Daily Archives: January 24, 2017

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –What God Thinks of Slothfulness

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Ephesians 2:8-10

Slothfulness is an act of rebellion toward the Lord. He created us with a sense of purpose so that we would be productive. When we choose to be lazy, we are guilty of wastefulness because we have each received a special gift that is being squandered (1 Peter 4:10).

Lazy people live in a bubble of self-absorption. The only thing that matters to them is that they get what they want. This is in direct conflict with Scripture, which says we are to regard one another as more important than ourselves (Phil. 2:3). For instance, when we are deliberately slow on the job, we are not regarding our boss as important.

We are called to walk in discipline and service to God, and He is displeased if we approach work with a negligent attitude (Jer. 48:10). Whatever we do in life, God will reward us for doing it well. I bagged groceries and washed cars to make money for school. No matter what the task was, I always worked in the best way I knew how. That was something I learned from my mother, who worked 40 years in a textile mill and never complained.

People often make excuses for their laziness—they blame their home environment, poor self-esteem, or a negative attitude. But God does not accept our excuses. He gives us clear instructions for overcoming laziness: “Go to the ant, O sluggard; observe her ways and be wise” (Prov. 6:6). The ant works, prepares, and provides. In other words, we are to work with diligence in all that we do. Our personal responsibility to Jesus Christ is always to give our best effort.

Bible in One Year: Exodus 25-27

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Not In Vain

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Read: 1 Corinthians 15:50–58

Bible in a Year: Exodus 9–11; Matthew 15:21–39

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.—1 Corinthians 15:58

A financial advisor I know describes the reality of investing money by saying, “Hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.” With almost every decision we make in life there is uncertainty about the outcome. Yet there is one course we can follow where no matter what happens, we know that in the end it will not be a wasted effort.

The apostle Paul spent a year with the followers of Jesus in Corinth, a city known for its moral corruption. After he left, he urged them in a follow-up letter not to be discouraged or feel that their witness for Christ was of no value. He assured them that a day is coming when the Lord will return and even death will be swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:52-55).

Remaining true to Jesus may be difficult, discouraging, and even dangerous, but it is never pointless or wasted. As we walk with the Lord and witness to His presence and power, our lives are not in vain! We can be sure of that. —David McCasland

Lord, in these days of uncertainty, we hold fast to Your promise that our labor for You will accomplish Your purpose and be of great value in Your eyes.

Our life and witness for Jesus Christ are not in vain.

INSIGHT: In the fourth century, John Chrysostom, a church leader who served in Constantinople, reflected the same expectation of the return of Christ we hold today. Imagine living in the ancient city of Constantinople. To the west, barbarian tribes threaten to attack Rome, which for centuries has been the center of the vast Roman Empire. Your city is not currently under attack, but you face the challenges people of the ancient world experienced without the assistance of modern medicine and mechanical devices to make life easier. Yet above it all, Chrysostom preaches to the people about the return of Christ. To ears who listened then, the hope of Christ’s return stirred the soul as it still does today. How does the promise of Christ’s return give you hope and encouragement in your service for Christ? Dennis Fisher

 

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Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – While We Were Yet Estranged

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“You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?”(1)

C.S. Lewis, the self-named most reluctant and dejected convert in all England, penned this now famous and oft-quoted account of his conversion. Unlike some who decided to follow Jesus with urgency and willingness of heart, Lewis came kicking and screaming! While some may resonate with Lewis’s dogged reluctance, others gladly pursue the path home.

Lewis’s reluctant conversion fascinates me, but I am even more moved by the glimpse into God’s character his story affords. For Lewis reminds us of the love of God that relentlessly pursues even the reluctant prodigal who would turn and run in the opposite direction in order to try and escape God’s gracious embrace. The God revealed in Lewis’s account is a God in pursuit. Perhaps this God is even particularly enamored with the reluctant prodigal, leaving the ninety-nine sheep, as Jesus insists in Luke’s gospel, to pursue the one lost sheep.

The apostle Paul, who described himself as “the chief of sinners,” often talked about this God in pursuit. In what is perhaps the apex of his letter to the Romans, Paul writes: “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous person; though perhaps for the good someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates God’s own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of the Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”(2)

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – The Blame Game

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No temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently. —1 Corinthians 10:13

Years ago, a comedian’s favorite punch line was, “The devil made me do it.” The audience roared. Why did people laugh so hard? Was it because they wanted it to be true? Did they want to absolve themselves of responsibility for their actions by pointing to an outside force?

It’s always easy to blame someone else or outside forces for our actions. We hear people all the time who tell us, “My father never said a kind word to me.” “My cousin abused me.” “People in our neighborhood shunned me because I wore old and patched clothes.” “I never had money when I was growing up, so now as soon as my paycheck comes, it’s gone.”

Those statements are probably true, and they may explain why we suffer. Those are terrible situations, and it’s sad that people should have to go through such pain in their lives.

Yet we don’t have the right to blame other people or circumstances for our behavior. We can’t use them as an excuse to stay in bondage. Christ came to set us free. In the opening verse, Paul makes it clear that all of us have our own set of temptations, and for each of us, the circumstances may be different. But the promise God gives is the certainty of a way to escape, regardless of our circumstances. The escape is provided, but we must make use of it.

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Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Christ Our Attorney

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“If anyone publicly acknowledges Me as his friend, I will openly acknowledge him as My friend before My Father in heaven. But if anyone publicly denies Me, I will openly deny him before My Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:32,33).

Some time ago, I challenged a famous and successful statesman to share his Christian faith.

“I believe that religion is personal and private, not something to wear on your sleeve,” he replied. “I am a Christian, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

I reminded him that Jesus loved him enough to die for him. His disciples were so convinced of the urgency of passing on to others the message of God’s love and forgiveness through Christ that they, and many thousands like them – though they died as martyrs – did not give up their efforts to get the message to us.

Further, I reminded him of the words of Jesus, “He that is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30, KJV) and the passage above from Matthew 10.

He was very sobered by my remarks. After a few minutes, he said, “I agree with you. I realize how wrong I have been. I had never realized how far off course I had gotten. I need to rethink all of my priorities and give Christ His rightful place in my life.”

“My challenge to laymen,” R. G. Le Tourneau, one of America’s leading industrialists and Christian statesmen, once said, “is that when Christ said, ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel,’ He did not mean only preachers but everyone who believed in Him as the Lord of glory…….My challenge to you is for a return to this first-century conception of Christianity where every believer is a witness to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Bible Reading: Psalm 119:41-48

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Today I will publicly acknowledge my love for Christ, and through the enabling of the Holy Spirit I will live today so that others will want what I have, and I will speak so that they will know what I have.

 

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Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Grace for the Mess

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The wasted years of life. The poor choices of life. God answers the mess of life with one word: grace! Grace. We know the word. The bank gives us a grace period. The seedy politician falls from grace. Grace shares the church parsonage with its cousins: forgiveness, faith, and fellowship. But do we really understand it? We’ve settled for wimpy grace. It politely occupies a phrase in a hymn and fits nicely on a church sign.

Have you been changed by grace? Shaped by grace? Strengthened by grace? Softened by grace? God’s grace has a drenching about it. A wildness about it. Grace comes after you! From insecure to God-secure. From afraid-to-die to ready-to-fly. Grace is the word that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off!

From God’s With You Every Day

 

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – A surprising solution for stressful times

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Sales of stationery are booming. Writing pads, drawing sets, diaries, and binders are all selling at levels unseen in years. What is happening here?

Public relations entrepreneur Angela Ceberano has an explanation: “Sometimes, I just want to get rid of all the technology and sit down in a quiet space with a pen and paper.” According to scientists, she’s onto something.

Research by Princeton University and UCLA showed that the pen is indeed mightier than the keyboard. In three studies, students who took notes longhand performed better on conceptual questions than those who took notes on laptops. Another study shows that people who doodle on paper can better recall dull information.

  1. S. Lewis never learned to type. Novelist Joyce Carol Oates writes all her books by longhand. Tom Wolfe used typewriters but couldn’t keep them maintained, so he wrote his last novel longhand. Danielle Steele writes all her books on a 1946 Olympia manual typewriter. P. J. O’Rourke uses a Selectric typewriter.

Creativity and simplicity are directly related. But these are not simple times.

It’s hard to read the news without angst these days. For instance, this morning’s Wall Street Journal reports that nascent peace talks in Syria are already in trouble as the government called rebels “armed terrorist groups” and the rebels refused to talk directly to the government. Today’s Los Angeles Times tells us that California Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency after storms caused flooding, erosion, and highway damage.

And today’s Wall Street Journal also reports that school districts across the country are closing due to another norovirus outbreak. “We think this is the most infectious group of pathogens that have ever been described,” one health expert says. Unsurprisingly, the American Psychological Association notes that 75 percent of adults experienced moderate to high levels of stress in the past month.

There’s an antidote to the anxiety of our age, however.

David rejoiced that his Shepherd “leads me beside still waters” (Psalm 23:2). Zephaniah assured his people that their Lord would “quiet you by his love” (Zephaniah 3:17). From these texts, I draw this conclusion: if my “waters” are not “still,” I am not following my Shepherd. If my soul is not “quiet,” I am not fully experiencing his love.

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