Daily Archives: April 17, 2025

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread – Life and Death in Christ

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Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. John 12:24

Today’s Scripture

John 12:20-27

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Today’s Insights

The gospel of John uses words for “life” more often than any other gospel, yet almost half of his gospel is devoted to the passion of Christ—the events of His final week on earth, including His suffering and death. It was only by His death and resurrection that new life became available to us. And that new life would follow a death to our old life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11:25). The paradox of the life of the believer in Christ is that our spiritual “dying” is what produces the fruit of spiritual living (12:24-25).

The day of Jesus’ resurrection occurred on the very day during Passover when the first sheaf of the grain harvest was waved in the temple. It was the sign of a coming harvest only possible because each seed first dies its necessary death.

Today’s Devotional

Facing a firing squad, Fyodor Dostoevsky quietly counted the last moments of his life. Dostoevsky, a believer in Jesus, is considered one of the greatest writers in all of literature. His monumental novel The Brothers Karamazov explored themes about God, life, and death. It was said of Dostoevsky, “He spoke about Christ ecstatically.” The rifles raised. “Ready! . . . Aim . . .”

Jesus, alluding to His own execution, speaks to His disciples and to us of the eternal value of life and death when He said, “The hour has come” (John 12:23). The image is a seed (our life), which produces a great harvest through its own sacrifice (v. 24). Jesus tells us not to love this life too much, for it is those who are willing to sacrifice this present life who will find “eternal life” (v. 25).

Being His disciple requires sacrifice. But we find our hope in His words, “My Father will honor the one who serves me” (v. 26).

Fyodor looked death in the face. But a letter from the Czar was delivered at the last second. A reprieve. Dostoevsky’s life was spared, yet this experience would infuse all his later works. Indeed, the epigraph of The Brothers Karamazov is this verse, John 12:24: “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Reflect & Pray

How does your faith affect your thoughts about life and death? What’s your joy for the future?

Father God, please help me accept the challenge of discipleship and understand the meaning of life through death.

 

http://www.odb.org

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Be Responsible

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She looks well to how things go in her household, and the bread of idleness (gossip, discontent, and self-pity) she will not eat.

Proverbs 31:27 (AMPC)

Our friend in Proverbs is a responsible woman. She stays alert to how things go in her household, she refuses to be idle, and she doesn’t waste her time in things such as sitting around gossiping or wallowing in self-pity. She is not discontented. She appreciates life, and I believe she celebrates it fully each day. Idleness, waste, self-pity, gossip, and discontentment are thieves of the great life Jesus died to give you.

The apostle Paul gave this exhortation to some members in the church in Thessalonica, Indeed, we hear that some among you are disorderly [that they are passing their lives in idleness, neglectful of duty], being busy with other people’s affairs instead of their own and doing no work (2 Thessalonians 3:11 AMPC). Don’t allow these sins to rule you. When you maintain a positive attitude, you will enjoy more confidence.

Doing what one believes to be right will always increase confidence. You can’t go wrong when you keep God as the focus of your life. Follow the example of the Proverbs 31 woman. She gives us tremendous insight in how to be the best and most confident homemaker, wife, and mother we can be.

Prayer of the Day: Lord, I never want to waste my life and all the blessings You have given me. Help me to find my contentment in walking with You and following hard after You in service, amen.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Why are young adults fueling “meaningful spiritual renewal”?

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Maundy Thursday and my doubts about grace

Two-thirds of all US adults now say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today, marking a 12 percent increase in the last four years. Barna researchers say this “may be the clearest indication of meaningful spiritual renewal in the United States.” In similar news, new data from the Bible Society in the UK reports that two million more people in Great Britain attended church in 2024 than in 2018.

Here’s an especially encouraging fact: Young adults in both countries are fueling the increase. Perhaps this is in part the result of the anxiety and depression so many of them are feeling as they grow increasingly pessimistic about their future. The greater our challenges, the more we recognize our need for a Power greater than ourselves.

But what God does, Satan corrupts. In this case, he wants to use our frustrations and failures to turn us from our Father rather than toward him. He whispers in our souls that we are not worthy of God’s favor, that our sins have cost us his best.

I have certainly been a victim of this deception over the years. In fact, I can hear his subtle doubts about grace in my heart even now. Perhaps you can hear them in yours as well.

An event on Maundy Thursday exposes this lie and invites us to consider an astounding dimension of Jesus’ love for us.

“What is there of Judas in our hearts?”

If Jesus could forgive Judas Iscariot, would you agree that he can forgive anyone?

Frederick Buechner writes of our Lord’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane:

There can be no doubt in Jesus’ mind what the kiss of Judas means, but it is Judas that he is blessing, and Judas that he is prepared to go out and die for now. Judas is only the first in a procession of betrayers two thousand years long. If Jesus were to exclude him from his love and forgiveness, to one degree or another he would have to exclude mankind.

Br. Geoffrey Tristam of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston makes his point by asking, “What is there of Judas in our hearts? When have we turned away from the light and betrayed Jesus in our words and through our actions?”

I can unfortunately answer his questions easily. I assume you can as well.

Here’s the amazing rest of the story: The Savior who chose to die for Judas and all the Judases to follow prayed that same night for Judas and all the Judases to follow.

Including you and me.

The night I met Billy Graham

I’ll never forget meeting Billy Graham. I was part of a team sent from Dallas to invite the greatest evangelist since Paul to conduct an evangelistic mission in our city. When we spoke with Mr. Graham, he asked for our names as he shook our hands and welcomed us with gracious warmth. Then, as I began our presentation, he looked into my eyes and, it seemed, into my soul. I’ll always remember the depth and holiness of those blue eyes and the heart they revealed.

Knowing his personal “connection” with God, if I could have asked Billy Graham to pray for my personal needs, I would have felt immeasurably relieved and blessed. I presume that any of us would feel the same.

Now consider that Someone infinitely more connected with God is doing just that on our behalf today.

After his last supper with his disciples, Jesus spent significant time teaching them before his impending death (John 14–16). Then he “lifted up his eyes to heaven” and began to pray (John 17:1). He interceded for his apostolic disciples (vv. 6–19), then he prayed “for those who will believe in me through their word” (v. 20).

This phrase includes you and me.

What’s more, Jesus is continuing his intercession for us today. He is “at the right hand of God,” where he is “interceding for us” (Romans 8:34). “Interceding” could be translated “continually pleading on our behalf.” Hebrews 7 adds: “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (v. 25, my emphasis).

Think of it: The divine Son of God is praying for you right now.

“When God prefers to remain anonymous”

We will not know until we are in heaven the degree to which Jesus’ intercession marked and changed our lives. But we do know that the Father “always” hears his Son (John 11:42). And we know that Jesus only prays for his “perfect” will for us to be done (Romans 12:2).

I can imagine Jesus praying for the men who knocked on my apartment door in August of 1973 to invite my brother and me to their church. I learned later that we were the last people they visited that day. If we had not been home, they would not have come back. If our father had not happened to overhear our conversation, he would not have put us on their bus the next morning, a day that led to our eventual response to the gospel.

If “coincidence is when God prefers to remain anonymous,” I wonder how many such “chance” encounters are the direct result of Jesus’ intercession on our behalf.

And there’s more: As the Son of God prays for us, the Spirit of God who indwells every believer (1 Corinthians 3:16) prays within us: “We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). With this promise: “The Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (v. 27).

“You have taken up my cause, O Lord”

In the hard places of life, we may be moved to ask,

Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion? (Psalm 77:7–9).

But the greater our pain, the more we need the One who can heal us. The deeper our grief, the more we need his grace. When we pray to the One who is praying for us, we can testify:

I called on your name, O Lᴏʀᴅ, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear to my cry for help!” You came near when I called on you; you said, “Do not fear!” You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life (Lamentations 3:55–58; cf. Psalm 31:22).

Where does Judas live in your heart? That’s the very place Jesus is praying for you now.

Will you join him?

Quote for the day:

“Grace, like water, flows to the lowest part.” —Philip Yancey

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Denison Forum

Days of Praise

Days of Praise – On a Hill Far Away

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by John D. Morris, Ph.D.

“And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.” (John 19:17)

The Hebrew word golgotha and the Latin word calvarie actually mean “skull.” The Romans had selected a place of execution outside Jerusalem (Hebrews 13:12) but near the city (John 19:20), near a public highway (Matthew 27:39), and easily visible from some distance away (Mark 15:40). This has led many to speculate that it was on a hill, as in the first verse of the well-loved hymn “The Old Rugged Cross.”

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.

Truly His cross involved great suffering: “Christ also suffered for us….Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:21, 24). Likewise, it involved great shame: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). But this suffering and shame was not in vain, for as we see in both passages above, it was on our behalf. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

However, God’s dearest and best, indeed God’s “only begotten Son” (John 3:16), was slain, not so much for “friends” but for enemies! A world of lost sinners put Him on the cross. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us…when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:8, 10). So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross. JDM

 

 

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

My Utmost for His Highest

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers – Abandoning All

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As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him . . . and jumped into the water. — John 21:7

Have you ever had a crisis in which you deliberately, emphatically, and recklessly abandoned everything to God? It is a crisis of will. You may come to the crisis many times in your outward experience, giving up worldly things and behaviors. But giving up external things amounts to nothing. The real crisis of abandonment happens within. Giving up external things may be a sign of being in total bondage, not to God but to your own idea of holiness.

Have you deliberately committed your will to Jesus Christ? It is, truly, an act of will, not of emotion. Emotion is just the gilded edge of action. If you expect the emotion to come before you act, you will never get to the act itself. Don’t keep asking God what you should do. Reflect on what he is already showing you—in the simple place or in the profound place, in the small thing or the great thing. Then act on what you see.

“Jesus stood on the shore… He called out to them, ‘Friends, haven’t you any fish?’” (John 21:4–5). If you’ve heard the voice of Jesus Christ calling to you across the waves, let your creeds and convictions go to the wind; let your consistency go to the wind. Dive in and head toward the shore. Maintain your relationship with him.

2 Samuel 1-2; Luke 14:1-24

Wisdom from Oswald

Crises reveal character. When we are put to the test the hidden resources of our character are revealed exactly. Disciples Indeed, 393 R

 

 

https://utmost.org/

Billy Graham

Billy Graham – The Hope of Resurrection

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He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus . . .

—2 Corinthians 4:14

The resurrection of Christ brings hope. The late Emil Brunner once said, “What oxygen is for the lungs, such is hope for the meaning of human life.” As the human organism is dependent on a supply of oxygen, so humanity is dependent on its supply of hope. Yet today hopelessness and despair are everywhere. Peter, who himself was given to despair during the episode of Calvary, writes in a triumphant note, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

There is hope that mistakes and sins can be forgiven. There is hope that we can have joy, peace, assurance, and security in the midst of the despair of this age. There is hope that Christ is coming soon—this is what is called in Scripture “the blessed hope.” There is hope that there will come some day a new heaven and a new earth, and that the Kingdom of God will reign and triumph. Our hope is not in our own ability, or in our goodness, or in our physical strength. Our hope is instilled in us by the resurrection of Christ.

Prayer for the day

My hope is in You, my resurrected Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! May I never despair, as I remember Your triumph and love.

 

 

https://billygraham.org/

GuidePosts

Guideposts – Devotions for Women – An Act of Humility

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As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.—Luke 7:38 (NIV)

When you feel burdened by guilt, remember Mary Magdalene. Her act of washing Jesus’ feet with her tears was a powerful demonstration of repentance and humility. Embrace such humility and seek God’s forgiveness.

Lord, help me to seek Your forgiveness with a humble heart.

 

 

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