Daily Archives: March 28, 2018

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – The High Cost of Sin

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Hebrews 10:1-14

Anyone who has read through the book of Leviticus can’t help but notice the emphasis on sacrifices. There were prescribed animals for different kinds of personal and national offerings, as well as for occasions like the Sabbath and feasts. Why did God require this? And why was He so specific about the details of worship?

There were three lessons God was teaching Israel through His law.

  • God is holy and separate from sinful man.
    • Sin is costly, requiring a payment or sacrifice.
    • There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood.

All the laws, ceremonies, priests, and offerings in the Old Testament were a shadow of the good things to come. None of the animal sacrifices could actually take away sin. While serving as a reminder of sin, those offerings also pointed ahead to the Lamb of God: Jesus Christ came to be the final sacrifice. He gave His life at Calvary, bringing complete forgiveness for all sin.

We who live on this side of the cross may be tempted to think too lightly of our sins because we have never sacrificed an animal or seen blood flowing from the throat of an innocent lamb because of our wrongdoing. Nor did we watch the crucifixion of our Lord as He hung on the cross, bearing God’s judgment for our sins. The only cost we actually see involves the consequences we suffer for our rebellion and disobedience.

As difficult and painful as it may be, let’s seriously consider what our sins cost the Savior. If we allow our hearts to be broken, our worship and gratitude will overflow, and we’ll respond by living a holy life.

Bible in One Year: 1 Samuel 15-16

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Look and Be Quiet

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Read: Luke 23:44–49 | Bible in a Year: Judges 4–6; Luke 4:31–44

Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering . . . ? Lamentations 1:12

In the song “Look at Him,” Mexican composer Rubén Sotelo describes Jesus at the cross. He invites us to look at Jesus and be quiet, because there is really nothing to say before the type of love Jesus demonstrated at the cross. By faith we can imagine the scene described in the Gospels. We can imagine the cross and the blood, the nails, and the pain.

When Jesus breathed His last, those who “had gathered to witness this sight . . . beat their breasts and went away” (Luke 23:48). Others “stood at a distance, watching these things” (v. 49). They looked and were quiet. Only one spoke, a centurion, who said, “Surely this was a righteous man” (v. 47).

Look at the cross and worship.

Songs and poems have been written to describe this great love. Many years before, Jeremiah wrote about Jerusalem’s pain after its devastation. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” (Lamentations 1:12). He was asking people to look and see; he thought there was no greater suffering than Jerusalem’s. However, has there been any suffering like Jesus’s suffering?

All of us are passing by the road of the cross. Will we look and see His love? This Easter, when words and poems are not enough to express our gratitude and describe God’s love, let us take a moment to ponder Jesus’s death; and in the quietness of our hearts, may we whisper to Him our deepest devotion.

Dear Jesus, as I look at Your cross, I have no words to express my gratitude for Your perfect sacrifice. But I thank You for Your love.

Look at the cross and worship.

By Keila Ochoa

INSIGHT

Can you imagine being personally responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus? Luke tells us the Roman centurion saw something that led him to conclude that he had just overseen the execution of an innocent man (Luke 23:47). Matthew adds that as the officer and his soldiers felt the earth shake violently under their feet they became terrified at the thought that they had just executed “the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54).

In their world, Caesar was known as the son of God. But these Roman soldiers suddenly realized the emperor they answered to was nothing like Jesus. Entrusted with all power and authority in heaven and on earth, His death revealed the loving heart of His Father.

Imagine being the centurion reading what the apostle Paul later wrote to followers of Jesus in Rome. By this time, Jesus’s death was being proclaimed as good news to everyone (Romans 1:15–17). Paul described Jesus’s suffering and death as evidence of the God who continues to groan with us in our wrongs against Him, one another, and ourselves (Romans 8).

Can we see ourselves kneeling with this Roman officer in grateful worship?

Mart DeHaan

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Pointing Fingers

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For a world of finger-pointing, the day is ripe with opportunity. Today is “Spy Wednesday,” an old and uncommon name for the Wednesday of Holy Week, so-named because it marks the agreement of Judas to betray Jesus. As told by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Judas approaches the chief priests and asks what they would be willing to give him for turning Jesus over to them. They agree on a sum, and from then on Judas looks for opportunity to hand him over.(1)

Some commemorate the involvement of Judas in the story of Holy Week by collecting thirty pieces of silver, the exact amount Judas was given to betray Jesus, and later returns to the chief priests in regret. Typically, children gather the coins and present them as gifts to the church for the community. In a less congenial commemoration, tradition once involved children throwing an effigy of Judas from the church steeple, then dragging it around the town while pounding him with sticks. For whatever part of us that might want a person to blame for the events that led to the betrayal, death, and crucifixion of Jesus, Judas makes an easy target.

But nothing about Holy Week is easy, and the gospels leave us wondering if guilt might in fact hit closer to home. It is noted in Mark’s Gospel, in particular, that the moral failures of the week are not handed to any one person, but described in all of the actors equally: Yes, to Judas the betrayer. But also to weak disciples, sleeping and running and fumbling. To Peter, cowardly and denying. To scheming priests, indifferent soldiers, angry mobs, and the conceited Pilate. Mark brings us face to face with human indecency, such that it is not a stretch to imagine our own in the mix.

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Identify the Battlefield

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For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds. — 2 Corinthians 10:4 AMPC

Did you know that we are in a war every day? Looking around at all the suffering, we may think the battles are just taking place externally, but in reality, they are happening internally—on the battlefield in our minds

When we fail to identify the battlefield, we also fail to correctly identify our enemy. We tend to believe people, money, religion or “the system” are our problems. Unless we renew our minds, we risk continuing to believe those lies and making important decisions based on deception.

Each day our minds are bombarded with a constant stream of nagging thoughts, suspicions, doubts and fears. While any one of these can cause defeat and devastation, grabbing on to God’s truth can bring victory and joy.

You may have some major strongholds in your life that need to be torn down. Let me encourage you by reminding you that God is on your side. There is a war going on, and your mind is the battlefield. But the good news is that God is fighting on your side!

Prayer Starter: Holy Spirit, I don’t want to be deceived, ignoring the real battle that’s happening in my mind. Keep me on guard so I can fight the good fight. With You on my side, I can’t lose!

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – The Holy Spirit Enlightens

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“But the man who isn’t a Christian can’t understand and can’t accept these thoughts from God, which the Holy Spirit teaches us. They sound foolish to him, because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means. Others just can’t take it in” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Though I have been a Christian for more than 35 years, I still have much to learn. I am far from perfect. And I do not ever expect to be – in this lifetime. Only our Lord Jesus Christ was without sin.

However, I know from experience that the more time I spend with God through reading, studying, memorizing and meditating on His Word, with the help of the Holy Spirit to interpret God’s truth to me, the more I become like our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

When you spend time daily in Bible reading and study, your life will change. After reading God’s Word consistently for several months, you will be amazed by the things God has done in your life.

How can we understand the Bible? How can we experience its life-changing influence in our lives?

The non-believer and the disobedient, carnal Christian have difficulty in understanding the Bible because they must rely on their human faculties in their attempt to understand things that are of a spiritual nature in God’s Word.

As Paul writes to the church at Corinth,” …the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (KJV).

Bible Reading:I Corinthians 2:9-13

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  Since the Holy Spirit inspired holy men of old to record God’s Word, the Bible, I will ask Him to interpret God’s message to my own life, and today I will encourage someone, or several others, to depend upon the Holy Spirit and to join me in living a supernatural life for the glory of God.

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – He Did it Just for You

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Listen to Today’s Devotion

Jesus says to a doubting Thomas in John 20:29, “Thomas, because you have seen me you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

When God entered time and became a man, he who was boundless became bound. Imprisoned in flesh. With a wave of his hand he could have boomeranged the spit of his accusers back into their faces. With an arch of his brow, he could have paralyzed the hand of the soldier braiding the crown of thorns. But he didn’t. He stood silent as a million guilty verdicts echoed in the tribunal of heaven.

After three days in a dark grave, he stepped into the Easter sunrise with a smile and a question for lowly Lucifer. “Is that your best punch?” He gave up the crown of heaven for a crown of thorns. He did it for you, my friend. Just for you.

From more On Calvary’s Hill

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Sister Jean: The nun who is inspiring the world

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I don’t remember the last time I had this much fun researching a topic.

You know you’re a celebrity when the world knows you by your first name. In the case of Jean Dolores Schmidt, it’s “Sister Jean.”

As the world now knows, this ninety-eight-year-old nun is the chaplain for the Loyola University Ramblers men’s basketball team. The Ramblers are the Cinderella story of this year’s playoffs. And Sister Jean is their inspiration.

What Sister Jean gave up for Lent

She has been interviewed on Good Morning America and featured in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. ESPN says that she has been mentioned in more than twenty thousand media stories.

On Monday, the university announced a series of merchandise bearing her name and image. You can buy socks, T-shirts, collectible toys, and more. One T-shirt is emblazoned “AIR JEAN” with a silhouette of her as Michael Jordan.

And you can get the “Sister Jean Bobblehead.” The company has made around five hundred different bobbleheads over the last three years. In just thirty hours, hers became their bestseller.

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