Tag Archives: Jesus

Words of Hope

Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – A Downward Spiral

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Read: Judges 8:4-28

It became a snare to Gideon. (v. 27)

The pattern of Judges is disobedience, followed by punishment, followed by a cry for mercy, followed by deliverance through a judge, followed by peace, followed by the pattern starting all over again. But another pattern is made clear beginning when Gideon crossed the Jordan in verse 4: Israel wasn’t simply going around in circles; they actually were in a downward spiral.

The story of Gideon starts with humility and obedience and ends with unnecessary violence and idolatry. In chapters 6 and 7 Gideon is called by God and then wins an amazing victory over a much stronger foe. (There are many parallels to the stories of Moses found in Exodus.) But in our text today Gideon is more like Aaron, taking gold from those he conquered and shaping an idol from it. To his credit, he refused to accept the people’s desire to make him king, but, as we shall see, one of his sons does assert his right to rule Israel.

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Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; C.H.  – Speak Up

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A witness, according to Merriam-Webster’s definition, is a person who sees an event take place and could make a statement about it. Ever hear someone ask, “Can I get a witness?” They are asking, “Has anyone experienced something like this?” They want an individual with a similar experience who’s willing to testify as such.

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble.

Psalm 107:2

While it’s a modern, urban phrase, today’s psalmist may as well have asked, “Can I get a witness?” He begins the psalm with praise. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 107:1) Confirming his declaration, he then says the words of today’s verse…essentially asking for a witness to the greatness of God.

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Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Keep a Clean Heart

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If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. —Psalm 66:18

Not only does praying with a selfish motive hinder our prayers, but unconfessed sin can thwart them as well. Isaiah 59:1–2 says, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”

Unconfessed sin in our lives will stop our prayers from being answered. The psalmist wrote, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear” (Psalm 66:18). We can pray with passion. We can pray with faith. We can pray with all of the gusto we have. But if there is an area in our lives that is not right before God, then our prayers will not be heard.

When we come to God with sin in our lives, God effectively says, “If you want fellowship with Me, if you want to have communion with Me, then you need to repent of that sin. You can’t live in that life and then live My life.” Unconfessed sin will hinder our prayers.

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Kids 4 Truth

Kids 4 Truth International – God is the King of Glory

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“Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle…Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory.” (Psalm 24: 8, 10)

Have you ever imagined that you were a prince or a princess? Have you ever imagined that someday you would rule a kingdom all your own? Wouldn’t it be great if we could all be princes and princesses? Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. We can’t ALL be princes and princesses.

One of the songwriters in the Bible called God the “King of glory.” What do you suppose it means to be the “King of glory”? Doesn’t a king normally have a kingdom and people to rule? How do you rule over glory? The word “glory” means “great honor, praise, or distinction.” The word “king” means “one who is supreme or preeminent.” If you put the two words together, “king of glory” means “one who is supreme or preeminent in great honor, praise, or distinction.”

God is the one and only true King of glory. He is the only One Who deserves our worship and honor. We can praise people and things, but God deserves our highest praise much more than people or things do.

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The Navigators

The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Giving to God

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Today’s Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:7

“What do you have that you did not receive?”

We actually cannot give God anything that he has not first given to us. David recognized this fact when the leaders of Israel gave so generously for the building of the temple. In his prayer of praise to God he said, “Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own” (1 Chronicles 29:14,16).

David knew he and his people had not given anything to God that wasn’t his already. Even our service to God comes from his hand. As the prophet Isaiah said, “Lord, . . . all that we have accomplished you have done for us” (Isaiah 26:12, NIV). Paul summed it up rather conclusively when he said of God, “nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). When our every breath is a gift from God, there’s really nothing left to give that hasn’t been first given to us.

Where does that leave us? It leaves us in the blessed position of being eleventh-hour workers in God’s kingdom (Matthew 20:1-16). It leaves us going home at the end of the day from God’s vineyard profoundly grateful, knowing that the gracious landowner has been generous beyond all measure. In a word, it leaves us content, and “there is great gain in godliness with contentment” (1 Timothy 6:6).

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The Navigators

The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Loving the One You Serve

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Today’s Scripture: Song of Songs

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. – 1 John 4:16

There were some great love songs in the forties: vocalists with the Glenn Miller band sang about that gal from Kalamazoo; the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra extolled the virtues of Marie; the Andrews Sisters exhorted the soldier to not sit under the apple tree with anyone else but the girl he left behind. During the war years, one song promised that one day there would again be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover. When the war finally ended, Perry Como sang that we would be together till the end of time.

When my wife and I became Christians and headed off to Northwestern College to study the Bible, I saw an amazing thing. Hundreds of young men and women assembled every morning during chapel hour and sang love songs to God! This opened up a whole new musical world to me. I learned songs like “My Jesus, I Love Thee” and “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.”

Continue reading The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Loving the One You Serve →

BreakPoint

BreakPoint – Why Assisted Suicide is a Poison Pill: Pushing Back against the Culture of Death

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Are there ever times when deliberately taking an innocent human life is okay? What if our intentions are merciful? What if we’re trying to relieve the suffering of one we love?

My home state of Colorado is asking these questions right now. A bill before the legislature would make us the fifth state to legalize assisted suicide, following Oregon, Washington, Vermont, and California. Sponsors of the bill are proposing it under the commonly used name “Death with Dignity.”

That’s a euphemism for killing elderly and terminally-ill patients by giving them a cocktail of toxic drugs. And unlike abortion, which has become less and less justifiable with the availability of ultrasound and neonatal care, it’s easy to make physician-assisted suicide sound compassionate.

“I feel that it’s a basic human right to be in charge of your own destiny,” says assisted suicide proponent Lance Wright. “The situation now is that you and I are not in control of what happens at the end of our lives.”

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Moody Global Ministries

Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – REST FROM THE LAW

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Read Acts 15:1-11

Some communities have odd laws when it comes to church. Young girls may not walk a tightrope in Wheeler, Mississippi, unless it’s in church. It is against the law to tickle a woman under her chin with a feather duster while she is in church in Blackwater, Kentucky. Nobody in Lee Creek, Arkansas, can attend church in a red garment. While these laws remain on the books, the rationale behind them is long forgotten.

This is how the Law of Moses seems to many of us today. It appears to be a collection of ancient and curious restrictions regarding food, clothing, and hygiene. Today’s passage indicates that it has greater significance.

One of the first decisions the New Testament church had to make was whether to continue abiding by the regulations of the Mosaic Law. This became especially important when people who did not come from a Jewish background began to believe the gospel. Certain teachers from Judea went to Antioch with a message: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). Their instruction probably went beyond circumcision to insist that the church needed to obey all the regulations of the Law of Moses. When Paul and Barnabas disagreed sharply, the church at Antioch sent them to Jerusalem to resolve the question with the apostles and elders.

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – IS AMERICA ‘IN THE MIDST OF A REBELLION’?

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Donald Trump won the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, while Bernie Sanders narrowly lost to Hillary Clinton in Nevada after being behind by twenty-five points just a few weeks ago. A recent Fox News poll put Sanders in the lead nationally. Jeb Bush withdrew from the race, an outcome no one would have predicted a few months ago.

This year’s presidential nominating process has been nothing like anything we’ve seen in decades. Why?

The Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan believes that “we’re in the midst of a rebellion.” She cites “the general decline of America’s faith in its institutions” and notes that “we feel less respect for almost all of them—the church the professions, the presidency, the Supreme Court.”

According to Noonan, those who support Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders are thinking, “Let’s take a chance. Washington is incapable of reform or progress; it’s time to reach outside.” They think Washington “will moderate Bernie, take the edges off Trump” and therefore “don’t see their choices as so radical.”

There is strong evidence to support Noonan’s view.

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Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – A Powerful Love

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Read | Luke 15:11-32

When we read about the Prodigal Son, our focus is usually on God’s amazing love, which is demonstrated by the father in the parable. We delight in knowing that the Lord responds to us the same way when we stray from Him. But today, I want to look at our responsibility to love others. No matter how difficult the situation, God has given believers in Christ the capacity to respond with this same kind of love.

Let go. Though he had every right to refuse his second son’s foolish request, this father understood that the young man had already left home in his heart. There may be times in our lives when the most loving thing we can do is also the most difficult—to step back and let a loved one go his or her own way. When you hang on and try to control the outcome, you may actually get in God’s way.

Wait. Once we have let go, we must then wait patiently for the Lord to do His work in that person’s life. Did you notice that the father didn’t go to search for his son? Even though he knew that pain and trouble would follow such a foolish decision, he chose to trust God instead of trying to fix the situation and protect his son from the consequences of his unwise choice. Continue reading Charles Stanley – A Powerful Love →

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — The View from the Mountain

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Read: Philippians 4:8-13

Bible in a Year: Numbers 1-3; Mark 3

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above. —Colossians 3:1

Our valley in Idaho can be very cold in the winter. Clouds and fog roll in and blanket the ground, trapping frigid air under warmer layers above. But you can get above the valley. There’s a road nearby that winds up the flank of Shafer Butte, a 7,500-foot mountain that rises out of our valley. A few minutes of driving and you break out of the fog and emerge into the warmth and brilliance of a sunlit day. You can look down on the clouds that shroud the valley below and see it from a different point of view.

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John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Strength for Today – God’s Great Mercy

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“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

Because of His mercy, God desires to lift sinners out of their pitiful condition.

Several years ago I spent about a week in India. Each day I saw countless starving, diseased people with no home but a few square feet of filthy street. I could not help but feel compassion and pity on those people who lived in such misery.

In a spiritual sense, though, before God saved us, we were each even more pathetic than any beggar in India. Spiritually, we “were dead in [our] trespasses and sins . . . and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:1, 3-5). God saw our wretched condition and was moved to do something about it.

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Wisdom Hunters

Wisdom Hunters – Love Always Hopes 

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Love always hopes.   1 Corinthians 13:7

Love always hopes. It hopes for the best and is prepared for the worst. It is hopeful because its hope is in the Lord. As the old hymn proclaims, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” When we love God we also hope in Him, because we are sure of His promises that transcend hope and provide assurance. Promises such as, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5b). Moreover, faith helps us be sure of what we hope for. As it says in Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Faith, hope, and love are all first cousins; they complement each other and support one another.

Love hopes because it knows the end of the story, for heaven is its destiny. It bridles its emotions to resist fear because love casts out fear (I John 4:18, NKJV). Hope conquers death and fear because Jesus has gone before us and done the same (Acts 2:23-24). Therefore, you can be hopeful because you get to hang out in heaven with your Lord and Savior, Jesus. But there is something just as big that you can hope for in real time. You can hope that others you love will place their faith in Jesus Christ.

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – According to Your Gift

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Having gifts (faculties, talents, qualities) that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them: [He whose gift is] prophecy, [let him prophesy] according to the proportion of his faith; [He whose gift is] practical service, let him give himself to serving; he who teaches, to his teaching.—Romans 12:6-7

It’s a time-tested truth: Most people who criticize others for what they are doing are usually doing nothing themselves. It is sad when people have nothing better to do than criticize those who are trying to do something to make the world a better place.

I recall being a member of one church in which the pastor felt that any woman who wanted to do anything other than pray, clean, or work in the nursery had to present her case to him and the elders for their approval. I was teaching a very successful home Bible study, and the pastor told my husband he should be teaching the meeting rather than me. The pastor had his rules, but God had called me to teach, and He had not called Dave in that way. Dave has other wonderful, valuable gifts, but he is not called to teach. Surely if God had not wanted me to teach, He would not have gifted me to do it—and given me a desire to do it. As far as I can discern from Scripture, God is not in the business of frustrating and confusing people.

Lord, thank You for the spiritual gift You’ve given me. Direct me in how to use it to glorify Your name. Amen.

From the book The Confident Woman Devotional: 365 Daily Devotions by Joyce Meyer

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Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Hunger and Thirst

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“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6, KJV).

Do you hunger and thirst after righteousness, for the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit in your life? If so, you can claim that fullness and power right now by faith.

“The great difference between present-day Christianity and that of which we read in these letters (New Testament epistles),” declared J.B. Phillips in his introduction to the Letters to Young churches, “is that to us it is primarily a performance; to them it was a real experience.

“We are apt to reduce the Christian religion to a code, or, at best, a rule of heart and life. To these men it is quite plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They do not hesitate to describe this as Christ living in them.”

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Ray Stedman

Ray Stedman – Word for the Discouraged

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Read: Isaiah 49:8-26

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me. (Isaiah 49:15-16)

Here Jehovah reminds Israel, Though you may feel neglected and forgotten, I cannot cast you off. I will never forget you, Can a mother forget the baby at her breast? Proverbially, of course, a mother’s love is the strongest love of all. Many mothers continue to love their children no matter what they do. But it is unfortunately true that mothers can forget their children. Mothers can forget their children, but God cannot: See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. We are reminded of that scene in the gospels when Jesus, after his resurrection, appeared to his frightened disciples, huddled together in the upper room, and said to them, Behold, my hands and my feet and see that it is I (Luke 24:39). Those wounds in his hands were marks of love and their very names were engraved in his hands.

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Words of Hope

Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Never Accept Milk from a Stranger

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Read: Judges 4:1-24

“Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink. (v. 19)

This is another wild and woolly story! Deborah (“Honeybee” in Hebrew) was judge of Israel, and not a word is mentioned about it being unusual that a woman occupied that position of power. The army was led by Barak (“Lightning” in Hebrew), but when it came to war, Lightning acted like a Honeybee and the Honeybee acted like Lightning. Not only does Barak need Deborah to tell him when to strike, he won’t even go to war unless Deborah comes along.

The word “hand” is the great thread that holds the story together. Israel suffered under the hand of Jabin (v. 2), Barak was told twice the army of Sisera would come into his hand (vv. 7, 14), Sisera fell under the hand of the deceitful Jael (vv. 9, 21), and the relentless hand of Israel brought Jabin into submission (v. 24).

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Presidential Prayer Team

Presidential Prayer Team; G.C.- Skeletons

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“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton,” said George Bernard Shaw humorously, “you may as well make it dance.” A modern expression of that idea is the unabashed acceptance showered upon even the most broken parts of people’s lives rather than encouraging help. Think about the carnival of interpersonal conflict still engulfing transgendered television personality Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Bruce Jenner). Modern psychology says to embrace the change rather than question the craving. But even a sex change hasn’t brought Jenner peace from family strife or likely addressed his innermost wounds.

Who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.

Psalm 103:4

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Kids 4 Truth

Kids 4 Truth International – God Delights To Answer Prayer

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“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:11).

Regular readers, please see a special note for you at the foot of this devotional.*

When Michele was eleven, her best friend left their school to go to a different school. Michele’s class was small, and she didn’t feel close to any of the other three girls in the class. She wanted so much to have a best friend that she could talk to.

That summer before sixth grade, Michele’s mom said, “Why don’t you pray that God will send a new girl to your class next year to be your close friend?” She took her mom’s advice and started praying. But she didn’t have much faith. Where would a new girl come from? And even if a new girl did come, would she really want to be her friend? Michele dreaded the beginning of the new school year, because she didn’t believe God would answer her prayer.

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The Navigators

The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Pray or Work?

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Today’s Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:9

“For we are God’s fellow workers.”

Nehemiah understood well the principle that we’re both dependent and responsible. In rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, he faced great opposition from certain enemies of the Jews. When the Jews had rebuilt the wall to half its height, these enemies “all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night” (Nehemiah 4:8-9).

Note Nehemiah’s response to the threatened attack. His people prayed and posted a guard. He recognized his dependence on God, but he also accepted his responsibility to work—to stand guard.

Continue reading The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Pray or Work? →