Monthly Archives: October 2015

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Burning Questions

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Read: Exodus 3:1-6,10-14

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 41-42; 1 Thessalonians 1

“I am who I am” —Exodus 3:14

An old Native American story tells of a young boy who was sent into the woods alone on an autumn night to prove his courage. Soon the sky darkened and the sounds of night filled the air. Trees creaked and groaned, an owl screeched, and a coyote howled. Even though he was frightened, the boy remained in the woods all night, as the test of courage required. Finally morning came, and he saw a solitary figure nearby. It was his grandfather, who had been watching over him all night long.

When Moses went deep into the desert, he saw a burning bush that didn’t burn up. Then God began talking to him from the bush, commissioning him to go back to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of cruel slavery to freedom. A reluctant Moses began to ask questions: “Who am I that I should go?”

God simply answered, “I will be with you.”

“Suppose I . . . say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

God replied, “I am who I am. . . . [Say to them,] I am has sent me to you’ ” (Ex. 3:11-14). The phrase “I am who I am” can be interpreted, “I will be who I will be” and reveals God’s eternal and all-sufficient character.

God has promised always to be present with those who believe in Jesus. No matter how dark the night, the unseen God is ready to respond appropriately to our need. —David Egner

Dear Father, thank You for Your never-changing character.

God is always present and at work.

INSIGHT: Moses’ early life was marked by great opportunities for education, and his status as prince of Egypt allowed him to speak with great authority (Acts 7:22). How different from his life in the Midian desert, where he served his father-in-law as a shepherd, even as God prepared him to lead His people out of Egypt. Bill Crowder

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Ephemeral and Eternal

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Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leafs a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.(1)

One of my most cherished memories is of the New England landscape in the fall. The vibrant colors from dogwood, sassafras, sumac, red oak, and maples can only be described as the finest artist’s palette of paints—crimsons and scarlets, purples, oranges, and yellows splashed across the canvas. Making our pilgrimage each year to the local fair, the route transported my husband and me into that world of color, as the road would bend through picturesque towns and take us deeper and deeper into that fall canvas of color. Sadly, this beauty was transient. Fall rains and wind would come to fade and to muddle those colors. All that would remain were the dull browns melding and making their home in the dark soil that encompassed them.

Nothing gold can stay is the bittersweet reality Robert Frost calls to mind in his poem by the same name. The beauty of the yellow birch leaves, like the young flower of springtime fades and falls away. Frost laments all those moments of precious and profound beauty that are equally fleeting and transient. These experiences are the hardest hues to hold. Just like the fading vibrancy of the New England fall, our very lives and all we experience quickly pass before us in the blink of an eye.

The ephemeral nature of life is opined by artists and poets, philosophers, and clerics around the world. Many of the world’s great religious traditions address the ephemeral nature of life. Buddhism identifies, for example, how suffering arises as a result of trying to hold onto the impermanent and the fleeting.(2) In Tibetan Buddhism, specifically, mandalas made from colored sand are created and dismantled in a ritual that symbolizes the transitory nature of material life. Likewise in Hinduism, cremation became a vehicle for expressing the ephemerality of bodily life. The ancient Hebrew poets similarly filled their stanzas with the acknowledgement that life is fleeting, short, and temporary: “Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—they are like the new grass of the morning: In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered.”(3) And springing out of the Hebrew tradition, Christianity reiterates this theme: “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”(4)

For many living in light of such realities today, the temptation is to try to hold onto whatever we think will anchor us to permanence. Or, it is to abandon ourselves to eating, drinking, and being merry because tomorrow we die. Is there another way?

Christians believe in a God who entered into the ephemeral and the temporal in the person of Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus affirmed the teaching of his own Hebraic tradition when he encouraged his listeners not to worry, but to trust the God who “arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace.” Life is short, Jesus acknowledges, but the God who cares for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field will care for us. So we do not have to cling onto our lives or the treasures of this earth. As one commentator notes, “Just prior to his teaching on worrying… Jesus warns his listeners against storing up ephemeral treasure on earth… A central theme of his ministry and enacted in his own life, is that the proper way to respond to the nature of reality is to give away one’s life rather than hold on to it, to open our hands and let things go rather than to close our fist around them….”(5)

In embracing all that is ephemeral about life, Jesus opens and offers his life for others. In fact, Jesus extends an ironic invitation to accept ephemerality and death in order to truly find life—and to find life eternal. Not as simply an escape from death, but the eternal life that comes from a relationship with God in the here and now. Jesus prays for those who would follow him, “that they may know you the only true God” for in doing so they would find eternal life.(6) The challenge Jesus sets before those who would follow is the challenge to “die” to holding on; it is to choose—in this life where nothing gold can stay—what makes for life eternal.

Margaret Manning Shull is a member of the speaking team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Bellingham, Washington.

(1) Robert Frost, “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” Ed. Edward Connery Lathem, The Poetry of Robert Frost, (New York: Henry Holt Publishers, 1969), 222-223.

(2) The Norton Anthology of World Religions: Buddhism, Ed., Jack Miles (New York: Norton, 2015).

(3) Psalm 90:5-6.

(4) James 4:14.

(5) Iain Provan, The NIV Application Commentary Series: Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Books, 2001), 60.

(6) John 17:3.

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Mourning For Sin

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Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation. 2 Corinthians 7:10

Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is too rare a flower to grow in nature’s garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows up in sinners except when divine grace produces it in them. If you have one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it to you, for human nature’s thorns never produced a single fig. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.”1

True repentance is tied directly to the Savior. When we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin and the other upon the cross; or it will be even better if we fix both our eyes on Christ and see our transgressions only in the light of His love.

True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man can say he hates sin if he lives in it. Repentance makes us see the evil of sin not merely as a theory but experimentally [experientially]-as a burn victim dreads fire. We will be as afraid of it as a man who has recently been robbed is afraid of the thief on the highway; and we will shun it-shun it in everything-not only in large matters, but in small things, as men avoid little vipers as well as great snakes. True mourning for sin will make us very careful with our tongue in case it should say a wrong word; we will be very watchful over our daily actions in case in anything we offend, and each night we will end the day with painful confessions of shortcomings, and each morning awaken with earnest prayers that God would today hold us up so that we may not sin against Him.

Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. This is not something we do only once at the beginning of our Christian lives. Nor is it an intermittent exercise. Every other sorrow passes with time, but this dear sorrow grows as we grow, and it is such sweet bitterness that we thank God He permits us to enjoy and to suffer it until we enter our eternal rest.

1) John 3:6

The Family Bible Reading Plan

  • 1 Kings 16
  • Colossians 3

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

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – Jacob and Esau

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“Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Romans 9:13

Suggested Further Reading: Ezekiel 33:11-20

My soul revolts at the idea of a doctrine that lays the blood of man’s soul at God’s door. I cannot conceive how any human mind, at least any Christian mind, can hold any such blasphemy as that. I delight to preach this blessed truth—salvation of God, from first to last—the Alpha and the Omega; but when I come to preach damnation, I say, damnation is of man, not of God; and if you perish, at your own hands must your blood be required. There is another passage. At the last great day, when all the world shall come before Jesus to be judged, have you noticed, when the righteous go on the right side, Jesus says, “Come, ye blessed of my Father,”—(“of my Father,” mark,)—“inherit the kingdom prepared”—(mark the next word)—“for you, from before the foundation of the world.” What does he say to those on the left? “Depart, ye cursed.” He does not say, “ye cursed of my Father,” but, “ye cursed.” And what else does he say? “into everlasting fire, prepared”—(not for you, but)—“for the devil and his angels.” Do you see how it is guarded. Here is the salvation side of the question. It is all of God. “Come, ye blessed of my Father.” It is a kingdom prepared for them. There you have election, free grace in all its length and breadth. But, on the other hand, you have nothing said about the Father—nothing about that at all. “Depart, ye cursed.” Even the flames are said not to be prepared for sinners, but for the devil and his angels. There is no language that I can possibly conceive that could more forcibly express this idea, supposing it to be the mind of the Holy Spirit, that the glory should be to God, and that the blame should be laid at man’s door.

For meditation: For meditation: The love of God towards a sinful Jacob should surprise us more than the hatred of God towards a sinful Esau.

Sermon no. 239

13 October (Preached 16 January 1859)

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – From the Mouth of God

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“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

God’s Word is inspired.

Second Timothy 3:16 speaks of the inspiration of Scripture. “Inspired” is the translation of a Greek word that literally means “God-breathed.” Every word of Scripture is from the mouth of God.

Theologians speak of inspiration as the mysterious process by which God worked through the authors of Scripture to produce inerrant and divinely authoritative writings. Inspiration is a mystery because Scripture doesn’t explain specifically how it occurred. The only glimpse we have is this from 2 Peter: “Know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (vv. 20-21).

“Interpretation” speaks of origin. Scripture didn’t originate on the human level, but with the Holy Spirit, who moved upon the authors to write it (v. 21). “Moved” is the translation of a nautical term that describes the effects of wind upon a ship as it blows against its sails and moves it through the water. Similarly, the Spirit moved on the biblical writers to produce the Word of God in the language of men.

The human authors of Scripture knew they were writing God’s Word, and did so with confidence and authority. Often they cited or alluded to one another as authoritative agents of divine revelation (e.g., 2 Pet. 3:15-17).

On a personal level, inspiration guarantees that what Scripture says, God says. It’s His counsel to you, so you can study and obey it with full assurance that it is true and will never lead you astray.

Suggestions for Prayer

  • Praise the Lord for His inspired Word.
  • Reaffirm your commitment to live according to its principles today.

For Further Study

Often the New Testament affirms the inspiration of the Old Testament by attributing Old Testament quotations to God Himself. For example, compare these Old Testament passages with their New Testament counterparts: Genesis 2:24 with Matthew 19:4-5; Psalm 2:1 with Acts 4:24-25; Isaiah 55:3 with Acts 13:34; Psalm 16:10 with Acts 13:35; Psalm 95:7 with Hebrews 3:7.

  • How might you respond to someone who says that the Bible is merely the words of devout religious men?
Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Resist the Devil at His Onset

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Pray that you may not [at all] enter into temptation.—Luke 22:40

The temptation to quit is part of being human, but we must resist that temptation and never give up. It is important that we recognize the lies of Satan, and that we resist him at the onset of his attack. Temptation is one of the realities of the Christian life and a hindrance to success we must work to overcome. Jesus said, “Temptation must come,” so be on your guard against it.

There are many types of temptation, so we don’t always recognize discouragement and thoughts of giving up as being a temptation from the devil. Some thoughts the enemy may plant in your mind to tempt you to give up might sound like this:

This is too difficult.

I really am not qualified to do this.

I am facing too many problems and can’t possibly solve them all.

I have no one to help me.

My friends and family think I’m crazy for pursuing this.

I don’t have the money to do this.

This is taking too long.

I encourage you to begin to recognize temptations as works of the enemy; and I want you to start resisting each temptation with everything in you. Don’t consider any temptation insignificant. Don’t let the devil lure you into passivity or wait until you’ve been in a depressed, hopeless slump for three days, listening to the enemy list reasons to abandon your cause. Resist the devil at his onset! Declare war against all forms of temptation. Show the enemy no mercy.

Trust in Him: The instant you feel tempted to give up, you need to say aloud, “I will not quit. I refuse to give up. I trust God and I will finish what He has called me to do.”

From the book Trusting God Day by Day by Joyce Meyer.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Path of Blessing

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“You know these things – now do them! That is the path of blessing” (John 13:17).

These words of Jesus are as binding on us who follow Him today as they were on the disciples who actually heard Him speak them.

You will remember the setting. Jesus had just washed the feet of His disciples as an example of servanthood that He wanted them to observe and to learn. And that is the lesson we do well to ponder: service for others.

Except for the good we can do others, in the power and with the enabling of God’s Holy Spirit, what really is the purpose of our being left here on earth? And miracle of miracles, when we do that which is right – serve others, in Christ’s name – our own personal problems seem minor and relatively unimportant.

Loneliness and depression have their quickest cure in the realm of helping others. No matter what our problem – physical, spiritual, or material – it is quite likely we can find others whose plights are worse. By giving of ourselves in their behalf, we forget about our own troubles, which are usually resolved in the process.

Simple, is it not, that we are to do those things the Lord commands us to do? When we read and study His Word, we can find our just what they are.

Bible Reading: John 13:12-16

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I will not be content with just admiring the example Jesus has set before us, but will seek to obey His commands to be a doer if the Word as well.

 

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; G.C. – Not Quieted

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McCarthyism, the political practice of publicizing accusations of disloyalty or subversion about someone – do you think it is a thing of the past? Remember when Brendan Eich was named CEO of Mozilla: he pledged to ensure the company would “remain a place that includes and supports everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, economic status or religion.” Yet when it became known Eich had donated towards a campaign which sought to ban same-sex marriage in his state, he was deemed a bigot and forced to step down.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

John 17:15

In her book Silencing, Kirsten Powers notes a new McCarthyism taking place in America today. She quotes research showing 47 percent of 18-30 year olds think the First Amendment goes too far in protecting free speech…especially when it comes to the expression of traditional Christian values.

Jesus knew He was leaving His disciples in a hostile environment. Today your faith may indeed be negatively impacting your career or even setting you at odds with your family. Don’t be discouraged – and don’t be quieted. Jesus has already prayed asking the Father to protect you, so be faithful in speaking the words of Christ with love and respect.

Recommended Reading: Psalm 30:7-12

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – How to Look Wise

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Then one of the servants answered and said, “Look, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person; and the Lord is with him.” —1 Samuel 16:18

When we are younger, we think we know a lot more than we do. And a lot of times we just blurt things out. But as we get older, hopefully we learn to measure our words. We learn not to always say what we’re thinking. We learn there are inside thoughts and outside thoughts. (Some people don’t get this memo—ever.)

It is a good thing to be known as someone who is prudent in speech. That is how David was described, which is a little unusual for a younger man. In 1 Samuel 16:18 we read, “Then one of the servants answered and said, ‘Look, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person; and the Lord is with him” (emphasis added).

Interestingly, “prudent in speech” means weighing things in the mind and forming a judgment. It is thinking about what you say before you say it.

When Jesus was transfigured, Moses and Elijah appeared, talking with Him. Peter, who was there with James and John, blurted out, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” (Mark 9:5). The next verse gives us this insight: “He did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid” (verse 6).

Have you ever said something when you didn’t know what to say, and you ended up saying the lamest thing ever?

An old proverb says that it is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and dispel all doubt. Sometimes when you don’t say anything, people may think you are very wise. Let them think that.

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Don’t Forget a Single Blessing

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Some years back as I was driving my daughter Andrea to middle school, she noticed I was anxious.

“Why are you so quiet, Dad?”  I told her I was worried about a book deadline.

She asked me, “Haven’t you written other books?”  “Yes,” I replied.

“How many?” At that point the answer was fifteen.

She responded, “have you ever missed a deadline before?” “No,” I said.

“So God helped you fifteen times already?” “Yes,” I winced. She was sounding like her mother.

She reasoned further, “if he has helped you fifteen different times, don’t you think he will help you this time?”

Satan has no recourse to your testimony! Your best weapon against his attacks is a good memory. Don’t forget a single blessing! 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, “You have been bought with a price. You belong to God.” God’s message for you? Remember whose you are. Live out your inheritance!

From Glory Days

Night Light - James & Shirley Dobson

Night Light for Couples –Error Or Opportunity?

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“An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.” Proverbs 12:25

Many years ago, at what was then Standard Oil Company, an executive’s mistake cost the firm more than two million dollars. On the day the news leaked, the firm’s employees feared the wrath of the powerful head of the company—John D. Rockefeller—and found various ways to avoid him. One partner, however, kept his previously scheduled appointment. When he walked into the president’s office, he saw Rockefeller writing on a pad of paper.

“Oh, it’s you, Bedford,” Rockefeller said calmly. “I suppose you’ve heard about our loss?” The partner said that he had. “I’ve been thinking it over,” Rockefeller said, “and before I ask the man to discuss the matter, I’ve been making some notes.” Across the top of the page was written, “Points in favor of Mr. ________.” There followed a long list of the man’s virtues, including a description of how the executive had helped the firm make the right decision on three separate occasions. Since the earnings from these decisions had added up to many times the cost of the recent error, Rockefeller told Bedford that he had decided to seize the opportunity to encourage the executive instead of censure him.

The next time your spouse fails you, you could cut him or her down in a torrent of angry words… or you could see a golden opportunity to encourage.

Just between us…

  • When was I most encouraging to you during a crisis?
  • Is there a particular Scripture verse you cling to during tough times?

Lord, we so often underestimate how much influence our words can have. We ask for wisdom to speak encouragement—especially when criticism might be expected. Amen.

From Night Light For Couples, by Dr. James & Shirley Dobson

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – The Danger of Laziness

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2 Thessalonians 3:7-10

The Lord has appointed believers to be His ambassadors to a lost and hurting world. As His followers, we are to represent Him in our character, conduct, and conversation whenever we interact with family, friends, neighbors, or coworkers.

God expects us to be diligent in our work and faithful to complete it. However, in our self-absorbed, pleasure-seeking culture, it’s very easy to get sidetracked into laziness. This sin is dangerous in a Christian’s life because of the potential harm that can result—it can hurt our witness for Christ, damage our relationships with others, and waste both the time and the gifts the Lord has given us. Another negative result of such a lifestyle is a character marked as unreliable and untrustworthy.

Laziness frequently shows up as procrastination. We procrastinate when we tell someone we will take action and then repeatedly delay the start time. Or we may begin a project and yet find reasons not to finish it. Surely, if a believer is known as an unreliable person, it damages his or her testimony. We’re also a poor example if we make an attempt to carry out responsibilities but do so in a haphazard or incomplete way. Nor should we be neglectful about the needs of others or relationships with loved ones.

Irresponsible behavior doesn’t fit who we are in Christ. If you realize you’ve been careless in some area in your life, pray, “Lord, I have not lived as I should, and I ask You to forgive me. I choose to turn away from my lazy and neglectful attitudes. Please help me to follow through and become someone who is industrious for You.”

Bible in One Year: Matthew 27-28

 

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Not My Worry

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Read: Isaiah 40:25-31

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 39-40; Colossians 4

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you. —Psalm 55:22

A man worried constantly about everything. Then one day his friends heard him whistling happily and looking noticeably relaxed. “What happened?” they asked him in astonishment.

He said, “I’m paying a man to do my worrying for me.”

“How much do you pay him?” they asked.

“Two thousand dollars a week,” he replied.

“Wow! How can you afford that?”

“I can’t,” he said, “but that’s his worry.”

While this humorous way to handle stress doesn’t work in real life, as God’s children we can turn our worries over to Someone who has everything perfectly under control even—especially—when we feel it is not.

The prophet Isaiah reminds us that God brings out the stars and calls them all by name (40:25-26). Because of “his great power and mighty strength” not one of them is missing (v. 26). And just as God knows the stars by name, He knows us individually and personally. We are each under His watchful care (v. 27).

If we are inclined to worry, we can turn that worry over to the Lord. He is never too weary or too tired to pay attention to us. He has all wisdom and all power, and He loves to use it on our behalf. The Holy One who directs the stars has His loving arms around us. —Poh Fang Chia

Lord, You know there are times when I get really scared. And I forget that You have promised that You will never leave me to face difficulty or loss alone. Help me to trust.

Worry ends where faith begins.

INSIGHT: The title “the Holy One” or “the Holy One of Israel” is the common designation for God in Isaiah, occurring about 26 times. This title is often accompanied by other names, such as “the Lord Almighty” (5:24; 47:4), “the Light of Israel” (10:17), “the Mighty God” (10:21), “Maker” (17:7; 45:11; 54:5), “the Sovereign Lord” (30:15), “Savior” (43:3), “Israel’s Creator, your King” (43:15), and “the God of all the earth” (54:5). In calling God “the Holy One of Israel,” Isaiah extols His complete holiness. Yet within the same breath Isaiah speaks of God as the “Redeemer,” celebrating His tender mercy and compassion (41:14; 54:5; 59:20; 60:16). Sim Kay Tee

 

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry –   The Cantus Firmus

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The telling and beholding of stories bears a certain responsibility. There is a temptation in narrating history, biographies, even autobiographies, to reduce the story to one theory or setting, to one secret or encounter that unlocks the mystery of a scene or life. We want to solve the puzzle that is Emily Dickinson, resolve the curiosities of Napoleon, and know the essential meaning behind our own winding roads. But while the mode of storytelling may require certain parameters, life is not usually so neatly containable.

Roger Lundin, himself a biographer, suggests the necessity of awe in any telling of human story—a task in which we are all, on some level, engaged. “To be able to recognize the competing claims and the intricate complexity of human motivation is a gift and a necessity for writing a good biography, just as it is a necessity for understanding fairly and creatively and justly another human life.”(1) The task of putting a life or lives into words is surely larger than we often admit. How will you come to describe a deceased loved one to children who have never met him? How will you come to articulate the lives of family members, historical figures, biblical characters, and neighbors? The charge is all around us, vying for a sense of awe, humility, grace.

I have always appreciated the terminology employed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer as he described life to his friend. He spoke in musical terms, and in so doing ushered in the idea that life cannot be reduced to a note or a monotone. One of the terms he employed, the cantus firmus, which means “fixed song,” is a pre-existing melody that forms the basis of a polyphonic composition. Though the song introduces twists in pitch and style, counterpoint and refrain, the cantus firmus is the enduring melody not always in the forefront, but always playing somewhere within the composition. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, life was a great work of sounds and symphonic directions, and the cantus firmus was the essence, the soul of the concerto.

With these terms, he spoke of life before the divine: “God wants us to love him eternally with our whole hearts, not in such a way as to injure or weaken earthly life, but to provide a kind of cantus firmus to which the other melodies of life provide the counterpoint… Where the cantus firmus is clear and plain, the counterpoint can be developed to its limits.”(2)

As he penned these lines, Bonhoeffer, who was facing execution and the looming end of his life, confessed life to be an awe-inspiring symphony, a melody to behold with attention and appreciation for a great array of intricate choruses. In this intricacy, there is no better song composed than one that finds as its ground bass a wholehearted love of God. Where the enduring melody of life itself is a tune written and played for God, the composition can resound unto the heavens. It is this type of melody that endures even beyond the chorister who sang it.

When Jesus of Nazareth spoke of life, he, too, spoke of multiple realms, of life as it is on earth and in heaven. Like a great composition, there are layers to faith and belief, Communion and the Kingdom, story and song. There is a sense in which all of our stories are the same, written by the great composer of music and sound. And yet, each song is also uniquely our own. For me, as no doubt for you, there have been minor sounds when life seems removed from any chorus of hope or God seems absent. Then again, there have also been moments when the cantus firmus of love or beauty resounds in major tones, and God comes near in the doxology.

So how do we tell the story of a human life? How do we put into words counterpoints and melodies and tempos? Perhaps we start with the song at the center of our own souls, as we listen for the arrangement in our neighbors’:

“By day the LORD directs his love,

at night his song is with me-

a prayer to the God of my life” (Psalm 42:8).

Set in the deepest center of a life, God’s presence is the cantus firmus, discovered and embraced over a lifetime. God’s love is the enduring melody that puts our stories to song.

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

(1) Roger Lundin, Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 79, March/April 2006.

(2) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), 303.

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Ponder the Things of God

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I will meditate on your precepts. Psalm 119:15

There are times when solitude is better than company, and silence is wiser than speech. We would be better Christians if we were alone more often, waiting on God and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for service in His kingdom. We ought to ponder the things of God, because that is how we get the real nutriment out of them.

Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: In order to have wine from it, we must bruise it; we must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser’s feet must come down joyfully on the bunches or else the juice will not flow; and the grapes must be properly tread or else much of the precious liquid will be wasted. So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth if we desire the wine of consolation from them.

Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth, but the process that really supplies the muscle and the nerve and the sinew and the bone is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our souls are not nourished merely by listening for a while to this and then to that and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning all require inward digesting to complete their usefulness, and the inward digesting of the truth lies mainly in meditating upon it.

Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make only slow advances in the Christian life? Because they neglect their closets and do not thoughtfully meditate on God’s Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they want the corn, but they will not go out into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs on the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it.

Deliver us, O Lord, from such folly, and may this be our resolve this morning: “I will meditate on your precepts.”

The Family Bible Reading Plan

  • 1 Kings 15
  • Colossians 2

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

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – Special thanksgiving to the Father

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“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son.” Colossians 1:12,13

Suggested Further Reading: Luke 11:14-22

What an achievement was that, when, with their flocks and their herds, the whole host of Israel went out of Egypt, crossed the Jordan, and came into Canaan! My dear brethren, the whole of it was not equal to the achievement of God’s powerful grace, when he brings one poor sinner out of the region of sin into the kingdom of holiness and peace. It was easier for God to bring Israel out of Egypt, to split the Red Sea, to make a highway through the pathless wilderness, to drop manna from heaven, to send the whirlwind to drive out the kings; it was easier for Omnipotence to do all this, than to translate a man from the power of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son. This is the grandest achievement of Omnipotence. The sustenance of the whole universe, I do believe, is even less than this—the changing of a bad heart, the subduing of an iron will. But thanks be unto the Father, he has done all that for you and for me. He has brought us out of darkness; he has translated us, taken up the old tree that has struck its roots ever so deep—taken it up, blessed be God, roots and all, and planted it in a goodly soil. He had to cut the top off, it is true—the high branches of our pride; but the tree has grown better in the new soil than it ever did before. Who ever heard of moving so huge a plant as a man who has grown fifty years old in sin? Oh! What wonders hath our Father done for us!

For meditation: “Our Father…Thy kingdom come” (Luke 11:2). Pray for the spoiling of Satan, the salvation of sinners, the sanctification of saints, the second coming of the Sovereign.

Sermon no. 319

12 October (Preached 15 January 1860)

 

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Modern-Day Revelations

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“Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3, emphasis added).

Scripture contains everything you need to know for godly living.

For many years I’ve watched with deep concern as a significant number of Christians have drifted from a thoughtful, biblical, God- centered theology to one that is increasingly mystical, non- biblical, and man-centered. One of the most disturbing indicators of this trend is the proliferation of extrabiblical revelations that certain people are claiming to receive directly from God.

Such claims are alarming because they dilute the uniqueness and centrality of the Bible and cause people to lean on man’s word rather than God’s. They imply that Scripture is insufficient for Christian living and that we need additional revelation to fill the gap.

But God’s Word contains everything you need to know for spiritual life and godly living. It is inspired and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness so that you may be fully equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16). What more is necessary?

When the apostle John died, apostolic revelation came to an end. But that written legacy remains as the standard by which we are to test every teacher and teaching that claims to be from God (1 Thess. 5:21; 1 John 4:1). If a teaching doesn’t conform to Scripture, it must be rejected. If it does conform, it isn’t a new revelation. In either case, additional revelation is unnecessary.

God went to great lengths to record and preserve His revelation, and He jealously guards it from corruption of any kind. From Moses, the first known recipient of divine revelation, to the apostle John, the final recipient, His charge remained the same: “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you” (Deut. 4:2; cf., Rev. 22:18-19).

Don’t be swayed by supposed new revelations. Devote yourself to what has already been revealed.

Suggestions for Prayer

Ask God to guard your heart from confusion and help you to keep your attention firmly fixed on His Word.

For Further Study

According to 2 Timothy 4:1-4, why must we preach and uphold God’s Word?

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Receive His Grace

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According to the grace (the special endowment for my task) of God bestowed on me, like a skillful architect and master builder I laid [the] foundation, and now another [man] is building upon it. —1 Corinthians 3:10

Grace is the power of the Holy Spirit coming to us freely, enabling us to do with ease what we could never do on our own. You might find other definitions describing grace as God’s divine favor, and that is certainly true, but His grace is also the power you need to live in victory. Grace can be received only through faith, and that is one of the main reasons we must resist fear. When we allow fear to rule us, we unwittingly receive what Satan has planned for our lives. But when we live by faith through grace, God is able to work His divine plan in us. Whatever you need to do today, lean on God and let Him empower you to be successful.

Power Thought: By God’s grace I have the skills to do all He asks of me with ease.

From the book the book Power Thoughts Devotional by Joyce Meyer.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – He Has Not Deserted Me

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“And He who sent Me is with Me – He has not deserted Me – for I always do those things that are pleasing to Him” (John 8:29).

If we have a conscience free of offense, and if we have evidence that we please God, it matters little if men oppose us or what others may think of us. “Enoch, before his translation, had this testimony – that he pleased God.”

It would not be fair for you or me to profess ignorance in this matter of pleasing God. If we had never known before, we know now that it comes from doing always those things He commands – which of course are the things that please Him.

Jesus is saying here, among other things, that God is with Him in the working of miracles. Though men had forsaken and rejected Him, yet God stayed by Him and worked in and through Him.

In the same way, God has made it possible for us to please Him by giving us His Holy Spirit to indwell, enable and empower us for service. With the available enablement, we are without excuse in the matter of doing the “greater things” He has promised for those who love and serve Him.

What better goal for today, tomorrow and all our coming days than to seek to please Him?

Bible Reading: John 8:25-28

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: So that Christ might be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death, I will seek to do only those things today which please Him.

 

Alistair Begg

Presidential Prayer Team; C.H. – No Bubblegum Faith

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The first gumball machines were introduced in the United States around 1907 – a gumball for a penny. While the price and style has changed in a hundred years, one can still find machines that vend gum and candy very similar to the original ones.

Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.

I Kings 17:24

The widow in today’s passage provided for Elijah although she didn’t have much to offer. Even though she honored God, her son fell ill and died. The woman was angry with God and Elijah. She put in her coin of obedience. Shouldn’t she get a gumball or good fortune? Elijah felt the widow’s concern and took his doubts to the Lord. “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow…by killing her son?” (I Kings 17:20) Through Elijah, God raised her son from the dead.

Do you sometimes feel like you put in your penny but didn’t receive your gumball? True faith doesn’t work that way. God can do even greater things when you trust completely. Ask Him to increase your faith, the faith of your national leaders, and the faith of all believers in America.

Recommended Reading: I Kings 17:17-24