Daily Archives: June 4, 2015

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Master Weaver

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In God’s hands intended evil becomes eventual good! Nothing in the Old Testament story of Joseph glosses over the presence of evil. Bloodstains and tearstains are everywhere. Joseph’s heart was rubbed raw against the rocks of disloyalty and miscarried justice. Yet time and time again God redeemed the pain. The torn robe became a royal one. The pit became a palace. The broken family grew old together. The very acts intended to destroy God’s servant turned out to strengthen him.

“You meant evil against me,” Joseph told his brothers, using a Hebrew verb that means to weave. You wove evil, he was saying, but God re-wove it together for good. God, the Master Weaver. He stretches the yarn, intertwines the colors. Nothing escapes His reach!

From You’ll Get Through This

Encouragement for Today

Encouragement for Today –  Why Did This Happen, God?

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“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:12-13 (NIV)

Has God ever hurt your feelings? I’ll be honest, sometimes I’ll read those verses from Philippians listed above and think to myself: This is a tough pill to swallow.

Content in any and every situation?

Really?

A few years ago my middle daughter was a state champion gymnast. To see her do gymnastics was like looking at God smile. She was beautiful, graceful and captivating to watch.

Then one night while practicing for one of the largest tournaments she’d ever competed in, she fell. It was a move she’d done hundreds of times with the greatest of ease. But this time something went terribly wrong and that one mistake destroyed her gymnastic dreams.

We spent a year going from doctor to doctor only to be told she’d never be able to support the weight of her body on her injured shoulder again.

I’ll be honest … this was a tough pill to swallow. Watching a 14-year-old girl wrestle with the fact that her dreams were stripped from her doesn’t exactly lend itself to feelings of contentment. Now, I know in the grand scheme of life, people face much worse situations. But in her world, this was huge.

It was so tempting to want to wallow in the “why” questions and tell God He’d hurt our feelings.

Why did this happen?

Why didn’t You stop this, God?

Why weren’t my prayers answered?

Have you ever been there? Have you ever had a big situation in your life where you just couldn’t process why God would allow this to happen? Or maybe even a small annoyance like losing your keys or having a flat tire on a morning you really needed to be somewhere.

It’s so tempting to wallow in the “why.”

Asking why is perfectly normal. Asking why isn’t unspiritual. However, if asking this question pushes us farther from God rather than drawing us closer to Him, it is the wrong question.

If asking the why question doesn’t offer hope, what will?

The what question.

In other words: “Now that this is my reality, what am I supposed to do with it?”

Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things” (NIV).

I like to call this verse, “Directions on Where to Park My Mind.”

And that’s exactly what Ashley had to do with her dashed gymnastics dreams. Instead of wallowing in why did this happen, I’ve had to help her say:

This is my reality, now what am I going to do with it?

What can I learn from this?

What part of this is for my protection?

What other opportunities could God be providing?

What maturity could God be building into me?

Switching from the why to the what questions paves the road to parking our minds in a much better place.

Is it always easy? No.

But is it a way to find a perspective beyond situations where we feel God has allowed something in our lives we don’t understand and we absolutely don’t like?

Yes it is, and I pray this helps you today.

Dear Lord, I want to process everything I face in life through the filter of Your love. I know You love me. But sometimes it’s just hard to understand the circumstances that come my way. I find myself consumed with trying to figure things out rather than looking for Your perspective and trusting You. Thank You for this new way to look at things. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Isaiah 55:8-9, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’” (NIV)

RELATED RESOURCES:
Give the gift of encouragement by writing a special note to a friend who may be going through a hard season right now. This “Live a Life of Love” gift set is so much more than a greeting card. It can be framed and treasured for years to come.

 

REFLECT AND RESPOND:
Spend some time today talking to God about the things that hurt you.

Pray and ask Him to help you turn your why questions into what questions.

LYSA TERKEURST

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – God’s Grace and Our Finances

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Proverbs 3:9-10

If you knew that something you desired could destroy your life, would you keep chasing after it? The Bible warns about a certain kind of pursuit that can cause one to:

1)Fall into sin.

2)Be mastered by foolish wishes.

3)Engage in activities that erode character.

4)Plunge into moral ruin.

5)Wander from faith.

In spite of these dire warnings, many people are still ruled by a longing to get rich.

There is nothing wrong with being affluent, as long as we follow God’s rules for wise living. Specifically, we are to honor Him with our money, which includes acknowledging that He is the rightful owner (Prov. 3:9; Ps. 50:10). And we’re also to give it cheerfully (2 Cor. 9:7). The desire for riches becomes a sin when accumulation is among our highest priorities. If that is the case, the god we end up serving is money.

Believers are to live by grace in every aspect of their lives, including finances. That means we surrender wages, portfolio, and charitable giving into God’s hands. Furthermore, we accept what He gives ?as enough, even when the bank account seems low by the world’s standards. He has promised to supply our needs, so we’re to regard financial gains and losses as part of His will and plan.

I am not preaching a message that suggests godly people are rewarded with riches. Poverty and tough times are as common to believers as to unbelievers. However, the Bible promises that if we live by God’s grace, He will provide amply for whatever we need (2 Cor. 9:8).

Bible in One Year: Job 13-16

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — My Father Is with Me

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Read: Mark 14:32-50

Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 21-22; John 14

You will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. —John 16:32

A friend struggling with loneliness posted these words on her Facebook page: “It’s not that I feel alone because I have no friends. I have lots of friends. I know that I have people who can hold me and reassure me and talk to me and care for me and think of me. But they can’t be with me all the time—for all time.”

Jesus understands that kind of loneliness. I imagine that during His earthly ministry He saw loneliness in the eyes of lepers and heard it in the voices of the blind. But above all, He must have experienced it when His close friends deserted Him (Mark 14:50).

However, as He foretold the disciples’ desertion, He also confessed His unshaken confidence in His Father’s presence. He said to His disciples: “[You] will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (John 16:32). Shortly after Jesus said these words, He took up the cross for us. He made it possible for you and me to have a restored relationship with God and to be a member of His family.

Being humans, we will all experience times of loneliness. But Jesus helps us understand that we always have the presence of the Father with us. God is omnipresent and eternal. Only He can be with us all the time, for all time. —Poh Fang Chia

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your promise that You will never leave me or forsake me. When I feel lonely, help me to remember You are always with me.

If you know Jesus, you’ll never walk alone.

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – You Are What You Possess

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A shocking story appeared in the Times of India recently, about a teenager, thirteen years of age, who had taken to prostitution because of her obsessive craze for high-end gadgets and mobile phones. The mother, who runs a grocery shop, did not have any clue of her daughter’s act until the girl spilled the beans earlier this week, fearful that she had become pregnant. The shocked mother tried to explain to the teenager that prostitution is illegal and immoral, but the girl refuses to stop or to see anything wrong in the act. She reveals that she had been working independently and booked her clients through a secret secondary phone. The counselor who attended to the teenager noted that she seemed unphased and took quite some time to respond to the counseling, simply repeating in a matter-of-fact tone that, she was strapped for money and unable to buy the latest gizmos and gadgets that her friends used.

This, perhaps, is not an isolated incident but a reflection of a trend among us these days. The young (or, most of us, for that matter), have become so gadget-crazy that they not only draw pleasure, but also their identity from the gadgets that they possess. In his book, You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, Jaron Lanier, one of the pioneers of virtual reality (in fact, the one who first coined the term “virtual reality”), talks about the reductionist tendencies prevalent in the field of Computer Science—for example, reducing thinking to mere “information processing” and prostrating oneself before machines. He points out further, that every software program embodies a personal philosophy: “[I]t is impossible to work with information technology without also engaging in social engineering….People degrade themselves in order to make machines seem smart all the time.”

Therefore, the question that we need to engage with is, not only ‘what we do with our technologies,’ but ‘what we are becoming through our technologies.’ Technology and gadgets alter our perception of ourselves, of others, and of the world in more ways than we can imagine. A familiar script can be seen in the common commercials constantly flashing on our television screens: The average, ordinary man or woman instantly transformed into the most desirable, the most sought-after, airbrushed by the high-end car that they drive, or the Rado watch that they sport, fooled into thinking that they have become more than what they are, simply because of the things they owned, or more ironically, that owned them (and us!). There is, thus, a dialectical relationship between the tools we use, our conception of the world and our self-consciousness. As Neil Postman puts it aptly, “To the man with a hammer, everything is a nail.” In this gadget-crazy generation, we need to pause awhile and reflect on whether the gadgets that we use are just tools to serve our needs? Or have they completely taken over, making us believe that unless we have these gadgets we don’t fit in or are not worth anything?

In such a culture, the biblical worldview increasingly stands out, declaring that human beings have an intrinsic worth apart from anything external, because we are specially created in the image of the living God. Our value does not come from what we possess or what we do not possess, but from what we are—our humanness. Worldviews that tell us otherwise, that equate humans with automatons, or that dismiss man as a mere illusion, will simply not help in addressing the issues that this generation faces, a generation bombarded every moment with the message: “You are what you possess!”

 

Tejdor Tiewsoh is a member of the speaking team with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Shillong, India.

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Fellowship with Jesus

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The goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior. Titus 3:4

How sweet it is to see Jesus fellowshiping with His own beloved people! There can be nothing more delightful than when the Holy Spirit leads us into this fertile field of delight. Let the mind for a moment consider the history of the Redeemer’s love, and a thousand evidences of His kindness will come to mind. The purpose of them all has been to draw us to Christ and to weave the mind of Christ into the thoughts and emotions of the renewed soul.

When we meditate upon this amazing love and see the Head of the church endowing her with all His wealth and power, our souls may well faint for joy. Who is able to endure such a weight of love? Even a partial sense of it, which the Holy Spirit sometimes grants us, is more than the soul can contain; how transforming a complete view of it must be! When the soul shall learn to discern all the Savior’s gifts and is granted the wisdom to fathom them and the time to meditate upon them, such as heaven will afford us, we will then commune with Jesus in a more intimate manner than at present.

But who can imagine the sweetness of such fellowship? It must be one of the things that have not entered into the heart of man, but that God has prepared for them that love Him. If we could burst open the door of our Joseph’s granaries and see the plenty that He has stored up for us, we would be overwhelmed with His love. By faith we see, as in a mirror dimly, the reflected image of His unbounded treasures, but when we actually see the heavenly things themselves, with our own eyes, how deep will be the stream of fellowship in which our soul shall bathe! Until then our loudest songs shall be reserved for our loving benefactor, Jesus Christ our Lord, whose love to us is wonderful, surpassing the love of a man for a woman.

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

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – Constraining love

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“Oh love the Lord, all ye his saints.” Psalm 31:23

Suggested Further Reading: 1 John 4:7-12

Christ’s love to us we sometimes guess at, but, ah, it is so far beyond our thoughts, our reasonings, our praises, and our apprehension too, in the sweetest moments of our most spiritual ecstasy,—who can tell it? “Oh, how he loved us!” When Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, the Jews exclaimed with surprise—“Behold how he loved him.” Verily, you might say the like with deeper emphasis. There was nothing in you to make him love you, but he left heaven’s throne for you. As he came down the celestial hills, methinks the angels said “Oh, how he loved them.” When he lay in the manger an infant, they gathered round and said, “Oh how he loves.” But when they saw him sweating in the garden, when he was put into the crucible, and began to be melted in the furnace, then indeed, the spirits above began to know how much he loved us. Oh Jesus! When I see thee mocked and spat upon—when I see thy dear cheeks become a reservoir for all the filth and spittle of unholy mouths—when I see thy back rent with knotted whips—when I behold thy honour and thy life both trailing in the dust—when I see thee charged with madness, with treason, with blasphemy—when I behold thy hands and feet pierced, thy body stripped naked and exposed—when I see thee hanging on the cross between heaven and earth, in torments dire and excruciating—when I hear thee cry “I thirst,” and see the vinegar thrust to thy lips—when I hear thy direful cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me,” my spirit is compelled to say, “Oh how he loves!”

For meditation: How cold and hardhearted we must be to ever question the Lord’s love towards us (Malachi 1:2).

Sermon no. 325

4 June (Preached 3 June 1860)

John MacArthur

John MacArthur –Be Slow to Speak

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“Let everyone be . . . slow to speak” (James 1:19).

Don’t rush into the role of a Bible teacher.

It is reported that when the Scottish Reformer John Knox was called to preach, he shed many tears and withdrew himself to the privacy of his room. He was grieved and greatly troubled at the prospect of such an awesome responsibility. Only the compelling grace of the Holy Spirit Himself enabled Knox to fulfill his calling.

John Knox understood the importance of being slow to speak. He knew that God holds teachers of the Word accountable for what they say, and will dispense a stricter judgment to them if they violate their ministry (James 3:1- 2).

In one sense, God holds everyone accountable for what they say. You are to “let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph. 4:29). But being slow to speak doesn’t refer to vocabulary or opinions. It refers to teaching the Word. You are to pursue every opportunity to hear God’s Word, but exercise reluctance in assuming the role of a teacher. Why? Because the tongue reveals the subtle sins of one’s heart and easily offends others (James 2:2).

Does that mean you should never teach the Bible? No, because God commands every believer to “make disciples . . . teaching them to observe all” that Jesus taught (Matt. 28:19-20, emphasis added). And the Spirit gifts many believers to be preachers and teachers of the Word. Paul said, “I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16).

You must take every opportunity to share the gospel with others, and if God has called and gifted you to teach the Word, be faithful to do so. But remember, those are serious and sacred responsibilities. Be sure your motives are pure and your teaching accurate. If someone is offended, let it be by the convicting power of the Word, not by something you said at an unguarded moment.

Suggestions for Prayer

Ask the Lord to teach you to guard your tongue and to speak only what is edifying to others.

For Further Study

Read Proverbs 10:19, 13:3, 17:28, and 29:20, noting what each teaches about wise speech.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Praise Brings Results

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“And at the moment they began to sing and to praise, the Lord caused the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir to begin fighting among themselves, and they destroyed each other!” (2 Chronicles 20:22).

The armies of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir had declared war on King Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah. So Jehoshaphat called the people together and prayed, “Oh, our God. Won’t you stop them. We have no way to protect ourselves against this mighty army. We don’t know what to do but we are looking to You.”

Then the Lord instructed the people, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be paralyzed by this mighty army for the battle is not yours, but God’s! Tomorrow, go down and attack them!…But you will not need to fight. Take your places; stand quietly and see the incredible rescue operation God will perform for you” (2 Chronicles 20:15-17).

After consultation with the leaders of the people, Jehoshaphat determined that there should be a choir, clothed in sanctified garments and singing the song, “His Loving kindness Is Forever,” leading the march. As they walked along praising and thanking the Lord, He released His mighty power in their behalf.

One of the greatest lessons I have ever learned about the Christian life is the importance of praise and thanksgiving. The greater the problem, the more difficult the circumstances, the greater the crisis, the more important it is to praise God at all times, to worship Him for who He is; for His attributes of sovereignty, love, grace, power, wisdom and might; for the certainty that He will fight for us, that He will demonstrate His supernatural resources in our behalf.

As in the case of Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah when they began to praise God and He caused the three opposing armies to fight against each other and destroy one another, God will fight for us if we trust and obey Him. There is no better way to demonstrate faith and obedience than to praise Him and to thank Him, even when our world is crumbling around us and the enemy is threatening to destroy. God honors praise. Hebrews 13:15 reminds us, “With Jesus’ help, we will continually offer our sacrifice of praise to God by telling others of the glory of His name.”

Bible Reading: Psalm 136:1, 21-26

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Today I will continue to praise God and give thanks to Him for who He is. When difficulties arise, I will praise Him all the more and thank Him for His faithfulness. I will depend upon the supernatural resources of God which enable me to live the supernatural life, regardless of the circumstances.

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; J.R. – Misremember the Alamo

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President Lyndon Johnson loved to tell stories – and sometimes they spun out of control. Once, while giving an emotional address to U.S. troops, he claimed his great-great-grandfather had died at the Alamo. Johnson’s aides knew the story wasn’t true, and worryingly the speech had been taped by a reporter. They pressed him for a retraction. For days, Johnson refused. “I don’t care what you heard,” he said. “I didn’t say it.”

Let your light shine before others, so that they may…give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

Finally, with the anecdote threatening to become a scandal, Johnson engineered this creative explanation: “You all didn’t let me finish…it was the Alamo Bar and Grill in Eagle Pass, Texas.”

If you are fixated on polishing your life or legacy, you will be prone to embellishments, exaggerations and even outright lies. The greatest tragedy, though, will be that in shining the light on yourself you are claiming glory that belongs only to God. As you pray today for America, its leaders, and your own friends and loved ones, ask Him to make you an honest light to genuinely illuminate His truth and His love.

Recommended Reading: John 8:12-20

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – From Kneeling to Standing

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And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”

—Genesis 41:38

One moment Joseph was in prison, and the next moment he found himself standing before Pharaoh. You might think that Joseph would have been very careful with his words. But when Pharaoh called him in to interpret his dream, Joseph told the ruler, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace” (Genesis 41:16).

I think Pharaoh must have been immediately impressed with Joseph. Who is this guy? He’s not bowing and scraping before me. This guy has conviction. I like him. He had never met anyone like Joseph.

Joseph wasn’t ashamed to tell Pharaoh the truth. He spoke boldly to him. And Joseph’s example is good to remember when we’re sharing the gospel. Sometimes we want to edit out the parts we are uncomfortable with. We love to share the life-changing message of who Jesus is. We like to tell people that if they will turn from their sin, He will forgive them, and they will have a peace that passes understanding, a wonderful joy, and the hope of heaven.

But we also need to tell them that if they don’t believe in Jesus, they will be separated from God for all eternity in a place called hell. I am not saying that we should only preach messages about hell. But I am saying that if we neglect to mention it, we are changing the essential message of the gospel.

When Elijah walked into the court of wicked King Ahab, he said, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word” (1 Kings 17:1, emphasis added). Then he walked out. Where did Elijah get courage like that? From God.

If you kneel before God, you can stand before any man.