Random header image... Refresh for more!

Where did you set your invitation?

Banquet

Luke 14: 12-24  “When you give al luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.  But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.  Although they cannot repay, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

The Parable of the Great Banquet
When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat the feast in the kingdom of God.”  Jesus replied:   “A certain man was prepaing a great banquet and invited many guests.  At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, “Come, for everything is now ready.’  But they all alike began to make excuses.  The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it.  Please excuse me.’  “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out.  Please excuse me.  “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’  “The servant came back and reported this to his master.  Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’  ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’  “Then the master told his sevant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.  I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’ “

Remember:  It is by invite that we have been called and chosen and He has given us His grace and forgiveness; lest we forget and we become puffed up in our minds and hearts that it is by anythng we have done or accomplished or think that it is by anything that we know.  Now just where did I set that invite — I have a banquet to get to?

Till the next time, this is the Voice of Joyce signing off …….

July 12, 2010   No Comments

There is No One like our God

Greater things are yet to come

Greater things are yet to be done

Greater things are still to come

Greater things are still to be done

Haggai 2:9  “This Temple is going to end up far better than it started out, a glorious beginning but an even more glorious finish:  a place in which I will hand out wholenss and holiness.  Decree of GOD-of the-Angel-Armies.”

NIV Haggai 2:9  ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘  And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”

Till the next time, this is the Voice of Joyce signing off…….

June 16, 2010   No Comments

Five Minutes After…

(This article taken from the Moody Monthly — published over 50 years ago.)
 
    It may be a moment, or after months of waiting, but soon I shall stand before my Lord.  Then in an instant all things will appear in new perspective.
    
    Suddenly the things I thought important — tomorrow’s tasks, the plans for the dinner at my church, my success or failure in pleasing those around me — these will matter not at all.  And the things to which I gave but little thought — the word about Christ to the man next door, the moment (how short it was) of earnest prayer for the Lord’s work in far-off lands, the confessing and forsaking of that secret sin — will stand as real and enduring.
 
    Five minutes after I’m in heaven I’ll be overwhelmed by the truths I’ve known but somehow never grasped.  I’ll realize then that it’s what I am in Christ that comes first with God, and that when I am right with Him, I do the things which please Him.
 
     I’ll sense that it was not just how much I gave that mattered, but how I gave — and how much I withheld.  In heaven I’ll wish with all my heart that I could reclaim a thousandth part of the time I’ve let slip through my fingers, that I could call back those countless conversations which could have glorified my Lord — but didn’t.
 
     Five minutes after I’m in heaven, I believe I’ll wish with all my heart that I had risen more faithfully to read the Word of God and wait on Him in prayer — that I might have known Him while still on earth as He wanted me to know Him.
 
    A thousand thoughts will press upon me, and though overwhelmed by the grace which admits me to my heavenly home, I’ll wonder at my aimless earthly life.  I’ll wish… If one may wish in heaven — but it will be too late.
 
    Heaven is real and hell is real, and eternity is but a breath away.  Soon we shall be in the presence of the Lord we claim to serve.  Why should we live as though salvation were a dream — as though we did not know?
 
     ”To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
 
    There may yet be a little time.  A new year dawns before us.  God help us to live now in the light of a real tomorrow!
 
    Till the next time, this is the Voice of Joyce signing off…….

June 4, 2010   No Comments