Monthly Archives: March 2017

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Trailer parks: the new retirement trend

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Disunity is making headlines this morning. Democrats are threatening to block Judge Neil Gorsuch’s path to the Supreme Court; Republicans are threatening to change Senate rules to allow a simple majority to confirm his nomination. The UK has formally begun its departure from the European Union while Scotland is taking steps toward independence.

Meanwhile, good news on unity comes from a source you might not have considered: trailer parks.

Let’s say you’re planning to retire to Florida so you can play golf, go to the beach, and generally enjoy life. But you don’t have the money for an expensive retirement village. According to today’s Time magazine, more and more people are moving into mobile homes located in senior adult trailer parks. For instance, one section of one Florida county features 150 trailer parks for seniors.

Their allure is not the mobile home but the community that surrounds it. Here, seniors go shopping and play games and look out for one another. They are safer and happier together than they are apart. They know intuitively what the Bible says explicitly: we are broken people in need of unity.

Do you feel a need for inner cohesion, a sense of centeredness in a conflicted and fragmented culture? I feel the same way. I’ve been meditating lately on this brief prayer by King David: “Unite my heart to fear your name” (Psalm 86:11). “Unite” translates the Hebrew yahed, meaning “to concentrate” or “to be joined exclusively to.” The “heart” in Jewish psychology is the center of our emotions and will. David prays that his life would be focused, centered, holistic, indivisible. He seeks to be one person in every dimension and circumstance of his life.

Three facts follow:

One: We are not who we need to be.

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Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –Our Rewards in Heaven

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Matthew 6:16-20

Have you ever thought about what type of rewards you are going to receive when you get to heaven? The Bible explains the criteria God will use to determine these rewards and what kind of conduct will deserve them. When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we will be judged on the basis of the light we have received—that is, the truth God has made available to us—and what we have done with the opportunities we were given.

Furthermore, we find that some specific actions and attitudes will result in certain rewards. For instance, we are told in the book of Matthew that there is a great reward stored up in heaven for those who are insulted and persecuted for Jesus’ sake (Matt. 5:11-12). Elsewhere, the Lord tells us that acts of kindness done for His followers will be noted and rewarded (Matt. 25:40). Even a cup of water given to a thirsty disciple will not be overlooked on judgment day (Matt. 10:42).

Included among the rewarded are those whom God calls to leave family and personal possessions for the sake of the gospel. Another action that draws the Father’s special attention is love directed toward our enemies. For this behavior, there will be a great reward, and we will be called “sons of the Most High” (Luke 6:35).

Sometimes others seem to prosper and reap a great harvest without even noticing how we prepared the soil. Yet God assures us that neither the one who plants nor the one who waters will be overlooked (1 Cor. 3:8). The Lord sees each detail, and everything done for His sake will be rewarded.

Bible in One Year: 1 Samuel 15-16

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread –Bearing Good Fruit

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Read: Psalm 1:1–3

Bible in a Year: Judges 4–6; Luke 4:31–44

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season.—Psalm 1:3

The view from my airplane window was striking: a narrow ribbon of ripening wheat fields and orchards wending between two barren mountains. Running through the valley was a river—life-giving water, without which there would be no fruit.

Just as a bountiful harvest depends on a source of clean water, the quality of the “fruit” in my life—my words, actions, and attitude—depends on my spiritual nourishment. The psalmist describes this in Psalm 1: The person “whose delight is in the law of the Lord . . . is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season” (vv. 1-3). And Paul writes in Galatians 5 that those who walk in step with the Spirit are marked by “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (vv. 22-23).

Sometimes my perspective on my circumstances turns sour, or my actions and words become persistently unkind. There is no good fruit, and I realize I haven’t spent time being quiet before the words of my God. But when the rhythm of my days is rooted in reliance on Him, I bear good fruit. Patience and gentleness characterize my interactions with others; it’s easier to choose gratitude over complaint.

The God who has revealed Himself to us is our source of strength, wisdom, joy, understanding, and peace (Ps. 119:28, 98, 111, 144, 165). As we steep our souls in the words that point us to Him, the work of God’s Spirit will be evident in our lives. —Peter Chin

God’s Spirit lives in His people, in order to work through them.

INSIGHT: This pictorial psalm with its word imagery is a suitable introduction for the entire library of prayer, praise, and reflection we know as the book of Psalms. In contrast to “the world” is the believer’s joy and pursuit of gleaning gems of spiritual truth in the Word of God. The law of the Lord is his object of meditation. The Hebrew word for meditate means to “digest over and over again like a cow who chews its cud.” This is a spiritual preoccupation that draws the believer to the Word both day and night (v. 2). The analogy of a “tree planted by streams of water” (v. 3) pictures for us the life-giving water and nutrients of the soil that cause plant life to flourish. The result of a life so rooted in the Word is the overflow of fruitfulness. Dennis Fisher

 

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – I Understand

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For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and liability to the assaults of temptation, but One Who has been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning.—Hebrews 4:15

As human beings, we have a deep need to be understood. When we don’t receive it, we feel lonely. In listening to people share their hurt and pain, I find that the words “I understand” have a very soothing effect. I have told my husband, “Even if you don’t have a clue about what I am talking about, just tell me you understand, and it will make me feel a lot better.”

A man could not possibly understand PMS, but it is better for him if he appears to have understanding of his wife’s plight. She needs to be understood. She does not want to feel alone in her pain and struggle. One day my husband came in from trying to play golf. He had not had a good experience because his leg was hurting and swollen. He was not too happy about it. His golf game is really important to him, so I said, “I understand how you feel.” I offered him whatever help I could give physically, but my understanding seemed to help more than anything.

There have been times in the past when my attitude has been, “What’s the big deal? It’s only one round of golf. After all, you play all the time.” That attitude has started arguments and driven a wedge between us. He wants me to understand his needs, and I want him to understand mine.

One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is Hebrews 4:15, which teaches that Jesus is a High Priest who understands our weaknesses and infirmities because He has been tempted in every respect just as we have, yet He never sinned. Just knowing that Jesus understands makes me feel closer to Him. It helps me be vulnerable and trust Him. It helps me feel connected rather than lonely.

From the book New Day, New You by Joyce Meyer.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – The Holy Spirit Enlightens

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“But the man who isn’t a Christian can’t understand and can’t accept these thoughts from God, which the Holy Spirit teaches us. They sound foolish to him, because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means. Others just can’t take it in” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Though I have been a Christian for more than 35 years, I still have much to learn. I am far from perfect. And I do not ever expect to be – in this lifetime. Only our Lord Jesus Christ was without sin.

However, I know from experience that the more time I spend with God through reading, studying, memorizing and meditating on His Word, with the help of the Holy Spirit to interpret God’s truth to me, the more I become like our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

When you spend time daily in Bible reading and study, your life will change. After reading God’s Word consistently for several months, you will be amazed by the things God has done in your life.

How can we understand the Bible? How can we experience its life-changing influence in our lives?

The non-believer and the disobedient, carnal Christian have difficulty in understanding the Bible because they must rely on their human faculties in their attempt to understand things that are of a spiritual nature in God’s Word.

As Paul writes to the church at Corinth,” …the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (KJV).

Bible Reading: I Corinthians 2:9-13

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  Since the Holy Spirit inspired holy men of old to record God’s Word, the Bible, I will ask Him to interpret God’s message to my own life, and today I will encourage someone, or several others, to depend upon the Holy Spirit and to join me in living a supernatural life for the glory of God.

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – A Finished Work

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Do you want to go to heaven? It doesn’t matter how religious you are or how many rules you keep. You need a new birth; you need to be “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5-6 NLT).

Religious rule keeping can sap your strength. It’s endless! No prison is as endless as the prison of perfection. Her inmates never know when they are finished. Christ, however, gifts you with a finished work. He fulfilled the law for you at the Cross. Gone is the fear that having done everything, you might not have done enough. You climb the stairs, not by your strength, but his.

God pledges to help those who stop trying to help themselves. “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6 NIV). God will change you, my friend, from the inside out!

From Next Door Savior

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Tom Brady and other bad news

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Some bad news stories are easier to take than others. For instance, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft says that Tom Brady is willing to play for six or seven more years. Fans of the thirty-one other NFL teams are not happy about this news.

Meanwhile, a “supermassive” black hole that can devour anything in its path is hurtling through space at five million miles an hour. However, it is currently eight billion light-years from Earth, so we’re safe for the moment. And my least favorite vegetable is in the news: scientists have converted a spinach leaf into a tiny, beating human heart muscle.

Other bad news is beyond terrible. The families of those who were killed by Khalid Masood last week in London are continuing to grieve their senseless and tragic loss. Those injured in the attack are trying to recover.

Two victims I hadn’t considered are Masood’s wife and mother. His wife issued a statement this morning: “I am saddened and shocked by what Khalid has done. I totally condemn his actions. I express my condolences to the families of the victims that have died, and wish a speedy recovery to all the injured.” And his mother is telling reporters that she has “shed many tears for the people caught up in this horrendous incident.” Today they are grieving Masood’s death and all the deaths he caused. I cannot imagine such pain.

Where is the Christian faith when we face life’s darkest days?

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Kids 4 Truth

Kids 4 Truth International – God Doesn’t Play Favorites

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“Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.” (Acts 10:34b)

“Hey, let’s play kickball!” someone yelled.

“Yeah!” shouted some of the other kids around the playground.

“Ok, we need to make teams then. Ben and Jamie, you can be the captains to choose the teams.”

Group games can be a lot of fun, but the waiting-to-be-picked part can be torture sometimes, especially if you are never among the first to be chosen. As you stand there waiting for someone to say your name, it’s easy to think, “Oh, why couldn’t I be a fast runner like Jenny?” or “Why can’t I throw far like Andrew? If I were better, then I know I’d get picked sooner!”

Or perhaps you are just “different” somehow. Maybe your skin color is different, or maybe you do not have the same kind of family background as the other kids in your neighborhood. Your wish might be, “Oh, if I only looked like the other kids!” or “If only my family were normal!”

But did you know that there is Someone who does not judge you by your abilities (or lack of them!) or by your appearance?

Acts 10:34b-35 says, “God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”

What a comfort! God does not love us less or more based on how talented or impressive we are. More than that, God does not judge us according to where we come from. In fact, it was the Apostle Peter who said these words to a group of people who were considered to be “different” from him. What is important to God is that we honor and obey Him!

Continue reading Kids 4 Truth International – God Doesn’t Play Favorites →

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –Building for Eternal Rewards

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1 Corinthians 3:10-15

Today’s passage contains a sobering message about heavenly rewards and how they are acquired. Paul is comparing kingdom work to the efforts of a master builder. He says Christ is the only foundation on which to build, but each of us is responsible for the materials we use on that foundation. We can build with wood, hay, and stubble or with gold and costly stones. Each man’s work will be tested with fire in the judgment in order to determine the quality of the materials used. Paul then tells us that if our works survive the trial by fire, we will receive a reward (1 Cor. 3:14).

For our works to survive, we must learn to build with nonflammable materials. God deplores shoddy effort. We will be judged not just by our “church work” but also by the way we handled other responsibilities, such as our vocation. This means that we are to go about our daily jobs with the same diligence that we would show when serving the heavenly Father in spiritual matters.

In order to accomplish this, we must avoid practices like criticizing the boss, manipulating circumstances to our own advantage, checking in late, leaving work early, and using company materials for personal projects. This is a test of genuine Christianity.

Ask yourself if you’re being real with the Lord. Remember, He knows the truth of every situation—and He abhors laziness and poor workmanship. Our Father expects us to do our very best, and He has given us His Spirit to sanctify our efforts and provide the quality of work that He desires.

Bible in One Year: 1 Samuel 12-14

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Image Management

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Read: Isaiah 43:1–9

Bible in a Year: Judges 1–3; Luke 4:1–30

You are precious and honored in my sight, and . . . I love you.—Isaiah 43:4

To celebrate Winston Churchill’s eightieth birthday, the British parliament commissioned artist Graham Sutherland to paint a portrait of the celebrated statesman. “How are you going to paint me?” Churchill reportedly asked the artist: “As a cherub, or the Bulldog?” Churchill liked these two popular perceptions of him. Sutherland, however, said he would paint what he saw.

Churchill was not happy with the results. Sutherland’s portrait had Churchill slumped in a chair wearing his trademark scowl—true to reality, but hardly flattering. After its official unveiling, Churchill hid the painting in his cellar. It was later secretly destroyed.

Like Churchill, most of us have an image of ourselves we want others to have of us also—whether of success, godliness, beauty, or strength. We can go to great lengths to conceal our “ugly” sides. Perhaps deep down we fear we won’t be loved if the real us is known.

When the Israelites were taken captive by Babylon, they were seen at their worst. Because of their sins, God allowed their enemies to conquer them. But He told them not to fear. He knew them by name, and He was with them in every humiliating trial (Isa. 43:1-2). They were secure in His hands (v. 13) and “precious” to Him (v. 4). Despite their ugliness, God loved them.

We will find ourselves less motivated to seek the approval of others when such a truth truly sinks in. God knows the real us and still loves us immeasurably (Eph. 3:18). —Sheridan Voysey

God’s deep love means we can be real with others.

INSIGHT: It’s not easy to accept our own failures. This may be one reason the God of Israel wanted His people to remember Him as the God of Jacob—their deeply flawed national patriarch. The prophet Isaiah called them by the new name the Lord had given their father Jacob. He called them “Israel,” a people He had made and redeemed for Himself, so He could show the whole world what it means to have a God who loves us in spite of our failures. Mart DeHaan

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – When Forgiveness Is Suffering

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In four horrific months in 1994, at the urging of the Rwandan government, the poorer Hutu majority took up bayonets and machetes and committed genocide against the wealthier Tutsi minority. In the wake of this unspeakable tragedy, nearly a million people had been murdered.

In August of 2003, driven by overcrowded prisons and backlogged court systems, 50,000 genocide criminals, people who had already confessed to killing their neighbors, were released again into society. Murderers were sent back to their homes, back to neighborhoods literally destroyed at their own hands, to live beside the few surviving relatives of the very men, women, and children they killed.

Now more than twenty years later, with eyes still bloodshot at visions of a genocide it failed to see, the world continues to watch Rwanda with a sense of foreboding, wondering what happens when a killer comes home; what happens when victims, widows, orphans, and murderers look each other in the eyes again; what happens when the neighbor who killed your family asks to be forgiven. For the people of Rwanda, the description of the Hebrew prophet is a reality with which they live: “And if anyone asks them, ‘What are these wounds on your chest?’ the answer will be, ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.’”(1)

How does a culture bear the wounds of genocide and the agony of forgiveness?

For Steven Gahigi, that question is answered in a valley of dry bones which cannot be forgotten. An Anglican clergyman who lost 142 members of his family in the Rwandan genocide, he thought he had lost the ability to forgive. Though his inability plagued him, he had no idea how to navigate through a forgiveness so costly. “I prayed until one night I saw an image of Jesus Christ on the cross…I thought of how he forgave, and I knew that I and others could also do it.”(2) Inspired by this vision, Gahigi somehow found the words to begin preaching forgiveness. He first did this in the prisons where Hutu perpetrators sat awaiting trial, and today he continues in neighborhoods where the victims of genocide live beside its perpetrators. For Gahigi, wounds received in the house of friends can only be soothed with truth-telling, restitution, interdependence, and reconciliation, all of which he finds accessible only because of Christ.

In some ways, the work of reconciliation that continues to take place in Rwanda in lives on every side of the genocide may be difficult to describe apart from the cross of Christ. While it is true that forgiveness can be explained in therapeutic terms, that the act of forgiving is beneficial to the forgiver, and forgiveness releases the victim from the one who has wronged them, from chains of the past and a cell of resentment; what Rwandans are facing today undoubtedly reaches something beyond this.

While forgiveness is certainly a form of healing in lives changed forever by genocide, it is also very much a form of suffering.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – When Forgiveness Is Suffering →

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – The Journey Toward Unselfishness

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. . . I die daily [I face death every day and die to self]. —1 Corinthians 15:31

Selfishness is not learned behavior; we are born with it. The Bible refers to it as “sin nature.” Adam and Eve sinned against God by doing what He told them not to do, and the sin principle they established was forever passed to every person who would ever be born. God sent His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins, and to deliver us from them. He came to undo what Adam did.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior, He comes to live in our spirit, and if we allow that renewed part of us to rule our decisions, we can overcome the sin nature in our flesh. It doesn’t go away, but the greater One Who lives in us helps us overcome it daily (see Galatians 5:16). That does not mean that we never sin, but we can improve and make progress throughout our lives.

I certainly cannot say I have overcome selfishness entirely—none of us can on this side of eternity. But that doesn’t mean we don’t do everything we can to grow closer to God and die to our selfishness. We can have hope of improving daily. I am on a journey and, although I may not arrive, I have determined that when Jesus comes to take me home He will find me pressing toward this goal (see Philippians 3:12-13).

The apostle Paul made the following statement: . . . It is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me (Galatians 2:20). Paul meant that he was no longer living for himself and his own will, but for God and His will. I was greatly encouraged when I discovered through study that Paul made this statement approximately twenty years after his conversion. Learning to live unselfishly was a journey for him, just as it is for everyone else.

Paul also said, . . . I die daily . . . (1 Corinthians 15:31). In other words, putting others first was a daily battle and required daily decisions. Each of us must decide how we will live and what we will live for; and there is no better time to do so than right now.

Trust in Him: Are you pressing toward the goal of living for God rather than yourself? Dying to yourself is a process that you can improve daily. Trust God to give you the strength to die to yourself daily.

From the book Trusting God Day by Day by Joyce Meyer

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – We Are Each a Part

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“Each of us is a part of the one body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves and some are free. But the Holy Spirit has fitted us all together into one body. We have been baptized into Christ’s body by the one Spirit, and have all been given that same Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

I find that most Christians agree that the Holy Spirit baptizes the believer into the Body of Christ, as this verse affirms. But the unity of the body is divided here on earth by many differences of interpretation concerning a “second baptism,” speaking in tongues and “Spirit-filling.”

Most believers agree, however, that we are commanded to live holy lives and the Holy Spirit supernaturally makes this human impossibility a reality. He does this when we totally submit ourselves to His indwelling love and power. Or, to use a metaphor of the apostle Paul, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves in Christ” (Galatians 3:27, NAS).

In His high-priestly prayer, our Lord prayed that we who are believers may be one with Him, even as He and the Father were one. We are commanded to love one another. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35, KJV). No one who criticizes his brother is Spirit-filled. No one who sows discord among his brethren is Spirit-filled. In fact, the test as to whether or not we are controlled by the Holy Spirit is how we love our brothers.

It is my joy and privilege to know most of the famous Christian leaders of our time, men and women whom God is using in a mighty way to help change our nation and some other nations of the world with the gospel. How I rejoice at every good report that comes to me of God’s blessing upon their lives and ministries. In fact, it is one way of checking my own walk with Christ. If I were jealous and critical, fault-finding and sowing discord, I would know that I am not walking in the light as God is in the light.

Bible Reading: I Corinthians 12:14-20

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  I will not allow my interpretation of the Spirit-filled life to separate me from other members of the body of Christ, but will love them and seek to promote unity among believers.

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Look Who Shows Up

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My friend Roy was sitting on a park bench one morning as he watched a little guy struggling to get on the school bus that stopped just a few feet away. He was leaning down frantically trying to “un-knot” a knotted shoestring. All of a sudden it was too late—the door was closing. The little boy fell back on his haunches and sighed. Then he saw Roy. Tears in his eyes he looked at the man on the bench and asked, “Do you untie knots?”

Jesus loves that request. Life gets tangled. People mess up. You never outgrow the urge to look up and say, “Help!” Jesus had a way of appearing at such moments. Peter’s empty boat. Nicodemus’s empty heart. Matthew with a friend issue. Look who shows up. Jesus, our next door Savior!  And we ask, “Do you untie knots?” His answer is “Yes!”

From Next Door Savior

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

 

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – What happened for the first time since 1939?

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Some of the weekend news was unexpected: South Carolina and Gonzaga will play in this year’s NCAA men’s basketball Final Four for the first time in their history. Oregon will join them for the first time since winning the inaugural tournament in 1939. (North Carolina also made the Final Four, but that’s no surprise at all.)

Other weekend news has become all too familiar. A shooting at a Cincinnati nightclub left one dead and fifteen wounded; police are still searching for suspects this morning. Authorities today can find “no apparent reason” for a shooting on the Las Vegas strip that killed one person and injured another. Two missing girls were found stabbed to death in North Carolina; their father has been arrested on murder charges.

Were you shocked by the London terror attack last week? Were you surprised by news of more violence here at home? One of the most dangerous temptations of our day is to view such tragedies as the “new normal.”

Becoming callous to calamity is an understandable defense mechanism. We don’t have the emotional bandwidth to treat each new violent act as new. So, in this day of twenty-four-hour news coverage, as we are bombarded all through the day with bad news from anywhere in the world, it’s easier to tune it out, to shrug our shoulders and withdraw emotionally from the culture.

Here’s where our biblical worldview sets us apart from the world.

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Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Becoming Whole

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Romans 8:33-39

Modern society has many “solutions” for unhappiness. For example, a lot of people turn to prestige, love, or various substances to counteract emotional emptiness, but the happiness these things offer soon drains out again. Only God’s transforming power can change someone with a broken spirit into a content Christ follower who understands his or her value.

To find wholeness, a person must start by receiving Jesus Christ as Savior—the sin that stands between him and God has to be removed. Then, with the Holy Spirit’s strength, he will be able to find the courage to confront past disappointments, hurts, and sins that may have contributed to his feeling unworthy of the Lord’s love.

Someone with a sense of wholeness feels satisfied with life. He knows he is loved, which leads to a good self-image and the ability to love others. Hardship is inevitable in this world, but it doesn’t devastate him or cause him to grumble or cast blame. Why? Because the born-again believer knows that God has promised to work everything out for his good (Rom. 8:28).

In contrast, someone who feels fragmented or empty often has the opposite experience. He may look okay on the outside while struggling within. This can even be the case with Christians who haven’t learned to experience God’s love. In fact, I was a pastor for several decades before I really felt the Father’s love for me; only then did I become truly complete.

The Lord can and will make His love known to believers who ask. And through it comes the wholeness they have been seeking.

Bible in One Year: 1 Samuel 10-11

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — East Meets West

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Read: Romans 14:1–12

Bible in a Year: Joshua 22–24; Luke 3

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? —Romans 14:4

When students from Southeast Asia met a teacher from North America, the visiting instructor learned a lesson. After giving his class their first multiple-choice test, he was surprised to find many questions left unanswered. While handing back the corrected papers, he suggested that, next time, instead of leaving answers blank they should take a guess. Surprised, one of the students raised their hand and asked, “What if I accidentally get the answer right? I would be implying that I knew the answer when I didn’t.” The student and teacher had a different perspective and practice.

In the days of the New Testament, Jewish and Gentile converts were coming to Christ with perspectives as different as East and West. Before long they were disagreeing over matters as diverse as worship days and what a Christ-follower is free to eat or drink. The apostle Paul urged them to remember an important fact: None of us is in a position to know or judge the heart of another.

For the sake of harmony with fellow believers, God urges us to realize that we are all accountable to our Lord, to act according to His Word and our conscience. However, He alone is in a position to judge the attitudes of our heart (Rom. 14:4-7). —Mart DeHaan

Father in heaven, please have mercy on us for presuming to judge the heart of those who see so many things differently than we do.

Be slow to judge others but quick to judge yourself.

INSIGHT: When we find ourselves in a position where we disagree with other Christians, it’s good to remember that God has given us room to disagree and help for how to handle our differing opinions. We can find such help in today’s text. How has knowing Scripture helped you to deal with conflicts? J.R. Hudberg

 

http://www.odb.org

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Read and Reap

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[Things are hidden temporarily only as a means to revelation.] For there is nothing hidden except to be revealed, nor is anything [temporarily] kept secret except in order that it may be made known. —Mark 4:22

The Word has tremendous treasures, powerful life-giving secrets that God wants to reveal to us. They are manifested to those who ponder, study, think about, practice mentally, and meditate on the Word of God.

There is no end to what God can show you out of one verse of Scripture. You can study a scripture one time and get one thing, and another time you’ll see something else you did not even notice before.

The Lord keeps revealing His secrets to those who are diligent about studying the Word. Don’t be the kind of person who always wants to live off of someone else’s revelation. Study the Word yourself, and allow the Holy Spirit to bless your life with truth.

Power Thought: Revelation is available to me when I study God’s Word.

From the book the book Power Thoughts Devotional by Joyce Meyer.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Cheer Up; He Has Overcome

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“I have told you all this so that you will have peace of heart and mind. Here on earth you will have many sorrows and trials; but cheer up, for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

I know of few promises in all the Word of God that offer more assurance and encouragement than this one.

The apostle Paul was an aggressive soldier of God who carried the gospel far and wide throughout the known world. He was greatly used of God to expand the territorial borders of Christendom. All that Paul did, he did in the name of Christ and through the power and control of the Holy Spirit.

But there was great opposition to Paul’s ministry. Consequently, he always seemed to be in the center of spiritual warfare. He knew his enemies, Satan and the world system, and their subtle, deceiving devices.

Throughout his Christian life, he suffered various kinds of persecutions, including stonings, beatings and imprisonment. In spite of such harsh persecution, Paul could write, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, rejoice” (Philipians 4:4, NAS).

It was during Paul’s imprisonment in Rome, about 61 or 62 A.D., that he wrote to the church at Ephesus. The theme of his letter is supernatural living, and he talks about the Christian’s spiritual warfare. He tells us that the battle we fight is against Satan and the spiritual forces of wickedness, not against other people.

The apostle Paul experienced the supernatural peace of heart and mind which Jesus promised, a promise which we too can claim, in times of difficulty, testing and even persecution.

Bible Reading: John 16:25-32

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  Today I will claim the peace of heart and mind which Jesus promised to all who trust and obey Him. Deliberately and faithfully I will seek to put on the whole armor of God so that I will be fully prepared to withstand the wiles of the enemy and thus live a supernatural life for the glory of God.

 

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Words of Hope

Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Gentle Goodness

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Read: Galatians 5:22-24

But the fruit of the Spirit is . . . goodness . . . gentleness . . . (vv. 22-23)

These days people seem angry. They feel cut off from the prosperity enjoyed by only the few. They see other groups of people doing better, and they come to despise those groups. Even Christians seem angry, protesting loudly and carrying hate-filled picket signs decrying this or that issue. When Christians debate each other on split-screen TV news shows, they spew invectives, shout each other down.

In and through this, the fruit of the Spirit shrivels like an apple left sitting on the counter too long. It is striking that half of the nine fruit listed by Paul have something to do with being gentle, kind, quiet, and in control. We are supposed to be patient, not snappish and ill-tempered. We are supposed to exude a gentle kindness that gives others a wide berth and a warm embrace, not a hostility that wags fingers or screams purple-faced at others.

Most of these fruit are the opposite of what many in our world regard as strength. These fruit seem weak, wimpy. Of course, Jesus struck many people the same way. He was easy to gang up on, arrest, and kill. But Jesus endured it all in patience, gentleness, kindness, and goodness because he knew the world would be saved not by power but by humility and sacrifice. And that is the path down which his Spirit still leads us. —Scott Hoezee

Prayer: Make us a kind people, dear God, that we may show your face to all.

 

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