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Our Quote for Today:

Good Morning! Last week I sent out a blog asking each of you to consider helping us by investing a few pennies into each of the 1,000 cars we are going to wash in our upcoming WASH-A-THON! I am told that our blog was interrupted by a change in our server (whatever that means?!). Thus, I have included the link underneath today's blog. Please, friend, help us as we try to raise the $100,000 we need to erase our debt from last year. The link can be accessed below and or you can respond to this email and I will call you back personally to discuss the event with you in detail. thanks for your time. And now, for today's Bible blog I want to discuss with you my "bouts with doubt"!

I don't know about you, but I can always tell when my faith is weak and I am beginning to depend upon other alternatives than Him. It shows in my demeanor. It shows in my response to adversity. It shows in my focus which is on the problem rather than the Solution. When my faith is weak, I am a totally different Christian than when my faith is strong.

You can be sure that when our faith is weak it is because God is putting us into a needful position. He wants to position us to WHOLLY depend upon Him. God knows our hearts. Surely we have all learned that faith is produced in the heart.

When our mediations think thoughts of fear or doubt, or even outright unbelief, then our actions are going to produce the same. We can't fool God. Others may think we are people of great faith, we may even think that we are people of great faith. But God knows our hearts. Thus, His goal is to reveal our hearts to us before others figure us out. This is done is His merciful testing of our faith.

Of course we all realize that we are too often deceived by our hearts. Jeremiah tells us that "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" There is probably no truth that we have so recognized and embraced than this truth that our own heart is capable of destroying our walk with God without us even realizing or recognizing it is happening.

So we see the possibilities of self deception abound when it comes to God's demand that we people of great faith. We would all feel comfortable with our faith, if it was never put on trial. Every time we see the word temptation in the New Testament, save once, it is followed by a quasi-definition indicating temptation is a "trial (that is to say an examination) of our faith".

Nothing reveals to me quicker my weak faith than a Satanically induced temptation that God permits as a heart revealing examination. In other words, God Almighty allows Satan's weapons to be used for His lessons!

I think Jeremiah 17:9 is quoted so often, we tend to forget the stark reality of its claims, which are: we are easily duped into thinking and even believing we ARE something we are NOT! But! The very next verse that is so seldom quoted within the context of Jeremiah 17:9 reveals God's plan of attack for exposing our deceptions to us before the devil can exploit them to others.

"I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." (Jeremiah 17:10)

God is watching you (and me)! But He is not watching what we are doing. He is watching what we are thinking. Could you imagine our thoughts broadcast over a big screen? What a terrifying thought. But knowing God is watching them doesn't seem to hinder most of our "stinkin' thinkin'!" Our unwillingness to curb our dangerous and self destructive thoughts is a sure sign of weak faith. But we do not allow this truth to enter our conscious thoughts. As we read it here, we may say, "Yes, that's a sure truth!" But absent of consistent meditation, that thought will never produce an lifestyle application.

So, the LORD searches our hearts and tries the reigns. The word try mean's "test" and the word reins means "controls". God puts your control system on trial. This is intended to reveal to us WHO is in control, He or me?! I think it's He. He knows it's me. Thus, in one quick trial or two, my controller is revealed to me. Adjustments need to be made. When I make the right adjustments, fellowship is restored, blessings follow and my faith IN Him is increased.

God's going to give us exactly what we need. Blessings are my favorite gift. But in order to gain those blessings, I need something far more. I need lessons. Better yet, lessons LEARNED! When God allows me in His mercy to fall flat on my face in my frail faith, I can quietly learn what He has already discerned: My faith is weak and I need to depend WHOLLY upon Him.

You may say how is that mercy? It's because He already saw it and He is showing it to me without showing IT to the whole world. I am thankful for the lessons I learn from our Lord. He always prefers them one on one and private. And as long as we learn this sooner, rather than later, we can be sure it will remain His preferred way of teaching.

• We can reply to this email with a phone number or our personal information and it will come to my address and I will call you to get your pledge and personally thank you. Or,

• We can call my secretary Liz at 815-986-0460 ext. 100 and she will take your pledge. Or,

• We can go to our website and post a credit card pledge to this event. that link can be accessed by clinking on these blue words. Super Scrub Investment Make sure you put my name down (or another staff or students name if you so choose) as the person your supporting with this plege.