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@Livingwater Study 1 HOW TO FIND THE TRUE GOD Key Verses: “For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought Him, and He was found by them.” (2 Chronicles 15: 3-4) In this series we are to consider some of the Secrets of Successful Living. Of course, no one can begin to live successfully without knowing God, and first of all we must understand how we can come to know Him for ourselves. The subject is brought before us in 2 Chronicles 15:1-19, and it is pin-pointed in the above key verses. There is only one true God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 1:3), and the greatest blessing which anyone can experience in this life is to find the true God, but the greatest tragedy is to pass through life without ever finding Him. In our key verses we have a brief description of one phase of Israel’s history, but it also describes thousands of peo

@Livingwater Study 10 TRIUMPHING IN TROUBLE (Scripture Portion: Psalm 142: 1-7) It was Joseph Parker, the London preacher of the 19th century, who said, “No preacher would ever lack a congregation if he preached to troubled hearts.” Of course he was right, for when we address our words to troubled hearts we are sure that we are speaking to everyone in the congregation or who reads our words, for everyone, everywhere, sooner or later experiences trouble and trial –- look up Psalm 34:19 (first part). In this 142nd psalm we find the writer, David, in great trouble; he speaks in verse 2 of “my trouble”, and the whole psalm teaches us how to be triumphant in trouble –- not how to escape trouble, but how to glorify God in the midst of trouble. 1 . WHAT ARE WE TOLD ABOUT DAVID ’ S TROUBLE ? It is important to see how David reacted to his trouble, but before we can do this, notice what he tells us about the nature of his trouble. David at this time was a fugitive and his fortunes were at

@Livingwater Study 9 GETTING THE MISSIONARY VISION (Scripture Portion: Romans 10: 1-17) In this study we are to think of the need for every Christian and for every church to become missionary-minded and missionary-hearted. The title of our study implies that there are many Christians and churches who have little or no missionary vision. Unfortunately, this is true. Some Christians are not very concerned for the salvation of souls here at home, and they are still less concerned for the salvation of the millions of lost souls in other lands. Some even say that they “do not believe in missionary work”; others have been heard to say that, “Charity begins at home”; still others have been overwhelmed with the immensity of the task and have cried out, “The task is impossible!”; and a few uninstructed Christians have even said, “Why interfere with the heathen? They have their own religions, and we should not go and upset their culture!” A missionary vision may be defined as: “A blending o

@Livingwater Study 8 WINNING THE LOST TO THE SAVIOUR (Scripture Portion: Acts 8: 1-8 and 26-40) The title of this study was not chosen at random. You will notice that it contains three very important words, and it is around these three words that we shall introduce the three divisions of our theme. We shall consider the great matter of soul-winning, its importance and the responsibility of every Christian to be a soul-winner, and the methods we are to adopt. 1 . First of all, let us think of the word “SAVIOUR ” Of all the names given to our blessed Lord, surely this is the most precious. It was given by divine announcement (Matthew 1:21), and Mary, the mother of Jesus, spoke of the One who was to come as “my Saviour” (Luke 1:47). Our Lord Jesus Himself made it perfectly clear that the primary purpose of His advent, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension was the salvation of men and women. Let us be absolutely sure about the fact that the one supreme purpose of His coming from h

@Livingwater Study 7 A LESSON IN STEWARDSHIP (Scripture Portion: 2 Corinthians, Chapters 8 and 9) The key verses for this study are Proverbs 3:9-10 – “Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” In these verses we find a precept and a promise placed side by side. As Christians, we are to honour the Lord; that is, we are to give Him the first place, not only in our hearts, homes and businesses, but with regard to our money –- look up Matthew 6:33. We belong to the Lord by creation (Ezekiel 18:4), and by redemption (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). In the same way, all that we possess belongs to Him (Deuteronomy 8:18; 1 Chronicles 29:11-14; Hosea 2:8; 1 Corinthians 4:7), so that strictly speaking it is wrong to speak of our possessions as “ours” or “mine”. If we belong to Him, all our possessions belong to Him. It is very significant that the converts at Pentecost were no

@Livingwater Study 6 THE WONDER OF GOD’S GUIDANCE (Scripture Portion: Psalm 25: 1-22) Over and over again we find the subject of God’s guidance brought before us in the Word of God. In the Old and New Testaments we have wonderful promises of guidance and examples of those who sought and found the Lord’s will for their lives. We also have a number of very clear statements which show us our need of guidance; for example, Jeremiah 10:23. In the psalm which we have chosen for the scripture reading in connection with this study, you will notice that the psalmist assumes the need for guidance, and of course not one of us would question the fact that God’s people do need guiding. They need to pray, “Show me your ways……Teach me……Guide me……” (Psalm 25:4,5,9). For examples of God’s guidance in the lives of His people we think of Abraham going out of his native country not knowing where he was going, being wholly dependent upon the guidance of God (Genesis 12:1); of Moses and the children of