When Osama Bin Laden was killed, some people in America rejoiced in the streets. After all, this one man had accepted blame for masterminding the 9-11 terrorist attacks within our borders. Acts carried out under his direction left many loved ones with empty arms and hearts when the planes used as missiles hit their marks. Even the plane that missed its target crashed in a field killing all aboard. Wasn’t the celebration of punishment for Bin Laden justified?

Not in God’s sight.

Ezekiel 33:11 states, “Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live…’” (NKJ). Bin Laden professed that he devoutly followed a religion that does not believe that Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life,” and there’s no other way to get to God except by the acknowledgement of who Jesus is (See John 14:6). The atrocities sanctioned by Bin Laden were indeed wicked acts, but God had no pleasure in his death. Why? Because He is longsuffering (patient) toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” Second Peter 3:9 (NKJ).

We see Bin Laden’s sin as so much worse than our own. The truth is: none of us deserve salvation. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans3:23 (NKJ). Any sin is enough to preclude us from Heaven. It’s only thanks to God’s amazing grace and mercy that our lives were not cut short before we had a chance to come into the saving knowledge of Christ, trust Him as our Savoir, and be welcomed as part of the family of God.

By all indications, Bin Laden is spending the rest of all eternity in hell’s fires along with everyone else who died without the saving knowledge of Christ. That’s nothing for us to celebrate. God gets no pleasure in an unsaved soul. Let’s busy ourselves today and every day spreading the Gospel so the tragedy of a lost soul won’t happen to anyone with whom we come in contact.

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©2016 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

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Mission Trip Update! I think about Africa every day. My new Motherland friends and I stay in contact thanks to Facebook. God is the true international God; Jesus is the international Savior; the Holy Ghost is the international Spirit. Love for our God crosses country checkpoints without needing a passport or a visa.

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Links you won’t want to miss: 

• Watch Sharon in two shows on The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network: 
  • Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott, and
  • A View from the Upper Room

from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. 

(Stream current show or view past episodes anytime!)

• Pick up a copies of Sharon’s books for yourself and as gifts for your family members and friends!

• Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

• Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

Boomerangs Videolink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk

• Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

Sharon’s other books still available:

Every few years, another round of the debate comes up between Creation and evolution. Ever since Darwin’s Origin of Species, Christians have been in the fight of their lives over whether or not God created the universe. The definitive answer takes faith no matter what side of the debate you are on.

I contend that it takes much more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in Creation. Evolution takes chance after chance after far-fetched chance to believe that the chain of events it claims actually happened that way. First of all, there’s this big bang, an incredible explosion of gasses that ends up forming galaxies, universes, the heavens, planets, stars, and a highly organized single-cell structure. That single cell eventually multiplies, forming a multi-celled organism that again begins to differentiate up the chain until you ultimately get to man. To believe this theory (and it is still called a theory today) is to truly have a great amount of faith in chance. If just one thing went wrong anywhere along the way of these supposed millions of years of changes, the whole theory would be shot. The mathematical probability is astronomical that every single change happened just that way to form the universe and the living creatures we know to exist today. Such faith!

On the other hand, a far simpler – and I dare say a much more logical – answer to the where-did-it-all-come-from question exists. Two Bible verses – one in the Old Testament and the other in the New – make it crystal clear. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (NKJ). And Hebrews 11:3 proclaims, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (NKJ).

God, the invisible One to us until Jesus’ incarnation, created the visible. There’s no believing in chance involved. All that’s necessary is belief and faith in God. Start there, and everything else – from how the world was created to knowing our purpose in it – falls in line. It’s a faith thing; have faith in God.

And by the way, if there was nothing to begin with, what exploded?

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©2016 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

________________________________

Mission Trip Update! I think about Africa every day. I met a lady from South Africa today. She was a visitor at my church. Before I said hello, she grabbed my hand and said, “You look like Africa. Are you from there?” When I answered without an accent, she said she knew I was American, but she still insisted I looked like Africa. Then I told her I had just returned from the Motherland! Later, when I met her daughter, she proclaimed that I looked like I was either Kenyan or Nigerian. What’s happening? Too cool!

________________________________

Links you won’t want to miss: 

• Watch Sharon in two shows on The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network: 
  • Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott, and
  • A View from the Upper Room

from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. 

(Stream current show or view past episodes anytime!)

• Pick up a copies of Sharon’s books for yourself and as gifts for your family members and friends!

• Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

• Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

Boomerangs Videolink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk

• Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

Sharon’s other books still available:

Proverbs 28:20 says, “  A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished” (NKJ). Proverbs get right to the point, and so will I.

•  Faithful: ’emuwnah (em-oo-naw’) in Hebrew means firmness, security; moral fidelity, stability, and truth.
• Man: ‘iysh (eesh) in Hebrew usually means a man as an individual or a male person, but is often used as an adjunct to a more definite term and can even mean champion and one who is worthy.
• Abound: rab (rab) in Hebrew means abundant in quantity, size, age, number, rank, or quality
• Blessing in Hebrew means benediction; by implication prosperity
• To Hasten: ‘uwts (oots) in Hebrew means to press; hurry, labor, and be narrow
• To be Rich: `ashar (aw-shar’) in Hebrew means to accumulate for yourself
• (will not go) Unpunished: naqah (naw-kaw’) in Hebrew means to be bare, i.e. extirpated (to pull out by the roots, destroy or remove completely, exterminate, abolish)

As we are faithful – firm, morally stable – we will stand as God’s champions, worthy of the abundant prosperity His hand will bestow. If we give up on God and take matters into our own hands, to succeed on our own terms, we will narrow our own prospects and take ourselves to our own utter destruction.

Faithfulness on our part requires our patience and trust in God’s faithfulness. Work steadily on, not pressing or hurrying; just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Do the next thing excellently and faithfully, and watch God’s abundant blessings come.

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©2016 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including this copyright line. Leave comments, ask questions, read past devotions, or subscribe to receive these devotions daily in your e-mail at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. Also, periodically check in at www.LifeThatMatters.net to see what’s going on in the ministry.

________________________________

Mission Trip Update! I think about Africa every day. I met a lady from South Africa today. She was a visitor at my church. Before I said hello, she grabbed my hand and said, “You look like Africa. Are you from there?” When I answered without an accent, she said she knew I was American, but she still insisted I looked like Africa. Then I told her I had just returned from the Motherland! Later, when I met her daughter, she proclaimed that I looked like I was either Kenyan or Nigerian. What’s happening? Too cool!

________________________________

Links you won’t want to miss: 

• Watch Sharon in two shows on The Holy Spirit Broadcasting Network: 
  • Life That Matters with Sharon Norris Elliott, and
  • A View from the Upper Room

from any internet-connected device at www.HSBN.tv. 

(Stream current show or view past episodes anytime!)

• Pick up a copies of Sharon’s books for yourself and as gifts for your family members and friends!

• Why I Get Into Trouble link to our eStore: https://www.createspace.com/5131814

• Boomerangs to Arrows: A Godly Guide for Launching Young Adult Children available from Judson Press (http://www.judsonpress.com/product.cfm?product_id=17387),

Boomerangs Videolink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JH_gbinMk

• Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame from New Hope Publishers (http://www.newhopedigital.com/2010/08/power-suit/)

Sharon’s other books still available: