Daily Archives: March 5, 2018

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Developing Discernment

Leave a comment

 

Hebrews 5:12-14

We live in a fast-paced culture that demands instant results. For many people, waiting has become a lost art. But God’s way of maturing us in our faith is different from how the world works. The character qualities He values take time to develop.

Discernment is one such trait. Far from being a ready-made skill, it is cultivated by saturating the heart and mind with Scripture. The transcendent Lord of the universe wants to share His thinking with us through His Word. What could be more important or valuable in life than having the capacity to know the mind of God?

Our lives are filled with situations that require discernment. Sometimes we can be so busy trying to determine God’s will and direction for our next step that we fail to hear His voice. He is calling us to come and spend some quiet, unhurried time absorbing the truth of His Word and listening to Him.

After listening to the Lord, we can begin applying what we have learned. Only as we put His Word into practice in our lives will we have our “senses trained to discern good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). The Scriptures open our eyes to see all of our experiences from God’s perspective so that we are able to make wise choices.

Our challenge for today and every day is to make it a priority to spend time with the Lord in His Word. We may have to reorganize our schedule or wake up earlier. But it’s well worth the effort—discernment and wisdom await us if we put into practice the truths we absorb daily.

Bible in One Year: Joshua 1-3

 

http://www.intouch.org/

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Grass or Grace

Leave a comment

Read: Genesis 13:1–18 | Bible in a Year: Numbers 34–36; Mark 9:30–50Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan. Genesis 13:11

My friend Archie came home from vacation to find his neighbor had erected a wooden fence five feet inside his property line. Several weeks went by during which Archie tried to work with his neighbor to remove the fence. He offered to help and to split the cost of the work, but to no avail. Archie could have appealed to civil authorities, but he chose to forgo that right in this instance and allow the fence to stand—to show his neighbor something of the grace of God.

“Archie is a wimp!” you say. No, he was man of towering strength, but he chose grace over a patch of grass.

Lord, help me to show Your love and grace to others.

I think of Abraham and Lot, who fell into conflict because their flocks and herds overwhelmed the land. “Quarreling arose between Abram’s herders and Lot’s. The Canaanites and the Perizzites [the unbelieving community] were also living in the land at that time” (Genesis 13:7). Lot chose the best of the land and lost everything in the end. Abraham took what was left over and gained the promised land (vv. 12–17).

We do have rights and we can claim them, especially when other’s rights are involved. And sometimes we should insist on them. Paul did when the Sanhedrin acted unlawfully (see Acts 23:1–3). But we can choose to set them aside to show the world a better way. This is what the Bible calls “meekness”—not weakness. Strength under God’s control.

Dear Lord, I am prone to look out for myself. Give me wisdom to know when giving up my rights would best demonstrate Your love and grace to others.

My life helps paint my neighbor’s picture of God.

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The Decomposition of God

Leave a comment

“God is dead,” declares Nietzsche’s madman in his oft-quoted passage from The Gay Science. Though not the first to make the declaration, Nietzsche’s philosophical candor and desperate rhetoric unquestionably attribute to its familiarity. In graphic brushstrokes, the parable describes a crime scene:

“The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. ‘Whither is God,’ he cried; ‘I will tell you. We have killed him—you and I! All of us are his murderers…Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder?…Do we smell nothing as yet of the divine decomposition? Gods, too, decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.”(1)

Nietzsche’s atheism, unlike many contemporary atheistic mantras, was not simply rhetoric and angry words. He recognized that the death of God, even if only the death of an idol, introduced a significant crisis. He understood the critical role of the Christian story to the very underpinnings of European philosophy, history, and culture, and so understood that God’s death meant that a total—and painful—transformation of reality must occur. If God has died, if God is dead in the sense that God is no longer of use to us, then ours is a world in peril, he reasoned, for everything must change. Our typical means of thought and life no longer make sense; the very structures for evaluating everything have become unhinged. For Nietzsche, a world that considers itself free from God is a world that must suffer the disruptive effects of that iconoclasm.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The Decomposition of God →

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – When Good Things Happen to People Who Have Hurt You

Leave a comment

 

But I say to you, love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may [show yourselves to] be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on those who are evil and on those who are good, and makes the rain fall on the righteous [those who are morally upright] and the unrighteous [the unrepentant, those who oppose Him]. — Matthew 5:44-45

Have you ever seen someone receive a blessing from God and felt like they didn’t deserve it? Have you seen good things happen to someone who has hurt you?

When a person who offended you gets a blessing, it can grate on you…at least it did for me until I learned how to forgive.

The Bible says that good and bad things happen to both the righteous and the unrighteous. When someone who’s hurt you receives a blessing, it makes it even harder to forgive them, but you are still called to pray for them.

I want to encourage you today to bless the people who have hurt you by praying for them, even though you may feel hurt and irritated by them. When you pray for people who have hurt you, it’s a choice you make. And forgiveness is based on your decision – not a feeling. But there’s healing in that for you.

A forgiving lifestyle helps you become more like Christ. As you learn the importance of forgiveness and begin to pray for blessings for those who have hurt you, your heart will heal from bitterness, and your personal growth will lead you to the blessings God has planned for you.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – No Longer Under Law

Leave a comment

“So there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

What an exciting fact! We are no longer under the law. We have been liberated from the bondage of trying to please God through our self-effort.

What is our motivation under grace? Under law our motivation was fear, and desire for reward and blessing; under grace, our basic motivation is an expression of gratitude – an inward appreciation and response to God’s love and grace.

Why do we do what we do as Christians? We should respond because we, like the apostle Paul, are constrained by the love of Christ. We live for the glory of God. You will remember that the apostle Paul had been beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, starved, buffeted, criticized and condemned, yet he said, “The love of Christ constrains me.”

Even if there were no rewards for those who live godly lives and obey our Savior, the reward of knowing Him as our God and Father, being forgiven of sin and cleansed from all guilt, is more than just enough; it is unfathomable. We can know Him, love Him, worship Him and serve Him by faith – here and now!

A young man I know is writing a book on how to become rich in the kingdom of God. He is basing his theme on the rewards that will be his by winning souls. “I want to be rich in heaven,” he says.

That may be a worthwhile goal, but it is not mine. Mine is gratitude and love. I love Him because He first loved me – died for me, liberated me, set me free.

Bible Reading:Romans 8:2-6

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  I will sing praises and give thanks in my heart to the Lord upon every remembrance of the liberty and grace that is mine in Christ Jesus, and I will tell everyone who will listen that we are no longer in bondage to sin, for Christ has set us free.

 

http://www.cru.org

Uncategorized

Max Lucado – Jesus Has Ample Room

Leave a comment

 

Listen to Today’s Devotion

Some of the saddest words on earth are: We don’t have room for you!  Sorry, I don’t have room for you on the team. I don’t have room for you in my heart. We don’t have room for your type here.

Jesus was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, We don’t have room for you. When the religious leaders accused him of blasphemy saying, We don’t have room for a self-proclaimed Messiah! Even today Jesus goes from heart to heart, asking if he might enter. But more often than not he hears the words of the Bethlehem innkeeper…. sorry, too crowded. I don’t have room for you.

But Jesus says I have ample space for you!  “Trust in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms” (John 14:2). We make room for him in our hearts, and he makes room for us in his house!

From When Christ Comes

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

 

 

Home

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Who hold the title for most Oscars lost?

Leave a comment

The Shape of Water won last night’s Academy Award for Best Picture. Gary Oldman, Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwall, and Allison Janney won the acting Oscars. Their victories were predicted by many.

But who has lost the most Oscars? The answers may surprise you.

Meryl Streep was nominated for Best Actress for her role as Katharine Graham in The Post. This marked her twenty-first Oscar nomination. She has won three while losing eighteen.

She is nowhere near John Williams, however. The iconic composer of musical scores for E.T., Jaws, and the Indiana Jones and Star Wars series has been nominated an amazing fifty-one times, including last night for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. But he holds the record for the most Oscars lost, with forty-six.

Meryl Streep and John Williams have clearly enjoyed astounding artistic success. But their perseverance has been as important to their careers as their talent.

No attribute is more essential for Christians who wish to serve Jesus in a culture like ours.

Mike Huckabee a “shameful choice” for CMA Foundation

Continue reading Denison Forum – Who hold the title for most Oscars lost? →