Daily Archives: May 22, 2018

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – The Comfortable Church

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Isaiah 6:8

I think it’s fairly obvious that the society we live in is very self-centered, and this same characteristic can be present in a church. Whenever a local body of believers develops an inward focus, its fruitfulness in ministry begins to decrease, and each member’s Christian walk is hindered. Many believers want their church to be cozy and comfortable. They come to listen to a nice sermon, fellowship with friends, and have their needs met. But God never intended for the gathering of His people to be like a country club; He calls us to join an army that will bring the gospel into enemy territory.

An effective church—one that poses a real threat to the enemy—is a body of discipled people who have been taught the truth of Scripture, helped to mature spiritually, and trained for service. But all this is accomplished for the purpose of going out into the world, not for becoming a self-contained sanctuary of Christian comfort.

The urgency of the Lord’s command and the desperate condition of humanity should motivate us to leave the safety of our Christian fellowships and deliver the message of salvation through Jesus. To avoid this responsibility is to miss the Father’s plan for your life and the opportunity to help build His kingdom.

None of us want to waste time or energy on trivial things and thereby miss the exciting fulfillment of God’s will. He has called us, not to a life of comfortable tradition, but to an adventure of obedience. Answer His call—you’ll help fill His kingdom with people from every tribe and nation.

Bible in One Year: 2 Chronicles 35-36

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Up a Tree

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Read: Jonah 2:1–10 | Bible in a Year: 1 Chronicles 16–18; John 7:28–53

In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. Jonah 2:2

My mother discovered my kitten Velvet atop the kitchen counter, devouring homemade bread. With a huff of frustration, she scooted her out the door. Hours later, we searched our yard for the missing cat without success. A faint meow whistled on the wind, and I looked up to the peak of a poplar tree where a black smudge tilted a branch.

In her haste to flee my mother’s frustration over her behavior, Velvet chose a more precarious predicament. Is it possible that we sometimes do something similar—running from our errors and putting ourselves in danger? And even then God comes to our rescue.

Oh the heights–and in the depths–God goes to in rescuing us with His redeeming love!

The prophet Jonah fled in disobedience from God’s call to preach to Nineveh, and was swallowed up by a great fish. “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: ‘In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me’ ” (Jonah 2:1–2). God heard Jonah’s plea and, “commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land” (v. 10). Then God gave Jonah another chance (3:1).

After exhausting our efforts to woo Velvet down, we summoned the local fire department. With the longest ladder fully extended, a kind man climbed high, plucked my kitten from her perch, and returned to place her safely in my arms.

Oh the heights—and the depths—God goes to in rescuing us from our disobedience with His redeeming love!

Dear God, how we need Your rescue today!

Jesus’s death on the cross rescued us from our sins. 

By Elisa Morgan

INSIGHT

The story of Jonah is a story of the unexpected. The only character in the story who doesn’t obey God is the one the reader would expect to be obedient, the one who told the sailors, “I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jonah 1:9). In contrast to the fugitive prophet, the pagan sailors turn to God (v. 16); the fish did as the Lord commanded (2:10); the Ninevites (a blood-thirsty and pagan people) repented (3:5–10). But the unexpected doesn’t stop there. God goes to great lengths to teach Jonah who He is. Rather than punish the disobedient prophet who is angry at God’s mercy, God invites Jonah (and us) to contemplate the depths of His love and mercy.

When have you experienced the love and mercy of God?

J.R. Hudberg

 

 

http://www.odb.org

 

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Reordering the Imagination

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I shut my eyes in order to see, said French painter, sculptor, and artist Paul Gauguin. As a little girl, though completely unaware of this insightful quote on imagination, I lived this maxim. Nothing was more exhilarating to me than closing my eyes in order to imagine far away exotic lands, a handsome prince, or climbing down a deep enough hole leading straight to China!

In fact, like many, imagination fueled my young heart and mind. After reading C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, I would walk into dark closets filled with warm winter coats fully expecting to be transported like the Pevensie children into strange and wonderful land. Charlotte’s Web took me to a farm where I could talk to my dog, like Fern talked to Wilbur, or to the spiders that hung from intricate webs in my garage. Pictures on the wall came to life and danced before me; ordinary objects became extraordinary tools enabling me to defeat all those imaginary giants and inspiring me toward powerful possibilities fueled by vivid imagination.

Sadly, as happens to many adults, my imagination has changed. I don’t often view my closet as a doorway to unseen worlds, nor do I pretend that my dogs understand one word of my verbalizing towards them. Pictures don’t come to life, and I no-longer pretend my garden rake or broom is a secret weapon against fantastical foes. Often, I feel that my imagination has become nothing more than wishful thinking. Rather than thinking creatively about the life I’ve been given, I day-dream about what my life might be like if… I lived in Holland, for example, or could back-pack across Europe, or lived on a kibbutz, or was a famous actress, or a world-renowned tennis player, or any number of alternative lives to the one I currently occupy.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Reordering the Imagination →

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – He Will Tell You What’s Ahead

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He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future].  — John 16:13 AMPC

One of the many benefits of hearing from God is that listening to His voice helps us prepare for the future. The Holy Spirit gives to us the messages the Father gives to Him, and He often tells us things that will happen in the future.

We find many instances in the Bible in which God spoke to people and gave them information about the future. He told Noah to prepare for a flood that would come to destroy the people of the earth (see Genesis 6:13–17). He told Moses to go to Pharaoh and ask for the release of the Israelites and that Pharaoh would not grant this request (see Exodus 7). Obviously, God does not tell us everything that will happen in the future, but His Word promises He will tell us some things.

There are times when I sense that something good, or perhaps something challenging, is going to happen. When a challenge awaits me and I have some prior knowledge of it, that knowledge helps to cushion the blow when the difficult situation comes. If an automobile with good shock absorbers hits a pothole, those absorbers protect passengers in the car from the jarring impact that would result and no one gets hurt. God’s giving us information ahead of time works the same way.

Part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to tell us things to come. He knows the mind of God and He knows God’s individual plans for our lives. He will reveal what we need to know when we need to know it in order to fulfill the good plans God has for us.

Prayer Starter: Thank You, Lord for Your precious Holy Spirit and for speaking to me about things to come. Help me to continually grow in my relationship with You so I can be even more sensitive to hearing Your voice. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – First Step to Wisdom

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“How does a man become wise? The first step is to trust and reverence the Lord! Only fools refuse to be taught” (Proverbs 1:7).

In 1787, the Constitutional Convention was on the verge of total failure. The issue: whether small states should have the same representation as large states.

From the wisdom of his 81 years, Benjamin Franklin recalled the Scriptures which says, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1), and in this hopeless situation, he offered a suggestion.

“Gentlemen,” he said, “I have lived a long time and am convinced that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

“I move that prayer imploring the assistance of heaven be held every morning before we proceed to business.” God heard their prayers and the conflict was soon resolved. To this day, all legislative sessions continue to be opened with prayer, with God’s blessing.

“Reverence of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” reads the Modern Language translation of this verse – a preamble to wise living a good motto for life.

Someone has said, “The eternal task of religion is the conquest of fear.” Men fear many things – bacteria, losing their jobs, being dependent in old age, giving offense to their neighbors, war, failure, death.

Fear (worshipful reverence) of God represents a different kind of fear – the kind a child shows toward wise and loving parents when he shuns acts of disobedience to avoid both grieving those parents whom he loved and suffering the inevitable discipline which follows disobedience. Perhaps if we feared God more, we would fear everything else less.

Bible Reading:Proverbs 1:8-16

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: My fear and reverence of God is the beginning of supernatural living and will result in worship of Him – by walk as well as by talk.

 

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Let God Accept You

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Listen to Today’s Devotion

Do you think God could heal your angry heart? He asks the same question of you that he asked of the invalid in John 5:6,  “Do you want to be healed?” Not everyone does. Anger may be part of your identity.

T.D. Terry’s stressful job stirred in him daily bouts of anger. A tree near his driveway had been tall. Then lost a few limbs. After some time it was nothing more than a stump. T.D. explained, “I took my anger out on the tree. I took an ax to it. I tore the limbs. I didn’t want to come home mad, so I left my anger at the tree.”

Let’s do the same. In fact, let’s take our anger to the tree on the hill. Leave it at the tree of Calvary. Let God accept you. Take a long drink from his limitless love, and cool down!

Read more A Love Worth Giving

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Woman seeks leniency for man who laced her tea with abortion pills

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Brooke Fiske was seventeen weeks pregnant. Her then-boyfriend and the father of their child, Dr. Sikander Imran, was pressuring her to get an abortion, but she refused.

She told reporters what happened next: “When I was drinking my tea in the evening, I got to the bottom of the cup. There was a gritty substance in there, and when I looked at it, I could tell that it was a pill that had been ground up.”

Imran had placed the abortion-inducing drug in her tea. She began having contractions and was taken to the hospital, where she went into labor and aborted their child.

Imran was arrested and pled guilty to fetal homicide. He was sentenced to prison last Friday and has lost his medical license. He could also be deported to his native Pakistan.

The illogic of abortion

Their story is making headlines because Fiske asked the judge to give Imran a lighter sentence during his trial. “When something tragic happens, it’s really important to try to find a way to move forward and to use it for good,” she explained.

I believe their story should make news for a different reason as well.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Woman seeks leniency for man who laced her tea with abortion pills →