Daily Archives: March 27, 2013

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Charles Stanley – The Promise of Humility

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1 Peter 5:5-7

Jesus’ life exemplified humility. He did not assert His divine rights while on earth but instead left behind the glory and authority to which He was entitled. Cloaking himself with humanness, Jesus chose to be an obedient servant of His Father (Phil. 2:5-8).

Our Savior’s example was and still is countercultural. This world does not value an attitude or lifestyle of humility; rather, it applauds high achievement, outward beauty, elevated positions, or exceptional skills. But God assures us that if we choose meekness—living in submission to Jesus as Master of our lives—He will reward us in both this life and the life to come. (Matt. 5:5 niv).

In today’s verses, Peter outlines our options. Spiritual blessings are promised if we choose God’s way of humility. But if we pridefully forsake His path, the Lord will oppose us because we are essentially working against Him in arrogant self-sufficiency. However, when we humble ourselves by yielding to His authority and desiring to obey Him, He will be our source of strength and confidence.

There’s something else to consider: Since we sometimes buy into the significance society places on instant gratification, we tend to want recognition now. But God honors us according to His perfect way and timing.

The decision is yours to make: Will you humble yourself and live for God’s glory rather than yours? Or will you plot your own course and invite His opposition? If you’re wise, it’s not really much of a decision after all. So take a look at your priorities and ask God to reveal any areas driven by pride.

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Our Daily Bread — Out Of Context

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Luke 4:1-13

Your Word is truth. —John 17:17

When a friend started making random despairing statements, people were concerned for him and started giving advice and offering encouragement. As it turned out, he was simply having fun by quoting song lyrics out of context to start a conversation. Friends who tried to help wasted their time by offering help he didn’t need and advice he didn’t want. The consequences of my friend’s misleading statements were not serious, but they could have been. In taking time to respond to his false need, someone could have neglected someone else’s truly serious need.

Some people who take words out of context just want to gain attention or win an argument. But others are more sinister. They twist truth to gain power over others. They endanger not only lives but also souls.

When people use words to manipulate others to behave in certain ways—or worse, when they quote the Bible out of context to convince others to do wrong—there’s only one defense: We need to know what God truly says in His Word. Jesus was able to resist temptation with the truth (Luke 4). We have the same resource. God has given us His Word and Spirit to guide us and keep us from being deceived or misled. —Julie Ackerman Link

Your words of pure, eternal truth

Shall yet unshaken stay,

When all that man has thought or planned

Like chaff shall pass away. —Anon.

 

If we hold on to God’s truth, we won’t be trapped by Satan’s lies.

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Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Finger Pointing

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For a world of pointing fingers, the day is ripe with opportunity. Today is “Spy Wednesday,” an old and uncommon name for the Wednesday of Holy Week, so-named because it marks the agreement of Judas to betray Jesus. As told by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Judas approaches the chief priests and asks what they would be willing to give him for turning Jesus over to them. They agree on a sum, and from then on Judas looks for opportunity to hand him over.(1)

Some commemorate the involvement of Judas in the story of Holy Week by collecting thirty pieces of silver, the exact amount Judas was given to betray Jesus, and later returns to the chief priests in regret. Typically, children gather the coins and present them as gifts to the church. In other cultures, the tradition involves children throwing an effigy of Judas from the church steeple, then dragging it around the town while pounding him with sticks. For whatever part of us that might want a person to blame for the events that led to the betrayal, death, and crucifixion of Jesus, Judas makes an easy target.

But nothing about Holy Week is easy, and the gospels leave us wondering if guilt might in fact hit closer to home. It is noted in Mark’s Gospel, in particular, that the moral failures of the week are not handed to any one person, but described in all of the actors equally: Yes, to Judas the betrayer. But also to weak disciples, sleeping and running and fumbling. To Peter, cowardly and denying. To scheming priests, indifferent soldiers, angry mobs, and the conceited Pilate. Mark brings us face to face with human indecency, such that it is not a stretch to imagine our own in the mix.

While we may successfully remain apart and shrouded from the events, conversations, and finger-pointing of Holy Week, the cross invites the world to see that we stand nearer than we might realize. Such a thought might seem absurd or dramatic, a manipulative tool of theologians, or an inaccurate accusation on account of your own sense of moral clarity. Yet the invitation to emerge from our own darkest failings, lies, and betrayals is somewhere in the midst of this story as well; not an invitation to dwell in our own impoverishment or to wallow in guilt on our way to Easter morning, but rather, a summons to death and light.

The difficult message of the cross is that there is room beside the hostile soldiers, fickle crowds, and fleeing disciples. But perhaps the more difficult, and merciful, message of the cross is that it summons us to set that guilt down. Pointing fingers and holding onto a sense of guilt is easier than admitting there’s a way to wholeness of life and hope and liberty, which leads through the death and self-giving love of another soul. Before we found a scapegoat to detract attention from our own failings, before we even considered the endless possibilities of finger-pointing, Christ died pointing at the guilt-ridden and guilt-denying, the soldier and the priests and the disciple and the friend and the adversary, who he would just not let go.

Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) See Matthew 26:3-5, 14-16, Mark 14:10-12, Luke 22:3-6.

 

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Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

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Morning   “Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.” / Matthew 26:56

He never deserted them, but they in cowardly fear of their lives, fled from  him in the very beginning of his sufferings. This is but one instructive  instance of the frailty of all believers if left to themselves; they are but  sheep at the best, and they flee when the wolf cometh. They had all been  warned of the danger, and had promised to die rather than leave their Master;  and yet they were seized with sudden panic, and took to their heels. It may  be, that I, at the opening of this day, have braced up my mind to bear a trial  for the Lord’s sake, and I imagine myself to be certain to exhibit perfect  fidelity; but let me be very jealous of myself, lest having the same evil  heart of unbelief, I should depart from my Lord as the apostles did. It is one  thing to promise, and quite another to perform. It would have been to their  eternal honour to have stood at Jesus’ side right manfully; they fled from  honour; may I be kept from imitating them! Where else could they have been so  safe as near their Master, who could presently call for twelve legions of  angels? They fled from their true safety. O God, let me not play the fool  also. Divine grace can make the coward brave. The smoking flax can flame forth  like fire on the altar when the Lord wills it. These very apostles who were  timid as hares, grew to be bold as lions after the Spirit had descended upon  them, and even so the Holy Spirit can make my recreant spirit brave to confess  my Lord and witness for his truth.

What anguish must have filled the Saviour as he saw his friends so faithless!  This was one bitter ingredient in his cup; but that cup is drained dry; let me  not put another drop in it. If I forsake my Lord, I shall crucify him afresh,  and put him to an open shame. Keep me, O blessed Spirit, from an end so  shameful.

 

Evening   “And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” / Matthew 15:27

This woman gained comfort in her misery by thinking great thoughts of Christ.  The Master had talked about the children’s bread: “Now,” argued she, “since  thou art the Master of the table of grace, I know that thou art a generous  housekeeper, and there is sure to be abundance of bread on thy table; there  will be such an abundance for the children that there will be crumbs to throw  on the floor for the dogs, and the children will fare none the worse because  the dogs are fed.” She thought him one who kept so good a table that all that  she needed would only be a crumb in comparison; yet remember, what she wanted  was to have the devil cast out of her daughter. It was a very great thing to  her, but she had such a high esteem of Christ, that she said, “It is nothing  to him, it is but a crumb for Christ to give.” This is the royal road to  comfort. Great thoughts of your sin alone will drive you to despair; but great  thoughts of Christ will pilot you into the haven of peace. “My sins are many,  but oh! it is nothing to Jesus to take them all away. The weight of my guilt  presses me down as a giant’s foot would crush a worm, but it is no more than a  grain of dust to him, because he has already borne its curse in his own body  on the tree. It will be but a small thing for him to give me full remission,  although it will be an infinite blessing for me to receive it.” The woman  opens her soul’s mouth very wide, expecting great things of Jesus, and he  fills it with his love. Dear reader, do the same. She confessed what Christ  laid at her door, but she laid fast hold upon him, and drew arguments even out  of his hard words; she believed great things of him, and she thus overcame  him. She won the victory by believing in Him. Her case is an instance of  prevailing faith; and if we would conquer like her, we must imitate her  tactics.

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John MacArthur – Solving Man’s Greatest Problem

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“Forgive us our debts” (Matt. 6:12).

Man’s greatest problem is sin. It renders him spiritually dead, alienates him from God and his fellow man, plagues him with guilt and fear, and can eventually damn him to eternal hell. The only solution is forgiveness–and the only source of forgiveness is Jesus Christ.

All sin is punishable by death (Rom. 6:23) but Christ bore the sins of the world, thereby making it possible to be forgiven and have eternal life through faith in Him (John 3:16). What a glorious reality!

Scripture speaks of two kinds of forgiveness: judicial and parental. Judicial forgiveness comes from God the righteous judge, who wiped your sin off the record and set you free from its punishment and guilt. At the moment of your salvation He forgave all your sins–past, present, and future–and pronounced you righteous for all eternity. That’s why nothing can ever separate you from Christ’s love (Rom. 8:38-39).

Parental forgiveness is granted to believers by their loving heavenly Father as they confess their sin and seek His cleansing. That’s the kind of forgiveness Jesus speaks of in Matthew 6:12.

When a child disobeys his father, the father/child relationship isn’t severed. The child is still a member of the family and there’s a sense in which he is already forgiven because he’s under the umbrella of his father’s parental love. But some of the intimacy of their relationship is lost until the child seeks forgiveness.

That’s the idea in Matthew 6:12. The sins you commit as a believer don’t rob you of your salvation, but they do affect your relationship with God. He still loves you and will always be your Father, but the intimacy and sweet communion you once knew is jeopardized until you seek reconciliation by confessing your sins.

As a Christian, you are judicially forgiven and will never come into condemnation. But never presume on that grace. Make confession part of your daily prayers so sin will never erode your relationship with your Heavenly Father.

Suggestions for Prayer: Thank God for His judicial forgiveness of all your sins.

Ask Him to help you maintain the joy of your relationship with Him by quickly dealing with any sin that comes up in your life.

For Further Study:  Read Psalm 32:1-7.

How did David feel about forgiveness?

What happened to David before he confessed his sin?

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Joyce Meyer – Don’t “Just” Pray

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Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse…and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. —Malachi 3:10

One of the prayers I hear people pray often, and have prayed many times myself, is what I call a “just” prayer, which sounds something like this: “Now Lord, we just thank You for this food,” “God, we just ask You to protect us,” “Father, we just come to You tonight…” “Oh, God, if You would just help us in this situation we would be so thankful…” Do you see what I mean? We sound as if we are afraid to ask God for very much.

The word just can mean “righteous” or “fair,” but it can also mean “barely enough to get by” or “by a narrow margin.” God wants to give us exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond all that we can dare to hope, ask, or think (see Ephesians 3:20). He wants to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings, so why should we approach Him asking for barely enough to get by on? Why should we approach God as if we are afraid to ask for too much? When we approach Him that way, it seems as if we do not believe He is generous and good. We must realize that He is not a God who gives “just” enough to barely get by, but He desires to bless us abundantly, as the verse for today promises.

God does not want to hear fearful, insecure “just” prayers. He wants to hear bold, confident, faith-filled prayers prayed by people who are secure in their friendship with Him.

God’s word for you today: When it comes to prayer, “just” just isn’t enough.

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Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – We Are Each a Part

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“Each of us is a part of the one body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves and some are free. But the Holy Spirit has fitted us all together into one body. We have been baptized into Christ’s body by the one Spirit, and have all been given that same Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

I find that most Christians agree that the Holy Spirit baptizes the believer into the Body of Christ, as this verse affirms. But the unity of the body is divided here on earth by many differences of interpretation concerning a “second baptism,” speaking in tongues and “Spirit-filling.”

Most believers agree, however, that we are commanded to live holy lives and the Holy Spirit supernaturally makes this human impossibility a reality. He does this when we totally submit ourselves to His indwelling love and power. Or, to use a metaphor of the apostle Paul, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves in Christ” (Galatians 3:27, NAS).

In His high-priestly prayer, our Lord prayed that we who are believers may be one with Him, even as He and the Father were one. We are commanded to love one another. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35, KJV). No one who criticizes his brother is Spirit-filled. No one who sows discord among his brethren is Spirit-filled. In fact, the test as to whether or not we are controlled by the Holy Spirit is how we love our brothers.

It is my joy and privilege to know most of the famous Christian leaders of our time, men and women whom God is using in a mighty way to help change our nation and some other nations of the world with the gospel. How I rejoice at every good report that comes to me of God’s blessing upon their lives and ministries. In fact, it is one way of checking my own walk with Christ. If I were jealous and critical, fault-finding and sowing discord, I would know that I am not walking in the light as God is in the light.

Bible Reading: I Corinthians 12:14-20

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  I will not allow my interpretation of the Spirit-filled life to separate me from other members of the body of Christ, but will love them and seek to promote unity among believers.

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Presidential Prayer Team; J.K. – Get a Grip!

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Animals are sometimes ensnared in traps. People occasionally feel entangled in a relationship. But you can be bound by sin…or not!

We shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. Romans 6:5

At a time when his culture was deeply corrupt, Paul uses the sixth chapter of Romans to instruct the believers who felt they could sin as they wanted because grace abounded more. Paul is quick to tell them that was not so. They were no longer constrained by sin and therefore shouldn’t relish it or love it any longer.

Because believing means you die to your sins, you have “newness of life,” you are “united with him in a resurrection like his,” and are “alive to God through Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:4-11) The power of His resurrection won over death and sin. And now you have that power as well.

Don’t let sin get a grip on you! Believe and you can experience a resurrection now in how you live, holding control over sin and being blessed with a better life. Stay in communion with God to be nourished and strengthened. Then pray for this nation – that its people will know the resurrection power of the one true God, Jesus Christ.

Recommended Reading: Philippians 3:8-11, 17-21

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Greg Laurie – The Power of Christ’s Words

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Christ’ passionate love for the world is evident in His statements from the Cross:

Statement One “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34

Do you realize that you are in need of the Father’s forgiveness?

 

Statement Two “Today you will with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43

Have you realized and confessed Jesus as your personal Savior?

 

Statement Three “Woman, behold your son.” John 19:26

Jesus is concerned for us and provides for all of us.

 

Statement Four “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46

Jesus was forsaken so we don’t have to be.

 

Statement Five “I thirst!” John 19:28

This personal statement reminds us that Jesus is not only God, but He also was man. Jesus identifies with our needs.

 

Statement Six “It is finished!” John 19:30

Jesus paid for our sins, and sin’s control over our lives is broken!

 

Statement Seven “Into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Luke 23:46

You can entrust your life into God’s hands.

 

How to Know God

You were designed to know God in a personal way—to have a relationship with Him, through His Son, Jesus Christ. How do you start a relationship with God?

1. Realize that you are a sinner.

No matter how good a life we try to live, we still fall miserably short of being a good person. That is because we are all sinners. The Bible says, “No one is good—not even one.” We cannot become who we are supposed to be without Jesus Christ.

2. Recognize that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you.

The Bible tells us that “God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while were still sinners.” This is the Good News, that God loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die in our place when we least deserved it.

3. Repent of your sin.

The Bible tells us, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.” The word repent means to change our direction in life. Instead of running from God, we can run toward Him.

4. Receive Jesus Christ into your life.

Becoming a Christian is not merely believing some creed or going to church. It is having Christ Himself take residence in your life and heart. Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in . . .” If you would like to have a relationship with Christ, simply pray this prayer and mean it in your heart.

“Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. I believe You died for my sins. Right now, I turn from my sins and open the door of my heart and life. I confess You as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank You for saving me. Amen.”

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Max Lucado – What We Do to Him

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How we treat others is how we treat Jesus.

The soldiers bowed before Jesus, making fun of him, saying ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’  They spat on Jesus.  They began to beat him on the head.  Then they led him away to be crucified.” (Mark 15:18-19).

The soldiers’ assignment was simple.  Take the Nazarene to the hill and kill him.  But they wanted to have some fun first.  Strong, armed soldiers encircled an exhausted, nearly dead Galilean carpenter and beat up on him. The beating was commanded.  The crucifixion was ordered.  But the spitting?  Spitting isn’t intended to hurt the body—it can’t.  Spitting is intended to degrade the soul, and it does.

Ever done that?  Maybe you haven’t spit on anyone, but have you gossiped?  Raised your hand in anger?  Ever made someone feel bad so you would feel good? Our Lord explained this truth in Matthew 25:40:  How we treat others is how we treat Jesus!

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)