church of Christ at Cloud 9

Do you have joy in your life?  Joy is a feeling of extreme happiness or cheerfulness, especially related to the acquisition or expectation of something good.  To rejoice is to be very happy, to be delighted, to feel joy.  What gives you joy?  Perhaps you have joy when you have accomplished a special goal or […]

While we can pray for ourselves, the scriptures have multiple examples of prayers made for other people; these prayers are called intercessions.  Jesus prayed for his disciples that they would be protected from the evil one. John 17:15 “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should […]

Many “Christians” are content to put very little effort into their religion.  They seldom pray to God or read their Bible.  They think that by just attending the Sunday morning church assembly that they have somehow accomplished what God wants them to do to worship Him; the rest of the week is then theirs to […]

How much a part of your life are your prayers to God?  If you added up all of your prayer time in a day, how much would it be?  One minute?  Five minutes?  Half an hour?  You are not heard from your many words in prayer (Matthew 6:7), but how much you pray is an […]

As a believer in Jesus Christ, you know how important it is to obey God’s commandments.  1 John 2:3-4 “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.  He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”  […]

There are numerous conflicts and wars in the world today.  There are terrorist acts where people with evil agendas seek to kill innocent people.  You are probably not directly engaged in these conflicts, but all true Christians are still engaged in a war.  The war we are engaged in is a spiritual war and not […]

There are certain pleasures with sin.  Hebrews 11:24-25 “By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.”  Sin has a certain appeal to it.  You can be deceived into […]

Bondage and slavery are illegal today in most societies; during the time of the writing of the Bible, bondage was common and accepted.  The writers of the Bible gave instruction on how bondservants were to conduct themselves.  While we do not have bondservants today, some of the instructions given to them apply to us as […]

This encouragement is for you to be strong in the Lord and not to trust in your own strength.  Ephesians 6:10 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”  When do you need strength?  Perhaps you need strength when you are fearful of those who do evil or […]

It is easy to feel weak when we fight against temptations in our lives – sometimes temptations can be very strong.  When we think of the evil about us and the many falsehoods that we encounter, we may also feel weak – how can they be overcome?  We need to understand that our strength comes […]