Ada Brownell's Blog, page 6

QUIZ ABOUT YOUR FUTURE

FROM ADA BROWNELL'S BOOK, IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOUBook summary: This book could be the greatest gift you’ll ever give to your teenager!
IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOUA motivational Bible study by Ada BrownellReady or not, you’re going into your future.If you continue to do what you do now, what kind of future will you have? This Bible study will help you discover evidence for faith in God; how to look and be your best; who can help; interesting information about dating, love and marriage; choosing a career; how to deposit good things into your brain you can spend; and how to avoid hazards that jeopardize a successful life on earth and for eternity, all mingled with true stories that can make you smile.Review:  How I would have loved to sit at Mrs. Brownell's knee when I was a teen. This wholesome book resounds with sage, Godly advice and could be picked up again and again as needs arise. Worthwhile for parents too. Much fodder for family discussion.            Also available in Audio. Read or listen to first chapter free! #Teens #Family #DevotionsLinks: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06ITunes  http://ow.ly/TY6uO  
QUESTIONS: TEST YOURSELF
Use a separate paper or notebook to take the tests. Answers follow the questions so you can grade yourself. If you’re using this book as a group study, you can use these questions for discussion. May God be with you on your exciting journey with Him!
Chapter One 1. Do I think only of today, or do I consider the future? Why? 2. Did I dream more about my future as a child, or now? Why do you think that is? 3. List dreams for your future, starting with the most important, even if you don’t know for sure what you want to do with your life. 4. How will you go about achieving your desires? 5. Which is more important: desire or talent? 6. Are people who achieve their dreams just lucky? 7. How do my decisions affect my future? 8. Are my bad habits anything to worry about? Why? 9. How do my good habits help? 10. Can I reach my dreams even though I am poor, my parents aren’t perfect, and I’ll have to work at receiving the education I need?
Chapter Two
1.     Did Joseph deserve his brothers’ hatred? Why or why not?
2.     If you have good character, will it show even when you are mistreated? How will it be shown?
3.     Why do you suppose God allowed Joseph to stay in prison for something he didn’t do? Should he have hated the butler for forgetting him?
4.     What was Joseph’s biggest dream after he was taken away from his family?
5.     What makes us remember Joseph?
6.     Where is the most important place your name can appear? How do you go about getting your name there?
7.     Do you know the meaning of your name? (You might be able to find out the meaning on the Internet or in a book of baby names.)
8.     Do you have a nickname? Does it have anything to do with who you are?
9.     How about your family name? Do you have a name to live up to, or to which you’d like to restore respect?
10.  If you have a bad reputation associated with your name because of your actions, what can you do?


Chapter Three
1. Are you different from your friends? Why or why not?
2. What is most important about how you look?
3. What does how you present yourself have to do with respect?
4. Which would you like to be—classy or sexy? Why?
5. Are you happy with the way you dress and look?
6.  What do you feel is your best feature? Eyes? Smile? Figure? Hair? Skin? Or knowing how to do the best with what you have?
7. Do you pay attention to compliments on the way you look? Do you remember what color you wore, the clothes and how they fit, how your hair was done, or how often you smiled?
8. Do you notice why the people you admire look good?
9 . Why is “Who you are” more important than how you look?
10.What makes opinion leaders different? How does taking responsibility for yourself make you different from the crowd?


Chapter Four
     
If you live until you’re ninety and Jesus doesn’t return in your lifetime, how many years will you be an adult?How you _________ to what happens to you and around you determines what kind of person you become.It’s advisable to “cool it” when faced with ________ _______ so you’ll emerge a _______ ___________ person.It’s not easy to rise above a sinful environment or abuse, but it can be done. It’s a matter of the _______.What if I feel drawn to a vocation but feel I can’t do it?When should a young person begin preparing for the future?Sometimes in life we all need ______ desperately.List three things that a person can do to prepare for the future.Who is a good biblical model of doing great things despite distressing circumstances?Would Joseph’s story have ended well if he hadn’t been devoted to God?
     
Chapter Five
All through childhood, children __________ what they see and hear.How do we learn?How does what we experience and learn affect us?How can we guard our minds?What part of us is connected to the Covenant Guard on our minds?Is the covenant/conscience enough by itself? Why?How do we avoid temptation?What sort of good things should we download into our minds?What can you do when you are forced to read or study ungodly material?Does propaganda contain some truth? Why?






Chapter Six
Would Solomon have been better off if his dad, David, would have chosen a wife for him? Why?Have you prayed for your future wife or husband?What part did God play in choosing a beautiful wife for Isaac? What do you think of this arranged marriage being “love at first sight”?Falling in love is an act of _______ ________.We know how we want others to _______ us but often aren’t willing to love others _____ _______ ____.We want others to love us as ____ loves us.Give five of the ten reasons the author says we fall in love.Do you believe you will choose your husband/wife to build your ego? What character qualities would you like your mate to have?Where in the Bible is the “love chapter” located?Staying in love involves _____ ______.


Chapter Seven
Name the seven good reasons why it’s best to wait to have sex until marriage.True or false: God invented sex.Many teen moms live in __________.What are the biggest reasons many young women keep their virginity?What do you guess is their number one goal?__________ is the only reason Jesus gave for divorce.We aren’t supposed even to be _______ with those who commit sexual sin.John said if we say we know Him (Jesus), but don’t keep His commandments, we are a _______ and the _______ is not in us.How do you define “true love”?If we want God’s will for our lives, we need to use ______ _______ to achieve it.
     
Chapter Eight
1. Are we able to prove God exists? Why?
2. List the four ideas on the scriptural days of creation.
3. What is the name of the famous fraudulent missing link?
4. How many years has it been since Darwin wrote his book Origin of the Species?
5. Does variation in a species support evolution?
6. What is atheism based on? Why?
7. Why do men calculate Earth’s age in “millions” of years?
8. What scientific fact makes man’s life on Earth appear to be much less than some calculations?
9. What natural laws does evolution violate?
10. Name some of the parts of the human body you believe would not be possible without a Designer like God.


Chapter Nine
1. Who is Jesus?
2. Why do we know he existed before he was born in Bethlehem?
3. Is it necessary to believe in Jesus to have salvation?
4. Name a prophecy fulfilled in Jesus from the Book of Isaiah.
5. Did Jesus claim to be God?
6. What indirect claims did Jesus make to being a Supreme Being?
7. What is wrong with the belief that Jesus was just a good person like Mahatma Gandhi or Mother Teresa?
8. What is the significance of His death on the cross?
9. What is the significance of the Resurrection?
10. When will He return to earth?


Chapter Ten
1. From Old Testament times, what has been necessary to forgive sin?
2. What do you have to do to be saved from sin and death?
3. What does accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior automatically cause you to be?
4. What happens to our sin?
5. Will we forget we sinned?
6. How do I know what sin is?
7. Can a Buddhist or Muslim be saved?
8. What is meant by committing your life to Christ?
9. Can anyone else make your commitment for you?
10. Will you have a second chance after death?




Chapter Eleven
1. Who wrote the Bible?
2. Who wrote the Book of Mormon? The Koran?
3. Why is having more than one author significant?
4. Did Jesus write any of the Bible?
5. What is the Bible’s unfolding story?
6. Who were two of those who said they were eyewitnesses of Jesus’s life and ministry?
7. Does archaeology or other writings confirm the Bible? Give one example.
8. How were the writings of the Old Testament preserved?
9. Can you prove the Bible is true?
10. Is everything in the Bible to be believed?


Chapter Twelve
1. Why pray?
2. Can you be a good Christian without praying?
3. What assurance do we have that prayer will be answered?
4. How do you start a prayer life?
5. Are all prayers answered?
6. Why do some people cry when they pray?
7. Are memorized prayers OK?
8. Why do some people pray scripture? Doesn’t God know what it says?
9. Why do we need to pray when God knows our needs and our thoughts?
10. What part does faith have in prayer?


Chapter Thirteen


1.     Satan stalks you because he wants to ______, ________, and _______ you.
2.     Fame and riches can become a __________.
3.     What animal is Satan like?
4.     How can we avoid him?
5.     Success is always wrapped in ____________________________________________.
6.     What does Satan do to many famous, rich stars?
7.     Talent is like a _________. It needs ____________.
8.     Name three careers that might interest you.
9.     To fulfill our dreams, it’s wise to ________.
10.  What my future is like depends on ____ and ______ __________.

ANSWERS NEXT WEEK!

WHY GOALS ARE ATTAINABLE

13. Why your goals are attainable
EXCERPT FROM IMAGINE THE FUTUE YOU, By Ada Brownell Summary of Imagine the Future You
A motivational Bible study by Ada Brownell Ready or not, you’re going into your future.If you continue to do what you do now, what kind of future will you have? This Bible study will help you discover evidence for faith in God; how to look and be your best; who can help; interesting information about dating, love and marriage; choosing a career; how to deposit good things into your brain you can spend; and how to avoid hazards that jeopardize a successful life on earth and for eternity, all mingled with true stories that can make you smile.
Review:  How I would have loved to sit at Mrs. Brownell's knee when I was a teen. This wholesome book resounds with sage, Godly advice and could be picked up again and again as needs arise. Worthwhile for parents too. Much fodder for family discussion.            Also available in Audio. Read or listen to first chapter free! #Teens #Family #DevotionsLinks: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06ITunes  http://ow.ly/TY6uO ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS
When people know where to go with their lives, their suitcase is packed with important things for the journey. Where do you hope to go, and what do you think you need?
Would you like to be rich and famous? Is that your goal in life?
Fame and riches bring risks. Paul told young Timothy, “People who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.” The King James Version of the Bible uses the word “snares” for the type of trap Satan sets. Snares trap animals around the neck or body, and tighten.
Elvis Presley started his career singing in church, but he had great talent—and Satan wanted it. Elvis never lost his love for gospel music and his desire to serve God, but Satan’s snare snapped, closed, and tightened until Elvis died young, divorced, and addicted to prescription drugs.
Nearly every day on the news we hear about a celebrity whose marriage is breaking up (if he or she is married at all), committed a crime, died too young, or is at risk because of drug addiction or alcohol abuse.
IMAGINE A LION AT THE DOOR
We can plop all of the above at the feet of the thief, Satan, who walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Given half a chance, he will steal your future and destroy your life.When Peter wrote this warning, he prefaced it with, “Be sober (clearheaded), be vigilant (on your guard).”One young girl told how her dad warned her not to open the door one inch to the devil because he is like a lion who will charge through before you can shut it.
There are famous people who guard their testimonies, serve God with boldness, and walk in purity, but they realize Satan could take them down in a flash if they don’t stand against him, clothed with the whole armor of God described in Ephesians 6: The belt of truth around your waist; the breastplate of righteousness in place; your feet fitted with the readiness (footwear) that comes with the gospel of peace; the shield of faith, which will stop the fiery arrows of the wicked one; the helmet of salvation; and in your heart and hand the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Despite our access to spiritual armor, fame and riches aren’t valid goals in themselves. Many talented young people dedicated to the Lord seek first to serve Him and to develop their talents to the best of their ability. They usually are willing to go through the doors the Lord opens, and if that includes fame and riches, they’ll deal with it when it comes.
SUCCESS IS ALWAYS WRAPPED IN WORK
When you listen to a famous person, think about how the celebrity achieved fame. Never forget success is always wrapped in what people do every day.
For instance, consider the Jonas Brothers. Nicholas Jonas started memorizing lines and acting at age seven. He wrote “Joy to the World (A Christmas Prayer)” with his father. His brothers joined him in music and performance. Before they toured and sold millions of albums as teenagers and young adults, they spent hours and hours developing their talents. Then they studied, practiced, and rehearsed some more.
They had goals in mind, believed God was with them, and developed their talents through trial and error, lessons, practice, study, work, practice, and more practice. They are examples of Christians who achieved fame and fortune.
In contrast to the Jonas Brothers, we have famous singers who have filthy mouths and live unholy lives. I’ve never been into the music of these people, but one day channel surfing I ran across Madonna and decided to listen a moment to see what on earth made her famous.
She’s a great singer.
Likewise there’s a huge reason Michael Jackson became a superstar. He came into this world talented, but he literally lived to sing and dance—and he practiced even the night before he died.
TALENT IS LIKE A DIAMOND; IT ISN’T BEAUTIFUL UNTIL IT’S POLISHED
Since God deserves our best, it is a great catastrophe when talented youth committed to the Lord don’t bother to develop their gifts and use them to win souls and bless people! We have terrific singers on worship teams, groups that travel and present concerts in churches and auditoriums, soloists, and also recording artists who bless, challenge, and encourage. Could that be you?
IMAGINE YOUR SPECIAL TALENT
Music isn’t the only gift God can use greatly. The Lord uses special people to preach the Gospel. But those who work behind the scenes, such as sound engineers, are just as important. People gifted at math and numbers are needed to work in churches as they grow, build, and work to win souls. God can use math experts in missions to help organizations, charities, and other ministries to balance their budgets.
Even the president of the United States needs people who can project ideas on how to eliminate the debt, cover important expenditures, and slash unnecessary spending. States, counties, and cities need people like that, and if they find someone with good ideas and God-given ability to help politicians live within their means, it definitely will be a ministry to the taxpayer.
Businesses, individuals, and families need auditors, office workers, financial planners, and those with expertise in risk management. People need hairstylists, and help caring for their skin and nails.
Health care organizations use people with compassion willing to learn the latest successful treatments, cures, and surgeries. We need someone to develop more effective medications and devices. But we also have a place for people willing to minister to everyday needs of people.
We look for righteous workers in politics, defense, energy development, building, auto repair, law enforcement, television and newspapers, and film production. Our nation needs firemen, godly fashion designers, sales personnel, steel and other industrial workers, secretaries, web and software designers, bankers, attorneys, real estate brokers, inspectors and appraisers, counselors, teachers and principals, painters, poets, photographers, large equipment operators, welders, farmers, and insurance agents.
We need regular people to invent things that meet needs and enhance life, comfort, and health. The list is unending of the things God can do with your talents.
IMAGINE YOUR CAREER
Thousands of careers from which to choose revolve around your life. Watch people. Look at everything around you. Your spoon. Your cereal bowl. The cereal. The milk.
Will Kellogg, the younger brother of Dr. John Kellogg, in the nineteenth century left a pot of boiled wheat to stand, and the wheat softened. The brothers didn’t want to waste food, so they rolled the wheat and let it dry, hoping they could make it edible.
 Kellogg belonged to a Seventh-day Adventist group that operated a sanitarium and helped people through good nutrition to recover from diseases.
When the rolled wheat dried, each grain became a large, tasty flake. The brothers kept experimenting with other grains and discovered corn flakes.
Someone figured out how to make Os from grain and to pop corn and puff wheat. Other people forged spoons from a mineral in a rock. The bowl you ate out of this morning came from products someone worked to make. Someone with willing hands milked the cow, probably with a machine somebody invented, so you could have milk on your cereal.

CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK AND QUIZ--next week

DO YOU PRAY? iMAGINE THE CREATOR LISTENING TO YOU

12. IMAGINE THE CREATOR LISTENING TO YOU
An excerpt from Imagine the Future YouBy Ada Brownell
God wants you to talk to Him




“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us; and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.”

A strong wind propelled a raging forest fire up the side of Grand Mesa in Colorado, leaving blackness and ashes in its wake. Grand Mesa is the largest flat-topped mountain in the world.
The billowing smoke and hungry flames came into view of a mother and three children, alone in a white two-story house. The roaring mass of flames raced directly toward their home.
 The father had gone to help fight the fire, which erupted near Cedaredge. He had no idea the wind would take the fire to his family—now stranded without a car or any other means of escape.
Inside the house the mother and children ran to the bedroom, took the Bible, and read the Ninety-first Psalm, which talks about God’s protection for His children. Then they knelt and prayed fervently. Still praying, they went back to the living room and watched the fire, now almost upon them.
While they stared, the flames turned away as the direction of the wind changed. Their prayers had reached God, and He answered!
IMAGINE PRAYER POWER
This true experience is one of several miraculous answers to prayer shared by members of a church I attended in Lakewood, Colorado, several years ago. I was asked to speak in the youth service about prayer. While meditating and praying for the service, I felt I should let people in our church tell from their own experience what prayer can do. I told you briefly about some of these miracles earlier in this book.
So I began asking individuals to help me. My only problem was choosing which miraculous answers to prayer to use! I found so many examples of the power of prayer I couldn’t use all of them.
IMAGINE CONNECTING WITH GOD
One woman said she uttered a simple prayer as their family’s truck, loaded with apples, rolled over the side of a mountain. Her children were riding on top of the apple boxes. After she scrambled out of the truck, crushed by huge boulders, she called her children’s names.
“Tim? Are you all right?”
“Yes,” a voice answered from beneath the boxes.
“Steve?”
“Here!”
“Connie?”
“Here, Mom!”
The entire family escaped uninjured.
“Sometime let me tell how the Lord made an empty fuel barrel keep the house warm for a week,” she added.
A deacon told how God stopped the rain so he could work on a road construction project. The deacon had five children to feed and needed all the work he could get. If it rained, he couldn’t work and didn’t get paid.
One day he noticed big black clouds rolling toward the road construction area. He prayed the Lord would allow him to keep working.
It was the deacon’s job to send supplies to the men on the paving machine. For three days the rain followed close behind the road crew, and although they could see storm clouds dumping rain behind them, it never reached where the men worked. Occasionally the showers came right up to where they were, and then would go back again.
Some told of being delivered from alcohol or cigarettes. Outstanding physical healings were numerous.
A man was critically injured when the Jeep in which he was riding went out of control and rolled over. He told how doctors gave no hope for his recovery, but through his family’s prayers and his own conversion, he recovered so quickly that when he went deer hunting, he scared one of his friends when they met in the woods.
“I thought you were dead!” the friend gasped. He hadn’t heard he recovered.
IMAGINE MIRACLES
Another couple told how their baby was healed of water on the brain (hydrocephalus). The baby’s head began to grow faster than its body. After X-rays, the doctors told the parents the baby would never be normal and should be admitted to an institution.
The distraught parents asked their pastor to go to the institution and pray for the baby.
Within two weeks the doctors informed the parents that the baby had become perfectly normal. When comparing X-rays of the child’s brain before and after prayer, the doctor said it was hard to believe they were taken of the same baby. He wrote “Absolute Miracle!” across her records.
The baby, Becky, now is married and never showed any evidence of mental retardation. Her head went back to normal size as an infant, and it remains normal. Becky was one of our children’s close childhood friends when we attended the church in Lakewood.
A mother told how her nine-year-old girl suffered a head injury in a swinging door, and soon afterward, paralysis affected one side. The diagnosis was a blood clot on the brain. The doctors said she would not live a year.
Her mother went through agony, watching her beautiful little girl deteriorate until she could no longer feed herself. When the mother would try to feed her, often the food would just fall out of the child’s mouth.
“Oh, God!” she cried many times, “I just can’t bear it!”
The child’s grandma, however, kept reassuring the young mother to believe God for a miracle.
When vacation time came, they asked the doctor whether the little girl would be able to make a trip.
“You’d better take her,” the doctor said. “It will be the last vacation she can take with you.” So the parents bundled her up in a blanket and put her in the back of their station wagon.
Instead of getting worse, the girl began to improve. She completely recovered and became an outstanding Christian woman, and she’s one of my close Facebook friends today.
I know all of these people personally. Almost without exception, they—or at least a family member—served God faithfully before they had a crisis in their lives. They already were on “speaking terms” with God—and they didn’t hesitate to ask God for help when they needed it. They’re still serving the Lord and seeing answers to prayer.
But God hears the fervent prayer of anyone.
God wants us to ask him to supply our needs. “Ask and it shall be given you,” Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount.IMAGINE THE CREATOR LISTENING
Isn’t it almost too much to think God will listen to humans? To me? A nobody? A cry for help in our own feeble words, and the Creator answers?
It happens all the time.
God wants us to bring our needs to Him and believe he will answer. The Bible says, “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who comes to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”Also, we should pray fervently. “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.” According to biographers, prayer in Martin Luther’s early years as a monk probably was confined to what he later called “babble and empty chatter,” which was reading prayer books, saying memorized prayers, and counting beads.
As he became a mature Christian—who, like David, wasn’t afraid to challenge the world’s giants because the Lord was with him—Luther learned to pray so fervently and effectively that he moved the hand of God. When he talked to the Lord, Luther deeply affected those within hearing range and was strengthened and lifted up himself.
Luther used his native German and prayed frequently and fervently, and he fell asleep at night communicating with God.Luther got his emotions involved.
“Wake up your heart and teach it what kind of thoughts to think while praying,” he told his followers.
He warned against mechanical prayers, without thinking about what is being said. He also cautioned people to avoid praying because it was their duty to do so, saying such prayer would accomplish nothing.
The reformer often prayed facing a window, turning his back on those in the room with him.
Viet Dietrich once overheard Luther praying alone. “My heart was inflamed when I heard him speaking so intimately, so earnestly, so respectfully, confident his petitions would be granted.”
In one of his teachings on prayer, Luther advised Christians that when Christ said to “ask…seek…knock” it was to encourage Christians to be persistent when they pray. He advised them to ask, keep seeking after the Lord, and knock excessively. “Ask and receive means nothing else than, 'ask, call out, yell, seek, knock, thunder!'”
IMAGINE GOD’S INTERVENTION
This is exactly how Luther prayed himself at times. When his friend Philip was in a coma and appeared at death’s door, Luther walked in and began to lay the problem before the Lord. He quoted promises from the Bible that prayers will be heard. He yelled and thundered the promises until he had “rubbed his ears” with the truths as well as the ears of other believers in the room. He continued praying in a loud voice until every listener in the room was hot with faith, too. Finally, Philip began to stir. They fed him and soon he was on the mend.
The powerful prayers of Luther were coveted, and even feared, by those who knew him.
Luther’s advice to keep knocking and asking and never give up goes along with what Jesus said: “Men ought always to pray and not faint!”“Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bears long with them?” Jesus asked.
Years after I collected answers to prayer in the Lakewood church I asked a Sunday school class in Pueblo, Colorado, to share their answers to prayer.
Everybody wanted a chance to share their answers to prayer. A young couple told how their premature baby’s life was spared because of prayer. A young lady told how God touched her heart condition.
There were many others, but one I especially remember was a young married couple who had recently become Christians.
“My parents became Christians not very long ago,” one of them said, “and began requesting prayer for our salvation in the church they attend in another state. At the same time, for some reason, we decided to buy a Bible so we could read it. We started at the back and when we read Revelation, we got scared. We didn’t understand all of it, so we thought we’d better find a church. The Lord led us here, where we accepted Christ. Then we discovered our parents had been praying!”
The parents didn’t know how to approach their children and tell them they committed their lives to Christ, so they just prayed. When the children were born again, they hesitated to phone the parents and share what happened. But God already had worked a miracle.
Another lady, Julie, who attended our church, impressed me when she testified about how glad she was that she didn’t give up praying when she got discouraged.
Julie had prayed for her husband, Dan, several years when she finally persuaded him to attend a revival crusade in Denver. When Dan didn’t go forward to accept Jesus, Julie got mad at God.
If Dan’s god is more powerful than mine, she thought, maybe I should sell my soul to him.
Then she realized it was an awful thought, and she repented. Quickly she focused her mind once again on the promises of God’s word and decided she would not give up hope.
A little more than a year later, Dan surrendered his life to the Lord, and Dan and Julie were mightily used of the Lord to win others.
Not only was Dan saved in due time, but others were also saved as a result. Some of her relatives and several friends came to the Lord also.
Sometimes our prayer lives become like the miner who stuck it out several years picking and digging for gold in the Colorado mountains about the turn of the twentieth century. The miner found only enough nuggets to keep from starving.
Finally he got disgusted. “If I don’t find gold in a few more days, I’m quitting.”
He didn’t find gold, and he quit. He sold his claim for almost nothing.
The next owners dug only ten feet from where the miner quit when they hit a big vein of gold ore and struck it rich!
We can’t stop believing in the power of prayer.
If you’d like to know for yourself what prayer can do, read the Bible. See what God did for Elijah, Gideon, and Daniel in the Old Testament. Find out what He did for the apostles in the New Testament. Then ask believers you know what God has done for them.
 The churches I have been in are not unique—except that they still believe and teach that God answers prayer. You can find testimonies of miracles everywhere.
Pray. Prayer is just talking to God. You will find the Lord hears and answers—even a whisper.

BUY IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU FOR YOUR HOME OR GROUP BIBLE STUDY AT:

Links: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06
ITunes  http://ow.ly/TY6uO Also available in Audio. Read or listen to first chapter free! #Teens #Family #Devotions

Why the Bible’s message is written to you.

IMAGINE YOU CAPTURED BY EXCEPTIONAL LOVE

Excerpts of Ada Brownell's book, Imagine the Future You

Also available in Audio. Read or listen to first chapter free! #Teens #Family #DevotionsLinks: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06By Ada BrownellI picked up some Avon products at my neighbor’s, and then she burst into tears.
“My friend from South Dakota is here visiting, and I don’t know what to do to help her,” Roberta said.
The friend’s son was in a Denver hospital after tests on his heart. A blood clot developed in the small boy’s arm after the test, and doctors told the mother if the clot moved the short distance up the artery to the heart, the child would die. If they operated to remove the clot, he might lose the use of his arm.
I told Roberta we believed in prayer and told her I’d pray for the child. After I went home, however, I realized that wasn’t enough. The mother needed some faith of her own.
So I took one of my Bibles and underlined the ninety-first Psalm: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God, in Him will I trust.…A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.…He shall call upon me and I will answer him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.”
I put a marker in the Bible and took the Bible to Roberta.
Later, Roberta related to me what happened. When her friend came home from the hospital, she sat down and read the Psalm. Tears soon dripped on the marked page, but the mother found hope.
At the hospital, doctors circled the little boy’s bed in consultation about what they should do. One of them gently began to examine the thin, inflamed arm where needles had inserted dye for the X-rays.
“It’s gone!” the doctor said in amazement. “The clot has dissolved.”
Like the boy’s mother, many people have found comfort and hope in God’s Word.
The Bible is a unique book. There is none like it—although many books have been written trying to take its place. It begins with the story of creation: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light, and there was light” (Genesis 1:1–3).
The creation story continues, with life springing forth on the land, in the sea, each plant and animal capable of reproducing their kind, male and female. Then God scraped up some dirt and He made a man—Adam.
God didn’t just give this person life. The Lord leaned down and breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
God put Adam into the Garden of Eden to dress it, keep it, and name the animals. In the cool of the evening, God enjoyed fellowship with Adam and, later, Eve, whom God created for Adam so he would have a human to love and start a family.
 Can you imagine God wanting to spend time with you? Many theologians believe God created the earth and humans so he could fellowship with them. The Bible says where two or three are gathered in His name, He is in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).
 God instructed Adam and Eve that they could eat any fruit in the garden, except one—the knowledge of good and evil. If they ate of that tree, they would die.
 Satan told them they wouldn’t die, but the couple discovered what God said was true. When Cain killed his brother, Able, and they stood beside their first grave. Every human who has lived since that time until now died.
But God had compassion and promised a Redeemer (Genesis 3:15) who would forgive sin and give eternal life. God also breathed into men scriptures, so His love story could be shared with every person who lives. Although there are still consequences for sin, the Bible is the story of God’s loving redemption of humankind.
No other writing in the history of the human race has been preserved with the care that has been given the Bible.
Throughout history men have spent their lives preserving, copying, and translating scripture. They had to verbalize each word as they wrote and examine every consonant and vowel, counting the characters in each column of writing. The words were reviewed every thirty days, and if as many as three pages required corrections, the entire manuscript had to be redone.Manuscripts usually were preserved on fine animal skins and kept in dry places where they would be safe for generations to come. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, some dating from 100 BC to 100 AD, there were few discrepancies from those copied in the tenth century. Furthermore, the New Testament has the greatest amount of manuscript evidence among ancient Greek and Latin literature. The Iliad by Homer has 643 ancient manuscript copies, compared to more than 24,000 for the New Testament.The writing of the Bible also is unique. Unlike Mohammed’s Koran, or Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon, written almost completely by one man (Mohammed wrote the Koran, but his followers also wrote some of his sayings for the book), the Bible was written by forty authors over a 1,500-year span, over thirty generations. The authors included peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars, a doctor, and a tax collector. It was written on three continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe, and in three languages, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
Hundreds of controversial subjects are included in the subject matter, but although the authors were so different, they wrote with harmony and continuity from Genesis to Revelation. There is one unfolding story: God’s redemption of man.
You might wonder whether Jesus wrote any of the Bible. No, yet the whole book is filled with prophecies about the coming Messiah and the fulfillment. The New Testament is written by witnesses who saw how God completed His plan of salvation for humankind through Jesus. Much of the New Testament contains quotes of the teachings of Jesus, recorded by the disciples and apostles. Some writers, such as John and Peter talked about being eyewitnesses of His life and Resurrection from the dead (See 2 Peter 1:16 and 1 John 1: 1).
Prophecy written hundreds of years before it was fulfilled also is a testimony of the divine authorship of the Bible.
As I mentioned before, one of the most outstanding examples of prophecy coming to pass just as the biblical writer under the Holy Spirit’s revelation said it would be, is taken from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel, fulfilled in my generation.
In Ezekiel 37 there is the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. Human bones were scattered all over the valley. Talk about Halloween!
As Ezekiel looked at the bones, the Lord said, “Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, ‘Oh ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’”
When Ezekiel prophesied, the bones started moving. I don’t know if it occurred like the black Gospel spiritual:
DRY BONES
Toe bone connected foot bone
Foot bone connected leg bone
Leg bone connected knee bone
Don’t you hear the Word of the Lord?
Leg bone connected knee bone
Knee bone connected thighbone
Thighbone connected hipbone
Don’t you hear the Word of the Lord?
Hipbone connected backbone
Backbone connected shoulder bone
Shoulder bone connected neck bone
Don’t you hear the Word of the Lord?Ligaments and flesh began to cover the bones, and when Ezekiel prophesied again, breath came into them. They lived and became an exceedingly great army. The Lord then explained to Ezekiel that the Israelites (the Jews) would be scattered all over the face of the earth just as the bones were scattered over the valley floor. But Israel would live again. It would be a nation again.
Ezekiel’s career extended from 592 to 570 BC. While his prophecy was fulfilled in part at the close of the Exile, the main prophecy of this text refers to the Jews being scattered after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Since then, they have lived all over the globe, but in the twentieth century, an urgent desire to return to their homeland stirred in Jews’ hearts. They packed their bags, and Israel became a nation in 1948.
The whole world today acknowledges that Israel is alive and breathing again, resurrected from its valley of dry bones.
The Bible is full of fulfilled prophecy. Educated people from the secular world may take one example of fulfilled prophecy lightly, but if they would become students of the Bible, studying it as they study Freud and Darwin, they would discover the Bible can’t be rejected so simply. Many persons have been converted when they studied the Bible to discredit it.
 Two of these converts who come to mind are C. S. Lewis, the great writer of a generation past, the author of Chronicles of Narnia and other great books, and the modern-day Josh McDowell, author of Evidence That Demands a Verdict, who gave tremendous evidence on the authenticity of the Bible in recent years.
The purpose of the Bible, though, is not to be a history textbook, or a phenomenon of foretelling the future. The purpose of the Bible is to unfold God’s love to man and His plan to give him eternal life.
The Bible has a supernatural origin and purpose, which is evident from Genesis to Revelation.
In all the nearly 1,500 years it took to write the Bible, never once did the paganism of the societies in which the authors lived penetrate its pages, despite some of their leaders worshiping idols. Even though polytheism was dominant through Egyptian history, the writers of the Bible continually wrote about one God.
During much of their history, the Hebrews (the Jews, or Israelites) did not live according to God’s laws. This wasn’t hidden, but even the gravest sins are revealed in the Word.
Man would have “made up” a religion he could easily live up to, or that made humankind comfortable without changing its ways. But the inspired Word of God never compromised, no matter what person God used to write his message to man. His message never changed despite the different personalities and writing styles that became part of His book.
The Bible zeros in on human problems and needs— as no other book has ever done. The late advice columnist Ann Landers wrote before she died about the value of the Ten Commandments. “What else can you name that still works after 3,000 years?” she asked.


©Ada Brownell


IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU
A motivational Bible study by Ada Brownell
Ready or not, you’re going into your future.
If you continue to do what you do now, what kind of future will you have? This Bible study will help you discover evidence for faith in God; how to look and be your best; who can help; interesting information about dating, love and marriage; choosing a career; how to deposit good things into your brain you can spend; and how to avoid hazards that jeopardize a successful life on earth and for eternity, all mingled with true stories that can make you smile.
Review:  How I would have loved to sit at Mrs. Brownell's knee when I was a teen. This wholesome book resounds with sage, Godly advice and could be picked up again and again as needs arise. Worthwhile for parents too. Much fodder for family discussion.
            Also available in Audio. Read or listen to first chapter free! #Teens #Family #Devotions
Links: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06

GOD HAS A GIFT FOR YOU THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR FUTURE

By Ada Brownell

Excerpt from Imagine the Future You


http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06

A GIFT FOR YOU THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR TOMORROWS
In addition to being available only through the Lord Jesus Christ, sal­vation is a gift. It is not something that can be earned.
Good works have a part in the Christian life, but after we become a Christian.Immediately after Adam sinned, God the Father promised a Redeemer who would forgive sins and give back the immortality they lost.Salvation as we experience it today took many generations to become reality. But the moment Christ died after shedding his precious blood, the veil in the tem­ple was ripped from top to bottom. The veil separated ordinary men from the Holy of Holies, where the priests entered the presence of God and sprinkled the blood of bulls and goats to absolve the people of their sins for a year.
The torn veil signifies we can go directly to God for forgiveness, because Jesus is our high priest. “Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”All the necessary arrangements for our salvation already have been made, and that gives us the opportunity to build our lives on the proper foundation.
We can go di­rectly to our high priest, Jesus Christ.
Talk to Jesus. He’s listening. Even though he already knows about them, tell him about your sins. Ask for forgiveness. Believe His Word and know your sins are forgiven and wiped from the record.Then tell someone you have accepted Christ as your Savior. 
 If you’ll do those things, something will happen. You’ll be clean,born again, and will experience salvation. A new redeemed person.
But God doesn’t want us to remain spiritual babies. Get involved in a good church that preaches the Gospel. Build your life on the Rock Christ Jesus. Study the Bible. Pray. Share your testimony and take your friends and family to heaven with you.
If you do these things, you’ll be prepared for storms of life that may come because Jesus will be with you. God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).You can be your best.



Acts 4:10–12KJ See Ephesians 2:8,9KJ See Genesis 3:15 John 3:16KJ Hebrews 4:14,16KJ

WHAT DO YOU NEED GOD TO DO FOR YOU?

WHAT DO YOU NEED GOD TO DO FOR YOU?
(Excerpt from Ada Brownell's book, Imagine the Future You.Summary below).

First, you need to think some about who you are.
Below is a little profile I did of myself, and you can create a similar one for you, pointing out why you are the person you at least think you are.
1. I’ve been known to be a little scatterbrained. For instance, I once turned off the water that my husband kept running in the bathtub to keep the water pipes from freezing. I forgot to turn the water back on after I took a bath. I threw a big coat over my nightgown and went out to thaw out the pipes (my husband was working out of town). The door froze shut and I was locked outside in 30-below freezing temperatures at 2 o’clock in the morning.
2. I’m fun loving. I’ve always loved games. I play board and card games like Rook, but my favorites are action games such as tennis, volleyball, badminton, swimming, baseball. I even enjoy walking, jogging, swinging.
3. I have a sense of humor. In high school, I won a trophy for being best actress in a one-act play contest. A judge took me aside and told me I could go to Hollywood as another Lucille Ball. Was she thinking talent or red hair?
4. I enjoy working and seeing things done, everything polished and organized. I used to say turning a kitchen from messy to clean is like creating a piece of art. After marriage, a clean nicely decorated house is connected to my self image.
5. I’m a germ-o-phobe. In my mind there’s no need for people to be ill with colds and flu, especially if there is a disease like asthma in the house. Wash those hands. Sanitize. After writing on the medical beat for seven years also I believe in using bleach on everything after preparing meat in the kitchen, or after a person with a cold visits our house. Guess that brings up bacteria-o-phobe. No rare meat, especially hamburger--and chicken juices should run clear when cooked. No red or pink anywhere. I always have grilled chicken heated twice when eating out. I came down with salmonella from grilled chicken about a half dozen times from restaurants. No more. Heat it twice, or I order deep fried. Grease is better than germs.
6. I’m a seeker of knowledge. I’ve been a student of the Bible since I was about 14, and prayed for wisdom all my adult life. I enjoy picking people’s brains, in-depth research, and anything that keeps me filled with truth.
7. I love romance. To me the most romantic words ever spoken are “I love you. I want to marry you and I will love only you until death parts us.” My husband and I made that vow and kept to it now for many decades.  I read squeaky clean inspirational historical romance books with a lead character I like and sympathize with who has a big problem that needs solved.
I could go on and on. This will give you some idea of how to probe who you are. Think about it and write down what pops into your head, then review and rewrite to get to your core.
Ask yourself: What or who do I fear? What do I value? What is most important to me? What do I cry about? What makes me laugh? What have I done that I enjoyed? What have I done that I’m proud of? What is the one thing I would like to do before Jesus comes or I die? When I am sad, who do I talk to? Who would I like to help? Who have you helped that you didn’t have to?
What do I know that I would like to share? What would I like to learn? Do I want God in my life? How has not knowing or knowing Jesus affected me?
"Without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to him must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6).What do you need God to do for you? Do you believe God answers our prayers?
IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU By Ada Brownell Will you be the person you dream of becoming, or the person in your nightmares? Ready or not, you are headed into your future. Would you like to achieve your dreams of being all you can be inside and out? Would you like to deposit good information in your brain you can spend and invest in your future? Read or listen to Ada Brownell’s book, Imagine the Future You. This author, who taught church youth for more than 30 years, spent a good hunk of her life as a journalist interviewing successful people who achieved great things, but also met and wrote about those whose lives had become so entangled with baggage they needed a miracle to turn them loose. In addition, she has picked brains and studied how to believe in yourself and things greater than you. You need this book.  E-book, paper and audible. Great narrator. Mom: Our teenage daughter loves this book!  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06 ITunes  http://ow.ly/TY6uO

Answers to chapter 1 quiz about the future

Excerpted from Imagine the Future You by Ada Brownell
Chapter One answers
1.     Answer the question truthfully and meditate on why you do or don’t think of the future.
2.     Allow yourself to dream great dreams while you ponder this question.
3.     Keep this list of dreams in your diary or your Bible where you can look at it occasionally.
4.     Write down your ideas.
5.     Both are important, but people with great talent who don’t dream or desire to polish and use what they have often have less success than those without much talent.
6.     Fulfilling dreams usually has little to do with luck, but it doesn’t hurt to know people who can help you succeed.
7.     Our decisions affect our future because we can’t achieve anything without working toward a goal.
8.     Yes. Because they once they become a part of us they’ll probably be with us all our lives.
9.     Because they assist us in reaching goals. Even though being on time at school doesn’t seem like a big deal, an “on-time” habit will help in everything we do.
10.  Poor people from dysfunctional homes achieved great things all through history.

tEST HOW YOU THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE

QUIZ* WHAT DO YOU EXPECT IN YOUR FUTURE?EXCERPT FROM ADA BROWNELL'S BOOK IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU
Chapter Two
1.     Did Joseph deserve his brothers’ hatred? Why or why not?
2.     If you have good character, will it show even when you are mistreated? How will it be shown?
3.     Why do you suppose God allowed Joseph to stay in prison for something he didn’t do? Should he have hated the butler for forgetting him?
4.     What was Joseph’s biggest dream after he was taken away from his family?
5.     What makes us remember Joseph?
6.     Where is the most important place your name can appear? How do you go about getting your name there?
7.     Do you know the meaning of your name? (You might be able to find out the meaning on the Internet or in a book of baby names.)
8.     Do you have a nickname? Does it have anything to do with who you are?
9.     How about your family name? Do you have a name to live up to, or to which you’d like to restore respect?
10.  If you have a bad reputation associated with your name because of your actions, what can you do?

*ANSWERS WILL BE PUBLISHED AT THE END OF ALL THE BOOK QUIZZES

TEST HOW YOU THINK ABOUT TOMORROW

Quiz on the book Imagine the Future YouExcerpted from the book by Ada Brownell  Also available in Audio. Read or listen to first chapter free! #Teens #Family #DevotionsLinks: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06ITunes  http://ow.ly/TY6uO
ARE YOU PREPARED FOR TOMORROW?By Ada Brownell
QUESTIONS: TEST YOURSELF
Use a separate paper or notebook to take the tests. Answers follow the questions so you can grade yourself. If you’re using this book as a group study, you can use these questions for discussion. May God be with you on your exciting journey with Him!
Answers will be published at the end of the book quiz.


Chapter One
1. Do I think only of today, or do I consider the future? Why?
2. Did I dream more about my future as a child, or now? Why do you think that is?
3. List dreams for your future, starting with the most important, even if you don’t know for sure what you want to do with your life.
4. How will you go about achieving your desires?
5. Which is more important: desire or talent?
6. Are people who achieve their dreams just lucky?
7. How do my decisions affect my future?
8. Are my bad habits anything to worry about? Why?
9. How do my good habits help?
10. Can I reach my dreams even though I am poor, my parents aren’t perfect, and I’ll have to work at receiving the education I need?

A GIFT THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR FUTURE

By Ada Brownell
(Excerpt from Ada Brownell's book Imagine the Future You) http://ow.ly/TY6uO
Salvation from sin and for eternity is not something that can be earned. It is a gift from the Lord Jesus Christ we receive when we accept Him as Savior. We can't earn it.

Good works have a part in the Christian life, but after we become a Christian.Salvation as we experience it today took many generations to become reality. But the moment Christ died after shedding his precious blood, the veil in the tem­ple was ripped from top to bottom. The veil separated ordinary men from the Holy of Holies, where the priests entered the presence of God and sprinkled the blood of bulls and goats to absolve the people of their sins for a year.
The torn veil signifies we can go directly to God for forgiveness, because Jesus is our high priest. “Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”All the necessary arrangements for our salvation already have been made, and that gives us the opportunity to build our lives on the proper foundation.
We can go di­rectly to our high priest.
Talk to Jesus. He’s listening. Even though he already knows about them, tell him about your sins. Ask for forgiveness. Believe His Word and know your sins are forgiven and wiped from the record.
Then tell someone you have accepted Christ as your Savior.
 If you’ll do those things, something will happen. You’ll be clean,born again, and will experience salvation. A new redeemed person.
But God doesn’t want us to remain spiritual babies. Get involved in a good church that preaches the Gospel. Build your life on the Rock Christ Jesus. Study the Bible. Pray. Share your testimony and take your friends and family to heaven with you.
If you do these things, you’ll be prepared for storms of life that may come because Jesus will be with you. God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
You can be your best.


Buy the Book:  http://ow.ly/TY6uO
NEXT: A quiz to see what you've learned from this study.