Tag Archives: nature

Kids 4 Truth

Kids 4 Truth International – God Is Patient

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“And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” (Jonah 3:1-2)

When God told Jonah to go and preach in Nineveh, Jonah ran away. The Bible says that Jonah fled to the harbor and found a ship heading in the opposite direction of Nineveh. There was no way he was going to preach the Word of the Lord to the people of Nineveh.

The Ninevites were cruel people who tortured their enemies. Jonah wanted God to destroy the Ninevites. He knew that if he preached God’s Word, the Ninevites would probably repent from their wicked ways. So Jonah said “no” to God and ran the other way.

But God did not give up on Jonah. While Jonah was aboard the ship, God sent a raging storm. The sailors threw Jonah overboard because they thought he had caused the terrible storm. But God sent a big fish that swallowed Jonah whole. God heard Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the fish, and the fish spit Jonah up on dry land. Then the Word of the Lord came to Jonah again and told him to go to Nineveh and preach.

When Jonah said “no” the first time, God could have said, “Forget you, Jonah! I’ll just find someone else!” God can do anything He wants to do, and He could have found another prophet to preach to Nineveh. But God wanted Jonah to go. So God patiently waited on Jonah. He sent a raging storm to get Jonah’s attention, but Jonah did not repent. Instead of repenting, Jonah decided it would be better to die in the sea.

But God still wanted Jonah, so He sent a big fish to swallow Jonah. Finally, Jonah cried out to God, who sent him back to Nineveh to preach to the people. God wanted Jonah to learn a lesson. God wanted Jonah to obey Him, and He patiently waited for Jonah to obey.

God is patient. He wants you to follow Him and obey Him. When you say “no” to God, He doesn’t always punish you right away. He waits for you to obey. He is “a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Jonah 4:2). Sometimes He might have to send a hard time to get your attention, as he sent a storm to Jonah. But He wants you to become more like Him, and He patiently waits for you to do so.

God is patiently waiting for you to follow Him.

My Response:

» What does God want me to do today?

» Am I following the commands He has given in His Word?

» Am I saying “no” to God?

 

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Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Why We Hesitate to Trust

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Luke 5:1-11

On the Sea of Galilee, the optimal time of the day for fishing had passed hours earlier, so the fishermen were now cleaning their nets along the shore. But at the request of an itinerant preacher, one lowered his into the water. The reward for Peter’s trust was a record-breaking—and net-breaking—catch.

As believers, we likewise want success in overcoming doubts so that we can courageously follow God. But sometimes we rely on our own faculties to decide whether or not we will trust Him. Perhaps what He is asking of us seems unreasonable. For instance, the principle of tithing goes against human wisdom: When we give God one-tenth of our income, He makes the remaining 90 percent spread further than a hoarded 100 percent could.

In other situations, we hesitate to trust the Lord because our knowledge or experience contradicts His plan. All of Peter’s expertise indicated that fishing at such an hour would be useless. Sometimes God challenges believers to act even when they do not understand how they can be successful.

Listening to others’ opinions is another stumbling block to unswerving faith. There is a time for seeking godly counsel, but when the Lord makes His will clear, we are to act. We’re not to pick up the phone to ask a few friends what they think. No opinion matters except that of Jehovah, who does not make mistakes in presenting His plan.

The next time you find yourself in doubt, think about what is causing you to hesitate. Then you can pray specifically to overcome the faith hurdle and move on, knowing that God blesses steps we take to follow Him.

Bible in One Year: 2 Chronicles 4-7

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — The Advocate

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Read: John 16:7–15

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 15–16; John 3:1–18

When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.—John 16:13

As I boarded the airplane to study in a city a thousand miles from home, I felt nervous and alone. But during the flight, I remembered how Jesus promised His disciples the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’s friends must have felt bewildered when He told them, “It is for your good that I am going away” (John 16:7). How could they who witnessed His miracles and learned from His teaching be better off without Him? But Jesus told them that if He left, then the Advocate—the Holy Spirit—would come.

Jesus, nearing His last hours on earth, shared with His disciples (in John 14-17, today known as the “Farewell Discourse”) to help them understand His death and ascension. Central in this conversation was the coming Holy Spirit, an advocate who would be with them (14:16-17), teaching (15:15), testifying (v. 26), and guiding them (16:13).

We who have accepted God’s offer of new life have been given this gift of His Spirit living within us. From Him we receive so much: He convicts us of our sins and helps us to repent. He brings us comfort when we ache, strength to bear hardships, wisdom to understand God’s teaching, hope and faith to believe, love to share.

We can rejoice that Jesus sent us the Advocate. —Amy Boucher Pye

Heavenly Father, You sent Your Son to save us and Your Spirit to comfort and convict us. May we bring You glory as we thank You for Your goodness and love.

The Holy Spirit fills Jesus’s followers.

INSIGHT: When Jesus comforts His disciples before His impending crucifixion and eventual ascension (going back to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father), Jesus says He must go away so the Holy Spirit will come. The disciples didn’t know the Holy Spirit, so how would His coming comfort them? Jesus offers the answer. The Spirit will continue what Jesus started. He will bring conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He will speak to the disciples not simply on behalf of Jesus, but He will speak to them the very words Jesus speaks (John 16:13-15). The Spirit would be with them in a way that Jesus couldn’t be. No matter where each of them went, together or separately, the Spirit—and therefore Jesus Himself—would be with them. For more on the Holy Spirit read Filled with the Spirit at discoveryseries.org/q0301.  J.R. Hudberg

 

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Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Sharing Life and Death

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Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

They were words that controlled us, like an electric fence to wandering minds and quaking bodies. The pastor repeated them to us frequently—at each hospital visit and in every triumphant prayer for healing within an oncology ward that seemed only to delve out the certainty of loss and the overthrow of control. His confident battle cry was so certain, so instructive: We will not fathom defeat; we will not even think about death. In the name of Jesus, we will see the evidence of healing though it is yet unseen. Despite a theology that under normal circumstances would have been bold enough to voice some very serious objections, I so badly wanted my dad to be well… So badly that we never spoke of his wishes for the funeral we would plan only weeks later.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. They are the words of the ancient writer of Hebrews, though the way we used them during those short weeks with an aggressive cancer never actually considered this. It was a verse we treated as if it pertained only to us, jarred loose from its story and author and community. Once loose, we used it as a tool to jar my dad from his own flesh, from his pained and embodied life as a creature in his final days. We were after a miracle that would erase life as it had become, a healing that would restore us back to life before cancer. We used the verse, distorted into an individualized half-truth, to keep ourselves from considering anything more.

Sadly, the God many of these prayers envisioned was more like a slot machine than a sovereign, each prayer a spin that tried to muster hope against all odds, fearfully, as if dad’s life depended on the very quality of our mustering. While I don’t doubt the charitable intentions of those prayers—or the firm belief in a God who heals—I am saddened by the selfishness I didn’t want to see as I uttered them. The words we clung to were far more about the survivors than the dying one we loved or the abundant life we professed together in the crucified Christ—even in our own deaths. We clung to this creature-denying posture at the expense of a Christ-embodying posture, a posture that could have been both a sharing of my dad’s pain and a sharing of life and death with the one who holds both our lives and our deaths.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Sharing Life and Death →

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Identify Who You Are

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Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it, and let him do right. Let him search for peace (harmony; undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts) and seek it eagerly. [Do not merely desire peaceful relations with God, with your fellowmen, and with yourself, but pursue, go after them!]—1 Peter 3:11

Paul said, “I want to do what is right, but I can’t” (see Romans 7:15-25). He was a new person on the inside because he was born again, but he still had to resist the temptation to sin.

Paul explained that “the sin [principle]” (v. 20) continues to dwell in us. We want to do right, but we don’t have the power to perform it, because evil is ever present to tempt us to do wrong. Only God can deliver us from this tendency to sin; that is why we must ask Him to deliver us from evil each day.

From the book Starting Your Day Right by Joyce Meyer.

 

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Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – God Meets Our Needs

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“I have been young and now I am old. And in all my years I have never seen the Lord forsake a man who loves Him; nor have I seen the children of the godly go hungry” (Psalm 37:25). 

Tom had been a humble follower and servant of the Lord Jesus Christ from his youth. He had learned of our Lord at the family altar in his modest home. Through the urging of his father and mother, he mastered and memorized large portions of Scripture. By his teenage years he was preaching, and after a brief time of study in a Bible institute he became an evangelist. His work was largely in the smaller rural churches. His speech was never eloquent nor was he distinguished and cultured in his appearance and demeanor, but he was a man of God. wherever he went, hearts were strangely warmed as he spoke the truths concerning our wonderful Savior.

Now he had reached the ripe age of ninety. His hair was snow white and a bit long, but always neat. His ministry had covered over seventy years, and in that period he had come to know heartache, sorrow, adversity and poverty (especially during the depression years). He had performed many wedding ceremonies, had spent long nights at the bedside of the sick and had preached many funeral sermons. In obedience to his Lord, he had ministered to the widows and orphans, the poor and imprisoned. On this occasion, as he was coming to the climax of a rich and overflowing life, a radiant adventure with God – yes, the supernatural life – he reminisced. As he recalled some of the heartaches and tragedies, he said, “You know, not one single time in all my years have I seen the Lord forsake a man who loved Him, nor have I seen the children of the godly go hungry. Of course, I have seen Christians suffer, and I’ve been with them in their sorrow. But there’s something different about the life of the one who walks with God. There’s serenity, a peace. And then almost miraculously, while the ungodly go hungry, God meets the needs of His children as He promised.

“Yes,” he said in conclusion, “you can trust God and His Word. He never fails to keep His promise.”

Bible Reading: Psalm 37:26-34

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Knowing that I can trust God to meet my every need no matter what happens, I shall seek first the kingdom of God. Through the enabling of the Holy Spirit, I will live a godly life, a supernatural life for the glory of my Savior, and I will tell others how faithful and trustworthy He is.

 

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Max Lucado

Max Lucado – Pecking Orders

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Pecking orders are a part of life. The problem with pecking orders is not the order. The problem is with the pecking. Just ask the shortest kid in class. Or the minority family. Or the new person at work. God says that love is no place for pecking orders. It’s easy to see why!  How can I love others if my eyes are only on me? How can I point to God if I’m pointing at me?

Scripture says, love “does not boast, it is not proud” (1 Corinthians 13:4 NIV).  Jesus’ solution to man-made caste systems? A change in direction. The Apostle Paul said, “Regard one another as more important than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3 NASB). That’s what Jesus did. Your eternal life was more important than his earthly life. Your place in heaven was more important to him than his place in heaven, so he gave it up so you could come in.

From A Love Worth Giving

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – Betsy DeVos heckled during commencement speech

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“One of the hallmarks of higher education, and of democracy, is the ability to converse with and learn from those with whom we disagree.”

So stated Education Secretary Betsy DeVos during her commencement address at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida. Ironically, some in the audience had their backs turned to her as she made this statement. Others heckled her during her speech.

This is the season of graduations and commencement speeches. I’m honored to be delivering such an address at Truett Seminary tonight. Thousands of other schools and universities will be holding similar exercises across the month.

But we live in an era when many tolerance advocates refuse to tolerate those with whom they disagree. What happened to Secretary DeVos is a symptom of a much larger narrative.

The latest New York Times Magazine headlines, “Is an Open Marriage a Happier Marriage?” After reading the long article, it’s clear to me that the author wants us to answer, yes. The social media campaign, “#ShoutYourAbortion,” wants us to believe that “abortion is normal.”

According to The Smithsonian, alcohol placement ads in movies have nearly doubled over the last two decades. More than 80 percent of movies now contain depictions of alcohol use. This despite the fact that, according to JAMA Psychiatry, nearly one in three Americans have suffered from “problem drinking that becomes severe.”

Isaiah said of his nation, “Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence” (Isaiah 3:8). What “speech” and “deeds” did he mean? “They proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves” (v. 9).

Would he say the same of us?

The latest Harvard Business Review carries a fascinating article, “Preparing for the Cyberattack That Will Knock Out U.S. Power Grids.” If we lose electrical power, we lose everything connected to it. And that’s nearly everything today. Is our spiritual enemy following a similar strategy?

If the root problem we face is spiritual, the root answer must be spiritual as well.

  1. S. Lewis: “Mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature.”

Scripture promises that “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31). How high will you fly today?

 

Denison Forum

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –Telling It Like It Is

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Psalm 126

People love inspiring stories. Biographies of the down-and-out who make great use of a second chance tend to top best-seller lists. But few people have a life of such drama—most of us are quite ordinary. Sadly, some believers think that being a “regular Joe” makes their testimony unexciting and therefore less valuable. Nothing could be further from the truth. What the Lord has done for any of us is just as extraordinary as what He did by redeeming those with a past of more noticeable sin.

A personal testimony is a way of expressing what God has done and is doing in one’s life. It is a powerful tool for getting an unbeliever interested in spiritual matters. No matter how commonplace our words may sound compared to someone else’s, the Lord will see to it that they impact the hearers who need them.

Let me give you an example. Suppose a 6-year-old girl named Tina receives salvation. When she is 18, she will be able to tell her friends of God’s greatness. She can explain that He makes the gospel clear to a child and yet reveals something new to her every day. When Tina is 80, she will have a lifetime of service opportunities to share. Her testimony may not be exciting according to the world’s criteria, but it is spiritual gold.

You have no idea how far-reaching your testimony can be. God says that His words will not return to Him without completing the work He sent them to do (Isa. 55:11). When believers share their faith, they are carrying His gospel to a needy world. And the story of Jesus’ saving grace is always inspiring.

Bible in One Year: 2 Chronicles 1-3

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Singing with Violet

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Read: Philippians 1:21–26

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 13–14; John 2

I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.—Philippians 1:23–24

An elderly woman named Violet sat on her bed in a Jamaican infirmary and smiled as some teenagers stopped to visit with her. The hot, sticky, midday air came into her little group home unabated, but she didn’t complain. Instead, she began wracking her mind for a song to sing. Then a huge smile appeared and she sang, “I am running, skipping, jumping, praising the Lord!” As she sang, she swung her arms back and forth as if she were running. Tears came to those around her, for Violet had no legs. She was singing because, she said, “Jesus loves me—and in heaven I will have legs to run with.”

Violet’s joy and hopeful anticipation of heaven give new vibrancy to Paul’s words in Philippians 1 when he referred to life-and-death issues. “If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me,” he said. “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (vv. 22-23).

Each of us faces tough times that may cause us to long for the promise of heavenly relief. But as Violet showed us joy despite her current circumstances, we too can keep “running, skipping, praising the Lord”—both for the abundant life He gives us here and for the ultimate joy that awaits us. —Dave Branon

Lord, when times are tough, help me to find joy. Help us to live in the tough times of this world with happiness while looking ahead to something “better by far.”

When God gives us a new beginning, we find a joy that’s never ending.

INSIGHT: Paul’s mixed feelings about life didn’t seem to be rooted in a moment of crisis or despair. Ever since his encounter with the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus he’d found a different understanding of what it means to live with purpose and to die with gain. Before he met Christ, his goal had been to inflict pain and suffering on followers of Jesus. But then he learned what it meant to consider it an honor to accept whatever it took to help others discover the mercy and kindness he’d found in Jesus.Describing the love that he now wanted others to know for themselves, Paul wrote, “I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more” (Phil. 1:8-9). Now—whether in life or death—Paul believed he couldn’t lose.  Mart DeHaan

 

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Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Unseen

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There is something deeply unsettling about biological threats. The very idea of unseen but deadly toxins or viruses is a modern nightmare. The sad thing is that we have too many actual examples to fuel our fears. For multitudes in the industrial town of Bhopal, India, a normal working day turned into a catastrophe of biblical proportions as people were poisoned and killed by gas leaking from a local factory. Similarly catastrophic, the events surrounding the reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine combined the worst of leftover Soviet era paranoia and secrecy with a calamity of truly mind-boggling proportions. Hundreds of young men were ushered in to fight a fire, knowing nothing of the deadly radiation saturating the area, and as a result, thousands died. And of course, the recent chemical attacks in Syria were heartrending.

The weight and power of these deadly issues grips us. We feel it acutely. There are things in our universe that are invisible, but real and sometimes deadly. And there are few guaranteed fail-safe mechanisms to protect us, in all circumstances, from harm. This feeling of vulnerability, this sense that there are things beyond our control, this notion of powerlessness is something the modern mind finds repulsive. We want security, we demand certainty, and we feel entitled to assurance. But what is this assurance, and where is it to be found?

Several decades ago, Ernest Becker wrote a very challenging book called The Denial of Death. He showed how society works to create hero-systems and elaborate ways of suppressing or altogether avoiding the reality of death. Woody Allen adds degree of humor to the problem: “It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

Here the Christian story speaks clearly to the human dilemma. In his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul writes, “As in Adam, all die.” There are no exceptions, no escape routes, and no exits. It is as inclusive as it gets. Death is the great leveler. It respects everyone.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Unseen →

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Doing Things God’s Way

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I am the Way.… —John 14:6

Many people are hurting so badly, and they are crying out for help. The problem is, they are not willing to receive the help they need from God. No matter how much we may want or need help, we are never going to receive it until we are willing to do things God’s way. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the Way.” What Jesus meant when He said, “I am the Way,” is that He has a certain way of doing things; and if we will submit to His way, everything will work out for us.

But so often we wrestle and struggle with Him, trying to get Him to do things our way. It just won’t work. How many times have people stood in front of me at the altar and told me all kinds of terrible things that are going on in their lives and how badly they are hurting yet they absolutely refuse to do what they are told to do to receive the help they need. Too often people are trying to find some other way to get help rather than by doing things God’s way.

The Bible plainly teaches that if we will learn and act on the Word, God will bless our lives. Let me give you an example. The Bible teaches that we are to live in harmony and peace with others and to forgive those who have done us wrong. If we refuse to do that, what hope do we have of receiving what we need?

I remember how difficult it was for me the first time the Lord told me I had to go to my husband and tell him I was sorry for being rebellious against him. I thought I would die on the spot! I realize that one reason we don’t always do what we are told to do in the Word of God is because it is hard.

If we don’t do what we can do, then God won’t do what we can’t do. If we will do what we can do, God will do what we can’t do. It’s just that simple.

From the book New Day, New You by Joyce Meyer

 

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Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Recognizing False Teachers

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“Beware of false teachers who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are wolves and will tear you apart. You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. You need never confuse grapevines with thorn bushes or figs with thistles” (Matthew 7:15,16). 

The secular press frequently quoted a famous professor in one of the most prestigious theological seminaries in the world, referring to him as the Protestant theologian of our time. As I talked with two of his students, whom I had the privilege of introducing to Christ, I asked, “What is your impression of Professor So-and-so?” They replied, “If the Bible is true, he is not a Christian.”

They went on to explain that he denied the deity of Christ, the authority of Scripture and all the basic tenets of the Christian faith. Yet he was so subtle, so brilliant and profound, that many pastors and Christian leaders who were not biblically oriented were deceived and looked upon him as a great scholar and theologian.

However, after he died, his wife wrote a highly revealing book in which she described his many sexual exploits as well as his other wrongdoings that were inconsistent with what the Bible teaches.

There are many false teachers in the seminaries and pulpits of the world, who represent another master, not our Lord Jesus Christ. They do not preach the inspired Word of God. Often brilliant, loving, gracious, considerate people, they are, nevertheless, well-described by our Lord as false teachers, wolves disguised as harmless sheep.

How can you recognize false teachers? The test is threefold: (1) What is their view of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He truly the Son of God? Did He die on the cross for our sins? Was He raised from the dead? (2) Do they profess that the Bible is the authority of God, divinely inspired? (3) Do they live lives that are consistent with the teachings of Scripture? Or do they condone practices that are contrary to the Word of God? If they do the latter, beware, for they will rob you of the supernatural resources of God that are available to you.

As you meditate upon the entire passage of scripture for today, ask God to give you a discerning spirit that you may not be deceived by false teachers.

Bible Reading: Matthew 7:13-23

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I shall meditate upon God’s Word and weigh those who profess to be His followers in light of their view of the Lord Jesus Christ, His holy, inspired Word, and how their lives are a witness to what God’s Word commands us to be I will instruct other believers and non-believers alike to be alert to the influence of false teachers.

 

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Max Lucado

Max Lucado – The Cure for Jealousy

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What’s the cure for jealousy? Trust. The cause of jealousy? Distrust!

In a cemetery in England stands a grave marker with the inscription: She died for want of things. Alongside that marker is another: He died trying to give them to her. Let me ask you, have you seen such envy? Have you seen red-faced jealousy? Are you acquainted with the crimson forehead and the bulging veins of jealousy? Solomon says, “Anger is cruel and destroys like a flood, but no one can put up with jealousy!” (Proverbs 27:4).

The sons of Jacob didn’t trust God to meet their needs. The Pharisees didn’t trust God to solve their problems. What were the consequences of their envy? Loneliness! Who wants to hang out with a jealous fool? Stop focusing on what you want, and start trusting God to provide what you need. Replace your jealousy with gratitude.

From A Love Worth Giving

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

 

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – The James Comey firing and media bias today

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I still remember my first time on a carousel. Before the ride began, my father put me on a ceramic, multicolored horse. Then the platform started spinning and the horse began going up and down. It was all very exciting. But when it was over, I got off the ride where I got on it.

A carousel seems to me an apt metaphor for today’s headlines. What people think about political or cultural figures before they make the day’s news is usually what they think about them after they read the day’s news.

Take the James Comey firing, for example. According to today’s New York Times, the decision “deepened the sense of crisis swirling around the White House.” CNN‘s senior legal analyst went further, calling the move a “grotesque abuse of power.”

But Speaker of the House Paul Ryan supported the move, stating that “people had lost confidence” in Mr. Comey prior to his dismissal. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham agreed: “Given the recent controversies surrounding the director, I believe a fresh start will serve the FBI and the nation well.”

Did the news about the Comey firing change your opinion about the president? If you’re like most people, the answer is no. Those who oppose Mr. Trump oppose his decision; those who support him support his decision.

This should not surprise us. The American media have become increasingly polarized in recent years. Gone are the days when a television news anchor was known primarily for objectivity. Now we have progressive TV stations and conservative TV stations, progressive radio talk shows and conservative radio talk shows, progressive print media and conservative print media.

Each knows the market it seeks to reach on behalf of advertisers who pay its bills. Pickup trucks are advertised during football games while luxury cars are advertised during golf tournaments. It’s the same with nearly all products today—they know their specific market and the media that enables them to reach that market. In turn, the media knows who their advertisers want to reach and how to reach them.

It’s no longer about telling the truth. It’s about telling the version of the truth that agrees with our opinion and advances the bottom line.

I often remind audiences that in the Bible, God is a king (Revelation 19:16); in our culture, he is a hobby. A hobby is inherently subjective while a kingdom is inherently objective. You cannot make me like your hobbies, but a king can make me submit to his authority.

The book of Judges ends with this cryptic statement: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Sound familiar?

 

Denison Forum

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley –Genuine Awareness

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2 Kings 6:15-17

If someone were to ask whether you’re aware of God, you would no doubt exclaim, “Of course I am! I go to church, read my Bible, and pray all the time. I’m quite aware of God.” Now, let’s take it one crucial step further: Are you aware of God’s presence and activity in your daily life?

This second question makes it a bit more personal, doesn’t it? In my daily life? Right here, all the time? We would like to have that constant awareness of God’s presence, but it is difficult. When hardships and trials strike out of nowhere, we often feel bewildered and wonder why the Lord has left us alone.

During times of difficulty, we might pray even harder and longer. We plead for help but see little result. We cry, “Help me! Give me strength!” Or perhaps, “I believe this” or “I can do that.” Do you notice the common factor there? The focus is all on me, me, me, I, I, I. Even during prayer, we may be aware only of ourselves, leaving the Lord out of the matter entirely.

At that point, we may find we’re not really talking to the Father at all; we are talking to ourselves. Perhaps we are focusing on the problem and actually wishing for the ability to handle it on our own. We can, in effect, become completely blind to how God may be working.

2 Kings 6:15-17 gives us a wonderful picture of what can happen when we remove our self-centered blinders and truly see God’s hand at work. Open your eyes. Like Elisha’s servant, you may be shocked to discover the help that God has already sent your way.

Bible in One Year: 1 Chronicles 28-29

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Unlighted Paths

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Read: Joshua 1:1–9

Bible in a Year: 2 Kings 10–12; John 1:29–51

The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.—Joshua 1:9

As we ventured home from a family vacation, the road took us through some desolate parts of central Oregon. For nearly two hours after dusk we drove through deep canyons and across desert plateaus. Fewer than twenty sets of headlights punctuated the darkness. Eventually the moon rose on the horizon, visible to us when the road crested hills but eclipsed when we traveled through the lowlands. My daughter remarked on its light, calling it a reminder of God’s presence. I asked whether she needed to see it to know He was there. She replied, “No, but it sure helps.”

After Moses’s death, Joshua inherited leadership of the Israelites and was charged to take God’s chosen people into the Promised Land. Despite his divine commission, Joshua must have felt challenged by the daunting nature of his task. God graciously offered Joshua assurance to be with him on the journey ahead (Josh. 1:9).

The road of life often travels through uncharted territory. We voyage through seasons when the path ahead isn’t clearly visible. God’s plan may not always be apparent to us, but He has promised to be with us “always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). What greater assurance could we hope for, no matter what uncertainty or challenge we might face? Even when the path is unlit, the Light is with us. —Kirsten Holmberg

Lord, thank You for being near me even when I cannot see You. Please comfort me with Your presence.

God is with us even when we can’t see Him.

INSIGHT: A classic worship song describes God as “immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible hid from our eyes.” One of the challenges of faith is that we trust in a God we cannot see. But, Jesus came to make the invisible God visible. John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God [Jesus] . . . has made him known.” When we become fearful or discouraged in the dark seasons of life, we can still see God’s love clearly through His Son. Bill Crowder

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Familiar and Obscure

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Noah Webster was a crusading editor, essayist, and orator well-acquainted with the soapboxes of the early 1800s. He was deeply troubled at the state of language in America and certain that the current system of instruction would eventually arrest the spread of literacy. Rules for spelling, punctuation, and pronunciation—if at all present in the classroom—were incongruous with everyday spoken language. Many words were spelled in different ways, utilized with different meanings, and pronounced with great disparity—all of which were considered acceptable. “[W]hile this is the case,” Webster warned, “every person will claim a right to pronounce most agreeably to his own fancy, and the language will be exposed to perpetual fluctuation.”(1)

In this mess of word and meaning, Noah Webster set out to write an expanded and comprehensive dictionary of the English language, hoping to standardize American speech, spelling, and comprehension. In order to document the etymology of each word, he learned twenty-six languages and studied in various countries. His dictionary contained seventy thousand words, twelve thousand of which had never appeared in any earlier published dictionary. The project took twenty-six years to complete.

Though he never lived to see even a fraction of the impact, Webster’s influence on the study and reform of language in America was profound. For a nation in want of grammatical consistency, Webster illumined the great substance of words and the import of preserving their meaning and heritage. It is perhaps a light we should more often fear to lose: the meaning of words can be darkened in obscurity even to the point of being lost, though still uttered.

In his work, Simply Christian, N.T. Wright traces the etymology of the name of God and describes a confusion not unlike the muddle that troubled Webster. Wright explains, “[A]ncient Israelite scruples, medieval mistranslation, and fuzzy eighteenth century thinking have combined to make it hard for us today to recapture the vital sense of what a first-century Jew would understand when thinking of YHWH, what an early Christian would be saying when speaking of Jesus or ‘the Lord,’ and how we might now properly reappropriate this whole tradition.”(2)

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Familiar and Obscure →

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Putting Smiles on Faces

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Therefore encourage (admonish, exhort) one another and edify (strengthen and build up) one another…. —1 Thessalonians 5:11

God created Adam and Eve, He blessed them, then told them to be fruitful and multiply and use all the vast resources of the earth that He gave them in the service of God and man.

Are you being fruitful? Is your life causing increase? When you get involved with people and things, do they increase and multiply? Some people only take in life, and they never add anything. I refuse to be that kind of person. I want to make people’s lives better. I want to put smiles on faces.

We must all make sure that we are not like the rich man in the Bible who had so much that all of his barns were full with no room for more. Instead of giving any of it away, he decided that he would tear down the barns he had and just build bigger ones and collect more stuff for himself. He was a foolish man. He could have decided that he would use what he had to bless others, but he must have been a fearful, selfish man, who only had room in his life for himself (see Luke 12:16-20).

God called the man a fool, and said, This very night they [the messengers of God] will demand your soul of you; and all the things that you have prepared, whose will they be? The man was going to die that night, and all he would leave behind was “stuff.” He had an opportunity to make the world a better place. He could have added to many lives and put smiles on thousands of faces. Instead, he fearfully and selfishly only cared about himself.

Forget about yourself and start doing all you can to help others. Encourage, edify, lift up, comfort, help, give hope, relieve pain, and lift burdens. If that is your goal, you will be one of those rare individuals who actually make the world a better place and put a smile on every face.

Trust in Him: What are you going to do today to put smiles on faces? It won’t just happen—you have to be intentional about it. Listen for God to show you what to do and then trust that it will bless them…and you!

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 – We Shall Never Lack

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“Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those of us who reverence the Lord will never lack any good thing” (Psalm 34:10)

“When you have nothing left but God,” a Christian leader once observed, “then for the first time you become aware that God is enough.”

With every command of God is a specific or implied promise to enable us to do what He commands us to do. He always makes it possible for us to fulfill the conditions to obey His commands.

Rarely, will some of us see a check for a million – or even thousands – of dollars. But here is a check for millions of millions, waiting to be cashed by those of us who know and love the Lord, who love Him enough to obey His commands.

Here is a promise of God which is great enough to meet our needs, our wants, even our deepest desires and distresses.

As you and I go through our day, how reassuring it is to know that our reverence for the Lord will be rewarded by provision of every good thing we need. That means the strength, the peace, the courage, the love I need to get me through the decisions, the trials, the testings.

That also means a new consciousness of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit, the one through whom I find the supernatural, abundant life. That means a tender conscience toward God, so that I make a supreme effort to avoid yielding to temptation in any way, lest I grieve my wonderful Lord.

Bible Reading: Psalm 34:1-9

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: I shall not be afraid to go to the bank of heaven today and cash a check for all my needs, enabling me to share the supernatural life with all whom my life touches.

 

http://www.cru.org