Charles Stanley – The Source of Peace

September 11, 2013 broboinhawaii 1 Comment

Philippians 4:6-7

It is one of modern culture’s great tragedies: what many people seek and work so hard to achieve is, contrary to what they believe, not a product of all their accomplishments and effort. Millions of people are turning the world upside down looking for peace, while never realizing that the “genuine article” is simply not of this world. Money can’t buy it; success and fame can never guarantee it. Until you have peace with God, you will never experience inner serenity at all.

But here’s the good news: Since genuine peace is not dependent upon outward circumstances, it is possible to experience a tranquility beyond our comprehension, even in the midst of life’s most difficult trials. But this real peace isn’t possible unless there exists absolutely no impediment between us and God—and the only way the barrier of sin and self can be removed is by means of the cross of Jesus Christ.

If we’d simply bring our struggles and needs to the foot of the cross, we would find an abundant source of peace. A heart at rest is not rooted in some worldly principle or philosophy; it can be realized only through an intimate relationship with the person of Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:14-16).

The Devil will take every opportunity to destroy our calm by drawing attention away from Christ to things that may seem important at the time but in reality have no purpose other than to distract. Don’t waste your life looking for peace in all the wrong places—just remember, the Prince of Peace is its only true source.

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — It’s All About The Love

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1 John 4:7-19

We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love. —1 John 4:16

I saw a sign in front of a church that seems to me to be a great motto for relationships: Receive love. Give love. Repeat.

The greatest love that we receive is the love of God. He loved us so much that He gave His Son Jesus to live, die, and rise again to redeem us (1 John 4:9). We receive His love when we receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord. “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).

After we’ve experienced God’s love, we then can learn to give love. “Let us love one another, for love is of God” (1 John 4:7).

God’s love enables us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. We teach, encourage, and rebuke. We weep and rejoice. The love we give is tender and tough and supportive. We are taught by Jesus even to love our enemies: “Do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). Giving love to others can be challenging in some situations, but it’s possible because of the love God has first given to us.

A good plan for our lives today: Receive love. Give love. Repeat. —Anne Cetas

For Further Study

How do we experience the love of Christ? (John 15:10).

What is the evidence of God’s love in our lives? (1 John 4:16-21).

How can we show God’s love today?

Receive love. Give love. Repeat.

Bible in a year: Proverbs 10-12; 2 Corinthians 4

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The Weight of Hope

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Amid the darkness of the Thirty Years’ War, German pastor Martin Rinkart is said to have buried nearly five thousand fellow citizens and parishioners in one year, including his young wife. Conducting as many as fifty funerals a day, Rinkart’s church was absolutely ravaged by war and plague, famine and economic disaster. Yet in the midst of that dark year, he sat down with his children and wrote the following lines as a prayer for the dinner table:

Now thank we all our God

With heart and hands and voices;

Who wondrous things hath done,

In Whom his world rejoices.

Who, from our mother’s arms,

Hath led us on our way

With countless gifts of love

And still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God

through all our life be near us,

With ever joyful hearts

and blessed peace to cheer us;

And keep us still in grace,

and guide us when perplexed;

And free us from all ills,

in this world and the next.

In the midst of such gloom, Rinkart’s expressions of thankfulness seem either incredibly foolish or mysteriously important. Standing on this Christian notion, Rinkart saw the certainty of God and the significance of thanksgiving. He saw that to be thankful was to make the bold confession that encountering the presence and glory of God far outweighs everything else we encounter, whether a matter of despair or delight. Amidst the heaviness of darkness, he saw the wisdom in fixing his gaze on what he could not see—the light of the Gospel, the life of Christ, the eternal weight of the glory of a God who is among us.

The Apostle Paul, who lived similarly, wrote of his own dark encounters as “momentary affliction” in which he saw nonetheless an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. “For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”(1)

It is interesting to note that the general Greek word for glory used in secular writing took an entirely different shape in the New Testament. The word was particularly influenced by its Hebrew counterpart meaning “weighted” or “heavy,” and hence, denoting something of honor and importance. The word doxology, referring to an expression of praise, comes from the same Greek word. The etymology is fascinating because the word itself seems to cry out for comparison. Will the things I give most honor always measure up? Under the heaviness of life, what weight does the hope I profess actually carry?

Here, Paul proclaims the eternal weightiness of his hope in Jesus Christ. “[F]or it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The peculiar message of hope in the midst of darkness originates for the Christian with the God who first spoke light into darkness, the God who made light to shine in the darkness of Christ’s grave, and the inextinguishable light of Christ given to shine upon us today. It is this God of intrinsic glory in whom we know light and life itself.

Martin Rinkart’s simple table grace was later made into a powerful hymn and sung at a celebration service at the war’s end. Adding a third stanza, Rinkart’s words continue with thanksgiving, concluding fittingly with words of doxology, words proclaiming the weightiness of the glory of God.

All praise and thanks to God

the Father now be given;

The Son and Him Who reigns

with Them in highest heaven;

The one eternal God,

Whom earth and heaven adore;

For thus it was, is now,

and shall be evermore.

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

(1) See 2 Corinthians 4:16.

(2) 2 Corinthians 4:6.

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Not of the World

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Be separate from them.

2 Corinthians 6:17

The Christian, while in the world, is not to be of the world. He should be distinguished from it in the great object of his life. To him, “to live” should be “Christ.”1 Whether he eats or drinks or whatever he does, he should do it all to God’s glory. You may lay up treasure; but lay it up in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal. You may work to be rich; but make it your ambition to be “rich in faith”2 and good works. You may pursue pleasure; but when you are happy, sing psalms and make melody in your hearts to the Lord.

In your spirit, as well as in your aim, you should differ from the world. Waiting humbly before God, always conscious of His presence, delighting in fellowship with Him, and seeking to know His will, you will prove that you are a citizen of heaven. And you should be separate from the world in your actions. If a thing is right, though you lose by doing it, it must be done; if it is wrong, though you would gain from it, you must reject the sin for your Master’s sake. You must have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them. Walk worthy of your high calling and dignity. Remember, Christian, that you are a son of the King of kings. Therefore, keep yourself unstained from the world. Do not soil the fingers that are to serve the King. Do not let your eyes become the windows of lust, eyes that will soon see the King in His beauty. Do not let your feet, which are soon to walk the golden streets, be defiled in dirty places. Do not allow your heart to be filled with pride and bitterness, but prepare it to be filled with heaven and to overflow with ecstatic joy.

Then rise my soul! and soar away,

Above the thoughtless crowd;

Above the pleasures of the day,

And splendors of the proud;

Up where eternal beauties bloom,

And pleasures all divine;

Where wealth, that never can consume,

And endless glories shine.

1 Philippians 1:21

2 James 2:5

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – Paul’s desire to depart

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“Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better.” Philippians 1:23

Suggested Further Reading: Romans 8:14-30

Here we are like Israel in the wilderness, who had but one cluster from Eschol. There we shall be in the vineyard. Here we have the manna falling small, like coriander seed, but there shall we eat the bread of heaven and the old corn of the kingdom. We have sometimes on earth, lusts, ungratified desires, that lack satisfaction; but there the lust shall be slain and the desire shall be satisfied. There shall be nothing we can want; every power shall find the sweetest employment in that eternal world of joy.There will be a full and lasting fruition of Christ, and last of all upon this point there shall be a sharing with Christ in his glory, and that for ever.“We shall see him,” yes, and let us have the next sentence, and “shall be like him when we shall see him as he is.” Oh Christian, anticipate heaven for within a very short time thou shalt be rid of all thy trials and thy troubles; thine aching head shall be encircled with a crown of glory; thy poor panting heart shall find its rest and shall be satisfied with fulness as it beats upon the breast of Christ. Thy hands that now toil shall know no harder labour than harp-strings can afford. Thine eyes now filled with tears shall weep no longer. Thou shalt gaze in ineffable rapture upon the splendour of him who sits upon the throne. Nay, more, upon his throne shalt thou sit. He is King of kings, but thou shalt reign with him. He is a priest after the order of Melchisedec, but thou shalt be a priest with him. Oh rejoice! The triumph of his glory shall be shared by thee; his crown, his joy, his paradise, these shall be thine, and thou shalt be co-heir with him who is the heir of all things.

For meditation: Being with Christ must be far better, because we will then be with Christ who is far better. God has prepared something far better for the believer (Hebrews 11:40).

Sermon no. 274

11 September (1859)

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Identifying the Real Enemy

September 11, 2013 broboinhawaii 1 Comment

“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).

Sometimes in the heat of battle we might lose perspective on who the real enemy is. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us that our struggle isn’t against sinful people, but against the evil system and the supernatural forces that influence their attitudes and actions.

In his assault on the kingdom of God, Satan has assembled a highly organized army of fallen angels. Paul categorized them as “rulers . . . powers . . . world forces of this darkness . . . spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).

That isn’t a detailed description of Satan’s hierarchy but simply a general indication of its power and sophistication. Apparently “rulers” and “powers” are high- ranking demons. “World forces of this darkness” are possibly demons who infiltrate various political systems of the world, attempting to direct human leaders to oppose God’s plans. An example is a demon called “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” in Daniel 10:13. He withstood God’s angelic messenger to Daniel until Michael the archangel came to the rescue.

“Spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” perhaps refers to demons involved in the most vile and perverted kinds of sins: gross immorality, occultic practices, Satan worship, and the like.

Those who reject Christ and God are unwitting prisoners of war–captured and mobilized by the enemy to accomplish his purposes. Tragically, when he’s finished with them he’ll abandon them to an eternal hell.

You probably know unbelievers who enjoy ridiculing your faith and making life difficult for you. Although that is hard to take, be patient and don’t become embittered toward them. Ask God to make you an instrument of His love as you reach out to them. Also pray that God will remove their spiritual blindness so they can see beyond Satan’s lies and recognize their need for a Savior.

Suggestions for Prayer:

Praise God for delivering you from the domain of darkness and transferring you into the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col. 1:13).

Ask Him to use you today to break through Satan’s deception in someone’s life.

For Further Study:

Read 2 Corinthians 4:3-7, noting why people reject the gospel.

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – A Good Kind of Burden

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Graciously consider the prayer and supplication of Your servant, O Lord my God, to hearken to the [loud] cry and prayer which he prays before You today.—1 Kings 8:28

Sometimes, as you are praying for others, you will get what some call a prayer burden, or an intercessory burden. A burden is something that comes to your heart and feels weighty and important; it is something God is asking you to carry in prayer; it is something you cannot shake. Sometimes God may speak to you and explain the burden to you. At other times you do not even know what the burden is or you do not fully understand it; you only know that you have to pray.

Some people are called to pray a lot for certain things. My husband prays a lot for America. I know people who pray for Israel all the time. One woman told me she prayed for veterans returning from war. I believe God has every need in the world covered. We don’t all need to pray for the same thing because, if we did, all the needs would not be taken care of. Pay attention to what God is placing on your heart and pray for that.

One of the ways God speaks to us is through giving us burdens for others. He does this often without words, but by a sense of weightiness and concern for people in our hearts. When this happens, He is asking us to pray for them. Pay attention to the burdens He gives you and be faithful to pray when He is asking you to do so.

God’s word for you today: As you pray for others, remember that God also has someone praying for you.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – How to Test Your Experience: I

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“Talk with each other much about the Lord, quoting psalms and hymns and singing sacred songs, making music in your hearts to the Lord. Always giving thanks for everything to our God and Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ by submitting to each other” (Ephesians 5:19,20).

Mary was one of those ardent, faithful church members – a Sunday school teacher, choir member and active participant in a home Bible study – who just assume they are filled with the Holy Spirit because they do everything their pastor or Christian leader asks of them.

“Why has no one, up to now, ever told me that I needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit?” she asked me just after I had publicly suggested that very thing.

To help Mary better understand her own spiritual condition, I read to her the above passage from Ephesians. Then I asked her several questions relating to that portion of Scripture.

“Are you talking about Christ to others? Is your heart filled with melody to the Lord? Do you spend time in God’s Word daily? Do you have a thankful spirit? Do you submit to others in the Lord?”

Mary hesitated only a moment. “If these are evidence of a Spirit-filled life, I must not be controlled by the Holy Spirit. But I would like to be. What should I do?”

With great delight and joy I shared appropriate Scriptures with her, and together we bowed in prayer as she claimed by faith the fullness and control of the Holy Spirit in her life. Surrendering to the lordship of Christ, turning from all known sin, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, she now knew with certainty that she was filled with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is not a once-and-for-all-decision, but a way of life in which we claim the fullness of the Spirit moment by moment, day by day, by faith.

Bible Reading: Colossians 3:12-17

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I will honestly compare myself with the evidences of the supernatural, Spirit-filled life listed in the fifth chapter of Ephesians. If these are not true in my life, I will claim by faith the fullness and control of God’s Holy Spirit, and ask Him to make these qualities a reality in my daily relationships with the Lord, with my loved ones and with others.

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; C.P. – Unexpected Answer

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In the passages surrounding today’s verse, Eli was going about his business, most likely oblivious to the change about to take place in his life.

Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. I Samuel 1:9

He watched a woman move her mouth with no audible speech. He said, “How long will you go on being drunk?” (v.14) She told him she was not drunk, but deeply distressed and pouring her heart out to the Lord. He said, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” (v. 17)

Eli probably didn’t give the woman’s prayer a second thought – but years later, she showed up with a toddler to lend to the Lord. The Bible doesn’t say how Eli felt about this unexpected gift, only that he trained the child. Unlike with his two “worthless” sons, Eli must have done a good job raising this child: Samuel became a great prophet of God.

As this nation remembers September 11, 2001 and as you pray for yourself and your country, it may seem like little good is happening. God’s answer may not be a toddler on your doorstep, but be assured the Lord is creating change in your life and in the nation through your prayers.

Greg Laurie – Preparation for Heaven

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Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. —Hebrews 11:10

We think so much about the here and now, but God thinks more about the by and by. We need to remember that heaven is being prepared for us, and we are being prepared for heaven.

As Randy Alcorn wrote, “We live between Eden and the new earth, pulled toward what we once were and what we yet will be.”

Heaven is not some mysterious, atmospheric realm of smoke and mirrors. Heaven is a real place for real people, where we will do real things. Hebrews 11:9 says that Abraham, “even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise.”

Abraham did this because he “was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God (verse 10). Abraham recognized that this world was not really his home and that his real home was eternal, built by God.

Deep down inside, I hope we realize that too. Our real home is heaven and the new earth that is to come. Heaven is the real place that Abraham was searching for, and it is the place we are all searching for, really. The Bible says that God has placed eternity in our hearts (see Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Putting it in context, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17, “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” That is what God wants in our lives. He wants eternal weight.

The things that we go through in life are not just preparing us for the opportunities God will reveal during our time on this earth. God is also preparing us for heaven.

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Vengeance is God’s

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The Bible says vengeance is God’s. He will repay. (Romans 12:19) What a great reminder! Forgiveness doesn’t diminish justice, it just entrusts it to God. We tend to give too much or too little. But the God of justice has the precise prescription.

God can discipline your abusive boss. He can soften your angry parent. He can bring your ex to his knees or her senses. Forgiveness doesn’t diminish justice, it just entrusts it to God. Unlike us, God never gives up on a person. Never. Long after we’ve moved on, God is still there, probing the conscience, stirring conviction, always orchestrating redemption. Fix your enemies? That’s God’s job.

When it comes to forgiveness, all of us are beginners. No one owns a secret formula. As long as you’re trying to forgive, you are forgiving. Stay the course and you’ll find a way to be strong even when you’ve been hurt. You will get through this!

From You’ll Get Through This

DAILY DEVOTIONS, NEWS AND INFORMATION

Daily Archives: September 11, 2013

Charles Stanley – The Source of Peace

Our Daily Bread — It’s All About The Love

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The Weight of Hope

Alistair Begg – Not of the World

Charles Spurgeon – Paul’s desire to depart

John MacArthur – Identifying the Real Enemy

Joyce Meyer – A Good Kind of Burden

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – How to Test Your Experience: I

Presidential Prayer Team; C.P. – Unexpected Answer

Greg Laurie – Preparation for Heaven

Max Lucado – Vengeance is God’s

Scriptures, Lessons, News and Links to help you survive.