Daily Archives: September 9, 2013

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – The Favorable Hand of the Lord

1 Comment

Charles Stanley

Proverbs 8

It is hard to think of Jesus as ever needing improvement or growth of any kind, but the Word of God tells us that He “kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). As God, He was complete and had everything, but as a human being, He had to grow in wisdom and favor. So do we.

When we become children of God by placing our faith in Jesus, we are fully accepted and deeply loved, regardless of our behavior. It’s not possible for the Lord to love us more at some times than at others, because He is love (1 John 4:16) and cannot stop loving.

But favor is a different story: it can be conferred or withdrawn by our Father. The believer’s responsibility is to choose a path that leads to His favor, according to guidelines laid out in the Word of God.

Some of the Lord’s preferred paths are specifically described in Proverbs 8, in which wisdom is personified: she is calling in the streets and inviting the simple to come. She finishes her discourse by saying that “he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord” (v. 35).

From this passage, we learn that obtaining wisdom and favor is not a one-time event but, rather, a growing process that includes specific steps. First, we must listen and keep wisdom’s ways. Then we are advised to heed instruction and not neglect it. Finally, we are exhorted to watch daily and wait at her doorposts. (vv. 32-34). God is pleased when His children act wisely.

 

 

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — All Through This Hour

Leave a comment

Our Daily Bread

Psalm 25:1-11

Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day. —Psalm 25:5

The majestic chime of London’s Great Clock of Westminster, commonly known as Big Ben, is familiar to many. In fact, some of us may have clocks in our homes that sound the same hourly chime. It is traditionally thought that the melody was taken from Handel’s Messiah. And the lyrics inscribed in the Big Ben clock room have a time significance:

All through this hour,

Lord, be my guide;

And by Thy power,

No foot shall slide.

These lyrics are a good reminder of our constant need for God’s guidance. King David recognized that he needed guidance all through the day as he faced the challenges of life. In Psalm 25 he says: “Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day” (v.5). Wanting to be a teachable follower of God, David looked to his Redeemer for direction. His heart’s desire was to wait on God with dependent faith throughout the entire day.

May this be our desire as well. Our requests for God’s help often begin the day, but then competing distractions can pull our attention away from Him. Lord, remind us to pray: “All through this hour, Lord, be my guide.” —Dennis Fisher

There’s never a day nor a season

That prayer may not bless every hour,

And never a prayer need be helpless

When linked with God’s infinite power. —Morton

Let Christ be first in your thoughts in the morning, and last in your thoughts at night.

Bible in a year: Proverbs 6-7; 2 Corinthians 2

 

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Cross of the Moment

Leave a comment

Ravi Z

The Bret Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero offers an unsettling depiction of the moral and spiritual poverty behind the contemporary façade of wealth, success, and fame. The author describes the vacuous life of sex, drugs, and violence among the teen-age children of wealthy entertainers. Though fictitious, the book captures a scene that for some feels tragically all too accurate. Ellis depicts the bankruptcy and the cries of the human soul, which are by no means unique to any one particular lifestyle. The cries are clear and can be heard throughout the story, and may well be ours as well: Is there anybody who really loves me? Is there anyone anywhere who can help me?

The apostle John tells a story with similar undertones. There was in the city of Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, which had five porticoes. In these lay many invalids—the blind, lame, and paralyzed. For it was commonly thought that when the waters of the pool stirred, the Spirit of the Lord was near and the sick who touched the waters would be healed. At this pool was a paralytic man who had been ill for 38 years. It is unclear whether the man dragged himself to the pool everyday or remained there year after year at the water he believed had the power to heal him. John only reports that Jesus saw the man there as he approached the pool and “knew that he had been there a long time” (John 5:6). Yet even knowing this, Jesus asked the seemingly needless question: “Do you want to get well?”

At first sound, the question seems redundant, unjustified—maybe even cruel. Was there any doubt that the deepest longing of this man’s heart was to get well? And yet, he fails to really answer the question. “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me” (5:7). The cries of the human heart can be heard throughout history, generation after generation. Does anyone care? Is there anyone who really loves me? Is there anyone anywhere who can help? Sometimes it is the bitter cry of loneliness, many times it is the wearisome cry of emptiness, but it is always a call for help. Yet, how often we find that our actions and attitudes contradict the cries closest to our hearts? How often is our deepest hope overlooked while we focus on the technicalities, justifying the question that calls us back: “Do you want to get well?” In the words of poet W. H. Auden,

We would rather be ruined than changed;

We would rather die in our dread

Than climb the cross of the moment

And let our illusions die.(1)

Where Jesus asks “Do you want to be well?” it is possible he may also be asking, Do you prefer your pain to the possibility of change? Do you want more to see the miracle accomplished your way then to see it accomplished at all? Indeed, do you really even want the thing you say you long for most? His questions gently pierce the heart of the human condition we all share, bidding us to receive the very thing we ask from the only one capable of giving it.

Where we seek meaning, are we willing to be changed by that meaning? Where we seek help, we will receive instruction? Where we seek healing, are we willing to be transformed? Where we seek true community, are we willing to relinquish autonomy? Where we seek understanding, are we wiling to climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die?

To every cry of every heart, Christ calls out, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The question he asks as we walk forward is “Do you really want to be well?”

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

(1) As quoted in Risvolti (Mars Hill Review, Issue 19), 158.

 

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Prevailing Prayer

Leave a comment

Alistair Begg

I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

Jeremiah 33:3

There are different translations of these words. One version renders it, “I will show you great and fortified things.” Another, “great and reserved things.” Now, there are reserved and special things in Christian experience: Every development in the spiritual life does not take place in the same way or in the same time frame. There are the common benefits and feelings of repentance and faith and joy and hope, which are enjoyed by the entire family; but there is an upper realm of delight, communion, and conscious union with Christ, which is far from being the routine enjoyment of believers.

We do not all have the high privilege of John, to lean upon Jesus’ bosom; nor of Paul, to be caught up into the third heaven. There are heights in experimental [experiential] knowledge of the things of God that the eagle’s eye has never seen and the philosopher’s mind has never grasped. God alone can take us there; but the chariot in which He transports us, and the horses with which that chariot is pulled, are prevailing prayers.

Prevailing prayer is victorious with the God of mercy, “In his manhood he strove with God. He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor. He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us.”1 Prevailing prayer takes the Christian to the mountain and enables him to cover heaven with clouds of blessing, and earth with floods of mercy. Prevailing prayer lifts the Christian and shows him his inheritance and transfigures him into the likeness of his Lord. If you would reach to something higher than ordinary groveling experience, look to the Rock that is higher than you, and gaze with the eye of faith through the window of consistent prayer. When you open the window on your side, it will not be bolted on the other.

1Hosea 12:3-4

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – The death of the Christian

Leave a comment

CharlesSpurgeon

“Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season.” Job 5:26

Suggested Further Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:1-8

Wait a little, beloved. In a few more years you and I shall be carried through the heavens on the wings of angels. When I die, the angels approach. I am on the wings of cherubs. Oh, how they bear me up—how swiftly and yet how softly. I have left mortality with all its pains. Oh, how rapid is my flight! Just now I passed the morning star. Far behind me now the planets shine. Oh, how swiftly do I fly, and how sweetly! Cherubs! What sweet flight is yours, and what kind arms are these I lean upon. And on my way you kiss me with the kisses of love and affection.You call me brother. Cherubs; am I your brother? I who just now was captive in a tenement of clay—am I your brother? “Yes!” they say. Oh, hark, I hear music strangely harmonious! What sweet sounds come to my ears! I am nearing Paradise. Do not spirits approach with songs of joy? “Yes!” they say. And before they can answer, behold they come—a glorious convoy! I catch a sight of them as they are holding a great review at the gates of Paradise. And there is the golden gate. I enter in; and I see my blessed Lord. I can tell you no more. All else were things unlawful for flesh to utter. My Lord! I am with thee—plunged into thee—lost in thee just as a drop is swallowed in the ocean—as one single tint is lost in the glorious rainbow! Am I lost in thee, thou glorious Jesus? And is my bliss consummated? Is the wedding-day come at last? Have I really put on the marriage garments? And am I thine? Yes! I am.

For meditation: Are you looking forward to this time (Philippians 1:23)? You can if you are a Christian.The unbeliever has another prospect ahead (Hebrews 10:27). See the contrast in Luke 16:22,23.

Sermon no. 43

9 September (1855)

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Attacks on God’s People

1 Comment

John MacArthur

“Stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11).

Yesterday we saw how Satan attacks God’s Word. Today we will see how he attacks God’s people. Persecution, peer pressure, and preoccupation are three weapons he employs with great effectiveness.

Persecution should never take Christians by surprise because Scripture repeatedly warns us that it will come. For example, 2 Timothy 3:12 says, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Yet such warnings are often overlooked in the health, wealth, and prosperity climate of contemporary Christianity.

As the greed perpetuated by such a movement continues its assault on Christian virtue, many professing believers have come to expect a pain-free, trouble-free life. When trials come, they’re caught off guard and often disillusioned with the church or with God Himself. Some prove to be phony believers, whom Jesus described in His parable of the four soils: people who initially respond to the gospel with joy, yet fall away when affliction or persecution arises because of the Word (Matt. 13:21).

Satan also uses peer pressure as an effective weapon. Many people never come to Christ for fear of losing their friends or being thought of as different. For them the cost of discipleship is too great. Even Christians sometimes struggle with peer pressure, compromising God’s standards to avoid offending others.

Another weapon is preoccupation with the world. Often the hardest place to live the Christian life is in the easiest place. For example, becoming a Christian in America isn’t the life-threatening choice it is in some parts of the world. Some who stand boldly against persecution or peer pressure might falter in a climate of acceptance. Often that’s when the danger of spiritual complacency and preoccupation with the world is greatest.

To guard against those attacks, remember that God uses persecution to mature you and bring glory to Himself. Also, make a conscious choice each day to please God rather than people. Finally, evaluate your priorities and activities carefully. Fight the tendency to become preoccupied with things unrelated to God’s kingdom.

Suggestions for Prayer:

Ask God to keep you spiritually alert throughout this day so the enemy doesn’t catch you off guard.

For Further Study:

Read Matthew 26:31-56. What might the disciples have done to avoid being caught off guard?

 

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – The Blessings of Meditation

Leave a comment

Joyce meyer

And the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in every work of your hand…. If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with all your being. For this commandment which I command you this day is not too difficult for you, nor is it far off…. But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your mind and in your heart, so that you can do it.—Deuteronomy 30:9–11, 14

Please make everything easy and simple for me, dear God. I don’t like to struggle, and I want constant victory without exerting any effort. Let me go on my way as I let You do everything to keep me secure.

I’ve never heard anyone pray those words, but I have heard people pray in such a way that they were asking for an easy time in life. Too many people want victory without battle, triumph without effort, and ease without labor. God’s world simply doesn’t function that way.

“It’s just too hard.” I wonder how many times I’ve heard people talk that way. I wonder how many times Joyce Meyer has talked that way. And I did. There was a time when I’d make a firm stand for following the Lord, but in my heart (and often in my mouth) were the words that “it was just so hard.”

God convicted me of negative thinking. He taught me that if I would stop looking at the hardships and obey Him, He would make a way for me. The previous verses tell us that God wants to bless us and prosper the work of our hands, but we must obey His commandments. And in verse 11, He assures us that we can do it: “For this commandment which I command you this day is not too difficult for you, nor is it far off.”

Because we spend so much time listening to the negatives and figuring out what can go wrong, too often we forget the promise that His will is not too difficult for us. Instead, it may help if you think of the obvious difficulties as blessings from God.

For instance, take encouragement from Joseph. After he spent years in Egypt and saved the lives of his family in Canaan, his brothers were afraid of him. They had hated him, plotted to kill him, and sold him into slavery. After their father, Jacob, died, they expected Joseph to punish them. He could have done that and groaned about his hard life—and his life had not been easy. Not only was he sold as a slave by his brothers, but he had been wrongly imprisoned and could have been put to death if God hadn’t been with him.

Instead of saying, “Life is so hard,” Joseph said, “As for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive, as they are this day” (Genesis 50:20). He understood how God works in human lives. Joseph didn’t look at the hardships; he looked at the opportunities. Joseph didn’t listen to the whispering campaign of his enemy; he turned his ears to the encouraging words of his God. In no place do we read of him complaining. He saw everything that happened to him as God’s loving hand upon him.

I wrote the words loving hand even though it may not always seem that way. And that’s where the devil sometimes creeps in to say, “If God loves you so much, why are you in this mess?”

The best answer I can give is to repeat the words of Paul the great apostle: “Let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance. And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3–5).

God never promises an easy life, but He does promise a blessed life.

God of love and compassion, please forgive me for complaining about life being too hard. Forgive me for wanting things to be easy. Lead me wherever You want me to go and, in the name of Jesus, I plead that You will help me rejoice all the way—even in the midst of the problems, because You will be there to help me solve them. Amen.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Covered With His Love

Leave a comment

dr_bright

“Long ago, even before He made the world, God chose us to be His very own, through what Christ would do for us; He decided then to make us holy in His eyes, without a single fault – we who stand before Him covered with His love” (Ephesians 1:4).

On every continent and in scores of countries, I have asked thousands of people, including Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, communists and atheists: “Who is the greatest person who ever lived? Who has done more good for mankind than anyone else?”

Among knowledgeable people, the answer is always the same, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Born nearly 2,000 years ago, His coming had been foretold for centuries by the great prophets of Israel. The Old Testament, written by many individuals over a period of 1,500 years, contains more than 300 references concerning the promised Messiah. All of these prophecies have been fulfilled in the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. They could not have referred to anyone else.

That in itself is conclusive evidence of God’s personal and supernatural intervention in history. Jesus’ coming into this world was no accident, and we who trust Him are covered by His love.

What a beautiful picture – covered with His love!

“All the armies that ever marched and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as has that one solitary life,” declared an anonymous observer in reflecting upon the life of Jesus Christ.

Bible Reading: Ephesians 1:5-14

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Throughout this day I will picture myself embraced by the arms of the Almighty, His love covering and comforting me. I will share His love and faithfulness with others.

 

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; J.R. – Never Outnumbered

Leave a comment

ppt_seal01

When Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey to win the 1948 presidential election, many people were in shock. The New York Times had declared Dewey’s victory a “foregone conclusion” and virtually all the experts predicted a lopsided defeat for Truman. But it turned out the prognosticators had it all wrong.

Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod.

Judges 7:1

When Gideon’s army of 32,000 camped beside the spring of Harod, they could not have known the significance that little body of water was about to play. First, God directed Gideon to allow those who were fearful to go home. That eliminated 22,000. Then the remainder were sorted based on how they drank water from the spring. In the end, Gideon went to war with just 300 men – and God gave him a great victory that could never have been predicted.

It’s a great reminder as you pray for America and its leaders today. You may find little hope for spiritual revival based on polls or popular opinion. But when God is beside you, you can never be outnumbered or outflanked. You are certain to make an eternal impact if your trust is in Him.

Recommended Reading: Psalm 59:1-10

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Not a Default Destination

Leave a comment

greglaurie

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. —Revelation 21:8

I believe there are people inside the church today who will be outside the gates of heaven. Being in a church does not mean you are getting into heaven. We, as individuals, must put our faith in Jesus Christ because one day we will stand before God all by ourselves.

Heaven is not the default destination of every person. It is promised only to those who have believed in Jesus Christ. We have this warning in Revelation 21:8: “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

It takes courage to be a Christian. People will harass you and make fun of you. You may even be physically harmed. Some have lost their lives because they believed in Jesus. It takes courage to make your stand for Christ, especially in our culture today.

The cowardly won’t make it into heaven. Some are afraid of what others think, which I have always found amazing. I don’t think we would be as concerned about what others think of us if we realized how rarely they do. If you are cowardly, meaning that you won’t stand up and follow Jesus, then you won’t have any value system. You won’t have any absolutes. You will pretty much do what you want.

That leads to being abominable—being wholly caught up in wickedness and evil, pulling out all the stops and removing all restraints. It is going whole hog into evil.

Revelation 21:8 is a warning that we need to heed. Some people may say, “Well, I don’t agree with that.”

God makes the rules, and we can either follow them or reject them. But it is not for us to edit God.

 

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – All You Need

Leave a comment

Max Lucado

Ginger was six years old when she and her Sunday school class made get well cards for church members.  Hers was a bright purple card that said, “I love you, but most of all God loves you!”  She and her mom made the delivery.  My dad was bedfast, the end was near.  He could extend his hand, but it was bent to a claw from disease. Ginger asked him a question as only a six year old can, “Are you going to die?”  He answered, “Yes, but when I don’t know.” She asked if he was afraid to go away.  “Away is heaven,” he told her.  “I’ll be with my Father.  I’m ready to see Him eye to eye.”

A man near death, winking at the thought of it. Stripped of everything? It only appeared that way. In the end, Dad still had what no one could take…faith.  And in the end, that’s all he needed!

From You’ll Get Through This