Daily Archives: December 5, 2023

Alistair Begg

Truth for Life; Alistair Begg – Reaping the Harvest

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The disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work … Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”

John 4:33-35

Today it is harvest time, and we are called to be at work.

In the Gospel of John, it’s not uncommon for Jesus’ teachings to sound literal but turn out to be figurative. In John 2, for example, He uses the imagery of the temple’s destruction and rebuilding to refer to His death and resurrection, but His hearers take Him literally (John 2:19-22). In John 3, He describes salvation in terms of being figuratively “born again,” but Nicodemus can think only of physical rebirth (3:3-4). With the Samaritan woman, Jesus uses a physical drink of water at the well to illustrate the eternal satisfaction found in relationship with God, but she mistakes His meaning and asks Him for a literal drink (4:7-14).

It should not surprise us, then, that in these verses Jesus again employs this method, this time with His own disciples. As they encourage Him to eat, Jesus speaks of a different and figurative food—about His mission, and about ours. Jesus’ “food,” or mission, was “to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (see also John 5:30; 6:38). On the cross, we see that work completed as He declares, “It is finished” (19:30). Christ died in the place of sinners so that He can offer grace to sinners. Anyone can be forgiven if they respond with faith to the offer of the gospel. But to respond, they must first be told.

So when the crowd from the Samaritan town approached them and the disciples became concerned about Jesus having something to eat, He called them to “look,” to see what was really going on—something much more exciting than a lunch plan! There were men and women who needed to hear the good news that He had come to offer forgiveness. There was a harvest ready to be reaped. We, too, often need such a wake-up call. We so easily miss what is in front of us, failing to notice the opportunities we have to share Christ with the people we meet who are hungry to hear of Him. We so easily make excuses, thinking no one will be interested in the gospel message, thinking we’ll take God’s mission seriously when we enter a different phase of life, when things are less busy.

Beware of persuading yourself that there is no harvest or that circumstances allow you to sidestep the call to be at work to gather it in. Christ’s work is indeed finished, but we are invited to share in His missional harvest, continuing to bring the good news of that finished salvation to lost souls. Do we see this harvest awaiting? Or are we preoccupied with shuffling soil in worldly garden patches which will never bear true spiritual fruit? Perhaps what you need is a perspective shift, an opening of your eyes. Who are the people around you? In what field have you been placed? Will you do the wonderful work of sharing Jesus with them? “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9:37). Today it is harvest time, and you are called to be at work.

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

Mark 4:1-20

Topics: Gospel Mission Preaching

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

http://www.truthforlife.org

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — God’s Comforting Commitment

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Bible in a Year:

The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9

Today’s Scripture & Insight:

Joshua 1:1–9

Years ago, our family visited Four Corners, the only place in the United States where four states meet at one location. My husband stood in the section marked Arizona. Our oldest son, A.J., hopped into Utah. Our youngest son, Xavier, held my hand as we stepped into Colorado. When I scooted into New Mexico, Xavier said, “Mom, I can’t believe you left me in Colorado!” We were together and apart as our laughter was heard in four different states. Now that our grown sons have left home, I have a deeper appreciation of God’s promise to be near all His people wherever they go.

After Moses died, God called Joshua into leadership and guaranteed His presence as He expanded the Israelite’s territory (Joshua 1:1–4). God said, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you” (v. 5). Knowing that Joshua would struggle with doubt and fear as the new leader of His people, God built a foundation of hope on these words: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” (v. 9).

No matter where God leads us or our loved ones, even through difficult times, His most comforting commitment assures us that He’s always present.

By:  Xochitl Dixon

Reflect & Pray

How has God recently comforted you with His constant presence? How does His commitment to be present help when you’re far from loved ones?

Ever-present God, thank You for comforting me with the promise of Your constant presence.

http://www.odb.org

John MacArthur

Grace to You; John MacArthur – God’s Final Revelation

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“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2).

Jesus not only brought but in fact was God’s full and final revelation.

A Samaritan woman declared, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us” (John 4:25). The expectation of that day, even among the Samaritans, was that Messiah would unfold the full and final revelation of God. The Holy Spirit, through the writer of Hebrews, affirms that to be true: “God . . . in these last days has spoken to us in His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2).

The Old Testament had given divine revelation in bits and pieces. Every piece was true, yet incomplete. But When Jesus came, the whole picture became clear, and though rejected by His own people, He was, in fact, the fulfillment of the messianic hope they had cherished for so many centuries.

The Old Testament age of promise ended when Jesus arrived. He is God’s final word: “As many as may be the promises of God, in Him they are yes; wherefore also by Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 1:20).

God fully expressed Himself in His Son. That’s why John said, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:14, 18). Paul added that in Christ “all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col. 2:9).

The practical implications of that truth are staggering. Since Christ is the fullness of divine revelation, you need nothing more. In Him you have been made complete (Col. 2:10), and have been granted everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3). His Word is sufficient, needing no additions or amendments.

Suggestion for Prayer

Ask God to teach you how to rely more fully on your resources in Christ.

For Further Study

Read John 1:1-18 as a reminder of the fullness of God’s revelation in His Son.

From Drawing Near by John MacArthur 

http://www.gty.org/

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Cry Out to God

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Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me.

— Psalm 142:6 (NIV)

Now that you have read portions of almost all of the Book of Psalms, I’m sure you can see that David, who wrote more psalms than anyone else, was a person through whom deep emotions ran. In many ways, David teaches us through his psalms how to manage our emotions.

In Psalm 142, David feels overwhelmed, and in our scripture for today, he cries out to God, saying that he is in desperate need. He is hiding in a cave because King Saul wants to kill him, and he knows that King Saul and his troops are too strong for him.

His response to his feelings of depression and being “wrapped in darkness” (Psalm 142:3 AMP) was not to meditate on his problem. Instead, he dealt with his problem in this psalm by choosing to cry out to the Lord, his refuge and portion in the land of the living (v. 5). In other words, he thought about the Lord, his Deliverer, and it helped him to overcome desperation.

Perhaps you are in a desperate situation today. You may feel, as David did, that your enemies are too strong for you. Your enemies may not be people; they may be situations that cause you to feel alone, overwhelmed, depressed, frustrated, or confused. Whatever your circumstances, the same God who heard David’s cry will hear you when you cry out to Him.

Prayer of the Day: Lord, teach me to manage my emotions. When my feelings are deep and intense, help me to cry out to You.

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Kids 4 Truth

Kids4Truth Clubs Daily Devotional – What Pleases God More than Anything

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“That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.” / “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” (1 Thessalonians 2:12 / Ephesians 5:17)

William Law was born in 1686, and he died in 1761. Maybe you have never heard of him. He was not a celebrity or a politician or a war hero. He was not even a popular evangelist or a missionary martyr. Whatever he did in his life was not “important” enough to get him fame or to keep him memorable to us who are living now, more than 200 years after he has gone to be with the Lord.

But William Law – whoever he was – wrote this:

      “From morning to night, keep Jesus in thy heart,
       long for nothing, desire nothing, hope for nothing
       but to have all that is within thee changed into
       the spirit and temper of the holy Jesus.”

What is your idea of “success”? Is it that you would make a lot of money? Is it that people would know your name and remember all the things you did in your life? For William Law, “success” meant becoming more and more and more like Jesus Christ, from the inside out. He wanted to keep Jesus as his main goal. He wanted to be Christlike more than he wanted anything else. We don’t remember much about William Law today. In the world’s eyes, he was probably never very “successful.” But Christians can learn from his writings, and Christians can learn from his personal example.

If you are trusting in Christ as your Savior, is it your desire to learn God’s will for your life? God’s idea of “success” is not that a person does a lot of famous things or earns a lot of money. The Bible teaches that God wants Christians to glorify Him by becoming more and more like His Son, Jesus Christ. That is God’s idea of “success” for His people. This is what God wills; this is what God wants. 1 Thessalonians 4:3a says, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.”

Sanctification is the process of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. Sanctification is what William Law was longing for. Why? Because it was William Law’s greatest desire to please God by becoming like Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

To trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, yet never think about Him, never read the Bible, never pray to Him, and never tell others about Him – that must be a disappointment to Him. Because of Who Christ is and what He has done for us, becoming more like Him should be our greatest desire – no matter what else we are able to do in our lives, and no matter what else we might be remembered for.

God is pleased when we are becoming more like His Son.

My Response:
» Am I more concerned about pleasing myself or pleasing God?
» What is my idea of a “successful” life, and does it match up with God’s idea of “successful”?
» How have I been changing to become more like Jesus Christ?

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Will the next James Bond be an avatar? The peril of AI and the path to transforming hope

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In the latest Indiana Jones movie, eighty-one-year-old Harrison Ford was de-aged forty years by artificial intelligence (AI). Accordingly, Sean Connery fans might hope they’ll see a young version of the first James Bond in the next Bond film. Alas, producer Barbara Broccoli has announced that, while the next 007’s identity is currently unknown, James Bond will not be an AI-rendered actor from the past.

Fans of the Swedish rock band ABBA are suffering no such disappointment. The group is currently making $2 million a week performing as avatars (lifelike digital images projected onto a screen). The band KISS now plans to do the same. “We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we’ve never dreamed of before,” KISS bassist Gene Simmons said.

Is this a good thing? Or is it just a less ominous example of a crisis that threatens us all?

“They’re some new kind of human”

Teenage girls in New Jersey were recently victimized by such technology when it was used to generate nude images of them that were then circulated at their high school. The Department of Homeland Security is warning that “deepfake” technology is being employed to generate hundreds of thousands of pornographic images, including those of children.

Fake audio is being used to steal passwords and breach financial accounts. Deepfake videos are being used to manipulate political opinion and voters. Retired Army Gen. Mark Milley is warning that “robust space and cyber capabilities [now] allow adversaries to target critical national infrastructure” vital to our military defenses. (For more, see my website paper, “ChatGPT and artificial intelligence: What you need to know.”)

But there’s an even deeper element to this rising threat.

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan writes:

What is most urgently disturbing to me is that if America speeds forward with AI it is putting the fate of humanity in the hands of the men and women of Silicon Valley, who invented the internet as it is, including all its sludge. And there’s something wrong with them. They’re some new kind of human, brilliant in a deep yet narrow way, prattling on about connection and compassion but cold at the core. They seem apart from the great faiths of past millennia, apart from traditional moral or ethical systems or assumptions about life.

Finding “Bethlehem” today

This is the Advent week of “hope.” I would define hope as confidence in the future that brings benefits in the present. Soldiers hope their Boot Camp training is preparing them to serve their country more effectively, and this belief sustains them in their present challenges. Students hope their years of education will lead to careers that repay their investment, and this belief enables them to stay the course.

However, the validity of our hope depends on its basis. If you have cancer but place your hope in aspirin rather than oncology, your hope is not only misplaced but dangerous.

Similarly, if we hope that humans can solve humanity’s greatest problems, our hope deters us from trusting the One whose omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence we need so desperately. As creatures of such a Creator, our most empowering hope lies in submission to his gracious sovereignty.

Like the Christmas shepherds, we need to experience personally “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). But we no longer must “go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened” (v. 15) because it is happening in us. Oswald Chambers noted:

Every man is meant to be the “Bethlehem” of the Son of God by the regenerative power of redemption. Just as the historic Son of God became incarnate in the Virgin Mary . . . so the Son of God is formed in the life of the individual saint by the supernatural grace of God.

“With him everything else thrown in”

Paul assured us that “Christ in you” is “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27, my emphasis). How could it be otherwise?

“In [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (v. 19). As Richard Melick notes, “Everything that God is, Jesus is.” Thus, “through him” God could “reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (v. 20). Because God died for us, God has the moral authority to forgive us for the sins that caused his death. He can thus make peace (the Greek word means to “make all things right”) in us, with us, and for us.

This is why the ultimate solution to every problem we face is found in daily submission to our Savior. When he is our Lord, his Spirit will guide us infallibly with regard to AI and every other challenge we face. We will love our neighbor as ourselves, whether they are Palestinian or Israeli, Chinese or American, Democrat or Republican. And our differences will lead not to cultural division and destructive animosity but to kaleidoscopic celebration.

C. S. Lewis advised us, “Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find him, and with him everything else thrown in.”

For whom will you “look” today?

Denison Forum

John Hagee

Hagee Ministries; John Hagee –  Daily Devotion

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By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

John 15:8

God’s will for each of His children is that we bear fruit – and not just somefruit, but much fruit! God is a productive and producing God, and He desires the same attributes in us.

When do we start? Immediately! Fruit production is possible for every believer. From the moment we are grafted into the True Vine, His potential and power flow through us.

Where do we start? Here! Our mission field exists right where we live. We have great impact in the place where we are known the most.

How do we start? The Holy Spirit produces fruit in us as we submit to the Father. His good fruit grows in us, and we produce works as evidence.

When the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they received power to become His witnesses in Judea – that was home. In Samaria – those were their neighbors. And to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Let’s produce good fruit at home – with our spouses and children. Let’s be productive in our witness to our neighbors. In the places where we are employed, let’s work with God-honoring integrity. Those who know us best must know how we love Him most.

Start here. Start now. As you are nourished by the Father, may you flourish. Abound in every good work to produce more and more fruit!

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. May you be the planting of the Lord, pruned to produce. May your fruitfulness ever increase to glorify your Father.

Today’s Bible Reading: 

Old Testament

Hosea 1:1-3:5

New Testament 

1 John 5:1-21

Psalms & Proverbs

Psalm 124:1-8

Proverbs 29:5-8

https://www.jhm.org

Turning Point

Turning Point; David Jeremiah – Prophetic Proof

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All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:6

 Recommended Reading: Isaiah 53:4-6

Dr. Mitch Glaser wrote, “If you are not yet sure what you think about the Bible, take a look at the evidence anyway. If the prophecy in Isaiah 53—with its specificity and historical accuracy—is indeed fulfilled over 700 years later in Yeshua [Hebrew for Jesus], then that is a pretty good case that both the New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures are reliable.”1

If you read Isaiah 53 with pen and paper, you can list 48 different predictions about Christ, each of which vividly came true. It’s very hard to explain away the evidence of our Lord’s true identity gained through the reality of fulfilled Messianic prophecy. This is especially true because Isaiah 53 presents Jesus not primarily as a coming King, but as a suffering Servant.

If you ever have doubts about the reality of the Bible, take time to read Isaiah 53 and see how Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of all that was written about Him in the Old Testament.

Every Old Testament prophet reminds us of our need for a prophetic mediator and anticipates God’s provision of Jesus Christ, the Prophet.
David Murray

  1. Dr. Mitch Glaser, “Isaiah 53 Explained,” Academia.

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

Greg Laurie

Harvest Ministries; Greg Laurie – A Lesson from Mary

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 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 

—1 Corinthians 1:27

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 1:27 

There are a lot of misperceptions about Mary. On one hand, people place her on a pedestal. And on the other hand, she is ignored and misunderstood. But Mary was a godly person living in a godless place.

And she showed us that it’s possible for someone to live a godly life even while living in the midst of an ungodly environment. Mary lived in Nazareth, which, for the most part, was not a popular destination.

God could have chosen someone from Rome to bear the Messiah. After all, Rome was ruling most of the world at that time. God could have chosen someone from Jerusalem, the spiritual capital of the world. Or, God could have chosen someone from Athens, the intellectual and cultural capital of the world.

But God didn’t choose someone from any of these places. Instead, He chose a young woman who was living in Nazareth.

Roman soldiers overran Nazareth, an obscure place known for its wickedness. That is why Nathanael, when he heard that Jesus was from Nazareth, said, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46 NLT).

Yet God chose Mary and this obscure place to accomplish His purpose. He chose an unknown teenager living in an unknown place to bring about the most known event in human history: the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It seems that God goes out of His way to choose the most unexpected people to accomplish His plans. The Bible is filled with examples of the most ordinary individuals being chosen by God to do the most extraordinary things.

Mary was genuinely humble. She was surprised when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary, . . . for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David” (Luke 1:30–32 NLT).

When we think of certain men and women of the Bible, we see them in their greatness because of what God did. But remember, when God called David, he was a shepherd boy whose father didn’t even acknowledge him. Yet God instructed the prophet Samuel to anoint David as the next king of Israel.

When God chose Gideon, he was hiding from his enemies. And when God called Simon Peter, he was out catching fish. But the Lord raised him up to be one of the great apostles. And God chose Mary to bring about the arrival of the Messiah.

The apostle Paul wrote, “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful” (1 Corinthians 1:26–27 NLT).

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie
Days of Praise

Days of Praise – Wisdom and Might Are His

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 “Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his.” (Daniel 2:20)

Men have sought wisdom all through the ages, “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). Others have sought great power. But then we read of Alexander the Great weeping because there were no more worlds to conquer, and we see one rich man after another who cannot bring himself to say, “It is enough.”

The problem is, of course, that they are searching for wisdom and might in the wrong places, and thus they can never be satisfied. Wisdom and might belong only to God. In the Lord Jesus Christ “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3), and to Him has been given “all power…in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). God, revealed in Christ, is both omniscient and omnipotent, and true wisdom and true riches must come only from Him.

Therefore, “if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God…and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). If we are in need of strength, we must become weak, for “when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). If we need riches, we must know poverty, for before Christ can commit to us “the true riches,” we must be found “faithful in that which is least” (Luke 16:10-11).

Daniel’s testimony, as recorded in this passage, was given to the most powerful monarch on Earth, with access to all the wisdom of the most highly educated men of the age. But neither human might nor human wisdom could solve his problem. Only Daniel, drawing on the wisdom and power of the God of creation, could meet his need. God’s servants, even today, have the same privilege and responsibility, because our God is “for ever and ever.” HMM

https://www.icr.org/articles/type/6