Tag Archives: Bible

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –How to Pass Down Our Faith

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Deuteronomy 4:9

The most valuable “possession” believers can leave to family and friends is faith in Jesus Christ. While everyone must choose to trust in the Savior for him- or herself, Christians can and should share key biblical truths with loved ones.

These essentials of the faith should not be kept to ourselves:

Salvation is found only in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12). From an early age, children should be taught that the most important relationship they’ll ever have is with the Lord. Believing in Him and obeying Him is vital.

Everything that exists was created by the Lord, and He owns it all (Psalm 24:1). We’re managers of our resources, not owners. As stewards, we are to invest in God’s kingdom and not just spend on personal pleasures. His priorities are to become our own.

God has a purpose for each of us, and discovering it is very important (Eph. 2:10). We can look for opportunities to share what we are learning about God’s plan for our life. In the process, our loved ones might become curious about what His purpose is for them.

God will provide whatever we need to carry out His plan (Eph. 4:11-13). Our heavenly Father gives us talents and spiritual gifts to achieve His purposes and plans. He has promised that we will have what is necessary for us to live a life that’s pleasing to Him.

Why wait to start sharing your faith? Each day offers new opportunities to speak of our Savior. Think about the people to whom you could pass along this precious possession.

Bible in One Year: Job 31-34

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Rings and Grace

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Read: Hebrews 8:6–13

Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 30–31; John 18:1–18

[I] will remember their sins no more.—Hebrews 8:12

When I look at my hands, I am reminded that I lost my wedding and engagement rings. I was multitasking as I packed for a trip, and I still have no idea where they ended up.

I dreaded telling my husband about my careless mistake—worried how the news would affect him. But he responded with more compassion and care for me than concern over the rings. However, there are times when I still want to do something to earn his grace! He, on the contrary, doesn’t hold this episode against me.

So many times we remember our sins and feel we must do something to earn God’s forgiveness. But God has said it is by grace, not by works, that we are saved (Eph. 2:8-9). Speaking of a new covenant, God promised Israel, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jer. 31:34). We have a God who forgives and no longer calls to mind the wrongs we have done.

We may still feel sad about our past, but we need to trust His promise and believe His grace and forgiveness is real through faith in Jesus Christ. This news should lead us to thankfulness and the assurance faith brings. When God forgives, He forgets. —Keila Ochoa

Dear Lord, thank You for Your grace and Your offer of salvation and forgiveness through Christ. Thank You for this free gift that is not based on anything I can do.

Grace and forgiveness are unearned gifts.

INSIGHT: The book of Hebrews was written to a Jewish audience who had trusted Jesus as Messiah. Because of their Old Testament background, they were tempted to regress into trusting the Mosaic law instead of Christ’s sufficiency. So the author speaks of Jesus as providing a superior ministry, a superior covenant, and better promises (8:6).Consider God’s promise of forgiveness in Hebrews 8:12—“I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more”—and see how you have every reason to rejoice. Bill Crowder

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Signs, Slogans, and Escape Vehicles

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In 2010 the Freedom From Religion Foundation launched the largest freethinkers billboard campaign ever to take place in the heart of the U.S. ‘Bible Belt.’ Signs reading “Imagine No Religion” “Sleep in on Sundays” and “In Reason We Trust” were placed throughout the south in one of many attempts throughout the world to bring positive thoughts of atheism into public discourse. The London Bus Campaign a few years prior sent hundreds of buses throughout England, Scotland, Wales, and Barcelona with similar slogans: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”(2) The £140,000 multi-media advertising campaign was designed to bring comfort in the probability that God does not exist, a positive contrast to religious advertisements meant to incite fear. The campaign used quotes from influential voices who have shown that embracing atheism, or at least expressing skepticism about the existence of God, is freeing. One quote read, “An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death.” Another, written by nineteenth century American humanist Robert Ingersoll, said, “The time to be happy is now!”

Reactions to campaigns such as these are generally mixed.  With every sign, plans for additional advertising seem to pop up throughout the world. One slogan provoked strong reactions in Barcelona, where critics branded the words as “an attack on all religions.”(3) Christians in London were on all sides of the debate, with some offended—one bus driver refused to drive his bus—and others optimistic at the opportunity for discussion. Posters and billboards of this nature, wrote director Paul Woolley of the theology think tank Theos, “encourage people to consider the most important question we will ever face in our lives.”(4)

Christianity has in fact long been indicted as an emotional crutch for those unable to accept life’s difficult realities, those in need of an escape vehicle to take them to another world. To be fair, it is not an entirely undue critique. The Christian is indeed someone marked by an inability to accept the cruelties of this world as status quo. Like the prophets, Christians are well aware that this life marred by cancer, injustice, poverty, corruption, tears, and death is not the way it is supposed to be. The church lives alert with the distinct notion that humanity was created for something more. Of course, the temptation, then, and one of the more severe misapplications of the faith, is to checkout of this world, living content in Christian circles, and ever-looking upward to better life.  In such a scenario, one’s Christianity is indeed nothing more than wishful thinking, a philosophy wrenched from its founder and marched down an illogical road.

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Loving the Life of Simplicity

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Key Scripture: Luke 10: 41,42

“And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed…”

I had to come to a place in my life where God had me focus on the idea of simplicity, and I suspect it may be the same for you. During this time, I was very complicated in most everything I did. I could not even entertain friends without complicating it.

Not only were my actions complicated but also my thought processes. I complicated my relationship with God because I had a legalistic approach to righteousness. To me, life itself was complicated. I felt that I had a lot of complex problems, and I didn’t realize they were that way only because my approach to life was complicated. And when we are complicated inside, then everything else in life seems that way.

James 1:6 says, “The double-minded (complicated, bewildered) man is unstable in all his ways…”

For years, I sought for many things—answers to my situations, healing, success in my ministry, changes in my family, etc. Finally, I learned about the “one thing” I was supposed to be seeking. And what was that one thing?

Psalm 27:4 gives us the answer. “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple.”

We make it overly complex, but it really is simple. The “one thing” is spending time with God and to look to Him for everything we need. It is the “seek first the kingdom of God” strategy that leads to the rest of fulfillment in our lives.

Continue reading Joyce Meyer – Loving the Life of Simplicity →

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – In the World to Come

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“And Jesus replied, ‘Let me assure you that no one has ever given up anything – home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or property – for love of Me and to tell others the Good News, who won’t be given back, a hundred times over, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land – with persecutions! All these will be his here on earth, and in the world to come he shall have eternal life'” (Mark 10:29,30).

What a wonderful promise. God will return to you and me a hundred times over what we invest for Him and His kingdom.

I believe that millions of Christians like ourselves are awakening to the fact that we must be about our Father’s business. As I observe God’s working in the lives of people around the world through many movements, I am persuaded that the greatest spiritual awakening since Pentecost has already begun.

Jesus said, “Go…and make disciples in all nations.” In order to make disciples, we must be disciples ourselves. Like begets like. We produce after our own kind.

The man who is committed to Christ, who understands how to walk in the fullness of the Spirit, is going to influence others and help to produce the same kind of Christians. Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).

For some, such a call to discipleship may sound too hard. However, in these verses Jesus tells us that we must be willing to give up everything. That this promise has been fulfilled in the lives of all who seek first Christ and His kingdom has been attested to times without number – not always in material things, of course, but in rewards far more meaningful and enriching.

Bible Reading: Luke 9:23-26

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Realizing that God has promised manifold gifts, persecutions, eternal life in exchange for faithfulness and commitment to Him, I vow to make that surrender real and meaningful in my life every day.

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Looking Upward

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Genesis tells us, “When Joseph had come to his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic. . .they took him and cast him into a pit. . .and they sat down to eat a meal.” Joseph’s hands were bound, his ankles tied, and his voice became hoarse from screaming. It wasn’t that his brothers didn’t hear him. Twenty-two years later, when a famine tamed their swagger, they would confess, “We saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear.”

You’re a version of Joseph. You carry something of God within you—something the world needs. If Satan can neutralize you, he can mute your influence. Life in the pit stinks! Yet it forces you to look upward. Someone from up there must come down here and give you a hand. God did for Joseph. He will do the same for you!

From You’ll Get Through This

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Is pro-life legislation ‘a form of slavery’?

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Author Margaret Atwood recently likened abortion legislation in Texas to “a form of slavery.” She is “waiting for a lawsuit that says if you force me to have children I cannot afford, you should pay for the process.” In her view, “It is really a form of slavery to force women to have children that they cannot afford and then to say that they have to raise them.”

The illogic of her statement astounds me. First, Atwood ignores adoption, an option that spares the life of the child with no financial burden to the mother. Second, she is apparently unaware of the financial resources available for impoverished families from public and private funds. Third, her argument would apply to children as well as to unborn babies.

If a mother becomes impoverished, is it slavery to prevent her from killing her child? If not, why is it slavery to prevent her from killing her unborn child? When her baby is born, it merely changes its location from inside her womb to outside her body, but our laws illogically grant protections to the latter that they deny the former.

Of course, these facts would not change Margaret Atwood’s mind. In her view, an unborn child is not yet a person and thus deserves no protection from the government. This is how abortion advocates view the nearly sixty million lives ended by abortion since 1973. Many cite rape and incest as justification for their position. However, as of this morning, there have been 404,332 abortions in the US this year; only 3,922 were due to incest or rape.

Some see life through the prism of opinion, elevating the “mother’s right to choose” above the unborn child’s right to live. Others see life through the prism of Scripture, viewing life as sacred from conception to natural death. According to the Bible, God formed us in the womb (Isaiah 44:24; Psalm 139:13; Jeremiah 1:5) so that we are all the work of his hand (Isaiah 64:8). He planned our lives before we were born (Galatians 1:15) and views each of us as worth the death of his Son (Romans 5:8).

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Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –Single-Minded Focus

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2 Timothy 2:4-5

“No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life” (2 Tim. 2:4). The word for “entangle,” which also occurs in 2 Peter 2:20, means to be so wrapped up in something that movement is hindered. This is the term the Greeks would have used to describe a rabbit ensnared in a thorn patch.

Peter’s letter admonished followers not to return to past sins, but Paul was emphasizing a different lesson: He was warning Timothy against allowing essential daily pursuits to supersede a commitment to Christ. Paul himself at times worked as a tentmaker while carrying on with ministry; however, he realized there was potential for an occupation to become all-consuming, to the detriment of a person’s spiritual life.

Growing and managing wealth, providing for one’s family, and taking advantage of leisure time are important activities. In fact, God encourages all of them. However, these blessings are not to become distractions that draw believers away from church or regular prayer and Bible study. Nor are we to compartmentalize our life into “Christian ministry” and “regular work/play.” We are Christ’s soldiers, no matter where we are or what we are doing—there is no such thing as a part-time warrior.

It’s important for believers not to draw artificial boundary lines between the secular and the sacred. Everything God gives—from vocation and wealth to leisure activities—is to be used for His glory. By keeping priorities straight and activities in balance, you can prevent hobbies and interests from becoming a snare.

Bible in One Year: Job 26-30

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — God Calling

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Read: Genesis 3:1–10

Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 28–29; John 17

This is how God showed his love . . . : He sent his one and only Son into the world.—1 John 4:9

One morning my daughter gave her eleven-month-old son her cell phone for a moment to entertain him. Less than a minute later my phone rang, and as I picked it up I heard his little voice. He had somehow hit the “speed dial” to my number, and what followed was a “conversation” I will long remember. My grandson can only say a few words, but he knows my voice and responds to it. So I talked to him and told him how much I love him.

The joy I felt at the sound of my grandson’s voice was a reminder to me of God’s deep desire for a relationship with us. From the very beginning, the Bible shows God actively pursuing us. After Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying God and then hid from Him in the garden, “the Lord God called” to Adam (Gen. 3:9).

God continued to pursue humanity through Jesus. Because God desires a relationship with us, He sent Jesus to earth to pay the penalty for our sin by His death on the cross. “This is how God showed his love . . . . He sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God” (1 John 4:9-10 The Message).

How good it is to know that God loves us and wants us to respond to His love through Jesus. Even when we don’t quite know what to say, our Father longs to hear from us! —James Banks

Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me and pursuing a relationship with me. Help me to be a joy to You by drawing near to You.

God’s love for us is revealed through Jesus.

INSIGHT: God did not force Adam and Eve to obey Him but allowed them to choose whether or not they would obey. Similarly, He did not force them to come to Him after they sinned. Instead, He called to them and allowed them to respond to His call. Have you responded to God’s offer of a restored relationship with Him? J.R. Hudberg

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Throwing Stones

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Each of us, in an instant, can drudge up a snapshot of humanity at its worst. Images of genocide in Germany, Rwanda, Bosnia, or the Sudan come readily to mind. Other impressions are not far off: students planning deadly attacks at school, looters taking advantage of natural disasters, the greed that paved the Trail of Tears. They are visions that challenge the widespread hope that people are generally good, leaving in its wake the sinking feeling of human depravity. But ironically, such snapshots of humanity also seem to grant permission to distance ourselves from this depravity. Whether with theory or judgment, we place ourselves in different categories. Perhaps even unconsciously, we consider their inferior virtue, their primitive sense of morality, or their distinctively depraved character. And it is rare that we see the stones in our hands as a problem.

As Jesus stood with a girl at his feet in the middle of a group armed with rocks and morality, he crouched down in the sand and with his finger wrote something that caused a fuming crowd to drop their stones and a devastated girl to get up. No one knows what he wrote on the ground that day with the Pharisees and the woman caught in adultery, and yet we often emerge from the story not with curiosity but with satisfaction. This public conviction of the Pharisees strikes most of us with the force of victory. Their air of superiority is palpable, and it is satisfying to picture them owning up to their own shortfall. If we imagine ourselves in the scene at all, it is most likely in a crumpled heap of shame with the woman at Jesus’s feet; it is rarely, if ever, with the Pharisees.

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Regret & Dread

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Key Scripture: Philippians 3: 13,14

“I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling me upward.”

When making decisions in your life, it’s easy to start asking yourself the question, “Did I make the right decision?” And although some of that can be healthy, it can also quickly get out of balance and lead your heart to place of regret and dread. When this happens, it’s also easy to start regretting the past and dreading the future, and in fact, both are “thieves of joy.”

Many people stay trapped in the past. There is only one thing that can be done about the past, and that is to forget it. When we make mistakes or bad decision (which we all do from time to time), the only thing we can do is ask God’s forgiveness and go on. Like Paul, we are all pressing toward the mark of perfection, but none of us have arrived.

I believe Paul enjoyed his life and ministry and this “one aspiration” of his was part of the reason why. Like us, he was pressing toward the mark of perfection, admitting that he had not arrived, but having insight on how to enjoy his life while he was making the trip.

And if regret has us constantly looking backwards in the past, dread has us always fearing forwards concerning the future. I spend a lot of years with regret pulling one arm and dread pulling on the other. The result was that I felt like I was being pulled apart, and I didn’t even know what the problem was.

Dreading things can become a bad habit, an attitude that develops out of lethargy or laziness, or perhaps because of multiple bad decisions. Procrastination and dread often work together. An upcoming task is dreaded, so procrastination says, “Put it off until later.” That sounds good for a few minutes, but the thing is still there to be dreaded until it is finished. It would be far better to do it and be free to go on to other things.

Final Thoughts and Action Items

I have learned from experience that living life one day at a time is something that can be done. God gives me the grace for today, but He does not give me grace for yesterday or tomorrow. When I am trying to live yesterday today, I can easily start to second guess the decisions made and I find myself full of unanswerable questions and regret. When I live tomorrow today, I allow fear of the unknown to creep in and I can easily start walking through life with endless amounts of dread. Ultimately, living in either regret or dread is pressure. And what I’ve discovered over time is to take the pressure off by believing God and trusting His Word.

Action Items

Are you relying on the grace that’s been given to you today? Have you asked God to help you rely on that grace?

Make a mental list of how many times you either think or say things like, “I just regret that decision,” or “I’m really concerned about what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

Decide that today is the only day God has given you and commit to do the very best that you can. At the end of your day, ask God to help you change the habit of regret and dread.

For more on this topic, check out Joyce’s book Enjoy Your Journey.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Faith Can Grow

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“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thous has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21, KJV).

At one stage of my spiritual growth, I was able to trust God for a soul – and He answered that prayer by leading me to one person whose heart He had prepared. Through the years God has increased my faith to trust Him for 6 souls then 20, 50, 100, 1000, 1 million, 100 million souls! Always He has honored my faith and obedience. Now I pray for a billion souls and by faith I believe that a billion will be harvested for the glory of God.

God has not changed; I have changed.

I believe that God deals with us in a similar way with regard to spiritual fruit. As we continue to trust God to develop in us all the various love traits, He honors that faithfulness because we are obeying Him by doing what He commands us to do.

Faithfulness is that trait of the Holy Spirit (faithfulness- love) that makes faith a living reality every day in the life of the believer who is living supernaturally. As we continue to walk in the power, love and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, we learn to develop greater confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, in His Word, in our rights as children of God and in the ability of the indwelling Holy Spirit to empower and control our lives.

Faithfulness can be compared to an athlete’s conditioning. A marathon runner does not begin training by running great distances. Instead, he starts with short runs. Then, as his body becomes more conditioned, he increases the distance of his runs until he reaches the full distance of the marathon.

Faithfulness in the life of a Christian also develops over an extended period of time spent in “conditioning.” As we learn to trust God in small things, our faith grows and grows until we are able to trust Him in greater things.

God rewards us for our faithfulness, and each time we see Him respond favorably, He reaches out to us through His Holy Spirit and increases our faith to trust Him for even greater things.

Bible Reading: Matthew 25:14-20

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I will seek to cultivate this fruit of the Spirit by being faithful to the calling God has entrusted to me.

 

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Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Master Builder

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Several years ago the state was rebuilding an overpass near my house. Three lanes reduced to one, transforming a morning commute into a daily stew. The project, like human history, had been in development since before time began. My next-door neighbors were highway engineers, consultants to the department of transportation. “It’ll take time,” they responded to my grumbles, “but it will get finished. “ They had seen the plans.

In the Old Testament story of Joseph, God allows us to study His plans. Brothers dumping brother. Their family feuds scattered like nails and cement bags on a vacant lot. But watch the Master Builder at work. He cleared the debris and stabilized the structure. And the chaos of Genesis 37:24—“They cast him into the pit”—became the triumph of Genesis 50:20—“life for many people.” God redeemed the story of Joseph. Can’t He redeem your story as well?

From You’ll Get Through This

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Facial-recognition software is coming to stores

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I still remember my first crime. I was six or seven years old and was standing with my mother in the grocery store checkout line. As she paid for our food, I snatched a pack of chewing gum from a nearby rack and buried it in my pocket.

I have not shoplifted since. Apparently, I’m the exception to the rule.

The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (its existence tells us this is a serious problem) reports that one in eleven Americans are shoplifters. Many become addicted to the “rush” of getting away with their crime; 57 percent of adult shoplifters say it is hard for them to stop even when they’re apprehended.

Enter facial-recognition software, which uses biometrics of known shoplifters from store databases and police logs. Every visitor’s face is tracked automatically and compared at thirty frames per second. A match is sent to employees’ smartphones. One company says its software has reduced shoplifting by 91 percent.

This is just one way technological innovation is improving our lives.

Apple will soon introduce an iPhone feature that will prevent texting while driving. It will detect that your car is moving or your phone is connected to the vehicle via Bluetooth or cable. Your phone will then withhold notifications for text messages and news updates. This is good news—the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 3,477 people were killed by distracted driving in 2015. That’s nine people every day.

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Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –The Character of a Good Soldier

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2 Timothy 2:1-3

In 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul calls on believers to “fight the good fight of faith.” Like first-century Christians, believers today are in a three-front war against the flesh, the world system, and Satan. The military metaphor is a good reminder that believers must prepare for daily spiritual battle. A good soldier …

Is strong in Christ. Paul knew that the Lord stood by his side and strengthened him during trials (2 Tim. 4:17). The Holy Spirit provides the courage and power to obey God’s commands, so we can rely upon His might to carry us to victory against any enemy.

Shares knowledge. The church possesses not only the good news about salvation; it has all the riches of God’s Word. Many people have listened to biblical teaching and experienced the Lord interceding in their lives. To keep those lessons to oneself can leave unbelievers in harm’s way and deprive fellow Christians of necessary wisdom.

Suffers willingly. Hardship is part of combat and, therefore, part of the Christian experience. Believers will endure adversity and be asked to make sacrifices. It is little wonder, then, that Paul reminds Timothy to stand strong in the Lord and to uphold others (2 Tim. 2:1-2).

A wise commanding officer gives his troops a war cry that encourages their hearts and emboldens their steps. Paul had one, too: “Remember Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:8). Keep in mind that you serve an omnipotent Lord. He stands beside you, takes part in your suffering, and holds you securely through the most formidable battles.

Bible in One Year: Job 22-25

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread –Fifteen-Minute Challenge

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Read: Psalm 119:33–40

Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 25–27; John 16

Turn my heart toward your statutes.—Psalm 119:36

Dr. Charles W. Eliot, longtime president of Harvard University, believed that ordinary people who read consistently from the world’s great literature for even a few minutes a day could gain a valuable education. In 1910, he compiled selections from books of history, science, philosophy, and fine art into fifty volumes called The Harvard Classics. Each set of books included Dr. Eliot’s Reading Guide titled “Fifteen Minutes A Day” containing recommended selections of eight to ten pages for each day of the year.

What if we spent fifteen minutes a day reading God’s Word? We could say with the psalmist, “Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word” (Ps. 119:36-37).

Fifteen minutes a day adds up to ninety-one hours a year. But for whatever amount of time we decide to read the Bible each day, consistency is the secret and the key ingredient is not perfection but persistence. If we miss a day or a week, we can start reading again. As the Holy Spirit teaches us, God’s Word moves from our minds to our hearts, then to our hands and feet—taking us beyond education to transformation.

“Teach me, Lord, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end” (v. 33). —David C. McCasland

I turn to You, the Author, to teach me as I read Your Word today. I want to hear from You, to know You, and to grow closer to You.

The Bible is the only Book whose Author is always present when it is read.

INSIGHT: Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible. Each new section starts with a successive letter from the Hebrew alphabet (known as an acrostic poem). The major emphasis of this psalm is to celebrate the usefulness and value of the law. In Psalm 119 the author uses a variety of words to describe the laws and commands of God. Eight times he mentions meditating: on God’s decrees (vv. 23, 48), deeds (v. 27), precepts (vv. 15, 78), laws (v. 97), statutes (v. 99), and promises (v. 148). Meditation is the act of thinking deeply about something, focusing intently on an idea. We really get to know the commands of God by meditating on them. Reading is the necessary first step, but once we have read His Word, meditating on it throughout the day helps us to keep it in our minds.Do you want to learn more about spending time with God?

 

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Vapor and Mist

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Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leafs a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.(1)

One of my most cherished memories is of the New England landscape in the fall. The vibrant colors from dogwood, sassafras, sumac, red oak, and maples can only be described as the finest artist’s palette of paints—crimsons and scarlets, purples, oranges and yellows splashed across the canvas. Making our pilgrimage each year to the local fair, the route transported my husband and me into that world of color, as the road would bend through picturesque towns and take us deeper and deeper into that fall canvas. Sadly, this beauty was transient. Fall rains and wind would come to fade and to muddle those colors. All that would remain were the dull browns melding and making their home in the dark soil that encompassed them.

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Make a Decision

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I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessings the curses; therefor choose life, that you and your descendants may live.— Deuteronomy 30:19 (AMPC)

I’m going to start with a question that may seem tough to ask at the beginning of a study, but I believe it goes to the core of how you are living your life: Are you living your life with quantity in mind or with quality in mind?

No matter who you are, whether you are a CEO of a business or a committed stay-at-home mom, we all have the same amount of time available to us—the quantity is the very same. 24-hours a day, 7-days a week, 365-days a year. So why do some appear to enjoy it more? Over my life, I’ve come to realize that it’s all about making the choice to enjoy it, the “choosing life” as Deuteronomy says. And that life is choosing to walk in the life and promises Christ died to give us.

As believers, you and I have available to us the quality of that life through Christ. His life is not filled with fear, stress, worry, anxiety or depression. God is not impatient, and He is in no hurry. He takes time to enjoy His creation, the words of His hands. And because Christ lives inside of us, we have access to approach life in the same way.

However, does that sound like your life today? Do you find yourself rushing through the quantity of your life while sacrificing the quality of it? We must all come to the place where we make the decision to not only enjoy our work and accomplishments, but also enjoy the road in getting there.

Final Thoughts and Action Items

We will never enjoy life unless we make a quality decision to do so. Satan is an expert at stealing, and our joy is one of his favorite targets. Nehemiah 8:10 tell us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. In John 10:10 we are told that “the thief” comes to kill, steal and destroy, but Jesus came that we might have and enjoy life.

Satan is the thief, and one of the things he seeks to steal is our joy. If he can steal our joy from us, we will be weak, and when we are weak, the enemy takes advantage of us. Weak believers are no threat to him and his works of destruction.

To live as God intends for us to live, the first thing we must do is truly believe that it is God’s will for us to experience continual joy. That doesn’t mean we’ll never face opposition or hardship, but instead, that we will face it with Christ on our side and ultimately, be able to rely on his joy as our strength to go through it. But again, we must make the decision enter and rely upon that joy.

Action Items

What decisions are you making today? Are you making those decisions with quality in mind or quantity?

Are you actively relying on the joy of the Lord to be your strength? Or are you trying to do it in your own strength?

Decide to rest in God’s joy. Make the decision today to look for quality over quantity, knowing that when you rely on Christ, you’ll accomplish everything you need to and in God’s timing.

For more on this topic, check out Joyce’s book Enjoy Your Journey.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Everything Is Possible

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“Jesus looked at them intently, then said, ‘Without God, it is utterly impossible. But with God everything is possible'” (Mark 10:27).

“An hour in prayer can give the believer enough power to overcome the second most powerful force in the universe,” sagely declared an anonymous observer.

God’s Word gives us many “exceeding great and precious promises” that confirm the truth of this wise observation – and the truth of the scriptural promise that with God everything is possible. One of these precious promises declares, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31,KJV).

Sometimes renewed strength – spiritual strength, God’s strength – is all we need to face the problem or difficulty or testing or trial that confronts us.

In the gigantic tasks God has given us to do in the work of Campus Crusade for Christ, often it is the confirmed realization that with God everything is possible that keeps us going on, trusting God to do that which no man could possibly do.

God’s indwelling Holy Spirit, making possible the supernatural life, constantly empowers and enables us to reach out and attempt great and mighty things for God – always an outreach that involves the needs of others more than our own personal needs, as great as they may seem to be at times.

Bible Reading: Mark 10:23-27

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: “Dear Lord, give me a heart like Yours – one that reaches out to the ends of the earth, and the end of the block, with the good news of the gospel, always believing that nothing is impossible with Your help.”

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Master Weaver

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In God’s hands intended evil becomes eventual good! Nothing in the Old Testament story of Joseph glosses over the presence of evil. Bloodstains, tearstains are everywhere. Joseph’s heart was rubbed raw against the rocks of disloyalty nd miscarried justice. Yet time and time again God redeemed the pain. The torn robe became a royal one. The pit became a palace.

The broken family grew old together. The very acts intended to destroy God’s servant turned out to strengthen him. “You meant evil against me,” Joseph told his brothers, using a Hebrew verb that means to weave. You wove evil, he was saying, but God rewove it together for good. God, the Master Weaver. He stretches the yarn, intertwines the colors. Nothing escapes His reach.

From You’ll Get Through This

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

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