Daily Archives: October 27, 2013

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Trust and Obey

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Charles Stanley

When I was a teenager Proverbs 3:5-6 became my spiritual compass. Whenever I faced a difficult decision, I always turned to it for assurance. God etched its simple but profound truth in my mind and heart. It continues to be a signpost along life’s road, ever pointing me to the bottom line for all decisions: trust and obey God. It is an eternal combination that always makes one a winner.

Why? Because God is trustworthy. He is dependable. He is sovereignly working everything together for his glory and our good.

His wisdom is given to those who look to him, lean on him, rely on him. The more we depend on our Father for instruction, strength, hope, and guidance, the more abundantly he confers on us his divine wisdom.

We cannot receive wisdom from God apart from a relationship with him. God is not interested in teaching his ways to those who have no desire to please him or follow him. He does yearn, however, to teach men and women who are bold enough to believe his promises and carry out his commands.

Trusting in the Lord means that we place our present and future circumstances in his hands, confident in his ability to orchestrate people and events to achieve his will. This whole-hearted trust brings a secure peace of mind and contentment. Putting our full emotional and volitional weight on the faithfulness of God activates his promises.

There is one catch, however. We must first admit our inadequacy: “Lean not on your own understanding.” That was Solomon’s attitude when he confessed, “But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties” (I Kings 3:7).

This is where many Christians falter. We can do many things quite well without an apparent need for God’s wisdom. We can repair items, invent machines, program computers, hike trails, and perform multitudes of other activities with very little sense of God’s participation.

Yet we have been created by God to work in a world he fashioned with his own hands. Our lives, our very breath, is in his hands; our minds and bodies are his gifts. His wisdom is displayed in everything, even when we fail to recognize him.

God has given you talents and skills. However, they are maximized for eternity when you trust him to direct and use them for his plans. The question is, Will you lean on your own understanding or depend on God?

The wise choice is obvious when we understand that God knows the end from the beginning and sustains all things in between. Trusting him is the wisest decision we can make. Depending on our frail discernment limits us to a narrow, finite control. Relying on God’s wisdom adds a supernatural dimension that cannot be matched by anything on earth.

Excerpted from “A Touch of His Wisdom,” by Charles F. Stanley, 1992.

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — God In The Storm

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Our Daily Bread

Job 37:14-24

He is excellent in power. —Job 37:23

Early one morning the wind began to blow and raindrops hit my house like small stones. I peered outside at the yellow-gray sky and watched as trees thrashed in the wind. Veins of lightning lit the sky accompanied by bone-rattling thunder. The power blinked on and off, and I wondered how long the bad weather would continue.

After the storm passed, I opened my Bible to begin my day with reading Scripture. I read a passage in Job that compared the Lord’s power to the atmospheric muscle of a storm. Job’s friend, Elihu said, “God thunders marvelously with His voice” (37:5). And, “He covers His hands with lightning, and commands it to strike” (36:32). Indeed, God is “excellent in power” (37:23).

Compared to God, we humans are feeble. We’re unable to help ourselves spiritually, heal our hearts, or fix the injustice we often endure. Fortunately, the God of the storm cares about weaklings like us; He “remembers that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14). What’s more, God “gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength” (Isa. 40:29). Because God is strong, He can help us in our weakness. —Jennifer Benson Schuldt

I sing the mighty power of God

That made the mountains rise,

That spread the flowing seas abroad

And built the lofty skies. —Watts

God is the source of our strength.

Bible in a year: Jeremiah 12-14; 2 Timothy 1

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Four Trustworthy Sayings

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Alistair Begg

The saying is trustworthy . . .

2 Timothy 2:11

Paul has four of these “trustworthy” sayings.

•The first occurs in 1 Timothy 1:15, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

•The next is in 1 Timothy 4:8-9, “Godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.”

•The third is in 2 Timothy 2:11, “The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him.”

•And the fourth is in Titus 3:8, “The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to do good works.”

We may trace a connection between these faithful sayings. The first one lays the foundation of our eternal salvation in the free grace of God, as shown to us in the mission of the great Redeemer. The next affirms the double blessedness that we obtain through this salvation-the blessings of time and of eternity. The third shows the nature of the life to which the chosen people are called; we are ordained to die with Christ with the promise that “if we have died with him, we will also live with him.” The last sets out the active form of Christian service, bidding us to diligently maintain good works.

So we have the root of salvation in free grace, then the privileges of that salvation in the life that now is and in that which is to come; and we have also the two great branches of dying with Christ and living with Christ, loaded with the fruit of the Spirit.

Treasure up these faithful sayings. Let them be the guides of your life, your comfort, and your instruction. The apostle of the Gentiles proved them to be trustworthy, and they are still trustworthy; not one word will fall to the ground. They are worthy of all acceptance; let us accept them now and prove their reliability.

Let these four trustworthy sayings be written on the four corners of my house.

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – None but Jesus

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“He that believeth on him is not condemned.” John 3:18

Suggested Further Reading: Hebrews 12:5-11

You are never liable as a believer to punishment for your sins. You will be chastised on account of them, as a father chastises his child; that is part of the gospel dispensation; but you will not be smitten for your sins as the lawgiver smites the criminal. Your Father may often punish you as he punished the wicked, but never for the same reason. The ungodly stand on the ground of their own demerits; their sufferings are awarded as their due deserts. But your sorrows do not come to you as a matter of desert; they come to you as a matter of love. God knows that in one sense your sorrows are such a privilege that you may account of them as a boon you do not deserve. I have often thought of that when I have had a sore trouble. I know some people say, “You deserved the trouble.” Yes, my dear brethren, but there is not enough merit in all the Christians put together, to deserve such a good thing as the loving rebuke of our heavenly Father. Perhaps you cannot see that; you cannot think that a trouble can come to you as a real blessing in the covenant. But I know that the rod of the covenant is as much the gift of grace as the blood of the covenant. It is not a matter of merit; it is given to us because we need it. But I question whether we were ever so good as to deserve it. We were never able to get up to so high a standard as to deserve so rich, so gracious a providence as this covenant blessing—the rod of our chastening God.

For meditation: When disciplined by his heavenly Father, the Christian is experiencing a beatitude (Job 5:17; Psalm 94:12)!

Sermon no. 362

27 October (Preached 17 February 1861)

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Learning Truth

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John MacArthur

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16).

This month we’ve considered many benefits of Scripture. Second Timothy 3:16 lists four more that will be the focus of our studies as we draw this month to a close: teaching truth, reproving sin and error, correcting behavior, and training in righteousness. We’ve touched on each of those to some extent in our past studies, but they warrant additional discussion from this verse, which is Scriptures most concise statement on its own power and purpose.

First, the Bible is profitable for teaching. The Greek word translated “teaching” refers more to content than to the process of teaching. Scripture is God’s manual of divine truth for patterning your thoughts and actions.

As a believer, you have the capacity to understand and respond to Scripture. That’s because the Holy Spirit indwells you and imparts spiritual discernment, wisdom, and understanding (1 John 2:27). You have “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16).

But having the ability to understand spiritual truth doesn’t guarantee you’ll exercise that ability. God said to the Israelites through the prophet Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (4:6). His truth was available to them, but they ignored it and lived in disobedience.

I’ve heard many people lament that they could have avoided much grief if only they had known the Bible more thoroughly–if only they had taken the time to learn what God expected of them in a particular situation. Perhaps you’ve felt that way. The best way to avoid making that mistake in the future is to faithfully, prayerfully, patiently, and thoroughly saturate your mind with biblical truth, then discipline yourself to live according to its principles. Now that’s the challenge of a lifetime, but it’s the only way to profit from biblical teaching and avoid unnecessary heartaches.

I pray you will be encouraged today as you study God’s Word and diligently apply it to your life.

Suggestions for Prayer:

Ask God to use the circumstances you face today to draw you closer to Him and motivate you to dig deeper into His Word.

For Further Study:

Read Exodus 24:1-8. What was the Israelites’ response to God’s Word? What is yours?

 

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – The Waiting God

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And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for his victory]. —Isaiah 30:18

This verse has become one of my favorites, and it has often been a source of encouragement to me when I’ve had hard times. The Living Bible paraphrases the verse like this: “Yet the Lord still waits for you to come to him, so he can show you his love; he will conquer you to bless you, just as he said. For the Lord is faithful to his promises. Blessed are all those who wait for him to help them.” Let’s think of the implication of the promise. God waits for us. As I think of that promise, it staggers my mind. The Creator of the universe and the Giver of all life has chosen to wait for us—waits for us to come to our senses, waits for us to respond to His love, waits for us to turn to Him for help.

That’s a staggering thought. God wants to show us love.

Perhaps as much as anywhere else, Satan attempts to build a mental stronghold right there. When we contemplate God’s love for us, many of us can’t take it in. We can only think of our failures, our shortcomings, and dozens of other reasons why God shouldn’t love us.

That reminds me of a kind man I’ve known for many years. One day he took care of a situation for me that he didn’t have to. I was surprised and deeply touched. “You are probably the kindest man I know,” I told him.

He stared at me in shock. “Me? Kind? Oh, I can be mean-spirited and cruel,” he said. For several minutes, he explained to me that he couldn’t possibly be a kind man. “I live with myself all the time, and I see all my defects.”

“Maybe that’s the trouble,” I told him. “You see your defects so clearly, you don’t see your caring, compassionate qualities. You discount all those things.”

He never could accept that he was kind. I also used the word gentle and that surprised him, too.

Perhaps that’s how it is with many of God’s people. We are so absorbed by our failures and all the wrong things we see about ourselves, it’s hard to believe that God wants to bless us. If we read, “God wants to punish you,” we wouldn’t have trouble saying, “Yes, that’s what I deserve.”

But how would we answer if someone said, “God wants to bless you”? We probably would say, “I don’t deserve that.”

How many of us believe we are entitled to God’s blessings? We want the good things. We want God to love us, encourage us, bless us, and give us victory, but to say we deserve the blessings may be more than we are willing to accept.

Why do we struggle over the concept of deserving? Our tendency is to think that we have to do something to earn the blessings… that we have to be good enough or faithful enough. We miss the point of God’s powerful, gracious love. Our blessings from God are not a result of our goodness. They are the result of God’s goodness.

We are entitled to God’s blessings for only one reason: because we are His children. It’s just that simple. Those of us who are parents grasp that concept with regard to our children. We brought them into the world, and they deserve our love. We freely give them our love before they do anything good or bad. They deserve our protection and all the good things we choose to give them. They don’t deserve those things because they’ve done something to earn them, but simply because they are our children.

Satan loves to trip us up on this one. As soon as we think it is right for us to be blessed, he points to our weaknesses or our failures. God points to our relationship. That’s the difference.

Gracious and loving God, thank You for being willing to bless me. Even though the devil tries to make me feel undeserving, please remind me that I am Your child and You are my Father. My relationship to You makes me deserving, and I thank You for that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – You Will Rejoice

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“You have sorrow now, but I will see you again and then you will rejoice; and no one can rob you of that joy” (John 16:22).

Once you and I truly experience the joy of the Lord, no one can rob us of that joy!

That does not mean that we will never experience disappointment, sorrow or grief; but it does mean that deeps down underneath it all is the joy that comes as a gift from God, the fruit of the Spirit. And that is the kind of joy that no one can take away.

Underneath the tears, the heartache, lies the calm, sweet peace that God gives to those who walk in faith and obedience. And that is a part of the joy that He promises.

Jesus’ promise to see His disciples again, of course, refers to after the resurrection. “You will be so firmly persuaded that I have risen,” He says to them, “and that I am the Messiah, that neither the threats nor the persecutions of men will ever be able to shake your faith, or produce doubt or unbelief and thus take away your joy.”

Jesus’ prediction, as we know, was remarkably fulfilled, for after He revealed Himself to them following the resurrection, not one of the apostles ever doubted for a moment that He has risen from the dead. No trial or persecution was able to shake their faith – so that their joy remained.

You and I have certainties of faith that are unshakable, and thus they produce joy – joy that will remain forever and ever.

Bible Reading: John 16:20-24

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I will remember to praise and thank God for the unshakable joy that He alone gives.

 

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; G.C. – Suffering

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It’s a bittersweet reality. People suffers. There is no one on Earth with enough money, power or prestige to delegate their share of life’s grief. The tabloids are rife with the stories of the celebrated, rich and powerful trying to buy peace of mind; yet they, too, still suffer from calamity and misfortune.

But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake…have no fear of them, nor be troubled.

I Peter 3:14

The Bible has a lot to say about earthly sorrow. Interestingly, Jesus says suffering as a believer is not to be feared or avoided. Why? Suffering causes you to develop endurance in your faith, and that enduring faithful strength produces a Christ-like character in your life. The ultimate outcome of character in life is hope. Miraculously, when a believer in Jesus suffers, the end result is hope!

If you are enduring difficulties today, be assured it is not pointless misery. Every tear you shed is known by your loving Father. Some sorrow will be redeemed in this life on Earth, transformed into a soulful peace. Other travail will be counted as righteousness to your soul and exchanged for joy in Heaven. Regardless of your situation, don’t fear; the One who called you by name will, by His name, redeem all pain.

Recommended Reading: Romans 5:1-8