LEADING BY THE "NO'S"

ACTS 16:6-8 (NKJV)

"Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.

So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.'

Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them."

DON'T EVEN GO THERE!

PROVERBS 1:10-16 (KJV)

"My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:

Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit:

We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse.

My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: for their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood."

HOPE--LOST AND FOUND

LAMENTATIONS 3:1-33 (NKJV)

HOPE LOST

"I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light.

Surely He has turned His hand against me time and time again throughout the day.

He has aged my flesh and my skin, and broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and woe.

He has set me in dark places like the dead of long ago. He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy.

Even when I cry and shout, He shuts out my prayer. He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.

He has been to me a bear lying in wait, like a lion in ambush. He has turned aside my ways and torn me in pieces; He has made me desolate.

He has bent His bow and set me up as a target for the arrow. He has caused the arrows of His quiver to pierce my loins.

I have become the ridicule of all my people—their taunting song all the day.

He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel, and covered me with ashes.

You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity.

And I said, 'My strength and my hope have perished from the LORD.'

Remember my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers and sinks within me.

HOPE FOUND

This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.

Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I hope in Him!'

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silent, because God has laid it on him; let him put his mouth in the dust— there may yet be hope. Let him give his cheek to the one who strikes him, and be full of reproach.

For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men."

DEAL OR NO DEAL

GENESIS 13:8-17 (NKJV)

"So Abram said to Lot, 'Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.'

And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD.

And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: 'Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.'"