He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.—Micah 6:8 (NIV)
Allow this verse to be a compass, guiding you through life with harmony, compassion, and a deeper connection with God. When your path becomes obscured by trials, let this Scripture guide you to lead a righteous life.
Lord, guide me to pursue justice, mercy, and humility so I may walk closely with You in every moment of my life.
Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2
oday’s Scripture
1 Corinthians 12:21-26
Listen to Today’s Devotional
Today’s Devotional
When I injured my ring finger, I expected months of pain before regaining its full function. As I practiced the prescribed exercises, the finger next to it began to throb, so I consulted my doctor. “Sympathy pain,” he said. A branching between the nerves of the ring and pinky fingers causes dependence on one another. If one finger hurts, the other aches in sympathy.
The apostle Paul uses the human body to illustrate the uniqueness and unity of God’s people. In 1 Corinthians 12:21-26, he reinforces how valuable each individual member is to the healthy functioning of the whole. Then he turns his attention to the unity achieved when we connect with each other: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it” (v. 26). His description of the church’s interconnectedness is echoed in these verses, as we ought to “mourn with those who mourn,” and “carry each other’s burdens” (Romans 12:15; Galatians 6:2).
Today, as I extend my hand to greet someone or grab a spoon to prepare a meal for guests, I notice the strain in both my ring finger and my pinky. The various parts of our physical bodies work together to express pain and to strengthen each other toward health. I thank God that He reveals our need for connection to each other in His spiritual body, the church, through sympathy pain.
Reflect & Pray
How is God inviting you to suffer with another in order to strengthen you both? How have others suffered with you?
Dear God, please help me be open to Your invitation to suffer with my brothers and sisters that we might all be strengthened.
Discover how to best help people through their pain.
Today’s Insights
Of the many metaphors Paul uses to describe the church’s identity and mission (for example, temple, fellow citizens, God’s family), “the body” is probably his favorite, using it often to promote the oneness, unity, and solidarity of all believers in Jesus under the headship of Christ (see Ephesians 5:23).
He uses the body metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12:12: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” He highlights the church’s unity in diversity and instructs believers to prioritize their mutual concern for each other’s well-being, saying that everyone “should have equal concern for each other” (v. 25). Elsewhere, he instructs believers to “be devoted to one another in love” (Romans 12:10) and to step up to serve each other in practical ways (vv. 3-13). Particularly, he tells believers to “be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep” (v. 15 nlt).
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18 (ESV)
When you are hurting, it might seem like being thankful is a difficult thing to do, but being thankful is very powerful. No matter what has been done to us that is unjust, God will bring justice and has promised to even give us double for our former trouble (Isaiah 61:7). We all have things to be thankful for, no matter how many difficulties we might be facing. Focusing on what is good in your life will really help because what we focus on becomes larger than what we don’t focus on.
Focusing on, thinking about, and talking about your pain and the injustices done to you only make them seem larger and more impossible to deal with. I can promise you from God’s Word and my experience, as well as the experience of many others, that God won’t let you down. He will bring justice; He will pay you back for what you have lost or missed out on in life. No one can tell you exactly when that will happen, but while you wait, be thankful and know that God’s timing in your life will be perfect.
Not only is being thankful a good and powerful thing to do, but it is also God’s will that we do so. You may not feel like being thankful but do it on purpose and do it often. It will make you feel better, and your joy will increase because you are focusing on something positive.
You can even thank God for things that have not happened yet, believing that He is faithful and that the reality of His promises will soon be seen in your life. You can thank God that He is working in your life, and that His justice is on its way to you. You can thank God that your past doesn’t have to define you, because you know that He has a good future planned for you.
Usually we want to see something before we will believe it is true, but God requires that we believe and trust in His Word even before we see the answer to our prayer. Jesus said that if we believe, we will see the glory of God (John 11:40). God’s Word says that we should be anxious for nothing, but in all things pray with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6). Be sure to notice that He said, “Pray with thanksgiving.” Anyone can ask God for something they want, but spiritual maturity is required for someone to be thankful before they get what they want.
I can assure you that God is working in your life right now. You may not feel anything or see anything changing, but in time you will. You have many victories that are on their way to you, so don’t give up. God may deliver us little by little, but each little victory is one step closer to total restoration.
Prayer of the Day: Lord, thank You for working in my life even when I don’t see it. Help me stay thankful, trust Your timing, and believe for the victories You’ve promised, amen.
Negotiations began in Egypt yesterday to finalize a deal based on President Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. The talks are expected to last “a few days,” with a focus on a proposed hostages-for-prisoners swap.
The negotiations began on the eve of one of the most tragic anniversaries in Jewish history. Hamas’s surprise attack on October 7, 2023, is considered the deadliest and most brutal terrorist assault in Israel’s history.
Hamas is celebrating today’s anniversary as a “glorious day” in a message calling the invading terrorists “heroes.” Lest we forget: these “heroes” killed 1,195 people, including 815 civilians. Evidence and autopsies later revealed widespread sexual violence, with dozens of Israeli women raped, sexually abused, or mutilated.
In addition, the terrorists took 251 hostages. Here’s what we know about them:
Why did Hamas take them two years ago?
The answers are not only relevant to peace in the Middle East but a window into human nature.
Taking Israelis hostage is nothing new
According to the British policy institute Chatham House, Hamas took hostages on October 7 for five reasons:
Hostage-taking by Israel’s enemies is nothing new. Palestinian terrorists have taken Israeli hostages numerous times; in some cases, a few Israelis were then swapped for thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
The calculus behind the taking of Jewish hostages is worth contemplating on this tragic anniversary.
The Qur’an describes the Jews as “apes and swine” (5:60; 2:65; 7:166). Hamas further claims that the Jewish people were behind World War I and World War II, among other global conflicts and revolutions. The terrorists are in fact convinced that the Jewish people are hostis humani generis, the enemies of humankind itself.
Such dehumanization of others is always the first step to their mistreatment:
What pastors said about their members
In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin famously observed that in nature, there are typically more offspring produced than can survive, creating a competition for limited resources in which the “fittest” tend to prevail. We don’t need to adopt his bias against religion or larger biological theory to recognize this principle as a basic fact of human psychology and culture.
Our “will to power,” the fallen drive to be our own god (Genesis 3:5), operates as a zero-sum equation: for me to win, you must lose. If Hamas can blame Israelis for all the Palestinians’ problems, they can justify unleashing their basest sinful instincts to oppress their “oppressors” and “advance” their people and cause.
This calculus is by no means limited to terrorists in the Middle East. In fact, every crime against another person is a version of such denigration and commodification.
We see this across the biological spectrum, from aborting unwanted babies to euthanizing the infirm and elderly. At the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994, Mother Teresa warned: “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love one another, but to use any violence to get what they want.”
If I see you as my equal, created in God’s image as I am and equally loved by our Father, it will be difficult for me to lie to you, steal from you, or otherwise harm you. But my fallen nature wants to denigrate and commodify you so I can use you as a means to my ends.
I have known ministers who said (only half in jest) that they loved pastoring churches—it was dealing with church members that was the problem. Even now, I am tempted to write this article to impress you rather than to serve you.
If you were put on trial
As I noted yesterday, you and I are typically persuaded by ideas that appeal to our self-interest. So, let’s close with a biblical argument for sacrificial service that does just that:
To paraphrase my youth minister’s question: If you were put on trial for being submitted to the Holy Spirit, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
Quote for the day:
“A life isn’t significant except for its impact on other lives.” —Jackie Robinson
Our latest website resources:
by Henry M. Morris III, D.Min.
“That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:10)
There are many admonitions in Scripture insisting that the child of God maintain a lifestyle that reflects the holy character of the Savior.
The unique phrase “walk worthy” appears only three times in the New Testament: once in our text today; once in Ephesians 4:1, where we are asked to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called”; and once in 1 Thessalonians 2:12, where we are admonished to “walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.”
Paul’s admonition to the church at Colossae was to live in such a way that everything would be “all pleasing” to our Lord. The Galatian church was struggling with members who were trying to keep the “old” Jewish law. Paul argued, “Do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10). Paul insisted to the Thessalonians, “As we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:4).
Since we are to “walk worthy,” we are to be “fruitful in every good work.” Indeed, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
None of this should be a surprise. When God drew us to Himself (John 6:44) and brought the necessary conviction of our sin, Christ’s righteousness, and the judgment to come (John 16:7-8), what was “dead in trespasses and sin” (Ephesians 2:1) had to become a “new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17) “created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). That “new man” is then empowered to “walk worthy.” HMM III
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. — 2 Corinthians 5:21
Sin is a fundamental relationship. It isn’t wrongdoing; it’s wrong being. Sin is deliberate and emphatic independence from God. The Christian religion bases everything on the radical, singular nature of sin. Other religions deal with sins; the Bible alone deals with sin. The heredity of sin in humankind was the first thing Jesus Christ addressed. Because we have ignored this in our preaching, the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.” The revelation of the Bible isn’t that Jesus Christ took upon himself our sins, but that he took upon himself the heredity of sin, which no human being can touch. God made his Son to “be sin” so that any sinner could “become the righteousness of God.”
The Bible reveals that our Lord bore the sin of the world by identifying himself with sin, not by sympathizing with it. He deliberately took the whole massed sin of humankind and placed it on his own shoulders; he bore that sin in his own being. By doing this, he redeemed all of humanity, rehabilitating it and putting it back where God designed it to be. Now, thanks to what Jesus Christ did on the cross, anyone can enter into union with God.
Human beings cannot redeem themselves. Redemption is God’s work, and it is work that has already been done; it’s finished and complete. How individuals experience redemption is a question of their individual choices. A distinction must always be made between the revelation of redemption, which applies equally to all, and the conscious experience of salvation in an individual’s life.
Wisdom from Oswald
Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.The Place of Help, 1005 R
… this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
—John 4:42
History, philosophy, theology, and—in many centers of learning—even the sciences are being studied to discover what they have to say about Jesus Christ. The records of the Early Church are being reexamined for their testimony to Him. Archaeologists are digging to discover new evidence.
Some say that Jesus Christ is a myth, and He never existed in history. Others say that He was merely a man, that there was nothing supernatural about His birth, and that His resurrection was a hallucination. Others talk about a Christless Christianity. Some say that no matter what one thinks about Christ, it does not affect Christianity. They are wrong!
Christianity is forever linked with the Person of Christ. Carlyle recognized this when he said, “Had this doctrine of the deity of Christ been lost, Christianity would have vanished like a dream.” The historian Lecky remarks, “Christianity is not a system of morals, it is the worship of a Person.”
Prayer for the day
Lord Jesus, You are the living Christ whom I love and revere.
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.—Jeremiah 33:3 (KJV)
When you reach out to God, your call is not only heard but met with answers that unveil the mysteries and marvels of His kingdom. Let this Scripture be your encouragement to connect with God in moments of uncertainty or longing for insight. Trust in His promise to reveal the depths of His majesty and love.
Lord, I seek You with all my heart, trusting in Your promise to reveal the unseen and the unimaginable.
In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3-4
Today’s Scripture
Philippians 2:1-11
Listen to Today’s Devotional
Today’s Devotional
At electric vehicle charging stations across the United States, some drivers overstay their time at “fast-chargers,” which are designed to help drivers quickly charge their cars and get back on the road. To resolve this unkind behavior, one of the largest charging networks has implemented strict time limits at some of its busiest stations. When a vehicle’s battery charge reaches eighty-five percent, the driver must make room for the next car in need of a charge.
The apostle Paul encouraged believers in Jesus to humbly “value others above [themselves]” (Philippians 2:3). He addressed an issue that was grating the Philippian church—self-centeredness. The people desired recognition and distinction, not from pure motives but from “selfish ambition” (v. 3). Paul urged the believers to have the mind of Christ and to look “to the interests of the others” (v. 4). This didn’t mean that they should forget their own needs in an unhealthy way, but that they would care for others’ needs as those who “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (v. 5). The apostle encouraged the Philippians to empty themselves of pride and to humbly make room for others. The ultimate motivation for making room? Love.
As we seek to imitate Christ’s example each day (vv. 6-11), He can help us make room for others by viewing them with His loving eyes.
Reflect & Pray
How can you place others’ needs above your own? What does it mean to see others through God’s eyes?
Dear God, please help me empty myself and make room for others.
For further study, read Loving Your Neighbor through Prayer.
Today’s Insights
Paul’s teaching in Philippians 2:1-11 describes the core values that believers in Jesus are to exhibit. Christ exemplified these principles by becoming a man, living as a servant, and surrendering to death by crucifixion (vv. 7-8). Jesus’ example and teaching in John 13 amplify the need for believers to serve others. Hours before His crucifixion, John describes Christ having “a towel around his waist” (v. 4). Jesus ignored His status as their leader and washed the dusty feet of all present: “After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him” (v. 5). His actions were complemented with these words: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” (v. 14). Christ calls us to imitate His example of love and humility and serve others.
And you [He made alive], when you were dead (slain) by [your] trespasses and sins in which at one time you walked [habitually]. You were following the course and fashion of this world [were under the sway of the tendency of this present age], following the prince of the power of the air. [You were obedient to and under the control of] the [demon] spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience [the careless, the rebellious, and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God].
Ephesians 2:1-2 (AMPC)
I find a great deal of comfort in thinking about who I used to be and who I have become. It helps me not to be discouraged when I make mistakes or find that I still struggle over some issues. I’m greatly encouraged when I consider where I started and where I am now.
In Ephesians 2, Paul described those outside of Christ. He wrote that unbelievers follow the prince of the power of the air, who is Satan, and they follow the way their master leads. In verse 1, he pointed out that all were once dead through their sins, but believers are now alive in Jesus Christ. He tells us we’re not governed or led by our lower nature—the impulses of the flesh.
Many Christians have trouble in this area because they haven’t learned to control their thoughts. A lady once told me, “It simply didn’t occur to me that I needed to direct my mind and keep it healthy and positive. If ministers preached or taught about the control of our thoughts, I never heard it. One day, however, I read an article about the power of thoughts, and God convicted me. That’s when I knew I needed to change my thinking.”
This lady said she drove down the street of a busy city and she spotted a sign, a cartoon of a car with big eyes for the front lights and tears flowing, and the words, “Please help me! I need an oil change.”
As she passed by, she thought, I need a mind change. I don’t like being the way I am, letting my mind go wherever it wants. Part of my responsibility as a child of God is to keep my thoughts healthy and strong.
“I want to make it clear that I went to church,” she said, “and I had been active for years. I knew a lot of Scripture, and I even did some volunteer work at the church. But I didn’t control my thoughts. Even when I sang in church, my mind jumped from subject to subject. We’d be singing about joy and grace, and I’d think about the dishes still in the sink, the unfinished laundry, or what I wanted to eat for lunch.
“I attended church, and I was faithful, but I was not faithful in attending to the Word. I listened when the preachers quoted Scripture. I usually followed along with my own Bible, but I didn’t really think about what I was hearing or what my eyes were reading. I was doing the right things outwardly, but I wasn’t thinking the right things. My mind was a mess, and I didn’t know what to do about it.”
“I need a mind change,” she suddenly said aloud to herself. Just then, she actually pondered the words she had spoken. She was like the car on the sign—she needed a change—a mind change. She needed to let the Holy Spirit direct her thoughts instead of the devil. As she prayed, she felt confident there would be a positive change.
She thought to herself, Is there anything I am supposed to do? She realized that if she didn’t make lifestyle changes, the devil would soon make the new thinking as muddy and gunky as the old thinking was.
For the next several days, she looked up all the scriptures she could find that used the word study or meditate. She also looked up scriptures that talked about the mind or thoughts. She read those verses, wrote them on slips of paper, and pondered them. Here are three of them.
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he….(Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)
And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude]. (Ephesians 4:23).
My hands also will I lift up [in fervent supplication] to Your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on Your statutes. (Psalm 119:48).
The more she meditated on the right things, the less trouble she had with Satan trying to control her thoughts. That’s how it works with all of us: The more we focus on God, the less often the devil can defeat us.
Prayer of the Day: Thank You, Lord God, for giving me a mind change. Help me always to be free to serve You with my heart, my soul, and my mind. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, I pray, amen.
Note: I want to thank Dr. Ryan Denison for writing the Daily Article last week while my wife and I were traveling. It is a great privilege to partner with him in sharing this ministry with you.
Two stories are leading the news for obvious reasons. But the connection between the two may not be obvious to many, which points to my point today.
First, pro-life supporters are strongly opposing a Trump administration decision to approve a new generic version of the mifepristone abortion pill. Two weeks ago, federal officials said they were conducting a review of the safety of the pills, a decision the activists welcomed. However, the FDA later stated that it “has very limited discretion in deciding whether to approve a generic drug.” One pro-life leader called the announcement “a wildly disappointing decision.”
Second, mediators are set to meet in Egypt today for indirect peace talks between Hamas and Israel. The talks come after Hamas has accepted some parts of a twenty-point US peace plan, including freeing hostages and handing over Gaza governance to Palestinian officials.
According to Axios, “This is the closest Israel and Hamas have come to ending the war since the October 7 attacks almost exactly two years ago.” However, senior Hamas officials stated that there are still major disagreements that require further negotiations. And their statement made no mention of Hamas disarming, a key Israeli demand included in the US proposal.
“A society operates under two sets of rules”
In his new book, The Origin of Politics: How Evolution and Ideology Shape the Fate of Nations, the Cambridge graduate and science journalist Nicholas Wade writes:
A society operates under two sets of rules. One is the rules of human nature—the inherited behaviors selected by evolution because of their survival value. The other is the rules of the society’s political system. When the two sets of rules conflict, a crisis is likely to follow, which the society must resolve on pain of collapse.
In reading his book as a cultural apologist, I substituted the biblical theme of inherited sin nature for his description of inherited evolutionary behavior. This theme is foundationally manifested in the Garden of Eden, where our first parents sought to be their “own god” (Genesis 3:5). From then to today, the “will to power” has dominated our fallen nature.
Since, as Wade notes, “Political scientists generally agree that the roots of politics lie in human nature,” our will to power dominates our politics as well. He adds that “human nature is often most evident when proponents of a political ideology try to modify or suppress it.” When political means are used to modify our basic drive for self-interest and power, our self-interest ultimately prevails.
George Washington made a similar observation: “It is a maxim founded on the universal experience of Mankind, that no Nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest, and no prudent Statesman or politician will venture to depart from it.”
It was because the founders recognized our fallen self-interest that, as John Adams noted, they sought to create “a government of laws, not of men.” But human laws cannot change human hearts. As the weekend shooting at South Carolina State University tragically illustrates, laws against murder do not prevent all murders.
“The moral miracle of redemption”
Pro-life supporters will be grateful whenever government officials act in ways that uphold the sanctity of life. But as today’s news shows, we must not depend on them always to do so. The same is true for political leaders engaged in war and peace. Each side in the Israel-Hamas conflict has its own self-interest and will act in line with it.
Why do political and legal structures not change the human condition?
Consider an analogy: You would not expect me to be able to speak words that raise the dead. The reason the crowds were astonished when Jesus did this (cf. Luke 7:11–11; John 11:38–45) was that such an act was indeed miraculous.
Here’s the problem: fallen humans are just as dead spiritually and morally as if we were dead physically.
Because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), we are “dead in our trespasses” (Ephesians 2:5) since our self-reliance cuts us off from the resurrecting and transforming power of our Creator. As Oswald Chambers explains in My Utmost for His Highest, “The disposition of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the disposition of self-realization—I am my own god.”
The good news, as he added in today’s reading, is this: “The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put into me a new disposition whereby I can live a totally new life.” This happens when we yield to God’s Spirit, allowing him to recreate “the disposition that was in Jesus Christ.”
Here we discover one way God redeems the moral failures that dominate each day’s news: as Chambers notes, God cannot work this miracle of transformation in my life “until I am conscious I need it.” Our Father cannot change our hearts without our hearts’ consent.
“When Christ calls a man”
This is why the first beatitude is foundational to the Sermon that follows: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). When we honestly recognize our abject spiritual poverty, we abdicate the throne of our hearts and enthrone God as our king.
As a result, we experience the “kingdom of heaven,” that realm where God’s will is done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
Imagine such a life-transforming, grace-infused, love-centered world. Now decide if you will pay the price to experience it personally.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously observed,
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Is Jesus calling you today?
Quote for the day:
“A day must come in our lives, as definite as the day of our conversion, when we give up all right to ourselves and submit to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ.” —Watchman Nee
Our latest website resources:
by Henry M. Morris III, D.Min.
“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” (Colossians 1:9)
Paul has chosen a particular word, pleroo, to describe an action that “fills to the top” so that the knowledge about which he prays has no more space to fill. While speaking to his friends in Rome, Paul said that he was “persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another” (Romans15:14).
This includes the kind of knowledge (Greek epignosis) of God’s will that stresses precise and complete understanding of that will for our lives. “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness…that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” These “things” (the knowledge, the precious promises) enable us to escape “the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4).
This magnificent and complete knowledge of His will includes the wisdom (Greek sophia) to use the knowledge acquired by experience. It even includes the grace God made to abound “toward us in all wisdom and prudence” (Ephesians 1:8), which, since it comes from God, is “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17).
The wonderful knowledge and wisdom that God has provided for us includes a spiritual understanding (Greek pneumatikos sunesis), an ability to put complicated matters together with the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Indeed, “he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man” (1 Corinthians 2:15). “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things” (2 Timothy 2:7). HMM III
God . . . was pleased to reveal his Son in me. — Galatians 1:15–16
If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem he is up against? I’ve inherited a sinful nature, a heredity I had no say in. I am not holy, nor am I likely to become holy. If all Jesus Christ can do is tell me to be holy, I’ll end in despair. But since Jesus Christ does more than tell, since he is a regenerator who can impart to me his own heredity—the heredity of holiness—I begin to see what he’s getting at when he tells me to be holy.
Redemption means that Jesus Christ can remake anyone by putting his own holy nature into them. The standards he sets for us are based on this new heredity; his teaching is directed at what he puts into me, not at what I was before I received him. The moral obligation on my part is to agree with God’s verdict on sin in the cross of Jesus Christ.
What the New Testament teaches about spiritual rebirth is that when people are struck by a sense of their need, God will begin to put the Holy Spirit into their spirit, not stopping until they have been fully remade—that is, “until Christ is formed” inside them (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can instill in me a holiness that enables me to live a totally new life. But it isn’t until I reach the frontier of need and understand my limitations that Jesus says, “Blessed are you” (Matthew 5:11). God cannot put the holiness that was in Jesus Christ into someone who is still convinced of their own morality. I have to be consciously in need of him to receive his heredity.
Just as the disposition of sin entered humanity through one man,
so the Holy Spirit entered humanity by one man. Redemption means
that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin and receive the spotless
heredity of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ.
Wisdom from Oswald
We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
—Matthew 5:6
It has been my privilege to know what it means to walk in the way of Christ. What a thrilling, joyous experience it is to wake up every morning and know His presence in the room! What a thrilling, joyous experience it is to know in the evening, when the sun is setting, the peace of God as you go to bed and to sleep, and to sleep the sleep of only those who know Christ! What a joy it is to walk in the eternal and permanent experience of Christ!
Do you hunger for such a walk? Do you long for such joy, peace, contentment, abandonment, and adventure in your own soul? If this is your hunger and desire, then God will do exactly what He has promised to do: He will fill you. Every promise God has ever made, He has kept—or will keep.
Prayer for the day
Thank You, Lord, for the promise of filling my life with Your love.
Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.—1 Peter 4:9 (ESV)
Do you open your home and the very chambers of your heart to others with joy rather than obligation? This verse gently reminds us of the transformative power of selfless love and generosity. In welcoming another, we mirror God’s boundless hospitality, offering fellowship and comfort.
Lord, may I reflect Your love and generosity in every welcome I extend.
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. 2 Corinthians 5:20
Today’s Scripture
2 Corinthians 5:9-10, 14-20
Listen to Today’s Devotional
Today’s Devotional
On the first day of a camp where Alan teaches teens entrepreneurial skills, a student said, “You’re a Christian, aren’t you? I can tell.” Before Alan said he was a Christian or wore his favorite socks and ties decorated with Christian symbols, the teen said he saw Jesus through Alan’s words, actions, and attitude. They discussed how they could better represent Jesus wherever they go.
Saying we’re Christian and wearing clothes with Christian messages are good things. However, the Bible teaches that the way we live and love as we share the gospel is the true identifier of those who follow Jesus. The apostle Paul and the other believers in Corinth were compelled, or driven, to please God by living with an eternal perspective while sharing Him with others (2 Corinthians 5:9-14).
When we’re committed to living for Christ instead of for ourselves, the Holy Spirit changes our perspective, character, priorities, and ways of interacting with others (vv. 15-17). Our new life in Jesus is intended to represent Him while we point others to Him, “as though God were making his appeal through us” (v. 20).
Empowered by the Spirit, we’re given the joy and responsibility of representing Christ wherever we go.
Reflect & Pray
How have others pointed you to Jesus by the way they lived? How has God’s transforming work in your life helped you become a better ambassador for Christ?
Life-transforming Jesus, please change me by Your Spirit so that I can better represent You wherever You send me.
For further study, read Paul’s Pain and His Passion.
Today’s Insights
Paul says that the goal for believers in Jesus should be “to please him” (2 Corinthians 5:9). As we share the gospel with others, how we live and love identifies true believers. The pattern Christ established with the twelve disciples is also valid for today. Before witnessing for Him through their words and actions, they looked, listened, and learned from Him. Of two of the twelve it was said, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Those who represent Christ best are those who’ve been drawn to Him, forgiven by Him, and empowered by the Spirit to bear witness to His love and grace.
David was greatly distressed, for the men spoke of stoning him because the souls of them all were bitterly grieved, each man for his sons and daughters. But David encouraged and strengthened himself in the Lord his God. David said to Abiathar the priest,…bring me the ephod….
1 Samuel 30:6–7 (AMPC)
God corrects and chastises us when we need it, but He also encourages us along the way. This is how we should raise our children. As a matter of fact, Paul said in his letter to the Colossians that fathers were not to place undue and unnecessary chastisement on their children, lest it discourage them, make them feel inferior, frustrate them, and break their spirits (Colossians 3:21). If God gives earthly fathers that instruction, then He certainly will be no different toward His children.
So please remember that when discouragement comes from any source, it isn’t God sending it your way! Immediately reject it, and if you have no other source of encouragement, do what David did. The Bible says that he encouraged himself in the Lord. When you feel yourself starting to lose courage, talk to yourself! Tell yourself that you have made it through difficulties in the past and you will make it again. Remind yourself of past victories. Make a list of your blessings and read them out loud anytime you feel yourself starting to sink emotionally.
Prayer of the Day: Lord, I thank You for the victories You have led me through in the past. I know that You will lead me in victory today, and I can overcome, amen.
Earlier this week, President Trump released the details of the proposed ceasefire that he hopes will end the war in Gaza. Following a meeting with leaders from Muslim nations in the Middle East and beyond last week to discuss the plan, it was formally announced on Monday during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While not all parties involved were happy with some of the changes made during that visit, overall support for the plan remains unmoved.
The only relevant party that has yet to agree is Hamas. However, Trump warned that if they did not assent to the deal by today or tomorrow, “Israel will have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas.”
As of this writing, the latest speculation is that they will respond “positively” to the report as a whole, though with a series of amendments intended to walk back some of the changes made after Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu. However, there is still a fair bit of uncertainty as to whether the US or Israel would be amenable to changes of any sort.
If forced to choose between accepting the current plan or continuing to fight, it is unclear what the leaders of Hamas will decide. Moreover, reports indicate that at least part of the reason is that they don’t know themselves.
Qatar, which has served as both a safe haven for Hamas’s leadership and one of the primary mediators throughout much of these negotiations, has encouraged them to accept. Many in the political leadership of Hamas appear open to heeding that advice. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for those in charge of their military forces, and their decision is the one that matters most.
Who is making the decisions for Hamas?
It’s believed that Hamas still has forty-eight hostages, all of whom would be released in the event of a ceasefire. However, only twenty of them are thought to still be alive, and all twenty are currently being held by the military wing of Hamas in Gaza. As such, the decision of the politicians in Qatar may mean little to those actually responsible for upholding their end of the bargain.
To complicate matters further, the latest reports estimate that up to 90 percent of Hamas commanders have been killed in the war so far, meaning most of the leadership in Gaza is comprised of younger fighters who still think they can win. For them, the idea of giving up their weapons as part of the deal is largely considered a nonstarter. Armed conflict is the foundation of their identity, so disarmament is akin to death for many.
Moreover, as Hugh Lovatt, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, notes, “Their view is that Israel is struggling strategically: the mobilization of reservists is a huge burden, elections are due within a year or so, there is growing international and domestic pressure . . . So, for them, it’s just a question of who will hold out the longest.”
But while much of that may be true, one of the key ways in which the current proposal differs from ceasefires in the past is the degree to which it has near-universal support from many of the same nations that have condemned Israel’s actions. If Hamas is the only one to say no to a deal everyone else agrees is worth pursuing, can they really count on that support to continue?
Most agree the answer is no. And, in the event they decide to continue fighting, that opposition could start to come from those much closer to home.
“Hamas must say yes”
Discerning where to draw the line between the people of Gaza and the terrorists hiding beneath them has proved to be one of the most challenging aspects of understanding the war between Israel and Hamas. And when some of the citizens have risen to oppose Hamas in the past, they have often met a violent and painful end for their bravery. However, there are signs that the tide may have begun to shift.
As one resident of Gaza City put it, “Hamas must say yes to this offer—we have been through hell already. . . . Hamas needs to understand: Enough is enough.” Another resident was even more blunt: “We are dying for nothing, and no one cares about us. Hamas needs to think more of us and what we have been through.” Abdelhalim Awad, who manages a bakery in the center of the city, said almost “any price” would be acceptable for peace, but that he did not think Hamas would say the same.
These quotes epitomize why it was crucial to secure the support of Qatar and other Middle Eastern nations for the deal. Hamas has proven repeatedly that it will not give up its power to protect the people of Gaza. However, they may in order to protect themselves. And the fact that more people in Gaza feel confident enough to speak out against them reveals just how much the terrorist group’s situation has changed.
Adapting to a new reality is rarely an easy task, though, and that’s often just as true for us as it appears to be for the leaders of Hamas.
Do you run or hide from your sin?
While I doubt any of us have committed the same kinds of atrocities as Hamas, most of us have sin in our lives that we’re hoping God will just ignore. The Bible is clear that he won’t (Hebrews 9:27), but it can be easy to mistake his patience for his permission when that permission allows us to continue enjoying our sin.
In such moments, Christ’s solution is simple: “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
One of the reasons Scripture places such a heavy emphasis on allowing the Lord to shape our worldview is that it makes it easier to accept that our choices have consequences. Acting as though they don’t or trying to live in the false reality that we shouldn’t have to be accountable for them will place us firmly outside of God’s will for our lives. That’s why the good news Christ preached always started with repentance (Matthew 3:2).
You see, it’s only when we come to understand that God’s love is not contingent on our perfection that we can find the peace necessary to truly address our sin. Our heavenly Father is under no illusions about how messed up we are, but he chose to love us and to send his Son to die for us anyway. He didn’t do that because we were worthy of his love, but because he is love.
Embracing the fact that our sins and shortcomings don’t have to define who we are is the only path to accepting their consequences and allowing the Lord to redeem them in ways only he can.
So, where are you running from the consequences of your sins today? The God who is truth cannot be found in a worldview built on lies, and it is only by owning our sins and accepting their consequences that we can find the freedom to live fully in his grace.
Let’s start today.
Quote of the day:
“Grace teaches us that God loves because of who God is, not because of who we are.” —Philip Yancey
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by John D. Morris, Ph.D.
“Who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.” (Hebrews 6:18-19)
The noun “hope,” when used in the New Testament, does not imply a wishful attitude but rather a joyous and confident expectation in something promised that will certainly come to pass—in most cases, something good. Note especially the few times it is used with a descriptive adjective.
First, in a stirring benediction, Paul tells us that our good hope comes from both “our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father” (2 Thessalonians 2:16). Furthermore, such hope is given to us along with “everlasting consolation,” or comfort, that shall last forever. The Father and Son have done this “through grace” that brings eternal salvation.
Next, we are taught to be “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). This blessed hope can be none other than “our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope” (1 Timothy 1:1). He will certainly return, and this return will be glorious.
Furthermore, we have a hope that is actively alive. “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). We have been (past tense) born again from the dead just as surely as Christ has been raised from the dead, for His resurrection accomplished it.
Our hope, under grace, is guaranteed by Jesus Christ: “A better hope…by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Hebrews 7:19) than that which was possible under law. In fact, it is a glorious hope (2 Corinthians 3:11-12) by comparison. This kind of hope can be “an anchor of the soul” (our text). JDM
He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” — Mark 9:29
After the disciples had tried and failed to cast out an impure spirit, they went to Jesus in confusion, asking, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” (Mark 9:28). Jesus replied that it was only through prayer—only through concentration and more concentration on him, only through a personal relationship with him—that such a spirit could be driven out. The disciples had tried to do God’s work by drawing on their own ideas rather than by concentrating on God’s power.
If you approach things as the disciples did, you will remain as powerless as they were. You may be eager to work for God, but if you work for him without knowing him, you’ll end up working against him. Sometimes you are faced with a difficult situation and you pray about it, yet nothing happens—not on the outside. But if you are concentrating on Jesus, if you have a personal relationship with him, you know that emancipation will be given. The focus of your service must be to make sure that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. If there is, you can only overcome it by facing it and going straight through it into his presence, not by ignoring it in irritation. Face the issue with the Lord, and eventually that very thing, along with everything that’s happened in connection with it, will glorify him.
The one purpose for which we are in this world is concentration on God. Get the noisy cries of religion out of your ears, the cries that say, “Do this and don’t do that.” Never! Jesus says, “Be this and that, and I will do through you.”
Isaiah 17-19; Ephesians 5:17-33
Wisdom from Oswald
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1459 R
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