Greg Laurie – “Someday” Is Today

August 16, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. . .You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath. —Psalms 90:12; 39:5

When you’ve had an encounter with death — a near-death experience of your own or the sudden passing of a loved one — it inevitably leads to a few essential questions: What is life all about, anyway? Why am I alive . . . and what am I really living for?

In other words, what gets you out of bed in the morning? What gets your blood pumping? Is it an alarm clock or a calling that gets you up each and every day? Every one of us needs some motivating passion, some ideal, something that gives our lives purpose that drives us on. Unfortunately some people don’t know what they’re living for.

Many people are merely marking time instead of enjoying their lives. Their favorite day of the week is “someday.” Someday my ship will come in. Someday my prince (or princess) will come. Someday it’s all going to get better. Someday my life will change. A recent study revealed that 94 percent of the people surveyed were simply enduring the present while “waiting for something better to happen.”

But here is what people don’t plan on. They don’t plan on death. And they never expect it to come around the corner unexpectedly. When you’re young you tell yourself, “I don’t have to even think about that for another fifty or sixty years.” And that may true. But death knocks at every door. The Bible says that each of us has an appointment with death: “People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27, NIV).

That appointment may come later than you expected. On the other hand, it may come much, much sooner. Statisticians tell us that three people die every second, 180 die every minute, and 11,000 people die every hour. This means that every day, 250,000 people enter into eternity.

What’s the bottom line? Live every day as though you may never have another one. Live ready to step into God’s presence at any moment.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – A Bitter Root

August 15, 2014 broboinhawaii 1 Comment

Hebrews 12:15

Yesterday, we came to think of bitterness as a poison—a concoction that we create for someone else but then end up drinking ourselves. Today, let’s consider another useful illustration that will help us understand the negative effects of resentment.

Hebrews 12:15 describes bitterness as a “root.” Think about that. Where do you find roots? That’s right—they grow underground, sitting beneath the surface and siphoning off nutrients from the ground around them. Whenever you see a plant, flower, or tree, you can be sure that just below the peaceful façade is a root that is sucking life from the soil and pushing it up through the plant’s foundation. Without the root, the vegetation would collapse and die.

Can you see how this image parallels your spiritual life? Perhaps you have a root of bitterness that is sitting just under the surface, practically invisible to anyone who walks by. Does the fact that the bitter root is barely noticeable mean that it is inert and harmless? Absolutely not! Instead, you can be sure that the root is doing its job—sucking the life from you and using it to nourish a weed of hatred, impatience, or discontentment.

A root of bitterness will never produce healthy fruit. When the root is harmful, it is senseless to expect anything other than bad fruit and a tangle of weeds.

The good news is, there’s a remedy to the problem. All it takes to kill a weed is to unearth and dispose of the root. Pull the source of your resentment out of its hiding place. Expose it and give it to God, who knows how to cultivate the heart.

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Is There Hope?

August 15, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Matthew 28:1-10

“He is not here; for He is risen, as He said.” —Matthew 28:6

I sat quietly at the graveside of my father, waiting for the private family burial of my mother to begin. The funeral director carried the urn that held her ashes. My heart felt numb and my head was in a fog. How can I handle losing them both within just 3 months? In my grief I felt loss and loneliness and a little hopeless facing a future without them.

Then the pastor read about another graveside. On the first day of the week, early in the morning, women went to Jesus’ tomb, carrying spices for His body (Matt. 28:1; Luke 24:1). There they were startled to find an open and empty tomb—and an angel. “Do not be afraid,” he said to them (Matt. 28:5). They didn’t need to be afraid of the empty tomb or of the angel, because he had good news for them.

Hope stirred when I heard the next words: “He is not here; for He is risen, as He said” (v.6). Because Jesus had come back to life, death had been conquered! Jesus reminded His followers just a few days before His death: “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19).

Even though we grieve at the loss of our loved ones, we find hope through the resurrection of Jesus and His promise that there is life after death. —Anne Cetas

Thank You, Lord, for comfort and hope.

What would we do without You? Your death

and resurrection provide all we need for

this life and the next.

Because He lives, we live.

Bible in a year: Psalms 91-93; Romans 15:1-13

Insight

The “other Mary” (Matt. 28:1) in today’s account is apparently the same woman described as “Mary the wife of Clopas” who was at the cross and burial of Jesus (27:61; John 19:25). It appears she was the mother of James “the Less” and Joses (Mark 15:40), and despite sharing the same name, she was a sister of Mary, Jesus’ mother (John 19:25).

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Sledgehammers and Other Good News

August 15, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

I found myself sighing with something like relief one day after reading a comment made by C.S. Lewis. He was responding to a statement made by a scholar who noted that he didn’t “care for” the Sermon on the Mount but “preferred” the Pauline ethics. Lewis was of course bothered at the suggestion of Scripture alternatives between which we may freely pick and choose, and it was this that he addressed first. But his response also included a striking remark about the Sermon on the Mount itself, and this is what caught my attention. Said Lewis, “As to ‘caring for’ the Sermon on the Mount, if ‘caring for’ here means liking or enjoying, I suppose no one cares for it. Who can like being knocked flat on his face by a sledgehammer? I can hardly imagine a more deadly spiritual condition than that of the man who can read that passage with tranquil pleasure. This is indeed to be ‘at ease in Zion.’”(1)

To be “at ease in Zion” was the deplorable state of existence the prophet Amos spoke of in his harsh words to the Israelites.(2) Reeling in false security and erroneous confidence from their economic affluence and self-indulgent lifestyles, the Israelites, Amos warned, would be the first God would send into exile if they failed to heed his words.

The Sermon on the Mount was likely as alarming to those who first heard it as the thought of exile for those whose homeland is far more than an identity. Lewis’s comparison of Christ’s words to a sledgehammer is not far off. Those potent chapters are not unlike the electric paddles used to shock the heart back to life, back to the rhythm it was intended to have all along.

The Sermon on the Mount is like the keynote address for the kingdom Christ came to introduce and to gather us together like a hen gathers her chicks. On that mountainside, Jesus points out many of the mountains that blur vision of this kingdom. He repeatedly notes that we are not quite seeing as he sees, not grasping reality as it really is. “You have heard that it was so…” he says again and again, “but I tell you…” His words are hard and thorough, and even the simplest of phrases is permeated with the profound glory of a kingdom we far too easily settle for only seeing in part:

Blessed are the poor in spirit…

Blessed are those who mourn…

Blessed are the meek…

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…

Blessed are the merciful…

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.(3)

Perhaps I have become at ease in Zion if I can read these words without wondering if I am among the blessed, if I am one seeing God or missing it. When I lose sight of the kingdom behind the haze of selfish ambition, guilt, or fear, Christ’s words become like a foghorn calling me to set my eyes on the one I follow and live up to the hope I embody: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” When I find myself making demands of God, I am shown again just how much God demands of me. “You’ve heard it said, ‘You shall not murder. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister’ is guilty of the same.

For the crowds that gathered that day on the hillside, Jesus’s words were likely quite troubling. If God’s commandments were difficult to follow before this sermon, they were now entirely terrifying. Who can stand in this kingdom Jesus describes? And how is this good news? How could we ever be gathered into this communion? And yet, in all of his wisdom, in his unfathomable love, in the middle of his sermon Jesus proclaims gently but confidently: Do not worry. It is as if he says to those rightly awake and trembling with the fear of certain failure, “I am not only the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets, but the embodiment of these good things and the one who makes all things possible for you.” This, he also says repeatedly. In his humanity, Jesus vicariously approaches our own, lifting us to possibilities we can only imagine.

The Sermon on the Mount is a concentrated example of how Jesus came to fulfill in us dynamically everything the law meant to show us. Like a sledgehammer to a frozen heart, his life cries out to all who are at ease in Zion, whether cold from self-indulgence or unaware of God’s life-giving pursuit of our affection. In this, Christ’s role is uncompromisable. He is both the human Son of God who is embodiment of all we are meant to be in the fellowship of the Father and our mediator who bestows us the very possibility.

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

(1) C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 181.

(2) Amos 6:1.

(3) Matthew 5:3-9.

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Stone or Flesh?

August 15, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

And I will give you a new heart…a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

A “heart of flesh” is known by its tenderness concerning sin. To have indulged a foul imagination or to have allowed a wild desire to linger even for a moment is quite enough to make a heart of flesh grieve before the Lord. The heart of stone calls a great iniquity nothing, but not so the heart of flesh.

If to the right or left I stray,

That moment, Lord, reprove;

And let me weep my life away,

For having grieved Thy love.

The heart of flesh is tender to God’s will. Unlike a strong heart that refuses to bow before God’s dictates, when the heart of flesh is given, the will quivers like an aspen leaf in every breath of heaven and bows like a willow in every breeze of God’s Spirit. The natural will is cold, hard iron, which refuses to be hammered into form, but the renewed will, like molten metal, is quickly molded by the hand of grace. In the fleshy heart there is a tenderness of the affections. The hard heart does not love the Redeemer, but the renewed heart burns with affection toward Him.

The hard heart is selfish and coldly demands, “Why should I weep for sin? Why should I love the Lord?” But the heart of flesh says, “Lord, You know that I love You; help me to love You more!” There are many privileges of this renewed heart. It is here the Spirit dwells; it is here that Jesus lives. It is fitted to receive every spiritual blessing, and every blessing comes to it. It is prepared to yield every heavenly fruit to the honor and praise of God, and therefore the Lord delights in it. A tender heart is the best defense against sin and the best preparation for heaven. A renewed heart stands on its watchtower looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus. Do you have this heart of flesh?

________________________________________

The family reading plan for August 15, 2014 * Jeremiah 43 * Psalm 19

________________________________________

Devotional material is taken from “Morning and Evening,” written by C.H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg.

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – The way of salvation

August 15, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

John MacArthur – Overcoming Jealousy

August 15, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

“Love . . . is not jealous” (1 Cor. 13:4).

Jealousy thrives in a climate of selfish ambition.

Jealousy is an insidious sin that cries out, “I want what you have, and furthermore, I don’t want you to have it.” It replaces contentment with resentment and spawns a myriad of other sins.

The Corinthians, in truth, were jealous of one another’s spiritual gifts. First Corinthians 12:31 literally says, “You are earnestly desiring the showy gifts, but I show you a more excellent way.” The word translated “earnestly desiring” is translated “jealous” in 1 Corinthians 13:4. It means “to boil” and speaks of the inner seething that comes from wanting something that someone else has. In 1 Corinthians 3:3 Paul rebukes them for the jealousy and strife that existed among them.

Paul knew what it meant to be victimized by jealous people. During one of his imprisonments he candidly wrote, “Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from good will; the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment” (Phil. 1:15-17).

Paul’s attitude toward those who envied him was exemplary: “Whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice” (v. 18). He wasn’t motivated by personal comfort or selfish ambition. He loved Christ deeply and wanted as many people as possible to hear the gospel. As long as Christ was being proclaimed, Paul was happy—regardless of his own circumstances or the motives of others. That should be your perspective too.

Love is the antidote for jealousy. When godly love governs your heart, you can rejoice in the spiritual successes of others, even when you know their motives are wrong. But if you seek prominence and selfish gain, you become an easy target for jealousy and resentment.

Suggestions for Prayer

Confess any jealousy you might be harboring toward others.
Ask God to deepen your love for Christ so jealousy can’t gain a foothold in your heart in the future.

For Further Study; Read 2 Corinthians 11:2. Is there such a thing as godly jealousy? Explain.

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – “God, This Is Just Not a Good Time!”

August 15, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

. . . Felix became alarmed and terrified and said, Go away for the present; when I have a convenient opportunity, I will send for you. —Acts 24:25

The Bible tells a story about a man who did not follow God because doing so would have been inconvenient. This man, named Felix, asked Paul to come and preach the Gospel to him. But when Paul started talking to him about right living, purity of life, and controlling his passions, Felix became alarmed and frightened. He told Paul to go away and that he would call him at a more convenient time (see Acts 24:24–25).

I find this extremely amusing, not because it is really funny, but because it clearly depicts the way we are. We don’t mind hearing about how much God loves us and about the good plans He has for our lives, but when He begins to chastise us or correct us in any way, we try to tell Him that “now” is just not a good time. I doubt He ever chooses a time we would consider “a good time,” and I think He does that on purpose!

When the Israelites were traveling through the wilderness, they were led by a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night. When the cloud moved, they had to move. And when it hovered, they stayed where they were (see Num. 9:15–23). The Bible says that sometimes it moved during the day and sometimes it moved at night. Sometimes it rested for a few days and sometimes it rested for one day.

I seriously doubt that at night they all hung Do Not Disturb signs on the openings of their tents to let God know they did not want to be inconvenienced. When He decided it was time to go, they packed up and followed Him. And when He decides it is time for us to move to the next level of our journey in Him, we should never say, “This is just not a good time!”

God knows best, and His timing is always exactly right. The fact that I don’t feel ready to deal with something in my life doesn’t mean that I’m not ready. God’s timing is perfect, and His ways are not our ways, but they are higher and better than our ways (see Isa. 55:9).

Trust in Him Have you ever said to God, “This is not a good time”? Commit to following God’s will for your life in His timing. God’s timing may not be your timing, but you can trust Him because He knows best.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Shine Like the Sun

August 15, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

“And those who are wise – the people of God – shall shine as brightly as the sun’s brilliance, and those who turn many to righteousness will glitter like stars forever” (Daniel 12:3).

Did it ever occur to you that as a child of God you are to radiate in your countenance the beauty and glory of God? Have you ever considered the inconsistency of having a glum expression while professing that the Son of God, the light of the world, dwells within you?

Proverbs 15:13 reminds us that a happy face means a glad heart; a sad face means a breaking heart.

When missionary Adoniram Judson was home on furlough many years ago, he passed through the city of Stonington, Connecticut. A young boy, playing about the wharves at the time of Judson’s arrival, was struck by the missionary’s appearance. He had never before seen such a light on a man’s face.

Curious, he ran up the street to a ministers’s home to ask if he knew who the stranger was. Following the boy back, the minister became so engaged in conversation with Judson that he forgot all about the lad standing nearby.

Many years later that boy – unable to get away from the influence of what he had seen on the man’s face – became the famous preacher, Henry Clay Trumbull. One chapter in his book of memoirs is entitled, “What a Boy Saw in the Face of Adoniram Judson.”

A shining face – radiant with the love and joy of Jesus Christ – had changed a life. Just as flowers thrive when they bend toward the light of the sun, so shining, radiant faces are the result of those who concentrate their gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

May we never underestimate the power of a glowing face that stems from time spent with God. Even as Moses’ countenance shone, may your face and mine reveal time spent alone with God and in His Word.

Bible Reading: Matthew 5:13-16

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I will spend sufficient time with the Lord each day to insure a radiant countenance for the glory of God and as a witness to those with whom I have contact each day.

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; G.C. – No Winner

August 15, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Have you ever won the battle, only to lose the war? Rachel and Leah, two sisters married to the same man, engaged in a perpetual competition that neither one could truly win. Their complicated relationship detailed in Genesis 29-35 is an appropriate picture of today’s political landscape: two major parties vying for power over control of one government, yet battling in such as way that no one really wins in the end.

Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.”

Genesis 30:8

Election season is heating up again. Before you put up the yard signs and post your political fireballs on Facebook, take a moment and consider your unbelieving neighbors and friends. Ask yourself if your communications are creating opportunities to share your hope in Jesus Christ and bring about healing – or merely drawing battle lines for ongoing disagreement and hurt.

Like living in the tent with Rachel and Leah, the conflict going on mainly damages those that would otherwise benefit immensely from working together. Start praying today for believers seeking office in the next term. Pray they will handle members of the opposite party thoughtfully and maintain an effective witness for Christ. There’s no reason to win the election but lose the race.

Greg Laurie – Top Priority

August 15, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” —Matthew 6:31–33

When Jesus told us not to worry about food and clothing, His emphasis was on the word worry. He didn’t say, “Don’t think about it.” Nor did He imply, “Don’t plan ahead for your needs.” He said, “Don’t worry.”

The fact of the matter is that the Bible criticizes the lazy person who lives off the generosity of others and refuses or neglects to work for a living. The Bible says that if you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Go get a job. Provide for yourself. The Bible even encourages us to plan for the future and learn from the example of the ant, that tiny creature that is always planning ahead (see Proverbs 6:6-8).

But there is balance here. The Bible is saying to us, “Yes, do an honest day’s work and be financially responsible, but don’t be obsessed with these things. Jesus said that is how nonbelievers are: “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek” (Matthew 6:31-32).

Isn’t that the emphasis of so many people today—what to eat, what to wear? Their whole lives revolve around materialistic goals. Jesus said this won’t satisfy the deepest needs of your heart.

Don’t make these things your primary purpose in life. Rather, seek God first and foremost in your life, and everything that you need will be provided for you. God will take care of you. He cares about you. He will supply all of your needs.

Today’s devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Doubt Storms

August 15, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Sometimes I wonder…how can our world get so chaotic? And I sometimes wonder why so many hearts have to hurt? Do you ever get doubt storms? Do you have turbulent days when the enemy is too big, and the answers too few? Every so often a storm will come, and I’ll look up into the blackening sky and say, “God, a little light, please?”

The light came for Jesus’ disciples. A figure came to them walking on the water. It wasn’t what they expected. Maybe they were listening for a divine proclamation to still the storm. One thing is for sure, they were not looking for Jesus to come walking on the water. “It’s a ghost,’ they said and cried out in fear.” And since Jesus came in a way they didn’t expect, they almost missed seeing the answer to their prayers. And unless we look and listen closely, we risk making the same mistake!

From In the Eye of the Storm

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Bitter Poison

August 14, 2014 broboinhawaii 1 Comment

Ephesians 4:31-32

Picture a miserable, depressed, and emotionally broken person hunched over a chemistry set. His eyes are narrow. His lips are pursed. His fingers are methodically adding just a pinch of this and a dash of that to the acrid green fluid in the test tube before him. His thoughts are a hodgepodge of outdated images, his heart a stale mosaic of hatred for a grievance long past. He is thinking of the one who hurt him, and he is busy concocting a poison for the offender.

It sounds like an excerpt from an old movie, doesn’t it? However, here is where the scene changes direction. Envision that same obsessed scientist breathing a sigh of relief as he straightens up, marveling at the liquid vengeance he has created. Then he utters, “This will show him!”—and drinks the poison himself.

That’s a surprising twist—one that we would not expect in a movie. Yet there is a good chance you have done this very thing at one time or another.

Bitterness is a toxin that we prepare for someone else but then drink ourselves. It is a concentrated dose of emotional poison, often one that we carefully nurture and grow over the course of years. When we react to someone’s wrongdoing by withdrawing and giving free reign to daydreams of retribution and ill will, we are slowly poisoning our own hearts and minds.

Ask God to reveal any signs of poison in your system. Then ask Him to help you administer a dose of the antidote: forgiveness.

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — The Parable Of The Sting

August 14, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

1 Peter 2:9-12

They may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. —1 Peter 2:12

I can still see Jay Elliott’s shocked face as I burst through his front door almost 50 years ago with a “gang” of bees swirling around me. As I raced out his back door, I realized the bees were gone. Well, sort of—I’d left them in Jay’s house! Moments later, he came racing out his back door—chased by the bees I had brought to him.

I had more than a dozen stings, with little effect. Jay had a different experience. Though he’d been stung only once or twice by “my” bees, his eyes and throat swelled up in a painful allergic reaction. My actions had caused a lot of pain for my friend.

That’s a picture of what’s true in our interpersonal relationships too. We hurt others when our actions aren’t Christlike. Even after an apology, the “sting” sticks.

People would be right to expect an absence of harshness and an air of patience from those who follow Christ. We forget sometimes that people struggling with faith, or life, or both, watch Christians with expectation. They hope to see less anger and more mercy, less judgment and more compassion, less criticism and more encouragement. Jesus and Peter told us to live good lives so God is given the glory (Matt. 5:16; 1 Peter 2:12). May our actions and reactions point those around us to our loving Father. —Randy Kilgore

We have found that it’s easy to hurt others

with our words or actions. Teach us, Father,

to pause and to think before we speak or act.

Fill us with kindness and care.

May others see less of me and more of Jesus.

Bible in a year: Psalms 89-90; Romans 14

Insight

Peter wrote to Christians who were going through fiery trials of intense persecution (1 Peter 1:6; 4:12). He encouraged these believers to persevere, to remain faithful, and to view these difficult times as opportunities to strengthen their faith and bear witness to Christ. In today’s passage, Peter reminded them of their special identity and spiritual status as God’s chosen people (vv.9-10). “A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” are descriptions applied to the Jews in the Old Testament (Ex. 19:5-6; Isa. 43:20-21), but here Peter applies them to believers. He reminds them—and us—that we are chosen by God for the purpose of witnessing and testifying to God’s love (vv.9-10).

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Real and Unseen

August 14, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

There is something deeply unsettling about biological threats. The very idea of unseen, undetectable, but deadly toxins or viruses is a modern nightmare. The sad thing is that we have too many actual examples to fuel our fears. For multitudes in the industrial town of Bhopal, India, a normal working day turned into a catastrophe of biblical proportions as people were poisoned and killed by gas leaking from a local factory. Similarly catastrophic, the events surrounding the reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine combined the worst of leftover Soviet era paranoia and secrecy with a calamity of truly mind-boggling proportions. Hundreds of young men were ushered in to fight a fire, knowing nothing of the deadly radiation saturating the area, and as a result, thousands died (though exact numbers are not clear). And today, uncertainty mounts as workers struggle to contain the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, badly damaged by the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

The weight and power of these deadly issues grips us. We feel and understand it acutely. There are things in our universe that are invisible, but real and deadly. And there are few guaranteed fail-safe mechanisms to protect us, in all circumstances, from harm. This feeling of vulnerability, this sense that there are things beyond our control, this notion of risk is something the modern mind finds repulsive. We want security, we demand certainty, and we feel entitled to assurance. But what is it, and where is it to be found?

Ernest Becker, several decades ago, wrote a very challenging book called The Denial of Death. He shows how society works to create hero-systems and elaborate ways of suppressing or avoiding the reality of death. As Woody Allen once said, “It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” Here is where the Christian faith speaks clearly to the human dilemma. In his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul writes, “As in Adam, all die.” There are no exceptions, no escape routes, and no exits. It is as inclusive as it gets. Death is the great leveler. It respects everyone.

However, the apostle does not stop here; he goes on to say “so in Christ will all be made alive.” This is the great distinction. Death occurs on a hundred percent scale. Our link to Adam is inviolable; we are all descendents, and inheritors of all that this implies. Like those infected with a deadly virus, the issue is not morality or effort. We need a solution, an antidote, an answer beyond us. What Christianity outlines is a way out, an answer that is a transfer.

What do I mean? As long as we are located “in Adam,” which means our natural state and line of descent, we are subject to the outworking of the brokenness, damage, and suffering that is now a part of the human condition. The invitation to change is the move to be “in Christ.” What does this mean? Several things. It means trusting him to provide what we cannot provide for ourselves—namely, healing and help. It means confessing our failings and seeking his forgiveness. It means receiving a new kind of life within, by means of the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 1:4).

These two great antagonists, life and death, are powerful indicators in the human story. Michael Green, the superb British evangelist says, “Jesus did not come to make bad men good, but to make dead men live.” Life! This is the issue C.S. Lewis brings to light in Mere Christianity, where he contrasts physical life (bios) with spiritual life (zoe) and our urgent need for the latter, which we can only obtain on Christ’s terms and not our own.

As I watch ageing, decaying people, I recognize something sad and good at the same time. Death is not (or need not be) the end. We pass through death (by faith in Christ) to the resurrection. Joni Erickson Tada brought this home to me some years ago as she spoke from her wheel chair, testifying of a love for Jesus and her great expectations as a believer, despite her very real suffering and restrictions as a paraplegic. She announced to us all that when she sees Jesus, she will dance in heaven. I believe it. This is resurrection hope and a sure foundation. There are many unseen but real threats, but there are also unseen but real promises, and he who makes them says to us even now, “Behold, I make all things new.”

Stuart McAllister is regional director for the Americas at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Calm Down

August 14, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

I know their sufferings. Exodus 3:7

The child is cheered as he sings, “This my father knows”; and shall we not be comforted as we discern that our dear and tender Friend knows all about us?

1. He is the Physician, and if He knows everything, there is no need for the patient to know. Calm down, you silly, fluttering heart, prying, peeping, and suspecting! What you don’t know now, you will know later; and meanwhile Jesus, the beloved Physician, knows your soul in adversities. Why does the patient need to analyze all the medicine or estimate all the symptoms? This is the Physician’s work, not mine; it is my business to trust, and His to prescribe. If He shall write His prescription in a fashion that I cannot read, I will not be uneasy on that account, but will rely upon His unfailing skill to make everything clear in the result, no matter how mysterious the process.

2. He is the Master, and His knowledge is to serve us instead of our own; we are to obey, not to judge: “The servant does not know what his master is doing.”1 Shall the architect explain his plans to every bricklayer on the job? If he knows his own intent, is it not enough? The pot upon the wheel cannot guess to what pattern it will be conformed, but if the potter understands his art, the ignorance of the clay is irrelevant. My Lord must not be cross-questioned any more by one so ignorant as I am.

3. He is the Head. All understanding centers there. What judgment has the arm? What comprehension has the foot? All the power to know lies in the head. Why should the member have a brain of its own when the head fulfills for it every intellectual office? Here, then, the believer must rest his comfort in sickness—not that he himself can see the end, but that Jesus knows all. Sweet Lord, be forever eye and soul and head for us, and let us be content to know only what You choose to reveal.

1) John 15:15

________________________________________

The family reading plan for August 14, 2014 * Jeremiah 42 * Psalm 18

________________________________________

Devotional material is taken from “Morning and Evening,” written by C.H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg.

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – The tabernacle of the Most High

August 14, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

“In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:22

Suggested Further Reading: Colossians 1:15-27

At last they come to these stones. But how rough, how hard, how unhewn. Yes, but these are the stones ordained of old in the decree, and these must be the stones, and none other. There must be a change effected. These must be brought in and shaped and cut and polished, and put into their places. I see the workmen at their labour. The great saw of the law cuts through the stone, and then comes the polishing chisel of the gospel. I see the stones lying in their places, and the church is rising. The ministers, like wise master-builders, are there running along the wall, putting each spiritual stone in its place; each stone is leaning on that massive corner stone, and every stone depending on the blood, and finding its security and its strength in Jesus Christ, the corner stone, elect, and precious. Do you see the building rise as each one of God’s chosen is brought in, called by grace and quickened? Do you mark the living stones as in sacred love and holy brotherhood they are knit together? Have you ever entered the building, and seen how these stones lean upon one another bearing each other’s burden, so fulfilling the law of Christ? Do you mark how the church loves Christ, and how the members love each other? How first the church is joined to the corner stone, and then each stone bound to the next, and the next to the next, till the whole building becomes one? Lo! The structure rises, and it is complete, and at last it is built. And now open wide your eyes, and see what a glorious building this is—the church of God. Men talk of the splendour of their architecture—this is architecture indeed.

For meditation: Here, two days before the laying of the first stone of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Spurgeon gave a timely reminder that the word “church” is a description of Christian people, not of any building in which they gather. Are you a living stone, built into the spiritual household of God (Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:4,5)?

Sermon no. 267

14 August (1859)

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Showing Kindness

August 14, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

“Love is kind” (1 Cor. 13:4).

Kindness repays evil with good.

Two men going opposite directions on a narrow mountain trail met each other head on. With a steep cliff on one side and sheer rock on the other, they were unable to pass. The harder they tried to squeeze past one another the more frustrated they became. The situation seemed hopeless until one of them, without saying a word, simply laid down on the trail, allowing the other man to walk over him. That illustrates kindness, which doesn’t mind getting walked on if it benefits someone else.

The Greek word translated “kind” in 1 Corinthians 13:4 literally means “useful,” “serving,” or “gracious.” It isn’t simply the sweet attitude we usually associate with kindness; it’s the idea of being useful to others. It’s the flip side of patience. Patience endures abuses from others; kindness repays them with good deeds.

God committed the supreme act of kindness when He provided salvation for lost sinners. Titus 3:3-5 says, “We also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us.”

Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light” (Matt. 11:29-30). The word translated “easy” is translated “kind” in 1 Corinthians 13:4. Jesus was saying, “Trust in Me and I’ll redeem you and show you My kindness.”

Since “you have tasted the kindness of the Lord” (1 Pet. 2:3), you should be anxious to show kindness to others. That’s what Paul wanted the Corinthian believers to do. He knew they had the capacity, but they needed to repent of their selfish ways and allow love to dominate their lives.

Suggestions for Prayer; The evil world in which we live gives abundant opportunity for you to express kindness to others. Ask the Lord to help you take full advantage of every opportunity to do so today.

For Further Study; Read Matthew 5:38-48, noting the practical expressions of kindness Jesus instructed His followers to pursue.

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Overcome Rejection

August 14, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures? “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. This is the LORD’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.” —Mark 12:10 –11 NLT

We all fear earthly rejection too much. Jesus was rejected, and He survived. You can too! When I say you will survive, I don’t mean you will just barely make it; I mean rejection will not leave you brokenhearted, and it will not stop you from doing what God wants you to do. No one enjoys being rejected, but we can experience it and still be victorious.

We are not responsible for our reputations; God is! So relax and keep thinking to yourself, I may not be accepted by everyone, but I am accepted and loved by God. Repeat it over and over until you believe it and are no longer bothered if people reject you.

If you have God, you have all you need. If He knows you need anything else, He will provide that also (see Matthew 6:8, 33–34). If you value the unconditional love of God more than the conditional approval of people, you will overcome rejection.

Power Thought: I can overcome rejection because I have received God’s love.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Whatsoever You Desire

August 14, 2014 broboinhawaii Leave a comment

“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:23,24, KJV).

How big is your God? If the Holy Spirit were to withdraw from your life and from the fellowship of your local church, would he be missed? In other words, is there anything supernatural about your life or the local church where you have fellowship with other believers?

A skeptic, contrasting the actor and Christian worker, gave this evaluation: The actor presents fiction as though it were true. The Christian worker all too often presents truth as though it were fiction.

A militant atheist attacked Christians with this accusation: “You say that your God is omnipotent, that He created the heavens and the earth. You say that He is a loving God who sent His only Son to die on the cross for the sins of man and on the third day was raised from the dead. You say that through faith in Him one could have a whole new quality of life, of peace, love and joy; a purpose and meaning plus the assurance of eternal life. I say to you that is a lie and you know it, because if you really believe what you say you believe, you would pay whatever price it took to tell everyone who would listen. What you claim is without question the greatest news the world has ever heard, but it couldn’t be true or you would be more enthusiastic about it. If I believed what you believe, I would sell everything I have and use every resource at my command to reach the largest possible number of people with this good news.”

Unfortunately, the critics and the skeptics have good reason to find fault with us. It is true that, if we really believed what we say we believe, we would be constrained, as the apostle Paul, to tell everyone who would listen about Christ, mindful that there is nothing more important in all the world that we could do. At the same time we would claim our rights as children of God, drawing upon the supernatural resources of God.

Bible Reading: Mark 11:20-26

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I will seek to know God better by studying His Word and meditating upon his attributes so that His supernatural qualities will become more and more a part of my life for the glory and praise of His name.

DAILY DEVOTIONS, NEWS AND INFORMATION

Monthly Archives: August 2014

Greg Laurie – “Someday” Is Today

Charles Stanley – A Bitter Root

Our Daily Bread — Is There Hope?

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Sledgehammers and Other Good News

Alistair Begg – Stone or Flesh?

Charles Spurgeon – The way of salvation

John MacArthur – Overcoming Jealousy

Joyce Meyer – “God, This Is Just Not a Good Time!”

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Shine Like the Sun

Presidential Prayer Team; G.C. – No Winner

Greg Laurie – Top Priority

Max Lucado – Doubt Storms

Charles Stanley – Bitter Poison

Our Daily Bread — The Parable Of The Sting

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Real and Unseen

Alistair Begg – Calm Down

Charles Spurgeon – The tabernacle of the Most High

John MacArthur – Showing Kindness

Joyce Meyer – Overcome Rejection

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Whatsoever You Desire

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