Genesis 3:7-13
After not listening to God, Adam and Eve found themselves in a terrible predicament. Their first reaction was to cover up rather than “fess up.” Fig leaves can never hide the root problem of sin (Gen. 3:7), but even today, we still try this approach. Instead of acknowledging and confessing sin, we frequently look for a quick fix to the situation.
Adam and Eve’s second response was to avoid God. They knew they were guilty of disobeying, but instead of coming to Him to reestablish their relationship, they hid from Him in fear (v. 8). We often do the same thing when sin breaks our fellowship with the Lord. Have you ever found yourself avoiding prayer and time in the Scriptures because you were struggling with sin and feelings of guilt?
A third reaction was to try and avoid personal responsibility by blaming others (vv. 12-13). Shifting guilt to another person can’t remove it. We are each responsible before God for our actions, regardless of the circumstances or who else is involved.
Despite Adam and Eve’s sin and their evasive ways of handling it, the Lord came to them (v. 9). Our sin is never large enough to keep Him away; God still calls to us and asks, “Where are you?” He knows what we have done and why, but He questions us so that we can come to realize our desperate state.
Never let guilt or shame keep you from the Lord. He seeks those who have made a mess of their life and speaks to them through His Word, His Spirit, and His people. Forgiveness and a restored relationship await all who are willing to listen, confess, and repent.
Daily Archives: August 21, 2014
Our Daily Bread — A Word For The Struggler
Hebrews 10:32-39
Do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. —Hebrews 10:35
There is an old adage that says, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” It’s wise not to take on more responsibilities than we can handle. At some time, however, we will likely feel overwhelmed by the size and difficulty of a task we have agreed to do.
This can happen even in our walk of faith in Christ when our commitment to God seems too much to bear. But the Lord has an encouraging word for us when our confidence wavers.
The writer of Hebrews urged his readers to recall the courage they demonstrated during the early days of their faith (10:32-33). Despite public insults and persecution, they aided believers in prison, and they joyfully accepted the confiscation of their own property (vv.33-34). With that in mind, he says, “Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise” (vv.35-36).
Our confidence is not in ourselves but in Jesus and His promise to return at just the right time (v.37).
It is God’s power that enables us to continue in our journey of faith. Recalling the Lord’s faithfulness in days past stirs our confidence in Him today. —David McCasland
When life becomes a heavy load,
An upward climb, a winding road,
In daily tasks, Lord, let me see
That with me You will always be. —D. DeHaan
Trusting God’s faithfulness stirs up our confidence.
Bible in a year: Psalms 107-109; 1 Corinthians 4
Insight
Severely opposed and persecuted, Jewish Christians were pressured to abandon Christianity and to revert to Judaism. The unnamed writer of Hebrews encouraged them to continue in the faith by affirming the preeminence, superiority, and sufficiency of Christ through His person and position (Heb. 1–4) and His work of propitiation (chs. 5–10). He also warned them against rejecting Christ (2:1-3; 3:7-15; 6:4-6). Here, in his final exhortation, he reminded them of their exemplary faithfulness in enduring the mistreatments thus far (10:32-34) and of the great reward that would be theirs if they persevered (vv.35-36). He was confident that they would succeed (v.39).
Ravi Zacharias – Harmless Petty Sins
A familiar fable tells of the hunter who lost his life to the leopard he himself had saved as a pet for his children when the leopard was just a cub. The moral of the story can be deduced easily from the title, Little Leopards Become Big Leopards; or else, sin is easier to deal with before it becomes a habitual practice that eventually defines our lives.(1) Though the story as it stands is a beautiful illustration of a profound truth, there is a deeper lesson regarding the nature of sin that is easily concealed by this line of thinking and which, I believe, lies at the very essence of the Christian call to Christ-likeness. The problem is that the parallel between little harmless leopard cubs and little harmless sins can be dangerously deceptive.
Whereas leopard cubs are indeed harmless, there is no stage of development at which sin can be said to be harmless, for individual acts of sin are merely the symptoms of the true condition of our hearts. It is not accidental that the call to Christian growth in the Scriptures repeatedly zeros-in on such seemingly benign “human shortcomings” as bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, slander, and malicious behavior (Ephesians 4:31). In his watershed address, The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus placed a great deal of emphasis on lust, anger, and contempt—behaviors and attitudes that would probably not rank high on our lists of problems in need of urgent resolution. Armed with firm and sometimes unconscious categories of serious versus tolerable sins, we gloss over lists of vices in the Scriptures because they seem to be of little consequence to life as we experience it.
But when we fail to grasp the subtleties of sin, we run the risk of rendering much of biblical wisdom irrelevant to our daily life and practice. While we appreciate the uniqueness and necessity of the sacrificial death of Jesus on our behalf, his specific teachings can at times appear to be farfetched and the emphasis misplaced. Does it not seem incredible that the God who made this world would visit it in its brokenness, dwell among us for over thirty years, and then leave behind the command that we must be nice to each other? Can the problems of the world really be solved by having people “turn the other cheek” and “get rid of anger and malice”?
Unfortunately, those “little” sins are not only the mere symptoms of a much bigger problem; they are also effective means of alienating us from God and other human beings. How many careers have been ruined only because of jealousy? How many people have been deprived of genuine help as a result of the seemingly side-comment of someone who secretly despised them? How many relationships have been destroyed by bitterness? How many churches have split up because of selfish ambitions couched in pietistic terms? How much evil has resulted from misinformation, a little coloring around the edges of truth? And have you noticed how much we can control other people just through our body language? From the political arena to the basic family unit, the worst enemy of human harmony is not spectacular wickedness but those seemingly harmless petty sins routinely assumed to be part of what it means to be human.
According to a NASA scientist, a two-degree miscalculation when launching a spacecraft to the moon would send the spacecraft 11,121 miles away from the moon: all one has to do is take time and distance into account.(2) How perceptive then was George MacDonald when he uttered these chilling words, “A man may sink by such slow degrees that, long after he is a devil, he may go on being a good churchman or a good dissenter, and thinking himself a good Christian”!(3) Similarly, C.S. Lewis warned that cards are a welcome substitute for murder if the former will set the believer on a path away from God. “Indeed,” he wrote, “the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”(4)
Now the decisive path out of this quandary is not just a greater resolve to be obedient to God. Such a response is usually motivated by guilt, and the duration of our effort will be directly proportional to the amount of guilt we feel: we will be right back where we started from when the guilt is no longer as strong. The appropriate response must begin with a greater appreciation of the holiness of God and a clear vision of life in God. It is only along the path of Christ-likeness that the true nature of sin is revealed and its appeal blunted. Yes, brazen sinfulness is appallingly evil and destructive, but it only makes a louder growl in a forest populated by stealthier, deadly hunters masquerading as little leopards. It is no idle, perfunctory pastime to pray with King David:
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
And lead me along the path of everlasting life (Psalm 139:23-24).
J.M. Njoroge is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
(1) For example, Paul White’s, Little Leopards Become Big Leopards, published by African Christian Press.
(2) John Trent, Heartshift: The Two Degree Difference That Will Change Your Heart, Your Home, and Your Health (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2004), 17.
(3)George MacDonald, in George MacDonald: An Anthology by C. S. Lewis (New York: Dolphin Books, 1962), 118.
(4) C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, in A C.S. Lewis Treasury: Three Classics in One Volume (New York: Harcourt & Company, 1988), 250.
Alistair Begg – What God Hasn’t Said
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ Isaiah 45:19
We can gain a great deal of comfort by considering what God has not said. What He has said is full of comfort and delight; but what He has not said is scarcely less rich in consolation. It was what God had not said that preserved the kingdom of Israel in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, for “the LORD had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven” (2 Kings 14:27). In our text we have an assurance that God will answer prayer because He “did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.'”
Those of you who are prone to self-condemnation should remember that, lest your doubts and fears say what they will, if God has not cut you off from mercy, there is no need for despair: Even the voice of conscience carries little weight if it is not seconded by the voice of God. We should tremble at what God has said! But do not allow your rambling thoughts to overwhelm you with despondency and sinful despair. Many timid persons have been vexed by the suspicion that there may be something in God’s decree that shuts them out from hope, but we have here a complete rebuttal of that troublesome fear, for no true seeker can be decreed to wrath. “I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say [even in the secret of my unsearchable decree] . . . , ‘Seek me in vain.'”
God has clearly revealed that He will hear the prayer of those who call upon Him, and that declaration cannot be contradicted. He has spoken so firmly, so truthfully, so righteously that there can be no room for doubt. He does not reveal His mind in unintelligible words, but He speaks plainly and positively. “Everyone who asks receives.”1 Doubter, believe this sure truth—that prayer must and will be heard, and that never, even in the secrets of eternity, has the Lord said to any living soul, “Seek me in vain.”
1) Matthew 7:8
The family reading plan for August 21, 2014 * Jeremiah 50 * Psalm 28, 29
Devotional material is taken from “Morning and Evening,” written by C.H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg.
Charles Spurgeon – Faith illustrated
“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” 2 Timothy 1:12
Suggested Further Reading: Hebrews 6:13-20
Joab, when he fled from the sword of Solomon, laid hold on the horns of the altar, thinking that surely when he had laid hold on the altar he was safe. His was vain confidence, for he was dragged from the horns of the altar and slain. But if you can lay hold on the horns of the altar of God, even Christ, you are most surely safe, and no sword of vengeance can ever reach you. I saw the other day a remarkable picture, which I shall use as an illustration of the way of salvation by faith in Jesus. An offender had committed a crime for which he must die, but it was in the olden time when churches were considered to be sanctuaries in which criminals might hide themselves and so escape. See the transgressor—he rushes towards the church, the guards pursue him with their drawn swords, all athirst for his blood, they pursue him even to the church door. He rushes up the steps, and just as they are about to overtake him and hew him in pieces on the threshhold of the church, out comes the Bishop, and holding up the crucifix he cries, “Back, back! Stain not the precincts of God’s house with blood! Stand back!” and the guards at once respect the emblem and stand back, while the poor fugitive hides himself behind the robes of the priest. It is even so with Christ. The guilty sinner flies to the cross—flies straight away to Jesus, and though Justice pursues him, Christ lifts up his wounded hands and cries to Justice, “Stand back! Stand back! I shelter this sinner; in the secret place of my tabernacle do I hide him; I will not suffer him to perish, for he puts his trust in me.”
For meditation: We should never be ashamed to be seen hiding behind Jesus (Mark 8:38).
Sermon no. 271
21 August (1859)
John MacArthur – Forgiving Others
“[Love] does not take into account a wrong suffered” (1 Cor. 13:5).
If you love someone, you won’t keep a record of their offenses.
It is reported that when the Moravian missionaries first went to the Eskimos, they couldn’t find a word in their language for forgiveness. They had to combine a series of shorter words into one compound word: Issumagijoujungnainermik. Although the word appears formidable, its meaning is beautiful, being translated: “Not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore.”
You’ve probably noticed that unforgiving people usually have good memories. Some can hold a grudge for a lifetime. But love never keeps a record of wrongs committed against it. It forgives and is unable to think about them anymore.
That’s what Paul had in mind when he said that love “does not take into account a wrong suffered” (1 Cor. 13:5). The Greek word translated “take into account” was used of the entries in a bookkeeper’s ledger. Those entries helped the bookkeeper remember the nature of each financial transaction. In contrast, love never keeps a record or holds others accountable for the wrongs they’ve committed against it.
The greatest example of that kind of love is God Himself. Romans 4:8 says, “Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” Second Corinthians 5:19 adds, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”
Every sin we commit as believers is an offense against God, but He never charges them to our account. We are in Christ, who bore our penalty on the cross. When we sin, we are immediately forgiven.
If you love others, you’ll forgive them as God has forgiven you. Instead of holding them accountable for their offenses, you’ll look beyond their sin to their potential in Christ. You’ll heed Paul’s admonition to “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32). That’s the character of true love.
Suggestions for Prayer; Is there someone from whom you’ve been withholding forgiveness? If so, recognize it as sin and confess it to the Lord. Then be reconciled to that person right away.
Thank God that He doesn’t keep an account of your sins (cf. Ps. 130:3).
For Further Study; What does Matthew 18:21-35 say about forgiving others?
Joyce Meyer – Stepping into the Unknown
And I said to you, You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God gives us. Behold, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has said to you. Fear not, neither be dismayed.—Deuteronomy 1:20–21
Parents, teachers, and other role models can teach children how to fear or they can teach them to be bold. A mother who is fearful herself will transmit that fear to her children. She will be overly cautious about many things, and a silent fear sinks into the heart of her children. We should not teach our children to live recklessly, but we should teach them to be bold, take action, and to never be so afraid of making mistakes that they won’t try things. I believe we should teach our children and those under our authority to take chances in life. If we never take a chance, we will never make progress. Progress always requires stepping into the unknown. Experience gives us confidence, but we never get experience unless we step out and try things we have not tried before.
I encourage you to teach others by word and example how to be bold and courageous. Tell people to try things, reminding them that making a mistake is not the worst thing that can happen.
Lord, help me both in word and deed to show others to be bold and courageous. I will gladly follow You into the unknown. Amen.
Campus Crusade – Bill Bright – His Ways Will Satisfy
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how His ways will really satisfy you” (Romans 12:2).
“The trouble with living sacrifices,” someone has well said, “is that they keep crawling off the altar.” That may be true. We “crawl off the altar” when we sin, and the only way to put ourselves back on the altar is to breathe spiritually – confess our known sins in accordance with the promise of 1 John 1:9 and appropriate the fullness of the Holy Spirit as we are commanded to do by faith (Ephesians 5:18).
When we do this, we will be living supernaturally and our lives will produce the fruit of the Spirit in great abundance.
Only by being filled with the Spirit, and thus realizing the fruit of the Spirit, can spiritual gifts be effectively utilized in witnessing and building up the Body of Christ.
We begin by totally yielding ourselves by faith to Christ in a full irrevocable surrender to His lordship.
“He died once for all to end sin’s power, but now He lives forever in unbroken fellowship with God. So look upon your old sin-nature as dead and unresponsive to sin, and instead be alive to God, alert to Him, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
“Do not let sin control your puny body any longer; do not give in to its sinful desires. Do not let any part of your bodies become tools of wickedness, to be used for sinning; but give yourselves completely to God – every part of you -for you are back from death and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for His good purposes” (Romans 6:10-13).
Bible Reading: Romans 12:3-18
TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Knowing that God’s ways will really satisfy me, I will seek first His kingdom, resist the devil at his every appearance and watch with joy as he flees.
Presidential Prayer Team – G.C. – Let It Happen!
In today’s verse, Mary of Nazareth is a young Jewish girl encountering an angelic messenger. He announces that, although she’s a virgin, she is going to have a child who will occupy the ancient throne of King David, ruling the house of Judah forever. Young Mary responds to the incredible news by saying, “Yes, let it happen!”
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
Luke 1:38
As Mary’s life unfolds, she is entwined in her son’s dangerous world as His message challenges the corrupt religious and political leaders of the day. Things seem to go from bad to tragically worse when Mary finds herself at the foot of a Roman cross, a witness to His savage execution. Days later, her heartbreak was replaced by hope as the angel’s promise was confirmed by the impossible: His resurrection.
America’s leaders face challenges that seem impossible, too. Mary did not know in advance how God would fulfill His promises; she had to live out her faith a day at a time – and so do you. Today, pray for God’s faithful people serving and leading America. Ask that they will remain steadfast in their hope regardless of circumstances, and rest certain that God’s plan will indeed be confirmed.
Recommended Reading: Hebrews 11:1-6
Greg Laurie – Life in Two Dimensions
He raised us from the dead along with Christ, and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. —Ephesians 2:6
A Christian is someone who lives in two dimensions. The apostle Paul explained it this way: “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth” (Colossians 3:1-2, NLT).
These verses are saying that believers truly do live in a spiritual dimension — where we walk in the Spirit and know God in the Spirit. Yet as human beings, we also live and move in physical bodies here on earth. Our challenge as Christians, then, is to transfer what we have in the spiritual realm into the day-to-day ebb and flow of events in the earthly realm.
When I travel to another country and pass through its borders, I still maintain my U.S. citizenship. When I went to Israel a few years ago, although I had my passport that indicated I am an American, I had to live in their culture. As a result, there were a few things I needed to adapt to. When I needed currency, for example, I took funds from my bank in the U.S. and converted them into shekels to use in Israel. Of course, I didn’t know what the exchange rate was, so on my first day there, I may have tipped someone fifty dollars to carry my bags to my room. (He was really nice to me the rest of the day.)
As Christians, we have riches, treasures, real assets waiting for us in heaven. When the Bible speaks of the heavenlies, however, we need to recognize that it is not only talking about something waiting for us in heaven after we die. It is also talking about the supernatural realm. So before we can effectively walk as believers, much less engage in spiritual battle, we need to learn about the supernatural resources God has given to us. We also need to understand they are treasures God wants us to start tapping into in the here and now, as well as in the by and by. They are provisions available to any believer who is walking with God.
Max Lucado – By Grace Through Faith
The supreme force in salvation is God’s grace. Not our works. Not our talents. Not our feelings. Not our strength. Faith is not born at the negotiating table where we barter our gifts in exchange for God’s goodness. Faith is not an award given to the most learned. It’s not a prize given to the most disciplined.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”
We, like Paul, are aware of two things. We are great sinners and we need a great Savior. Salvation is God’s sudden, calming presence during the stormy seas of our lives. Death is disarmed. Failures are forgiven. Life has real purpose. And God is not only within sight—He is within reach!
From In the Eye of the Storm
DAILY DEVOTIONS, NEWS AND INFORMATION 