Smile for Yeshua

Encouraging Words with Pastor Bruce & Suzi Elman

Our scripture today talks of a cheerful countenance! What exactly is a countenance? It is your face and the way you look! GOD is very concerned about how we look because either we are walking advertisements for YESHUA or we are walking advertisements for Satan! This is why it is important that we learn how to have a cheerful countenance and a pleasant look on our face.

When you are smiling you put those around you at ease! Smiling makes others feel comfortable and secure, while a sour look on your face will make others feel discomfort and insecure!

Proverbs 15:13
A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance; but, a broken heart crushes the spirit.

All of our problems aren’t caused by the devil; they could be the result of the way we feel or act! Cheer up and learn to relax, and most of all, keep a smile on your face. It will make you feel better (including everyone around you)! 

Smile for YESHUA today!

Love & Blessings,

Bruce and Suzi Elman

L’Chaim Messianic Congregation

Living Hope

Encouraging Words with Pastor Bruce & Suzi Elman

If we ever needed hope, it is now! “Hope” can be defined as the desire for something good and the expectation of receiving it. There is only one source of hope in our fallen world, and it’s not the government!

Messiah Yeshua, and He alone, is our genuine source of hope because He alone knows what is best and has the sovereignty and power to secure its fulfillment.

We all have different expectations about what our future will bring pertaining to our life here on this earth! But YESHUA promises us the “living hope” of an inheritance in heaven! These things on earth will fade away someday, but our future home in heaven is for all eternity! This is our ultimate security and our anchor when the storms of life while on earth are severe!

1 Peter 1:3

Praise be the God and Father of our Lord YESHUA MESSIAH. By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of YESHUA MESSIAH from the dead. 

This Scripture tells us when we accept YESHUA as our Savior and Lord of our life (being born-again), we will then have that ever-living hope in our heart! YESHUA, who is our “living hope,” is waiting to be invited into your heart! He is your only true source of hope in these troubled times!

Love & Blessings,

Bruce and Suzi Elman

L’Chaim Messianic Congregation

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Friend of God

Encouraging Words with Pastor Bruce & Suzi Elman

One key to effective prayer is approaching GOD as His friend. When we don’t know GOD as a friend, we are reluctant to ask Him for anything; we don’t feel we’ve “earned it” with our good behavior! So our confidence that He is listening is easily undermined. 

We need to see ourselves as close friends with GOD! You may be thinking that becoming friends with GOD seems like a difficult thing to do. But if you are a follower of Yeshua, you are already His friend. Friendship is based on sharing openly and honestly. Our Scripture today tells us Yeshua shared everything with us! 

John 15:15 

“I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are My friends, since I have told you everything the Father told Me.”

When we begin to see ourselves as GOD’s friend through MESSIAH YESHUA, our prayers become much bolder and full of faith. It is all up to you whether you want to be a casual friend or a close intimate friend! The choice is yours!

Love & Blessings,

Bruce and Suzi Elman

L’Chaim Messianic Congregation

Click here to read more blogs from Pastor Bruce & Suzi

Teach Us to Pray

Encouraging Words with Pastor Bruce & Suzi Elman

You and I can be sincere Messianic believers eager to please GOD in all we do and still have honest questions about prayer. Even though YESHUA’s disciples spent a lot of personal time with Him, they still felt the need to ask Him to teach them how to pray!

YESHUA helped them (Luke 11:2-4), and I believe that when we ask Him, He will help us too. As a result, we will not only experience increased effectiveness, freedom and enjoyment in our prayer life but also greater closeness in our relationship with Him! 

We should not be intimidated by the idea of prayer; we should actually look forward to spending time doing something that is meant to come naturally—like breathing!

Luke 11:1

Now it came to pass as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.”

Our Creator loves us and longs for fellowship with us everyday! We can and should pray anywhere, anytime and about anything! Nothing is too big or too small; your Creator wants to hear it all!

Love & Blessings,

Bruce and Suzi Elman

L’Chaim Messianic Congregation

Click here to read more blogs from Pastor Bruce & Suzi

Father of Tomorrow

Encouraging Words with Pastor Bruce & Suzi Elman

Today is the “father of tomorrow,” meaning what we are today is the result of how we have been thinking and have lived in the past.

If we save wisely today, we’ll have plenty tomorrow, but spend everything today and have little or nothing for the future! Today’s Scripture tells us we will reap what we sow.

Example: you can’t plant crabgrass and expect to harvest pineapples; nor can we sow disobedience to GOD and His Word and expect to reap His blessings! Look at a apple tree and you’ll realize planting a single seed can yield thousands of seeds. Just the same, a small decision to do either good or bad reaps much bigger crops, either for joy or sorrow!           

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

Keep in mind, unlike agriculture, life’s harvests do not have predictable schedules for ripening! We reap some crops quickly while others take a long time, but do not be deceived, their season will come! Be faithful in all situations and your harvest will come! We serve a faithful GOD who always keeps His promises.

 

Love & Blessings,

Bruce and Suzi Elman

L’Chaim Messianic Congregation