Published by Practical Spiritual Warfare web site, a division of Mission Miami Valley and authored by Dr.  D. Vincent (Bud) Ford.  This e-zine is dedicated to providing valuable, practical information for dealing with the chaotic and confusing times in which we live.

Contents

1.      Tips for Kingdom Living

2.      Strategic Advice for the Remnant

3.      Scripture Guidance

4.      Thoughts to meditate on

5.      Articles Pointing to the End Times

6.      Site Build It (Don’t take my word for it - Check out the links below – you owe it to yourself)

7.      Announcements

1.  Tips for Kingdom Living – Discover 8 Proven Ways to True Spiritual Renewal

1^st – We have to acknowledge that we are not God and that our lives can often become unmanageable.  In Romans 7:18 Paul says that “I know that nothing good lives in me…. I want to do what is right but I can’t.”

2^nd – We have to acknowledge that God exists, that we are important to Him and that He has the power to help us overcome our weaknesses.

3^rd – We must consciously and intentionally choose to commit ALL our life and will to Christ and trust Him to care for us and control our situation.  I am afraid it is all to easy to simply give “LIP SERVICE” to this and speak it but not really do it.

4^th – We must openly and honestly examine and confess our faults to ourself, to God and, where possible, to someone we trust.  Lamentations 3:40 says “Let us test and examine our ways.  Let us turn back to the Lord”. And James 5:16 says “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you man be healed”.

5^th – We must make a choice to voluntarily submit to every change God wants to make in our life, and humbly ask Him to remove our character defects and short comings, and mean it.  “humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor”- James 4:10 and “If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” – 1 John 1:9.

6^th – We must make a serious and in-depth evaluation of all our relationships.  We must make a list of all the persons we have hurt and become willing to make amends to them all.  We must make amends to people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them ot others.  We must ask for and offer forgiveness to those who have hurt us and to those we have hurt.  “Do to others as you would like them to do to you.” – Luke 6:31

7^th – We must set aside a daily time with God for self-examination, Bible reading and prayer.  When we find in our time with God that we have been wrong, we must promptly admit it.  We must persevere in knowing God and His will for our life, as well as to gain the power to follow His will.  We must be sure we are not just going through the motions in this but that we are pursuing God and His will WITH ALL OUR HEART.

8^th – We must yield to God to be used to bring His Good News to others, both by our example and by our words.  If we follow these steps with diligence and with all our heart we will have a spiritual renewal and we need to share that with others.  “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path.  And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.” – Galatians 6:1 

Bud Ford

2.  Strategic Advice for the Remnant – Self-Pity & Brooding

Elijah yielded to self-pity for a time and fled to Horeb (1 Kings 19).

He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.  “I have had enough, Lord,” he said.  “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.”  Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. (1 Kings 19:4,5)

God confronted Elijah.

And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here Elijah?”  (1 Kings 19:9)

Listen to Elijah’s reply of self-pity!

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.  The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword.  I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” (1 Kings 19:10)

Listen to how God deals with Elijah.

God responds in gentleness (1 Kings 19:11,12).  Instead of rebuking the old prophet, the Lord responds by giving Elijah three new assignments and lets him know that he is not alone and that there is a REMNANT of 7,000 others who have served Israel and have not bowed Baal.  (1 Kings 19:14-18)

Elijah was not the only one basking in self-pity – Listen to Asaph’s self-pity.  (Ps. 73)

Surly in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.  All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning.  (Ps. 73:13,14)

Asaph recovered from his self-pity.

Read Ps 73:15-28 to see how Asaph came before God in the sanctuary and recalled what God had done for him in the past and acknowledged the greatness of God.

We are to turn from self-pity and brooding

A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but the heartache crushes the spirit.  (Prov. 15:13)

The Lord directs us to a cure for self-pity and brooding in Psalm 37

Pslam 37 is full of direction – read it for yourself and meditate on it; it will brighten your soul, your spirit and your day.

Bud Ford

3.  Scripture Guidance

 "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting.  I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." 

 Matthew 6:16-18 

 The New International Version 

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 Hold a true friend with both hands.

Nigerian proverb

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You know, by the time you've reached my age, you've made plenty of mistakes if you've lived your life properly.

Roanld Reagan 

4. Thoughts for Meditation

LIVING BY FAITH – DO NOT QUENCH THE SPIRIT

1 Thessalonians 5:19 NIV

Do not quench the Spirit.

So many times in our lives, both in and out of church, we get so dead set on doing things the way we planned them, we don't notice when the Spirit of God is trying to turn us in a different direction.

I attended a Bible study once where a visitor showed up, obviously nervous, obviously frightened, obviously deeply in need.  As the Bible study progressed, she timidly began to ask questions.  The content of her questions showed that she was not a Christian.  Although simply stated, her questions indicated that she was very close to making a decision where our Lord was concerned. 

Unfortunately, her questions also led the discussion away from the planned lesson and into other territory - territory she seemed to need to examine in order to accept Jesus. 

Even more unfortunately, the teacher of that Bible study was dead set on sticking with the lesson he had prepared – exactly as he had prepared it.  He was not tuned in to the Spirit.  He was not listening to what could have happened, so he kept cutting her off and heading the lesson back to what he had planned.  After a while, the woman stopped asking questions.  And when the study was over, she left.  No one went after her… no one got her name… no one had the courage to stop the teacher in the middle of the lesson and allow the woman to receive the answers to her questions – which quite possibly might have led to her receiving Jesus as her Lord and Savior that night.  (I'm just as guilty as the others, by the way.) 

Since that time, I have prayed for that woman, that she would find a group or an individual who would be more sensitive to the Spirit – so that she could get her questions answered and come to the Lord.

In your life – daily – at work or at church or at play – be sensitive to the Spirit and do not quench it, either in yourself or in others.  Take this step in learning to live by faith, and allow the Spirit of God to direct you in everything you do.

Dogwood Ministries

5.  Articles Pointing to the End Times Watch

[Note: The number following End Times Watch is the sequence number for the End Times article and is inserted to assist the reader in locating the article as well as assisting the search engines.]

End times watch 58 - Time for an Israeli Strike? - By John R. Bolton - www.washingtonpost.com

With Iran's hard-line mullahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unmistakably back in control, Israel's decision of whether to use military force against Tehran's nuclear weapons program is more urgent than ever.

Iran's nuclear threat was never in doubt during its presidential campaign, but the post-election resistance raised the possibility of some sort of regime change. That prospect seems lost for the near future or for at least as long as it will take Iran to finalize a deliverable nuclear weapons capability. End times watch.

Accordingly, with no other timely option, the already compelling logic for an Israeli strike is nearly inexorable. Israel is undoubtedly ratcheting forward its decision-making process. President Obama is almost certainly not.

Click to Read Rest of Article

End times watch 59 - Israeli sub sails Suez, signaling reach to Iran – Dan Williams – www.reuters.com

An Israeli submarine sailed the Suez Canal to the Red Sea as part of a naval drill last month, defense sources said on Friday, describing the unusual maneuver as a show of strategic reach in the face of Iran.

Israel long kept its three Dolphin-class submarines, which are widely assumed to carry nuclear missiles, away from Suez so as not to expose them to the gaze of Egyptian harbormasters.

l> Click to Read Rest of Article

End times watch 60 - Freedom Ain't Free – www.khouse.org

End times watch - We Americans have been taught from childhood about our rights, and we enjoy a glorious freedom and self-rule that we can easily take for granted. We don't have to hold our Bible studies in secret for fear of the government. We don't have to worry about being imprisoned for months or years without facing charges. We accept our freedoms as a normal way of life, easily forgetting that millions of people in other parts of the world do not enjoy the independence that we do.

As we celebrate Independence Day in America, it is appropriate that we spend some time reflecting on our freedoms.

Throughout world history, the power-hungry have constantly fought to overpower and dominate others, whether overtly or through sneaky politicking. Freedom - whether political, religious, or spiritual - is wonderful to enjoy, but at the cost of great sacrifice and vigilant protection.   In America, we are the heirs of great sacrifices made to give us a heritage of freedom. Let us guard and protect this inheritance, and not squander it like ungrateful children. To keep our freedoms, we need to appreciate the cost. We need to be willing to understand the sacrifice ourselves, so that we have the same legacy to hand our children:

Click to Read Rest of Article

6. Site Build It (SBI)

Don’t take my word for it, check this out yourself Free.  This is a way to either SUPPLEMENT YOUR INCOME OR REPLACE IT While Following Your Passion at the same time!

I needed a web site but had no idea how to build it.

It was all greek, mysterious and intimidating to me.

I paid to have a web site built – cost me a lot of money. But the good thing (I thought) was I could maintain it and add to it myself through a control panel.

This was supposed to save me money – but guess what – I could never get it to work properly. Way to difficult and complicated to understand.

The site looked good but no traffic came and it was a waste of time and money!  After four years I had to get rid of the site and find another way.

I found the solution! It is Site Build it.

This is absolutely fantastic and I can not say enough good about it! 

Don't take my word for it, check it out yourself FREE.  This is a way to either supplement your income OR REPLACE IT!

It does not cost as much as I paid for MY old site – that is a very good thing. The step-by-step teaching and the unique and phenomenal large amount of tools is unsurpassed.

This is a TRULY USER FRIENDLY, and just as much "do it yourself" as you want, web site builder.

Take a look at some of the information – you’ll be glad you did.

1. Quick Tour Slide Show:

2. Site Build It Home page:

3. Find Your Business:

4. I Love SBI:

5. What’s your passion?:

6. Web Hosting:

The networking available with the internet is mind boggling, and the use of the internet seems to be limited only by our imagination.

It is rapidly becoming the source of commerce. Don’t get left behind in communication, commerce, networking, information and you name it.

I have found a way to benefit greatly with the Site Build It approach and I want to share it with you.

Check out the above links by clicking on the picture. You owe it to your self to see this wonderful user-friendly tool.

7.  Announcements

(1)  Thank you for all your wonderful comments about this e-zine, The REMNANT

(2)  This e-zine, The Remnant, continues to be a part of the www.PracticalSpiritualWarfare.com  web site for the time being.

At some point in the future, the Remnant will be transferred to the new web site www.EndTimesPreparation.com.  You will be informed at that time because you will need to re-confirm your desire to continue receiving the e-zine; this will help to eliminate spam, which I am sure you will appreciate – I know I do.