Monthly Archives: January 2016

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – To Keep You From Sin

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“How can a young man stay pure? By reading Your Word and following its rules. I have tried my best to find You – don’t let me wander off from Your instructions. I have thought much about Your words, and stored them in my heart so that they would hold me back from sin” (Psalm 119:9-11).

Carl, a Christian leader who had made a mess of his life, wept as he shared his defeat. “As a young Christian, “he said, “I was warned that God’s Word would keep me from sin, or sin would keep me from God’s Word.

“For many years,” he continued, “I studied and obeyed God’s Word faithfully. A few years ago I became very busy and took less and less time for God’s Word. So when temptation came, I had no strength to resist. Now my life and marriage have disintegrated and I am thinking of committing suicide.”

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Ray Stedman

Ray Stedman – Life with God

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Read: John 6:41-59

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. (John 6:56)

Those marvelous words represent what was apparently a very offensive statement to these Jews. It sounds that way even to us if we take his words literally. Talk about eating human flesh and drinking human blood turns many people off. Evidently those listening to Jesus felt that way. You can hear the cynicism in their voices: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? What does he think we are—cannibals? This was most offensive to Jews because they had been taught all through the centuries that God did not want flesh in which there remained any blood. The word kosher means to cleanse; and it particularly refers to the preparation of meat. The Jews cannot eat any meat that has not had all the blood drained from it.

But in these words our Lord reveals the absolute necessity for receiving his life: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. That is unequivocal, isn’t it? There is no doubting what he has to say. This is absolutely essential to real life. If you do not have this, you are on a temporary slide into ultimate corruption and total death. The most you can do is merely preserve your life for awhile, and hold death at arm’s length. But death is inevitable unless you know the One who gives life. Then Jesus shows how that life is real: For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. It is the real kind of life that God intends for us.

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Words of Hope

Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Fan, Follower, or Fanatic?

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Read: Mark 3:7-19

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. (v. 13 NIV)

I’m not a very good golfer, but I really want to be. OK, that’s not totally true. If I really wanted to get better, I would actually do something about it—stop whining and getting angry, and do something. I would take lessons and then I would practice. You can’t get better at anything complicated, whether it’s golf or playing the piano or learning a language without practice, practice, practice.

I mention this because the same thing is true about knowing Christ better. Many people are like the crowds surrounding Jesus. They were fans of Jesus, enthusiastic about his teaching and miracles. But they weren’t genuine followers, because they didn’t really know who he was. However, in that crowd of fans were also some followers, sincere believers who followed him everywhere. They were actually committed to him and did what he said.

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Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; C.P. – Eternal Mindset

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This world is a dangerous place to live. No one will make it out alive. Yet the Christian need not be worried, fearful, hateful, or bitter. Instead, believers in Jesus are to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and temperate.

The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.

Proverbs 18:10

To maintain these qualities during difficulties, people must turn to God as their refuge and seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit. Today’s verse depicts the Lord as a tower that serves as both a place of shelter as well as protection. As you run to Him, you also realize God does not think like humans do. He looks at people and circumstances from an eternal perspective. He’s not overly concerned about His children being comfortable. He’s more concerned for eternal souls.

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Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Closer Than We Think

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Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.—2 Kings 6:17

We often imagine Heaven as a faraway place. We automatically think it is beyond our solar system. But the Bible doesn’t say that Heaven is far away. Maybe Heaven is closer than we think. Heaven is another realm. Right now as we live in this physical realm, there is also a supernatural realm.

In 2 Kings 7 we find a classic example of how God can work both naturally and supernaturally at the same time. Supernaturally God cleared out Israel’s enemies, the Syrians, by allowing them to hear the noise of an approaching army, complete with chariots and galloping horses. This wasn’t an illusion or sleight of hand. This was a glimpse behind the veil into the supernatural realm.

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Kids 4 Truth

Kids 4 Truth International – God Is a Tenderhearted Father

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“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.” (Psalm 103:13)

One day Laurie and her sister Caroline came home from school, and both of their parents met them at the door. Their dad never came home from work in the middle of the day. They knew something must be wrong.

“Girls,” said their dad without his usual smile, “I have some sad news. Your grandpa died this morning.”

They sat down on the couch, their daddy in the middle with an arm around each of them. And Laurie and Caroline cried. Caroline looked up finally and noticed a tear rolling down her daddy’s cheek. She could hardly believe her eyes! She had never seen her daddy cry before. “He must really miss Grandpa too,” she thought. Later she realized that her dad was crying, not just because he missed Grandpa. He was crying for his daughters because they were sad.

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The Navigators

The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Leaving the Path

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Today’s Scripture: 2 Samuel 11-14

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. – Psalm 51:4

Every time I read the story of David and Bathsheba, I watch in horror as David, the man of God, falls into immorality and murder. What prompted this godly man to fall into such sin? I believe the Bible gives us a number of reasons.

First of all, he was not where he was supposed to be. This was the time of year when kings went forth to battle. David, as commander in chief, should have been with his soldiers, leading the army on the field. When we wander away from our duty, we can easily fall into sin.

Second, it appears that David was indulging a slothful spirit. Why do I suspect that? Because the record tells us that David arose from his bed at eventide. He had dozed away the whole afternoon! David’s bed of sloth soon turned into a bed of lust.

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The Navigators

The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Practical Christian Living

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Today’s Scripture: Matthew 5:16

“Let your light shine before others.”

In a series of moral exhortations in Titus 2:1?:2 we find three instances where Paul emphasized the importance of our Christian testimony before unbelievers. In verse 5, he said, “that the word of God may not be reviled.” In verse 8: “so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.” And in verse 10: “so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our savior.”

Paul was obviously concerned about the witness by life of the believers. In Romans he said to the Jews, “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (2:24, NIV), and he must have had a similar concern about the Cretan Christians to whom Titus ministered.

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BreakPoint

BreakPoint –  Now THIS Will Change the Climate

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One of the newest and most-rapidly spreading memes in popular science is what’s being dubbed the “Anthropocene.” According to this meme, human beings are having such an impact on the environment, especially the climate, that we’ve entered a new geological age.

That’s exactly the point a recent article that British geologist Colin Waters and his colleagues recently made in the journal Science. They argue that the combination of the “rapid global spread of novel materials including aluminum, concrete and plastics” and “fossil-fuel combustion,” and the “atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons” has produced “rapid environmental change” sufficient to call our times a new geological age.

Now to put this in perspective, the last shift in geological ages from the Pleistocene to the current Holocene, saw the end of the Ice Age. Average global temperatures rose 20 degrees in a century, drastically more than the worst-case scenario 3.5 degrees spike that climate change activists talk about today. Sea levels rose 400 feet, as compared to the one-to-two feet being worried about today. And when was the last time anyone saw a mammoth or sabre-tooth cat strolling down Sunset Boulevard?

Talk about the Anthropocene combines disdain for our species with an almost comically-inflated view of our power over the rest of creation.

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Uncategorized

Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – ADULTEROUS WOMAN: PROVISION FOR SHAME

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Read John 8:1-11

Try to imagine this scene: a woman is on trial for a crime that everyone knows she has committed. The judge renders the verdict of “Guilty!” But then the judge steps down from the bench and offers to take the punishment in her place. The woman is left standing, free from guilt before the law but not free from shame before the crowd. They all know what she did.

In our reading today, a woman was caught in the act of adultery. She stood silent before her accusers, defenseless before the Law and the crowd. Her guilt and her shame were exposed and confirmed by all.

What would Jesus say to this woman? God the Father once carved the Law on tablets of stone; now the fingers of God the Son etched a pattern in the temple dust. The Law was not wrong to condemn adultery. Using it as a weapon to justify self-righteousness at the expense of someone else, however, was wrong. Jesus demonstrated how to uphold both the Law and God’s original intent for it.

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – WHAT WOULD MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SAY ABOUT ABORTION?

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In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Act, proclaiming the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The next year, he proclaimed the third Sunday in January as National Sanctity of Human Life Day.

As a result, today we honor Dr. King. Yesterday, thousands of churches across the country honored the sanctity of life. What would Martin Luther King Jr. say about abortion and the cause of life?

Planned Parenthood gave Dr. King its Margaret Sanger Award in 1966. However, at that time the organization was still publishing a pamphlet that stated, “Is birth control abortion? Definitely not. An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun. It is dangerous to your life and health.” The organization supported birth control but opposed abortion and changed its stance on the latter years after Dr. King was assassinated.

According to his niece, Dr. Alveda C. King, her uncle “was pro-life, pro-abstinence before marriage, and based his views on the unchanging Word of God.” Dr. King was assassinated five years before the Supreme Court legalized abortion. Were he alive today, I wonder what he would say about the sanctity of life, in his own words.

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Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Times of Trouble

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Psalms 46:2-11

During this life, hard times are inevitable. Some watch a loved one suffer and die; others are wrongly accused or mistreated. People endure crippling ailments. The range of human pain is broad, but there is only one place of true comfort.

Today’s passage speaks of great calamities, some from natural causes and some caused by men (Ps. 46:2, 6). Such trials often bewilder us, but verse 10 tells us where to turn: God’s followers should be still and remember He’s the sovereign Lord of the universe. In our world of smart phones and deadlines, it’s sometimes hard to stop even for a moment. But the key to dealing with difficulty lies in trusting the One who is in control of all things.

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — A Hint of Heaven

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Read: 1 Corinthians 14:6-12,26

Bible in a Year: Genesis 41-42; Matthew 12:1-23

Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church. —1 Corinthians 14:12

The world-class botanical garden across the street from our church was the setting for an all-church community gathering. As I walked around the gardens greeting people I have known for years, catching up with those I hadn’t seen recently, and enjoying the beautiful surroundings cared for by people who know and love plants, I realized that the evening was rich with symbols of how the church is supposed to function—a little hint of heaven on earth.

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John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Strength for Today – Gentleness: Power Under Control

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“Walk . . . with all . . . gentleness” (Ephesians 4:1-2).

The antidote to our vengeful, violent society is biblical gentleness.

A popular bumper sticker says, “Don’t Get Mad—Get Even.” People demand what they perceive to be their rights, no matter how the demand harms others. Some go to court to squeeze every last cent out of those who hurt them. More and more violent crimes are committed each year. We need a strong dose of biblical truth to cure these attitudes. The biblical solution is gentleness.

The world might interpret gentleness or meekness as cowardice, timidity, or lack of strength. But the Bible describes it as not being vengeful, bitter, or unforgiving. It is a quiet, willing submission to God and others without the rebellious, vengeful self-assertion that characterizes human nature.

The Greek word translated “gentleness” was used to speak of a soothing medicine. It was used of a light, cool breeze and of a colt that had been broken and tamed, whose energy could be channeled for useful purposes. It also descrbes one who is tenderhearted, pleasant, and mild.

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Wisdom Hunters

Wisdom Hunters – Doubt God 

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Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.  He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Genesis 3:1

Satan’s first goal is to get you. If he is unable to get you, his next step is to get you to doubt God. After all, what good is faith that is watered down by doubt? This isn’t to say we may not go through seasons of doubt as disciples of Christ. But doubt is not the ongoing pattern of a serious and faithful follower of Jesus. Thomas was a doubter for a time, but when he came face-to-face with his resurrected Savior and Lord, his doubts fled like an exposed bandit. Do not underestimate the enemy’s endeavors to get you to doubt God. If he is successful in planting and growing seeds of doubt, your faith will be stunted. Your faith will be choked to death by the weeds of worry, by the crabgrass cares in this world.

In some ways, it was easier to trust God when you first believed. Now that you have aged in years as a Christian, you may have formalized your faith to the point where the miraculous has been replaced by the mundane. Questions and doubt have replaced God’s promises of assurance.

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Practice Makes Perfect

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You shall walk after the Lord your God and [reverently] fear Him . . . and obey His voice. . . . —Deuteronomy 13:4

Once we begin listening to and hearing from God, it is important to obey whatever we hear Him say. Obedience increases our quality of fellowship with Him and strengthens our faith. We might say, “Practice makes perfect” when it comes to hearing and obeying Him. In other words, we become more and more confident as we gain experience.

It takes a lot of practice to reach the point of complete submission to God’s leading. Even knowing that God’s ways are perfect and that His plans always work, we still feign ignorance sometimes when He asks us to do something that requires personal sacrifice, or we might even be afraid that we are not hearing clearly and therefore become too cautious to take action.

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Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – How to Skip Judgment

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“Now I say that each believer should confess his sins to God when he is aware of them, while there is time to be forgiven. Judgment will not touch him if he does” (Psalm 32:6).

Mary had rebelled against the preaching of her Nazarene father, a godly pastor. She lived with her boy friend in open defiance of her biblical teaching. Now, God was disciplining her because of disobedience. She was miserable, filled with hate and resentment, when a mutual friend brought her to my office for counsel.

I shared with Mary that just as a loving father disciplines a disobedient child, so God in His love for us disciplines us when we are disobedient. Actually, “child training” would be a more accurate way of describing what God does for us when we are disobedient.

Like Mary, many Christians unnecessarily go through all kinds of adversity: financial, emotional, marital and family problems, and even physical illness. More often than not, God is trying to get their attention. But because they refuse to listen and obey Him, they are disciplined and their misery continues.

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Ray Stedman

Ray Stedman -What are You Working For?

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Read: John 6:22-40

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval. (John 6:27)

It is very clear from this passage that these people greatly misunderstood who our Lord was, what he was doing, and what he said to them. No other passage of Scripture more clearly reveals the confusion in the average person’s mind about Jesus.

Notice what Jesus must correct about their confusion: First, he says to them, Do not work for the food that perishes. He is not, of course, saying, Do not work for a living. Jesus is not advocating that. What he means is, Do not work merely to get food. Food is important. It is necessary for life, and you have to earn it. But do not let that be the sole reason for your working. Rather, Work for the food which endures to eternal life.

These people, like many today, clearly felt that the most important thing in life is to keep alive, to be healthy, strong and economically sufficient. That was what life was all about, they thought. Clearly the majority of people all over the world today have this view that this is why people work.

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Words of Hope

Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Like Little Children

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Read: Matthew 18:1-4

Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (v. 3 NIV)

When Jesus spoke these famous words, he did not mean that children are innocent. Only someone who has never raised a toddler believes that children are innocent. Jesus explained his meaning with the word “humble.” He didn’t mean that children are selfless. Indeed, they can be incredibly self-centered; just ask the weary mother of a screaming child. Jesus was pointing to the dependency of children. Little children depend on others for guidance and help: “Mommy, will you help me? I’m hungry. I’m hurt.” They simply assume that they will get the help they need, because they rely on Mom and Dad.

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Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; J.R.- Strife and Stomachaches

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December 7, 1941, the Sunday Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, was called the “date which will live in infamy” by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. But there was another date of infamy involving Japan and the United States – on January 9, 1992. That was the day when President George H.W. Bush, attending an elaborate state dinner in Tokyo, became suddenly ill and threw up on Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. Even worse, the embarrassing incident was replayed endlessly on television news shows around the world.

Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife.

Proverbs 17:1

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