Daily Archives: April 15, 2019

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – How to Seek the Lord

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Psalm 105:1-7

Although Scripture tells us to seek the Lord, many Christians struggle with this command. Some are so distracted by other interests and responsibilities that God is only a miniscule part of their goals and desires in life. When confronted with their responsibility to pursue Him, they often feel guilty but don’t know how to begin.

When desire for the Lord surpasses our eagerness for other pursuits, following through becomes more natural. But hunger for the Lord can be like an acquired taste. The more we pursue Him, the greater our hunger will be. However, if we ignore Him, what little appetite we have will diminish even further. Do you find that the latter describes your experience? If so, ask the heavenly Father to whet your appetite for Him—and follow through by making the effort to seek Him.

Begin with the Scriptures and prayer. Set aside time each day for meditating on God’s Word—listen for His voice, slowly digest what you read, talk to the Lord, ask Him questions, and apply what you learn to your life. Begin studying the Bible. Some of you may say, “I’ve never been into that.” My advice: Get into it! The deep things of God don’t just drop into our brains; they are placed there through diligent study.

Seeking anything requires time and effort. Will you invest your life in the pursuit of the Eternal One—the source of all contentment, joy, and hope? Or will you go after that which is fleeting? By neglecting the Lord, you cheat yourself of all the benefits He promises to those who diligently seek Him.

Bible in One Year: 1 Kings 6-7

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — The Marks of Friendship

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Bible in a Year:1 Samuel 27–29; Luke 13:1–22

You are my friends if you do what I command.

John 15:14

Today’s Scripture & Insight:John 15:9–17

As a little boy growing up in Ghana, I enjoyed holding my father’s hand and walking with him in crowded places. He was both my father and my friend, for holding hands in my culture is a mark of true friendship. Walking along, we would talk about a variety of subjects. Whenever I felt lonely, I found consolation with my father. How I valued our companionship!

The Lord Jesus called His followers friends, and He showed them the marks of His friendship. “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you,” He said (John 15:9), even laying down His life for them (v. 13). He showed them His kingdom business (v. 15). He taught them everything God had given Him (v. 15). And He gave them opportunity to share in His mission (v. 16).

As our Companion for life, Jesus walks with us. He listens to our heartaches and our desires. When we’re lonely and downhearted, our Friend Jesus keeps company with us.

And our companionship with Jesus is tighter when we love each other and obey His commands (vv. 10, 17). As we obey His commands, we will bear “fruit that will last” (v. 16).

Walking through the crowded alleys and dangerous roadways of our troubled world, we can count on the Lord’s companionship. It’s a mark of His friendship.

By Lawrence Darmani

Today’s Reflection

What does it mean for you to be a friend of Jesus? How has He revealed His presence to you?

 

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Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The Decomposition of God

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“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.

Herein, Nietzsche’s atheistic tale tells a story beneficial no matter the creed or conviction of those who hear it. Gods, too, decompose. Nietzsche’s bold atheism held the intellectual integrity that refused to make it sound easy to live with a dead God—a conclusion the new atheists are determined to undermine. Moreover, his dogged exposure of idolatrous conceptions of God wherever they exist and honest articulation of the crises that comes in the crashing of such idols is universal in its bearing. Whether atheist or theist, Muslim or Christian, the death of the God we thought we knew is disruptive, excruciating, tragic—and quite often, as Nietzsche attests, necessary.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The Decomposition of God →

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Unoffended

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Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. — Proverbs 19:11

Adapted from the resource Wake Up to the Word Devotional – by Joyce Meyer

One of our first responses when someone hurts or offends us can be to pray: “God, I choose to believe the best. My feelings are hurt, but You can heal me. I refuse to be angry; I refuse to be offended.” It’s important to be firm in your determination that you will not be offended because offense is a trap that pulls us away from God, His people, and His principles.

The word offense comes from the Greek word skandalon. A skandalon was the part of an animal trap that held the bait; its purpose was to lure a victim. Offense is bait that will lure us into a trap of full-blown bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness.

When you are tempted to be offended, choose to forgive right away. Don’t give the bitterness you feel a chance to take root in your life. Choosing to live without offense is one of the wisest choices you can make. If you need to forgive someone, today is the best day to do it!

Prayer Starter: Father, please show me any areas where I may be harboring bitterness or offense. Help me learn to be quick to forgive and hard to offend. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

 

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Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – His Rich Storehouse 

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“However, Christ has given each of us special abilities – whatever He wants us to have out of His rich storehouse of gifts” (Ephesians 4:7).

Roger and Len read a popular book on spiritual gifts. Instead of being blessed, they were distressed. They came for counsel.

“What is our gift?” they pleaded, as though I had the ability to immediately discern God’s supernatural provision for them.

“First of all,” I explained, “you should not be exercised over the undue emphasis on gifts, which has been of somewhat recent origin. For centuries, until recent times, men did not make a great deal of that particular emphasis in the Word of God.

“The emphasis was on the authority of the Scripture, the lordship of Christ, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Great servants of God were mightily used as preachers, missionaries, teachers and godly laymen, without ever being made particularly aware that spiritual gifts were something that needed to be emphasized. The feeling was, ‘Whatever God calls me to do, He will enable me to do, if I am willing to surrender my will to Christ, study the Word of God, obey the leading of the Holy Spirit, work hard and trust God to guide me.'”

I gave them my own testimony of how, though I had been a Christian for more than 30 years and God had graciously used my life in many ways – sometimes my preaching, other times my teaching or administrative gifts, or in the area of helps – I quite honestly did not know my spiritual gift nor did I seek to “discover” my gift. I was very content to know, with the apostle Paul, that I could do all things through Christ who strengthened me, who keeps pouring His power into me. I showed them a quotation from a book on gifts, in which a famous Christian leader declared that for 25 years he had believed he had a particular gift but recently had cause to question whether he possessed it, and concluded finally that he did not.

My word to you, then, as to Roger and Len, is not to be distressed if you do not know your gift. Simply continue to walk in faith and obedience, make Christ the Lord of every part of your life, be sure you are filled with the Spirit, and hide the Word of God in your heart daily.

Bible Reading: Ephesians 4:1-6

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  For the rest of my life I shall seek the Giver and not the gift, depending upon Him to give me the necessary wisdom and ability and whatever else is needed to accomplish the task which He has called me to do. I shall share this concept with other Christians who are confused over the matter of spiritual gifts.

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Behold the Redeemer From Heaven

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Listen to Today’s Devotion

For some, Jesus is the Rabbit’s Foot Redeemer—a good luck charm used to get you out of a jam.  For many he’s an Aladdin’s Lamp Redeemer— Your wish is his command.  For others, Jesus is a Game Show Redeemer— Let’s make a deal! Few demands; no challenges; and no need for sacrifice or commitment.

That’s not the Redeemer described in the New Testament.  And that’s not the Redeemer seen by the frightened woman who was caught in the act of adultery.  The leaders were going to stone her, but Jesus intervened.  If we could somehow transport her to Calvary she would recognize his hands—hands that still hold no stones.  She would recognize his voice, “Father, forgive them…”  And she would recognize his eyes; the eyes that saw her not as she was, but as she was intended to be. Behold!  The Redeemer from Heaven.

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For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

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Denison Forum – Would you get an ‘IRS’ tattoo to avoid taxes?

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Welcome to Tax Day.

What would you do to avoid ever paying taxes again?

Twenty-four percent of Americans would get an “IRS” tattoo; 36 percent would move to a different country; 15 percent would take a vow of celibacy; 11 percent would name their child “Taxes.”

Our angst over April 15 is understandable: 57 percent of us think our current tax rate is too high. Only 34 percent think it’s just right. Surprisingly, 9 percent of us think it’s too low.

Here’s the good news: tomorrow is Tax Freedom Day.

If you allocated every dollar you earned so far this year to pay your federal, state, and local taxes, your debt would be satisfied tomorrow. Everything you make beginning Wednesday would then be yours.

Tiger Woods’ “stirring triumph”

In what the New York Times is calling a “stirring triumph,” Tiger Woods won the Masters yesterday at the age of forty-three. President Trump called the win “a fantastic life comeback”; President Obama described it as “a testament to excellence, grit and determination.”

While Woods’ fifth victory at Augusta National is historic, it didn’t change history for most of us. That’s because, unless you’re involved with golf professionally, the game is a hobby for you. And hobbies are for our discretionary time. For most people, they are ancillary to our lives, not central to them.

Unfortunately, many Americans view following Jesus in the same way—as a hobby for those who choose it. To change metaphors, we see our relationship with God in the same way we see our relationship with the government: we give him what he requires so he will do what we want him to do.

A taxpayer relationship with God Continue reading Denison Forum – Would you get an ‘IRS’ tattoo to avoid taxes? →