Daily Archives: May 22, 2017

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –In the Fullness of Time

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Galatians 4:4-5

In eternity past, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit planned and created heaven and earth. Yet even before Adam breathed his first breath, the Lord knew sin would enter the world, causing mankind to be separated from Him. However, a plan for our redemption was already in place, and in the fullness of time, the Son of God came as a baby and lived on the earth.

The Lord doesn’t do anything haphazardly. Every plan of His is predetermined and meticulously carried out at just the right time. And this truth doesn’t apply to just the big events in human history. Since He has a specific plan for every believer, He works to accomplish His goals in each Christian’s life. He ordained the day of our birth, has complete knowledge of what each day will hold, and knows how long we’ll live on this earth. And just as He did when Christ was born, God will, in the fullness of time, execute each part of His will for your life and mine.

However, although His plans for us are good, the only way we’ll see His purposes fulfilled in our life is by submitting to Him. He’s promised to work all things for our good when we love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).

Are you letting the Lord have His way in your life? Even when the need seems urgent, a person with a spirit yielded to God waits patiently for the heavenly Father’s plans to unfold at just the right time. The One with complete knowledge and wisdom knows what He’s doing. Wait for the fullness of His time.

Bible in One Year: 2 Chronicles 35-36

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Blink and Think of God

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Read: Deuteronomy 32:1–12

Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 16–18; John 7:28–53

He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye.—Deuteronomy 32:10

“God is like an eyelid,” my friend Ryley said, and I blinked in surprise. What could she mean by that?

“Tell me more,” I replied. Together, we had been studying surprising pictures of God in the Bible, things like God as a laboring mother (Isa. 42:14) or as a beekeeper (7:18), but this one was new to me. Ryley pointed me to Deuteronomy 32, where Moses praises the way God takes care of His people. Verse 10 says that God shields and protects His people, guarding them “as the apple of his eye.”

But the word we translate apple, Ryley told me, literally means pupil. And what encircles and guards the pupil? The eyelid, of course! God is like the eyelid, which instinctively protects the tender eye. The eyelid guards the eye from danger, and by blinking helps remove dirt or dust. It keeps sweat out of the eye. It lubricates the eyeball, keeping it healthy. It closes, allowing rest.

As I considered the picture of God as an eyelid, I couldn’t help but thank God for the many metaphors He’s given us to help us understand His love for us. When we close our eyes at night and open them in the morning, we can think of God, and praise Him for His tender protection and care for us. —Amy Peterson

Thank You, God, for using surprising metaphors to help us understand You better. Thanks for guarding us just as the eyelid guards the eye.

When you blink, remember to thank God for His protection.

INSIGHT: Jesus Himself verifies the truth of God’s protection when He tells us not to worry about our lives: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. . . . You are worth more than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:29-31; Luke 12:1-6).

In what situation do you need to remember that God protects and provides? How can you remind yourself and others of our worth in God’s eyes?   J.R. Hudberg

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Wakeful Inquiry

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There is a line in the story of the prodigal son that is easy to miss. It comes as the transition in the story, but it also seems to mark the transition in the son. The story itself, also known as the Two Brothers, Lost Son, Loving Father, or Lovesick Father, is among the most familiar stories of Jesus. Not long after the younger son demands the right to live as he pleases, after he leaves with his father’s money and gets as far away as possible, and after he loses everything and is forced to hire himself out in the fields, the story reads that the prodigal “came to himself” and, at this, he decides to turn back to the father.

Today it is often translated that the son “came to his senses,” as we might describe a man or woman who, on the precipice of a bad decision or impulsive act, decides to turn around. But the phrase in the Greek literally describes the prodigal as coming to himself, and points at something far more than good decision-making. In a sermon titled “Bread Enough and to Spare,” popular English preacher Charles Spurgeon notes that this Greek expression can be applied to one who comes out of a deep swoon, someone who has lost consciousness and comes back to himself again. The expression can also be applied to one who is recovering from insanity, someone who has been lost somewhere within her own mind and body, only to come back to herself once again.

With both of these metaphors, the son is one who wakes to health and life again, having been unconscious of his true condition. Standing in a foreign field hungry and alone, the son comes to something more than a good decision. He is waking to an identity he knew in part but never fully realized. He is remembering life in his father’s house again, though for the first time.

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Faith & Grace: Working Together

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For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God.—Ephesians 2:8

Let me give you an illustration of the way that faith and grace work together to bring us the blessings of God. In my meetings I often take along a large electric fan that I set up on the speaker’s platform. I call up a member of the audience and have her stand in front of the fan, telling her that I am going to cool her off. When the fan doesn’t run even though I turn it on, I ask the audience, “What’s wrong? Why is this fan not running?”

Of course, the audience sees right away what’s wrong: “It’s not plugged in!” they yell. “That’s right,” I say, “and that’s exactly what’s wrong many times when our prayers are not answered.” I explain that we get our eyes on faith (the fan), expecting it to do the work, but we fail to look beyond the fan to its source of power, which is the Lord.

Jesus had faith all the time He was suffering. He had faith while in the Garden of Gethsemane. He had faith before the high priest and Pilate. He had faith when He was being ridiculed, abused, and mistreated. He had faith on the way to Golgotha. He had faith while hanging on the cross. He even had faith while His body lay in the tomb; He had absolute faith that God would not leave Him there but would raise Him up, as He had promised. But do you realize that for all His faith, nothing happened until the power of God came forth to bring about the Resurrection?

His faith kept Him stable until the Father’s appointed time for His deliverance. We can have all the faith in the world; but it will avail us nothing until it is “plugged in” to the source of power, which is the grace of God. Keep your eyes on God to deliver you—not your faith.

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

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – First Step to Wisdom

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“How does a man become wise? The first step is to trust and reverence the Lord! Only fools refuse to be taught” (Proverbs 1:7).

In 1787, the Constitutional Convention was on the verge of total failure. The issue: whether small states should have the same representation as large states.

From the wisdom of his 81 years, Benjamin Franklin recalled the Scriptures which says, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1), and in this hopeless situation, he offered a suggestion.

“Gentlemen,” he said, “I have lived a long time and am convinced that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

“I move that prayer imploring the assistance of heaven be held every morning before we proceed to business.” God heard their prayers and the conflict was soon resolved. To this day, all legislative sessions continue to be opened with prayer, with God’s blessing.

“Reverence of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” reads the Modern Language translation of this verse – a preamble to wise living a good motto for life.

Someone has said, “The eternal task of religion is the conquest of fear.” Men fear many things – bacteria, losing their jobs, being dependent in old age, giving offense to their neighbors, war, failure, death.

Fear (worshipful reverence) of God represents a different kind of fear – the kind a child shows toward wise and loving parents when he shuns acts of disobedience to avoid both grieving those parents whom he loved and suffering the inevitable discipline which follows disobedience. Perhaps if we feared God more, we would fear everything else less.

Bible Reading: Proverbs 1:8-16

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: My fear and reverence of God is the beginning of supernatural living and will result in worship of Him – by walk as well as by talk.

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Cure for Selfishness

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Love builds up relationships; selfishness erodes relationships! The apostle Paul is urgent in is appeal. “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit” (Philippians 2:3 NASB).

But aren’t we born selfish? And if so, can we do anything about it? Or better asked, can we get the little self out of our eyes? According to Scripture we can.  “Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind” (Philippians 2:1-2 NASB).

What’s the cure for selfishness? Get your self out of your eye by getting your eye off your self. Quit staring at that little self! Focus on your great Savior!

From A Love Worth Giving

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Notre Dame students walk out on VP Pence

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The Greatest Show on Earth is over. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus gave its final performance last night. The circus’s owner says his production could no longer compete with iPhones, the Internet, and video games.

Does it seem that the world is changing faster than ever?

The Roman Catholic Church remains committed to conservative moral values, but students at Notre Dame, its most prominent university, walked out of their own graduation yesterday to protest Vice President Mike Pence.

Texting while driving has become such an epidemic that police officers near Atlanta are dressing as construction workers to spy on passing cars. Authorities in Albany, Georgia have posed as panhandlers at street corners to find violators. Police in Michigan use unmarked vehicles to catch texters.

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus was right: we cannot step into the same river twice. Much of the change that dominates our lives is a two-edged sword. The Internet has enriched our lives enormously, but it also spawned our pornography epidemic. Air travel has made the world more accessible than ever, but it also speeds the spread of infectious diseases. Nuclear technology can fuel cities or destroy them.

St. Augustine called evil the “shadow side of good.” Wherever we find God at work, we find Satan at work as well. But it will not always be so: “The world is passing away along with its desires,” but “whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).

Think about all that changes when we step from earth into heaven. No more cell phones. No more email or Internet or technology. What will remain?

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