Daily Archives: February 6, 2025

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread – A Cultivated Life in Christ

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There was no one to work the ground. Genesis 2:5

Today’s Scripture

Genesis 2:4-9

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Today’s Insights

In Genesis 2, we’re given a description of the garden of Eden, where God placed the first humans so they could care for what He created (vv. 8, 15). The garden was delightful—God caused trees to provide fruit (v. 9) and rivers to water the ground (v. 10). He asked our first parents to care for it, but this request came with a commandment (vv. 15-17). This is a picture of how God continues to interact with humanity. He brings blessing but also gives us instructions in how to live. We’re given the choice to obey Him or not. We honor Him when we choose obedience as the Spirit helps us.

Today’s Devotional

When we built our home, it stood on little more than a muddy, empty lot at the end of a gravel road. We needed grass, trees, and shrubs to match the surrounding Oregon foothills. As I got out my lawn tools and set to work, I thought of the first garden waiting for humans: “No shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, . . . and there was no one to work the ground” (Genesis 2:5).

The creation account in Genesis 1 repeats God’s assessment of creation: it “was good” or “very good” (vv. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). However, it wasn’t complete. Adam and Eve needed to cultivate the ground—to exercise stewardship of God’s creation (v. 28). They weren’t meant to live in an unchanging paradise but one that needed care and development.

Since the beginning, God has been inviting humans to partner with Him in His creation. He did it in the garden of Eden, and He does it with “the new creation” He makes of us when we put our faith in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Upon salvation, we’re not made perfect. As the apostle Paul says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world” (Romans 12:2). God works in us as we pursue a life pleasing to Him, “conformed to the image of his Son” (8:29).

Whether it’s caring for the earth or caring for our new life in Christ, God has given us a gift we need to cultivate.

Reflect & Pray

What work do you enjoy most? What might God be calling you to cultivate in your community?

Father, thank You for inviting me to participate in the work You’re doing in the world and in me.

For further study, read Worshipping God Means More than Singing.

 

 

http://www.odb.org

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Having a Clean Conscience

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Hear me, Lord, my plea is just; listen to my cry. Hear my prayer—it does not rise from deceitful lips.

Psalm 17:1 (NIV)

The importance of maintaining a clean conscience before God cannot be overstated. Paul spoke about his conscience confirming through the Holy Spirit that he was doing the right thing (Romans 9:1). We should be careful not to sin against our own conscience, because this becomes a heavy burden to carry. David invited God to examine and test him, for he was sure he had committed no evil, nor had he transgressed (sinned) with his mouth (Psalm 17:2–3).

We can see from today’s scripture that David felt sure he had held firmly to the Word of God and that God would answer him when he called on Him (Psalm 17:4–6). Sadly, too often we try to operate in faith while having a guilty conscience, so we can’t bear good fruit. We are to be led by peace, and Paul writes that anything we do that is not done in faith is sin (Romans 14:23).

When we repent of sin, God not only forgives our sins, but He removes the guilt that comes with them; therefore, we can always walk before God with a clean conscience if we pursue purity of life and are quick to repent when we do sin.

Prayer of the Day: Father, I love You, and I appreciate what Jesus has done for me. Forgive all my sin and cleanse me of all guilt and condemnation. I want to walk with You with a clean conscience at all times.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Why does the Super Bowl use Roman numerals?

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“With you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light” (Psalm 36:9)

This Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs will play the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2024 World Series; the Boston Celtics won the 2024 NBA Finals; and the Florida Panthers won the 2024 Stanley Cup.

Why does the NFL use Roman numerals when no other league does?

The answer is simple. The Super Bowl is held in the calendar year following the beginning of the league’s regular season schedule. So, would Sunday’s game be the 2024 NFL Championship, even though it’s played in 2025? Would it be the 2025 NFL Championship, even though it culminates the 2024 season? Of course, the league could use common numerals, making this Sunday’s game Super Bowl 58. However, Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt suggested in 1970 that the big game employ Roman numerals instead, lending the game a kind of gravitas as a major event.

Mr. Hunt is also credited with coining the name “Super Bowl.” This was after he helped launch the American Football League to compete with the National Football League (the two merged in 1970, creating the AFC and the NFC). He also established the Dallas Texans, who soon became the Kansas City Chiefs. His son, Clark Hunt, continues to lead the team, turning them into one of the league’s most successful franchises. If the Chiefs are victorious Sunday, they will become the first team in NFL history to win three straight Super Bowls.

And so, in three days the world will participate in the continuing legacy of Lamar Hunt. But in my mind, the remarkable success of the NFL, the Super Bowl, and the Chiefs are not his most significant achievement. It was my privilege to be the pastor of Clark Hunt and his family in Dallas. They are among the most gracious, humble people I have ever known.

Their personal integrity is Lamar Hunt’s most enduring legacy, one that will continue far beyond this Sunday’s game.

Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar

The contest will be significant for other reasons as well:

  • Donald Trump is expected to become the first sitting US president to attend the game. He will also tape an interview with Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier that will air during the pregame show.
  • The Super Bowl will be played at the New Orleans Superdome, which has hosted more legendary sports moments than any other venue in the country.  The NFL vows that the venue will be the “safest place to be” on Sunday night.
  • Music superstar Taylor Swift will be attending, sitting in a suite that costs a reported $2 million per ticket.
  • By contrast, Kendrick Lamar, who won five Grammys last Sunday, will perform at the halftime show for free. This is typical for Super Bowl performers; the boost to their careers more than offsets any payment they forego.

However, it’s doubtful that any of this will endure in our collective minds for long. Even the contest itself will be truly memorable only for the winner, and only for a short time for the rest of us. Do you remember who lost last year’s Super Bowl? What about the year before, or the year before that? Who won the game three years ago? Ten years ago?

This is the way of our frenetic, news-driven, constantly changing society. Cultural “vibes,” prizing feelings over facts and mood over meaning, are the currency of our day. “Social proof,” amplified in the digital age, is undoubtedly powerful in shaping our decision-making.

In this regard, there is good news for the good news of the gospel:

  • Joe Rogan, considered the most popular podcaster in the world, recently hosted Christian apologist Wesley Huff for a conversation about the truthfulness of our faith. Their discussion has 5.9 million views on YouTube so far.
  • Bible sales are booming.
  • Noted atheist Richard Dawkins is now calling himself a “cultural Christian.”
  • Famed scholars Niall Ferguson and his wife Ayaan Hirsi Ali have become public Christians.
  • Popular influencer Jordan Peterson’s latest book affirms the Judeo-Christian worldview as foundational to society and states that the proclamation of “man as an image of God” is “perhaps the greatest idea ever revealed.”
  • Young men are showing more interest in religion than in many years.

But as with Sunday’s Super Bowl, today’s headlines can quickly become tomorrow’s old news.

“If we don’t know what kind of God God is”

This is why we need always to remember that “the Lᴏʀᴅ reigns forever” (Psalm 146:10 HCSB). He alone is the king of the universe. He alone has the power to bring us the purpose and significance we long to experience.

To my point: Americans are wealthier than ever but less happy. As sociologist James Davison Hunter has observed, nihilism (the belief that life has no overarching purpose) is the prevailing sentiment of our post-Christian, secularized culture. The only power we truly possess is the capacity to choose how we will respond to our powerlessness.

By contrast, God alone “satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:5).

  • Israel’s most beloved king acknowledged this fact as he prayed, “With you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light” (Psalm 36:9).
  • The wisest man who ever lived agreed: “Trust in the Lᴏʀᴅ with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6).
  • Paul was one of the great scholars of Judaism (Acts 22:3) and “blameless” under the law (Philippians 3:6), but he testified that he “suffered the loss of all things” by comparison to “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (v. 8).

When we experience personally a God who is love, our lives are suffused with significance and joy. A. W. Tozer was right: “Faith is confidence in the character of God, and if we don’t know what kind of God God is, we can’t have faith.”

According to the scholar D. A. Carson,

“To know God is to be transformed, and thus to be introduced to a life that could not otherwise be experienced.”

Will you be “transformed” today?

Our latest website articles:

Quote for the day:

“The Bible was not given for our information but for our transformation.” —Dwight L. Moody

 

 

Denison Forum

Days of Praise

Days of Praise – Made Manifest by the Scriptures

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by Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.

“But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.” (Romans 16:26)

This revelation was written by Paul the apostle as a conclusion to his great doctrinal epistle to the Romans. That which “now is made manifest…to all nations” had been “kept secret since the world began” and was essentially the simple truth revealed in “my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ” (Romans 16:25), offering to people from every nation (not just Israel!) the wonderful gift of salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ.

And note that this was being made manifest not just by the preachers and Scriptures of the New Testament but also “by the scriptures of the prophets”—that is, by the Old Testament Scriptures. There are some today who think the Old Testament is no longer significant to Christians. But they are wrong! Remember that Jesus after His resurrection rebuked two of His disciples, saying, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:…And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25, 27).

Furthermore, the Old Testament abounds with wonderful promises and precepts and examples that are supremely practical and profitable for the Christian life. As Paul said, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4). In fact, every Old Testament Scripture is “given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). HMM

 

 

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

My Utmost for His Highest

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers – Are You Ready to Be Offered?

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For I am already being poured out like a drink offering. — 2 Timothy 4:6 (R. V. Marg.)

To be ready to be offered is a question of will, not feelings. If we always wait to act until we feel like it, we might never do anything at all. But if we take the initiative and decide to act, exerting our will, if we tell God that we are ready to be offered and that we will accept the consequences, whatever they may be, we will find that no matter what he asks, we are able to do it without complaint.

God puts each of us through crises we must face alone. These are trials intended just for us; no one else can help us with them. But if we prepare for these challenges internally first—if we say, “I will meet this challenge, no matter what”—then we’ll be able to rise to the challenge when it actually comes, taking no thought for the cost to ourselves. If we don’t make this kind of determined, private agreement with God in advance, we’ll end up falling into self-pity when difficulty arises.

“Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar” (Psalm 118:27 kjv). The altar represents the purifying fire, the fire that burns away every attachment God has not chosen for us, every connection that isn’t a connection to him. We don’t choose what gets burned away; God does. Our job is to bind the sacrifice, and to make sure we don’t give in to self-pity when the fire starts. After we’ve traveled this way of fire, there is nothing that can oppress us or make us afraid. When crises come, we realize that things cannot touch us as they once did.

Tell God you are ready to be offered, and God will prove himself all you ever dreamed he was.

Exodus 39-40; Matthew 23:23-39

Wisdom from Oswald

A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance.Baffled to Fight Better, 59 R

 

 

https://utmost.org/

Billy Graham

Billy Graham – The Cleansing Power of Christ

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For if the blood of bulls and of goats . . . sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, . . . purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

—Hebrews 9:13,14

To have a guilty conscience is an experience. Psychologists may define it as a guilt complex and may seek to rationalize away the sense of guilt; but once this has been awakened through the application of the law of God, no explanation will quiet the insistent voice of conscience. Many a criminal has finally given himself over to the authorities because the accusations of a guilty conscience were worse than prison bars. The Bible teaches that Christ cleanses the conscience. To have a guilty conscience cleansed and to be free from its constant accusation is an experience, but it is not the cleansing of the conscience that saves you; it is faith in Christ that saves, and a cleansed conscience is the result of having come into the right relationship with God.

Why does it seem like some people don’t have a conscience? Read Billy Graham’s answer.

Prayer for the day

I stand in awe of the magnitude of Your forgiveness, Father.

 

 

https://billygraham.org/

GuidePosts

Guideposts – Devotions for Women – The Tablet of Your Heart

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Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.—Proverbs 3:3 (NIV)

Love and faithfulness are guiding forces that shape your character and influence your interactions. Rely on them as a compass to your actions and make them a vital part of who you are. Their presence is a constant reminder to align your actions with God’s teachings.

Lord, may love and faithfulness guide me in my relationships and interactions.

 

 

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

Every Man Ministry

Every Man Ministry – Kenny Luck -Kill the ‘Old Man’

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You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.  Ephesians 4:22–24

Saint Augustine knew how to sin.

Before Augustine came to Christ he was a notorious womanizer and drinker. He searched the ancient philosophies for answers to life’s mysteries, and his quest took him from North Africa to Rome. After his conversion in 386, he said, “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” God’s man is a restless man if unresolved sin patterns still lie within him. Until we fully surrender and pursue His peace, real rest—peace—is fleeting and elusive. Augustine knew the contrasts between dark and light, and when he chose the Light, he abandoned the dark.

Many of us think, “How did Augustine do that? No matter how hard I try, my bad habits keep coming back.” When we abandon the darkness of our “old man” we don’t abandon our humanity. Temptation, lust, selfishness—these things don’t miraculously stop chasing us. But also, don’t buy the lie that your old man is your new identity. It isn’t! Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17, nkjv). Our new identity is hidden with Christ in God; we now have the Holy Spirit as our Advocate. We CAN overcome temptation through aggressively pursuing rest in Him. Old sin patterns die in the face of our new-found identity as His beloved sons.

Behaviors don’t change us. That’s like a pile of trash in a back alley: if all you do is shoot the rats but leave the trash, the rats return. Embracing and appropriating our new identity in Christ changes us. He changes us. He is our rest. Pursue Him and take up your cross daily. Yes, pursue spiritual disciplines (prayer, the Word, accountability, etc.), but don’t mistake action for position. Your position is as a new beloved child, not an old piece of trash. You can’t lose if you don’t quit.

Father God, I throw down my trash and ask that You burn it. In its place renew my understanding of who and Whose I am.

 

 

 

Every Man Ministries