Tag Archives: holy spirit

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – It’s All His

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Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.—1 Corinthians 6:19–20

You belong to God. I belong to God. We belong to God. The Bible says, “You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). Your career belongs to God. Your family belongs to God. Your home belongs to God. So does your car, your health, the beat of your heart, and the breath you draw in your lungs. It is all a gift from God to you.

Often we will forget and neglect God, but is it too much to dedicate some time every day to pray and read the Word of God? God gave you everything that you have. You can give thanks. Is it that big of a deal to say, before you start eating, “Lord, thank You for this food”? It doesn’t have to be a long prayer. You don’t have to pray for every missionary around the world. But it is important to give thanks to the Lord for all that you have, acknowledging that you have received it from Him.

Is it asking too much to take a percentage of your income and give it to God’s work? That is called tithing. The Bible talks about tithes and offerings. Tithe means “a tenth.” In fact, Jesus commended the Pharisees for their tithing, while at the same time saying they were simply missing the point (see Matthew 23:23). Every Christian should tithe and bring offerings (see Malachi 3:10).

What if all the church was just like you? No individual Christian can sin without affecting the whole body of Christ. No child of God can grow cold in the spiritual life without lowering the spiritual temperature of everyone else around him or her. You affect others, and others affect you.

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – A Clear Message

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As long as Jesus is one of many options, He is no option. As long as you can carry your burdens alone, you don’t need a burden bearer. As long as your situation brings you no grief, you will receive no comfort. As long as you can take him or leave him, you might as well leave him because Jesus won’t be taken half-heartedly.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn. . .” (Matthew 5:4).  When you get to the point of sorrow for your sins, when you admit that you have no other option but to cast all your cares on him, and when there is truly no other name that you can call, then do as Jesus said to do. “Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). And he’s waiting for you in the midst of the storm!

From The Applause of Heaven

 

 

Night Light - James & Shirley Dobson

Night Light for Couples – That Proverbs 31 Woman…

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“A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” Proverbs 31:30

Are you ever intimidated by the “Proverbs 31 woman”? Sometimes I am. How can we compete? Here’s a woman who brings her husband “good, not harm, all the days of her life”; gets up before the morning light; feeds her family; shows good judgment in her purchases; works “vigorously”; helps the poor; has time to make bed coverings for her household and garments for sale; has enough faith to “laugh at the days to come”; “speaks with wisdom”; has no use for idleness; and earns blessing and praise from her husband and children!

Let’s be honest, we can’t compete… but maybe we don’t have to. I’m not convinced, for example, that the woman described in Proverbs 31 is one literal person. Or, if she is, that she achieved all her accomplishments during the same period of life. Rather, I think that through the writings of Solomon, the Lord has provided us women with specific examples of the behavior to which we should continually aspire—just as all Christians aspire to be like Jesus, even though we’ll never actually reach His level of perfection.

I believe that the key to understanding Proverbs 31 is found in verse 30, the next to last passage in Proverbs: “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” According to this verse, a “woman who fears the Lord,”—who seeks His will for her as wife, mother, and follower of Jesus—is the Proverbs 31 woman, no matter how a particular day or season of her life is going.

My encouragement to you as a wife is to seek God and submit to His direction—and add a dash of love in the process. I promise you that you’ll please your Maker, bring honor to your husband and family, and find a personal contentedness that will never be matched.

– Shirley M Dobson

From Night Light For Couples, by Dr. James & Shirley Dobson

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Our Helper in Prayer

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John 14:16-17
One of the most painful emotions is loneliness. Of course, there are times in life when being alone is unavoidable. But since God has sent His Spirit to live within us, we are never truly on our own. The Holy Spirit—whom Jesus referred to as our “Helper”—is with us and available every second of every day.
Let’s think about ways that the Spirit of God helps us in our prayer life. First, He burdens us to pray. Have you ever felt a strong sense that you needed to spend time with the Lord? Perhaps you weren’t even sure why. That is the Spirit convicting you. He has many reasons for doing this. For instance, He may know that you need strength because of an imminent difficulty. Or He sometimes encourages us to confess sin so that our fellowship with the Father is not hindered.
Second, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. There are times when we do not know how to pray—when sorrow or helplessness overwhelms us to the point that words are impossible to speak, even to the Lord. Thankfully, when all we can do is cry to Jesus, the Spirit will lead on our behalf. He understands the depth of our thoughts, feelings, and needs, and He translates them into effective supplication according to God’s will.
The Savior loves you intimately—enough to die in your place and send a Helper to reside within you. What a privilege to have God’s Spirit dwelling in your heart. Do you recognize His power and love throughout your day? He longs to comfort, enable, and guide you each and every moment.
Bible in One Year: Jeremiah 33-36

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread – Reflecting God’s Glory

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Read: Exodus 31:1-11
Bible in a Year: Psalms 103-104; 1 Corinthians 2
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. —Psalm 19:1
The 12th-century Chinese artist Li Tang painted landscapes animated with people, birds, and water buffalo. Because of his genius with fine line sketches on silk, Li Tang is considered a master of Chinese landscape art. For centuries, artists from around the world have depicted what they see in God’s art gallery of creation: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). The Bible tells us that our creativity as human beings comes from being made in the image of the Master Creator (Gen. 1:27).
God chose artists who worked with wood, gold, silver, bronze, and gems to create the furnishings, utensils, altars, and garments that were to be used when the ancient Israelites worshiped Him in the tabernacle (Ex. 31:1-11). These artistic renderings of spiritual realities prompted and guided the priests and the people in their worship of the Lord who had called them to be His people.
Through many types of artistic expression, we reflect the beauty of creation and honor the Creator and Redeemer of this marvelous world. —Dennis Fisher
Lord of the universe, You are the Creator and have given us creative abilities. May we honor You through them.
We were created to bring God the glory.
INSIGHT: Not only did God give Moses the exact blueprint for the tabernacle (Ex. 25-30), He also provided all the craftsmen needed to build it (31:1-11). Bezalal (v. 2) and Aholiab (v. 6) were probably the leaders of these craftsmen (vv. 3-6) and are mentioned again in Exodus 35:31-35. Bezalal is said to be filled with “the Spirit of God” (31:3; 35:31). God divinely empowered these men to do things that were clearly beyond normal human ability. God said, “I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you” (31:6). Likewise, God has given every believer special abilities and skills to build up the church for His glory (Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-11; Eph. 4:11-15; 1 Peter 4:10-11). Sim Kay Tee

Ravi Zacharias

Slice of Infinity – In Stone and Sand

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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.
There are those who mock the idea of human depravity, insisting that it wastes our potential for good with unnecessary and demeaning guilt. According to Richard Dawkins, if God would just stop policing the world, then people would be good. But I suspect most of us recognize in ourselves the potential for something other than good, for greed or for cruelty, for vice just as easily as virtue. Even those who disapprove of the word “sin” have seen its expressions in their lives and in others. Looking below the surface of our good days or friendly moments, it is hard not to admit that who we really are at the heart of things—on bad days or even average days, when life runs amok or temptations overwhelm us—is complicated to say the very least. Thus, for most of us, it is not a giant mental leap to see ourselves in the adulterous woman.
It is far more difficult, however, to consider how well we play the role of the Pharisee. We have perhaps so villainized the lives of these religious leaders that we consider their self-righteousness as unreachable as the crimes of infamous war criminals. Hence, sometimes standing with stones, other times simply putting one’s self in lesser categories of depravity, we can look at the crumpled, errant world around us with an air of disgust. In fact, often no matter one’s profession of belief or practice of faith, we can rally together in circles of righteousness, surrounding those whose lack of whatever virtue we value is far more obvious. We can name their sins publically and consider their humiliation well deserved, perhaps even beneficial for them. And all the while we fail to see our pharisaical similarities, Jesus crouches beside us writing something in the sand that fails to catch our attention.
Whatever profession of faith or absence of faith we proclaim, in the worst images of humanity, we cannot afford to leave ourselves out. In his words to the Pharisees that day, Jesus was calling those who were morally awake to greater awareness. Beside him, even in the best among us is a picture of how far the distortion extends within, and how great is the hopeful reach of God’s restoration. Considering any sort of human depravity without seeing ourselves somewhere troublingly in the picture is failing to see the true depths. Viewing the flaws and sins of the world with a position of superiority—whether we profess Christianity, general spirituality, or atheism—is like picking up the stones God has saved you from and lobbing them at someone else. Jesus very indiscriminately calls us to examine both the stones in our hands and the rockiness of our hearts, and to drop our guard at his feet.
After each of the Pharisees had released the rocks they held and walked away one by one, Jesus straightened up and asked the girl beside him, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” And the stones and sand, they left behind.
Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – What are the clouds?

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“The clouds are the dust of his feet.” Nahum 1:3
Suggested Further Reading: Isaiah 40:12-26
Great things with us are little things with God. What great things clouds are to us! There we see them sweeping along the skies! Then they rapidly increase till the entire sky becomes black and a dark shadow is cast upon the world; we foresee the coming storm, and we tremble at the mountains of cloud, for they are great. Great things are they? No, they are only the dust of God’s feet. The greatest cloud that ever swept the face of the skies, was but one single particle of dust starting from the feet of the Almighty Jehovah. When clouds roll over clouds, and the storm is very terrible, it is only the chariot of God, as it speeds along the heavens, raising a little dust around him! “The clouds are the dust of his feet.” Oh! Could you grasp this idea my friends, or had I words in which to put it into your souls, I am sure you would sit down in solemn awe of that great God who is our Father, or who will be our Judge. Consider, that the greatest things with man are little things with God. We call the mountains great, but what are they? They are but “the small dust of the balance.” We call the nations great, and we speak of mighty empires; but the nations before him are but as “a drop of a bucket.” We call the islands great and talk of ours boastingly—”He taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” We speak of great men and of mighty—”The inhabitants [of the earth] in his sight are as grasshoppers.” We talk of ponderous orbs moving millions of miles from us—in God’s sight they are but little atoms dancing up and down in the sunbeam of existence. Compared with God there is nothing great.
For meditation: Are you experiencing great distress or great success? Try to look at both kinds of circumstances from the viewpoint of God (Zechariah 4:6-7).
Sermon no. 36
19 August (1855)

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyers – Choosing the Right Church

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But [as for] you, teach what is fitting and becoming to sound (wholesome) doctrine [the character and right living that identify true Christians]. – Titus 2:1
I went to church for years and years and never heard a message about the power my words had on my life. I may have heard something about my thoughts; but if so, it wasn’t enough to make any impact on my life because it did not change my thinking.
I heard about grace and salvation and other good things. But it wasn’t everything I needed to know in order to live in the righteousness, peace, and joy God offers to all who believe (see Romans 14:17).
There are many wonderful churches that teach God’s Word in its entirety; and I encourage you to make sure that wherever you choose to go to church, it is a place where you are learning and growing spiritually. We should not go to church just to fulfill an obligation we may think we have to God. We should go to church to fellowship with other believers in Jesus Christ, to worship God, and to learn how to live the life Jesus died for us to have and enjoy.

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade – Guardian Angels

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“For the angel of the Lord guards and rescues all who reverence Him” (Psalm 34:7).
For many years my travels have taken me from continent to continent, to scores of countries each year. I have traveled under all kinds of circumstances, not a few times faced with danger. But always there was peace in my heart that the Lord was with me and I was surrounded by His guardian angels to protect me.
In Pakistan, during a time of great political upheaval, I had finished a series of meetings in Lahore and was taken to the train station. Though I was unaware of what was happening, an angry crowd of thousands was marching on the station to destroy it with cocktail bombs.
The director of the railway line rushed us onto the train, put us in our compartments and told us not to open our doors under any circumstances – unless we knew that the one knocking was a friend. The train ride to Karachi would require more than 24 hours, which was just the time I needed to finish rewriting my book Come Help Change the World.
So I put on my pajamas, got in my berth and began to read and write. It was not until we arrived in Karachi some 28 hours later that I discovered how guardian angels had watched over us and protected us. The train in front of us had been burned when rioting students had lain on the track and refused to move. So the train ran over them and killed them. In retaliation, the mob burned the train and killed the officials.
Now we were the next train and they were prepared to do the same for us. But God miraculously went before us and there were no mishaps. We arrived in Karachi to discover that martial law had been declared and all was peaceful. A Red Cross van took us to the hotel and there God continued to protect us. When the violence subsided we were able to catch a plane out of Karachi for Europe.
Bible Reading: Isaiah 63:7-9
TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Today I will make a special point of expressing my gratitude to God for assigning guardian angels to watch over me, protect and help me in my time of trouble. I will not take for granted the protection that many times in the past I have overlooked, not recognizing God’s miraculous, divine intervention, enabling me to live a supernatural life.

Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; H.L.M. – Godly Choices

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The movie Jurassic World recently brought in over $511 million in its opening weekend, becoming the highest grossing global film of all time. Yet it is the film’s lead actor, Chris Pratt, who goes against Hollywood’s standards and demonstrates eternal qualities. Pratt values his faith in God and his family more than his fame and wealth. Chris and his wife Anna have been married for six years. When their son Jack was born premature, they spent weeks praying at the baby’s side. “We were scared for a long time. We prayed a lot,” said Pratt. “It restored my faith in God; not that it needed to be restored, but it really defined it.”
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife.
Matthew 1:24
Another man, Joseph of Nazareth, also lived out his faith through his actions. God’s choice for Jesus’ earthly father was a man of integrity and courage. When God sent an angel to verify Mary‘s story, Joseph willingly obeyed in spite of the public humiliation he would face.
As you seek the Lord for daily decisions, pray and listen carefully to the Holy Spirit. Make choices that honor God. Pray also that America’s leaders will do the same.
Recommended Reading: Proverbs 3:1-10

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – How Sin Spreads

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Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? —1 Corinthians 5:6
As believers, we are interconnected. The sin of one will affect many. That is why the apostle Paul said the church should never tolerate evil. He said, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26).
Apparently in the Corinthian church, there was a man who was sleeping his father’s wife (not his biological mother but a woman his father had married). The church was actually boasting about how liberal and tolerant they were. So Paul confronted them, saying, “And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you” (1 Corinthians 5:2).
If an unbeliever who is living an immoral lifestyle comes to our church, we’ll welcome that person. We’ll say, “We love you.” We’ll also say, “Jesus Christ wants to change your life.” We will call him or her to the Lord and to faith.
But if a Christian comes to our church and is living openly in sin, if we find out about it, we will call him or her to repentance. But if that Christian refuses to repent, then he or she will be asked to leave.
Some might think that isn’t very loving. But actually it is very loving, and I’ll tell you why. If believers are living openly in sin, and the church doesn’t do anything about it, it’s sending a message that everything is okay and that we can thumb our noses at God.
Paul said, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (1 Corinthians 5:6). In modern vernacular, a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough. If sin is tolerated, it will spread and corrupt others.

Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Two-Letter Word “IF”

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The prison of pride is filled with self-made people, determined to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps even if they land on their rear ends! To the prideful it doesn’t matter what they did or to whom they did it or where they’ll end up– it only matters that I did it my way. You’ve seen the prisoners. The alcoholic who won’t admit his drinking problem. The woman who refuses to talk to anyone about her fears. Perhaps to see such a person all you have to do is look in the mirror.
The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just. . .” (1 John 1:9). The biggest word in Scripture just might be that two-letter one, IF. Justification…rationalization…comparison…these are tools of the jailbird. But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn. . .” (Matthew 5:4). You see, true blessedness begins with deep sadness.
From The Applause of Heaven

Night Light - James & Shirley Dobson

Night Light for Couples – Camping Companions

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“Just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.” 2 Corinthians 1:7
After learning that camping was a common pastime among happy families, Gary Smalley and his wife, Norma, decided to take their own brood into the wild. On a beautiful Kentucky night, the Smalleys gathered around a campfire, sang songs, and roasted hot dogs. By nine o’clock all were pleasantly tired and tucked into their camper beds. Gary thought, I can really see why this draws families together.
Then it struck. Thunder rolled and lightning flashed all around. Rain and wind assaulted the outside, then the inside, of the Smalley camper. The sudden storm turned what had been a relaxing evening into a night of fright.
Did this harrowing turn of events cause Gary and Norma to abandon the outdoors forever? Not at all—they became avid campers. The Smalleys discovered that sharing experiences, both fun and frightful, bonded them in ways they couldn’t have imagined.
Our encouragement to couples is to share each others’ interests and activities. Common endeavors will deepen your relationship and provide priceless family memories—even when storms strike.
Just between us…
How does sharing recreation and other interests build companionship?
(husband) Which of my favorite activities do you enjoy?
(wife) Do you appreciate having me join you in your activities? Which ones, and why?
What new shared activities could bring us closer together?
Lord, thank You for tonight’s encouragement to be friends and companions in many ways. Show us new ways to get the most out of life—together! Amen.
From Night Light For Couples, by Dr. James & Shirley Dobson

C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis Daily – Today’s Reading

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The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbour; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less. There is, indeed, one exception. If you do him a good turn, not to please God and obey the law of charity, but to show him what a fine forgiving chap you are, and to put him in your debt, and then sit down to wait for his ‘gratitude’, you will probably be disappointed. (People are not fools: they have a very quick eye for anything like showing off, or patronage.) But whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less.
From Mere Christianity
Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Sovereign Over Sin

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Isaiah 14:24-27
God is sovereign. This means that He is the supreme authority over everything, including sin and its consequences. Yet He doesn’t cause anyone to sin—to do so would violate His righteous and holy nature. The Lord does, however, allow temptation to enter our lives. And since we have free will and the Holy Spirit, we can decide how to respond and are fully equipped to resist. Thankfully, He retains ultimate control and weaves the consequences of our actions in accordance with His purposes.
Sometimes God permits our sin to run its full course. For instance, when the Israelites refused to turn away from their disobedience, He “gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own devices” (Psalms 81:12). Without divine protection, the nation succumbed to corrupt influences and ultimately was overrun. The Lord could have sheltered them, but the consequences drove the Israelites into repentance, which was His original plan.
Conversely, God will sometimes put an immediate halt to sin. Such was the case when King Abimelech took Abraham’s wife to himself. The king had been misled by the couple and was not aware that he was about to commit a sin. But the Lord knew of the deception, and He intervened (Genesis 20:1-6).
Of course, the wisest plan is to obey fully so God never has to use either of these tactics. Temptation is inevitable, but sin is not. The Lord’s sovereignty over our life means that any temptation must first pass through His permissive will. In this way, He makes sure His children are never tempted beyond what they can resist (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Bible in One Year: Jeremiah 31-32

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread – Under Siege

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Read: Philippians 2:1-11
Bible in a Year: Psalms 100-102; 1 Corinthians 1
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. —Philippians 2:4
During the Bosnian War (1992-1996), more than 10,000 people—civilians and soldiers—were killed in the city of Sarajevo as gunfire and mortar rounds rained down from the surrounding hills. Steven Galloway’s gripping novel The Cellist of Sarajevo unfolds there, during the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare. The book follows three fictional characters who must decide if they will become completely self-absorbed in their struggle to survive, or will somehow rise above their numbing circumstances to consider others during a time of great adversity.
From a prison in Rome, Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi, saying: “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4). Paul cited Jesus as the great example of a selfless focus on others: “Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, . . . made Himself of no reputation . . . humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (vv. 5-8). Rather than seeking sympathy from others, Jesus gave all He had to rescue us from the tyranny of sin.
Our continuing challenge as followers of Jesus is to see through His eyes and respond to the needs of others in His strength, even in our own difficult times. —David C. McCasland
Are you going through something hard right now? What can you still do for another?
Embracing God’s love for us is the key to loving others.
INSIGHT: The words that Paul penned to the Philippian church while he was under house arrest are some of the most challenging. There is so much in this short letter that goes against our natural inclinations. From prison, Paul encouraged the Philippian believers to “make his joy complete” (2:2 niv). Paul is joyful while in prison because of his faith in Christ, and he encouraged the believers to add to his joy by looking out for one another and counting others as more important than themselves. Paul then uses Jesus as the example of this kind of selflessness. In taking on humanity, Jesus gave up everything that was rightfully His to come to our rescue. J.R. Hudberg

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zachrious – Unfolding Narrative

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Most of us, if we’re honest, live by the clock. The alarm sounds and we are off, watching the minutes slip by. Time-sensitive deadlines drive our days. We have appointments and meetings, we eat at a certain time, and the day ends by a certain time. Bound to our timepieces, it often seems our every moment is synchronized and controlled.
In contrast to the “objective” measures of time marking seconds, minutes, and hours, there is also a “subjective” experience of time being “fast or slow.” Those of us who are growing older describe our experience of time as passing by more and more quickly. We feel our vacation time as ephemeral, while our work week plods slowly by—and yet both are marked by the same objective measurements of time. How is it that our subjective experience of time is so different from what our watches and clocks objectively mark out for us, second by second, hour by hour?
This question of our subjective experience of time is one that the ancient philosophers and early Christian leaders pondered. Their philosophical and theological musings bequeathed to us many perplexities regarding the human experience of time. Saint Augustine, for example, wrestled with the fleeting character of our human temporal experience. No sooner do we apprehend the present than it has receded into the past. He wrote, “We cannot rightly say what time is, except by reason of its impending state of not-being.”(1)
Regardless of our perceptual and philosophical difficulties with understanding the nature of time, what seems most crucial for our lives is the significance of events that happen in time, moment by moment, hour by hour, and day by day. Seeking to reclaim this emphasis, theologians have tried to understand the nature of time by what takes place in time—a narrative of unfolding events.(2) These theological discussions involve God’s engagement with time. Is God a wholly atemporal being, outside of time and history? Or is God genuinely engaged with time and revealed through an unfolding story of historical disclosure?
The biblical writers give witness to a God who progressively unfolds saving acts within history. The divine plan of salvation that Christians believe culminates in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ is called salvation history. God did not, for example, reveal every aspect of salvation to Abraham or to Moses. Instead, the biblical writers give witness to the God who works within and through the temporal events of history to reveal the plan of redemption. We see this unfolding in God’s commissioning of Moses prior to the Exodus: “I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai) but by my name ‘the Lord (Yahweh)’ I did not make myself known.”(2) Within the long ministry of the prophets, a God is revealed who gradually discloses what will take place. Isaiah presents the God who “proclaims to you new things from this time; even hidden things which you have not known. They are created now, and not long ago: and before today you have not heard them” (Isaiah 48:6-7).
For Christians, God’s decisive revelatory action in time is in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While there are many glimpses, sign-markers, and hints pointing towards a messianic redeemer in the Old Testament, ultimately God chose to enter a particular time as a human being to live life among the time-bound.
The significance of those time-bound events continues into our time, and indeed into eternity. And through the unfolding of time, humans can grow in their understanding of who God is and what God has done through Jesus, the Messiah. Indeed, as Jesus spoke with his disciples, he suggests that there would be more to learn and more to reveal through the work of the Holy Spirit: “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears he will speak; and he will disclose to you what is to come” (italics mine; John 16:12-13).
The witness of Scripture suggests that the events of our lives reveal this ongoing work of the Spirit. Sometimes, we apprehend the significance of those events in the present time. Other times, it is only through the lens of hindsight as events recede into times past that we understand God’s action. While time might move slowly for some or quickly for others, while minutes and seconds and hours are filled with appointments, meetings, and all the events that make up our time-bound existence, we would do well to look around to see how the Spirit of God is working through what might appear to be ordinary events in the march of time. Indeed, those who follow Jesus ought never to forget that God entered time to enact the new creation in Christ’s resurrection. As we grow in our understanding of that timeless act, the events of our temporal lives act as sign-markers for eternity. And while we often see the significance of our time-bound events “through a mirror darkly,” the day will come when “all things are subjected to Him…that God may be all in all.”(4)
Margaret Manning Shull is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Bellingham, Washington.
(1) Augustine, Confessions, XI, 14.
(2) Colin Gunton, cited in John Polkinghorne, Exploring Reality: The Intertwining of Science and Religion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 120.
(3) Exodus 6:2-3, Italics mine.
(4) 1 Corinthians 15:28.

Alistair Begg

Alistair Begg – Foreigners in The Lord’s House

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Foreigners have come into the holy places of the Lord’s house. Jeremiah 51:51
In this account the faces of the Lord’s people were covered with shame, for it was a terrible thing for men to intrude upon the Holy Place that was reserved exclusively for the priests. Everywhere around us we see similar cause for sorrow. How many ungodly men are now studying with a view to entering the ministry! What a crying sin is that solemn lie by which our whole population is nominally part of a National Church! How fearful it is that ordinances should be pressed upon the unconverted, and that among the more enlightened churches of our land there should be such laxity of discipline. If the thousands who will read this portion will take this matter before the Lord Jesus today, He will interfere and avert the evil that otherwise will come upon His Church. To adulterate the church is to pollute a well, to pour water upon fire, to sow a fertile field with stones. May we all have grace to maintain in our own proper way the purity of the Church as being an assembly of believers and not a nation, an unsaved community of unconverted men.
Our zeal must, however, begin at home. Let us examine ourselves as to our right to eat at the Lord’s Table. Let us see to it that we are wearing our wedding garment, lest we ourselves should be regarded as foreigners in the Lord’s holy place. Many are called, but few are chosen; the way is narrow, and the gate is strait. O for grace to come to Jesus aright, with the faith of God’s elect. He who smote Uzzah for touching the ark is very jealous of His two ordinances. As a true believer I may approach them freely; as a foreigner I must not touch them in case I die. Heart-searching is the duty of all who are baptized or come to the Lord’s Table. “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!”1
1) Psalm 139:23
The Family Bible Reading Plan
1 Samuel 10
Romans 8
Devotional material is taken from “Morning and Evening,” written by C.H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg.

Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon – Making light of Christ

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“But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise.” Matthew 22:5
Suggested Further Reading: Matthew 13:9-17
It is making light of the gospel and of the whole of God’s glorious things, when men go to hear and yet do not pay attention. How many who frequent churches and chapels to indulge in a comfortable nap! Think what a fearful insult that is to the King of heaven. Would they enter into Her Majesty’s palace, ask an audience, and then go to sleep before her face? And yet the sin of sleeping in Her Majesty’s presence, would not be so great, even though against her laws, as the sin of wilfully slumbering in God’s sanctuary. How many go to our houses of worship who do not sleep, but who sit with vacant stare, listening as they would to a man who could not play a lively tune upon a good instrument. What goes in at one ear goes out at the other. Whatever enters the brain goes out without affecting the heart. Ah, my hearers, you are guilty of making light of God’s gospel, when you sit under a sermon without paying attention to it! Oh! What would lost souls give to hear another sermon! What would yonder dying wretch who is just now nearing the grave, give for another Sabbath! And what will you give, one of these days, when you shall be close to Jordan’s brink, that you might have one more warning, and listen once more to the wooing voice of God’s minister! We make light of the gospel when we hear it, without solemn and awful attention to it.
For meditation: Hear—listen—remember—obey (James 1:25). A sleeping congregation is no more use than a sleeping preacher.
Sermon no. 98
18 August (Preached 17 August 1856)

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Treating Others with Consideration

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“[Love] does not act unbecomingly” (1 Cor. 13:5).
Considerate behavior demonstrates godly love and adds credibility to your witness.
When I was a young child, I loved to slurp my soup. I didn’t see any harm in it even though my parents constantly objected. Then one evening I ate with someone who slurped his soup. He was having a great time but I didn’t enjoy my meal very much. Then I realized that proper table manners are one way of showing consideration for others. It says, “I care about you and don’t want to do anything that might disrupt your enjoyment of this meal.”
On a more serious note, I know a couple who got an annulment on the grounds that the husband was rude to his wife. She claimed that his incessant burping proved that he didn’t really love her. The judge ruled in her favor, stating that if the husband truly loved her, he would have been more considerate. That’s a strange story but true, and it illustrates the point that love is not rude.
“Unbecomingly” in 1 Corinthians 13:5 includes any behavior that violates acceptable biblical or social standards. We could paraphrase it, “Love is considerate of others.” That would have been in stark contrast to the inconsiderate behavior of the Corinthians—many of whom were overindulging at their love feasts and getting drunk on the Communion wine (1 Cor. 11:20-22). Some women were overstepping bounds by removing their veils and usurping the role of men in the church (1 Cor. 11:3-16; 14:34-35). Both men and women were corrupting the worship services by trying to outdo one another’s spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:26).
Undoubtedly the Corinthians justified their rude behavior—just as we often justify ours. But rudeness betrays a lack of love and is always detrimental to effective ministry. For example, I’ve seen Christians behave so rudely toward non-Christians who smoke that they destroyed any opportunity to tell them about Christ.
Be aware of how you treat others—whether believers or unbelievers. Even the smallest of courtesies can make a profound impression.
Suggestions for Prayer
Ask the Holy Spirit to monitor your behavior and convict you of any loveless actions. As He does, be sure to confess and forsake them.
For Further Study
Read Luke 7:36-50. How did Jesus protect the repentant woman from the Pharisee’s rudeness?