Men's Missionary Union - BABC

26/08/2026

Happy Birthday Aare! Long life and prosperity. We celebrate you.

26/08/2026

‘Grab it, and throw it in the trash’

26 August 2026

‘‘Bringing every thought into captivity.’’

2 Corinthians 10:5 NKJV

Author Max Lucado wrote: ‘Some time back, a mother asked me to pray for her eight-year-old son. He was troubled by a constant barrage of images and scary visions that left him withdrawn and timid. They even took his sleep at night. On the day we met, his eyes filled with tears, and he clung to his mother. She had taken him to doctors, but nothing had helped. I told him that the devil had no authority over his life. That the real battles are fought in the mind. That God will help us take every thought captive. I urged him to memorise a Bible verse and quote it each time the fearful thoughts came to his mind. “Reach up with your hand,” I urged, “and grab the thought and throw it in the trash. And as quickly as you do that, replace it with a verse of Scripture.” We then anointed him with oil and prayed for him. 'Five days later, his mother reported great progress. “Since last week, the images are gone; he is no longer seeing them. He recites this Scripture from Psalm 25:5 NKJV nightly: ‘Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation.’ I believe this has brought him closer to Christ.” He uses the strategy of throwing the fearful thoughts away in the trash can. He said when he tried to throw them away, his head would hurt. I asked, “What made them go away?” He smiled and said, “I know God made them go away.”’So the word for today is – ‘Grab it, and throw it in the trash.’

Word for Today (UCB)

26/08/2026

25/08/2026

Prayer makes all the difference

25 August 2026

‘‘Pray for one another, that you may be healed.’’

James 5:16 NKJV

Christian cardiologist Dr Randolph Byrd had a great interest in knowing if prayer had a ‘scientifically measurable’ impact on healing. He has said, ‘After much prayer, the idea of what to do came to me.’ Over a ten-month period, a computer assigned 393 patients in the coronary care unit at San Francisco General Hospital to one of two groups. The first group was prayed for by home prayer groups. The second group was not remembered in prayer. The home prayer groups were from various Christian denominations. They were given only the first names of the patients and brief descriptions of their diagnoses and conditions. They were prayed for each day. The prayed-for patients differed from those not prayed for in these ways:

1) They were five times less likely to need antibiotics.

2) They were three times less likely to develop fluid in the lungs.

3) None required an artificial airway attached to a ventilator.

4) Fewer died.

If the technique being studied had been a new drug or procedure, it would have been heralded as a breakthrough. Even Dr William Nolan, the author of a book denouncing faith healing, said, ‘It sounds like this study will stand up to scrutiny…Maybe we doctors ought to be writing on our order sheets, “Pray three times a day.”’ In the Old Testament, we read: ‘“For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds,” says the Lord’ (Jeremiah 30:17 NKJV). In the New Testament, James wrote: ‘The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up…Pray for one another, that you may be healed’ (James 5:15-16 NKJV).

Word for Today (UCB)

24/08/2026

Set financial boundaries

24 August 2026

‘‘Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?’’

Amos 3:3 NKJV

It’s no secret that today, the majority of marriages fail because of financial issues. Other relationships can also be threatened when we fail to repay a personal loan or meet our financial expectations. The following three strategies will go a long way in mitigating these pitfalls:

1) Discuss with your spouse the maximum amount each of you may spend without getting the other’s permission. Any amount above this limit will be considered ‘major’ and will require complete agreement. Every couple defines a ‘major’ purchase differently, depending on their household income, so stick to what has been agreed on. This is important. If you do not agree on a transaction, when the deal goes bad, the tendency is to point fingers.

2) Advise your family that personal loans are against your ‘house policy’. Should you decide to make an exception to the policy, make sure your spouse is in complete agreement. If you are wise, you will put the terms and the due dates in writing.

3) Don’t enable your child, spouse, or anyone else to remain irresponsible by bailing him or her out or always being their safety net. Just say no. By not saying no, you interrupt one of God’s most effective principles – sowing and reaping the consequences of individual behaviour. Real maturity occurs when this lesson is learned. Love must be tough! If you are an enabler, ask God right now to give you the strength to stop being so. For example, insist on that rent payment from your still stay-at-home adult child who is able to contribute to household funds. This demonstrates character-building love, which is genuine love. If you need to set financial boundaries, do it!

Word for Today (UCB)

23/08/2026

History is His story

23 August 2026

‘‘Go…teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.’’

Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV

The words Jesus spoke changed the world forever. These were the last instructions to His disciples: ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you’ (vv. 18-20 NKJV). Jesus’ followers took this seriously: ‘Daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ’ (Acts 5:42 NKJV). They remembered that they followed a man who taught everyone, and who commanded them to teach all peoples. So they did. They began to teach both men and women, both slaves and free. Some of the world’s greatest teaching institutions were founded by followers of Christ. Oxford and Cambridge universities began in the thirteenth century. (The motto of Oxford University is from Psalm 27:1: ‘The Lord is my light.’) George Marsden noted: ‘One of the remarkable facts about American history is that within six years of landing in Massachusetts wilderness, Puritans established what would soon become a reputable college.’ These words are from a student handbook: ‘Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life (John 17:3), and therefore to lay Christ…as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.’ That was Harvard University! And 92 per cent of the first 138 colleges and universities founded in America were begun by followers of Christ. His words not only inform us; they also transform us.

Word for Today (UCB)

22/08/2026

Pray for wisdom

22 August 2026

‘‘Only the LORD gives wisdom.’’

Proverbs 2:6 NCV

Here’s Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church: ‘That…God…may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation’ (Ephesians 1:17 NKJV). For the Colossian church, he asked that God would fill them with ‘the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding’ (Colossians 1:9 NKJV). James wrote: ‘If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God…and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting’ (James 1:5-6 NKJV). Godly wisdom also comes to us by Bible reading. This is why Paul, in his last letter before being beheaded for the gospel, wrote to his successor Timothy and said, ‘From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation’ (2 Timothy 3:15 NKJV). How would you know that the wisdom you’re walking in comes from God? ‘God’s wisdom begins with a holy life…characterised by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced’ (James 3:17 MSG). As young Solomon took the throne of Israel God asked him, ‘What shall I give you?’ (1 Kings 3:5 NKJV). Solomon answered: ‘“Give to Your servant an understanding heart.”…The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing’ (1 Kings 3:9-10 NKJV). As a result, Solomon became known as one of the wisest men who ever lived, and he wrote three of the books of the Bible. And the God who gave him wisdom will give it to you too. All you have to do is pray for it and open your heart and mind to His Word.

Word for Today (UCB)