Daily Archives: June 3, 2015

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Strength in Waiting

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Isaiah 40:28-31

God has a purpose and plan for your life, and His timing is perfect. Sometimes He answers our prayers with “yes” or “no.” But at other times, He says, “Not now.” When this is the case, we can avail ourselves of the rich rewards that come while we wait.

One very practical blessing is that God strengthens us as we lean on Him during delays. Isaiah 40:31 describes an eagle soaring—an apt metaphor for how the believer who abides in the Lord will be lifted and sustained by His Spirit. (In fact, it’s interesting to note that the Hebrew for “wind” and “spirit” come from the same word: ruach.)

When we are facing a difficult decision, the real key is learning to wait. There is no verse of Scripture that tells us to take control and fight our own battles. God is the one who fights them on our behalf (2 Chron. 20:15). We are to be patient and trust in Him.

When David faced his greatest battles, he waited upon the Lord. God delivered him from destruction and set his feet on solid ground (Ps. 40:1-3). He will do the same for you. When you abide in Him, He gives supernatural energy to accomplish the things He requires of you—His Spirit does for you what you cannot do for yourself.

In reading through the Scriptures, we see that every time one of God’s saints gains a victory, he or she is waiting and trusting in the Lord. You can likewise experience triumph in your life. When you have the omnipotent Creator of the universe acting on your behalf, you can’t lose.

Bible in One Year: Job 9-12

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Something New

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Read: Ephesians 2:10-22

Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 19-20; John 13:21-38

We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. —Ephesians 2:10

It was only scrap wood, but Charles Hooper saw much more than that. Salvaging old timbers from a long-abandoned corncrib, he sketched some simple plans. Then he felled a few oak and poplar trees from his wooded property and painstakingly squared them with his grandfather’s broadax. Piece by piece, he began to fit together the old lumber with the new.

Today you can see Charles and Shirley Hooper’s postcard-perfect log cabin, tucked away in the trees on Tennessee Ridge. Part guesthouse, part museum for family heirlooms, the structure stands as an enduring tribute to Charles’ vision, skill, and patience.

Writing to a Gentile audience, Paul told the church at Ephesus how Jesus was creating something new by bringing together Jewish and non-Jewish believers as a single entity. “You who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ,” Paul wrote (Eph. 2:13). This new structure was “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (vv. 20-21).

The work continues today. God takes the brokenness of our lives, artfully fits us together with other broken and rescued people, and patiently chips away our rough edges. He loves His work, you know. —Tim Gustafson

Lord, we can’t thank You enough for Your passionate love for us. Help us to see that You bring us together in this beautiful body of believers known as Your church.

Our rough edges must be chipped away to bring out the image of Christ.

INSIGHT: The Jews believed they alone were God’s favored people (Gen. 17:9-14), so God would never save the Gentiles (Eph. 3:4-8). Correcting this, Paul says that Christ through the cross has torn down the wall of hostility that separated Jews and Gentiles (2:12-14) and has brought them together into a new unified humanity—the church (vv. 15-18).

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – In This Place

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To the people of ancient Israel, the image of God’s house was the center of the world. It was a house reaching from the heavens to the places on earth where God caused his name to be remembered. God’s house was seen in experiences like Jacob’s, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”(2) It was experienced in the tabernacle that once moved among them as pilgrims, and later in their pilgrimages to the temple. Ever-expanding their vision of God’s house, altars were built over the places where God had appeared to them, marking the reach of its walls. Though at times as prodigals, their longing for home was a part of their identity as children of the house of God: “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”(3) The house of God as it reached from heaven to earth was occupied by the Creator. As the people of God, they had been invited inside, where they longed to remain.

As with any group with a clear vision of inside and outside, belonging and not belonging, the Israelite’s understanding of the house of God could have easily become the very rationale for excluding foreigners, neighbors, and outsiders. Yet not long after God had called the people of Israel his own, God instructed them very specifically on the treatment of such people: “Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.”(4) “The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”(5) The house of God was to be a house of hospitality, for such a spirit reflected the God within it: “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.”(6) Called to ever-remember their own status as foreigners, the people who were invited into the care of God’s house were to become a sign of that care themselves.

Followers of Christ are given the same command: “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” Similarly the apostles command: “Practice hospitality.” “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”(7)

For those who know the ever-expanding rooms of God’s house, hospitality is both a gift and a posture to embrace. Along with the one who has welcomed us inside, we are to go out “into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.” The master of the house has prepared a feast and calls for the tables to be filled: “Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.”(8)

While images appear daily of people displaced from their homes, disconnected and abandoned by tornado or flood or financial downfall, there are at the same time those who open their homes, communities who respond with food and shelter, hospitality that is given in places where distress and exclusion offer no rest. In these unlikely places, images of the house of God appear, startling us and other observers once again with its real dimensions. The writer of Hebrews describes the communal hope in this place: “Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”(9)

Startling us with its reach and calling us to hospitality, the house of God is occupied by one who prepares a place for the foreigners and outsiders and neighbors all around us. Whether prodigals or pilgrims, in this house we discover the God who longs to welcome the multitudes home.

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

(1) For an interview with the artist and more on the inspiration behind this work, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMZ8R6hQI8E.

(2) Genesis 28:16.

(3) Psalm 27:4.

(4) Exodus 23:9.

(5) Leviticus 19:33-34.

(6) Deuteronomy 10:17-19.

(7) Cf. Hebrews 13:2-3; Romans 12:13; 1 Peter 4:9-10.

(8) Cf. Luke 14:15-23.

(9) Hebrews 3:5-7.

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Serve Where He Set You

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These were the potters [who] lived there in the king’s service. 1 Chronicles 4:23

Potters were among the ranks of manual workers, but the king needed potters, and therefore they were elevated to royal service, although the material upon which they worked was nothing but clay. In the same way we also may be engaged in the most menial part of the Lord’s work, but it is a great privilege to do anything for the King; and therefore we will play our part, hoping that, although we live among the pots, we will soar in the service of our Master.

These people dwelt among plants and hedges and had rough, rustic hedging and ditching work to do. They may have wanted to live in the city, amid its life, society, and refinement, but they kept their assigned places because they were doing the king’s work. There is no ideal place for us to serve God except the place He sets us down. We are not to run from it on a whim or sudden notion, but we should serve the Lord in it by being a blessing to those among whom we live. These potters and gardeners had royal company, for they lived with the king, and although among hedges and plants, they lived with the king there. No lawful place or gracious occupation, however menial, can keep us from communion with our Lord. In hovels, run-down neighborhoods, and jails, we may keep company with the King. In all works of faith we can count upon Jesus’ fellowship. It is when we are in His work that we may reckon on His smile.

You unknown workers who are serving the Lord amid the dirt and wretchedness of the lowest of the low, be of good cheer, for jewels have often been found among rubbish, earthen pots have been filled with heavenly treasure, and ugly weeds have been transformed into precious flowers. Dwell with the King and do His work, and when He writes His chronicles, your name shall be recorded.

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

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – High doctrine

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“And all things are of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:18

Suggested Further Reading: Ephesians 3:7-13

There are some men who seem to think that God does his work bit by bit: altering and making additions as he goes on. They cannot believe that God had a plan; they believe that the most ordinary architect on earth has prefigured to himself some idea of what he means to build, though it were but a mud cottage, but the Most High God, who created the heavens and the earth, when he says, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” has no plan but what is left to the caprice of manhood; he is to have no decrees, no purposes, no determinations, but men are to do as they will, and so virtually man is to usurp the place of God, and God is to become the dependant of man. Nay, my brethren, in all the work of salvation, God is the sole and supreme designer. He planned the time when, and the manner how, each of his people should be brought to himself; he did not leave the number of his saved ones to chance, or to what was worse than chance—to the depraved will of man; he did not leave the choice of persons to mere accident, but on the stones of the eternal breastplate of the great High Priest he engraved the names of those he chose. He did not leave so much as one tent-pin, one single line or yard of canvas to be afterwards arranged; the whole of the tabernacle was given by pattern in the holy mount. In the building of the temple of grace, every stone was squared and chiselled in the eternal decree, its place ordained and settled, nor shall that stone be dug from its quarry till the hour ordained, nor shall it be placed in any other position than that which God, after the counsel of his own will has ordained.

For meditation: Man has no idea what he is doing himself, but he is very good at questioning what God does (Luke 23:34-39).

Sermon no. 318
3 June (1860)

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Be Quick to Hear

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“This you know, my beloved brethren. But let everyone be quick to hear” (James 1:19).

Being quick to hear involves a proper attitude toward God’s Word.

It has been well said that either God’s Word will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from God’s Word. Apparently some of James’s readers were allowing sin to keep them from receiving the Word as they should. God was allowing them to experience various trials so their joy and spiritual endurance would increase, but they lacked wisdom and fell into temptation and sin. James called them back to the Word and to a godly perspective on their circumstances.

James 1:19 begins with the phrase “This you know,” which refers back to verse 18. They had experienced the power of the Word in salvation, now James wants them to allow it to sanctify them. For that to occur, they must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath (v. 19).

Being quick to hear means you don’t disregard or fight against God’s Word. Instead, when trials or difficult decisions come your way, you ask God for wisdom and receive the counsel of His Word with a willingness to obey it. You’re not like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, whom Jesus described as “foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken” (Luke 24:25).

You should be quick to hear the Word because it provides nourishment for your spiritual life and is your weapon against all spiritual adversaries. It is the means by which you are strengthened and equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). It delivers you from trials and temptations and engages you in communion with the living God. The Word should be your most welcome friend!

Be quick to hear, pursuing every opportunity to learn God’s truth. Let the testimony of the psalmist be yours: “O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day. . . . I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Thy word. . . . How sweet are Thy words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Ps. 119:97, 101, 103).

Suggestions for Prayer

Thank God for His precious Word and for the marvelous transforming work it accomplishes in you.

For Further Study

Read Psalm 19:1-14.

  • What terms did the psalmist use to describe God’s Word?
  • What benefits does the Word bring?

 

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Is This a Test?

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And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. Deuteronomy 8:2 NKJV

Years ago a blind couple wanted to come to our Wednesday night teach¬ing sessions in St. Louis. They normally took the bus, but their usual route was canceled, and they could only continue coming if someone would pick them up and take them home. Nobody was willing to do it because the people lived in an area considered “out of the way.”

In other words, providing transportation for this couple would have been inconvenient. Eventually we had to get one of our employees to do it, which meant we had to pay that person. We should not allow money to be our main motivator.

We all need money, but we also need to do things for other people without being paid to do it; in fact, often, such opportunities are “testing times” from God. If you are willing to do something kind for someone else with no pay and perhaps no credit, that’s a positive sign that your spiritual heart is in good condition.

When God wanted to see if the Israelites would obey His commands, He led them the long, hard way in the wilderness. He sometimes does the same with us. He may ask us to do something inconvenient. God may be using these things to test us. He may be looking to see what’s in our hearts and to give us a chance to prove how much we love Him.

Love God Today: Next time you feel called to do something you don’t really want to do, remember, it could be a test.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Bring Forth Much Fruit

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“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24, KJV).

Alex was distressed over his constant failure to live the Christian life victoriously.

“I am always failing,” he said. “I know what is right, but I am simply not able to keep the many commitments, resolutions and rededications that I make to the Lord almost daily. What is wrong with me? Why do I constantly fail? How can I push that magic button which will change my life and make me the kind of person God wants me to be, and the kind of person I want to be?”

I turned with him to review Romans 7 and 8, and discussed with him how all of us experience this conflict when we walk in our own strength. But the victory is ours as we walk in the Spirit. It is impossible to control ourselves and be controlled by the Holy Spirit at the same time.

Perhaps you have had that same problem and wondered why your life was not bringing forth much fruit. Christ cannot be in control if you are on the throne of your life. So you must abdicate – surrender the throne of your life to Christ. This involves faith.

As an expression of your will, in prayer, you surrender the throne of your life to Him, and by faith you draw upon His resources to live a supernatural life, holy and fruitful. The command of Ephesians 5:18 is given to all believers: We are to be filled, directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit, continually, moment by moment, every day. And the promise of 1 John 5:14, 15 is made to all believers: When we pray according to God’s will, He hears and answers us.

The person who walks by faith in the control of the Holy Spirit has a new Master. The Lord Jesus said, “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38, NAS). “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24, NAS).

Bible Reading: John 12:25-31

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Because my deep desire is to “bear much fruit,” I will surrender afresh to God’s Holy Spirit so that He might endow me with supernatural life and enable me to bear much fruit for His glory.

 

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; C.P. – God in You

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Most people have had the disconcerting experience of having a child wander off in a store or hide themselves in a closet. Now imagine Mary’s worry when she realized that her twelve-year-old son hadn’t been with their caravan for three days.

And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

Luke 2:47

When she and Joseph found Jesus, He had the religious leaders mesmerized by His wisdom and insights. To top it off, He seemed to be surprised that His parents hadn’t figured out where He’d be. It’s hard to understand divinity in a human body. The people who had the most trouble with it were the ones closest to Him – even though they were the ones who had also heard the testimony of angels and prophets.

As you live your daily life, you might think your actions have no significance. Yet if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are carrying around divinity. Prayer lets divine power manifest in your life and areas of influence. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit inside you…and pray for God’s will to be done in your life and in this country.

Recommended Reading: Romans 8:26-37

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – How Waiting Prepares Us

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But the LORD was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. —Genesis 39:21

Joseph had been doted on by his father, sold by his brothers into slavery, bought by Potiphar, and eventually promoted to manage Potiphar’s entire household. He was doing a great job. Then he was falsely accused of rape and thrown into prison.

But Genesis 39:21 tells us, “The LORD was with Joseph.”

In typical Joseph fashion, he was so diligent and hardworking that he was soon running the place. Enter the butler and the baker. They had been working for Pharaoh, but now they were in prison. Joseph saw them one day and basically said, “Hey guys, why are you so sad? Why the long faces?” That’s an amazing statement for someone in a dungeon to make to other people in a dungeon. But there was a cheerfulness about Joseph. He was always thinking of others.

So the butler and the baker told Joseph about the dreams they had. Joseph told them, “Interpreting dreams is God’s business. . . . Go ahead and tell me your dreams” (Genesis 40:8).

The butler was the first to explain his dream to Joseph. Then Joseph said, “Within three days Pharaoh will lift you up and restore you to your position as his chief cup-bearer. And please remember me and do me a favor when things go well for you. Mention me to Pharaoh, so he might let me out of this place” (verses 13–14). But two years passed before the butler remembered Joseph.

Has it ever seemed as though you were just spinning your wheels and not going anywhere? How easily Joseph could have felt that way. Yet we never read of him complaining, even for a moment.

Joseph’s life serves as a reminder that everything we go through is preparation for something else. God is preparing each of us for something.

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – God Redeems for Good

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Have you wept your final tear or received your last round of chemotherapy? Not necessarily. Will your unhappy marriage become happy in a heartbeat? Not likely. Does God guarantee the absence of struggle and the abundance of strength? Not in this life. But he does pledge to reweave your pain for a higher purpose.

It won’t be quick! Sometimes God takes His time. Twenty years to prepare Noah for the flood, eighty years to prepare Moses for his work. How long will God take with you? He may take His time. His history is redeemed not in minutes but in lifetimes. We see a perfect mess; God sees a perfect chance to train, test, and teach. We see a prison…God sees bootcamp! What Satan intends for evil, God redeems for good!

From You’ll Get Through This