMES, WHERE IS GOD?

Mark 4:35-41

The crises of life have often been compared to stormy seas. They come upon us whether we like it or not. They terrify us. They knock us around and threaten to destroy all our stability and security. We don’t know whether we can survive them. And we don’t know how long they will last. At least, that’s how a storm at sea would be for most of us. For Jesus, it was just a chance to grab 40 winks.

IN TOUCH WITH THE REAL POWER - A. T JOEL

Mark 7:33 And He took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue.  Jesus takes the man aside from the crowd to show tender consideration for the feelings of one for whom life was very difficult. Once they are alone, the first thing Jesus does is to put His fingers in the man's ears. They must be healed if the tongue is to work normally, since the man was mute because he could not hear. This symbolic action sends a clear message to the deaf man, helping to awaken his faith and to alert him to the expectation of healing. Since he could not hear encouragement, it had to come from a compassionate touch.

OUR JOURNEY HOME IS EMINENT

"And when [Jesus] had spoken these things..., he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:9-11).

In 1972, Andrea Crouch recorded his hit song, "It won't be Long". Apparently referring to the rapture, he professed that we will soon be leaving here. Hence, he admonished us to count the years as months, the months as weeks, and the weeks as days because, "any day now, we'll be going home". Six years later in 1978, Andrea sent out another warning in the song, "Soon and Very Soon". Consistent with the teachings of the Bible, he said, "Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King". All that the Lord was using Andrae to say to the church is that the rapture and the return of master Jesus is closer than we think.