If you find value in Daily Encounter we hope you will be comfortable in donating at least $26. That's only 50 cents a week for an entire year to send Daily Encounter to 408,000+ worldwide subscribers every weekday of the year— without charge.
|
| | You Can't Fly With a Broken Wing. One reader said, "This is the most helpful book I have ever read....
 On SALE for $10.99
How to Mend a Broken Heart. A retired veterinary surgeon, former lecturer at the Royal Veterinarian College of London and at Cambridge, wrote: "I have gone through two divorces and ... have just read your book, How to Mend a Broken Heart. It is the most helpful counseling I have ever read."
On SALE for $7.99 I Hate Witnessing, Pastor Ernie Cox of Ontario, Canada, said, "I've just finished reading I Hate Witnessing and have to say that it is the best thing I've ever read on commun-icating the gospel."
On SALE for $10.99
Passport for Heaven: Excellent for giving to family, friends and contacts. Available in packs of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, more.
To Purchase
| |  | | Share the gospel and Daily Encounter with friends and contacts by giving an attractive Business witness card ... available in packs of 50. Twelve different cards available. |
|
|
| | |
Daily Encounter by
Richard (Dick) Innes of ACTS International
Click HERE for ACTS-in-Action monthly report.
Please be a missionary and:
1. Forward Daily Encounter to friends Click HERE
and then on the  button.
2. Become a People Power for Jesus Partner:
Click HERE
To receive the TEXT edition of Daily Encounter without
pictures rather than this HTML edition with pictures:
Click HERE.
See Weekend Encounter ... without charge every
weekend: humor, helps, inspiration. For the current
edition: Click HERE. Monday, November 28, 2011
Rules vs. Relationships
"He [Jesus] looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored."1
This was Jesus' response when he healed the man with the withered hand on the Jewish Sabbath, after which the religious leaders began to plot how they might kill him.
Jesus was angry with these Pharisees because they loved their rigid, legalistic rules more than they loved people. They had religion, but they didn't have God!
What is even more absurd is that these same religious leaders who murdered Jesus insisted that he be taken off the cross before sundown (the beginning of their religious Sabbath day) because it wasn't "lawful" for him to be hanging dead on the cross on their Sabbath. To leave him there would have broken one of their religious laws and they would have felt ceremoniously unclean! It was acceptable to crucify and kill Jesus but not acceptable for the innocent victim to remain hanging on the cross once dead. Amazing!
As strange as it may seem, religion may send more people to hell than anything else! That is, religion that depends on one's own "good works" or adhering to "legalistic religious rules or ritual" to get them into God's heaven. God's Word makes it very clear, "By grace are we saved through faith—and not of ourselves—it is the gift of God. Not of works lest anyone should boast."2 That is, we can never earn our way into God's heaven. We are saved only because of God's unfailing love and mercy and by our trusting in Jesus Christ and his dying on the cross in our place to save us from our sins.
Sure, Christianity is a religion; but in one sense religion, generally speaking, is man's search for God, but Christianity in its truest sense is God's search for man. It's about Jesus Christ, the son of God, coming to earth in the form of a man to make reconciliation with God possible for us through his death on the cross in our place. Christianity has nothing to do with living by a set of man-made legalistic rules—such living will never get anybody into God's heaven. Christianity is about making it possible for us to have a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ and then having right and healthy relationships with people.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to understand more fully and appreciate more intensely the true meaning of what you have done for me to make possible the forgiveness of all my sins, and the hope of spending eternity with you in heaven because of what Jesus did for me when he died on the cross in my place to pay the price for all of my sins. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
Note: To ensure that you have a right relationship with God, be sure to read the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian—without having to be religious" at: www.actsweb.org/christian.
1. Mark 3:5 (NIV).
2. Ephesians 2:8-9.
<:))))><
NOTE: If you would like to accept God's forgiveness for all your sins and His invitation for a full pardon Click HERE.
Or if you would like to re-commit your life to Jesus Christ, please click HERE to note this.
|
| |
| NOTE: Click HERE for ACTS Monthly Report.
| | Note re Comments: Please keep your comment from 10 to 12 lines max. Comment only on this day's Daily Encounter. Click only one time on the "Add Your Comment" button to send your message. Keep in mind that many responses are coming from people whose first language is not English. We reserve the right to delete unsuitable comments and unsuitably long comments.
|  | about today's Daily Encounter | |
How to Know God and be sure you're a real Christian without having to be religious: Click HERE.
Archives: For Daily and Weekend Encounter archives: Click HERE.
On the Lighter Side: Click HERE.
NOTE: You are receiving this recurring mailing because you subscribed on one of our web sites, or requested by email or letter to be subscribed, responded to an advertisement on ArcaMax.com to be subscribed, or confirmed your subscription after recording your response on one of our web sites.
Prayer Partners Needed: One of ACTS International's greatest needs is Prayer Partners to stand with us as we seek to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with millions of people around the world through E-mail and the Internet, and to bring people to Jesus. If you would like to join with us as an ACTS Prayer Partner, please Click HERE, and then click on the Subscribe to Prayer Encounter. Unless a special or urgent need arises, we send out only one prayer update report each month.
Prayer Requests: To submit a prayer request to David Clark Click HERE. (David is not on the ACTS staff but is offering this as a service to Daily Encounter readers.) If you are a prayer warrior and would like to pray with David for requests sent in, Click HERE to sign up. |
Published by:
ACTS International
Report problems to ACTS International
© Copyright 1990-2011 by ACTS International
P.O. Box 73545
San Clemente, California 92673
U.S.A.
|
| |
 | 
Available:
CDs by Dick Innes: "Loving and Understand-ing People," "Healing Whole-ness and Happi-ness," "I Hate Witnessing," and "God's Formula for Success." Designed to inform and inspire and sprinkled with humor. On SALE at Store |
| 
You Are Invited
| Prayer Request
To send a prayer request: Click HERE |
| | Privacy Policy: We have a strict privacy policy in that your email address and any details you provide will never be shared with any other individual or organization. |
|   |
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment