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Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Your Agenda

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Max Lucado

It’s easy to forget who’s the servant and who’s to be served. The tool of distortion is one of Satan’s slyest.  When the focus is on yourself, you worry that your co-workers won’t appreciate you.  Your leaders will overwork you.  With time, your agenda becomes more important than God’s. You’re more concerned with presenting self than pleasing Him.  You may even find yourself doubting God’s judgment.

Remember Mary criticizing her sister Martha, “Lord don’t you care that my sister has left me alone to do all the work?  Tell her to help me.” (Luke 40:10) What had Mary chosen?  She’d chosen to sit at the feet of Christ.  God is more pleased with the quiet attention of a sincere servant than the noisy service of a sour one!

Guard your attitude. If you concern yourself with your neighbor’s talents, you’ll neglect your own. But if you concern yourself with yours, you could inspire both!

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – We Are Held Securely

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“No one who has become part of God’s family makes a practice of sinning, for Christ, God’s Son, holds him securely and the devil cannot get his hands on him” (1 John 5:18).

“I am enjoying my new-found liberty. I know that I am a Christian. I know that I am going to heaven, but for the moment I want to do my own thing. I recognize that the Lord may discipline me for the things that I am doing which the Bible says are wrong. I was reared in a very strict, legalistic Christian family and church and I have never enjoyed life before, but now I am having a ball. I don’t see anything wrong with drinking and sex and the other so-called sins that I have been told all my life were so terribly wrong.”

Do you believe that person is a Christian? Of course I have no way of judging, but according to the Word of God it is quite likely that this person has never really experienced a new birth. Can you imagine a beautiful butterfly going back to crawl in the dirt as it did as a caterpillar?

It is possible of course, for a Christian, one who has experienced new life in Christ, to sin, and even to continue in sin for a period of time, but never with a casual, flippant indifference to God’s way as this person expressed.

In the second chapter of the same epistle, the writer says the same thing in different words: “How can we be sure that we belong to Him? By looking within ourselves: are we really trying to do what He wants us to? Someone may say, ‘I am a Christian; I am on my way to heaven; I belong to Christ.’ But if he doesn’t do what Christ tells him to do, he is a liar. But those who do what Christ tells them to will learn to love God more and more. That is the way to know whether or not you are a Christian. Anyone who says he is a Christian should live as Christ did” (1 John 2:3-6).

Though it is not possible for us in this life to know the perfection that our Lord experienced, there will be that heartfelt desire to do what He wants us to do. Therefore, anyone who is a child of God will not make a practice of sinning. Those who are inclined should consider the possibility that they could be forever separated from God on judgement day.

Bible Reading: I John 5:1-21

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I am assured of my own salvation through faith in Christ which is demonstrated by the transformation of my attitudes and actions. I will encourage professing Christians, whose lives do not reflect God’s desires, to appropriate by faith the fullness of the Holy Spirit and His power in their daily walk so that they, too, can have the assurance of their salvation and their place in God’s special kingdom.

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Max Lucado – God Adopts Us

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When we come to Christ, God not only forgives us, he also adopts us! It would be enough if God just cleansed your name, but he does more.  He gives you his name.  It would be enough if God just set you free, but he does more. He takes you home.

Adoptive parents understand this more than anyone. We biological parents know well the earnest longing to have a child. But in many cases our cribs were filled easily. We decided to have a child and a child came.  In fact sometimes the child came with no decision.  I’ve heard of unplanned pregnancies, but I’ve never heard of an unplanned adoption.

If anybody understands God’s ardor for his children, it’s someone who has rescued an orphan from despair, for that is what God has done for us. God sought you, found you, signed the papers and took you home!

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Charles Stanley – A Lifetime of Holiness

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Romans 12:1-3

By placing faith in Jesus Christ, a new believer is sanctified—that is, he is set apart for God’s purpose. Unlike salvation, which takes place in a single moment, sanctification is a lifelong process. We who have trusted in Christ as Savior and allow His Holy Spirit to control our lives are currently being sanctified, no matter what we may feel or how our actions appear to others. We are progressively maturing in our faith.

If we are progressing, then we must be working our way toward something. The apostle Paul explained the Christian’s mission this way: “For those whom [God] foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). The character, conduct, and conversation of a believer are to reflect Christ, who lives within through His Spirit.

On our own, we would place too much emphasis on conduct and get caught up following rules and rituals that look Christian but do not actually reflect Christ. God, however, has given each believer His Spirit as a teacher and guide. The Holy Spirit’s work is to transform our minds and hearts so our character is markedly different from that of our unsaved peers. Only when we are under the Spirit’s control can we speak and act according to who we truly are: God’s sons and daughters.

Our heavenly Father wants His children to be living examples and reflections of who He is. He doesn’t expect perfection from us—He knows that we cannot be totally sinless as long as we remain in our human body. Rather, He shows us how to think and act so we may “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which [we] have been called” (Eph. 4:1).

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Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Father and Son

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“For a person who doesn’t believe in Christ, God’s Son, can’t have God the Father either. But he who has Christ, God’s Son, has God the Father also” (1 John 2:23).

An angry young student leader of a leftist movement approached me after one of my lectures on campus. “I resent your poisoning the minds of these students with your religious ideas,” he said, obviously trying to start an argument.

Instead of responding in kind, I asked him to come to our home for dinner where we could talk quietly and more in depth. He accepted the invitation.

After dinner, we discussed our individual views concerning God and man and the way we felt our ideas could best help man to maximize his potential. He objected when I started to read from the Bible.

“I don’t believe anything in the Bible,” he said.

“Well,” I said, “if you don’t mind, I would like to read you a few portions of Scripture which will help you better understand why I became a Christian after many years of agnosticism. I didn’t believe in God or the Bible either, but something wonderful happened to me which changed my thinking – in fact, my whole way of life. There are some of the Scriptures which made a great impression on my thinking, and I would like to share them with you.”

Reluctantly he agreed to listen. So I read portions of John 1, Hebrews 1 and Colossians, finally coming to this key verse in 1 John. My new student friend asked questions along the way. Before leaving that night, the miracle occurred and he wrote in our guest book, “The night of decision.”

Bible Reading: I John 4:14-17

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  Rather than try to defend the supernatural Word of God, I will simply present it in the power of the Holy Spirit and let the Word of God be its own defense.