Tag Archives: Prayer

BreakPoint

BreakPoint – Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Celebrates 40 Years

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Charles W. “Chuck” Colson was packing his bags to go home, having served his time for a Watergate-related offense. A new Christian when he entered prison, his faith had been tested behind bars. But he was sustained by the unwavering support of his wife, Patty, and that of his Christian friends on the outside. Also, he’d focused his energy while in prison ministering to fellow inmates.

As Chuck was saying his goodbyes, a large prisoner named Archie confronted him. “Hey, Colson,” he snarled, “You’ll be out of here soon. What are you going to do for us?”

Chuck said, “I’ll help in some way. I’ll never forget you guys or this stinking place.”

“Bull!” Archie yelled back, “I’ve seen big shots like you come and go. They all say the same things while they’re inside. Then they get out and forget us fast. There ain’t nobody cares about us. Nobody!”

Those words were at least part of the reason that Chuck, in August of 1976, filed papers to incorporate a brand new non-profit ministry: Prison Fellowship.

Chuck not only kept his promise to remember those in prison, he mobilized thousands of Christian volunteers and churches to do the same. For forty years now, the most forgotten-members of our society have heard the Good News of Jesus Christ, through Bible studies, seminars, and mentoring.

But Chuck wanted to do more than help those within the walls. He wanted to break the cycle of crime and incarceration. And so, Prison Fellowship has also mobilized churches and volunteers to minister to the families of prisoners through Angel Tree, which delivers Christmas gifts to the children of prisoners in the name of their incarcerated parents.

Continue reading BreakPoint – Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Celebrates 40 Years →

Moody Global Ministries

Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – THE TRINITY AND THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT

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Read JOHN 15:26–16:11

In God’s Prayer Book: The Power and Pleasure of Praying the Psalms, Ben Patterson explains prayer in light of the Trinity: “The organic union of the Body of Christ is rooted in the loving union of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Together, the ‘community’ of God helps us pray. In fact, we are drawn up into the communion of the Godhead when we pray. Jesus, the Son, teaches us to pray to the Father and intercedes for us as we do. The Spirit also helps us to pray, as something of a translator [Rom. 8:26].”

Praying with us is part of the Spirit’s work. Today’s passage describes His work even more fully. When He comes, the “Advocate” or “Spirit of truth” (15:26) will, in addition to His work in the church and in individual believers, undertake three main tasks in the world (16:8–11). First, He will prove the world wrong about sin. Unbelievers don’t think they’re so bad. They don’t like the idea that they stand condemned and need a Savior. But the Spirit convicts them of their sinfulness and of their urgent need for God’s great love, shown in the gift of His Son.

Second, the Spirit will prove the world wrong about righteousness. Unbelievers think their own goodness is enough. Don’t they do their best? Are they really so bad? But the Spirit teaches them that their own self- righteousness is entirely inadequate. For eternal life with God, we need the redemption and righteousness of Christ.

Finally, the Spirit will prove the world wrong about judgment. Unbelievers are living according to the world, a system which seems normal and fine to them, but which is satanic and puts them in danger of hell. The Spirit can show them Christ, the only way to life.

APPLY THE WORD

Just as part of the Spirit’s work is to testify about Christ, so also is it part of our work (15:27). What’s your testimony? Through what faith-building stories have you testified recently to the work of God in your life? And when you talk about such things, is the focus on you or on God? Rejoice in the privilege of telling what God has done!

 

http://www.todayintheword.org

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – ‘WE HAVE TO FINISH! THIS IS THE OLYMPIC GAMES’

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Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi noted, “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”

When New Zealand runner Nikki Hamblin fell in the women’s 5,000-meter run Tuesday morning, American runner Abbey D’Agostino tripped over her and fell to the ground as well. Hamblin lay on the ground until she felt D’Agostino’s hand on her shoulder. “Get up, get up! We have to finish!” Agostino said to her. “This is the Olympic Games. We have to finish this.”

The two finished last and next to last, but both will advance to Friday’s final because they were tripped. Hamblin told reporters, “I am so grateful to Abbey for helping me. That girl was the Olympic spirit right there. I am so impressed and inspired by that.”

Christians need more of the “Olympic spirit” these days.

The Washington Post reports that abortion advocates are becoming more proactive than ever. As Planned Parenthood’s president Cecile Richards says, “We need to challenge or repeal every single restriction that’s out there.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is expected to finalize regulations next month that would allow people to stay in homeless shelters based on their identified gender. The move pits LGBT groups against religious organizations that operate many of these shelters.

It also raises the question of security for shelter guests. John Ashmen, president of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, notes: “One of the guests at a rescue mission overheard someone on the street saying, ‘Dude, if you go down to the rescue mission and tell them you’re transgender, you can sleep in the women’s dorm and even shower with them.'”

Here’s a metaphor for our times: a fascinating article in The New York Times Magazine reports that Michelangelo’s David has cracks in his ankles. If the statue is tilted even fifteen degrees, perhaps by an earthquake, it will likely collapse. Since there were 250 earthquakes in the Florence countryside just in December 2014, this is a very real danger.

Continue reading Denison Forum – ‘WE HAVE TO FINISH! THIS IS THE OLYMPIC GAMES’ →

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – David: A Picture of God’s Sovereignty

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Psalms 103:19-22

Sometimes it’s hard to understand God’s purposes for adversity. In the midst of a personal tragedy, the Lord’s sovereignty may seem like impractical and unrealistic theology. But the truth is, God works all things together for the believer’s good (Rom. 8:28).

David’s writings illustrate the importance of trusting that the Lord is in control, no matter how difficult the situation. Sometimes it’s easy to think of the biblical writers as perfect, almost Christlike figures. But David’s life was full of adversity, temptation, sin, and forgiveness.

When he was running for his life from King Saul, God spared him. When he yielded to temptation with Bathsheba, God spared him. When his son attempted to take David’s throne, God spared him and kept him as king.

Through all of these unfortunate circumstances, David discovered God was protecting and guiding him every step of the way—and using him for extraordinary purposes, despite his human failings. These experiences taught David to trust wholeheartedly in the Lord’s sovereignty.

For those of us in similar situations, the question is, Do we believe God is in control? If He’s not, then who is? In other words, if life events are random and without purpose, then to whom do we turn in trials?

In 1 Chronicles 29:12, David says that God rules over everything and His hand strengthens everyone. Have faith in the Lord’s ability to strengthen you with His sovereign hand. Though you may not always understand His reasons, you can surely trust His purposes.

Bible in One Year: Jeremiah 28-30

 

http://www.intouch.org/

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — The Swagger

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Read: Romans 16:1–4,13,21–23 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 97–99; Romans 16

Encourage one another and build each other up. 1 Thessalonians 5:11

In the summer of 2015, Hunter (aged 15) carried his brother Braden (8) for a fifty-seven-mile walk to raise awareness of the needs of people with cerebral palsy. Braden weighs sixty pounds, so Hunter needed frequent rest stops where others helped him stretch his muscles, and he wore special harnesses to disperse Braden’s weight. Hunter says that while the harnesses helped with the physical discomfort, what helped him most were the people along the way. “If it weren’t for everyone cheering and walking with us, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. . . . My legs were sore, but my friends picked me up and I made it through . . . .” His mom named the arduous trek “The Cerebral Palsy Swagger.”

The apostle Paul, who we think of as strong and courageous, also needed to be “picked up.” In Romans 16 he lists a number of people who did just that for him. They served alongside him, encouraged him, met his needs, and prayed for him. He mentions Phoebe; Priscilla and Aquila, who were co-workers; Rufus’s mother, who had been like a mother to him as well; Gaius, who showed him hospitality; and many more.

Encouragers pick others up when troubles weigh them down.

We all need friends who pick us up, and we all know of others who need our encouragement. As Jesus helps and carries us, let us help one another.

Lord, in Your wisdom You established Your church as a place for us to love and care for each other. Help me to extend the grace I’ve received to others.

Encouragers pick others up when troubles weigh them down.

INSIGHT:

The letter to the Romans is arguably Paul’s most intensely theological letter. Yet in Romans 16, he issues more personal greetings than in any other letter—twenty-seven! These personal greetings, included at the close of a theological letter about the nature of the gospel, serve as a significant reminder. The message of the death and resurrection of Jesus is not merely a piece of intellectual information. The doctrines that form the foundation for our rescue in Christ are not an academic exercise. These truths describe the love of God for human beings who have names and faces and struggles and victories. The gospel is the story of God’s unfailing love for people—people like those listed here. People like you and me.

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Question and Answer

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In a question and answer period after one of his lectures, C.S. Lewis was asked which of the world’s religions gives its followers the greatest happiness. Lewis paused and said this: “While it lasts, the religion of worshipping oneself is best.”(1)

No doubt each word in his response was selected carefully, as he gently challenged the assumptions of the questioner. When happiness is identified as the most important thing, it is the self we seek above all else. And by alluding to this ‘god’ in terms of worship and religion, Lewis makes a helpful juxtaposition. In fact, it is one steeped in an age-old creed professed by many: By jettisoning the divine, by getting out from under the tyrannical arm of God, we believe we are wholly free to pursue that which is pleasing, and that which we please.

Yet in this lies the danger, for even in matters of enormous consequence we may seek that which we think will make us happy, and not necessarily that which is true. We become our own god, the measure of all things. And yet reality, as Lewis alludes, doesn’t seem to back this theory up. “While it lasts,” he prefaces. In other words, self-satisfaction wrought at the expense of all else is always fleeting, unreachable, or unfulfilling. Instead of happiness we more readily find boredom and depression.

While worship of the self is readily tried, much is sacrificed upon the altars of this religion: truth for one, pleasure as it was intended for another, but also—ironically—the very self we were aiming to please in the first place. One immediately thinks of Oscar Wilde’s poignant depiction of Dorian Gray. So then, will we conclude that the self is not, in fact, the most important thing? Will we conclude that the foundation upon which we asked the question in the first place is faulty? Unfortunately, more often we do not.

Even when we are faced with empirical evidence that shows the inadequacy of certain truths we live by, rarely do we look at the underlying suppositions that led us to embrace the truth in the first place. It is hard to go back to our foundational assumptions and start over, if we ever consciously saw them in the first place. It is much easier to keep walking with our assumptions firmly intact.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Question and Answer →

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Strength for Today – Finding True Contentment

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“To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

True contentment is found only in Christ.

There has never been a society in the history of the world that has had as many commodities as Americans have. We are living in affluence that is unheard of in the world’s history. The key philosophy behind it all is this: only as you accumulate enough assets to satisfy your particular lifestyle can you really be happy.

Sad to say, Christians have bought into that philosophy. Now, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with commodities, but it is wrong to think you’ll find true happiness in them. If God chooses to give you material possessions, it’s because of His good pleasure. But if you make those possessions the love of your life, you’re being deceived about true contentment.

In Philippians 4:11-12 the apostle Paul says, “Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.” He was saying, “I have contentment that is absolutely and totally unrelated to possessions.”

Where did Paul find his contentment? In Philippians 1:21 he says, “To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He found it in Christ, not in material possessions. Professor Howard Vos said of Paul, “Christ is all to him, he lives only to serve Christ, he has no conception of life apart from Christ. . . . Christ’s goals, Christ’s orientation to life and society and mission, are his.” If you want to be like Paul and have true contentment, make Christ the love of your life, not material possessions.

Suggestions for Prayer

If you are seeking happiness apart from the Lord, confess your sin and forsake it. Acknowledge that contentment is found only in Him

For Further Study

Read Ecclesiastes 2:18-26. What conclusions did the Preacher reach about daily contentment?

 

http://www.gty.org

Turning Point

Today’s Turning Point with David Jeremiah – We’ll Understand

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Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

John 13:7

Recommended Reading

John 13:1-7

Maxwell Cornelius left his family’s farm in Pennsylvania to become a brick mason in Pittsburgh, but tragedy struck when he was a young man. He lost his leg when the wall of a house collapsed. Leaving the construction trade, he went into the ministry. His wife battled disability, forcing them to leave their church and move to California for the climate. There he led another congregation into a building program, but the economy failed. Despite all his hardships and setbacks, Cornelius maintained a positive attitude and later wrote a hymn, which was quite popular in its day. The words are timeless: “Not now, but in the coming years, / It may be in the better land, / We’ll read the meaning of our tears, / And there, some time, we’ll understand.”

We won’t understand life completely on earth, but one day we’ll be with the One who does. As Pastor Adrian Rogers said, “In the storms of our lives, we never see the full picture. But one day we will see it all; one day the circle will be complete.”1

God knows the way, He holds the key, / He guides us with unerring hand; / Some time with tearless eyes we’ll see; / Yes, there, up there, we’ll understand.

Maxwell Cornelius, from the hymn “Sometime We’ll Understand”

1Adrian Rogers, Unveiling the End Times (Nashville: B&H, 2013), 77.

Read-Thru-the-Bible

Jeremiah 44 – 46

 

http://www.davidjeremiah.org/

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Be Ready to Be Interrupted

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I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd risks and lays down His [own] life for the sheep.- John 10:11

The more I study the men and women in the Bible whom we consider to be “great,” the more I see that they all made huge sacrifices and there was nothing convenient about what God asked them to do.

Abraham had to leave his country, his relatives, and his home and go to a place God would not even tell him about until he went there. Joseph saved a nation from starvation, but not before he was violently removed from his comfortable home and put in an inconvenient place for many years. Esther saved the Jews from destruction, but God certainly interrupted her plan in order for her to do so.

The list of individuals who entered into sacrificial obedience could go on and on. The Bible calls them people “of whom the world was not worthy” (see Hebrews 11:38). These people we read about were inconvenienced so that someone else’s life could be easier. Jesus died so we could have life and have it abundantly. Soldiers die so that civilians can remain safe at home. Fathers go to work so their families can have nice lives, and mothers go through the pain of childbirth to bring another life into the world. It seems quite obvious that someone usually has to experience pain or inconvenience for anyone to gain anything.

If you make the decision that you don’t mind inconvenience or interruption, then God can use you. You can make a difference in the world. But if you remain addicted to your own comfort, God will have to pass you by for someone who is more willing to endure the hard things in life in order to do God’s will.

Trust in Him: Think about a situation in which God is asking you to do some things you would rather not do—stay in a situation, leave a situation, spend time with someone you don’t get along with . . . Are you willing to trust the “interruption” from God in order to do His will?

From the book Trusting God Day by Day by Joyce Meyer.

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Girlfriends in God

Girlfriends in God – How to be a Radiant Woman

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Today’s Truth

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:18

Friend to Friend

The Bible is filled with men and women who had an intimate personal relationship with God. Enoch walked with God and then God just snatched him up to heaven…“and he was no more,” (Genesis 5:24). David was called “a man after God’s own heart,” (Acts 13:22). But Moses…he was God’s friend.

What did Moses want more than anything? He wanted to see God’s glory.

“And the LORD said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence…But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’”

Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen” (Exodus 33:19-23).

God knew that no man could look upon His full glory and live. It is more than our human limitations can bear. Just a glimpse of God’s glory caused Moses’ face to have such a radiant afterglow that the people in the valley below trembled at the sight—and that was from but a glimpse! Moses placed a veil over his face so that others would not see the radiant glory fade between his visits with God.

Moses visible radiance from being in God’s presence always faded with time. This is not so with the believer who lives and moves and has her being in Christ. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). You and I can share the glory of Jesus Christ and go from one degree of glory to the next! Our lives become brighter and more beautiful as we practice constant communion and sacred union with the Trinity.

Continue reading Girlfriends in God – How to be a Radiant Woman →

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – Perfect Healing 

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“Jesus’ name has healed this man – and you know how lame he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name – faith given us from God – has caused this perfect healing” (Acts 3:16).

This is another of the great “3:16” verses of the Bible – with a truth and a promise that you and I need probably every day of our lives. Jesus claimed “all authority in heaven and earth” (Matthew 28:18). “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9, KJV; see also 1:15-19).

There is a great power in the name of Jesus. Throughout Scripture that fact is emphasized. And I have seen it illustrated in miraculous ways through the Jesus film, which has been used of God to introduce tens of millions of men, women, young people, and children to Christ in most countries of the world.

The promise, equally clear, is that if we exercise faith in that wonderful name of Jesus – faith that is a gift from God – we can see healing, both physical and spiritual.

I sit in astonishment often as I try to comprehend such great love that would give us the very gifts He requires of us – faith, in this instance. We need not conjure up such faith; it is made available on simple terms: Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

And we may appropriate this truth and this promise today.

Bible Reading: Acts 3:12-18

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: “Dear Lord, I dare to believe that You are still the same yesterday, today and forever, so I can trust you to heal, and to enable me to live a supernatural life.”

 

http://www.cru.org

Ray Stedman

Ray Stedman – God’s Faithfulness

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Read: Jeremiah 20:11-18

But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten. Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have committed my cause. Jeremiah 20:11-12

Previously in this chapter, Jeremiah poured out his complaint to the Lord while he was in the stocks. But now faith comes to Jeremiah’s rescue and begins to strengthen him. Faith counterattacks to uphold the tottering prophet. Jeremiah is now fighting back against the assault he is victim of. He begins now to reckon on reality, to count as truth what God had made known to him. That is the way to handle any frightening situation. You can be almost sure that the way you see it is not really the way it is. This is what you have to remember. It appears to be that way, but it is not that way. Your mind is being assaulted, your thoughts twisted and distorted by a naturalistic view of things. The only answer is to begin with God, the unchangeable One, the One who sees things the way they really are. Start with him and with what he has told you, and work from that back to your situation, and you will see it in an entirely different light.

This is what the prophet does here. He starts with God. The Lord is with me [that is the first thing to remember], and he is a mighty warrior [he knows how to fight, how to repel assaults]; therefore my persecutors will stumble [their plans are not going to work out], they will not overcome me. In fact, they will be greatly ashamed, for they will not succeed. Faith reassures him that this is what will happen. And this is the correct view, because this is what happened. And so he cries out, Verse 13: Sing to the Lord; give praise the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked (Jeremiah 20:13)

Continue reading Ray Stedman – God’s Faithfulness →

Words of Hope

Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – The Tale of Two Trees

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Read: Genesis 2:4-25

And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (v. 9)

In the middle of this garden are two unique trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What are we to make of this tale of two trees? We must first understand that this text is not a scientific explanation of how the world came to be, but rather (and more importantly) a narrative that tells us who we humans are.

The tree of life signifies the means to eternal life. It represents a life of obedience to God, in which we acknowledge our dependence on God. To eat from this tree results in human flourishing—true life gained through a proper relationship with God.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the human possibility of universal knowledge—“good and evil” is a Hebrew of way of saying “everything.” To eat from this tree indicates the desire to be all-knowing, like God, but in a way not appropriate for humans. Eating from this tree is a bold declaration of independence from God. Hence the admonition not to eat and the assertion of deadly consequences (v. 17).

We still face this choice today: acknowledge our dependence on God, or try to go it alone.

Prayer:

Almighty God, help us acknowledge our dependence on you.

Author: Steven Bouma-Prediger

 

https://woh.org/

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – “God, Where Were You?”

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Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”—John 11:21–22

“Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Loosely paraphrased, Martha was saying, “Lord, You blew it.”

Jesus loved her brother, Lazarus. But when Martha and Mary sent word to Him that Lazarus was sick, He waited. In fact, He waited a long time. He waited so long that Lazarus wasn’t just sick, he was dead. And he had been dead for four days. Martha wasn’t happy about it.

Have you ever felt that way? Something happened, and you said, “God, where were You?” Where were You when this marriage dissolved? . . . Where were You when my parents divorced? . . . Where were You when my child went astray? . . . Where were You when my loved one died?

But notice that Jesus did not reprove Martha for what she said. He could have. In some ways, it seems like He should have. But I think the reason He didn’t was because it isn’t sinful to tell God how you feel. That is all Martha was doing. She was just being honest with God.

Even our Lord, when He hung on the cross and was bearing the sins of the world, cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). That could sound accusatory, but Jesus was simply describing the reality of the situation. He was crying out to God.

When something difficult happens, we can withdraw from God and from others. We can get mad at God and at God’s people. But we need God, and we need His people.

Just talk to God. Tell Him how you’re really feeling. If you’re hurting, tell Him you’re hurting. If you’re in pain, tell Him you’re in pain. If you’re happy, tell Him you’re happy. Be honest with God.

 

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

Kids 4 Truth

Kids 4 Truth International – God’s Love Is Genuine

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“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren….In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 3:16; 4:9-10)

When a man and a woman get married, they give each other rings. The minister at the wedding usually says something like this to the man: “What token do you give to prove your love?” The man answers, “This ring.” The ring that he puts on his wife’s finger is a token, or a symbol, to everyone who sees it that this man chose this woman above all others and that he loves her with all of his heart.

As much as a man might love the woman he marries, no man has ever loved a woman as much as God loves His children. No one you know on Earth is able to love you as much as God can. No one has ever proven his love like God has.

We do not have to wonder about whether God is a loving God. John teaches that God’s gift of His Son is the token, or the proof, to us that He is the loving God He claims to be. Jesus laid down His life for us. What better proof could there be?

These are facts – real, trustworthy reminders that God is love. His love is not fake; God’s love is genuine – the real thing.

When a man and a woman get married, they do not love each other only on their wedding day. They keep on wearing their rings as a symbol that they love each other. And more than wearing rings, they keep on loving each other. Real, genuine love lasts.

Continue reading Kids 4 Truth International – God’s Love Is Genuine →

The Navigators

The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – The Inadequate Apostle

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Today’s Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:10

“By the grace of God I am what I am.”

Paul was conscious throughout his entire ministry of his utter unworthiness to be a servant of Christ. We see him expressing it again to the Corinthians: “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).

Paul freely admitted he didn’t deserve his ministry; he was an apostle only by the grace of God—by God’s unmerited favor. However, in the expression “by the grace of God I am what I am,” the word grace can be taken in the context to mean either God’s unmerited favor or God’s enabling power. Considering his prior acknowledgment of unworthiness, his statement would appear to mean, “I am unworthy to be an apostle, but by God’s unmerited favor I am one.” But looking forward in this passage, to where Paul speaks about the effects of God’s grace on his ministry, it would appear to mean, “By God’s enabling power I am an effective apostle.”

I believe both these meanings of grace are incorporated in Paul’s statement. He wasn’t giving us a technical treatise on grace and distinguishing its finer shades of meaning. Rather, Paul was speaking from his heart, saying that God’s grace was sufficient for both his unworthiness and his inadequacy. He was saying, “I’m an apostle as a result of God’s unmerited favor shown to me and as a result of God’s enabling power at work in me.” (Excerpt taken from Transforming Grace)

 

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The Navigators

The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – Harvest Time

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Today’s Scripture: Hebrews 11-13

We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. – Acts 13:32

I remember sitting along a river that flowed quietly through a missionary jungle base in South America. A man was telling me about the many opportunities all around his mission that they could not pursue because the laborers were few. It broke his heart. He was a man with a burden for the lost, but with an inadequate labor force to fully reap the harvest.

A few months later I was with two pastors in downtown London. They were surrounded by some of the most powerful corporations in the world, businesses with global influence. These men echoed the lament of the missionary in South America–a lack of laborers to reach out to the spiritually hungry people in these great corporations.

Jesus said, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:38). This is also what the writer of Hebrews prayed: “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (13:20-21).

God calls on us to co-labor with Him to fulfill the Great Commission through evangelism and teaching new Christians how to grow in faith. And He’s looking for people who will go to the fields early, work hard, and stay late because they are committed to Christ and to the task at hand. This kind of person cannot be produced by human endeavor alone. Will you make the need for spiritual laborers a matter of prayer today?

Prayer

Lord, I want to be a spiritual laborer for You. Show me where You’re working and how I can join You there. Amen.

To Ponder

The fields are ripe, the laborers are few; the solution begins with prayer.

 

https://www.navigators.org/Home

BreakPoint

BreakPoint – Should Christians Support Using Animal and Human Cells Together to Advance Science?

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One hundred and twenty years ago, H.G. Wells wrote a novel, “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” about what happens when a scientist, in a mad pursuit for knowledge, creates human-animal hybrids. In a word—what happens is chaos. Wells called the book “an exercise in youthful blasphemy.” He may have said the same about the National Institutes of Health today.

The NIH, under the leadership of professing Christian Dr. Francis Collins, is proposing lifting a ban on taxpayer funding of experiments that splice human stem cells with animal embryos, creating human-animal chimeras.

Proponents, of course, downplay any ethical concerns related to creating new life forms using human genetic material—for either the humans or the animals involved. They’re committed to the practical benefits of this kind of research, hoping to create animal models of human diseases in order to prevent and treat illnesses. A more ambitious goal is the production of sheep, pigs, and cows with human hearts, kidneys, livers, and pancreases to use in transplants. Proponents assure us that additional restrictions and ethics panels will prevent hybrid horrors, or chimeras, with too-human brains or with the capacity to breed.

“It’s very, very welcome news that NIH will consider funding this type of research,” says Pablo Ross of the University of California, Davis. “We need funding to be able to answer some very important questions.”

However, if you think such research crosses a moral Rubicon, you wouldn’t be alone. Rod Dreher summarized what is happening in an article with the somewhat hyperbolic title, “Christian-Run Agency Embraces Pig-Man.” “It’s pretty clear,” Dreher wrote, “that this is just a prelude to something that’s a fait accompli. Besides, who is going to stand in the way of Science™ over a trivial matter like basic human dignity?”

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Moody Global Ministries

Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – THE TRINITY AND THE MISSION OF THE SPIRIT

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Read JOHN 14:25–31

Human memories are not reliable. We might think we remember what happened, or we equate our own interpretation of events with the truth. We might forget inconvenient facts. Our memories are finite and fallible—and very often self-serving as well!

In today’s reading, Jesus promised His disciples that their eyewitness memories would be assisted and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit (v. 26). This means the Gospel accounts of the life of Christ are trustworthy beyond anything based on merely human memory. We can believe He really said the words and did the actions we read in Scripture. God has made sure that His revelation of Himself in Christ is recorded in a wholly true and accurate way.

This is one reason the Spirit was sent by the Father at the request of the Son. As we saw yesterday, the Spirit has come to be our advocate or helper, to indwell and empower us for holy lives (vv. 16, 26). He will be with us forever (v. 17), working out the truth of the gospel in our lives and in the world.

What else do we learn about the Trinity in this passage? The Father is “greater” than the Son in the sense that He is the originator or planner of salvation (v. 28). The Son will obey the Father “to the point of death,” demonstrating complete love and submission (v. 31). In the face of the news of His impending death, however, Jesus also comforted His disciples with the news that He will come again (v. 28). Before that day, Satan will cause suffering and try to oppose the gospel, but he will fail, and Christ will complete His victory over the “prince of this world” (v. 30).

APPLY THE WORD

Go back through John 14 and make a list of the blessings that we are promised through the Trinity. Examples include an eternal dwelling with God, the love of God, and peace that transcends the world’s understanding. As you review your list, praise the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for His inexhaustible supply of good gifts in your life.

 

http://www.todayintheword.org

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – ‘LORD, IF YOU TAKE ME, MAKE ME A MARTYR’

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Yu Jie grew up in China, where his father was an engineer and Communist Party member. Yu’s wife became a Christian in 2001 and was baptized. She then began a small Bible study in their home. Two years later, Yu came to faith in Christ and was baptized on Christmas Eve.

On December 10, 2010, he was kidnapped by the secret police and taken to the outskirts of Beijing. There he was beaten and tortured for hours. His fingers were broken one by one. For days his wife was under house arrest and did not know if he was alive or dead. God spared his life because he had greater plans for him.

On January 11, 2012, Yu and his family were led out of China to Washington, DC, where he writes on behalf of the oppressed Chinese people. He is now the best-selling author of more than thirty books and has been awarded the Civil Courage Prize by the Train Foundation. He was the first Chinese person to win the award.

Writing for the latest edition of First Things, Yu explains the astounding rise of Christianity in China. When the Community Party came to power in 1949, Chinese Christians numbered half a million. Now they are estimated conservatively to number more than sixty million. If current trends continue, by 2030 China will be the largest Christian nation in the world.

What explains this remarkable growth?

According to Yu, the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966 and the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 led to the deaths of countless innocent people. As a result, “The people’s belief in Marxism-Leninism and Maoism was destroyed.” In Yu’s estimation, “These events opened up a great spiritual void, and the Chinese began searching for a new faith.”

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