Category Archives: The Navigators

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The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Decisive Dedication

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 6:13

“Present yourselves to God.”

How did the apostle Paul approach the subject of commitment and discipline? Paul’s letter to the Romans is the foundation for the Bible’s teaching on salvation; in it, the teaching of justification by faith in Jesus Christ alone is set forth most cogently and completely. However, Paul wrote the letter to people who were already believers. He referred to them as those “who are loved by God and called to be saints.” He thanked God that their “faith is proclaimed in all the world,” and he longed “that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith” (Romans 1:7-8,12). Clearly he was writing to believers.

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The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Pride’s End

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Today’s Scripture: Leviticus 8-10

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. – Proverbs 6:16-19

In Leviticus 8-10, we see that the consecration of the priests contained a strange ritual. God instructed Moses to kill a ram, take the blood, and put it on the ears, hands, and feet of Aaron and his sons. They were set apart for God through this anointing, and dedicated to His service in all they did.

Soon after this, Leviticus 10 records that Aaron’s sons are killed for offering strange fire before God. God had not authorized them to burn incense on the solemn day of inauguration. That was to be performed by the high priest alone; they were to assist him. We know from the New Testament that the priests were to burn incense only when it was their lot, and this was certainly not Nadab and Abihu’s.

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The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Holy and Assured

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 8:14

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

Holiness is necessary for our assurance of salvation—not at the moment of salvation, but over the course of our lives. True faith will always show itself by its fruits. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I recall a young man, a fairly new Christian, whose father was visiting him. He hadn’t seen his father for several years and not since he’d become a Christian. He was eager to share his newfound faith with his dad, and we prayed together that he might be an effective witness to his father.

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The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – All ‘Fessed Up

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Today’s Scripture: Leviticus 4-7

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

In the Old Testament, God required sacrificial offerings so that the sin that separated the people from Him could be forgiven and fellowship with God could be restored.

Note carefully the order of offerings in Leviticus 5-7. The sin offering had to be made before the burnt offering. Why? To make peace with God before offering service to God. And by the way, if the person brought an offering of fine flour, it was not to be doctored up with oil or frankincense. Why? Apparently the flour itself did not taste very good, reminding the person of the pollution and loathsomeness of his sin. To add oil and frankincense would have made it taste and smell better. But God wanted the people to see their sin as it really was.

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The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Commit Yourself to God

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Today’s Scripture: Psalm 37:5

“Commit your way to the Lord.”

When Paul turned his attention from his masterful exposition of the Gospel in Romans chapters 1?1 to practical issues of Christian living, the first thing he did was call for commitment: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1, NIV).

As we look at Paul’s call to commitment, we can see one obvious difference between the commitment of the devoted athlete and the commitment Paul called for. The athlete’s commitment is to himself or herself or perhaps to the team. The commitment Paul urged upon us is to God. Commit yourself to God. Offer your body to him as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to him.

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The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – The Holy Spirit’s Mission

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Today’s Scripture: John 16:5-16

And [Christ] is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. – Colossians 1:18

One summer my wife and I attended an opera in the magnificent opera house in Vienna, Austria. We arrived early to take a look around, then the usher showed us to our seats way up in the third balcony, practically to the roof.

To be honest, I wasn’t enjoying the opera that much. It was sung in German–which I didn’t understand–and the plot was hard to follow. When I heard some movement behind me, I glanced over my shoulder and saw the spotlight operator, whose job was to follow the lead character with this huge, thousand-watt light. He never let the spotlight stray from the central figure, who moved back and forth on the stage or among the rest of the characters in the story.

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The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Removed

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Today’s Scripture: John 1:29

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Expiation is another seldom-used and little-understood theological word. You can readily see its spelling similarity to propitiation. In fact, the two words are often confused, though significantly different in meaning.

Propitiation addresses God’s wrath. It is the work of Christ saving us from that wrath by absorbing it in his own person as our substitute. Expiation, which basically means “removal,” accompanies propitiation and speaks of Christ’s work in removing or putting away our sin. Such is the symbolism of the two goats used on the day of atonement (Leviticus 16:20-22). The first goat represented Christ’s work of propitiation as it was killed and its blood sprinkled on the mercy seat. The second goat represented Christ’s work of expiation in removing or blotting out the sins that were against us. The object of propitiation is God’s wrath; the object of expiation is our sin, which must be removed from his presence.

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The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Our Bible Teacher

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Today’s Scripture: John 14:16-17; 16:13-15

You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. – Nehemiah 9:20

Years ago, our son Randy and his wife, Jackie, told us about a supper time when little one-year-old Clayton laid down his spoon, looked up at his parents, and jabbered away with a great deal of emotion and earnestness. “Blah, blah, blahppety blah blah,” he said.

Finally Clayton ended his oration, leaving his parents completely in the dark as to what he’d been saying. Because Christine had listened so intently, Randy thought maybe she knew what Clayton had said and could act as interpreter. So he asked her, “Christine, do you know what your little brother just said?”

She nodded. “Clayton said, ‘Blah, blah, blahppety blah blah.’”

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The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – A Prayer on a Basement Floor

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 12:1

“Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.”

Most of my understanding of scriptural truths has come gradually through personal study and the teaching of pastors and other capable teachers. On a few rare occasions the Lord has been pleased to enlighten my understanding of some aspect of his truth in a rather sudden fashion. This was the case in my understanding of the sovereign grace of God. I’d been a confirmed legalist, and I dutifully sought to live the Christian life that way. But suddenly one day, I understood God’s grace in an entirely new way.

I was spending a half day with God, seated in a basement room with a cold, hard tile floor. As my understanding of God’s grace was enlightened, Romans 12:1 came to mind: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship” (NIV). I fell on my knees on that cold, hard floor and said something like this to God: “Lord, I have presented my body to you as a living sacrifice before, but I’ve never understood as I do now your mercy and your grace. And in view of my deeper understanding of your grace, I now present myself to you in a new and deeper way. I give myself wholly to you without any reservation.”

Now, more than thirty years later, I still build on the commitment I made in the basement room that morning. But more than that, I still seek to grow in my understanding of God’s grace because I know that only my growing understanding of his grace will make the commitment stick through thick and thin.

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The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Our Helper

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 8:22-27

I lift up my eyes to the hills–where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. – Psalm 121:1-2

All during my growing-up years, I was picked on by kids at school. I was small. I was weak. I was skinny. And I was always getting pushed around.

After graduation from high school in 1943, I joined the Marines. I was hoping they could toughen me up and help me learn how to hold my own. I always had a secret desire to be a rough-and-tumble guy. In fact, I even had a nickname picked out for myself–Nails. I always wanted to be known as “Nails” Eims, as in “There’s a guy tough as nails.” But my nickname in the Marines was Chick.

To hold my own in the tough outfit I was in, I made friends with the biggest, strongest, roughest guy in the battalion. Nobody picked on me because they knew they would have to answer to my unofficial bodyguard, the one who was always ready to come alongside and help. And nobody wanted to tangle with him.

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The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – The Sin of Self-Sufficiency

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Today’s Scripture: Psalm 62:7

“My mighty rock, my refuge is God.”

I believe one of the chief characteristics of our sinful nature is an attitude of independence toward God. Even when we know and agree that we’re dependent on him, we tend out of habit to act independently. Undoubtedly, one of the reasons God allows us to fall before temptation so often is to teach us experientially that we really are dependent on him to enable us to grow in holiness.

One of the best ways, apart from those painful experiences of failure, to learn dependence is to develop the discipline of prayer. This forces us in a tangible way to acknowledge our dependence on the Holy Spirit. Whatever else we may say about prayer, it is a recognition of our own helplessness and absolute dependence on God.

It’s this admission of helplessness and dependence that is so repugnant to our sinful spirit of self-sufficiency. If we’re prone by temperament to be disciplined, it’s more difficult to acknowledge that we’re dependent on Christ and his Spirit instead of on our self-discipline.

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The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Jesus Is God

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Today’s Scripture: John 17

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” – John 20:28

A friend’s cat came home one day proudly carrying a chipmunk in its mouth. My friend grabbed the cat and forced it to drop the chipmunk. She then picked up the poor animal, stroked it gently, said some soothing words, and put it into a box for recovery.

After an hour or so, the chipmunk seemed alert, so my friend reached in to check, and the chipmunk bit her finger to the bone! Why? Because my friend couldn’t communicate with chipmunks! While this lady had saved its life and meant it only good, the chipmunk didn’t get the message.

That’s why Jesus became a man–to communicate with us and be the bridge between God and man. Jesus Christ is God. He claimed to be, and those who knew Him best said He was. He did the things that only God can do. But He was also man. The Bible says He was God in the flesh, God’s son, a descendant of David on the human level, but the Son of God.

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The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – How Honest?

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Today’s Scripture: Proverbs 12:22

“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.”

On Christmas Eve, our doorbell rang. Answering it, I found a little four-year-old neighbor girl holding out a plate of cookies. “My mommy sent you some cookies,” she said with a big smile. I thanked her and put them down someplace —and promptly forgot about them for we were just leaving for a church service. A few days later as I was walking out to my car, the little girl came down the sidewalk on her tricycle and asked how I liked the cookies. “Oh, they were fine,” I said, though I hadn’t even tasted them.

As I drove away, I began thinking about this. I had lied. Why? Because it was expedient; it saved me embarrassment and the little girl’s disappointment (though mostly I was concerned about myself). Sure, it was of little or no consequence. But God says without qualification that he detests lying.

Thinking further, I realized this wasn’t an isolated instance. The Holy Spirit reminded me of other occasions of exaggeration or manipulating a story’s facts just a bit. I had to face the fact that I wasn’t quite as honest as I’d considered myself to be. God taught me a valuable, though humbling, lesson.

As I’ve told the story of the cookies to some audiences, I’ve gotten a troubled reaction from a few people. Some sincere Christians think I may be nit-picking. But consider Daniel. The record states that his enemies could find no corruption in him (Daniel 6:4). It seems clear they would have seized upon any inconsistency, regardless of how small or insignificant, to bring Daniel into disrepute. But they could find none. Daniel had evidently mastered this matter of absolute integrity. We should have the same goal.

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The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – From Darkness to Light

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Today’s Scripture: Mark 5:1-20

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” – John 8:36

Every night for three nights we had listened to the slow beat of the African jungle drum and the piercing screams of the people as they shattered the night with the terrifying sound of the African death wail. A woman had died giving birth to a child, and those nearest her gathered night after night to scream for hours. In their screams, we could detect the horror that held them–the hopelessness, the agony of spirit, the fears that Satan whispered to their lost souls. And we were made very much aware in a new and powerful way of the hate, the cruelty, and the delight Satan displays in tormenting those who belong to Jesus. His foul, ugly personality came through loud and clear in the din of the death wail that kept us from sleeping.

Scripture records a visit of the Lord Jesus to the country of the Gadarenes. Mark 5:2,5 tells us, “When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him… Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.” What did Jesus do? Jesus took one look at the man and knew that those who said he must be bound in chains were wrong. In fact, what he needed was to be set free. And that’s what Jesus did.

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The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Clean Conscience

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Today’s Scripture: Romans 4:8

“Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

God has given each of us a conscience, a moral compass within our hearts, bearing witness to his law. In sinful or self-righteous people (those whose dominant characteristics are either obvious sin or obvious self-righteousness), the conscience is to some degree “hardened.” But in a growing Christian the conscience becomes more and more sensitive to violations of God’s law. As a result, our consciences continually indict us, accusing us not only of particular sins, but, more important, of our overall sinfulness. We recognize that specific sins are simply the expressions of our still-wicked hearts. Our sinfulness is very real to us, and we find it difficult to believe God would no longer remember each offense.

It’s here that I find it helpful to visualize the Old Testament scapegoat carrying away the people’s sins that have been laid on its head. This is an accurate picture of what Jesus did with my sin.

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The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Empowered by the Spirit

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Today’s Scripture: Zechariah 3-4

“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty. – Zechariah 4:6

One of the best-known verses in the Bible regarding the Holy Spirit is recorded in Zechariah 4:6. The word might comes from a Hebrew word meaning “a powerful force, an army, a band of trained, valiant soldiers.” It also encompasses other resources, such as riches. The word translated power means “to be able to reach our goals by human ability–our own wisdom or clever manipulation of others.” Zechariah is saying that we do not do the work of God by either great human strength or great human ability; we do it by the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

Exodus 31:1 says: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I have chosen Bezalel…and I have filled Him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts–to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship… Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you.’”

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The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Good News That Isn’t Good Enough?

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Today’s Scripture: Mark 16:15

“Proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”

We’ve loaded down the Gospel of the grace of God in Christ with a lot of “oughts”: I ought to be more committed, more disciplined, more obedient. When we think or teach this way, we’re substituting duty and obligation for a loving response to God’s grace.

As one pastor expressed it, we often don’t make the Gospel “good enough.” We preach grace to the non-Christian and duty to the Christian. As Richard Gilbert has written, “It sometimes seems that there is plenty of grace for you if you are not a Christian, but when you become a Christian then there are all sorts of laws you must obey and you feel like you were better off before you were converted.” Even our terminology betrays the way we dichotomize the Christian life into “grace” and “works” compartments.

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The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Strength for the Journey

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Today’s Scripture: Psalms 67-72

Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. – Psalm 86:1

I spoke at a conference of missionaries in South America, some serving in places where literally every day people were being murdered by drug dealers. There were political tensions, besides all the problems that come with trying to serve people and communicate Christ in a foreign culture. I sensed this was a gathering of wounded warriors who needed a time of refreshment and encouragement.

The first night they sang the whole time, choosing songs of comfort, encouragement, love, and faith. None of the songs had to do with marching to victory and charging the enemy. These people were trying to survive another day, and they needed the comforting hand of God.

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The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Planned Prayer

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Today’s Scripture: Psalm 109:4

“I give myself to prayer.”

We need to set aside time each day for planned, protracted, persevering prayer. We need to lay before the Lord any areas of persistent sin in our lives such as gossip, irritability, impatience, lack of love, and impure thoughts. These sins need to be the object of earnest prayer that God would work in us and enable us to deal with them. We are the ones who must deal with these sins, but the Holy Spirit must enable us to do it.

Note the dependent discipline Paul teaches in Romans 8:13: “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” There’s the discipline of putting to death the sins of the body, but we do this “by the Spirit.” This means continual, fervent prayer for the Spirit to enable us to do our duty. As John Murray said, “The believer is not endowed with a reservoir of strength from which he draws. It is always ‘by the Spirit’ that each sanctified and sanctifying activity is exercised.”

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The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Living Prayer

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Today’s Scripture: Psalms 55-59

Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. – Daniel 6:10

Can you picture this? Every day the chief executive officer of a large multimillion-dollar corporation goes into his office to tend to the business of the day. And every day, shortly after he arrives, one of the factory workers comes bursting into his office and tells the man his problems.

Again, at noon, when the executive is ready to leave for lunch, the factory worker comes in with a new set of problems. That night, after the executive has gone home, the factory worker comes charging into the man’s home and lays out a whole new set of difficulties and personal needs. The worker does this every day.

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