Daily Archives: May 7, 2024

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread – God-Given Gifts

Leave a comment

 

Bible in a Year :

We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.

Romans 12:6

Today’s Scripture & Insight :

Romans 12:4-8

Decades ago, I went to a college retreat where everyone was talking about a personality test. “I’m an ISTJ!” one said. “I’m an ENFP,” another chirped. I was mystified. “I’m an ABCXYZ,” I joked.

Since then, I’ve learned a lot about that test (the Myers-Briggs) and others such as the DiSC assessment. I find them fascinating because they can help us understand ourselves and others in helpful, revealing ways—shedding light on our preferences, strengths, and weaknesses. Provided we don’t overuse them, they can be a useful tool God uses to help us grow.

Scripture doesn’t offer us personality tests. But it does affirm each person’s uniqueness in God’s eyes (see Psalm 139:14-16; Jeremiah 1:5), and it shows us how God equips all of us with a unique personality and unique gifts to serve others in His kingdom. In Romans 12:6, Paul begins to unpack this idea, when he says, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.”

Those gifts, Paul explains, are not for us alone but for the purpose of serving God’s people, Christ’s body (v. 5). They’re an expression of His grace and goodness, working in and through all of us. They invite each of us to be a unique vessel in God’s service.

By:  Adam Holz

Reflect & Pray

What gifts has God given you to serve others? If you’re not sure what your gifts are, who might help you get a better sense of those God-given gifts?

Father, thank You for the gifts You’ve given me. Please help me to embrace the ways You’ve equipped me to love and serve others in Your kingdom.

 

 

 

http://www.odb.org

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Let God Be Exalted

Leave a comment

 

The proud looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be humbled; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

Isaiah 2:11 (AMPC)

None of us are where we need to be, but thank God, we are not where we used to be. Don’t look at what you are going through right now; look at the person you are becoming. We are always in the process of becoming like Christ (See 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Brokenness hurts, but the alternative is much worse. The Word says, “Haughtiness comes before disaster, but humility before honor” (Proverbs 18:12). Pray to be bendable, pliable, and moldable so that you will be more like Christ in all that you do today. Pray to be broken so that the Lord may be exalted in your life.

Prayer of the Day: Father God, I come to You in the name of Jesus and ask that You mold me to reflect Christ, and ask that through my brokenness, that I grow into the person You want me to me, amen.

 

 

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Israeli forces enter Rafah amid cease-fire negotiations with Hamas

Leave a comment

An Israeli tank brigade took control of the Gaza Strip side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt this morning. However, the overnight incursion appears to be short of the full-fledged offensive Israel has planned into Rafah.

It comes after Hamas announced yesterday that it had accepted a cease-fire proposal to halt the war. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office responded that the truce proposal fell short of Israel’s demands, but Israel will send a delegation to meet with negotiators to try to reach an agreement.

If you support Israel as I do, you’re hopeful that negotiations lead to long-term peace for the Jewish state. But you’re concerned that if Hamas survives in Gaza, it will make good on its promise to invade Israel again with the same brutality it unleashed on October 7.

Also, if you’re like me, you didn’t reflect immediately on what today’s news could mean for the 1.4 million Palestinian civilians in Rafah. You know that God loves Arabs as much as he loves Jews (Galatians 3:28), but it is human nature to respond most deeply to news that affects us most personally.

And as followers of a Jewish Savior, we tend to view the Middle East through the lens of the Jewish people.

“A handle for what is nearest”

This personal filter is essential for navigating the deluge of news in our digital culture. If we became viscerally involved with every story, the cognitive and emotional overload would be debilitating.

Consider these headlines in today’s news:

You likely care about these stories to the degree that they do or do not affect you personally. You’re not alone: in The Crisis of Narration, philosopher Byung-Chul Han quotes the cultural critic Walter Benjamin: “What gets the readiest hearing is no longer intelligence coming from afar, but the information which supplies a handle for what is nearest.”

While personalizing the world is understandable, there’s a better way.

“When you know how much God is in love with you”

Paul had “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in his heart for Jews who had not yet accepted their Messiah (Romans 9:2). Given his previous life as a Pharisee trained by Gamaliel, such passion is to be expected.

However, the apostle was deeply concerned for Gentiles as well, most of whom he had not yet met but all of whom he sought to bring to Christ (Romans 15:15–21). He risked and ultimately gave his life to reach them. The reason was simple: Paul had experienced the transforming love of Christ and now, he testified, “the love of Christ compels us” to share that love with the world (2 Corinthians 5:14; NKJV).

Mother Teresa was right:

“When you know how much God is in love with you, then you can only live your life radiating that love.”

It’s been said that a true test of a person’s character is how they treat people they don’t have to treat well. Similarly, we can measure the depth of our love for our Lord by our compassion for those whom our circumstances would not compel us to love.

When we love such people, we offer the world something it can find nowhere else. We demonstrate the power and relevance of the faith we profess. Such unconditional love answers our skeptics (1 Peter 3:16) and changes our culture, one person at a time.

These facts apply to this morning’s news and to every person you meet today.

“This grace is for all the world”

Julian of Norwich (1342–c. 1416), whose deeply personal encounters with the love of Christ have inspired generations, wrote:

God protects us as tenderly and as sweetly when we are in greatest need;
he raises us in spirit
and turns everything to glory and joy without ending.
God is the ground and the substance, the very essence of nature;
God is the true father and mother of natures.
We are all bound to God by nature,
and we are all bound to God by grace.
And this grace is for all the world (my emphasis).

When last did you experience such grace?

With whom will you share it today?

NOTE: In today’s world, society often contradicts biblical truth, especially regarding sexuality. So how do we guide our loved ones rightly? Our latest book, Sacred Sexuality: Reclaiming God’s Design, offers answers and aims to equip you with wisdom and compassion to navigate these challenges. Request your copy today and join us in reclaiming biblical principles for our families and future generations.

Tuesday news to know:

Quote for the day:

“God’s love is like an ocean. You can see its beginning, but not its end.” —Rick Warren

 

Denison Forum

Days of Praise

Days of Praise – Christ Will Come Again

Leave a comment

 

by Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2-3)

The world has not seen the last of Jesus Christ! He was in the world once, but the world would not have Him, even though He had created it (John 1:10). While He was on Earth, He made it clear that He would be returning some day to judge the world.

But here in the upper room, just before His arrest and crucifixion, He told His disciples, for the very first time, that He would be coming for them personally, not to judge them with the world but to “receive you unto myself.” In the first epistle written by the apostle Paul, this wonderful promise was repeated and amplified: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven…and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

When He comes again, we shall be where He is forever! In the meantime, the “dead in Christ” are already with Him. At that time, “we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye….For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).

During this present time, He is preparing a place for us in the New Jerusalem that, like Christ Himself, will be “coming down from God out of heaven” (Revelation 21:2). All of this is exactly what we might expect from such a gracious and loving Savior, and He assures us that “if it were not so, I would have told you.” HMM

 

 

 

 

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

My Utmost for His Highest

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers – Building for Eternity

Leave a comment

 

Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? — Luke 14:28

In Luke 14:26–33, our Lord isn’t referring to a cost we need to plan for; he’s referring to a cost he planned for, for our sake. What did it cost Jesus to redeem the world? Thirty years in Nazareth; three years of popularity, scandal, and hatred; the deep, unfathomable agony in Gethsemane; and, finally, the onslaught at Calvary—the pivot upon which the whole of time and eternity turns. Jesus Christ planned for this cost, so that in the final reckoning no one could say of him, “This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish” (v. 30).

Have you anticipated the cost of discipleship? Jesus states the cost clearly: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother … such a person cannot be my disciple” (v. 26). The only people the Lord will use in his mighty building projects are those who have been entirely remade by him: men and women who love him personally, passionately, and devotedly, above any of their closest family or friends on earth. His conditions are stern, but they are glorious.

Everything we build will be inspected by God. Will he find that we have built something of our own on the foundation of Jesus, something for our selfish gain? These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when many people are striving mightily to work for God—and therein lies the trap. We can never work for God. We can only give ourselves to Jesus and let him take us over for his work. We have no right to dictate to our Lord where we will be placed or what we will do.

2 Kings 1-3; Luke 24:1-35

 

 

https://utmost.org/

Billy Graham

Billy Graham – Truth Brings Freedom

Leave a comment

 

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
—John 8:36

The mark of a true Christian is found in his personal relationship to the Person of Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ. Christ is Christianity. I speak reverently when I say that Jesus is more than His ideas. All that He said was true, but without Him even the truth would have been powerless. Men know the power of truth, and truth is that which sets men free. Jesus said, “I am the truth.”

Prayer for the day

Thank You, Jesus, for the shackles that have been broken in my life!

 

 

Home

GuidePosts

Guideposts – Devotions for Women – Shine His Light on Dark Thoughts

Leave a comment

 

At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.—Psalm 119:62 (KJV)

Often things that keep us up at night lose their significance and power in the light of day. The lonely hours of the night can break down our defenses and make us feel hopeless. God and strong faith are the cure for dark thoughts. His Word is a beacon of hope.

Heavenly Father, I know You are with me, guiding me to embrace life’s journey, even through the loneliness of dark nights.

 

 

https://guideposts.org/daily-devotions/devotions-for-women/devotions-for-faith-prayer-devotions-for-women/

Every Man Ministry

Every Man Ministry – Kenny Luck – A Man After God’s Own Heart

Leave a comment

 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.  ––Proverbs 3:6

Often, our focus is on how others evaluate us. We are so concerned about our image and our appearance that it’s easy to lose the eternal perspective of what’s truly important. Children’s author Ethel Barrett said, “We wouldn’t be so concerned about what people think of us if we realized how seldom they do.” God is concerned with none of these material things. He’s not concerned with the outside of a man. God is concerned with the inside, the real you versus the image that you project.

In the New Testament it tells us exactly what God is looking for in a man in Acts 13:22: “After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jessie, a man after my own heart; He will do everything I want him to do.’ ” God wants willingness of the heart. The question that we need to ask ourselves is, “Am I willing to be what God is calling me to be, and am I willing to do what God’s calling me to do?” God asks you to do hard things, and if you are willing you’ll change. It’s literally impossible to grow and advance in your journey as a Christ follower without change and pain. But if you’re willing, God will use your willingness and bless it.

God loves you and like any father He wants the love reciprocated by your willingness to become the person He wants you to be. Accept the things that will change you into a confident, secure, self-respecting person filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. When you are willing, you are in the process of being a man after God’s own heart. And when you are a man after God’s own heart, you will slowly lose focus on what the world thinks, and be more concerned about the Father’s will and heart for you.

Thank you, Father, for directing my paths and helping me to become a man after Your own heart.

 

 

Every Man Ministries