Daily Archives: June 13, 2013

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Charles Stanley – Why We Can Trust God

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Hebrews 10:19-23

In our troubled world, injustice, crime, and dishonesty fill the news. The one constant seems to be change.

By contrast, we have a God whose actions are perfect, whose character is flawless, and who is faithful to keep every promise He’s made. He is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). We can have complete confidence in Him because He is . . .

• Omniscient. Our Father knows what is happening with every person at every moment (Luke 12:2-3). His knowledge is complete—no circumstance is hidden from Him; there is no motive or thought process that He does not discern.

• Omnipotent. God has total power over all things; nothing is outside His control. He uses His might to bring about His perfect will. No authority in heaven or on earth can thwart His purposes (Job 42:2; Matt. 19:26).

• Omnipresent. No person or place is outside of God’s presence (Ps. 139:7-12). All space and time is within His sight, and He never overlooks anything or anyone.

• Truthful. God cannot lie—He always speaks truth. We can fully trust His Word and His responses to our prayers.

• Loving. We can also have confidence in the Lord’s intentions, because His character is pure love (Rom. 8:28; 1 John 4:8).

God’s nature is not affected by time, place, people, or circumstances. He never makes a mistake in what He says or does, because His knowledge is perfect, His sovereignty is complete, and all is within His sight. Every promise is guaranteed in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:20). For all our days, He’s the One we can count on. Hallelujah!

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Our Daily Bread — Stay Connected

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Psalm 119:33-40

Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. —Psalm 119:105

I woke up one morning and discovered that my Internet connection was not working. My service provider conducted some tests and concluded that my modem needed to be replaced, but the earliest they could do so was the next day. I panicked a little when I thought about being without the Internet connection for 24 hours! I thought, How am I going to survive without it?

Then I asked myself, Would I also panic if my connection with God was disrupted for a day? We keep our connection with God alive by spending time in His Word and in prayer. Then we are to be “doers of the Word” (James 1:22-24).

The writer of Psalm 119 recognized the importance of a connection to God. He asked God to teach him His statutes and give him understanding of His law (vv.33-34). Then he prayed that he would observe it with his whole heart (v.34), walk in the path of God’s commandments (v.35), and turn away his eyes from looking at worthless things (v.37). By meditating on God’s Word and then applying it, the psalmist stayed “connected” to God.

God has given us His Word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path to lead us to Him. —C. P. Hia

May the mind of Christ my Savior

Live in me from day to day,

By His love and power controlling

All I do and say. —Wilkinson

To recharge your spiritual battery, plug into the Source.

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Alistair Begg – Who’s Going Thirsty?

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Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Revelation 22:17

The invitation is to “take . . . without price.” Jesus wants no payment or preparation. He seeks no recommendation from our virtuous emotions. If you have no good feelings, but if you are willing, you are invited; therefore come! If you have no belief and no repentance, come to Him, and He will give them to you. Come just as you are, and take without money and without price. He gives Himself to the needy.

In nineteenth-century Britain the drinking fountains at the corners of the streets were valuable institutions; it would have been a strange and foolish sight to see someone standing at the fountain declaring, “I cannot drink because I do not have any money.” However poor an individual may be, there is the fountain, and just as he is, he may drink of it without cost. Thirsty passengers, as they go by, whether they are dressed poorly or expensively, do not look for any authorization to drink; the existence of the fountain is sufficient warrant for taking its water freely. The generosity of some good friends has put in place the refreshing supply, and we take it and ask no questions.

Perhaps the only people who go thirsty through the street where there is a drinking fountain are the fine ladies and gentlemen who are in their carriages. They are very thirsty but cannot think of being so vulgar as to get out to drink. It would demean them, they think, to drink at a common drinking fountain: so they ride by with parched lips.

How many there are who are rich in their own good works and cannot therefore come to Christ! “I will not be saved,” they say, “in the same way as the prostitute or the blasphemer.” What! Go to heaven in the same way as a chimney sweep? Is there no pathway to glory but the path that led the dying thief there? I will not be saved that way. Such proud boasters must remain without the living water; but “Let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”

 

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Charles Spurgeon – The wicked man’s life, funeral, and epitaph

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“And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this also is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 8:10

Suggested Further Reading: Luke 16:19-23

Go into Bunhill Fields, and stand by the memorial of John Bunyan, and you will say, “Ah! There lies the head that contained the brain which thought out that wondrous dream of the Pilgrim’s Progress from the City of Destruction to the Better Land. There lies the finger that wrote those wondrous lines which depict the story of him who came at last to the land Beulah, and waded through the flood, and entered into the celestial city. And there are the eyelids which he once spoke of, when he said, “If I lie in prison until the moss grows on my eyelids, I will never make a promise to withhold from preaching.” And there is that bold eye that penetrated the judge, when he said, “If you will let me out of prison today, I will preach again tomorrow, by the help of God.” And there lies that loving hand that was ever ready to receive into communion all them that loved the Lord Jesus Christ: I love the hand that wrote the book, “Water Baptism no bar to Christian Communion.” I love him for that sake alone, and if he had written nothing else but that, I would say, “John Bunyan, be honoured for ever.” And there lies the foot that carried him up Snow Hill to go and make peace between a father and a son, in that cold day, which cost him his life. Peace to his ashes! Wait, O John Bunyan, till thy Master sends his angel to blow the trumpet; and methinks, when the archangel sounds it, he will almost think of thee, and this shall be a part of his joy, that honest John Bunyan, the greatest of all Englishmen, shall rise from his tomb at the blowing of that great trump. You cannot say so of the wicked.

For meditation: In Heaven the saved are still known by name—Abraham, Lazarus; in hell the lost are at best known only by a description—Dives is just the Latin for “a rich man”. See the contrast in Proverbs 10:7. Are the names and burial-places of John Bunyan’s enemies well known even on earth?

Sermon no. 200

13 June (1858)

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John MacArthur – Speaking from a Pure Heart

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“If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless” (James 1:26).

In verse 22 James talked about the delusion of hearing the Word without obeying it. Here he talks about the deception of external religious activity without internal purity of heart.

That’s a common deception. Many people confuse love of religious activity with love for God. They may go through the mechanics of reading the Bible, attending church, praying, giving money, or singing songs, but in reality their hearts are far from God. That kind of deception can be very subtle. That’s why James disregards mere claims to Christianity and confronts our motives and obedience to the Word. Those are the acid tests!

James was selective in the word he used for “religious.” Rather than using the common Greek word that speaks of internal godliness, he chose a word that refers to external religious trappings, ceremonies, and rituals– things that are useless for true spirituality.

He focuses on the tongue as a test of true religion because the tongue is a window to the heart. As Jesus said, “The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart” (Matt. 12:34). Corrupt speech betrays an unregenerate heart; righteous speech demonstrates a transformed heart. It doesn’t matter how evangelical or biblical your theology is, if you can’t control your tongue, your religion is useless!

You can learn much about a person’s character if you listen long enough to what he says. In the same way, others learn much about you as they listen to what you say. Do your words reveal a pure heart? Remember Paul’s admonition to “let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29). Make that your goal each day so you can know the blessing and grace of disciplined speech!

Suggestions for Prayer:

Ask the Lord to guard your tongue from speaking anything that might dishonor Him. Be aware of everything you say.

For Further Study:

Read James 3:1-12.

What warning does James give?

What analogies does he use for the tongue?

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Joyce Meyer – Well-Aimed Stones

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And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us. —John 1:14

Jesus is the Word made flesh who came to dwell among men. Scripture also refers to Jesus as “the Rock,” or a stone, as in Luke 20:17, where He is called the chief Cornerstone. If Jesus is the Word made flesh, and if He is the Rock, then each portion of the Word is like a stone.

Instructions were given to the Israelites concerning how to handle their enemy in Deuteronomy 13:10, “And you shall stone him to death with stones, because he has tried to draw you away from the Lord your God.” Remember that David defeated Goliath with a well-aimed stone.

You too can “stone” your enemy, Satan, in accordance with Deuteronomy 30:14, “But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your mind and in your heart.” Learn the Word and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you how to speak it effectively.

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Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Produce Lovely Fruit

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“You didn’t choose Me! I chose you! I appointed you to go and produce lovely fruit always, so that no matter what you ask for from the Father, using My name, He will give it to you” (John 15:16).

Some time ago I asked a leading theologian and dean of faculty of a renowned theological seminary if he felt that one could be a Spirit-filled person without sharing Christ as a way of life.

His answer was an emphatic, “No!” On what basis could he make such a strong statement? The answer is obvious. Our Savior came to “seek and to save the lost” and He has “chosen and ordained” us to share the good news of His love and forgiveness with everyone, everywhere.

To be unwilling to witness for Christ with our lips is to disobey this command just as much as to be unwilling to witness for Him by living holy lives is to disobey His command. In neither case can the disobedient Christian expect God to control and empower his life.

There are those who say, “I witness for Christ by living a good life.” But it is not enough to live a good life. Many non-Christians live fine, moral, ethical lives.

According to the Lord Jesus, the only way we can demonstrate that we are truly following Him is to produce fruit, which includes introducing others to our Savior as well as living holy lives. And the only way we can produce fruit is through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Bible Reading: John 15:7-15

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: My part of the “bargain” is to share the good news which will produce lovely fruit; God’s part is to provide the wisdom, love and power, through the enabling of the Holy Spirit, to be a fruitful witness. “Lord help me to be faithful in my part, knowing You will be faithful in Yours.”

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Presidential Prayer Team; C.H. – Trusted and True

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On May 21, a mile-wide tornado ripped through Oklahoma City, demolishing everything in its path. In an interview, one elderly woman described being lifted off the stool in her bathroom with her dog in arms. “When it was over, I called my dog, but he didn’t come; he’s in here somewhere,” she pointed to her flattened home. But before the interview was over, the reporter gasped and pointed out a dog under a pile of rubble. The tearful woman digs to retrieve him and said, “I thought God just answered one prayer to let me be okay, but he answered two of them.”

Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? Psalm 77:13

In the midst of great tragedy, know that God is holy and is still worthy to be praised. In Psalms, David extols time and again God’s character throughout great trials in his life.

Some of America’s devastation is evident, like the broken debris in Oklahoma. But many of your fellow citizens are sifting through brokenness of a different kind. Pray for those affected both by the storms of nature and the storms of life. Then pray for this nation to pull together and recognize God is still holy…and the one true God whose ways can be trusted.

Recommended Reading: Isaiah 43:1-12

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Greg Laurie – A Clever Disguise

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For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. —2 Corinthians 11:13–15

One sign of the end times will be people turning away from the faith. The Bible speaks of an apostasy, a departure from the faith in the last days (see Thessalonians 2:3). We read in 2 Timothy 4:3–4 that in the last days, some “will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, . . . will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

Sometimes the devil comes in like a roaring lion in his depravity. At other times, he comes in as an angel of light in his splendor. That is why the apostle Paul wrote to the churches of Galatia, “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8).

There are people today who say that we need to reimagine the church, that we can’t do it the old way. But I don’t think we need to reimagine church. Rather, we need to rediscover the church the way Jesus set it up. We need to go back to the original template.

In some churches today, the sermons are short, more like pep talks than messages from God’s Word. I want to hear the Word of God. I want to know what the Bible says about all the things that I am going to face in life.

Paul wrote to Timothy, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2).

The antidote to the deception we will see more of in the last days is hearing and knowing God’s Word.

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Max Lucado – What Really Matters

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A man once went to a minister for counseling.

“I’ve lost everything” he bemoaned.

“Oh,” the preacher responded, “I’m so sorry to hear you’ve lost your faith.”

“No,” the man corrected him, “I haven’t lost my faith.”

“Well then,” replied the preacher, “I’m sad to hear you’ve lost your character.”

“I didn’t say that,” the man corrected.  “I still have my character.”

“Then I’m so sorry to hear you’ve lost your salvation.”

“That’s not what I said!” the man objected, beginning to lose patience.

The minister explained, “Well, you have your faith, your character, and your salvation.  Seems to me, you have lost none of the things that really matter.”

We haven’t either.  You and I could pray like the Puritan who sat down to a meal of bread and water.  He bowed his head and declared, “All this and Jesus too?”  Can’t we be equally content? Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:6, “Godliness with contentment is great gain!”