Years ago I lived in Fruitland, North Carolina. It was apple country, and several of my parishioners were growers. I remember the time I stopped by to pay one of them a visit, and his wife told me he was in the orchard. I found him out there, mercilessly cutting branches. Without thinking, I said, “You’re going to kill that tree!” He turned around and said, “You stick to preaching, and leave the pruning to me.”
Daily Archives: January 11, 2016
Our Daily Bread — You Have Value
Read: Romans 5:6-11
Bible in a Year: Genesis 27-28; Matthew 8:18-33
You were bought at a price. —1 Corinthians 6:20
After my mother-in-law died, my wife and I discovered a cache of US Indian Head pennies in a dresser drawer in her apartment. She wasn’t a coin collector, as such, but she lived in the era when these pennies were in circulation and she had accumulated a few.
Some of these coins are in excellent condition; others are not. They are so worn and tarnished you can hardly see the imprint. All bear the stamp “One Cent” on the opposite side. Although a penny these days has little value and many consider them useless, this one-cent coin would have bought a newspaper in its day. And collectors still find value in them, even those that have been battered and abused.
Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Mathoms and Myrrh
The ethics of regifting is always a hot discussion at Christmastime and the weeks that follow our various office parties and family exchanges. Apparently, there are those who insist that regifting is a tawdry practice, and there are those who have practiced it for years and see no harm. For those who might not be familiar with the concept, Webster’s New Millennium Dictionary offers a helpful definition: To regift is “to give an unwanted gift to someone else” or “to give as a gift something one previously received as a gift.” In any case, two out of three people say they have either regifted or are considering regifting. And while there are no doubt many successful regifters among us, there are also unfortunate stories to show for the less successful, which make the discussion entertaining. Imagine opening the very gift you had given your mother-in-law a year earlier.
The concept of regifting is similar to a word coined by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Hobbit. “Anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom,” writes Tolkien. “Their dwellings were apt to become rather crowded with mathoms, and many of the presents that passed from hand to hand were of that sort.” Whether Hobbit or human, regifting is evidently nothing new.
Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Mathoms and Myrrh
John MacArthur – Strength for Today – Having Love for One Another
“Let love of the brethren continue” (Hebrews 13:1).
Christianity’s primary moral standard is love, especially for fellow believers.
Love of other believers is a natural outflow of the Christian life and should be a normal part of fellowship within the church. You can no doubt remember how after you were first saved it became very natural and exciting to love other Christians and to want to be around them. However, such an attitude is extremely difficult to maintain. This love, which is a gift from God’s Spirit, must be nurtured or it will not grow—it may actually shrivel. That’s why the apostle Peter urges us, “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:22-23).
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Wisdom Hunters – Inclusive and Exclusive
You [Cornelius] know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all… All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Acts 10:36, 43
I met my wife Rita in 7th grade when we couple skated on her birthday. We remained friends until we began to date exclusively at the Valentine’s dance our senior year of high school. A year later we were engaged to marry—an exclusive life long commitment to each other based on our shared beliefs and behaviors. Our love was inclusive of family, friends and acquaintances, but our marriage covenant before God was based on our exclusive relationship with one another.
The good news of peace through Jesus Christ is an inclusive invitation to all human beings. God’s love is inclusive for all who live on planet Earth. However, forgiveness and a personal relationship with our heavenly Father comes from an exclusive belief in Christ’s death as payment for our sins and His resurrection from death to give us life. Cornelius was instructed to take the inclusive gospel to the Gentiles, so they could believe in Jesus and have an exclusive relationship with Him. God’s inclusive love invites an exclusive relationship through Christ.
Today’s Turning Point with David Jeremiah – Holy, Holy, Holy!
Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!
Isaiah 6:3
Recommended Reading
Isaiah 6:1-8
Reginald Heber was pastor of an Anglican Church in the village of Hodnet, in a church once led by his father. Between 1811 and 1821, Reginald wrote 57 hymns, which he longed to see published; but the Anglicans hadn’t yet adopted the singing of hymns in worship. Heber packed away his hymns and sailed as a missionary to India, where he labored with intensity for a few short years before passing away at age 42. His hymns were published after his death, and one is famous to this day: “Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.”
Continue reading Today’s Turning Point with David Jeremiah – Holy, Holy, Holy!
Girlfriends in God – God Has Big Dreams For You
Today’s Truth
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9
Friend to Friend
I love the story of Esther in the Bible. She is definitely one of my girlfriends in God! I can’t wait to give her a big hug. Let’s think about her a moment today.
Can you imagine what young Esther, a girl without mother or father, would have thought if someone had come up to her at the market while gathering produce for her cousin and told her that she was going to be the next queen of Persia? That she would save her people from annihilation? I imagine she would have laughed or run for cover from the lunatic making such a prediction. But God had a plan. He took a lonely orphan girl and used her to rescue the Jewish nation.
Continue reading Girlfriends in God – God Has Big Dreams For You
Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Love Without Limit
“I have given them the glory You gave Me – the glorious unity of being one, as We are – I in them and You in Me, all being perfected into one – so that the world will know You sent Me and will understand that You love them as much as You love Me” (John 17:22,23).
One day, as I was reading this prayer of Jesus to God the Father, I leaped from my chair in excitement when I realized that God loves me as much as He loves His only begotten Son!
What is more, He loves us unconditionally. That means He loves us not because we are good, or worthy of His love, but simply because of who He is.
Of course, the miracle of it all is that when Jesus, who is the incarnation of God’s love, comes to live within us, that same supernatural love becomes operative within us, enabling us to love others supernaturally as well.
Continue reading Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Love Without Limit
Ray Stedman – Faith’s Encouragement
Read: John 4:43-54
While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him. Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, Your son will live. So he and his whole household believed. (John 4:51-53)
What an exciting encounter! The servants met this man with the glorious news, Your son is living—the very same words Jesus had said to the father. Immediately he checked the hour when it had happened. It dawned on him that at the precise moment when Jesus had said to him, Go; your son lives, the fever suddenly left the boy and he began to mend. There broke upon him a new realization, not of what Jesus could do, but of who Jesus was. He had authority over all illness. He was not limited by distance or time. He had power in areas beyond the knowledge and reach of men. When the man understood that, he believed, and all his household with him. This is the same word for belief that was used of him before, but now it is used at a much higher level—a trust that God was at work and would work out this matter in ways that he could not anticipate.
Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Text Messaging
Read: 2 Peter 1:12-21
We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. . . . We ourselves heard this voice. (vv. 16, 18 NIV)
Regarding my example of that freshman guy trying to know the pretty girl only by testing, someone might say, “He can see and hear and touch that girl, but I can’t do that with Jesus. How can I know this unseen person who is allegedly the key to all the marvels of life?” Well, picture that same freshman with head bent over his smart phone, his thumbs flying as he communicates with his unseen girlfriend.
We can know Jesus the same way—by text messaging, by “Facebook.” I’m talking about reading the text written by people who did see and hear and touch him. In 2 Peter 1:16 and 18, Peter assures his knowledge-hungry readers that he and others had seen the glory of Jesus up close and personal. We saw his face shining with the glory of God, says Peter, and we’ve written about it here in this Spirit-inspired book, so that you can know him.
Continue reading Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Text Messaging
Presidential Prayer Team; C.P. – Two Seas
Helen Steiner Rice’s poem A Key to Living is Giving compares the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee is fresh water and plants thrive. With no outlets, the Dead Sea is full of salt and nothing grows there. The poem teaches that when you let God’s blessing flow through you like the Jordan flows through the Sea of Galilee, you become productive and full of life.
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
Proverbs 11:24
Greg Laurie – Our Number One Goal
“Talk no more so very proudly; let no arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is the God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed.”—1 Samuel 2:3
I was born in the generation known as the Baby Boomers. Our children are now called the Millennials, also dubbed the Me Generation. My generation thought the problem with the world was low self-esteem. Therefore, a lot of emphasis was given to, and a lot of money was spent on, the self-esteem movement. (This was never the problem, by the way, because it never has been a problem for us to learn to love ourselves. The problem is that we love ourselves enough already.)
As a result, a sense of entitlement—the idea that you don’t have to work hard and that everything should be given to you because you’re so wonderful—is now a big problem in our country. If you don’t believe me, then just watch some auditions for American Idol. People with no ability whatsoever are completely oblivious to it. And when a judge has the audacity to tell them that singing is probably not what they should do with their lives, they get upset.
Kids 4 Truth International – God Is Omnipresent
“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3)
“Pretend I’m there and behave accordingly!”
Those were the words of a note Annie received in sixth grade. Her mom had gone on a long trip and had left that note to remind her that – even though she was gone – she expected Annie to act the same way she would have if her mom were still there.
Pretending her mom was watching her made Annie act differently. Sbe did her homework. She practiced the piano. She obeyed her teacher. She cleaned her room. She knew if Mom found out that she did wrong, she was in big trouble.
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The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Who Needs Grace Most?
Today’s Scripture: Philippians 1:7
“You are all partakers with me of grace.”
All of us need grace, the saint as well as the sinner. The most conscientious, dutiful, hardworking Christian needs God’s grace as much as the most dissolute, hard-living sinner. All of us need the same grace. The sinner doesn’t need more grace than the saint, nor does the immature and undisciplined believer need more than the godly, zealous missionary. We all need the same amount because the “currency” of our good works is debased and worthless before God.
Grace considers all people as totally undeserving and unable to do anything to earn the blessing of God. C. Samuel Storms has aptly written, “Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to bestow it in the presence of human merit. Grace ceases to be grace if God is compelled to withdraw it in the presence of human demerit. [Grace] is treating a person . . . solely according to the infinite goodness and sovereign purpose of God.”
The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – The Well-Spoken Word
Today’s Scripture: 2 Samuel 19-20
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. – Ephesians 4:29
In 2 Samuel 19, we see David snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. After his army triumphed over the rebellion of Absalom, David was in tears. His men had won the battle, but he was making them feel as if they’d lost. It’s normal for a father to grieve the death of his son, but there was a problem here. The men in the army who had fought in this battle saw David’s tears and assumed he was angry with them. The Bible says, “The men stole into the city that day as men steal in who are ashamed when they flee from battle” (2 Samuel 19:3).
I wonder how often we do the same thing with our kids. Billy comes home from school with a good grade on a math paper and we greet him with criticism for not making his bed. Susie does a great job in a school play and we’re angry because she hasn’t done anything on her science project. We’re taking a victory and turning it into a defeat for those we love. There’s a time to discuss the dirty room and the science project, but it isn’t on the heels of a victory.
Continue reading The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – The Well-Spoken Word
BreakPoint – Why We Pray: A Serious Answer for a Serious Question
Last week, Eric Metaxas told you about our brand new resource, “21 Days of Prayer for Life,” which will help you pray for all of the victims of abortion and for the protection of innocent life. It’s a free downloadable guide available at BreakPoint.org.
As you might imagine, Eric and I sometimes hear from critics. So, when I tweeted about this beautiful resource, I quickly got this reply from a skeptic: “What is the purpose of this prayer? Is your god not bothered until he gets sufficient prayers clocked up?” It was a snarky way of asking, “Why pray at all?”
Now, I rarely respond to sarcastic questions like this on Twitter. Those who ask rarely want answers, and even if they did, it would require more than 140 characters.
But to be clear, I don’t fault the skeptic for asking this question. Frankly, the whole idea of prayer can sound crazy, especially to skeptics. After all, if God is all-knowing, why am I asking for something? If He’s sovereign, isn’t He just going to do what He wants to do anyway? And if God is all-loving, shouldn’t He do good things without needing to be asked? If we’re honest, many Christians have asked similar—though less snarky—questions about prayer ourselves. I know I have! And my kids do too.
Continue reading BreakPoint – Why We Pray: A Serious Answer for a Serious Question
Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – DAVID: SHAME IN ACCUSATION
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.” As much as children would like to think this taunt is true, it doesn’t take long to discover just how deep words can wound, especially when they carry a false accusation.
David was being pelted by both stones and words. As he suffered his son’s betrayal and his people’s rejection, another person came to add insult to injury. Shimei, a relative of David’s old nemesis Saul, took advantage of David’s exposed position to retaliate on behalf of his clan. Shimei cursed and hurled rocks, but his most vicious verbal attack landed where David was most vulnerable.
Shimei played on David’s shame, accusing him of wrongdoing and blaming him for the mess he was currently in. It’s all your fault. You deserve this and more—Shimei’s message rang out. He declared that God had rejected David and was punishing him for being a man of blood.
Continue reading Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – DAVID: SHAME IN ACCUSATION
Denison Forum –What the Golden Globes tell us about us
The Golden Globes were presented last night. The Revenant won for Best Motion Picture and Best Actor, Drama. The film tells the story of one man who overcomes enormous odds to avenge his son’s death. (For more on the film, see Ryan Denison’s review.)
The Martian won for Best Motion Picture and Best Actor, Musical or Comedy. It tells the story of one man who overcomes enormous odds to return to life on Earth. Steve Jobs won for Best Screenplay, Motion Picture. It tells the story of one man who overcomes enormous odds to create a company that revolutionized the computer industry. Jennifer Lawrence won Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture. She portrayed Joy Mangano, who overcame enormous odds to establish a business empire.
Do you see a pattern here?
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DAILY DEVOTIONS, NEWS AND INFORMATION 