Daily Archives: March 20, 2024

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Happy Trust

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Bible in a Year :

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.

Psalm 40:4

Today’s Scripture & Insight :

Psalm 40:1–5

A woman rescued Rudy from the animal shelter days before he was to be euthanized, and the dog became her companion. For ten years, Rudy slept calmly beside Linda’s bed, but then he abruptly began to jump next to her and lick her face. Linda scolded him, but every night, Rudy repeated the behavior. “Soon he was jumping on my lap to lick my face every time I sat down,” Linda said.

As she was planning to take Rudy to obedience school, she began to consider how insistent Rudy was and how he always licked her in the same spot on her jaw. Sheepishly, Linda went to a doctor who found a microscopic tumor (bone cancer). The doctor told Linda that if she’d waited longer, it probably would’ve killed her. Linda had trusted Rudy’s instincts, and she was happy she did.

The Scriptures tell us repeatedly that trusting God leads to life and joy. “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,” the psalmist says (40:4). Some translations make the point even starker: “Happy are those who make the Lord their trust” (v. 4 nrsv). Happy in the psalms communicates abundance—an erupting, effervescent joy.

When we trust God, the ultimate result is deep, genuine happiness. This trust may not come easily, and the results may not be everything we envision. But if we trust God, we’ll be so happy we did.

By:  Winn Collier

Reflect & Pray

What makes it difficult for you to trust God? How does it alter things if you begin to really believe that trusting Him leads you to happiness?

Dear God, I want the kind of happiness that only You can bring. But it’s hard for me to trust. Will You help me?

 

 

http://www.odb.org

John MacArthur

Grace to You; John MacArthur – No Pride of Position

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“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:5-6).

Christ’s coming to earth is the supreme example to us of humility.

We can usually identify with what someone else has experienced when we have gone through the same thing. Even if we haven’t been through what the other person has, we can perhaps relate because we might someday have a similar experience.

However, it is much harder to comprehend what Christ experienced when He stooped from His lofty position at the right hand of God to come to earth as a man. We’ll never understand the magnitude of that descent because we never were and never will be God. Nevertheless, today’s passage presents, as a pattern for us, Jesus’ attitude in coming to this world.

As a Spirit-filled believer (Eph. 1:3-5, 13), the Lord has lifted you out of your sin and given you the privilege of being His adopted child. He thereby allows you to recognize and appreciate a little more what humility is all about. Like Jesus, you will have to descend from an exalted level when you reach out in humility to those who don’t know Him.

Jesus further set the standard for us when He did not view His high position “a thing to be grasped.” Loftiness of calling should never be something we clench as a prized personal possession to exploit for our own benefit. That is the attitude we would expect to see in worldly people of influence. But it should not characterize those who claim to follow Jesus’ standard.

In contrast, if you are Christ’s disciple you will see more and more of His humility in your life. That will occur as you continually exercise a selfless attitude toward the privileges and possessions He has given you. By not clinging to these benefits, you will truly exemplify Jesus’ attitude and more effectively serve others: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor” (Rom. 12:10).

Suggestions for Prayer

Pray that, starting today, God would grant you more and more of a Philippians 2:5-6 attitude.

For Further Study

As Ephesians 1 spells out, you have much to be thankful for as a child of God. Read the entire chapter, and list the many spiritual benefits Paul describes. Try memorizing several verses that are particularly striking to you.

From Strength for Today by John MacArthur

 

 

http://www.gty.org/

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Take a Lesson from the Farmers

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Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

James 5:7-8 (NIV)

Today’s scripture about patience is written in the context of waiting patiently for Christ’s return, but it applies to many areas of our lives.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait; it is the ability to keep a good attitude while we are waiting. Patience is also a fruit of the Holy Spirit that can be developed only under trial. This is why God allows us to go through challenges and trials instead of delivering us from them as quickly as we would like. He always has a plan to bring us through the difficult times we face, but He uses difficult times to help us grow so we will be stronger and have greater faith when the trial is over.

We can learn a lot about patience by thinking about farmers who wait for their harvests. The lesson here is that while we wait for something, we simply need to do what we know to do. That’s how a farmer waits when expecting a crop. They water their seeds and pull the weeds—over and over again, day after day. Likewise, as we wait for God to bring something to pass for us, we keep doing what we know to do—pray, spend time in the Word, stand in faith, help, and bless other people, and prepare ourselves as God leads us to receive the blessings we are waiting for. In addition, according to James 5:9, we don’t complain. We simply trust God, knowing that He will do what He needs to do when the time is right.

Prayer of the Day: Help me, Lord, to wait patiently for You, doing what I know to do as I trust You to move in Your perfect timing.

 

 

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Alistair Begg

Truth for Life; Alistair Begg – Gracious Gratitude

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Being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

Colossians 1:11–12

Almost everyone appreciates a good gift. Family, freedom, leisure, a warm bed, and a refreshing drink all make for a grateful heart, and we’re all naturally able to express at least some measure of gratitude for them. “Thank you” is a phrase we learn young.

The American revivalist Jonathan Edwards helpfully distinguished between what he referred to as “natural gratitude” and “gracious gratitude.”[1] Natural gratitude starts with the things we’re given and the benefits which accompany them. Anybody is capable of natural gratitude. Gracious gratitude, though, is very different, and only God’s children can experience and express it. Gracious gratitude recognizes the character, goodness, love, power, and excellencies of God, regardless of any gifts or enjoyments He has given. It knows we have reason to be grateful to God whether it’s a good day or a bad day, whether we’re employed or unemployed, whether the daily news is upbeat or overwhelming, whether we’re completely healthy or facing a terminal diagnosis. Such gratitude is only discovered by grace, and it is a true mark of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life. Gracious gratitude enables us to face all things with the awareness that God is profoundly involved in our lives and circumstances, for He has made us special objects of His love.

When Jonathan Edwards died as a result of a smallpox vaccination, Sarah, his wife, wrote to their daughter, “What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud.” Notice the honesty in that. There’s no superficial triumphalism. But her husband was not taken out by chance; it was the overruling sovereignty of God that determined the right time to bring Jonathan home to his eternal reward. And so Sarah continued, “But my God lives; and he has my heart … We are all given to God: and there I am, and love to be.”[2]

Amid grief, we will never be able to speak words like these from natural gratitude, which cannot help us in loss. Such reflection can only flow from gracious gratitude. You may be facing difficult or even heartbreaking circumstances at the moment; and if you are not, then that day will come, for this is a fallen world. But in those moments, you can cling to God’s love and choose to trust God’s goodness, expressed most clearly at the cross. Then, even in the darkest hours, you will know the joy of His presence and always have cause to give thanks to Him. There is strength, dignity, and worship in being able to say, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).

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

Romans 11:33–36

 

Topics: Thanksgiving Trials

FOOTNOTES

1 “A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, in Three Parts,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Sereno Dwight, revised and corrected by Edward Hickman (1834; reprinted Banner of Truth, 1979), 1:276.

2 Sarah Pierpont Edwards to Esther Burr, April 3, 1758, in Memoirs of Jonathan Edwards by Sereno Dwight, in Edwards, Works, 1:clxxix.

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 Is Honest with Us about the Christian Life

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“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2 Timothy 2:3)

What if you were sitting at your desk one day and your teacher said: “Class, tomorrow you will have a test. Be sure to study hard and be prepared for it.” That would be a good enough reason for you to start some serious thinking. But what if the teacher stopped her announcement right there? What if she would not tell you what subject your test would be in? How would you know whether to study Math, English, Science, History, or Geography? How would you know what books to take home or what chapters to review?

If your teacher announced only that you needed to prepare for a test, but she did not tell you important things about that test, her announcement would not really be very helpful to you, would it? In fact, it might be scary and frustrating!

I’m so glad that God tells us exactly what is expected of us as His children. First, He honestly tells us that the Christian life isn’t easy. In James 1:2 it says to “count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” It doesn’t say IF, it says WHEN. That tells us that we should expect difficult times. But praise God that in verse 5 He says that if we lack wisdom, we can ask Him for it and He will give it to us! He doesn’t just tell us what to expect: He also helps us to be prepared for what comes!

The apostle Paul often used illustrations to help us picture what the Christian life is like. He gives at least two examples: the soldier (who must fight in battles) and the athlete (who must work and train very hard for competitions).

Here are a couple verses that show us that the Christian life is not for lazy or goofy people, but that it requires us to be consistent and focused, like an ATHLETE:

“Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1c)

“If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.” (2 Timothy 2:5)

In modern terms, 2 Timothy 2:5 basically means this: If someone wants to compete in athletic games, he cannot win unless he plays by the rules. An athlete who wants to win a race in the Olympics has to train every day for months and even years. He usually also has to give up some things. He might go without things like soda pop, pizza, and cake. He might give up his favorite TV shows and time with his friends. He follows the instructions of his coach or trainer very carefully, so that someday he might win that gold medal.

And here are verses that show us that the Christian life is not for weak or cowardly people, but that it is full of hardship and danger, like the life of a SOLDIER:

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2 Timothy 2:3)

“We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

We can understand these examples. A soldier’s life is hard. An athlete’s life is hard. When God describes the Christian life in the Bible, He does not just say, “Oh, you’ll have to take a test, so be prepared.” No. He tells it to us straight. He explains that living for Christ is a fight and that to win, we have to be disciplined and faithful.

Once again, God tells us what we need to hear about the hardship we can expect in living for Christ. But He also helps us to be prepared. He equips us with what we need to fight sin and to endure hard things with patience and faith. At least if the Christian life is going to be hard, it is comforting to know that God is on our side and ready to help. If you keep reading in Ephesians 6, you will read all about the “armor” God provides to protect us and help us fight. If you keep reading in Hebrews 12, you will see very clear instructions from God about how to run a race–laying aside sins and weights, and looking to Jesus as our best example. If you keep reading in 2 Timothy, you will see that God calls us to keep from getting tangled up with distractions and to live before Him in trust and obedience. In fact, we find in all these verses that God expects us to read His Word, to trust Him, to pray, and to stay away from worldly things. Those are some very clear and encouraging guidelines to help us prepare for the hard tests in the Christian life!

God explains what He expects of us, and tells us what we ought to expect in our lives as Christians.

My Response:
» What does God expect of me?
» How can I show that I trust God and want to obey Him, in spite of hard things in my life?

 

 

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – MrBeast signs Amazon deal for biggest competition series in TV history

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Who is the “most watched person on earth,” according to Time magazine?

If you’re following the news, you might nominate:

  • Taylor Swift, who now has the 1 music film ever on the Disney+ platform
  • Princess Kate, who was just spotted in public for the first time in months
  • Tom Cruise, ranked the most popular actor of 2023
  • Or Lionel Messi, ranked our most popular athlete.

But the answer is twenty-five-year-old Jimmy Donaldson, better known by his online alias MrBeast. His videos have garnered a social media audience of over 425 million fans; he estimates that he appears on a screen somewhere in the world about thirty billion times a year.

Now MrBeast is making news for a deal he struck with Amazon worth as much as $100 million. “Beast Games” will consist of a thousand contestants competing for a $5 million cash prize, the largest single prize ever offered on television or streaming. Donaldson will host and executive produce the show, which will be available in 240 countries and territories.

His secret is not just his entertaining and well-produced videos (Time reports that he shoots as much as twelve thousand hours of footage for a fifteen-minute clip). It’s also the way his viewers are invited to engage with him. At his suggestion, for example, viewers have planted twenty million trees and more than six hundred thousand people donated enough money to help remove thirty million pounds of trash from the oceans.

Grayson Logan, an eleven-year-old who watches MrBeast videos every day at his home in Arkansas, says, “I like him because he’s super nice and he helps people and gives them money.” A digital marketing expert says of Donaldson’s appeal: “His whole perspective is, How do I make the average person extraordinary?”

This question helps explain Donaldson’s astounding popularity, since most of us seek to be “extraordinary” every day. There’s a paradoxical path to our goal available right now, one that transcends anything our media-driven culture can offer.

“My core identity is not that of a consumer”

It was my privilege to hear Rev. Tish Harrison Warren at Dallas Baptist University’s Veritas Lecture Series last night and then to join her on the platform for a conversation.

Her book Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life was Christianity Today’s 2018 Book of the Year (Here’s our review). Her second book, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep was Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of the Year. She was also an opinion writer for the New York Times. I have followed her ministry with great gratitude for her intellectual brilliance, practical relevance, and evangelical yet ecumenical cultural engagement.

In Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish writes:

Christian worship, centered on Word and sacrament, reminds me that my core identity is not that of a consumer: I am a worshiper and an image-bearer, created to know, enjoy, and glorify God and to know and love those around me.

She also states:

The crucible of our formation is in the monotony of our daily routines.

Our problem is that our faith formation and our “daily routines” so seldom seem to intersect.

Privatizing truth and meaning

You and I live in a “seeing is believing” culture that defines reality as that which is material and measurable. This is one consequence of our scientific, secularized society, “secular” being Latin for “of this world.”

Earlier societies lived with mystery and the reality of the supernatural, from the Greeks and Romans with their pantheon of Olympic gods, to early Christians who sought and lived by the power of the unseen Holy Spirit, to medieval cultures governed by the spiritual rhythms and dogmas of the Catholic Church.

Then came the birth of modern science founded on the scientific method, which focuses only on that which can be measured in some tangible and objective way. Darwinian evolution further removed the mystery of creation, then Freudian psychoanalysis taught us that religion is an infantile neurosis. Now our postmodern, relativistic culture is convinced that all truth claims, including (especially) religious truth claims, are personal and subjective.

But this privatizing of truth and meaning isolates us from others and from the God who made us. It insulates us from our inborn quest to be part of a cause greater than ourselves. It separates spiritual formation from our daily routines. And it commodifies our faith as a means to personal, even selfish ends.

It should not surprise us, therefore, that a video creator who gives viewers a chance to change the world in a collective and tangible sense would be one of the most popular media figures in history.

How to live an extraordinary life

To live an extraordinary life, stay connected to the One who came to give us “more and better life than [we] ever dreamed of” (John 10:10 MSG). Make him your Lord by submitting to his Spirit’s power and leading. When you “steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions,” as a result “you’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met” (Matthew 6:33 MSG).

Tertullian (AD 160–240) noted:

Prayer cleanses from sin, drives away temptations, stamps out persecutions, comforts the fainthearted, gives new strength to the courageous, brings travelers safely home, calms the waves, confounds robbers, feeds the poor, overrules the rich, lifts up the fallen, supports those who are falling, sustains those who stand firm.

Will you experience such victory today?

Wednesday news to know

Quote for the day

“For any person of faith, public engagement must be balanced with times of withdrawal, of silence, prayer, questioning and wonder beyond the reach of words. Otherwise, faith with all its strange and startling topology becomes a flat and sterile thing, something to be dissected instead of embraced. And typically once something is fit only for dissection, it is dead.” —Tish Harrison Warren

 

Denison Forum

Turning Point

Turning Point; David Jeremiah – What’s Most Important?

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Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come—and the books, especially the parchments.
2 Timothy 4:13

Recommended Reading: Psalm 119:49-50

If you were exiled to a deserted island, what one thing would you take with you? While something similar happened to the apostle John (Revelation 1:9) and likely to others throughout history, the chance of it happening to us is nil. But it does raise the question: “What do we value most?”

The apostle Paul was exiled to a “deserted” place near the end of his life—the Mamertine Prison in Rome. A notoriously dark and punishing place, Paul seems to have been confined with little or nothing in terms of possessions. When writing to Timothy, he asked his young protégé to bring his cloak, no doubt to ward off the cold in his damp confines. But he also asked for something else: “the books, especially the parchments.” These were no doubt copies of the Old Testament Scriptures, in whole or in part. With the end of his earthly life in sight (2 Timothy 4:6-8), he desired his most cherished possessions: his copies of God’s Word to comfort and sustain his spirit.

May we never take for granted our access to God’s Word. May it be our daily source of strength and inspiration.

The health of our souls requires that we take the whole Bible as it stands and let it do its work in us.
A. W. Tozer

 

 

https://www.davidjeremiah.org

Greg Laurie

Harvest Ministries; Greg Laurie – The Day Jesus Got Mad

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 And he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. 

—Mark 11:16

Scripture:

Mark 11:16 

If you’ve ever watched a Western, then you know that if you want to make a point, you turn over a table.

After Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, He entered the temple, looked around, and assessed the situation. Then, He returned the next day, and He began to cleanse the temple by driving out the merchants and turning over their tables.

Mark gives us these details in his Gospel: “When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves” (Mark 11:15 NLT).

Maybe you’re thinking, “Now, wait a second. I thought Jesus was meek and mild. Isn’t that how a Christian should be?”

Let’s understand what that means. Jesus did say, “I am humble and gentle at heart” (Matthew 11:29 NLT). The problem is that we sometimes equate meekness with weakness. We think that to be a Christian, we need to be soft-spoken. That’s what we think meekness is. But that isn’t meekness; that is just quietness.

The image of Jesus knocking over tables and chairs of the money changers isn’t what we’re used to. As a matter of fact, in the way artists portray Jesus in traditional religious art, He doesn’t look like He could turn over a chair, much less a table.

But the Jesus of the New Testament, the real Jesus, was a man’s man. He was strong. The merchants’ tables weren’t little temporary folding tables. Rather, they were massive tables made of heavy wood, maybe even marble. And Jesus turned them over. It was complete chaos as doves flew out of their cages, and money flew everywhere.

Meekness is not weakness. It is power under constraint. Meekness is being able to do something and choosing not to. Weakness, on the other hand, is not being able to do anything. That is the difference.

Jesus was applying meekness. He was indignant and angry because they were hurting God’s people. He told them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves” (Mark 11:17 NLT).

They were preventing people from worshipping the Lord. Instead of praying for the people, these religious leaders were preying on the people. If worshippers wanted to pay the temple tax, they had to exchange their money for special half shekels in the sanctuary, which were the only form of currency the temple accepted. But it came at a hiked-up price.

The same was true for sacrificial animals. If people brought in their own animals to sacrifice, the animals would be rejected, which forced them to buy the merchants’ more expensive animals.

The bottom line is the merchants were keeping people away from God. And that made God angry. Very angry. In the same way, we need to ask ourselves this question: Am I a bridge or a barrier to people coming to Christ?

 

 

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

Days of Praise

Days of Praise – Tell Them About the Savior

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by John D. Morris, Ph.D.

“Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?” (Exodus 2:7)

In Exodus, Pharaoh ordered the execution of all newborn male Israelites. Moses was spared since his sister intervened, and she later became his helper as he led their people to freedom. Throughout the Bible, godly women played important roles. In “Brethren, We Have Met to Worship,” such women are enjoined to pray for sinners and testify of His power to save.

Sisters will you join and help us?
Moses’ sister aided him;
Will you help the trembling mourners
Who are struggling hard with sin?
Tell them all about the Savior,
Tell them that He will be found;
Sisters, pray, and holy manna
Will be showered all around.

In the beginning, “God created man in his own image…male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27). As God’s image bearers, godly women are equipped to minister to others, often being especially effective in attending to individual needs. In our hauntingly beautiful study hymn, such women are called to help trembling sinners convicted of and struggling with sin.

Women can be powerful in prayer. Lasting fruit is borne in ladies’ Bible studies and in children’s Bible lessons taught by godly women. Many rescue missions, mission fields, and counseling rooms are primarily staffed by ladies unashamed of the gospel. Thankfully, God has chosen to shower “manna all around” through the ministry of godly Christian women. JDM

 

 

 

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