Daily Archives: August 22, 2017

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –Overcoming Jealousy

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Psalm 37:4

Now that we have a clear picture of what jealousy is and the detrimental impact it can have, we need to examine practical ways to remove the problem from our life. If you’ve discovered that you are affected by envy, follow these steps today:

  1. Acknowledge that jealousy exists in your life. Be honest with yourself, and do not allow the envy to fester in the back of your mind.
  2. Admit you are in conflict with the Lord. This step is important because it will prevent you from dismissing jealousy as normal or acceptable behavior.
  3. Thank God for what He’s doing in the other person’s life. Perhaps He is performing a mighty work—praise Him for it!
  4. Do something nice for the person. This may seem impossible, but the act of doing a good work—even if you don’t feel like it—will start to short-circuit the negative feelings you have.
  5. Ask the Lord to show you how He views the individual. This is a most helpful step, since it causes us to look beyond our own perspective and see the other person as someone valuable to God.
  6. Refocus your attention on what God is doing in your life. His plans for you are just as big and important as His plans for the person you envy.

There’s one additional step for you to take: Adopt a Psalm 37:4 mindset. When you truly delight yourself in the Lord and trust Him to bless you according to His plans and purposes, you’ll no longer feel a need for jealousy in your life. Then deep contentment will replace the old sense of envy and dissatisfaction.

Bible in One Year: Jeremiah 46-48

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Ripe for Harvest

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Read: John 4:35–38

Bible in a Year: Psalms 110–112; 1 Corinthians 5

Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.—John 4:35

In late summer, we went for a walk in the New Forest in England and had fun picking the blackberries that grew in the wild while watching the horses frolicking nearby. As I enjoyed the bounty of the sweet fruit planted by others perhaps many years before, I thought of Jesus’s words to His disciples: “I sent you to reap what you have not worked for” (John 4:38).

I love the generosity of God’s kingdom reflected in those words. He lets us enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labors, such as when we share our love for Jesus with a friend whose family—unbeknown to us—has been praying for her for years. I also love the implied limits of Jesus’s words, for we may plant seeds that we will never harvest but someone else may. Therefore, we can rest in the tasks before us, not being hoodwinked into thinking that we are responsible for the outcomes. God’s work, after all, doesn’t depend on us. He has all of the resources for a bountiful harvest, and we are privileged to play a role in it.

I wonder what fields ready for harvest are before you? Before me? May we heed Jesus’s loving instruction: “Open your eyes and look at the fields!” (v. 35). —Amy Boucher Pye

Creator God, thank You for Your great generosity in entrusting us to do Your work. May I be alert to the opportunities to share Your good news.

We can reap what others have sown.

INSIGHT: Context is significant for understanding the meaning of a passage in Scripture. The context for today’s passage gives some eye-raising information to the original reader. These verses follow the story of the woman at the well. She was a Samaritan, a people-group the Israelites hated.

Jesus’s words “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35) follow John’s statement that the people “came out of the town and made their way toward him” (v. 30). In other words, Jesus was telling the disciples that God’s harvest of people was right in front of them and from a group they would have least expected.

This is partly why Jesus says we reap what we have not worked for. The disciples had not worked for the harvest of Samaritans; indeed, they probably never would have dreamed of working for such a harvest. But our God is a great gardener and He grows fruit where we cannot.

How can you express your trust in God to bring a harvest where there doesn’t seem to be one coming? J.R. Hudberg

 

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Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Spiritual Geography

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Many years ago, I had the opportunity to travel across the country from Massachusetts to Montana. While I had often traveled across the country on family vacations, I had never driven through South Dakota. But on this trip I was able to see quite a bit of the state that makes up part of the Great Plains in the United States. Having lived near the city, I remember being struck by the vast expanses of what appeared to be uninhabited land. Rolling grasslands, without many trees, offered a view of the landscape that was as far as it was wide. I remember wondering why anyone would make a home in such a desolate place.

Several years after this trip, I read Kathleen Norris’s book Dakota and marveled at her poignant description of this land. Her memoir both enticed me and made me wary of life in the Dakotas. The opening paragraphs of her book explain why:

“The high plains, the beginning of the desert West, often act like a crucible for those who inhabit them. Like Jacob’s angel, the region requires that you wrestle with it, before it bestows a blessing… This book is an invitation to a land of little rain and few trees, dry summer winds and harsh winters, a land rich in grass, and sky and surprises.”(1)

She concludes by saying that “the land and the sky of the West often fill what Thoreau termed our ‘need to witness our limits transgressed.’ Nature, in Dakota, can indeed be an experience of the holy.”(2)

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – A Powerful Compass

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And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s] one body you were also called [to live]… – Colossians 3:15

People who do things they don’t have peace about have miserable lives and don’t succeed at anything. If you are doing something, like watching television, and you suddenly lose your peace about what you are doing, you have heard from God. He is saying to you, “Turn it off. Go the other way.” If you lose your peace when you say something unkind, God is speaking to you. It will save you a lot of trouble if you will stop talking or apologize right away.

God leads His people through peace. Anytime you lose your peace you are hearing from God. There is nothing more powerful than the compass of peace in your heart. Follow after it. Follow peace!

From the book Ending Your Day Right by Joyce Meyer.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Put God to the Test 

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“Oh, put God to the test and see how kind He is! See for yourself the way His mercies shower down on all who trust in Him” (Psalm 34:8).

Sam wanted to receive Christ, but he was reluctant. Somehow, he just could not bring himself to make that necessary commitment of the will to exercise his faith and receive Christ. Because of unfortunate experiences in his youth, he had a distorted view of the goodness of God.

I encouraged Him to make his commitment, but he still hesitated. Finally, I turned to that wonderful promise of our Scripture for today and asked him to read it. As he read, the Holy Spirit gave him the faith to believe that he could trust God.

Put God to the test. Taste and see how good and kind He is. Sam discovered that day, and for the rest of his life, the faithfulness and the goodness and the kindness of God.

Do you have reservations, uncertainties, fears about the trustworthiness of God? If so, I encourage you to place your trust in Him, and you will find, as millions have found, and as I have found, that God is good, faithful, and true.

Similarly, you and I can put God to the test and find a friendly haven in the midst of enemy territory. More important, perhaps, is the certainty we can have that God does hear and answer our prayers – in situations where He and He alone knows the end from the beginning and can provide deliverance.

How vital to the supernatural life to know that we have immediate access to the God of the universe, the very one who alone can guarantee victory and deliverance.

Bible Reading: I Peter 2:1-5

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Realizing that, as a believer, I am constantly in “enemy territory,” I will trust God and encourage others to trust Him moment by moment for deliverance, for I know that He is just and kind and good. He is a loving, heavenly Father whom I can trust. I will encourage others to put God to the test and see how kind He is, to discover for themselves His mercies that He showers on all who place their trust in Him.

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Come to Me

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There is a correlation between the way you feel about yourself and the way you feel about others. If you are at peace with yourself you will get along with others. The converse is also true. If you don’t like yourself, if you are ashamed, embarrassed, or angry, other people are going to know it. Unless the cycle is interrupted!

Which takes us to one of the kindest verses in the Bible.  Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Accept my teachings and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives” (Matthew 11:28-29).

“Come to me,” the verse reads! Let Christ be kind to you…and as you do, you’ll find it easier to be kind to others.

Read more When God Whispers Your Name

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – President announces new Afghanistan strategy

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Last night, President Trump announced a new strategy for winning America’s longest war.

Our troops have been in Afghanistan for almost sixteen years; more than two thousand American soldiers have died there. The president plans to deploy more troops to continue training Afghan forces, with the goal of defeating the Taliban and securing the country.

Meanwhile, the news has been dominated by the first total solar eclipse to be seen coast to coast in America since 1918. Millions of people watched what the Associated Press is calling “the most-observed and most-photographed eclipse in history.”

I was one of them. I was also one of the millions who watched the president’s speech live.

I could have read about either event after it happened. Viewing them personally changed neither of them. It’s not as though I had nothing else to do.

Why, then, was watching the eclipse and the president’s address as they occurred so important to me?

There is something in us that wants to witness history. We want to be part of the big events, the significant moments that will be discussed far into the future.

Continue reading Denison Forum – President announces new Afghanistan strategy →