Monthly Archives: March 2013

Uncategorized

Greg Laurie – Profound Simplicity

Leave a comment

 

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek—Romans 1:16

My granddaughter Rylie heard a story in Sunday School about the boy that ran away from home. So I said, “Well, tell me the story.”

So she told me the entire story of the prodigal son: “This boy ran away from his dad, and he did bad things. And then he realized what he did was wrong, and he came home to his dad.”

“What did his dad do?” I asked. “Did his dad spank him?”

“No. No. His dad threw his arms around him and loved him and kissed him.”

“That’s right. So what do you think that story means? Who is the dad?”

“Well, the dad is like God.”

She got it. Jesus told truths so profound that the greatest minds can spend hours, even years, discussing them, but so simple that a child can understand them.

A philosophical argument has its place. However, there is power in the message of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And I have found that if I will just stand up and proclaim this message, that God will do amazing things—not because I am a great preacher, but because I have a great message and have confidence in it. I also believe that when I proclaim it, people will respond. And they do, because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.

We all can proclaim this simple message—so simple that a child can understand it—because that is where the power is. That is what moves people.

The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2: 2).

An effective evangelistic message will make a beeline to the cross.

Uncategorized

Max Lucado – The Father’s Outstretched Arms

Leave a comment

 

The prodigal son. Going home a changed man.  No longer demanding he get what he deserved, but willing to take whatever he could get. How many years had it been? As the boy came around the bend that led to his house, he rehearsed his speech one more time. He turned to open the gate, but the father already had.

“Father I have sinned,” he said. (Luke 15:21).  The two wept.  Words were unnecessary.  Forgiveness had been given.

If there’s a scene that deserves to be framed, it’s the one of the Father’s outstretched hands. His hands call us home. Imagine those hands.  Stretching open like a wide gate, leaving entrance as the only option. He forced His arms so wide apart that it hurt. And to prove that those arms would never fold and those hands would never close, He had them nailed open.

 

Uncategorized

Charles Stanley – The Power of Testimony

1 Comment

 

John 9:1-38

Have you ever considered the sheer power in your simple testimony? John’s gospel tells a wonderful story of a blind man whom Jesus healed. If the story simply ended with the man opening his eyes and praising God, even that would surely be powerful. However, John takes the account further and shows us what happened next.

The Jewish authorities didn’t know what to make of this miraculous healing. They had all the facts—a man they knew was born blind, the crowd that overheard his interaction with Jesus, the proof of identity that his parents provided—and yet they refused to believe what was clear to so many. That is, they challenged the man’s testimony.

The religious authorities voiced their disbelief by calling Jesus a sinner (John 9:24), as if this untruth would somehow disqualify His miracle.

The man’s response in John 9:25 was brilliant in its simplicity: “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

No matter what else was said, the man knew the Pharisees could not refute the basic fact that he had been healed. Scripture shows that the authorities lost their tempers because they could not argue their way around that fact.

People simply cannot argue against the truth of your experience with Jesus. Rejoice that the Lord has given you such a powerful weapon in the midst of so great a spiritual battle. In situations where you anticipate a confrontation about your faith, take the time to reread John 9 so God can encourage you.4

Uncategorized

Our Daily Bread — Thoughts On Rain

Leave a comment

 

Matthew 5:38-48

He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. —Matthew 5:45

When torrential downpours beat on the heads of my newly planted petunias, I felt bad for them. I wanted to bring them inside to shelter them from the storm. By the time the rain stopped, their little faces were bowed to the ground from the weight of the water. They looked sad and weak. Within a few hours, however, they perked up and turned their heads skyward. By the next day, they were standing straight and strong.

What a transformation! After pounding them on the head, the rain dripped from their leaves, soaked into the soil, and came up through their stalks, giving them the strength to stand straight.

Because I prefer sunshine, I get annoyed when rain spoils my outdoor plans. I sometimes wrongly think of rain as something negative. But anyone who has experienced drought knows that rain is a blessing. It nourishes the earth for the benefit of both the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45).

Even when the storms of life hit so hard that we nearly break from the force, the “rain” is not an enemy. Our loving God has allowed it to make us stronger. He uses the water that batters us on the outside to build us up on the inside, so we may stand straight and strong. —Julie Ackerman Link

Lord, we know that we don’t need to fear the storms

of life. Because You are good, we can trust You

to use even our hard times to build our faith in You.

We lean on You now.

The storms that threaten to destroy us God will use to strengthen us.

Uncategorized

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The Audacity of Imitation

Leave a comment

 

Unflattering as an adjective, insulting as a noun, imitation has fallen on particularly hard times. No one wants to be an imitation of a favorite songwriter, a fake impersonator of the grammy-award winning original. No restaurant proprietor wants to be reviewed as the “imitation” of a famed eatery; inherent in the classification is the notion of being a lesser version of the real thing. An idea is never lauded for being a good imitator of another. And imitation vanilla is rarely, if ever, invited to a cookbook. Originality is by far the more the accepted fashion of the day. And the pressure to be original—to be different than, better than, more than—is both constant and intense. It is the modern way of distinguishing oneself after all, whether applying for college or making a pithy tweet. From impressions to possessions to thoughts, being original seems to be everything.

The pressure may be subtle but it is often overwhelming. It is quite likely the reason why social media seems exhausting to me, why meeting someone with similar ideas can just as easily promote worry as it might a sense of camaraderie, or why I sometimes delay writing out of dread that it’s just all been said before. The pressure to be the inventor and not the imitator, the original and not the clone, the drive to make a new statement about oneself ad nauseam is both a strange and exhausting task.

I was thinking about this trend as I read some of the familiar, distinguishing, oft-quoted lines of Martin Luther King Jr. recently. In light of our need for incessantly original tweets and blog entries, it is interesting to note that King’s most trusted advisors were horrified when they heard him launch into his “I have a Dream” speech that fateful day in Washington. To them, this speech was played out. It was old and tired and not at all the new statement they were hoping to make for the Civil Rights Movement. He had given versions of this speech in other places and on other occasions, not the least of which a crowd of twenty-five thousand in Detroit. According to those who had helped him write the new speech the night before, they agreed they needed something far more original to make the greatest mark. Together they wrote a new speech that night, but on the day of the event, King set novelty aside for a less original dream.

Like his advisors, our modern allegiance to originality might make it difficult to imagine staring at a crowd of two hundred thousand, charged with a new and bold opportunity to make a statement heard by more of the United States than ever before, and deciding in a split moment not to say something new. Thankfully, Dr. King had the courage to believe that what we needed was not reinvention but, in fact, very old news. His acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize reflected a similar conviction:

“I have the audacity to believe that… what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will will proclaim the rule of the land. ‘And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.’ I still believe that we shall overcome.”(1)

To those inclined to obey the unrelenting orders of repackaging, reinventing, and re-presenting oneself ever-anew, proclaiming an ancient hope, being a follower of an ancient way, indeed, imitating a rabbi from the first century, likely seems as boring and unattractive as it is strange. Who wants to be an imitator, let alone an imitator of an antiquated mind and crucified body?

It may well be one of the most countercultural stances the church takes today. The Christian is an imitation. She walks a curiously ancient path toward a Roman cross of torture; he stands, unoriginally, with a humiliated body that bore the sorrow and pain of crucifixion. The way of Christ is not new. But the invitation of this broken body is paradoxical in this world as the broken body itself. For more curious than the invitation to be a follower in a world looking for trailblazers is the invitation to follow one who, though equal to God, emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, humbling himself to the point of death on a humiliating cross. Imitations of this unordinary love might almost be as gripping as the real thing.

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

(1) Martin Luther King, Jr.,
“Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech,” A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., 226.

Uncategorized

Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

Leave a comment

 

Morning “My beloved.” / Song of Solomon 2:8

This was a golden name which the ancient Church in her most joyous moments was wont to give to the Anointed of the Lord. When the time of the singing of birds was come, and the voice of the turtle was heard in her land, her love-note was sweeter than either, as she sang, “My beloved is mine and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.” Ever in her song of songs doth she call him by that delightful name, “My beloved!” Even in the long winter, when idolatry had withered the garden of the Lord, her prophets found space to lay aside the burden of the Lord for a little season, and to say, as Esaias did, “Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard.” Though the saints had never seen his face, though as yet he was not made flesh, nor had dwelt among us, nor had man beheld his glory, yet he was the consolation of Israel, the hope and joy of all the chosen, the “beloved” of all those who were upright before the Most High. We, in the summer days of the Church, are also wont to speak of Christ as the best beloved of our soul, and to feel that he is very precious, the “chiefest among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely.” So true is it that the Church loves Jesus, and claims him as her beloved, that the apostle dares to defy the whole universe to separate her from the love of Christ, and declares that neither persecutions, distress, affliction, peril, or the sword have been able to do it; nay, he joyously boasts,

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

O that we knew more of thee, thou ever precious one!

“My sole possession is thy love;  In earth beneath, or heaven above,

I have no other store;  And though with fervent suit I pray,

And importune thee day by day,  I ask thee nothing more.”

 

Evening “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church.” / Ephesians 5:25

What a golden example Christ gives to his disciples! Few masters could venture to say, “If you would practise my teaching, imitate my life;” but as the life of Jesus is the exact transcript of perfect virtue, he can point to himself as the paragon of holiness, as well as the teacher of it. The Christian should take nothing short of Christ for his model. Under no circumstances ought we to be content unless we reflect the grace which was in him. As a husband, the Christian is to look upon the portrait of Christ Jesus, and he is to paint according to that copy. The true Christian is to be such a husband as Christ was to his church. The love of a husband is special. The Lord Jesus cherishes for the church a peculiar affection, which is set upon her above the rest of mankind: “I pray for them, I pray not for the world.” The elect church is the favourite of heaven, the treasure of Christ, the crown of his head, the bracelet of his arm, the breastplate of his heart, the very centre and core of his love. A husband should love his wife with a constant love, for thus Jesus loves his church. He does not vary in his affection. He may change in his display of affection, but the affection itself is still the same. A husband should love his wife with an enduring love, for nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” A true husband loves his wife with a hearty love, fervent and intense. It is not mere lip-service. Ah! beloved, what more could Christ have done in proof of his love than he has done? Jesus has a delighted love towards his spouse: He prizes her affection, and delights in her with sweet complacence. Believer, you wonder at Jesus’ love; you admire it–are you imitating it? In your domestic relationships is the rule and measure of your love–“even as Christ loved the church?”

Uncategorized

John MacArthur – Building God’s Kingdom

1 Comment

 

“Thy kingdom come” (Matt. 6:10).

Someday Christ will return to earth to reign in His kingdom. In the meantime He rules in the hearts of those who love Him.

Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus gave us a mandate to evangelize the lost and teach them His Word (Matt. 28:19- 20). When we do, sinners are converted and transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Christ (Col. 1:13). That’s how His kingdom grows.

Conversion is a work of the Spirit in the heart of unbelievers. He uses a myriad of people and circumstances to accomplish that work, but common to every true conversion are three key elements: invitation, repentance, and commitment.

In Matthew 22:1-14 Jesus, by way of a parable, invites people to come into His kingdom. As an evangelist, you too should not only present the gospel, but also invite others to respond to what they’ve heard.

In Mark 1:14-15 we read, “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.'” Repentance is feeling sorrow over your sin and turning from it (2 Cor. 7:9-11).

True repentance results in a commitment to respond to the righteous demands of the gospel. In Mark 12:34 Jesus says to a wise scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” The scribe had all the information necessary for entering the kingdom. What he lacked was a commitment to act on what he knew. Luke 9:62 says, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” You might know everything about the kingdom, but Christ’s rule is not established in your heart until you’ve made a complete commitment to it.

When you pray for Christ’s kingdom to come, you are praying an evangelistic prayer that you take part in answering. Be faithful to proclaim the gospel and make intercession for unbelievers a regular part of your prayers.

Suggestions for Prayer:  Pray for unbelieving family and friends.

Ask the Lord for the opportunity to share Christ with an unbeliever today.

For Further Study: Read John 4.

How did Jesus broach the subject of salvation with the Samaritan woman?

Did He extend an invitation to her? Explain.

How did the townspeople react to her report about Jesus?

Uncategorized

Joyce Meyer – God’s Calling

Leave a comment

 

Let a woman learn in quietness, in entire submissiveness. I allow no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to remain in quietness and keep silence [in religious assemblies]. —1 Timothy 2:11–12

In this controversial passage, it is evident that Paul was dealing with a specific situation for a specific time frame in history. As noted before, Priscilla along with her husband, Aquila, had been a founding leader in this same church. I am not enough of a theologian to debate this problem fully. All I know is that God has always used—and still does use—women as leaders and teachers, preachers, ministers, missionaries, authors, evangelists, prophets, and so on.

Just remember that God loves you and wants to use you in powerful ways to help other people. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that God cannot or will not use you, just because you are a woman. As a woman, you are creative, comforting, sensitive, and you’re able to be a tremendous blessing. You can bear a lot of good fruit in your life. You don’t have to merely pass through life unnoticed, always in the background. If God has called you to leadership, you should lead. If He has called you into ministry, you should minister. If He has called you to business or as a homemaker, you should boldly be all that He has called you to be.

Lord, I believe that You want to use me and that You have called and gifted me. Bless me to be a blessing. Amen.

Uncategorized

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Praise Brings Blessings

Leave a comment

 

“Go through His open gates with great thanksgiving; enter His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is always good. He is always loving and kind, and His faithfulness goes on and on to each succeeding generation” (Psalm 100:4.5).

I would like to suggest several reasons why I believe praising God is so important in the life of the believer.

First, God is truly worthy of praise. He is worthy of praise because of who He is and because of all He has done for us. The psalmist reminds us, “Praise the Lord! Yes, really praise Him! I will praise Him as long as I live, yes, even with my dying breath” (Psalm 146:1,2).

We praise God for who He is and for His attributes – His love, His sovereignty, His wisdom, His power, His greatness, goodness and compassion, His faithfulness, His holiness and His eternal, unchanging nature.

These and other characteristics of God are described in many passages. Three of my favorites are Isaiah 40, Psalm 139 and Psalms 145-150.

Second, we praise God for His benefits to us. Though too numerous to mention, some of them are expressed in Psalm 103.

No wonder the psalmist concluded this list of great benefits by calling upon all who read this passage, “Let everything everywhere bless [praise] Him too!”

Yes, we are to praise God first of all because of who He is, and then we are to praise Him for His blessings to us. We should never take for granted the benefits we enjoy as a result of belonging to Him.

Bible Reading: Psalm 103:1-8

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  Praise toward God throughout the day will be on my lips as I recall His many attributes and all His benefits to me.

Uncategorized

Presidential Prayer Team; H.R. – Custom Designed

Leave a comment

 

Billions of years ago, all the energy and matter of the universe were crammed together into a big ball. Then there was an explosion that caused the creation of the planets, stars and galaxies. It is known as the Big Bang theory – and people believe it’s true. However, it seems to take great faith to believe an explosion, which always causes only chaos and destruction, created perfect order and intricate design in the universe.

I know your works. Revelation 3:8

As a Christian, you can be reassured that the great, loving mind of God designed not only the planets and stars…but also your mind and body. God knows how you were formed, even to the detail of every hair on your head! Just as He knew the hearts of every person in the churches spoken to in Revelation, Jesus knows every thought, frustration, joy, strength and weakness. Psalm 103:14 says, “For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”

As your creator, God custom designed you for a unique purpose. Spend time reading the Bible and talking to Him every day. As you learn more about His attributes, you will learn more about yourself. Pray also that Americans and the nation’s leaders acknowledge God’s character as they make personal and professional decisions.

Recommended Reading: Psalm 37:23-34

Uncategorized

Greg Laurie – Three Vital Questions

Leave a comment

 

“Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What house will you build for Me? says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest? Has My hand not made all these things?”—Acts 7:49–50

Every thinking person gets around to asking the questions “Where did I come from?”, “Why am I here?”, and “Where am I going?” Science attempts to answer the first question, philosophy seeks to answer the second one, and Jesus has the answer to all three.

Where did I come from? We were created by God in His image. And we were created with a void in our lives that cannot be filled with anything this world has to offer. It can only be filled through a relationship with Him.

Why am I here? We are here to know the God who created us and to walk in fellowship with Him, discovering His unique plan for our lives.

Where am I going? Well, that is up to you. Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it” (Matthew 7:13).

Atheism has gained a little traction of late due to the popularity of books written by atheists. I don’t think most people are atheists, but some might describe themselves as agnostics. They won’t say there is a God, nor will they say there isn’t. They just don’t know.

Speaking in Athens, Paul said, “The One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:23–24). Paul was saying there is a God, and He is the Creator of all things.

If you believe that you evolved and came from nowhere and that your life has no eternal purpose, then you have no accounting to give to anyone. But there is a God who made you.

Uncategorized

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Fully Alive

Leave a comment

The glory of God is the human person fully alive. I first read this quote by Irenaeus of Lyons while still a graduate student. In my early rendering of this evocative statement, I imagined people at play in a field of flowers, the sun shining brightly. Everyone is happy and smiling, laughing even, as they dance and play in the fields of the Lord. As I pictured it in my mind’s eye, the human person fully alive was a person alive to possibility, never-ending opportunities, and always happy. How could it not be with God’s glory as the enlivening force?

One author poses similarly in his commentary on Irenaeus’ statement:

“God’s intentions towards me might be better than I’d thought. His happiness and my happiness are tied together? My coming fully alive is what He’s committed to? That’s the offer of Christianity? Wow! I mean, it would make no small difference if we knew–and I mean really knew–that down-deep-in-your-toes kind of knowing that no one and nothing can talk you out of–if we knew that our lives and God’s glory were bound together. Things would start looking up. It would feel promising…the offer is life.”(1)

Despite my romantic imagination and the author’s exuberant interpretation, I am often perplexed as to just what “fully alive” looks like for many people in our world. How would this read to women in the Congo, for example, whose lives are torn apart by tribal war and violence against their own bodies? What would this mean to an acquaintance of mine who is a young father recently diagnosed with lymphoma? What about those who are depressed? Or who live with profound disabilities?

 

If feeling alive is only that God is happy when we are happy, then perhaps God is quite sad. Surely God’s glory is much larger than human happiness, isn’t it? Certainly, happiness is a gift and a blessing of the human experience, and for many it is there in abundance. Yet, are those who have reason for sorrow—those who do not find themselves amidst fields of flowers or bounty, those who have to work to find goodness—are they beyond the reflection of God’s glory?

The reality is that Irenaeus’ oft-used and oft-interpreted statement had a specific, apologetic context that was not really about human happiness. Irenaeus lived during a time when gnostic sects were trying to deny the real flesh and blood reality of Jesus. In their alternative view, only the spirit was redeemed, and the body should be ignored at best, or indulged at worst, since nothing regarding the body mattered. As a result, they denied the full humanity of Jesus. He could not have died a physical death on the cross, since he was merely an enlightened spirit, or some form of lesser deity. And he was certainly not one who would enter into the created world to take on the messy nature of life.(2)

When Irenaeus describes the glory of God as the human being fully alive he is correcting this aberrant and heretical notion that Jesus was not fully human. Irenaeus countered that in fact, the glory of God so inhabited this man from Nazareth that he was fully alive to all of what it meant to be human. Jesus experienced hunger, thirst, weariness, frustration, sorrow, and despair—and he experienced the joy and beauty that came from complete dependence on God. To be fully alive, as one sees in the life of Jesus, includes all human experience—the joys as well as the sorrows.

The journey through Holy Week for Christians around the world offers another picture of this reality. Holy Week includes Good Friday and Holy Saturday just as surely as it includes Easter morning. As Jesus experienced the miraculous new life of resurrection on Easter morning, he first experienced the sorrow of rejection, betrayal, and the physical brutality of crucifixion and death. Jesus lived the depths of the human experience as one of us.

Irenaeus’ continues his thought by saying: “[T]he life of man is the vision of God. If the revelation of God through creation already brings life to all living beings on the earth, how much more will the manifestation of the Father by the Word bring life to those who see God.”(3) Human beings are fully alive as they find life in this One who in his human life reveals both the eternal God and the vision of God for fully alive human beings. Certainly, our lives include events and seasons that we wish were not part of the fully alive human experience. But perhaps those who seek true life might recognize these appointments with both death and resurrection as an entryway into a deeper understanding of this human experience. And as that door is opened, we can be ushered into the deep and abiding fellowship of the Divine Community—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—not phantom spirits, not distant deities, but intimates to all that it means to be human.

Margaret Manning is a member of the writing and speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Washington.

(1) John Eldridge, Waking the Dead (Nashville: Thomas-Nelson Publishers, 2003), 12.
(2) Cyril Richardson ed., Early Christian Fathers (New York: Collier Books, 1970), 345.
(3) Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, (IV, 20, 7).

Uncategorized

Charles Stanley – Telling It Like It Is

1 Comment

 

Matthew 10:32-33

Life often demands proof. Sometimes it seems that no matter what we say, people simply will not

believe us unless we can provide some definite verification. That can be a good thing when what you’re

sharing is the most important news in the world—and you have the evidence to back it up.

The news I’m talking about is the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. And the proof is your own personal

testimony.

Every single believer has an irrefutable account of how Christ saved him or her from sin. It is

disheartening when people downplay their faith story as boring or “ordinary.” How could this story ever

be ordinary? It isn’t just some narrative about how you spent your day; we’re talking about a

supernatural event. This is the chronicle of how Almighty God entered your heart. News like that is far

from boring.

Remember that no one can discount your testimony. It’s your own story—the truthful telling of how

God has worked in your life. A testimony is similar to a fingerprint: no two are the same. And regardless

of the details, no one can ever deny your own personal experience. Even if some people do not believe

in the power of Christ, they cannot refute what He has done in your life.

Boldly giving your testimony can be a challenge, especially if you’re not sure how your audience will

react. At such moments, however, know that your story will be something they’ve never heard before.

God gave you a special gift in your unique testimony. Are you sharing that gift with others?

 

Uncategorized

Our Daily Bread — First Things First

Leave a comment

 

1 Chronicles 28:5-10

Know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind. —1 Chronicles 28:9

When our granddaughter Sarah was very young, she told us she wanted to be a basketball coach like her daddy when she grew up. But she couldn’t be one yet, she said, because first she had to be a player; and a player has to be able to tie her shoelaces, and she couldn’t tie hers yet!

First things first, we say. And the first thing in all of life is to know God and enjoy Him.

Acknowledging and knowing God helps us to become what we were meant to be. Here is King David’s counsel to his son Solomon: “Know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind” (1 Chron. 28:9).

Remember, God can be known. He is a Person, not a logical or theological concept. He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, and desires as any person does. A. W. Tozer writes, “He is a person and can be known in increasing degrees of intimacy as we prepare our hearts for the wonder of it.” Ah, there’s the rub: We must “prepare our hearts.”

The Lord is not playing hard to know; those who want to know Him can. He will not foist His love on us, but He does wait patiently, for He wants to be known by you. Knowing Him is the first thing in life. —David Roper

He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joys we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known.

—C. Austin Miles © Renewal 1940. The Rodeheaver Company

The thought of God staggers the mind but to know Him satisfies the heart.

Uncategorized

Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

Leave a comment

 

Morning “Strong in faith.” / Romans 4:20

Christian, take good care of thy faith; for recollect faith is the only way whereby thou canst obtain blessings. If we want blessings from God, nothing can fetch them down but faith. Prayer cannot draw down answers from God’s throne except it be the earnest prayer of the man who believes. Faith is the angelic messenger between the soul and the Lord Jesus in glory. Let that angel be withdrawn, we can neither send up prayer, nor receive the answers. Faith is the telegraphic wire which links earth and heaven–on which God’s messages of love fly so fast, that before we call he answers, and while we are yet speaking he hears us. But if that telegraphic wire of faith be snapped, how can we receive the promise? Am I in trouble?–I can obtain help for trouble by faith. Am I beaten about by the enemy?–my soul on her dear Refuge leans by faith. But take faith away–in vain I call to God. There is no road betwixt my soul and heaven. In the deepest wintertime faith is a road on which the horses of prayer may travel–aye, and all the better for the biting frost; but blockade the road, and how can we communicate with the Great King? Faith links me with divinity. Faith clothes me with the power of God. Faith engages on my side the omnipotence of Jehovah. Faith ensures every attribute of God in my defence. It helps me to defy the hosts of hell. It makes me march triumphant over the necks of my enemies. But without faith how can I receive anything of the Lord? Let not him that wavereth–who is like a wave of the Sea–expect that he will receive anything of God! O, then, Christian, watch well thy faith; for with it thou canst win all things, however poor thou art, but without it thou canst obtain nothing. “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”

 

 

Evening  “And she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.” / Ruth 2:14

Whenever we are privileged to eat of the bread which Jesus gives, we are, like Ruth, satisfied with the full and sweet repast. When Jesus is the host, no guest goes empty from the table. Our head is satisfied with the precious truth which Christ reveals; our heart is content with Jesus, as the altogether lovely object of affection; our hope is satisfied, for whom have we in heaven but Jesus? and our desire is satiated, for what can we wish for more than “to know Christ and to be found in him?” Jesus fills our conscience till it is at perfect peace; our judgment with persuasion of the certainty of his teachings; our memory with recollections of what he has done, and our imagination with the prospects of what he is yet to do. As Ruth was “sufficed, and left,” so is it with us. We have had deep draughts; we have thought that we could take in all of Christ; but when we have done our best we have had to leave a vast remainder. We have sat at the table of the Lord’s love, and said, “Nothing but the infinite can ever satisfy me; I am such a great sinner that I must have infinite merit to wash my sin away;” but we have had our sin removed, and found that there was merit to spare; we have had our hunger relieved at the feast of sacred love, and found that there was a redundance of spiritual meat remaining. There are certain sweet things in the Word of God which we have not enjoyed yet, and which we are obliged to leave for a while; for we are like the disciples to whom Jesus said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” Yes, there are graces to which we have not attained; places of fellowship nearer to Christ which we have not reached; and heights of communion which our feet have not climbed. At every banquet of love there are many baskets of fragments left. Let us magnify the liberality of our glorious Boaz.

Uncategorized

John MacArthur – Forsaking Self-Centered Prayer

1 Comment

 

“Thy kingdom come” (Matt. 6:10).

Attempting to explain all that is involved in the phrase “Thy kingdom come” is like a child standing on a beach attempting to scoop the entire ocean into a little pail. Only in eternity will we grasp all that it encompasses, but the poem “His Coming to Glory” by the nineteenth-century hymnwriter Frances Havergal captures its essence:

Oh the joy to see Thee reigning,

Thee, my own beloved Lord!

Every tongue Thy name confessing,

Worship, honor, glory, blessing

Brought to Thee with glad accord;

Thee, my Master and my Friend,

Vindicated and enthroned;

Unto earth’s remotest end

Glorified, adored, and owned.

Psalm 2:6-8 reflects the Father’s joy on that great day: “I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord; He said to Me, ‘Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Thy possession.” God will give the kingdoms of the world to His Son, who will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16).

With that promise in mind, beware seeing prayer primarily as an opportunity to inform God of your own plans and to seek His help in fulfilling them. Instead, pray “Thy kingdom come,” which is a request for Christ to reign. In its fullest sense it is an affirmation that you are willing to relinquish the rule of your own life so the Holy Spirit can use you to promote the kingdom in whatever way He chooses.

That kind of prayer can be difficult because we tend to be preoccupied with ourselves. But concentrate on conforming your prayers to God’s purposes. Then you will be assured that you are praying according to His will.

Suggestions for Prayer:  Praise God for the hope of Christ’s future reign on earth.

Ask Him to use you today as a representative of His kingdom.

For Further Study: According to Ephesians 4:17-5:5, how should citizens of Christ’s kingdom behave?

 

Uncategorized

Joyce Meyer – God Leads Us Gently

Leave a comment

 

He will feed His flock like a shepherd: He will gather the lambs in His arm, He will carry them in His bosom and will gently lead those that have their young. —Isaiah 40:11

When God speaks to us and guides us, He doesn’t scream at us or push us in the direction in which He wants us to go. No, He leads us, like a gentle shepherd, inviting us to follow Him to greener pastures. He wants us to get to the point where we are so sensitive to His voice that even a little whisper of caution is enough to cause us to ask, “What are You saying here, Lord?” The minute we sense Him directing us to change what we are doing, we should promptly obey Him. If we sense a lack of peace concerning something we are doing, we should stop and seek God for His direction.

Proverbs 3:6 says that if we will acknowledge God in all our ways, He will direct our paths. Acknowledging God simply means having enough respect for Him, enough reverential fear and awe of Him, to care what He thinks of our every move.

A good way to start each day would be to pray:

“Lord, I care about what You think, and I don’t want to be doing things You don’t want me to do. If I start to do anything today that You don’t want me to do, please show me what it is so I can stop it, turn away from it, and do Your will instead. Amen.”

God’s word for you today: Care more about what God thinks than anything else.

Uncategorized

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Not Hard at All

Leave a comment

 

“Loving God means doing what He tells us to do, and really that isn’t hard at all; for every child of God can obey Him, defeating sin and evil pleasure by trusting Christ to help him” (1 John 5:3,4).

I believe that we are on the threshold of witnessing the greatest spiritual revival in the history of the church. I believe that the Great Commission will indeed be fulfilled before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19,20).

Today, however, because of the subtle ways of the world system, there are more carnal Christians than at any other time in history. But the Bible tells us that the tide will turn and that the church will soon enter its finest hour.

We are beginning to see that turning of the tide. More and more Christians are discovering how to live supernaturally in the power and control of the Holy Spirit. The gospel is being spread throughout the world by many committed Christians who are determined, by faith, to help fulfill the Great Commission in this generation, whatever the cost.

I do not know anyone, however, who loves this world system who has ever been used of God in any significant way. There is nothing wrong with money and other material success. However, we are to wear the cloak of materialism loosely. We are to set our affection on Christ and His kingdom, not on the material things of this world.

The Lord left us with this wonderful promise…”every child of God can obey Him, defeating sin and evil pleasure by trusting Christ to help him”. Inviting Christ to help us is our decision to make. It is simply a matter of the will.

Bible Reading: I John 5:1-8

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  I will obey God and trust Christ to defeat sin and evil pleasure in my life, so that I can live a supernatural life and help take His gospel to all men throughout the world.

Uncategorized

Presidential Prayer Team; C.P. – Timeless Love

Leave a comment

 

After a prolonged process of tucking his two three-year-olds in bed, Steven Curtis Chapman felt impatient to get back to songwriting. As he shut the door, the Lord reminded him how quickly his oldest daughter Emily grew up. Steven felt bad for rushing his daughters, and knew this was an important message for parents. Steven wrote “Cinderella,” containing the words “the clock will strike midnight and she’ll be gone,” not knowing two years later his adopted daughter Maria Sue would be killed in an accident involving his 17-year-old-son, Will, as the driver. The first thing Steven said to him after the accident was, “Will Franklin, your father loves you.”

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I John 2:14

Steven Curtis Chapman can relate to the pain the Heavenly Father experienced when He gave His Son on the cross, simultaneously loving the one who was killed and the one who was responsible. In today’s verse, John appeals to fathers to love others…knowing the Father’s timeless and passionate love.

As you daily relate to family, friends and acquaintances, remember God’s desire is to express His love through you. Ask the Lord to use you. Then pray the people of this nation and their leaders will know and live in the Father’s love.

Recommended Reading: John 3:16-21  Click to Read or Listen

Uncategorized

Greg Laurie – Culturally Relevant

Leave a comment

 

“His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him–though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ ”        —Acts 17:27–28

To reach people with the gospel, we must be culturally relevant. Sometimes we Christians can be paranoid when it comes to knowing anything about our culture. We don’t want to listen to secular music. We don’t want to watch any movies except Christian ones. But to reach someone, we need to know a little about them.

When the apostle Paul spoke at the Areopagus in Athens, he built a bridge with his audience before he brought the gospel message: “For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring’ ” (Acts 17:28). Paul began by quoting one of their Greek poets. He engaged them. He spoke in a language they understood.

I am not suggesting that we should compromise with people to share the gospel. Nor am I suggesting that we do things that violate what Scripture says. But I am saying that we have to go where people are, speak in a language they understand, and know a little bit about the culture around us so we can relate in an understandable way. And if Paul did this, then we need to do it as well.

Many churches today are out of touch with their culture. They are answering questions no one is asking, and they are not answering the questions that are being asked. We can’t expect a culture that knows very little about the Bible to understand the terminology we use. In fact, we can end a conversation before it even begins by insulting the people we speak with. We use language they don’t understand. We come off as arrogant or even condescending.

When Paul shared the gospel, he sought to build a bridge, not burn one. And we should do the same.