Are You Feeding Your Soul?
Are you happy with what you see when you look in the mirror? And I’m not talking about your physical body when I ask this question — I’m talking about your spiritual body. Has your soul been getting the nourishment it needs to grow in health and strength, or have you deprived it from the Word it so desperately needs?
If what you see in the mirror doesn’t even begin to reflect what you know you can be, it’s time to make a change, time to dive into God’s Word and receive all the love and forgiveness He has been waiting to give you . . . a time to release your life into God’s hands.
The Word tells us, But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:16-18 NLT).
You may not like what you see now, but just wait. Rely on God’s faithfulness and perfect timing and begin to make changes when God shows you it is necessary. And soon, you’ll be able to look back and say, “Look where God moved me from. Look what He saved me from. I stand blessed where I am all because of the transforming grace of God.”
An Evangelistic Tool
The following is an evangelistic tool. Feel free to use this tool to lead someone to the Savior. It can also be used in your church. Tony lead the members of our church through this process, and then commissioned them to offer the good news to those they come in contact with in the course of their day. This is one of our outreach programs for this year.
OPENING QUESTION:
Has anyone ever shown you from the Bible how you can be sure you are on your way to heaven? Would you allow me to show you?
I. First the Bad News
a. The Problem: Every person is a sinner before a Holy God and unable to save themselves (Romans 3:10, 23).
b. The Penalty: Every person is under the sentence of death and will be forever separated from God because of their sin (Romans 5:12; 6:23).
I. Now the Good News
a. The Provision: Through the substitutionary sacrificial death of Christ, God has addressed the sin problem for us (Romans 5:8, 17-21).
b. The Pardon: God offers a free pardon and eternal life to all who place faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation (Romans 10:9-10; 4:4-5).
CLOSING QUESTION:
Would you like to trust the Lord Jesus Christ right now as your personal Savior?
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus thank You for dying on the cross for my sins and rising from the dead to save me. By transferring my total trust to You alone as my Savior, I now receive the forgiveness for my sins and the free gift of eternal life that You offered me.
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Nig.e.ria is expected to get about $1.5 billion under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Special Drawing Rights scheme. The sum is broken into $1.3 billion under the general loan scheme and $218.6 million under the special rights scheme.
The facility is being offered under the IMF $283 billion Special Drawing Rights loan to strengthen liquidity in the global system. The move is in response to April's call by the G-20 to supplement the existing reserve assets of member nations to combat the negative impact of the global economic crisis,
Announcing the allocations to countries on Friday, the monetary fund, in a statement, said the facility would be released in tranches with an initial allocation of $250 billion, and will be subsequently followed by an additional $33 billion to be disbursed Wednesday, September 9. The allocations will significantly increase SDR's outstanding stock to about $316 billion.
About $110 billion of the combined allocations will go to the emerging market and developing countries, including over $20 billion to low-income countries, most of which currently face difficult spending decisions on how to handle the impact of the global crisis.
The SDR allocations, seen as IMF's strategy to boost member countries' foreign exchange reserves, to give them the impetus to weather the storm of global economic recession, is based on a long-term global need, to provide succour to low-income countries, like Nigeria.
Caroline Atkinson, IMF External Relations Director, explained that the loans were meant to provide access to unconditional financial resources to mitigate the need for adjustment through contractionary policies and allow greater scope for counter-cyclical policies in the face of recession and rising unemployment.
"The general SDR allocation is a key part of our response to the global crisis, demonstrating the value of a cooperative multilateral approach," Ms. Atkinson said, adding that despite a smaller number of SDRs going to the IMF's low-income members, the allocation would result in a proportionately higher increase in reserves for them than it will for the advanced economies, which already have a substantial cushion of reserves.
Under the voluntary trading arrangements, Atkinson urged individual member countries to be ready to trade the SDRs within certain limits, with the IMF acting as a voluntary broker charged with the responsibility of arranging transactions between prospective buyers and sellers.
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