Daily Archives: December 27, 2017

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Basics of Effective Meditation

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Psalm 46:10

You may wonder, How can I incorporate genuine meditation into my Christian life? I believe that there are several basics of meditating that will reap tremendous benefits in your walk of faith.

  1. Season of time. Do you hurry through your prayer time so that you can get to other things? Think about the model Jesus gave us. Did He ever rush through His prayer time? No, He made communing with the Father His priority, and everything else fell into place around that.
  2. Stillness. We read the call to stillness in Psalm 46:10 (NIV), yet we may wonder, What does it mean to “be still”? Simply put, it means that we stop everything else. This can be difficult for us in this fast-paced, multi-tasking world. We’ve gotten used to doing a dozen things at once! However, true meditation requires that we focus our minds on only one thing: almighty God.
  3. Seclusion. This is something that the Lord really had to fight for in His ministry, as He was constantly surrounded by people. While attending to their needs, He also guarded His need for seclusion. Often in the gospels, we see Jesus retreating for some private, intimate time with the Father. No matter what else was going on, Jesus always made a point to safeguard chunks of time here and there to rest in the Spirit, focus on His relationship with the Father, and build up His strength.

Is your prayer life characterized by time set apart and safeguarded so you can be alone with God and still? Commit today to build these essentials into your day.

Bible in One Year: Revelation 1-4

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Thanks Journal

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Read: Psalm 117

Bible in a Year: Zechariah 1–4; Revelation 18

Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.—Psalm 117:1

When I was a new believer in Jesus, a spiritual mentor encouraged me to keep a thanks journal. It was a little booklet I carried with me everywhere I went. Sometimes I would record a thanksgiving right away. Other times, I would pen it at the end of the week during a time of reflection.

Taking note of praise items is a good habit—one I’m considering re-establishing in my life. It would help me to be mindful of God’s presence and grateful for His provision and care.

In the shortest of all the psalms, Psalm 117, the writer encourages everyone to praise the Lord because “great is his love toward us” (v. 2).

Think about it: How has the Lord shown His love toward you today, this week, this month, and this year? Don’t just look for the spectacular. His love is seen in the ordinary, everyday circumstances of life. Then consider how He has shown His love toward your family, your church, and to others. Let your mind soak up the extent of His love for all of us.

The psalmist added that “the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever” (v. 2 emphasis added). In other words, He will continue to love us! So we will continue to have many things to praise God for in the coming days. As His dearly loved children, may praising and thanking God characterize our lives! —Poh Fang Chia

Father, if we were to record all of Your blessings, we could not complete the task in a lifetime. But we can pause this moment to say a simple “Thank You” for Your faithfulness and goodness.

Remember to thank God for the ordinary as well as the extraordinary.

INSIGHT: Have you noticed how hard it can be to be thankful when we are focused on what has been withheld from us? Our first parents, Adam and Eve, were probably content until they were led to believe that God was holding out on them.

Many generations later, the family of Israel struggled with contentment and thankfulness during their journey to the Promised Land. God gave them the annual celebration of Passover to help them remember their wonder-filled rescue from slavery in Egypt. In a group of songs known as the Egyptian Hallel (Pss. 113-118) they reminded one another to “give thanks to the LORD” for His faithful acts of love that fill the earth and endure forever (118:1). Those words aren’t just for God’s chosen people, Israel. In Psalm 117, the shortest of all of their national psalms, Israel invites the nations of the world to join with them in their songs of thanksgiving for God’s goodness and miraculous acts of rescue.

Together we are all still learning to thank God—not for everything that has happened to us—but rather that, in everything, our good God is with us. Mart DeHaan

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Christmas Past

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The floor contains the remnants of torn wrappings, boxes, and bows. The stockings hang lifeless from the mantel, empty of all their contents. Leftovers are all that are left of holiday feasting. Wallets are empty and feelings of buyer’s remorse begin to descend and suffocate. On the morning after Christmas, thus begins the season of let down.

It’s not a surprise really. For many in the West, the entire focus of the Christmas season is on gift-giving, holiday parties, and family gatherings, all of which are fine in and of themselves. But these things often become the centerpiece of the season. Marketers and advertisers ensure that this is so and prime the buying-pump with ads and sales for Christmas shopping long before December. Once November ends, the rush for consumers is on, and multitudinous festivities lead to a near fever pitch.

And then, very suddenly, it is all over.

In an ironic twist of history, Christmas day became the end point, the full-stop of the Christmas season. But in the ancient Christian tradition, Christmas day was only the beginning of the Christmas season. The oft-sung carol The Twelve Days of Christmas was not simply a song sung, but a lived reality of the Christmas celebration.(1) In the traditional celebrations, the somber anticipation of Advent—waiting for God to act—flowed into the celebration of the Incarnation that began on Christmas day and culminated on “twelfth night”—the Feast of Epiphany.

For twelve days following Christmas, Christians celebrated the “Word made flesh” dwelling among them. The ancient feasts that followed Christmas day all focused on the mystery of the Incarnation worked out in the life of the believers. Martyrs, evangelists, and ordinary people living out the call of faith are all celebrated during these twelve days.

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Don’t Give In to Self-Pity

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For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.— Jeremiah 29:11

Self-pity is a destructive and negative emotion. It blinds us to our blessings and the possibilities before us and it steals our hope for both today and tomorrow. People who pity themselves often think, Why should I try to do anything? I’ll just fail.

Self-pity is actually idolatry because it is self-focus carried to the extreme. When we allow ourselves to fall into self-pity, we are essentially rejecting God’s love and His ability to change things.

I encourage you not to waste one more day of your life in self-pity. When you lose hope and begin to feel sorry for yourself, stop and say: “I refuse to feel sorry for myself. I may be in a difficult season of life right now, but I will not stop hoping for better things!”

God has thoughts and plans for your good, to give you hope for your future. If you will hold on to your hope by keeping your focus and faith in Jesus, amazing things will happen in your life!

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Mighty Things Through Faith

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“And so [Jesus] did only a few great miracles there, because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:58).

It was my first visit to Nazareth, and through a series of fortuitous circumstances, I found myself enjoying lunch with one of the city’s prominent leaders. As we talked together in the crowded dining room our conversation turned to Jesus Christ, and ultimately this gentleman bowed his head and began to pray aloud, inviting Christ to be his Savior and Lord.

The change seemed to be immediate and dramatic, and follow-up has proven that God did meet him and change his life. During the course of our conversation, he indicated that what I had shared with him was a new truth. Though he was religious and active in his church, he never had been told that he should receive Christ.

Upon further exploration, I found that, in the entire community of Nazareth, there were but a few in those days who understood the truth of the living Christ indwelling the believer. I was amazed!

Nazareth was the town in which our Lord had spent approximately thirty years of His life. The son of a carpenter, He had walked those winding streets, living, loving and laughing with other young children as they were growing up. He left the town when He entered His public ministry, and went on to perform mighty miracles, die on the cross for our sins and be raised from the dead – and He changed the whole course of history. But 2,000 years have passed since then, and there is still little evidence of the influence of Jesus in the lives of the people of Nazareth.

Then I remembered that it was said of our Lord, He could do no mighty things in Nazareth because of their unbelief. That seems to be true in more than just that city today. Even though there are a billion and a half professing followers of Christ throughout the world, the majority seem to be practical atheists.

And so, our Lord cannot do mighty things in Nazareth, or throughout the world, because of unbelief. The key to releasing His power to accomplish revolutionary, supernatural things in the world – and in individual lives – is faith. “According to your faith be it unto you” (Matthew 9:29, KJV). “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23, KJV). “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17, KJV).

Bible Reading: Mark 6:1-5

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Remembering that Jesus Christ lives within me in all of His supernatural power, waiting to accomplish great and mighty things through me, I will trust and obey Him for a life that is characterized by the supernatural, and I will encourage others to do the same.

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Secret of Forgiveness

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Listen to Today’s Devotion

You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you. Is it still hard to consider the thought of forgiving the one who hurt you? If so, go one more time to the room. Watch Jesus as he goes from disciple to disciple. Can you see him? Can you hear the water splash? Can you hear him shuffle on the floor to the next person? Keep that image.

John 13:12 says, “When he had finished washing their feet. . .” Please note; Jesus finished washing their feet. That means he left no one out. Why is that important? Because that means he washed the feet of Judas. Jesus washed the feet of his betrayer. That’s not to say it was easy for Jesus. That’s not to say it’s easy for you. But that is to say, God will never call you to do what he hasn’t already done!

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Couple delivers Christmas Day baby on side of road

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Taylor and Hannah Lindeman were rushing to a hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota on Christmas Day. After her water broke, they were forced to pull over to the side of the highway to wait for an ambulance. Their baby “had other plans,” however, as Hannah later told a reporter.

She gave birth to a daughter in the car’s front passenger seat. A police officer arrived shortly after the birth and tied off the umbilical cord with a shoelace from Hannah’s boot. The couple expects to return home today.

As a father of two, I cannot imagine the stress these parents felt. But their momentary travail led to joy beyond description.

In other news, US retail holiday sales jumped 4.9 percent this year, the largest increase since 2011. Total sales are on track to reach $671 billion. This was bad news for overworked store clerks and online sales staff but good news for retailers and their shareholders.

In coming days, however, consumers will return about $90 billion worth of goods. But even that news is good news for FedEx and UPS, which are trying to get a bigger slice of the pie for deliveries and returns.

“How to think like a medieval monk”

So much of life is perspective. While I certainly believe in absolute truth and objective morality, I also know that the attitude we bring to the events of our lives is enormously significant.

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