Daily Archives: July 29, 2017

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –Overcoming the Faith Barrier

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Exodus 3:10-17

God called Moses to do a great work for Him that would also bless the Israelites. Moses’ response to this awesome invitation was to offer excuses for why he couldn’t obey. This kind of attitude—which I call a “faith barrier”—can thwart us spiritually.

In Moses’ life, we see areas of weakness that can create such a faith barrier:

Poor self-image. When God gave the command to go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses’ immediate response was to say, “Who am I?” (Ex. 3:11). Perhaps he was thinking of his occupation as a lowly shepherd living in Midian. Maybe he was referring to his upbringing and separation from his birth family (Ex. 2:1-4). Or he might have been recalling his past, when he killed an Egyptian and had to flee (Ex. 2:12). Whatever Moses’ objection was, the Lord answered with a wonderful promise: “I will be with you” (3:12).

Ignorance of God’s greatness. In order to carry out God’s plan, we need to believe fully in the One who has called us. When Moses questioned his assignment again, the Lord answered by revealing Himself as the great I AM and the One who had promised to rescue the Israelites (vv. 14-17). By trusting in the character and promises of almighty God, Moses would be able to carry out this seemingly impossible assignment.

Faith barriers hinder the flow of divine power in our life, slow spiritual growth, and prevent us from fully carrying out the Father’s will. We must remember who He is and where power comes from. We know that our heavenly Father is sovereign over all, and His Spirit empowers us to follow through in obedience.

Bible in One Year: Isaiah 28-30

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Privileged Access

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Read: Hebrews 12:18–24

Bible in a Year: Psalms 49–50; Romans 1

You have come . . . to the church of the firstborn.—Hebrews 12:22–23

Even though it was just a replica, the tabernacle set up in southern Israel was awe-inspiring. Built life-size and as close as possible to the specifications laid out in Exodus 25-27 (without actual gold and acacia wood, of course), it stood tall in the Negev desert.

When our tour group was taken through the “Holy Place” and into the “Most Holy Place” to see the “ark,” some of us actually hesitated. Wasn’t this the holiest place, where only the high priest was allowed to enter? How could we enter it so casually?

I can imagine how fearful the Israelites must have felt as they approached the tent of meeting with their sacrifices each time, knowing that they were coming into the presence of the Almighty God. And the wonder they must have felt, whenever God had a message for them, delivered through Moses.

Today, you and I can come straight to God with confidence, knowing that Jesus’s sacrifice has torn down the barrier between us and God (Heb. 12:22-23). Each of us can talk to God any time we want, and hear from Him directly when we read His Word. We enjoy a direct access that the Israelites could only dream of. May we never take it for granted and cherish this awesome privilege of coming to the Father as His beloved children every day. —Leslie Koh

Thank You, Father, for this wonderful privilege that Jesus has given us, to be able to come before You knowing we have been forgiven and cleansed by Christ’s blood. May we never forget how big a sacrifice it took.

Through prayer, we have instant access to our Father.

INSIGHT: In the Jewish temple, a curtain sixty feet high and thirty feet wide separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Anyone who entered the Most Holy Place was entering into God’s holy presence. Only the High Priest—and only once a year on the Day of Atonement and after he had meticulously cleansed himself—could enter the Most Holy Place; anyone else would die (see Ex. 26:31-33; Lev. 16).

At the moment Jesus died as payment for our sin, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matt. 27:51), signifying that God had taken down the wall that separated us from Him. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, “we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body” (Heb. 10:19-20). Through Christ, we now “have access to the Father” (Eph. 2:18). What a privilege! Reflect on what direct access to the Father means to you. How does this affect your view of prayer? Sim Kay Tee

 

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Kids 4 Truth

Kids 4 Truth International – God Owns You

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“Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” (Psalm 100:3)

When you build a tree house, it is your own workmanship. Because you made it, you own it! Your friends have to ask your permission if they want to come into the tree house. And they call it your tree house because you made it. In the same way, if you bake cookies or make caramel apples, you have to offer them to others before they can eat them because those goodies belong to you.

The Bible says that you are God’s workmanship. God created you for His own glory and He desires you to honor Him in all things! Because He made you, your body and everything about you really belong to Him. You have to answer to God for everything you think, say, and do. Your life is not your own. Do you pretend sometimes that it is?

Psalm 100:3 says that it is important for you to remember that the LORD is God. You should keep in mind that it was God Who made you, not you yourself. Because He made you, you belong to Him. The rest of Psalm 100 is about praising God and honoring Him with your life. A right response to knowing that you belong to God is to “serve the LORD with gladness.”

Are you serving God with gladness? Or do you instead serve yourself with gladness? Do you come before His presence with singing? Or do you come to Him with complaining? Whom do you obey – God or yourself? You are not your own; you belong to God. When people watch you, can they see that God owns you and that you are His?

Because God made you, you belong to Him and your actions need to honor Him.

My Response:

» Does my life honor my Creator and King, or does it bring dishonor to Him?

» How can I make it obvious to others that I know the LORD is God and that I belong to Him?

 

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – The Disobedience of Unbelief

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And Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows. And he took bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put your hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it, and Elisha put his hands upon the king’s hands. And he said, Open the window to the east. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria. For you shall smite the Syrians in Aphek till you have destroyed them. Then he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, Strike on the ground. And he struck three times and stopped. And the man of God was angry with him and said, You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had destroyed it. But now you shall strike Syria down only three times. —2 Kings 13:15-19

It’s easy to say, “I believe,” but the true test comes when we have to act on what we believe. In this story, the king came to Elisha the prophet to seek his help in obtaining deliverance from the Syrians. The prophet told him to strike arrows on the ground as a symbol of Israel’s attacks against their enemy, but the king stopped after shooting only three arrows onto the ground.

Unbelief is disobedience. Period. Had the king believed, he would have struck arrows on the ground many times. Because of his unbelief, he stopped before he’d even gotten a good start. It is not surprising that Elisha became frustrated and angry with him.

Incidents of unbelief are recorded throughout the Old and New Testaments. Unbelief seems to be at work in nearly every direction we turn. Matthew 17:14-20 records the story of a man who brought his epileptic son to Jesus for healing. He said, And I brought him to Your disciples, and they were not able to cure him (v. 16).

Continue reading Joyce Meyer – The Disobedience of Unbelief →

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Everything I Need

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“Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need!” (Psalm 23:1).

A minister telephoned his sermon topic to his local newspaper one day.

“The Lord is My Shepherd,” he said.

“Is that all?” he was asked.

“That’s enough,” the pastor replied.

The weekend church page carried his sermon topic as: “The Lord is My Shepherd – That’s Enough.”

Thoroughly satisfied with the meaning of the expanded title, he used it as his subject on Sunday morning – to the delight and great benefit of the congregation.

Surely the truth of this familiar verse, when properly assessed, should delight and benefit each one of us. Who but our wonderful Lord could serve as such a faithful shepherd? And what better description is there of His loving care for us than that which is implied in the word shepherd?

With Him as our Shepherd, what else could we possibly need? He has promised to be our daily provision, our healer, our all in all. Truly nothing happens to the genuine believer without the knowledge and permissive will of our heavenly Father.

Bible Reading: Psalm 23:1-6

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: “Dear Lord, help me to see You today as my Shepherd – gracious caretaker and friend, provider of everything I could ever possibly need.”

 

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Streams in the Desert

Streams in the Desert for Kids – In the Storms

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Matthew 14:24

This wasn’t the first storm the disciples had been in. Jesus had stopped the wind and the waves before with just his word. But this time Jesus wasn’t with them. The disciples were struggling alone.

And then Jesus came. Walking on water he said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

He says the same thing to us today when we are struggling during emotional storms of life. Jesus isn’t our security against the storms, commanding every cloud to go away. He is our security in them. It is when we are struggling that his comfort is the sweetest.

When Jesus climbed in the boat, the wind died down. He came alongside his disciples and they worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Dear Lord, Thank you for your sweet comfort in hard times. Thank you for the security of Jesus. Come close. Amen.

Today in the Word

Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – GOD AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT

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Read 1 CHRONICLES 26:28-27:34

In a sermon preached at New Covenant Baptist Church in Chicago in 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. urged: “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’”

Every functioning community requires administration. Our text today provides us with a list of many of the officials who assisted David. Some were legal functionaries whose responsibility was to judge cases from the Law of Moses and who probably served outside Jerusalem (26:28–29). Others were made responsible for “every matter pertaining to God and for the affairs of the king” (26:32). They might have been responsible for the collection of tithes and taxes. David’s administrative structure included military commanders, tribal leaders, those who oversaw his properties and storehouses, as well as counselors. David’s leadership was a spiritual matter, but it also had a civil dimension. Part of his shepherding responsibility was to tend to the government of his people.

Scripture teaches that civil government is a reflection of common grace. Civil government serves the common good. One of its benefits is protection. But this kind of administration comes with a cost. This is why paying our taxes is a Christian obligation. For this reason Paul admonishes us: “Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor” (Rom. 13:7).

APPLY THE WORD

In addition to paying taxes, you should also pray for our leaders: “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness” (1 Tim. 2:1–2). Remember them in your prayers today.

 

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