Tag Archives: Bible

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Trivial reasons Patriots will win the Super Bowl

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Surprising Super Bowl trivia is in the news today. Lining up the facts, you can make a compelling case that the New England Patriots will defeat the Atlanta Falcons in Sunday’s game. For instance:

The Falcons have never won a Super Bowl. Their quarterback, Matt Ryan, has never won a Most Valuable Player award. Over his career, Ryan has defeated every NFL team except two—the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Patriots.

By contrast, the New England Patriots can secure their fifth title. Tom Brady could win his fifth championship, the most of any quarterback in history. He could also win a record fourth Super Bowl MVP.

Brady has started four games against the Falcons. He won all four. With six Super Bowls, he has more championship experience than the entire Falcons’ roster.

The game pits the league’s leading offense (the Falcons) against the league’s leading defense (the Patriots). This has happened only five times before in Super Bowl history. The team with the league’s best defense won four of the five.

Sunday’s game will be the first time Dan Quinn, Atlanta’s head coach, has competed against New England’s head coach, Bill Belichick. Since 2010, coaches in their first career game against Belichick are 3–22. And the last time the Super Bowl was played in Houston, the Patriots won.

Of course, none of this proves that New England will win Sunday’s game. Predictions, whether they are based on facts or speculation, are just that. Our culture is fascinated by them because they give us the illusion of control in a chaotic world.

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Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –Abraham’s Test

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Genesis 22:1-24

Abraham faced one of the greatest tests of obedience recorded in the Bible: God asked him to slay his son as an offering. It’s hard to imagine the confusion and pain this request must have caused. However, Abraham obeyed the Lord willingly and promptly. His response teaches us some important lessons about yielding to the Lord.

Obedience often collides with reason. After telling Abraham he’d have descendants too numerous to count, God asked him to sacrifice Isaac, who was to be the father of the promised line. Despite the strangeness of the command, Abraham trusted God to keep His word and so set out to obey (Heb. 11:18-19).

Obedience means leaving the consequences to God. Abraham had no idea how the promise could be fulfilled if Isaac was dead. But his words and actions indicate he believed in divine sovereignty. When Abraham took the boy to Mount Moriah, he told his servants, “I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you” (Gen. 22:5). He didn’t say, “I will return” but expressed that both would come back. Abraham went to the holy place as instructed. At the same time, he fully expected that the Lord would somehow restore Isaac in order to keep His pledge. God fulfilled His promise by pro viding a ram in the boy’s place (Gen. 22:13-14).

The Lord already knows how His children will respond to tests of obedience. He challenges people because He wants them to know the truth about how well they submit. A believer’s willingness to obey (or disobey) reveals the state of his or her commitment to God.

Bible in One Year: Leviticus 11-13

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — What’s the Occasion?

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Read: Ecclesiastes 3:9–17

Bible in a Year: Exodus 29–30; Matthew 21:23–46

Everything God does will endure forever.—Ecclesiastes 3:14

Four-year-old Asher’s gleeful face peeked out from beneath his favorite hooded sweatshirt. His alligator-head hooded sweatshirt, complete with plush jaws that seemed to swallow his head! His mom’s heart sank. She wanted the family to make a good impression as they visited a family they hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Oh, Hon,” she said, “that may not be appropriate for the occasion.”

“Of course it is!” Asher protested brightly.

“Hmm, and what occasion might that be?” she asked. Asher replied, “You know. Life!” He got to wear the shirt.

That joyful boy already grasps the truth of Ecclesiastes 3:12—“There is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.” Ecclesiastes can seem depressing and is often misunderstood because it’s written from a human perspective, not God’s. The writer, King Solomon, asked, “What do workers gain from their toil?” (v. 9). Yet throughout the book we catch glimpses of hope. Solomon also wrote: “That each of [us] may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all [our] toil—this is the gift of God” (v. 13).

We serve a God who gives us good things to enjoy. Everything He does “will endure forever” (v. 14). As we acknowledge Him and follow His loving commands, He infuses our lives with purpose, meaning, and joy. —Tim Gustafson

Restore to us childlike joy that appreciates Your good gifts.

The Lord who made you wants you to make Him the center of your life.

INSIGHT: Ecclesiastes fits in a larger Ancient Near Eastern literary category called Wisdom Literature. Wisdom Literature uses stories, poetry, proverbial sayings, and songs to convey wisdom about God and the world. The brutal honesty and chronic despair in Ecclesiastes is typical of Wisdom Literature and gives us a clear vision of the writer’s purpose. What may seem like a disconnect with the rest of Scripture is actually an attempt to present the wisdom of living in the moment, enjoying the small joys of life, and relying on the power, presence, and goodness of God to sustain us in a fallen and broken world. Even in the harshness of this life, there is hope. God can and does give meaning and purpose to the meaninglessness that surrounds us. Dennis Moles

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Stepping into the Reality of Suffering

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I recently sat across from a woman I wanted to adopt as a kind of nonna.(1) Originally from Croatia, she spoke with a soft accent and combination of wisdom and kindness. In observing my 5-year-old son with me, she noted, “He has a high sense of injustice.” I nodded in agreement. My little guy has begun that tortured engagement with life—the wrestling of desire to shield our eyes from sorrow with the opportunity to see our part in the larger broken story around us and participate in facets of restoration.

Years ago it was in a broken place where I met Annie. I was nervous as I walked through the streets of Amsterdam’s famous red light district, so different from anything I had seen before. About four hundred windows line cobblestone streets, a person behind each one. There are women of all ages, transgender and transvestite workers as well. Organized by nationality, it is a market of sorts, where the commodity for sale is the body of another. I was with the director of Scharlaken Koord, a Dutch organization that offers assistance to women working in prostitution.

I realized my nervousness was a reflection of my own insecurity. Truth be told, sex workers represented something threatening to me—a reminder of the enough I might never be, a kind of desirable I couldn’t compete with, a kind betrayal I did not want to know. But when we talked with them, I saw them as women. They were girls I would want to be friends with, and what was alike far surpassed our differences. To be sure, if the same things that happened to them had happened to me, I would be standing on their side of the window. They were human beings trying to survive their own choices and those made for them, just like the rest of us.

So it was with Annie. She shared her story with us: a handsome Dutch man often traveled through the airport she worked at in a distant Asian country. He began to bring gifts each time he passed through—attention and interest too. Soon he proposed to her. Her family advised she would be foolish to give up such an opportunity; she would have a much better life than what could be afforded at home. The two married and Annie went to live in his home country with apprehension and hope. Upon arrival, he confiscated her passport, explained he now owned her, and put her up for sale behind a window. She tried to resist, but he only laughed. She didn’t have her documents. She didn’t know the language. Where would she go? Realizing he was right, she succumbed to beatings and abuse and ultimately performed as required.

When Annie learned she was pregnant, she was grateful for this reminder of life inside of her. But after several intentional blows to her belly by her husband, she miscarried. Later came the day she learned her mother had died. Well over her capacity to hold the injustice, Annie spilled over with regret and rage. Only because he was tired of her and had gotten what he wanted, her husband returned the passport and bid her good riddance.

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Receiving Forgiveness

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If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action]. —1 John 1:9

Many years ago when I was first developing my relationship with the Lord, each night I would beg His forgiveness for my past sins. One evening as I knelt beside my bed, I heard the Lord say to me, “Joyce, I forgave you the first time you asked, but you have not received My gift of forgiveness because you have not forgiven yourself.”

Have you received God’s gift of forgiveness? If you have not, and you are ready to do so, ask the Lord to forgive you for all your sins right now. Then pray this aloud:

Lord, I receive forgiveness for (name the sin), in Christ Jesus. I forgive myself and accept your gift of forgiveness as my own. I believe that you remove the sin from me completely, putting it at a distance where it can never be found again—as far as the east is from the west. And I believe, Lord, that you remember it no more.

You will find that speaking aloud is often helpful to you because by doing so you are declaring your stand upon God’s Word. The devil cannot read your mind, but he does understand your words. Declare before all the principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness (see Ephesians 6:12) that Christ has set you free and that you intend to walk in that freedom.

When you speak, sound as though you mean it! If the devil tries to bring that sin to your mind again in the form of guilt and condemnation, repeat your declaration, telling him: “I was forgiven for that sin! It has been taken care of—therefore, I take no care for it.”

From the book New Day, New You by Joyce Meyer.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Using Our Abilities

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“Why is it that He gives us these special abilities to do certain things best? It is that God’s people will be equipped to do better work for Him, building up the church, the body of Christ, to a position of strength and maturity; until finally we all believe alike about our salvation and about our Savior, God’s Son, and all become full-grown in the Lord – yes, to the point of being filled full with Christ” (Ephesians 4:12,13).

We would be poor stewards if we ignored the special abilities the Holy Spirit has given to us.

We must use our abilities to glorify Christ, not to glorify ourselves, or some other person, or even to glorify the gift itself.

Peter says, “Are you called to preach? Then preach as though God Himself were speaking through you” (1 Peter 4:11). Do you possess musical ability? Share it with the rest of Christ’s family. Peter goes on, “Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies, so that God will be glorified through Jesus Christ – to Him be glory and praise forever and ever.”

We have the obligation to use our God-given abilities in a scriptural manner to help equip others for Christian service. The apostle Paul writes that spiritual gifts are given “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12, NAS).

In order to live supernaturally, it is important for us always to exercise our abilities in the power and control of the Holy Spirit – never through our own fleshly efforts.

Bible Reading: Ephesians 4:11-16

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: My motivation for using my spiritual gift(s) and abilities will be solely to glorify Christ through helping to equip other members of His body to be more effective and fruitful for Him.

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – But God Said…

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No words written on paper will ever sustain you like the promises of God. Do you know them?

To the bereaved, God promises: “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5 NIV).

To the besieged, God promises: “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all” (Psalm 34:19 NIV).

To the sick, God promises: “The LORD sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.” (Psalm 41:3 NIV)

To the sinner: “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

When fears surface, respond with this thought: But God said. . .When doubts arise, But God said. . .When guilt overwhelms you, But God said. . . Search the Scriptures for promises like a miner digging for gold. Once you find a nugget, grasp it. Trust it. There is no greater treasure!

From God is With You Every Day

 

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Boston bombing survivor to wed rescuer

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On April 15, 2013, Roseann Sdoia watched the Red Sox play at Fenway Park and then went to Boylston Street to watch the Boston Marathon. Two bombs exploded. She was just steps from the second blast and lost her right leg. Fireman Mike Materia comforted her on the ride to Massachusetts General Hospital in a police vehicle. “He’s seen me on my worst day,” she says.

Now they’re engaged to be married.

Air National Guard Sgt. Matthew Noll returned last Monday from a seven-month deployment overseas. Here’s what made his return so emotional: he was reunited with his family at the Boston Celtics game that night. The video brought tears to my eyes.

We can all use good news in the news.

CNN is reporting this morning that two corrections department workers are being held hostage by inmates at a Delaware prison. Violence erupted last night at UC Berkeley hours before a political commentator was scheduled to speak. According to today’s Wall Street Journal, the White House has put Iran “on notice” after its missile launch.

What can we learn from the challenges of our day? Here’s an important life principle: failure is necessary to success.

This headline in Quartz caught my eye: “The experience CEOs want to see in every new hire.” I expected to read about drive, giftedness, and creativity. Instead, I learned about the value of failure. One CEO says, “I ask the question: tell me about when you failed.” Another notes that failure “makes you an executive of some substance.” Richard Branson: “It is only through failure that we learn.”

The best way to deal with problems is to trust them to God’s redemptive purpose. The wicked anti-Semite Haman plotted a holocaust in Persia that became the holy day of Purim (Esther 9). After rising from an Egyptian prison to Pharaoh’s palace, Joseph could say to his brothers, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Paul’s imprisonment led to preaching before kings (Acts 26).

In each case, good did not just redeem evil—it required it. Without the test, there could have been no triumph. A mountain climber needs a mountain from which he could fall; a swimmer needs a lake in which she could drown; a sailor needs an ocean in which he could sink.

God uses sin to show us our need of grace. He uses pain to show us our need of a Great Physician. Oswald Chambers: “The one passion of Paul’s life was to proclaim the Gospel of God. He welcomed heartbreaks, disillusionments, tribulation, for one reason only, because these things kept him in unmoved devotion to the Gospel of God.”

Where have you fallen? Would you ask God to redeem your failure by drawing you to his transforming grace?

Rhonda Mawhood Lee is an Episcopal minister and very gifted writer. Her latest column is titled, “How I learned to love and raise the child from my husband’s affair.” The daughter she describes has been an instrument of healing for Rev. Lee’s marriage and a great blessing to her life.

A lesson she learned in suffering she now expresses in joy: “Love is the most powerful thing there is.” If you’ll trust your failure to God’s grace, you’ll agree.

Denison Forum

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –Abraham’s Lesson on Obedience

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Genesis 16:1-16

The Old Testament gives us the account of Abraham’s life. While the patriarch had a special relationship with God, his faith was not perfect. Over the years, he came to understand the importance of obedience—and how costly it can be to rebel.

Abraham learned the hard way that manipulating circumstances to gain a desired result can bring heartache. God had promised him and Sarah a child, but they were still waiting for that blessing when they were elderly. Already in her 70s, Sarah suggested that Abraham get an heir by having a child with her servant Hagar. The result was jealousy, family strife, and a bloody conflict that still rages today between the descendants of Hagar’s son Ishmael and Sarah’s son Isaac.

Obedience will bring the Lord’s best, but it requires waiting on Him. Abraham was already an old man when God promised him descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky (Gen. 15:5). This would not be fulfilled until he was 100 and Sarah was well past her child-bearing years, which meant that all the glory for Isaac’s miraculous conception and birth went to the Lord (Gen. 21:1-7). Jumping ahead of God had harsh, long-term consequences. But the good news is that the couple’s mistakes could not prevent Him from carrying out His plan.

The Lord has given us His Word so we might learn from the saints of old. The story of Abraham’s life teaches us that obedience is essential. When we place our trust in a sovereign God and wait upon His timing, He will always prove faithful.

Bible in One Year: Leviticus 8-10

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Always in His Care

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Read: Psalm 32:1–11

Bible in a Year: Exodus 27–28; Matthew 21:1–22

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.—Psalm 32:8

On the day our youngest daughter was flying from Munich to Barcelona, I visited my favorite flight tracking website to follow her progress. After I entered her flight number, my computer screen showed that her flight had crossed Austria and was skirting the northern part of Italy. From there the plane would fly over the Mediterranean, south of the French Riviera toward Spain, and was scheduled to arrive on time. It seemed that the only thing I didn’t know was what the flight attendants were serving for lunch!

Why did I care about my daughter’s location and circumstances? Because I love her. I care about who she is, what she’s doing, and where she’s going in life.

In Psalm 32, David celebrated the marvel of God’s forgiveness, guidance, and concern for us. Unlike a human father, God knows every detail of our lives and the deepest needs of our hearts. The Lord’s promise to us is, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you” (v. 8).

Whatever our circumstances today, we can rely on God’s presence and care because “the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him” (v. 10). —David McCasland

Dear Father in heaven, thank You for watching over me in love and guiding me along Your path today.

We are never out of God’s sight and His loving care.

INSIGHT: Psalm 32 is an interesting look into the covenant relationship the believer has with the living God. King David, the writer of this psalm, is aware of his own personal sins and the need for confession and forgiveness. This spiritual connection with the living God is not simply a positive experience but includes God’s chastisement that leads to confession and restoration (vv. 4-5). Yet even within the ups and downs of our walk of faith, we have the assurance of God’s watchful care and provision. For further study on the subject of forgiveness, check out the Discovery Series booklet The Forgiveness of God at discoveryseries.org/q0602. Dennis Fisher

 

http://www.odb.org

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – One Good Choice After Another

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Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.—Proverbs 4:25 NIV

Are you enjoying the life and blessings of God in your everyday life? Or have you made a series of choices resulting in disappointment, pain, or feeling that everything you do requires great effort and produces little reward? Don’t spend your time and energy mourning all the bad decisions you have made; just start making good ones. There is hope for you!

The way to overcome the results of a series of bad choices is through a series of right choices. The only way to walk out of trouble is to do the opposite of whatever you did to get into trouble—one choice at a time.

Maybe the circumstances of your life right now are the direct result of a series of bad choices you have made. You may be in debt because you have made a lot of bad choices with money. You may be lonely because of a series of bad choices in relationships or in the way you treat people. You may be sick because of a series of unhealthy choices: eating junk food, not getting enough rest, or abusing your body through working too much and not having enough balance in your life.

You cannot make a series of bad choices that result in significant problems and then make one good choice and expect all the results of all those bad choices to go away. You did not get into deep trouble through one bad choice; you got into trouble through a series of bad choices. If you really want your life to change for the better, you will need to make one good choice after another, over a period of time, just as consistently as you made the negative choices that produced negative results.

No matter what kind of trouble or difficulty you find yourself in, you can still have a blessed life. You cannot do anything about what is behind you, but you can do a great deal about what lies ahead of you. God is a redeemer, and He will always give you another chance.

Trust in Him: If you have a situation that is too big for you to solve, then you are material for a miracle. Invite God to get involved, trust in and follow His directions, make one good choice after another, and you will see amazing results.

From the book Trusting God Day by Day by Joyce Meyer.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – How to Assure Success

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“Early the next morning the army of Judah went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. On the way, Jehoshaphat stopped and called them to attention. ‘Listen to me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem,’he said. ‘Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall have success! Believe His prophets, and everything will be all right!”‘ (2 Chronicles 20:20).

God does the same things for us in our time that He did so often in the Old and New Testament accounts of His power and grace.

I remember an eventful week at the University of California in Berkeley in 1966 when the president of the university was fired by the board of regents during the turbulent days of student revolution. Campuses throughout California erupted in anger and violence.

On the Berkeley campus, however, about 600 Campus Crusade staff members and students had gathered from across America to present the claims of Jesus Christ to more than 27,000 students. During the week, through some 80 meetings in dormitories, fraternity and sorority houses, international groups, at athletic banquets and faculty breakfasts and luncheons, in personal appointments and finally at a great meeting of some 8,000 gathered in the Greek theater, almost every student had an opportunity to hear the good news of God’s love through Christ. Literally thousands responded.

When the camera crews from the local television stations rushed out to film the predicted violence, they were amazed to find that the Berkeley campus, fountainhead of the radical student revolution, was remarkably quiet. Music, singing and sharing the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ prevailed. Many point to that week as a turning point in the direction of a world-famous university.

Light is more powerful than darkness. Believing God and obeying His commands assure eternal dividends.

Bible Reading: Joshua 1:5-9

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Today I resolve to believe God and do those things He directs me to do, regardless of the consequences. Then I am assured of success as, by faith, I live the supernatural life in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Invoke His Name

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We are never without hope because we are never without prayer. Prayer confesses: God can handle it. And since he can, I have hope! When we pray in the name of Jesus, we come to God on the basis of Jesus’ accomplishment. Scripture says, “Since we have a great high priest [Jesus] over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:21-22 HCSB).

Some say, “Prayer changes things because it changes us.” I agree but only in part. Prayer changes things because prayer appeals to the top power in the universe. It is the yes to God’s invitation to invoke his name. Prayer moves the world because prayer moves the heart of God.

From God is With You Every Day

 

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – My response to the nomination of Neil Gorsuch

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Colorado Judge Neil Gorsuch was nominated last night by President Trump to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by Antonin Scalia’s untimely death last February. At forty-nine years of age, he is the youngest nominee in twenty-five years. The New York Times notes that Judge Gorsuch’s “conservative bent and originalist philosophy fit the mold of the man he would succeed.”

Ed Whelan, a former law clerk for Justice Scalia, calls Judge Gorsuch “an eminently worthy successor to the great justice.” According to Whelan, “Gorsuch is a brilliant jurist and dedicated originalist and textualist. He thinks through issues deeply. He writes with clarity, force, and verve. And his many talents promise to give him an outsized influence on future generations of lawyers.”

The judge’s story is quite interesting. He grew up in Denver, where one of his grandfathers worked his way through law school as a streetcar conductor. Both his parents were lawyers; his mother became President Reagan’s first head of the EPA. In his youth, Gorsuch worked shoveling snow, moving furniture, and staffing the front desk at a Howard Johnson’s hotel.

He attended Columbia University and Harvard Law School, graduating from both with honors. He then achieved a PhD in legal philosophy from Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to the Tenth Circuit in 2006 and was affirmed by a unanimous vote of the Senate.

What do we know about his theological convictions?

Judge Gorsuch has written several books opposing euthanasia and assisted suicide. He wrote a concurrence in the Tenth Circuit Hobby Lobby case that supported the company in its fight not to pay for abortion-causing drugs for employees. The Supreme Court later came to the same decision.

Continue reading Denison Forum – My response to the nomination of Neil Gorsuch →

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –A Living Hope

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1 Peter 1:3-5

Believers are born into a living hope, whereas people without Christ have no foundation for their expectations and desires. Many non-Christians live with a false sense of security. They assume that what is important in this life is the physical and material. But there is no safety in things (1 Tim. 6:9). Those who pursue wealth and health rather than God find that their dreams either go unfulfilled or fail to satisfy.

Christians anchor their hope in the solid rock of Jesus Christ. His words are always true and His promises are never broken. I’ll sometimes hear a person project his or her unfulfilled desires on God and then argue that He came up short. But believers who make a request and submit to God’s will always get an answer: yes, no, or wait.

The Lord does not disappoint those who seek His will. Don’t misunderstand that statement. We might feel temporarily let down when something we hope for is not in God’s plan. But He doesn’t go back on the biblical promise to give His children what’s best (Isa. 48:17; Isa. 64:4). When one door closes, there is another about to open with something better behind it. And remember, the Lord cannot be outdone. We can’t even wish ourselves as much good as God has in store.

The best choice a Christian can make is to fix his or her hope on the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome whatever fits His will for your life, and turn away from all that does not. Circumstances may shift and change, but Jesus never does. He is a living hope who never disappoints.

Bible in One Year: Leviticus 5-7

 

http://www.intouch.org/

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — The Talking Tree

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Read: Colossians 1:15–20

Bible in a Year: Exodus 25–26; Matthew 20:17–34

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross.—1 Peter 2:24

One of the earliest Christian poems in English literature is “The Dream of the Rood.” The word rood comes from the Old English word rod or pole and refers to the cross on which Christ was crucified. In this ancient poem the crucifixion story is retold from the perspective of the cross. When the tree learns that it is to be used to kill the Son of God, it rejects the idea of being used in this way. But Christ enlists the help of the tree to provide redemption for all who will believe.

In the garden of Eden, a tree was the source of the forbidden fruit that our spiritual parents tasted, causing sin to enter the human race. And when the Son of God shed His blood as the ultimate sacrifice for all of humanity’s sin, He was nailed to a tree on our behalf. Christ “bore our sins in his body on the cross” (1 Peter 2:24).

The cross is the turning point for all who trust Christ for salvation. And ever since the crucifixion, it has become a remarkable symbol that represents the sacrificial death of the Son of God for our deliverance from sin and death. The cross is the inexpressibly wonderful evidence of God’s love for us. —Dennis Fisher

Lord, may my heart give You praise whenever I see a cross, for You gave Yourself for me in love.

Christ gave His life on the tree for our salvation.

INSIGHT: Some experts in New Testament studies suspect that the poetic structure and inspiring thoughts of Colossians 1:15-20 reflect the lyrics of a first-century song of worship. Paul must have often sung about Jesus, the Peacemaker who changed his life by returning good for evil when He bore the sins of the world. Do you have anyone you would consider an enemy? If so, you probably know why Jesus’s example stands in such contrast to our normal human inclinations. The God who created and sustains the cosmos is the same God who chose to reconcile Himself to His enemies. Rather than turning on those who had done such evil to Him, our resurrected Creator reached out to say, I still love you. Come to me. Trust me, and I will forgive you and adopt you into my eternal family. Mart DeHaan

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – The Space to Fall

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Amusement parks had always been destinations of choice for my family while I was growing up. It didn’t matter the vacation spot, we would, if there was an amusement park nearby, make it a priority visit. The reason for this priority was that we loved roller-coasters. The Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disney Land, Space Mountain at Disney World, and all the various roller-coasters at Six Flags theme parks called to us to ride them over and over again to our sheer delight.

There was one exception: The free fall ride. I do not know if it is still in existence, but when I knew it at my local Six Flags it was a ride like an elevator without a door. Only a seatbelt harness held us in. Up six stories it climbed while our stomachs fell. Climbing higher and higher, the expanse of the park and the surrounding communities became like miniature-versions of themselves. It seemed the ride would climb as high as the heights of heaven. Then suddenly, the ascent ended. The car would tilt forward ever so slightly, so that all you could see below was the drop back to earth. For maximum thrill or terror, the car wouldn’t plunge down immediately. Riders sat for what seemed to be an eternity of waiting; suddenly, the mechanical support drew back and the elevator-like car would make its free fall back down to the ground at speeds as high as 90 mph. I only ever went on the free fall once. I hated that ride.

“Sometimes suffering feels like a free fall,” writes J. Todd Billings in his book Rejoicing in Lament.(1) It is a free fall away from all that was normal and routine in one’s life down into what seems to be a spiraling abyss of chaos and despair. After receiving the phone call in the early morning hours that my husband had suffered sudden cardiac arrest, I fell into my own free fall. While sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home, I remember saying to my mother “My life will never be the same again.” I would free fall into another world never to return to the world I had inhabited for seventeen years with my husband. There would be no return to what was ‘normal.’ There would only be a steadying of my legs, like I had to do after the free fall ride at the amusement park, landing in the strange new world of grief and loss that was mine.

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Take Your Thoughts Captive

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[Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). . . . —2 Corinthians 10:5

Take captive every thought coming into your mind that does not agree with the Word of God. Lead those thoughts away, and let them be replaced with ones that are obedient to Jesus Christ. In other words, change your mind!

This is something we have to be persistent in doing; and if you feel weary in the beginning of this new endeavor, I understand because I felt the same way. Instead of fighting with negative thoughts, simply replace them with positive ones. If you choose to think something good, then the bad thing cannot occupy that space in your mind anymore. We always overcome evil with good (see Romans 12:21).

Power Thought: My thoughts are obedient to Christ.

From the book the book Power Thoughts Devotional by Joyce Meyer.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – God’s Secret Plan for You

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“God has told us His secret reason for sending Christ, a plan He decided on in mercy long ago; and this was His purpose: that when the time is ripe He will gather us together from wherever we are – in heaven or on earth – to be with Him in Christ, forever” (Ephesians 1:9,10).

One day a distinguished scientist questioned Michael Faraday, chemist, electrician and philosopher.

“Have you conceived to yourself what will be your occupation in the next world?” he asked.

Hesitating a moment or two, Faraday replied, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him.” And then he added, in his own words, “I shall be with Christ, and that is enough.”

Although nearly two thousand years have passed since He walked this earth, Jesus still stands as the ultimate expression of ethics and morality. Whatever one might think about Christians or the church, he will find no blemishes in the character of Jesus.

Perhaps the greatest testimony that can be given regarding the character of Jesus’ teachings is that they are still changing men and nations throughout the world today. Now, as before, those who listen to Him inevitably say “No man ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46, RSV).

God’s Word tells us that Jesus had the same temptations we do, though He never once gave way to them and sinned (Hebrews 4:15). Our Lord thus stands out as the supreme example of one who practiced the things that He taught to others and that He expects of His followers.

We still stand today in the shadow of God’s sure promise: “For God has allowed us to know the secret of His plan, and it is this: He purposes in His sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in heaven or earth shall find its perfection and fulfillment in Him. And here is the staggering thing that in all which will belong to Christ we have been promised a share” (Ephesians 1:9-11, Phillips).

Bible Reading: Ephesians 1:11-14

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Today I will meditate upon the fact that I am a child of God, and heir of God and joint-heir with Christ; and upon the startling, incredible fact that I am related to Him and share with Him in all of this indescribable privilege and blessing. As a result I will claim His supernatural love and power and will speak more freely to others of my relationship with Him.

 

http://www.cru.org

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – He Entered Your World

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I once waded into the Jordan River. On a trip to Israel, my family and I stopped to see the traditional spot of Jesus’ baptism. It’s a charming place. Sycamores cast their shadows. Birds chirp. The water invites. So I accepted the invitation and waded in to be baptized.

No one wanted to join me so I immersed myself. I declared my belief in Christ and sank so low in the water I could touch the river bottom. When I did, I felt a stick and pulled it out. Well, what do you know–a baptism memento! Some people get certificates or Bibles; I like my stick. It’s about as thick as your wrist, long as your forearm, and smooth as a baby’s behind. I keep it on my office credenza so I can show it to fear-filled people.

When they chronicle their anxieties about the economy or concern about their kids, I hand them the stick. I tell them how God muddied his feet in our world of diapers, death, digestion, and disease. How John told him to stay on the riverbank, but Jesus wouldn’t listen. How he came to earth for this very purpose, to become one of us. “Why, he might have touched this very stick,” I like to say.

As they smile, I ask, “Since he came this far to reach us, can’t we take our fears to him?”

“For our high priest [Jesus] is able to understand our weaknesses. When he lived on earth he was tempted in every way that we are, but he did not sin. Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before God’s throne where there is grace. There we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it” (Hebrews 4:15-16 NCV).

Does this miracle matter? It does if you are bedridden. It does if you battle disease. It does if chronic pain is a part of your life. The One who hears your prayers understands your pain. He never shrugs or scoffs or dismisses physical struggle. He had a human body.

Does this miracle matter? If you ever wonder if God understands you, it does. If you ever wonder if God listens, it does. If you ever wonder if the Uncreated Creator can, in a million years, comprehend the life of a truck driver, housewife, or immigrant, then ponder long and hard the promise of the incarnation. God say: I understand you and I always will.

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