Daily Archives: October 6, 2023

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — What Could Be Better?

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Bible in a Year:

That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God.

1 Timothy 4:10

Today’s Scripture & Insight:

1 Timothy 4:6–16

Eric heard about Jesus’ love for him while in his early twenties. He started attending church where he met someone who helped him grow to know Christ better. It wasn’t long before Eric’s mentor assigned him to teach a small group of boys at church. Through the years, God drew Eric’s heart to help at-risk youth in his city, to visit the elderly, and to show hospitality to his neighbors—all for God’s honor. Now in his late fifties, Eric explains how grateful he is that he was taught early to serve: “My heart overflows to share the hope I’ve found in Jesus. What could be better than to serve Him?”

Timothy was a child when his mother and grandmother influenced him in his faith (2 Timothy 1:5). And he was likely a young adult when he met the apostle Paul, who saw potential in Timothy’s service for God and invited him on a ministry journey (Acts 16:1–3). Paul became his mentor in ministry and life. He encouraged him to study, to be courageous as he faced false teaching, and to use his talents in service to God (1 Timothy 4:6–16).

Why did Paul want Timothy to be faithful in serving God? He wrote, “Because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people” (v. 10). Jesus is our hope and the Savior of the world. What could be better than to serve Him?

By:  Anne Cetas

Reflect & Pray

What have you learned about Christ that you want someone else to know? Who could use your help and whose help might you need?

Dear God, please give me a heart to bring Your hope to those around me. 

http://www.odb.org

John MacArthur

Grace to You; John MacArthur – Children of Light

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 “If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

God is light, and His children share His nature.

First John 1:5 aptly describes God’s nature as “light” (truth and holiness). Because they partake of His nature (2 Peter 1:4), His children also walk in the light. It must be understood that we don’t become God’s children by walking in the light, but rather we walk in the light because we are His children. The Greek verb describes continuous action and could be translated, “If we habitually or continuously walk in the light. . . .” It’s an indicator of character; a definition of a true Christian, just as walking in the darkness characterizes unbelievers.

Two significant benefits come to believers because they walk in the light. These are privileges granted only to Christians; unbelievers who think they possess them deceive themselves.

First, believers experience fellowship with God. “One another” in 1 John 1:7 does not refer to other Christians. Although it is certainly true that believers enjoy fellowship with each other, that is not what this verse is teaching. The use of the pronoun “his” later in the verse makes it clear that the fellowship in view here is with God. That fellowship is mutual, “with one another.” Believers share a common life with God, experience His presence through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and commune with Him through prayer and the reading of His Word.

Second, believers experience cleansing from sin. “The blood of Jesus His Son” is the agency of that cleansing. Christ’s blood is symbolic of His sacrificial death on the cross, where full payment was made for believers’ sins. Once again it must be noted that walking in the light does not earn forgiveness; rather, forgiveness is freely granted to those who walk in the light (who are Christians).

In view of those glorious truths, I would leave you today with the challenge of the apostle Paul: “Now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8).

Suggestions for Prayer

Ask God to help you “let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

For Further Study

Look up the following passages, noting what each teaches about forgiveness of sin: Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:14; 10:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Revelation 1:5-6.

From Strength for Today by John MacArthur

http://www.gty.org/

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – The Grace of God

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 …I have raised you up for this very purpose of displaying My power in [dealing with] you, so that My name may be proclaimed the whole world over.

— Romans 9:17 (AMPC)

If you want victory over something, prepare yourself to work at it. But it is not a matter of depending on yourself or winning at life through your own determination. God gives us grace to do good works. But grace doesn’t mean that our human flesh gets a free ride while we just lie down and go to sleep.

You are made for good works, to be a servant of righteousness. You are built to take responsibility, and God will help you accomplish all He gives you to do. He set you free from the bondage of sin so that you can conform to His divine will in thought, purpose, and action (see Romans 6:18). Victory is achieved through God’s grace, but you must choose to trust Him every step of the way.

Prayer of the Day: Lord, please give me the desire to do good works, through faith. I trust in Your grace and not my own power or strength. Please guide me in righteousness and line up my actions with Your divine will, amen.

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Alistair Begg

Truth for Life; Alistair Begg – Kingdom-Shaped Prayers

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Pray without ceasing.

1 Thessalonians 5:17

We have no good apart from God. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,” James tells us (James 1:17). Similarly, Paul asks, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). The resounding response, of course, is nothing whatsoever. All that we have, we have from God.

If that is all true and we can do nothing of lasting value apart from Christ (John 15:5), then what makes us think we could make it through any day without praying to the one whose strength and sustenance we so desperately need? This doesn’t mean we need to host prayer meetings 24/7 (although perhaps more times of extended corporate prayer would benefit us all!). But it does mean that we should never attempt to make it through a single day without expressing our dependence on our heavenly Father in prayer.

The reality is that it’s easy to get stale in our praying. But that happens most often when our prayer times turn into personal shopping lists, focused more on things that we want than what we and the world around us really need. We ought to “let [our] requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6)—whatever those requests may be, great or small. But we ought also to pray for grand things. The greatest cries of the people of God should be the greatest concerns of the kingdom.

For example, we can pray for:

  • world missions, praying as we send people out of our congregations and around the world
  • the teaching of the Bible in places near and far
  • the cause of Christ to be established in the world
  • God to hold back His hand of judgment and shower us with blessing and mercy
  • the faithfulness and growth of the church and our witness around the globe
  • our government and its leaders, from the local level upwards
  • the homeless, downtrodden, and hungry
  • points of light to spring up around your city as testimonies to the gospel of Jesus Christ

This is just a sample, of course. A kingdom-focused list could continue far further! Whatever you end up praying for specifically today and in the coming days, though, ask God for His kingdom to come. Ask Him for His will to be done. What a joy that He calls you to keep on praying, and then answers your prayers to build His kingdom!

Questions for Thought

How is God calling me to think differently?

How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?

What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?

Further Reading

Matthew 6:9-11

Topics: Dependence on God Kingdom of God Prayer

Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg

http://www.truthforlife.org

Kids 4 Truth

Kids4Truth Clubs Daily Devotional – God’s Word Is Precious

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 “Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: quicken me in thy righteousness. Let thy mercies come also unto me, O LORD, even thy salvation, according to thy word…. Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words.” (Psalm 119:40-41, 57)

“If they would burn the Word of Christ, they would burn Christ.”
~ William Tyndale (1494–1536), language scholar and theologian
who was burned at the stake for translating the Bible
and for believing in justification by faith alone

Throughout history, there have been many people who fought the spread of God’s Word. There were people who thought it was wrong for the Word of God to be translated into a “common” language, or any other language but the original languages it was written in. Some religious leaders did not want the Bible to be readable, because their false teachings would be found out if people could check them by the Bible in their own languages.

Many years ago, a man named William Tyndale was overcome with a passion to see the Hebrew and Greek original Scriptures translated into English. His dream was that any common ploughboy (any farmer’s servant) would be able to read the Bible in his own language (English) instead of having to know Hebrew or Greek, or instead of having to listen to the Bible read in Latin. Tyndale was a skilled translator and wonderful writer, so his translations (some pieces of the New Testament that he translated) are quoted today even more than famous lines from Shakespeare’s plays are quoted!

But back in his time, William Tyndale was not so popular. He was betrayed, went to prison, and eventually was strangled and burned at the stake – all because he wanted to give the Bible to English-speaking people. Tyndale loved God’s Word so much that he died for it. He died so God’s Word could be read. He died so God’s Word could be printed and preserved (kept safe and available) for generations to come. God used people like William Tyndale throughout history to preserve His Word, to keep it safe. That is why God’s Word is still here for us to use in our time.

King David’s psalms about God’s Word show that he also had a deep love for the Scriptures. He says he has longed after God’s Word. He says that the LORD is his portion (the LORD is all he needs), and because of that, he promises to keep (obey) the LORD’s words.

David was “a man after God’s own heart.” He loved God, so he loved God’s Word. William Tyndale’s whole life (and death) was devoted to making sure God’s Word would be around in the future, readable by both rich and poor people. He was passionate about God’s Word, because He was passionate about God. God’s Word ought to be considered precious (extremely valuable) because it is from God. Many people have lost their lives trying to make sure God’s Word would stay safe. If you have a Bible today, check out your relationship to God’s Word. How often do you read it? How do you respond to it? Does your life show that you love the Word of Christ?

God’s Word is precious, because it is from Him.

My Response:
» How often do I think about God’s Word?
» Why is God’s Word so valuable?
» Do I really treat God’s Word as something precious, or do I ignore it?

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Everything I know and don’t know about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce: Are we “amusing ourselves to death”?

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Did Taylor Swift join Travis Kelce for his birthday yesterday? Will she attend his game this weekend? Heinz has created a custom sauce in response to a viral photo of her at a recent Chiefs game. Their friends say she is “really enjoying getting to know Travis” and that he is “completely smitten” with her.

Now you know everything I know and don’t know about this “pop cultural moment,” as the NFL describes the couple and its coverage of their reported romance.

Now consider these headlines on this morning’s Wall Street Journal website: “Violent Crime Is Surging in DC”; “US Jet Shoots Down Turkish Drone Over Syria”; “GM Has at Least 20 Million Vehicles With Potentially Dangerous Air-Bag Parts”; “Army Plans Major Cuts to Special-Operations Forces”; “China Is Becoming a No-Go Zone for Executives.”

Which story would you rather think about today?

A world that is all about us

In Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, the American writer and educator Neil Postman warned that television was transforming our engagement with the world from one in which we process information actively to one in which we experience entertainment passively. He argued that a particular medium can only communicate a particular kind of idea. Print is essential for rational inquiry and argument, in his view, while televised images are most useful for evoking emotions and entertaining viewers.

He pointed to television news as an example, with its use of theme music, journalistic actors, and highly produced images and videos. The result for viewers is less that they are informed than that they are entertained and thus susceptible to consuming what is being advertised, which is the real goal of such programming.

Postman issued his critique in 1985. What would he say of a culture dominated by social media and TikTok videos?

Now add the influence of consumption-driven capitalism: consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the entire US economy, which means our financial system depends on convincing us that we need to buy what advertisers are selling. From morning to night, we live in a culture that centers on us as the customer. We get to choose the news we consume, the entertainment we experience, the products we buy and use.

Paradoxically, however, we feel more anxious, depressed, and lonely than ever. In a world that’s all about us, why is this?

“Until the nation pays homage again to God”

Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920) was Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905. Previously, he served as a newspaper editor and Parliament member before founding the Free University of Amsterdam, which took the Bible as its foundation for every area of study and knowledge.

His famous declaration answers our question: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’” In his book To Be Near Unto God, he explained:

The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality, in the full and vigorous prosecution of our life. It must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perception, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence.

Consequently, Kuyper described the ruling passion of his life:

That in spite of all worldly opposition, God’s holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school, and in the State, for the good of the people, to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and Creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to God.

“Lord, open the King of England’s eyes”

The Bible resoundingly proclaims that our God is the Lord and ruler of every dimension of every part of the universe in every moment of every day. You and I were created by our Creator for a holistic relationship with him. The splitting apart of soul and body, spiritual and secular, religion and the “real world” that so dominates Western life originated with pagan Greek philosophers, not biblical truth.

Consequently, when we make the world about us rather than our Maker and segregate him to the merely “religious” moments of our week, we take up a weight we cannot bear. We become our own Atlas, the Greek god whose task of holding the sky on his shoulders was a punishment rather than a privilege.

Is it any wonder that we choose the distractions of pop culture over the hard work of responding thoughtfully and redemptively to the critical issues we face?

What we need is a holistic, unifying life mission, a purpose that gives meaning to every moment and dimension of our lives. God has such a calling for us, one that unites body and soul, mind and spirit, and infuses us with joy-filled abundance no matter the challenges we face.

Consider William Tyndale, the man more responsible than any other for the English Bible you and I read today. Condemned for his efforts to give his people a version of God’s word they could read for themselves, he was strangled on this day in 1536, then his dead body was burned at the stake. His last prayer was “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”

And God did: three years later, Henry VIII required every parish church in England to make a copy of the English Bible available to its parishioners.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, “If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, in a sense he is not fit to live.”

Are you “fit to live” today?

Denison Forum

John Hagee

Hagee Ministries; John Hagee –  Daily Devotion

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Esther 4:14

…Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

“What difference does it make?” Have you ever asked yourself that question? Have you talked yourself out of taking action with that question?

You are a difference maker! Every day, whether you are intentional or not, you make an impact – for the good or the not-so-good. You decide the difference that you will make.

Instead of counting our blessings, we frequently choose to focus on things we would like to change. When it comes time to take the action that leads to change, though, we often throw up our hands and ask, “What difference does it make?” With that question, we discount any strategy, action, or outcome that would help us achieve our goal.

Do you wish your boss appreciated you more? Show up early. Stay later. Do a little more than what is required.

Do you wish you were in better physical shape? Put down the remote. Take a walk. Make healthier eating choices.

Do you wish that your family life was stronger? Spend time together. Look one another in the eyes. Talk about your accomplishments and challenges.

The power to make a difference lives in you. God has chosen you. He has inserted you into this moment in history to impact the world for Him. Live in wide-eyed expectation for the difference He will make through you today.

Blessing: 

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you and give you His peace. All things are possible for you to accomplish the purposes of God. You are a difference maker!

Today’s Bible Reading: 

Old Testament

Jeremiah 6:15-8:7

New Testament 

Colossians 2:8-23

Psalms & Proverbs

Psalm 78:1-25

Proverbs 24:26

https://www.jhm.org

Turning Point

Turning Point; David Jeremiah – God’s Clock

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The Lord is not slack concerning His promise…but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9

 Recommended Reading: 2 Peter 3:9-13

Why is it taking so long for Christ to return? In Paul’s writings, we get the impression he expected the Lord to return in his own lifetime. Every subsequent generation of Christians has expected Christ to come back during their day. We ourselves are expecting Him at any moment.

But God keeps time by His own clock, and He keeps to His own schedule. A day is like a thousand years to Him and a thousand years like a day. The Bible warns us against skeptical impatience. God is not slow in keeping His promise. He is patient with us, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.

Perhaps Jesus is delaying His coming to give your loved ones a few extra days to be saved. Perhaps He’s extending another hour for you to get your own heart right with Him. That is the one great decision in life that should not be delayed.

Don’t be discouraged if Jesus tarries His coming. Use it to share the Good News and beseech people to be reconciled to God while they still can and while there’s still time.

The delays of God are not meant to discourage our faith but to develop it.
Amy Carmichael

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

Greg Laurie

Harvest Ministries; Greg Laurie – Drowsy Christians

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This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 

—Romans 13:11

Scripture:

Romans 13:11 

With self-driving cars now on the market, we’re seeing more and more stories in the news about drivers falling asleep at the wheel. One driver, for instance, was fast asleep in his moving car when a police officer noticed him. After they unsuccessfully tried to wake the man, the police had to force his car off the road.

In the same way, some Christians today are asleep at the wheel. They have a spiritual lethargy, a passivity about them.

The apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (Romans 13:11 NLT).

The J. B. Phillips New Testament puts it this way: “Why all this stress on behaviour? Because, as I think you have realised, the present time is of the highest importance—it is time to wake up to reality. Every day brings God’s salvation nearer.”

Paul addressed these words to Christians, to genuine believers whose spiritual lethargy and laziness made them appear and act as though they had no spiritual life. Effectively, they were asleep at the wheel.

We can be in a state of spiritual slumber and not even realize it. In fact, we might even deny it. Yet the Bible warns us to wake up from our spiritual sleep.

Thus, Paul was saying, “It’s time for you to wake up.” He probably was alluding to the soon return of Christ. If you believe that Jesus could come back today, then you’re very astute theologically. As believers, we should realize that Jesus could come back at any time.

But we must also recognize that we don’t know how long we will live. When we’re young, we think we have all the time in the world. But then one day we look at ourselves in the mirror and it’s obvious that we’re getting older.

Titus 2 reminds us, “For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed” (verses 11–13 NLT).

Long ago, it was common to write this phrase over financial documents: memento mori. The literal translation, “Remember you must die,” obviously had a grounding effect on readers.

Regardless of how much money we have saved or invested, we will leave it all behind one day. That’s why we need to keep perspective and make every day count.

The psalmist David said, “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is” (Psalm 39:4 NLT).

We must live every day as though it could be our last. Because one day it will be.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie