Daily Archives: December 13, 2015

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – The God Who Speaks

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Hebrews 1:1-2

Throughout human history, God has been speaking to mankind in various ways. His prophets and apostles were moved by the Holy Spirit to proclaim and write His words, but His ultimate expression came through the birth of His Son Jesus Christ. Today, most believers acknowledge that God speaks primarily through Scripture, yet the voice that dictated the Bible has not ceased. Through His Holy Spirit, the Lord still communicates to every Christian who listens with an open and receptive heart.

Consider the wonder of having a God who speaks—not a distant deity who thunders orders and admonishments from heaven, but one who actually wants to have a conversation with you! Why? Consider the following:

  • God loves you and desires a relationship with you.
  • He wants you to know Him personally through an intimate communication.
  • He longs to encourage you to trust Him. As you experience the fulfillment of His words, your faith grows strong.
  • He wants to guide you. The Lord has a good purpose for your life and is willing to direct your decisions and ways so you can experience all He has planned for you.

In the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, it’s easy to take for granted this invaluable privilege of communication with God. Take time this week away from the distractions to listen to the God who wants to talk with you.

Bible in One Year: 1 Timothy 1-3

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — How to Be Perfect

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Read: Romans 3:20-26

Bible in a Year: Hosea 12-14; Revelation 4

For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. —Hebrews 10:14

Christmas is the time of year when the pressure to be perfect intensifies. We imagine the perfect celebration and then put forth our best effort to make it happen. We shop for the perfect gifts. We plan the perfect Christmas Day meal. We choose the perfect greeting cards or write the perfect family letter. But our striving leads to discouragement and disappointment when our ability to imagine perfection exceeds our ability to implement it. The carefully chosen gift receives only a halfhearted thank you. Part of the meal is overcooked. We find a typo in our Christmas greeting after we’ve mailed the cards. Children fight over toys. Adults resurrect old arguments.

Instead of being discouraged, however, we can use our disappointment to remind ourselves of the reason Christmas is so important. We need Christmas because none of us is or can be all that we want to be—not for a month, a week, or even a day.

How much more meaningful our celebrations of Christ’s birth would be if we would give up our faulty concept of perfection, then focus instead on the perfection of our Savior, in whom we are made righteous (Rom. 3:22).

If your Christmas celebration this year is less than ideal, relax and let it be a reminder that the only way to be “made perfect forever” (Heb. 10:14) is to live by faith in the righteousness of Christ. —Julie Ackerman Link

What expectations do you have for the Christmas season? Are they idealistic or realistic? Think about what you can do to focus more on Christ and the meaning of His birth.

Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before His throne. Edward Mote

INSIGHT: In today’s passage the word righteousness stands out. It is important to see how Paul describes it. Righteousness is not achieved by works (v. 20); it is given freely to all who believe by faith (v. 22) and is demonstrated in the sacrifice of Christ (vv. 25-26). As verse 23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But God makes sinners righteous through the sacrifice of Christ.

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – More Grace Brings More Joy

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… salt without prescribing how much.

Ezra 7:22

Salt was used in every offering made by fire to the Lord, and with its preserving and purifying properties it was the grateful emblem of divine grace in the soul. It is worthy of our careful attention that when Artaxerxes gave salt to Ezra the priest, he set no limit to the quantity, and we may be quite certain that when the King of kings distributes grace among His royal priesthood, the supply is not cut short by Him.

In ourselves we are often in short supply, but never in the Lord. He who chooses to gather much manna will find that he may have as much as he desires. There is no famine in Jerusalem that causes the citizens to eat their bread by weight and drink their water by measure.

Some things in the economy of grace are measured; for instance our vinegar and gall are given us with such exactness that we never have a single drop too much; but the salt of grace is not restricted in its provision. “Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”1

Parents need to lock up the fruit cupboard and the candy jars, but there is no need to keep the salt-box under lock and key, for few children will eat too greedily from that.

A man may have too much money or too much honor, but he cannot have too much grace. When Jeshurun grew fat, he forsook God, but there is no fear of a man’s becoming too full of grace: A plethora of grace is impossible. More wealth brings more care, but more grace brings more joy. Increased wisdom is increased sorrow, but an abundance of the Spirit is fullness of joy.

Believer, go to the throne for a large supply of heavenly salt. It will season your afflictions, which are unsavory without salt; it will preserve your heart, which grows corrupt if salt is absent; and it will kill your sins even as salt kills reptiles. You need much; seek much and have much.

1) John 15:7

Family Bible Reading Plan

  • 2 Chronicles 14, 15
  • Revelation 4

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

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – The Holy Spirit and the one church

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“These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” Jude 19

Suggested Further Reading: Romans 8:5-13

The Holy Spirit when he comes in the heart comes like water. That is to say, he comes to purify the soul. He that is to-day as foul as he was before his pretended conversion is a hypocrite and a liar; he that this day loves sin and lives in it just as he was accustomed to do, let him know that the truth is not in him, but he hath received the strong delusion to believe a lie: God’s people are a holy people; God’s Spirit works by love, and purifies the soul. Once let it get into our hearts, and it will have no rest till it has turned every sin out. God’s Holy Spirit and man’s sin cannot live together peaceably; they may both be in the same heart, but they cannot both reign there, nor can they both be quiet there; for “the Spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh lusteth against the Spirit;” they cannot rest, but there will be a perpetual warring in the soul, so that the Christian will have to cry, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” But in due time the Spirit will drive out all sin, and will present us blameless before the throne of his Majesty with exceeding great joy. Now, answer this question for thyself, and not for another man. Hast thou received this Spirit? Answer me.

For meditation: When the Holy Spirit enters a person at the new birth, he begins to change that person for the better; but that involves declaring war on the flesh (Galatians 5:17). An intensified awareness of one’s sinfulness can be very distressing (Romans 7:24), but the believer can take courage in the knowledge that God is at work. Those who know nothing of these experiences since professing conversion should examine their professed faith, no matter what other experiences of the Spirit they may claim to have had.

Sermon no. 167

13 December (1857)

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Worship of Distinction

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“When He again brings the first-born into the world, He says, ‘And let all the angels of God worship Him'” (Heb. 1:6).

Jesus Christ is greater than angels because He is worshiped.

Even though Jesus Christ humbled Himself and was made lower than the angels for a time, angels are still to worship Him. Since angels are to worship Him, then Christ must be greater than them.

Angels have always worshiped Christ, only they worshiped Him as God. It wasn’t until His incarnation that angels were commanded to worship Him as God’s Son. It is a sin to worship anyone or anything but God—in fact, note how sternly the apostle John was rebuked for worshiping angels (Rev. 19:10; 22:8-9). So the very fact that angels are to worship Christ verifies that Christ is indeed God.

At present, the angels don’t fully understand the entire picture of God’s redemptive plan. Peter tells us that the prophets didn’t understand all that they wrote, “seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow” (1 Pet. 1:11). Then he added, “Things into which angels long to look” (v. 12). They are still trying to figure out things they don’t understand.

But that won’t always be the case. Notice that Hebrews 1:6 says, “When He again brings the first-born into the world” (emphasis added). God already brought Christ into the world once—at the second coming He will bring Him into the world in blazing glory. Then the fullness of the prophecy of Psalm 97:7 quoted in Hebrews 1:6 will come to pass: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.”

In His second coming Christ is revealed in full glory as the Son. More than ever we have reason to join the heavenly chorus in declaring, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing” (Rev. 5:12).

Suggestion for Prayer

Thank God for His wonderful plan of salvation. Ask Him to make it more real to you every day.

For Further Study

Read Revelation 5:1-11 and note the reactions of the angels to the Lamb of God. What specific event motivated their response?

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Follow Jesus

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All who keep His commandments [who obey His orders and follow His plan, live and continue to live, to stay and] abide in Him, and He in them. [They let Christ be a home to them and they are the home of Christ.] —1 John 3:24

Some people wanted to follow Jesus, but they were afraid they would be put out of the synagogue (see John 12:42). Some people are still afraid to follow the Lord because they might be put out of their family, their group, or even their church.

Eventually there will only be one Person to face—God. You won’t want Him to say, “I had so much for you, but you didn’t receive it because you were too concerned about what people thought; you were a people-pleaser.” Jesus wasn’t swayed by men’s opinions, threats, judgments, or criticisms. Follow Jesus, and enjoy life.

From the book Starting Your Day Right by Joyce Meyer

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – At Least As Much

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“And if even sinful persons like yourselves give children what they need, don’t you realize that your heavenly Father will do at least as much, and give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for Him?” (Luke 11:13).

A Christian leader approached me after one of my messages on the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit.

“I want to be a Spirit-filled person,” he said, “but I don’t know what to do. I have read many books about the Holy Spirit and have sincerely sought His fullness, but to no avail. I am seriously considering giving up Christian ministry and returning to a business career. Please help me.”

With great delight I shared with this earnest seeker the truths about the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be controlled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We cannot have two masters.

There is a throne, a control center, in every life and either self or Christ is on that throne. This concept of Christ being on the throne is so simple that even a child can understand it.

It is such a simple truth, and yet, in its distilled essence, that is what the supernatural, Spirit-controlled life is all about – just keeping Christ on the throne. We do this when we understand how to walk in the control and power of the Holy Spirit, for the Spirit came for the express purpose of glorifying Christ by enabling the believer to live a holy life and to be a productive witness for the Savior.

The key to supernatural living is a life centered in the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. This supernatural life is often called the Spirit-filled Christian or the Christ-centered life. The spirit-filled Christian is one who, according to Romans 6:11, has considered himself to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Christ is now at the center of his life; He is Lord.

Bible Reading: Romans 8:9-14

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I will not allow self to usurp the rightful place of Jesus Christ – in the person of His Holy Spirit – at the control center, the throne, of my life.

 

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; H.L.M.  – Bless a Stranger

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A family was having breakfast at a popular restaurant in Yukon, Oklahoma. But when they prayed before their meal, they didn’t realize some kind strangers had noticed. When the family was ready to pay the bill, they found a pleasant surprise. Anonymous fellow diners left them a note that read: “Because you prayed, we paid. Continue to raise your sons in Christ. God bless.” The restaurant’s assistant manager said, “We see a lot of people paying it forward, buying for other people. Especially around holiday time, we see a lot of that. It always makes you feel better as a server to know that there are nice, kind people out there.”

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

John 1:14

When Jesus was born, God became a man. He was completely human and completely divine. People then could know the Lord fully because He became visible and tangible as He lived among them.

As a believer, you have the privilege and the responsibility to show Him to others through your words and your actions. So out of gratitude for the gift of salvation, show others the love of Jesus Christ. Perform an act of kindness to a stranger this holiday season. Pray that this kind of love becomes contagious throughout America!

Recommended Reading: I John 4:9-16

Night Light - James & Shirley Dobson

Night Light for Couples – Tranquility

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“Be at peace with each other.” Mark 9:50

If you don’t protect yourselves from outside stresses, married life can seem more like a marathon than a stroll in the park. With relentless pressure at work, a demanding schedule of carpooling and sports, and the stress of keeping up with home and church duties, moms and dads can begin to lose heart. Then fatigue and irritability set in, angry words are spoken, and soon every member of the family is at one another’s throats.

All of us, especially at the end of pressure‐packed days, need a safe retreat. As a working husband or wife, you need a chance to unwind privately for a while when you first come home. School kids (teenagers, too) need uninterrupted “down time” on a regular basis. No one can keep up a frenetic schedule for long without it affecting his or her attitude.

Jesus told His followers to “be at peace with each other.” If you’re finding hopefulness in short supply in your marriage, maybe it’s time you get off the treadmill of continuous stress. If it’s just the expectations of others that is keeping you on the run, say “no” more often. Take an afternoon off. Get a babysitter so you can have some time to yourself. Set aside quiet time regularly—and guard it. Slow down your mealtimes together. Simplify.

As you make a priority of creating tranquility at home, you’ll feel your heart lifting and hope returning.

Just between us…

  • When you feel overwhelmed by demands, do you ever lose hope?
  • How can we do a better job of protecting each other’s “down time”?
  • How can tranquility at home promote a better spiritual life?

Dear God, forgive us when we allow external demands to dictate the quality of our home life. Give us the foresight and discipline to create a sanctuary of peace and renewal. Amen.

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