Prayer is the Christian’s most powerful God-given means for effecting change. Yet we’re often hesitant about our appeals.
But we should be confident in prayer, primarily because of the knowledge that we belong to God’s family (John 1:12). When we received Jesus Christ as Savior, God became our heavenly Father. As a result, we can be absolutely sure He will hear our prayers (1 John 5:14).
Continue reading Charles Stanley – Learning to Pray With Confidence
Read: Luke 9:57-62
Bible in a Year: Genesis 33-35; Matthew 10:1-20
No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. —Luke 9:62
Saying goodbye is hard—to family and friends, to a favorite and familiar place, to an occupation or livelihood.
In Luke 9:57-62 our Lord describes the cost of being His disciple. A would-be follower says to Jesus, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus responds, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (vv. 61-62). Is He asking His followers to say goodbye to everything and every relationship considered precious?
I remember the time when my son had to go through a very simple surgery when he was five years old. He was not able to breathe properly, so the doctors had to remove some extra tissue surrounding his nostril and nasal passages.
During the hours and days after his surgery, my once-a-chatterbox son had become completely quiet. Because of the fear of being hurt if he spoke, he quit using words for his way of communication. It was overwhelming to see my boy struggling to express himself in that condition.
As I assisted my son get back to talking, I could not help but think of how unexpectedly Zechariah lost his speech after he questioned the angel who brought him such good news about a long-waited child in his old age.(1) In Zechariah’s case, the temporary loss of words was something of an acknowledgement of the promised child he doubted, a child who would prepare the way for the Messiah. Though he knew why he was made silent, I am sure he felt restless until he held his son in his arms and was finally able to describe his emotions properly.
There are spiritual retreat centers in various locations around the world, which offer “Silent Weeks” to those who are over-exhausted from excessive communication. During these weeks, individuals are banned from verbal communication in order to quiet themselves internally. The goal is simply to bring back the core purpose of real interaction: tending to what is being said in reality.
Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – A Poverty of Words
“Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body” (Hebrews 13:2).
Because we too are human beings, God makes it possible for us to empathize with others who might be enduring hardship.
The Apostolic Confession, an ancient church confession, says, “If any Christian is condemned for Christ’s sake to the mines by the ungodly, do not overlook him, but from the proceeds of your toil and sweat, send him something to support himself, and to reward the soldier of Christ.” You can see from this quote that the early church took seriously its responsibility to help people who were suffering persecution. To obtain money to free a fellow believer, some early Christians even sold themselves into slavery.
It’s unlikely we’ll ever have to face such extreme measures. But we can definitely learn from the heart attitude that prompted such an action. The point is, we should do whatever we can to understand what others are going through. We don’t necessarily have to experience the same starvation, imprisonment, or harsh treatment that they are enduring in order to sympathize. Being human—“in the body,” as today’s verse says—and suffering our own hurts and hungers should be enough incentive for us to help others.
Continue reading John MacArthur – Strength for Today – Identifying with Those in Need
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:7
Of all the images in my mind from this past year, the most vivid are those of refugee children. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a single image of one of these little ones could provide enough content to fill a novel. In their faces you see fear, pain, and sorrow, yet at the same time you see hope, determination, and yearning. Having endured unspeakable tragedy, they set out in search of new meaning and purpose.
Though most of us will never find ourselves living as refugees in this same manner, we must still remember that we are all in need of refuge.
To seek refuge is to seek a place of safety and shelter. It is the acknowledgement that we are needy people who look outside of ourselves for care and protection. And while we may not suffer from political corruption or extreme turmoil, we all have been in seasons where we find ourselves in desperate need. We have all faced the pain of broken relationships, the anxiety of losing a job, or the fear that comes from long-term illness. Perhaps you find yourself in such a season this very day.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
1 Peter 2:9, NIV
Recommended Reading
Deuteronomy 7:1-8
The German car company, Volkswagen, introduced its Type 1 car in 1938. The Type 1 became affectionately known as the VW Beetle or the VW Bug because of its iconic shape that changed very little for decades. While other car companies continued to revise the exterior of their cars, the Beetle’s upgrades were internal. The never-changing shape of the Beetle became its marketing charm.
Continue reading Today’s Turning Point with David Jeremiah – Staying the Same
But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.—James 1:4
Patience is extremely important for people who want to glorify God and enjoy their lives. If we are impatient, the situations we encounter in life will certainly cause us to react emotionally.
The next time you have to wait on something or someone, instead of just reacting, try reminding yourself, Getting upset will not make this go any faster, so I might as well enjoy the wait. Then perhaps say out loud, “I am developing patience as I wait, so I am thankful in this situation.” If you do that, you will be acting on the Word of God rather than reacting to the unpleasant circumstance.
Today’s Truth
The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul.
Psalm 23:1-3
Friend to Friend
For most of my adult life I have wrongly equated being busy with being productive. I am guilty as charged when it comes to living each day in overdrive. The result has been exhaustion, burnout, and watered down living. God and I both knew that the facade I had so carefully erected was a spiritual monument to self-promotion and pride-filled goals.
I have always loved music and began taking piano lessons at the age of five. I will never forget that first piano lesson with Mrs. McKenzie, a very sweet, elderly woman who played the piano beautifully.
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there will be food enough in my Temple; if you do, I will open up the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing so great you won’t have room enough to take it in” (Malachi 3:10).
Tom and Marti were newlyweds. They were just getting started in business and had all the expense of setting up housekeeping. So they found their budget severely strained. In fact, the bills were piling up. Then they were challenged to tithe their gross income. Their first response was, “Impossible! We can’t even pay our present bills, let alone take 10 percent off the top.”
As they prayed together, however, they felt definitely led that this was God’s will. Since they wanted to please Him by obeying His command, they began systematically and faithfully to give priority to their tithe. At first, it was nip and tuck, and some of the other obligations had to wait. But after a few months they were amazed to see how they were able to accomplish more with the nine-tenths than they had previously been able to accomplish with the total amount.
Continue reading Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – A Blessing So Great
Read: John 5:31-47
You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light (John 5:33-35)
Jesus says something that sounds a little strange to us: Not that the testimony which I receive is from man; but I say this that you may be saved. By this he means that though he does not need testimony from John for himself, it may be a saving help to those who heard John. It is a strange phenomenon, frequently seen, that men and women who pay no attention to the voice of God directly will often listen very interestedly to someone who tells what his experience with God has been.
I gathered with about 650 other people to hear a former Senator tell how God had drastically changed his life. When he was a hopeless alcoholic, wallowing in his own vomit, so despairing he was ready to take his own life, God met him and delivered him through much struggle and pain, and led him to a place of prominence and power. I sat on the platform watching people hanging on his every word, listening to a man describe what God could do.
Read: John 7:1-17
Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” (v. 12 NIV)
We are introduced to these preliminaries in the words of Jesus in a chapter where hardly anybody knows Christ. He is surrounded by people who know some things about him but who don’t really know him. That included his own half-brothers, who, according to verse 5, did not yet believe in him. And there was the mob that thronged him like a rock star but didn’t agree if he was a good man or a deceiver. Others said he was demon possessed (John 7:20), while still others thought he might be Moses or (gasp) even the Messiah. Lurking in the background were the Jewish leaders who wanted to kill him.
In such an atmosphere of curiosity and confusion, enthusiasm and envy, skepticism and hostility (much like we live in today), how can anyone really know Jesus? In verse 15, Jesus’ enemies challenge his education, his credentials, and his authority, saying, in effect, “Who does he think he is?”
Continue reading Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Knowing About Is Not the Same as Knowing
Jamie-Lynne Knighten stood in the checkout line with a $200 grocery bill, a crying baby and a declined credit card. That’s when 28-year-old Matthew Jackson stepped up and asked if he could cover the cost. Knighten agreed when Jackson said he wanted nothing in return. He simply asked her to do the same for someone else. A week later, Knighten called Jackson’s boss to tell of his kindness. The manager began to cry. Less than 24 hours after Jackson paid Knighten’s grocery bill, he was killed in a car accident.
Blessed is he who is generous to the poor.
Proverbs 14:21
Knighten quickly created a Facebook page called, “Matthew’s Legacy.” Soon there were people all over the world responding who agreed to share a random act of kindness. In fact, when Jackson’s sister and brother-in-law were driving to the memorial service, they stopped with their four children for a meal. When they finished eating, a stranger had already paid their bill!
Continue reading Presidential Prayer Team; H.L.M. – Random Acts
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” —Psalm 50:15
Every day it seems like there is more bad news: scandals in our government, threats against our national security, and the continued threat of terrorism. And then there are the personal problems that we all will face at one time or another: the death of a loved one, an illness, a family problem.
Just as there is a spiritual solution to the problems in our country, there is a spiritual solution for the problems in our lives too. Is your marriage struggling? There is an app for that. We find it in the Scriptures. God tells you how to have a successful marriage. He tells you what the role of the husband is and what the role of the wife is. Are you single and looking for the right person? There is a spiritual and biblical solution to that as well. Are your finances in a mess? There is a biblical and spiritual answer for that. God has told us to call on Him in our day of trouble.
Some might say, “I have tried this, and it didn’t work.”
“For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:6)
When was the last time you used the word immutable in a sentence? It probably wasn’t recently! But can you guess what immutable means?
If you guessed not changing, you’re right. If something is immutable, it is the same all the time. Of course, human beings (including you) are not immutable. Sometimes you do right, and sometimes you do wrong. You grow and you change. Your looks and likes change.
But God doesn’t change. Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Think of it:
Continue reading Kids 4 Truth International – God Is Immutable
Today’s Scripture: Ephesians 4:22,24
“Put off your old self . . . and . . . put on the new self.”
Sometimes we get the impression that the Christian life consists mainly of negative prohibitions. These are definitely an important part of our spiritual discipline, as attested by the fact that eight of the Ten Commandments are prohibitions (Exodus 20:1-19). We need the prohibitions set forth not just in the Ten Commandments but in all the life-application sections of the New Testament. Indwelling sin needs the constant restraint of being denied its gratification.
The Christian life, however, should also be directed toward positive expressions of Christian character. All of Paul’s ethical teaching is characterized by this twofold approach of putting off the old self and putting on the new self (as in Ephesians 4:21-24).
Continue reading The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Put Off, Put On
Today’s Scripture: Genesis 10-11
“Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” – John 8:12
In early biblical records, we find man doing exactly what he’s doing today–making plans based on his egotistical pride and rebellious heart. In Genesis 11 we find man determined to construct a world without God, and so he began a massive effort to build a tower–the tower of Babel–to make himself a name, to take his future into his own hands, to grab the steering wheel of history so that the kingdom of human reason replaces the kingdom of God.
I know a young man who had a careful Christian upbringing. He was involved in Bible classes during the week, Sunday school, and all the right things. But during his junior high days, he decided to go his own way. And he’s been doing that for years. Some time ago, I went to visit him in jail and sat by his mother. Tears were running down her cheeks, and her heart was broken for this son who had committed robbery and was now serving time.
Continue reading The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Who’s Steering?
2015 was an important year for a lot of reasons, but for the nerd community, one of the biggest milestones came on October 21—the day Marty McFly from “Back to the Future” arrived in a time-traveling DeLorean from 1985. Most of the film’s predictions didn’t pan out. Even though the Chicago Cubs came close to the World Series.
But when Marty McFly stumbled into an advertisement for “Jaws 19,” his sojourn in 2015 came eerily close to ours. As Ross Douthat points out in The New York Times, the fact that the top-earning flick of last year was the seventh installment in a saga that was already classic in Marty’s time says a lot about the state of Hollywood.
Consider that “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” dethroned a fourth “Jurassic Park” film at the box office and comes from a director who just rebooted Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek.” All of this in a cinematic climate dominated by recycled Marvel and DC comics personalities from the 1950s to 70s.
Continue reading BreakPoint – Death Stars and Déjà Vu: Hollywood is out of Ideas
Read Matthew 27:38-56; Psalm 22
As the poet John Donne wrote, no man is an island. Like it or not, the way others treat us affects how we feel about ourselves. People who inform our self-perception are usually parents and leaders. Their attention to our needs confirms our value. But what happens when they ignore our cries for help?
We sometimes think that Jesus didn’t experience this human struggle, but His response to the Father’s silence reveals His emotional anguish on the cross. When criticism surrounded Him during His ministry, His Father’s affirmation sustained Him.
But through the long, torturous night of His trial and resulting crucifixion, God the Father seemed silent.
Like His ancestor David, Jesus had entrusted His honor to God, remaining silent before His accusers rather than engaging in a heated self-defense. He clung to His identity as God’s beloved Son, an identity confirmed by His Father (see Matt. 3:17). But as wave after wave of mockery, abuse, and false testimony crashed against Him, Jesus felt weaker and ever more alone.
Continue reading Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – JESUS: SHAME IN ABANDONMENT
At least three winning tickets were sold for last night’s $1.5 billion Powerball drawing. If one of them wasn’t yours, don’t be surprised—the odds were not in your favor.
You are 1071 times more likely to be struck by lightening; 428 times more likely to be crushed by a meteor; fifty times more likely to be killed by a shark; and fifteen times more likely to be canonized as a saint (though being elected pope helps greatly).
What would you do with $1.5 billion? Most people think immediately of what they would buy. But most of what they would buy is more than they need: a gigantic mansion, a new Lamborghini, a personal jet. Why do we want more than we need?
Consider Donald “Chip” Pugh of Lima, Ohio. After he allegedly failed to appear in court, city police posted his mug shot on Facebook. Mr. Pugh didn’t like his picture, so he took a selfie of himself in a suit and sunglasses which he forwarded with the explanation, “Here is a better photo that one is terrible.” He remains at large this morning.
Continue reading Denison Forum – WHY YOU DIDN’T WIN THE POWERBALL LOTTERY
DAILY DEVOTIONS, NEWS AND INFORMATION 