Tag Archives: nature

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Rebellion or Resignation

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I have always loved that theologian David Wells refers to prayer as “rebelling against the status quo.”(1) No doubt the feisty among us have eyes that light up at the thought. To rebel against the status quo in this light is to challenge life where it has resigned itself to something less, to bring about rebirth and reformation where life or faith have grown stale.

Others may wonder what Christianity, and specifically Christian prayer, has to do with rebellion at all. The candid lyrics of a haunting song speak of Jesus Christ as a man of love and strength, but a man very much separated from everything we see and experience today. The lyrics sing of his living only inside our prayers, and come to the conclusion that while what Christ was may have indeed been beautiful, a man of the past can offer nothing at all for the here and now of real and wearying pain. The sentiment reflects a sorely honest philosophy that many have of the world today: It is what it is. And it won’t change anything to worry about it. Prayer, within such an imagination, is useless. The here and now of suffering is untouchable.

From headline to headline we find the weariness of life and the problem of a dark world screaming at us. Many have grown to see it as an unchangeable reality. But if we have come to terms with the world as it is, it is only because we have come to refuse thinking about how it could be, or how it was supposed to be, or how we could even have an idea that something is wrong in the first place. It is not that we are unconscious of the injustice, suffering, and even evil around us, but that we feel utterly powerless to do anything about it. Still others among us optimistically call for the abolishing of poverty or the end of trafficking or the stopping of whatever cause they are presently championing. While their efforts are needed, the end they call for doesn’t seem to ever occur.

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John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Strength for Today – Materialistic Christians

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“‘Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth’” (Matthew 6:19).

Ours is a society consumed with material things. Status, success, and importance are all too often measured by a person’s financial worth. Those with wealth flaunt it; those without wealth fake it. People often rack up huge debts in their desperate and futile pursuit of happiness through accumulating material things.

Sadly, that same materialistic mind-set permeates the church. Instead of offering an alternative, that of being distinct from the world, the church joins the world in its pursuit of riches. Most tragically of all, the saving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is lost in the process.

It is not wrong to have possessions. Job, Abraham, and Solomon were among the wealthiest men of their day. But it is wrong to covet, to make the pursuit of material things the main goal of your life, to serve mammon instead of God. “Do not love the world,” wrote the apostle John, “nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). James addressed these scathing words to those whose focus is on material things: “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Behind much of the pursuit of riches in the church is a lack of trust in God’s provision. Instead of finding security in His promise to supply all our needs (Phil. 4:19), we seek it in a house, a bank account, or a stock portfolio. God did not give us our money and possessions so we wouldn’t have to trust Him. He gave them to us to enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17) and to test the legitimacy of our spirituality (Luke 16:11).

Whether you are rich or poor, your attitude toward your possessions and how you handle them is a test of your spirituality. How are you doing?

Suggestions for Prayer

Pray with Agur, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion, lest I be full and deny Thee and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or lest I be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God” (Prov. 30:8-9).

For Further Study

What do the following verses teach about our attitude toward wealth: Psalms 49:5-9; 52:7; 62:10?

 

http://www.gty.org

 

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Molded into His Image

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And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.- Philippians 1:6

According to the Bible, God is the Potter, and we are the clay (See Romans 9:20-21). When we first come to the Lord, we are like a hard lump of clay that is not very pliable or easy to work with. But God puts us on His potter’s wheel and begins to refashion and remake us so that we can discover the wonderful plan He has for our lives.

Sometimes that process of molding is uncomfortable at first. The reason it hurts is because God has to peel away the things in our lives that would keep us distant from Him. So out of His love for us, He keeps working and working on us, trimming away this bad attitude and that wrong mind-set, carefully reshaping us until gradually we are changed into the likeness of His Son Jesus.

Don’t be discouraged with yourself because you have not yet arrived. The more God works in your life, the closer you are growing in relationship to Him. Enjoy your life each day, even as God is shaping you. Let the Potter do His work, and trust that He has your best interest at heart.

You can always trust God that He has your best interest at heart, and all that He does in your life is for your benefit.

From the book Closer to God Each Day by Joyce Meyer.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Girlfriends in God

Girlfriends in God – When you Feel Like This World Has Gone Crazy

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Today’s Truth

He (God) has planted eternity in the human heart.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Friend to Friend

Do you ever feel like you are not at home here on earth? That something is missing? The reason is because you’re not at home, and something is missing. C.S. Lewis said, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in the world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Solomon reminds us, “He (God) has planted eternity in the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT). You were made for eternity—for glory, and as long as your feet are here on this earth, you will experience a glory ache that only Heaven can fully satisfy. You will feel a certain something missing that may be hard to define.

One spring, our family hosted a ten-year-old Russian foreign exchange student named Alex. He went to school with my son, and got a taste of what the American Christian family is all about. Alex’s English was very limited and we depended on hand signals and facial expressions to get by.

On one occasion, I was trying to get him to write a letter to his parents. I pulled out the stationary, handed him a pen, and pointed to a picture of his mother and father. “Why don’t you write a letter to your parents?” I suggested. He had no idea what I was talking about.

For twenty minutes I drew pictures and tried to get him to understand what I wanted him to do. Finally, with tears in his eyes, he looked up at me and said, “What do?”

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Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Put God to the Test 

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“Oh, put God to the test and see how kind He is! See for yourself the way His mercies shower down on all who trust in Him” (Psalm 34:8).

Sam wanted to receive Christ, but he was reluctant. Somehow, he just could not bring himself to make that necessary commitment of the will to exercise his faith and receive Christ. Because of unfortunate experiences in his youth, he had a distorted view of the goodness of God.

I encouraged Him to make his commitment, but he still hesitated. Finally, I turned to that wonderful promise of our Scripture for today and asked him to read it. As he read, the Holy Spirit gave him the faith to believe that he could trust God.

Put God to the test. Taste and see how good and kind He is. Sam discovered that day, and for the rest of his life, the faithfulness and the goodness and the kindness of God.

Do you have reservations, uncertainties, fears about the trustworthiness of God? If so, I encourage you to place your trust in Him, and you will find, as millions have found, and as I have found, that God is good, faithful, and true.

Similarly, you and I can put God to the test and find a friendly haven in the midst of enemy territory. More important, perhaps, is the certainty we can have that God does hear and answer our prayers – in situations where He and He alone knows the end from the beginning and can provide deliverance.

How vital to the supernatural life to know that we have immediate access to the God of the universe, the very one who alone can guarantee victory and deliverance.

Bible Reading: I Peter 2:1-5

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Realizing that, as a believer, I am constantly in “enemy territory,” I will trust God and encourage others to trust Him moment by moment for deliverance, for I know that He is just and kind and good. He is a loving, heavenly Father whom I can trust. I will encourage others to put God to the test and see how kind He is, to discover for themselves His mercies that He showers on all who place their trust in Him.

 

http://www.cru.org

Ray Stedman

Ray Stedman -Everlasting Love

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Read: Jeremiah 31:1-22

I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness… Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 31:3, 20

As a Father who cannot forget his son — no matter how sharply he must reprimand him, but whose heart is tender toward him — so God is tender toward his people. And behind the darkness and the distress is the everlasting love of God. This phrase, I have loved you with an everlasting love, is very beautiful. The word everlasting is one of those words which baffle us. Even in the original language it is difficult to define. Everlasting connotes more than duration, means more than merely eternal; it has in it an element of mystery. Let your mind run back into the past over all the years of history, and you come to a place where finally you just cannot think any further. Yet logic affirms that even beyond this point there has been existence and time. This is what everlasting means. Let your mind run into the future, and you come to the same kind of haziness, a place where you no longer can comprehend what the ages mean, where times and durations seem meaningless. That is the vanishing point in the future, beyond which lie experiences for God’s people, but which we are unable to grasp. That is the mystery of this word, everlasting. It is a word which means, beyond dimension,greater than we can think. This is what Paul is expressing in Ephesians: …that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have the power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, (Ephesians 3:18-19a RSV).

Continue reading Ray Stedman -Everlasting Love →

Words of Hope

Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Singing for Joy

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Read: Psalm 96

Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy. (v. 12)

The tall eastern white pine, a favorite home for bald eagles, whistles its familiar tune when the west wind blows through its bundles of long needles, singing praise to the God who made it. The smooth-barked American beech, whose nuts are sought after by grouse, raccoons, and bear, slowly bends in the breeze, bowing in reverence to the God who tends it.

The broad-crowned white oak, whose acorns are nourishment for famished turkeys, squirrels, and deer, turns red-brown each autumn as the days grow shorter, saying thank you to the God who nourishes it. The crooked crab apple, its white-pink flowers exploding with color each spring, hunkers down close to the ground, glorifying the God who rejuvenates it.

The giant sequoia, by volume the world’s largest living tree, whose bark is 20 inches thick, whose crown is more than 300 feet above the ground, who was an adult long before Jesus was born, in whose presence one can only gaze slack-jawed and stone silent—this Tree of trees sings for joy to God, the Maker and Sustainer and Redeemer of all.

All the trees of the forest shall sing for joy. In this hymn of praise to our Lord, Maker of heaven and earth, all creatures—human and nonhuman—worship God. So be it. Amen!

Prayer:

O Lord, help us, your human earthkeepers, to live in such a way that all the trees of the forest shall sing to you for joy.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger

 

https://woh.org/

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – True Conversion

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“And when people escape from the wicked ways of the world by learning about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up with sin and become its slave again, they are worse off than before.”—2 Peter 2:20

Sometimes we hear about well-known people who claim to have made a commitment to Jesus Christ. Often, it is around election time. When they address Christians, they speak of their great faith in God. After the elections, we seldom hear about it again.

Then there are people who say they are believers, but a month or two later, they go back to their old ways again. They say, “I tried Christianity, but it didn’t work for me.” But in reality, they never really found Christ.

Others will turn to God when they hit hard times. Awhile later, you see them going back to their old ways, and you wonder what happened. I would suggest that many of these people never were converted at all. They went through the motions, but Jesus Christ never became a part of their lives. Often, they end up worse than before.

When Jesus Christ truly comes into our lives, He takes up residence. And He doesn’t just do a basic housecleaning; He does a thorough one. There is real change. But when a house has only been swept, that is, when someone has made only moral changes, he or she is still vulnerable to the enemy. This is why we must recognize the futility of simply turning over a new leaf or making a few new resolutions. We must realize the problem is deeper than our moral sins. We must get to the heart of the matter and have Jesus Christ take residence in our lives and change us from the inside out.

 

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

 

Kids 4 Truth

Kids 4 Truth International – God Has Taken Away the Sting of Death

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“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

Camille was riding in the car with her daddy. Since it was a beautiful summer day, the windows were partially down. All of a sudden a big bee came in through an open window. Camille immediately began to panic because she was very allergic to bee stings – she could die if the bee stung her!

Camille’s father knew what he needed to do. He watched the bee carefully. As the bee flew up near the windshield it landed on the dashboard for a brief second. With reflexes like lightning, Camille’s father cupped his hand right on top of that bee! And then he kept his hand there. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Until…ZING! “Ouch!” the father shouted as he lifted up his hand and let the bee go.

“Daddy, daddy!” screamed Camille. “The bee will sting me! Help!”

“No, honey,” replied her father. “He can’t sting you any longer. The bee only had one sting – and guess where it is?”

“Where?” asked Camille.

With that, her father reached out his hand with his palm up and allowed his daughter to inspect it. There, in the middle of his hand was a small stinger. Although the bee was still buzzing around, it could no longer sting Camille because that kind of bee had only one sting to give. Camille’s father took away the sting of the bee and rescued his little girl.

Camille was both happy and sad all at once. Can you guess why? She was happy because she realized that the bee was now powerless to hurt her. She was sad because she realized that her father had taken the painful sting for her.

“Do you know what the bee has done?” Camille’s dad asked.

“What?” asked Camille.

“The bee has stung himself to death!” Camille looked confused. Her father carefully explained to her that that kind of bee will die soon after it uses its stinger.

Just like the bee stung itself to death, so death itself has “stung itself to death” at the cross. That’s hard to understand, but it simply means we do not have to fear what happens after we die. We do not have to fear that death has power over us. Jesus has power over sin and death, and He proved it on the cross!

Jesus has taken away the sting of death by taking sin and death upon Himself, and then single-handedly beating them both. He proved His victory over them by rising from the grave! Christ is more powerful than sin and death. Because of Christ’s victory over death, we can be assured that if we have faith in Christ, we will also rise from the grave someday and share in eternal life with Him.

Because of Christ, death has no lasting power over the Christian.

My Response:

» How is what Camille’s father did for her much like what Christ did for us?

» How did Camille respond to her father’s sacrifice? How have I responded to Christ’s sacrifice for me?

 

http://kids4truth.com/home.aspx

The Navigators

The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – A Heart Warmed for Work

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Today’s Scripture: Psalm 119:32

“I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!”

We must keep going back to his grace. Only the grace of God revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ will give us the courage to get up again and keep on going even after we have failed for the umpteenth time. Only grace will allow us to be as honest about our sin as David was about his.

The desire to engage in the discipline of mortification comes only from the gratitude and joy of knowing that, however miserably I’ve failed, God’s grace is greater than my sin.

The godly Scottish pastor Horatius Bonar expressed it this way: “It is forgiveness that sets a man working for God. He does not work in order to be forgiven, but because he has been forgiven, and the consciousness of his sin being pardoned makes him long more for its entire removal than ever he did before. An unforgiven man cannot work. He has not the will, nor the power, nor the liberty. He is in chains. a forgiven man is the true worker, the true law-keeper. He can, he will, he must work for God. He has come into contact with that part of God’s character which warms his cold heart. Forgiving love constrains him. He cannot but work for him who has removed his sins from him as far as the east is from the west. Forgiveness has made him a free man, and given him a new and most loving Master. Forgiveness, received freely from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, acts as a spring, an impulse, a stimulus of divine potency. It is more irresistible than law, or terror, or threat.”

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The Navigators

The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Christ’s Death

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Today’s Scripture: John 19:1-37

He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5

I’ve always enjoyed reading the history of the Old West. The days of Custer, Doc Holliday, and Wyatt Earp hold a special fascination for me. I’ve been to the site of the O.K. Corral, but there is one tragic story in Western history that I can’t forget.

It concerns a young woman from Boston who came west in a stagecoach to teach school in a frontier town. Out on the prairie, a gang of drunken outlaws intercepted the stage, killed the drivers, and took the young woman to an abandoned shack, where they raped and beat her throughout the night.

Can you possibly imagine the revulsion, the shame, the pain and agony she went through? Here was an innocent, refined, young woman suddenly thrust into a world so horrifying it defied description. That scene has helped me imagine just a fraction of the agony of Jesus on the cross, where on a tragic day He was made sin for us as He suffered and died for you and me.

The physical agony was great, but it did not compare with the agony that was His when all the sin and moral filth of the world was laid on Him, and His spotless soul–which had known only the purity and glory of His home in heaven–was made sin on our behalf. He died that we might live.

Jesus took our sin and clothed us in the robes of His own eternal righteousness. We can echo the apostle Paul when He wrote, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Prayer

Lord, You are my righteousness. Amen.

To Ponder

We cannot fully comprehend what it meant for Jesus Christ to be made sin for us–to be forsaken by God, when He took on all the filth of the world that ever was and ever would be. But now He is risen to His glory and is sitting at the right hand of the Father.

 

https://www.navigators.org/Home

BreakPoint

BreakPoint – Faith at the Olympics: Rio’s Best Kept Secret

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We’ve all heard the story of Eric Liddell, who turned down an opportunity for Olympic gold at the Paris Games in 1924 in order to honor His Savior. It was Liddell who famously said, “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

Well, this summer in Rio de Janeiro, there’s been a whole lot of running, jumping, swimming, and competing by athletes seeking to honor Jesus Christ. Not that you’ve heard much about it from the “mainstream” media. I spoke about this media blackout with my friend Terry Mattingly, who’s one of today’s foremost religion journalists. Terry told me, “If these athletes make faith a part of their story, how do you leave out faith when telling their story?” Come to BreakPoint.org for a link to the podcast.

Now, I’ve already told you the story of super-swimmer Michael Phelps, who reached the pinnacle of sports and found it hollow—and then contemplated suicide. But Phelps found a reason to live when Ray Lewis gave him a copy of “The Purpose-Driven Life,” by Rick Warren. Michael’s story reminds us of the role that God’s people have as bringers of hope and agents of restoration.

There have been many such reminders in Rio. Fiji dominated Great Britain, 43-7 in rugby, earning the island country’s first-ever gold medal. Then the winning players huddled and sang, both in English and Fijian: “We have overcome / We have overcome / By the blood of the Lamb / And the Word of the Lord / We have overcome.” Then they received their medals humbly—on their knees!

In the women’s 10,000 meters race, Almaz Ayana, from Ethiopia, obliterated the previous world record by 14 seconds. Responding to unfounded rumors about cheating, Almaz retorted, “My doping is my training and my doping is Jesus. Nothing otherwise —I am crystal clear.”

American swimmer Simone Manuel set an Olympic record in the 100-meter freestyle, becoming the first African-American woman to win gold as a swimmer, the first African-American woman to win a medal in an individual swimming event, and the first American to win the 100-meter since 1984. After the race she said, with tears rolling down her cheeks, “All I can say is all glory to God.”

Continue reading BreakPoint – Faith at the Olympics: Rio’s Best Kept Secret →

Moody Global Ministries

Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – THE TRINITY AND THE SENDING OF THE TWELVE

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Read MATTHEW 10:5–20

Believers around the world today are suffering for the sake of the gospel. The Spectator, a British publication, called it “the war on Christians.” They reported that the secular International Society for Human Rights estimates that 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination globally are directed at Christians. Each year for the decade preceding 2013, an average of 100,000 Christians were martyred—that’s eleven Christians every hour of every day.

No wonder Jesus said He was sending His followers out as “sheep among wolves” (Matt. 10:16)! As in yesterday’s devotion, in today’s reading we see the entire Trinity involved in spreading the good news of the kingdom. The sending of the Twelve, unlike the sending of the 72, was limited to the Jews (vv. 5–8), not because God’s love excluded Gentiles (see v. 18) but simply because “the lost sheep of Israel” were to hear first (see Rom. 1:16).

The Father is involved because the “kingdom of heaven” is His kingdom. The promises being fulfilled are His promises. The day of judgment that awaits unbelievers is His day of judgment. The Spirit is involved because He was sent by the Father. He will give faithful believers wisdom about what to say when they are persecuted (vv. 16–20). And the Son is involved, of course, because He Himself is the promised Messiah. With this mission, He was training His twelve disciples in proclaiming the kingdom, trusting God and God’s people to provide, and facing opposition (vv. 9–15).

Bearing witness to the kingdom was and is more important than mere safety. The Good Shepherd sends us, too, out as faithful sheep among the wolves of the world. Thankfully, we, too, can rely upon the Spirit of our Father to speak through us!

APPLY THE WORD

As we pray for the persecuted church around the world, consider joining with a prayer partner to intercede for believers who are oppressed. Just as Jesus’ followers were sent out in pairs, praying with a partner can be encouraging and powerful. “For where two or three gather in my name,” Jesus said, “there am I with them” (Matt. 18:20).

 

http://www.todayintheword.org

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – WHY YOU SHOULD SEE ‘BEN-HUR’

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Ben-Hur opened in theaters last Friday. You probably know that the plot involves a chariot race and may wonder why you need to know more. You likely have not heard of any of the actors apart from Morgan Freeman. The film has generally not received positive reviews from critics.

So, why do you need to see the movie?

Let’s begin with some cultural snapshots. Only 35 percent of Americans believe that absolute moral truth even exists. As a result, we’re told that we should tolerate all behaviors that do not harm us personally. Of course, such tolerance does not extend to those who do believe in moral truth.

For instance, this morning’s Wall Street Journal reports that the Zika virus is renewing the debate over late-term abortions. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said earlier this month that he opposed abortion for pregnant women infected with the virus. Pro-abortion advocates rebuked and ridiculed him, calling his position “outrageous.”

Maj. Steve Lewis is an officer at Colorado’s Peterson Air Force Base. He was recently forced to remove an open Bible on his desk after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation protested against his “around-the-clock Christian Bible Shrine.”

In a culture that rejects objective morality, we should not be surprised that our culture is becoming less moral all the time. CNN reports that Huntington, West Virginia has seen twenty-seven heroin overdoses in four hours this morning. Today’s New York Times has a review of Frank Ocean’s latest musical album and recent photography, noting that “sexual fluidity and ambiguity play key parts in the new projects” and that his magazine is filled with nudity.

In a culture which rejects moral truth, we can choose to be silent and let society reap what it sows. We can choose to be belligerent with our witness. Or we can find creative and persuasive ways to share God’s love.

My wife and I saw Ben-Hur Friday and were very impressed with the script, acting, and production. We were not surprised that Roma Downey and Mark Burnett helped produce the film. Having visited the Holy Land more than twenty times, I can tell you that Ben-Hur captures well the topography and culture of the New Testament era.

Here’s why I think critics have generally not been positive, and why it’s important that Christians see the movie: its underlying theme is reconciliation with God and with each other. And our conflicted and deceived culture needs that message more than it knows.

Critics who are callous to the gospel are not likely to welcome another film that presents the good news, even though the movie’s message is both subtle and realistic. As Paul observed, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

That’s why it’s so important that believers find every way we can to share the good news effectively with our hopeless world. If they will not come to us, we must go to them. Mark Burnett and Roma Downey used their platform to show how God’s love can heal shattered lives and relationships. Their work is a clarion call for Christians to use our influence to do the same.

Lost people deserve to know the good news of God’s transforming love. “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?” (Romans 10:14).

How, indeed?

Denison Forum

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – The Patience of God

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2 Peter 3:8-9

God’s seemingly slow reaction to sin is often puzzling to believers. Why doesn’t He immediately punish those who violate His principles? The answer is found in today’s passage—the Lord is patient so that all people have an opportunity to repent (2 Pet. 3:9).

In our humanness, we at times want people to suffer for wrongdoing. Jonah ran away from his duty to preach in Nineveh, because he expected that if the inhabitants repented, his gracious, compassionate God would relent about destroying the city. And that is precisely what came to pass. Instead of rejoicing in the Lord’s success, the prophet complained about His treating the Ninevites with patience and mercy (Jonah 4:2).

Jonah was angry at God despite the fact that he himself had received divine mercy. (Unpleasant though it was, there are worse forms of discipline than being swallowed and regurgitated by a fish.)

More often than not, believers have ample reason to be thankful that the Lord, unlike human beings, is slow to anger. When we are stubborn and unrepentant, He waits patiently for us to respond to conviction. Discipline is painful to both the recipient and the one carrying it out. God prefers that we see the error of our choices, stop thinking that we’re getting away with sin, and turn back to His righteous path.

The Lord places a high value on repentance and maintaining fellowship. However, His justice demands a penalty. Do not wait for discipline. Instead, do what’s right, and turn your heart toward God.

Bible in One Year: Jeremiah 41-45

 

 

http://www.intouch.org/

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Let Us

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Read: Hebrews 10:19–25 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 107–109; 1 Corinthians 4

Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Hebrews 10:24

While standing in line for a popular attraction at Disneyland, I noticed that most people were talking and smiling instead of complaining about the long wait. It made me ponder what made waiting in that line an enjoyable experience. The key seemed to be that very few people were there by themselves. Instead, friends, families, groups, and couples were sharing the experience, which was far different than standing in line alone.

The Christian life is meant to be lived in company with others, not alone. Hebrews 10:19–25 urges us to live in community with other followers of Jesus. “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings . . . . Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together” (vv. 22–25). In community we reassure and reinforce each other, “encouraging one another” (v. 25).

The Christian life is meant to be lived in company with others, not alone.

Even our most difficult days can become a meaningful part of our journey of faith when others share them with us. Don’t face life alone. Let us travel together.

Lord, may we fulfill Your calling today by walking the road of faith and encouragement with others.

Life in Christ is meant to be a shared experience.

INSIGHT:

The Jewish temple represented God’s presence among His people. It was the center of religious life for the Jews. It was a place of corporate worship, the place where sacrifices were made, and the central structure around which yearly festivals and daily prayers took place. The temple construction and sacrificial system clearly meant to illustrate the separation sin had caused between the Creator and creation, but according to the writer of the book of Hebrews this temple and system were merely shadows (Heb. 10:1) of the reality that has come in Christ. Because of Christ the barriers no longer apply. God the Son has come near, and by His blood all believers regardless of gender, station, or nationality can come into the presence of almighty God.

 

http://www.odb.org

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Strength for Today – A Little Piece of Bread

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“Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for [the Lord] Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5).

God promises to provide for all your needs.

In World War II the death of many adults left many orphans. At the close of the war, the Allies provided some camps to feed the orphans and to try and find a place to relocate them. The children began to develop and grow, receiving the finest food and care. But in one of the camps, the officials became perplexed because the children couldn’t sleep. They would eat three good meals, but at night they would lie awake. The camp authorities brought in some doctors to do a study of these orphans to find out why they couldn’t sleep.

The doctors came up with a solution. Every night when the little children were put to bed, someone would come down the row of beds and place in each little hand a piece of bread. So the last thing the children experienced at night was grasping a piece of bread. In a matter of days they were all sleeping through the night. Why? Even though they were fed to the full during the day, experience had taught them that there was no hope for tomorrow. When they had that bread tucked in their hands, they knew that at least they would have breakfast the next day.

Similarly, God has given you a piece of bread for your hand. That bread is this promise: “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). If you have that piece of bread in your hand, you can sleep.

You don’t need to stockpile for the future. God is the owner of everything in the world, and He controls all the assets to provide for you because you are His child. Life for the Christian consists not in the abundance of things he possesses (Luke 12:15), but in being content with the things that he has (Heb. 13:5).

Suggestions for Prayer

Thank God for His promise to provide for all your needs.

For Further Study

In Psalm 37:25, what was David’s testimony about the Lord?

 

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Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – The Best Relationship You Can Have

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Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears and listens to and heeds My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him, and he [will eat] with Me.- Revelation 3:20

We have the great privilege of developing a relationship with God and inviting Him to be a vital part of everything we do, every day. That starts with simple prayer—just talking to Him and sharing your life with Him as you go about the things you have to do. Be thankful that His presence is with you, and include Him in your thoughts, in your conversations, and in all your everyday activities.

When you let God out of the Sunday-morning box that many people keep Him in, letting Him invade your Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and all day Sunday as well, you’ll be amazed at what a difference it will make. Don’t try to keep God in a religious compartment; He wants to have free access to every area of your life. He wants to be involved in every part of your life. He desires an intimate relationship with you.

Prayer of Thanks: I thank You, God, that You love me enough to want to be in relationship with me. I want to share every part of my life with You. Help me to remember that You are with me every minute of the day.

From the book The Power of Being Thankful by Joyce Meyer.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – His Ways Will Satisfy 

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“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how His ways will really satisfy you” (Romans 12:2).

“The trouble with living sacrifices,” someone has well said, “is that they keep crawling off the altar.” That may be true. We “crawl off the altar” when we sin, and the only way to put ourselves back on the altar is to breathe spiritually – confess our known sins in accordance with the promise of 1 John 1:9 and appropriate the fullness of the Holy Spirit as we are commanded to do by faith (Ephesians 5:18).

When we do this, we will be living supernaturally and our lives will produce the fruit of the Spirit in great abundance.

Only by being filled with the Spirit, and thus realizing the fruit of the Spirit, can spiritual gifts be effectively utilized in witnessing and building up the Body of Christ.

We begin by totally yielding ourselves by faith to Christ in a full irrevocable surrender to His lordship.

“He died once for all to end sin’s power, but now He lives forever in unbroken fellowship with God. So look upon your old sin-nature as dead and unresponsive to sin, and instead be alive to God, alert to Him, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Do not let sin control your puny body any longer; do not give in to its sinful desires. Do not let any part of your bodies become tools of wickedness, to be used for sinning; but give yourselves completely to God – every part of you -for you are back from death and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for His good purposes” (Romans 6:10-13).

Bible Reading: Romans 12:3-18

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Knowing that God’s ways will really satisfy me, I will seek first His kingdom, resist the devil at his every appearance and watch with joy as he flees.

 

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Ray Stedman

Ray Stedman – The Pain that has no Cure

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Read: Jeremiah 30:1-24

Why do you cry out over your wound, your pain that has no cure? Because of your great guilt and many sins I have done these things to you. Jeremiah 30:15

God takes the full responsibility for what happens to Israel. He says, I have done these things to you. It is as though he stands with his hands on his hips and says to them, Look, I’m responsible. Any questions? He says that it is because of their sins, their flagrant sins.

We do not want to read this as though it is something remote from us. If you are inclined to say only, Oh, it’s such a pity what’s going to happen to Israel, remember that this is your story, too. This is the way God works. He deals with Israel this way because this is the way he deals with everybody. There is a scriptural principle reflected here which all too often we forget. Just because judgment does not fall immediately upon people, they think they have gotten by. But Paul says, Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction… (Galatians 6:7-8a). That is inevitable. God does not cancel that out by the forgiveness of sin. That is part of what we call the natural consequences of evil, the temporal judgment of God. It is never canceled out, any more than the rest of what Paul says is canceled out: …whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:8b) This is God’s promise for now — not just in heaven some day but now. The joy and glory of life will come to us if we walk in the Spirit, and that is inevitable. But so is the judgment for our sin, the inevitable consequences of our own selfish choices.

This means, of course, that ultimately a recompense comes to us in life now for the evil in which we have indulged our flesh — whether it is blatant, open, sensual evil, or whether it is inward — spiritual pride, bitterness, and all the other sins of the spirit. It makes no difference. Evil brings its own results. As someone has well said, You can pull out the nail driven into the wall, but you can’t pull out the nail hole.

God reminds us here that there will be pain and heartache and trouble because of the evil of our past. The sins of our youth will catch up to us — usually in middle age! And there is no escape. As Kipling has said, The sins that they did two by two, they pay for one by one. God says this is inevitable. It is inevitable for his people Israel; it is inevitable for us as well. Yet even in that trial, God is present in His mercy and grace.

Thank you, Lord, for the lesson I learn as I sometimes must walk through the consequences of my own poor choices. But thank you that your grace is still sufficient even for these things.

Life Application

Are we surprised by the inevitable consequences of our sins? Are we also surprised by joy when the Spirit produces good fruit through our walk with Christ? Do we recognize both as aspects of God’s sovereign initiative?

 

 

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