Daily Archives: February 21, 2016

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – A Powerful Love

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Read | Luke 15:11-32

When we read about the Prodigal Son, our focus is usually on God’s amazing love, which is demonstrated by the father in the parable. We delight in knowing that the Lord responds to us the same way when we stray from Him. But today, I want to look at our responsibility to love others. No matter how difficult the situation, God has given believers in Christ the capacity to respond with this same kind of love.

Let go. Though he had every right to refuse his second son’s foolish request, this father understood that the young man had already left home in his heart. There may be times in our lives when the most loving thing we can do is also the most difficult—to step back and let a loved one go his or her own way. When you hang on and try to control the outcome, you may actually get in God’s way.

Wait. Once we have let go, we must then wait patiently for the Lord to do His work in that person’s life. Did you notice that the father didn’t go to search for his son? Even though he knew that pain and trouble would follow such a foolish decision, he chose to trust God instead of trying to fix the situation and protect his son from the consequences of his unwise choice. Continue reading Charles Stanley – A Powerful Love →

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — The View from the Mountain

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Read: Philippians 4:8-13

Bible in a Year: Numbers 1-3; Mark 3

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above. —Colossians 3:1

Our valley in Idaho can be very cold in the winter. Clouds and fog roll in and blanket the ground, trapping frigid air under warmer layers above. But you can get above the valley. There’s a road nearby that winds up the flank of Shafer Butte, a 7,500-foot mountain that rises out of our valley. A few minutes of driving and you break out of the fog and emerge into the warmth and brilliance of a sunlit day. You can look down on the clouds that shroud the valley below and see it from a different point of view.

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John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Strength for Today – God’s Great Mercy

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“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

Because of His mercy, God desires to lift sinners out of their pitiful condition.

Several years ago I spent about a week in India. Each day I saw countless starving, diseased people with no home but a few square feet of filthy street. I could not help but feel compassion and pity on those people who lived in such misery.

In a spiritual sense, though, before God saved us, we were each even more pathetic than any beggar in India. Spiritually, we “were dead in [our] trespasses and sins . . . and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:1, 3-5). God saw our wretched condition and was moved to do something about it.

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Wisdom Hunters

Wisdom Hunters – Love Always Hopes 

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Love always hopes.   1 Corinthians 13:7

Love always hopes. It hopes for the best and is prepared for the worst. It is hopeful because its hope is in the Lord. As the old hymn proclaims, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” When we love God we also hope in Him, because we are sure of His promises that transcend hope and provide assurance. Promises such as, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5b). Moreover, faith helps us be sure of what we hope for. As it says in Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Faith, hope, and love are all first cousins; they complement each other and support one another.

Love hopes because it knows the end of the story, for heaven is its destiny. It bridles its emotions to resist fear because love casts out fear (I John 4:18, NKJV). Hope conquers death and fear because Jesus has gone before us and done the same (Acts 2:23-24). Therefore, you can be hopeful because you get to hang out in heaven with your Lord and Savior, Jesus. But there is something just as big that you can hope for in real time. You can hope that others you love will place their faith in Jesus Christ.

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – According to Your Gift

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Having gifts (faculties, talents, qualities) that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them: [He whose gift is] prophecy, [let him prophesy] according to the proportion of his faith; [He whose gift is] practical service, let him give himself to serving; he who teaches, to his teaching.—Romans 12:6-7

It’s a time-tested truth: Most people who criticize others for what they are doing are usually doing nothing themselves. It is sad when people have nothing better to do than criticize those who are trying to do something to make the world a better place.

I recall being a member of one church in which the pastor felt that any woman who wanted to do anything other than pray, clean, or work in the nursery had to present her case to him and the elders for their approval. I was teaching a very successful home Bible study, and the pastor told my husband he should be teaching the meeting rather than me. The pastor had his rules, but God had called me to teach, and He had not called Dave in that way. Dave has other wonderful, valuable gifts, but he is not called to teach. Surely if God had not wanted me to teach, He would not have gifted me to do it—and given me a desire to do it. As far as I can discern from Scripture, God is not in the business of frustrating and confusing people.

Lord, thank You for the spiritual gift You’ve given me. Direct me in how to use it to glorify Your name. Amen.

From the book The Confident Woman Devotional: 365 Daily Devotions by Joyce Meyer

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Hunger and Thirst

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“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6, KJV).

Do you hunger and thirst after righteousness, for the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit in your life? If so, you can claim that fullness and power right now by faith.

“The great difference between present-day Christianity and that of which we read in these letters (New Testament epistles),” declared J.B. Phillips in his introduction to the Letters to Young churches, “is that to us it is primarily a performance; to them it was a real experience.

“We are apt to reduce the Christian religion to a code, or, at best, a rule of heart and life. To these men it is quite plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They do not hesitate to describe this as Christ living in them.”

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Ray Stedman

Ray Stedman – Word for the Discouraged

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Read: Isaiah 49:8-26

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. (Isaiah 49:15-16)

Here Jehovah reminds Israel, Though you may feel neglected and forgotten, I cannot cast you off. I will never forget you, Can a mother forget the baby at her breast? Proverbially, of course, a mother’s love is the strongest love of all. Many mothers continue to love their children no matter what they do. But it is unfortunately true that mothers can forget their children. Mothers can forget their children, but God cannot: See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. We are reminded of that scene in the gospels when Jesus, after his resurrection, appeared to his frightened disciples, huddled together in the upper room, and said to them, Behold, my hands and my feet and see that it is I (Luke 24:39). Those wounds in his hands were marks of love and their very names were engraved in his hands.

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Words of Hope

Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Never Accept Milk from a Stranger

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Read: Judges 4:1-24

“Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink. (v. 19)

This is another wild and woolly story! Deborah (“Honeybee” in Hebrew) was judge of Israel, and not a word is mentioned about it being unusual that a woman occupied that position of power. The army was led by Barak (“Lightning” in Hebrew), but when it came to war, Lightning acted like a Honeybee and the Honeybee acted like Lightning. Not only does Barak need Deborah to tell him when to strike, he won’t even go to war unless Deborah comes along.

The word “hand” is the great thread that holds the story together. Israel suffered under the hand of Jabin (v. 2), Barak was told twice the army of Sisera would come into his hand (vv. 7, 14), Sisera fell under the hand of the deceitful Jael (vv. 9, 21), and the relentless hand of Israel brought Jabin into submission (v. 24).

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Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; G.C.- Skeletons

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“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton,” said George Bernard Shaw humorously, “you may as well make it dance.” A modern expression of that idea is the unabashed acceptance showered upon even the most broken parts of people’s lives rather than encouraging help. Think about the carnival of interpersonal conflict still engulfing transgendered television personality Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Bruce Jenner). Modern psychology says to embrace the change rather than question the craving. But even a sex change hasn’t brought Jenner peace from family strife or likely addressed his innermost wounds.

Who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.

Psalm 103:4

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Kids 4 Truth

Kids 4 Truth International – God Delights To Answer Prayer

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“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:11).

Regular readers, please see a special note for you at the foot of this devotional.*

When Michele was eleven, her best friend left their school to go to a different school. Michele’s class was small, and she didn’t feel close to any of the other three girls in the class. She wanted so much to have a best friend that she could talk to.

That summer before sixth grade, Michele’s mom said, “Why don’t you pray that God will send a new girl to your class next year to be your close friend?” She took her mom’s advice and started praying. But she didn’t have much faith. Where would a new girl come from? And even if a new girl did come, would she really want to be her friend? Michele dreaded the beginning of the new school year, because she didn’t believe God would answer her prayer.

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The Navigators

The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Pray or Work?

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Today’s Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:9

“For we are God’s fellow workers.”

Nehemiah understood well the principle that we’re both dependent and responsible. In rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, he faced great opposition from certain enemies of the Jews. When the Jews had rebuilt the wall to half its height, these enemies “all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night” (Nehemiah 4:8-9).

Note Nehemiah’s response to the threatened attack. His people prayed and posted a guard. He recognized his dependence on God, but he also accepted his responsibility to work—to stand guard.

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The Navigators

The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Did You Get That?

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Today’s Scripture: 2 Chronicles 6-9

Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, to make his mighty power known. – Psalm 106:8

One of the dangers we face as Christians is becoming so familiar with certain words and phrases that we fail to consider their meaning. For example, we know that God is an infinite being who is so powerful and so immense that the heavens cannot contain Him. He is infinitely above and beyond the boundaries of creation. Great! But what does that mean?

Some time ago, a Canadian astronomer working on a mountaintop in Chile sighted a supernova. It was the first such sighting since 1604. A supernova is an exploding star that in one second releases a burst of atomic particles with a force equal to all the energy the sun will give out in its lifetime of ten billion years–multiplied by 100. Did you get that? If this is what the creation can do, then what can God the Creator do?

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Today in the Word

Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – REST FROM OUR ENEMIES

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Read Luke 1:67-79

President Richard Nixon kept an infamous “enemies list,” detailed in a memo from former advisor Charles Colson. Nixon’s enemies were in fact people that he didn’t like—and this is probably true of many of the people we would consider to be our enemies today. They are either those we don’t like or those who don’t like us. For many Christians in countries around the world today, however, enemies are people who want to take their lives.

Divine protection is one of the blessings that Zechariah celebrates in his hymn of praise in today’s text. This song is often referred to as the Benedictus, a title that comes from the Latin translation of Zechariah’s first word, which is blessed.

Zechariah’s song is the counterpart to Mary’s hymn of praise in Luke 1:46–56 and expresses similar themes. The song begins with praise and then makes predictions about the life and ministry of Jesus and John the Baptist. Prior to this, Zechariah had been struck dumb for questioning God’s promise that he and his wife would have a son in their old age (see vv. 16–20). Zechariah’s song was more than a poetic composition. It was a prophetic utterance.

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