Tag Archives: spirituality

Denison Forum

Denison Forum – ‘NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY’—4 WAYS TO RESPOND

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Yesterday was National Coming Out Day. The “Human Rights Campaign” has published a “resource guide to coming out” as well as ways straight people can “demonstrate your support for LGBTQ people and equality worldwide.”

As I have discussed often, the Bible consistently forbids homosexual activity. Not because God hates gay people, but because he loves them. Their Creator wants what is best for them and knows that all sexual relationships outside of heterosexual marriage are damaging to those who engage in them.

My point this morning is not to revisit this issue, but to think with you about ways to relate biblically to LGBTQ people. God’s word has much to say not only about homosexual relationships but also about how best to relate to those who engage in them.

One: Agree with Scripture.

Whenever biblical truth is rejected by society, it is tempting to side with society. As I noted yesterday, only 52 percent of self-identified evangelicals agree strongly with the statement, “Sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin.” As our culture has decided that truth is personal and subjective, many have been persuaded that they can do with their bodies whatever they wish. This ethic affects abortion, sexual activity, euthanasia, and a host of other issues.

But it is still true that “all Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16). Neither God’s nature nor his truth have changed. What was wrong when the Bible was inspired is still wrong today. There’s an old saying, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.” Actually, we should say, “God said it and that settles it, whether I believe it or not.”

Two: Understand the issue.

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Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – The Meaning of the Cross

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Matthew 27:11-26

The cross—the symbol of Christianity—has great meaning to God. First of all, through Jesus’ death, the Father proclaimed the value of every single human being: He offers forgiveness and eternal life to anyone who places faith in Jesus (Rom. 6:23). Second, it meant a great cost. Holy God separated Himself from His beloved Son while Jesus bore the weight of mankind’s sin. (See Matt. 27:46.) Third, the redemption of man was accomplished. Jesus’ shed blood purchased us from slavery to sin and reconciled us to God (1 Peter 1:18-19).

What’s more, divine justice was carried out on the cross. Scripture tells us that death is the debt owed for sin (Ezek. 18:20). However, God requires an unblemished sacrifice (Deut. 17:1). We could not adequately pay our own penalty because we would only die in our sin. For holy God to forgive us, a sufficient substitute had to be found—one who qualified to pay for our disobedience. Jesus, the only one who was without sin, willingly took our place and assumed responsibility for our debt. All our iniquity—past, present, and future—was placed on Christ, and God’s judgment upon us was carried out against Him.

The meaning of the cross was experienced firsthand by Barabbas, the notorious prisoner who was condemned to die. God’s innocent Son was substituted for him, giving the criminal freedom. Like Barabbas, we’ve had our death sentence commuted, and, though unworthy, we have been set free in Jesus. Today, the cross continues to offer life and freedom to the undeserving.

Bible in One Year: Matthew 25-26

 

 

http://www.intouch.org/

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Changing Hearts

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Read: Luke 6:27-36

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 37-38; Colossians 3

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.—Luke 6:36

On the last day of the US Civil War, officer Joshua Chamberlain was in command of the Union army. His soldiers lined up on both sides of the road that the Confederate army had to march down in surrender. One wrong word or one belligerent act and the longed-for peace could be turned to slaughter. In an act as brilliant as it was moving, Chamberlain ordered his troops to salute their foe! No taunting here, no vicious words—only guns in salute and swords raised to honor.

When Jesus offered His words about forgiveness in Luke 6, He was helping us understand the difference between people of grace and people without grace. Those who know His forgiveness are to be strikingly unlike everyone else. We must do what others think impossible: Forgive and love our enemies. Jesus said, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (v. 36).

Imagine the impact in our workplaces and on our families if we were to embrace this principle. If a salute can make armies whole again, what power there must be in Christ’s grace reflected through us! Scripture gives evidence of this in Esau’s embrace of his deceitful brother (Gen. 33:4), in Zacchaeus’s joyful penance (Luke 19:1-10), and in the picture of a father racing to greet his prodigal son (Luke 15).

With the grace of Christ, may we let this be the final day of bitterness and dispute between our enemies and us. —Randy Kilgore

Lord, we know how the gentle power of forgiveness can bring healing in relationships. Grant us the courage to end our conflicts by Your grace.

Anger almost always vanishes in the face of grace.

INSIGHT: We often think of forgiving someone as no longer holding resentment for a past wrong. This is a central definition of forgiveness in the New Testament. However, Luke 6:34-35 records a different meaning, that of forgiving business loans. The understanding we gain from the Old Testament about forgiveness becomes central to the context for Jesus’s audience. Yahweh, Jehovah God, had mandated the Year of Jubilee, a seventh-year fiscal readjustment. During this time, indebted workers found financial relief. “In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property” (Lev. 25:13). Scholars believe the Year of Jubilee had an impact on lending to needy farmers. When this time of forgiveness of loans became imminent, those with the means to lend money were reluctant to do so because they feared not receiving repayment. Dennis Fisher

 

http://www.odb.org

Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Who Is Blessed

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Early in his ministry, according to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus preached a very public sermon. This sermon, unlike any other, has not only been a great treasure of literature, but also stands as the foundation of Jesus’s teaching ministry. The introductory illustration of this famous sermon given on a mountainside is a collection of sayings by Jesus about who is blessed in the kingdom of God. They are called the “Beatitudes.”

These beatitudes spoken by Jesus have been widely admired across religious, political, and social realms. Persons as diverse as Jimmy Carter, Gandhi, and the rock musician, Sting, have all quoted these sayings of Jesus. Indeed, Dallas Willard notes, “[A]long with the Ten Commandments, the twenty-third psalm, and the Lord’s prayer…[the Beatitudes] are acknowledged by almost everyone to be among the highest expressions of religious insight and moral inspiration.”(1)

The exact nature of this religious insight and moral inspiration has been the subject of numerous biblical commentaries and writings.  Biblical commentator, Craig Keener notes that there are more than 36 discrete views about the sermon’s message.(2) Perhaps the difficulties in interpretation lie with the implications of the Beatitudes themselves. As one author notes, the Beatitudes are “a statement of the world turned upside down, where those who mourn are comforted rather than abandoned or merely pitied, where those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are satisfied, not ignored or shouted down, where the meek inherit the earth rather than being ground into dust.”(3) In other words, much is at stake. A world “turned upside down” serves as inspiration to some and bad news for others. Indeed, Luke’s account of the sermon adds a series of four-fold “woes” for those who have contributed to mourning, humiliation, and injustice (Luke 6:17-26).

The first beatitude of Jesus concerns those “poor in spirit.” I remember thinking when I was younger whether being a follower of Jesus, as one ‘poor in spirit’ included depression or a perpetual frown. In fact, the poor in spirit, according to various commentators, includes the dispossessed, depressed and abandoned ones. In Jesus’s society, these were the persons without hope in this world, persons who believed they were forgotten and left behind. In every way, these were the ones who recognized that they had nothing to offer God in terms of the spiritual requirements of their religious traditions. They were the spiritually destitute. In the ancient world, poverty was often viewed as a spiritual curse whereas riches and prosperity were seen as divine blessing. Poverty and calamity were understood as the results of wrong behavior, as we see in the story of Job. Job’s friends assumed he had done something wrong to bring on his suffering.

Continue reading Ravi Zacharias Ministry – Who Is Blessed →

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – Strength for Today – Dead to Sin

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“How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:2).

In Christ, believers are dead to sin.

As a pastor, I frequently encounter people who profess to be believers, yet are living in all kinds of vile sins. The incongruity of people claiming to be believers while living in constant, unrepentant sin was not lost on the apostle Paul. In Romans 6:1 he asked the rhetorical question, “Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?” In verse 2 he answered his own question by exclaiming “May it never be!”—the strongest, most emphatic negation in the Greek language. It expressed Paul’s horror and outrage at the thought that a true Christian could remain in a constant state of sinfulness. For a person to claim to be a Christian while continuing in habitual sin is absurd and impossible.

Paul goes on in verse 2 to explain why believers cannot continue to live in sin, asking, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” His point is that believers, at salvation, died to sin. Therefore, they cannot live in a constant state of sinfulness, because it is impossible to be both dead and alive at the same time. Those who continue in unrepentant sin thereby give evidence that they are spiritually dead, no matter what they may claim.

Unbelievers are “dead in [their] trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1), walking “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience” (v. 2). Believers, on the other hand, have been “delivered . . . from the domain of darkness, and transferred . . . to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:13).

Christians no longer live in the realm of sin, though they still commit sins.

Having a proper understanding of the believer’s relationship to sin is foundational to progressing in holiness. Take comfort today in the reality that sin, though still dangerous, is a defeated foe.

Suggestions for Prayer

  • Praise God who, because of His mercy and love, made us alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:4-5).
  • Ask Him to help you walk worthy of that high calling (Eph. 4:1).

For Further Study

Read the following passages: John 8:31; 2 Cor. 13:5; James 2:14-26. Is every profession of faith in Jesus Christ genuine? Explain.

 

http://www.gty.org

Wisdom Hunters

Wisdom Hunters – When You Know There Has to Be Something More

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The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.   John 10:10

Many of us go through times when bible reading seems dry and we may think, “There has got to be something more.” At these times, one reason we may have parched souls is because we have been gathering biblical information rather than communing with the Savior. Perhaps, as G.K. Chesterton said, our religion has become more about theology, and less about a love affair with Jesus.

When we consistently reduce time in the Word to instructional sessions, rather than a way to experience Christ, a dryness will settle into our souls. Christianity is not meant to be a self-improvement program; it’s about an intimate relationship with the Savior—the God who loves you, made you, knows the thoughts and attitudes of your heart, and desires to intimately commune with you. Abundant life is found in living life with Him, not just knowing about Him.

“For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

The devil wants to drive a wedge in Christ’s love relationship with you. Others will tell you that you cannot experience intimacy with Him. They may not know Him, or they may profess to know Him, but only live by religion and false intimacy. They will have a form of godliness but deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5). They will tell you God no longer speaks to His people, or they will try to draw you away from Him through worldly lusts so that you start living like an orphan and become just like them. But God has called you to intimacy.

The world wants to put God in a box they can understand. The worldly mind cannot understand what the spiritual mind understands (1 Corinthians 2:14). Others will deny the intimacy you can have with God because they have not experienced it themselves. Living by religious rules without knowing Christ is easier because they can put Him in a box.

Continue reading Wisdom Hunters – When You Know There Has to Be Something More →

Turning Point

Today’s Turning Point with David Jeremiah – Remnants

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And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

2 Kings 19:30

Recommended Reading

Isaiah 10:20-23

Remnant stores are almost a thing of the past. These are shops that specialize in bits of cloth helpful to those who make their own clothes or need patchwork pieces for quilts. The word “remnant” has to do with bits, pieces, and fragments that are left over. A good seamstress can do a lot with remnants.

God can do a lot with remnants, too. In the Bible, the word “remnant” often referred to what was left of a community following a catastrophe. After the Babylonian captivity, for example, a remnant of Jewish people returned to the Promised Land. There by God’s grace, they took root downward and bore fruit upward.

In our world today, Christians often feel they represent the remnants of godliness in our communities. But by God’s grace we can take root downward and bear fruit upward. Wherever there is a remnant that serves the Lord, there is hope.

Remnant stores may be few and far between, but remnant stories are abundant among God’s people. Don’t worry if you’re in the majority or minority, if you’re popular or alone. Just take root downward and God will make you fruitful where you are.

No matter how wicked the world scene may appear, God always has a remnant that is faithful to Him. Sometimes that remnant is small, but God is always great.

Warren Wiersbe, in The Wiersbe Bible Commentary

Read-Thru-the-Bible

Matthew 25 – 26

 

http://www.davidjeremiah.org/

Joyce Meyer

Joyce Meyer – Do What You Can Do

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And there was a man called Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, and [he was] rich. And he was trying to see Jesus, which One He was, but he could not on account of the crowd, because he was small in stature. —Luke 19:2-3

You can’t add anything to your life by worrying. I enjoy people who don’t worry but are confident and really know who they are in Christ. That is why Zacchaeus is one of my favorite people in the Bible (see Luke 19).

Jesus was coming to town, and Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but he was so short he couldn’t see over all the people in the huge crowd. I love what he did. He didn’t go sit down and have a pity party. Instead, he ran up ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree. When Jesus came by He said, “Zacchaeus, come on down here. I’m going to your house for dinner!”

Instead of whining about what he thought was a problem in his life, Zacchaeus had a positive attitude about it. Instead of worrying about what he couldn’t do, he found something he could do. And God so loved that spirit of determination that He said, “Of all these people, I am going to go home with you!”

Stop worrying about what you can’t do. Stop comparing yourself to everybody else and wishing you were them and being jealous and envious of them. Whatever your inabilities are, say to them, “It is what it is. And I’m going to deal with it. Whatever I don’t have, God is going to make it up to me in another way.”

I like to talk; I am a good communicator and it is working out really well. I’ve got a lot of good common sense and some business sense and I’m good at managing people, but mainly I talk. I encourage you to start using the abilities that you do have, and don’t be concerned about the ones you don’t have.

Trust in Him: If you’ve already wasted much of your life worrying or comparing or complaining, make a decision today that you are going to trust God instead. Do what you can do and trust Him to do the rest.

 

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

 

http://www.joycemeyer.org

Girlfriends in God

Girlfriends in God – When God Calls Your Name

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Today’s Truth

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

1 Corinthians 1:27

Friend to Friend

What are you going to do when God calls your name?

When He taps you on the shoulder and says, “Hey girl, now’s the time”?

There was a kid in the Bible who had the right idea. Let me introduce you to him.

See, there was this prophet named Samuel, and God told him to go to Jesse’s house to appoint the next King of Israel. So, “Samuel did what the Lord said” (1 Sam. 1:4). (By the way, that’s always a great way to start your day!)

He traveled to Jesse’s house in Bethlehem and asked to see his sons. When they paraded by for inspection, Samuel was very impressed with the eldest right away. Eliab was tall, dark, and handsome.

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7).

Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” Seven sons. Seven rejections. I’m sure Samuel was scratching his head about this time. Confused, he turned to Jesse and asked, “Is this all your sons?”

Then, as if it were an after thought, Jesse mutters, “Oh yeah, I do have another son. I forgot all about him. His name is David—my youngest. He’s out taking care of the sheep.”

Samuel then said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.” They didn’t take a knee, take a seat, or take a break. They stood and waited with the Jeopardy theme song playing in the background.

And in walks young David—a smelly, inexperienced, unqualified kid who was probably around thirteen years old.

Continue reading Girlfriends in God – When God Calls Your Name →

Ray Stedman

Ray Stedman – Complacency

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Read: 1 Corinthians 4:8-21

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign — and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! 1 Corinthians 4:8

The seat of the problem at Corinth was their love of human wisdom, their hunger for the approval of the world, and the pride they took in their own accomplishments that they felt merited that approval. There were several things Paul saw in Corinth that told the story for him: He had seen the divisions among them. Here was a congregation split up into little cliques gathering around certain teachers. Then they were telling everyone how great a church they were, how tremendous were their meetings, and taking credit for it themselves as though it were something they had thought of and planned and worked out. There was jealous strife and infighting in the congregation and the leadership, and finally, there was this complacent spirit. There were a lot of exciting things going on, but they had a complacency and smug satisfaction with being the way they were.

What do complacent Christians look like? Paul indicates it is a sense that they have arrived. You meet people like that today. There are some who seem to feel as though they have it made; they have learned the whole truth; there is nothing you can tell them that they have not already learned; they think of themselves as rich.

There are a lot of things that can give a Christian a sense of being rich and make him complacent. At Laodicea it was because of material possessions. We are increased with goods, they said, and have need of nothing. We have a tremendous budget; we have plenty of money; we can do what we want; we do not even need God any more, (Revelation 3:17). They were priding themselves on how affluent they were and that gave them a sense of complacency so that the Lord had to say to them, You have no idea what you are really like — you are poor and blind, pitiable and naked, and spiritually poverty-stricken. Affluence can do that to a church.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Complacency →

Words of Hope

Words of Hope – Daily Devotional – Stigma Isn’t Guilt

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Read: Acts 28

They said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer.” (v. 4)

Paul showed up in Rome after many adventures, only to find that local religious authorities hadn’t even heard of the controversy surrounding him. Acts closes with Paul under house arrest. But first, a short episode (vv. 1-11) shows us a deep-seated pattern in human behavior, and also the Bible’s characteristic response to that pattern.

The kindly Maltese were probably already inclined to believe that Paul, like the other prisoners who had washed ashore with him, was potentially dangerous. When a snake attacked Paul, it seemed to confirm their suspicions. We want to believe that “bad” people “get what they deserve.” Then when Paul shook off any fatal effect, the islanders deified him. This is the other side of the coin: we are always quick to believe in the supernatural goodness of those who defy misfortune. Both responses come from our desire to think both good and bad outcomes can be controlled by our behavior. By showing these assumptions being applied to a man who had constantly flung attention away from himself and onto his Lord, and who once called himself the “chief of sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15), the text points up their absurdity.

Like the islanders, we tend to view prisoners either as threatening evildoers or mistreated innocents. What they are is people, windblown and beaten by life, whom God has called us to visit in their distress.

Prayer:

Lord, make us willing to befriend the needy, even when they bear the stigma of guilt.

Author: Phil Christman

 

https://woh.org/

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – The Foundation for a Successful Marriage

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Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.—Matthew 7:24–25

If you are building a house, the most important time is when you lay the foundation.

First you make sure the blueprints are right. You turn them in to the city for approval. You plan out the electrical wiring and the plumbing work, you make sure everything is right, and then you pour your foundation.

If your foundation is poured properly, you can proceed with the framing and the roofing and all of the subsequent work. But if you get the foundation wrong and it is not done as it should be, you are going to have to tear it up later and start again.

I know it is fun to decorate and choose paint colors and landscaping, but none of that is as important as laying the foundation. The same is true of marriage: the most important part of it is the foundation. We want to build our marriages on our relationship with God, using the Bible as our blueprint.

We have seen the films about how love is supposed to be. They call them “romcoms,” romantic comedies. We have heard the emotional songs about love. We look at celebrities and perhaps wish we could have a life like theirs.

But if you use this culture, this world, or Hollywood as an example, you are not going to have a successful marriage. One day storms will come. Hardships will come. Temptations will come. Challenges will come. Health issues will come. And if the foundation of your marriage is not built upon the rock of Jesus Christ, it will not stand.

Don’t look to culture for cues on how to succeed in marriage. Look to a reliable source: the Word of God. The Bible tells us everything we need to know about how to have a strong and lasting marriage.

Harvest.org | Greg Laurie

Kids 4 Truth

Kids 4 Truth International – What Is Right in the Eyes of the LORD

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“Thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD thy God.” (Deuteronomy 13:18b)

Can you see any trees from where you are right now? Some trees are great for climbing. You can go up into the branches and sit for hours, reading a book or maybe just watching the people in your neighborhood. Maybe your elderly next-door neighbor is out in her garden inspecting her roses. Maybe you can spot the postal service car coming down the road, pausing every few seconds to put envelopes into each mailbox.

People are funny sometimes, when they do not know they are being watched. You are probably the same way. When you are alone, you probably behave a little differently than when lots of people are around. You just do whatever you feel like doing. Maybe on some Saturdays, you just stay in your pajamas all day and hang around inside the house. You might be embarrassed if someone outside your family were to see you, but it is just fine for you to make that choice, at least the way you see things.

The LORD is always watching us, though. We do not have to worry so much about pleasing other people, but we do need to remember that God can see everything, and He knows everything about us – including the thoughts of our hearts. If we really love God and want to please Him with our faith, we will not live our lives as though we think He is not watching us. God’s people listen to God’s voice, and they keep His commandments. They “do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD.”

Proverbs 12:15a says that “the way of a fool is right in his own eyes.” Have you ever caught yourself choosing to do something that breaks God’s commandments? Who were you pleasing when you made that choice? Was God watching you? Did you care? It is foolish to do only what we think is OK. What is right in our eyes is not always really right. Why? Because our spiritual “eyes” are limited. We have “blurry” vision, in a way. We are human, sinful, and selfish. We cannot get a clear picture of what is right (and we cannot be anything but fools) unless we choose instead to follow what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

Continue reading Kids 4 Truth International – What Is Right in the Eyes of the LORD →

The Navigators

The Navigators – Jerry Bridges – Holiness Day by Day Devotional – Live by Grace

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Today’s Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:9

“My grace is sufficient for you.”

Learning to live by grace instead of by performance helps us accept the discipline of adversity. We realize that God is not disciplining us because of our bad performance but because of his love for us. We also learn to accept that whatever our situation, it’s far better than we deserve. So we learn not to ask, “Why did this happen to me?” (Meaning, What did I do to deserve such bad treatment from God?). We also learn, as Paul did with his thorn in the flesh, that God’s grace is sufficient for us, however difficult and frustrating our circumstances might be. God’s enabling grace will give us the inner spiritual strength we need to bear the pain and endure the hardship until the time when we see the harvest of righteousness and peace produced by it.

Far from being opposed to each other, grace and discipline—both God’s discipline of us and our discipline of ourselves—are inextricably united together in God’s program of sanctification. There’s no question that God bases his discipline on grace. We are the ones who have problems with the relationship of grace and discipline, and who need to work at cultivating a proper relationship.

That work includes learning to preach the Gospel to ourselves every day. We base the “duty” of discipleship on the Gospel, resulting in the practice of a Christ-based acceptance with God and a spirit-energized approach to the pursuit of holiness. In the joy and strength of knowing our sins are forgiven and sin’s dominion is broken, we press on to become holy as he is holy. The so-called duty of discipleship then becomes a joy and a delight even though it requires vigorous effort.

 

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The Navigators

The Navigators – Leroy Eims – Daily Discipleship Devotional – We Are Victors

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Today’s Scripture: Revelation 10-13

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. – 2 Corinthians 2:14

Throughout the book of Revelation, the apostle John reminds us that, spiritually, we face a real and powerful enemy. Satan is called by a number of different names: the beast, the dragon, and Apollyon, which means destroyer. As we think about the fact of a supernatural enemy bent on our destruction, trying every means at his disposal to destroy our lives and witness, it could cause us to live in fear and admit defeat. But the overwhelming tone of Scripture is one of victory.

In Revelation 12:10-11, we read: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”

Is it possible for us to overcome the enemy on a daily basis? The ministry of Dr. Bob Cook, past president of the National Religious Broadcasters, has always been one filled with new insights from Scripture. When I asked him how he managed to remain vital for so many years, he told me he tries to keep on the offensive, to keep digging in the Word. When the Lord reveals something to him, he freely shares it with someone who needs a word of encouragement. “It’s like shooting a shotgun,” he said. “When you pull the trigger, there’s a kick that comes your way as well.”

To overcome the enemy, we trust in the blood of Christ and share our testimony with others. God will use it to help others and to strengthen us.

Prayer

Lord, I rejoice in Your victory over Satan that not only has defeated him for eternity in the heavenly realms, but also defeats him in my daily life. Amen.

To Ponder

Every time I share the love and faithfulness of God with someone, I affirm His love and mercy in my own life as well.

 

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BreakPoint

BreakPoint –  A Suicidal Ballot in Colorado: Will the Right to Die Become a Duty to Die?

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In a recent article at National Review Online, George Weigel tells a chilling story about just how far the culture of death has advanced in some parts of the West.

Three elderly parishioners at the Canadian church he attends during the summer were diagnosed with cancer. Now, that’s bad enough. But what followed was even worse. The first thing they were asked after being told their diagnosis was, “Do you wish to be euthanized?”

While this story should upset us, it shouldn’t shock us. Despite all the promises made by supporters of physician-assisted suicide, the so-called “safeguards” against pressuring vulnerable people to end their lives “have proved to be inadequate and have often been watered down or eliminated over time.”

Or, as Belgian law professor Étienne Montero observed, “What is presented at first as a right [to die] is going to become a kind of obligation.”

Thus, in fourteen years Belgium went from euthanizing terminally-ill adults, to killing chronically-ill adults, to offing adults who had lost their will to live, to finally disposing of children.

As Weigel’s story suggests, Canada seems literally hell-bent on catching up with Belgium in this regard. Physician-assisted suicide has only been legal there since this spring and it has already has transformed the practice of medicine in Canada. And if some Canadian philosophers get their way, a willingness to kill your patients will be a prerequisite for practicing medicine in the Great White North.

Now it’s Colorado’s turn to play waiting room Russian Roulette. This November my fellow Coloradans and I will vote on Proposition 106, also known by its Orwellian title: “The End of Life Options Act.”

The supporters of the act, which is modeled on California’s recent legislation of the same name, assure voters that a vote for physician-assisted suicide is a vote for “compassion.” They assure us that it will remain limited to cases of extreme suffering.

But as Weigel points out, the language of the proposed act is “duplicitous.” It characterizes killing someone as “palliative care.” And it defines an “adult” as anyone 18 or older, which leads to the absurdity of not being old enough to drink but old enough to request assistance in killing yourself.

Continue reading BreakPoint –  A Suicidal Ballot in Colorado: Will the Right to Die Become a Duty to Die? →

Today in the Word

Moody Global Ministries – Today in the Word – SALVATION LIVING: FOLLOWING CHRIST’S EXAMPLE

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Read 1 PETER 2:18–25

Many Greek and Roman philosophers, such as Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, and Seneca, composed household codes. These codes included instructions for proper family relationships between spouses, parents and children, and slaves. They assumed that the family unit was the sphere in which people fulfilled their social and political duties, with the roles divinely fixed by the gods.

In our reading today, Peter expands on the exhortation that began in verse 13. At first glance, 1 Peter 2:18–3:7 appears to resemble traditional household codes, like Plutarch’s Advice to the Bride and Groom or Seneca’s Moral Epistles, both of which were written in about the same time period as this letter. Peter’s initial readers almost certainly would have been familiar with these codes. But notice how Peter applies the reality of Christian identity in a way that shifts the foundation for these relationships.

First, Peter addresses slaves (and later, wives) directly, something no Greek philosopher does (v. 18). Unlike the culture, God views slaves as full and equal persons. In fact, slaves are described as “called”—their identity in Christ was the same as other believers (v. 21). Second, the motivation for their behavior was reverence for God, not the power of their masters. Peter doesn’t directly attack the social practice of having household slaves, but he shifts the locus of authority for a Christian slave from the master to God.

Finally, the example for how to live when oppressed under an unjust social and political order is Jesus Himself (v. 21). Isaiah 53 reminds us of the humiliation suffered by the perfect Savior and reinforces the truth that our identity is intertwined with His. Even people marginalized by our cultural notions of worth can place their trust in Jesus and find their true identity in Him.

APPLY THE WORD

Peter doesn’t pretend that we will always be treated fairly. Instead, he directs our focus to Jesus, who also suffered. If you are suffering with an irrational boss or a difficult neighbor or an unfair teacher, ask the Lord to renew your confidence in your identity in Christ. We can demonstrate salvation living when we follow His example.

 

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Denison Forum

Denison Forum – WHY HAS CALIFORNIA BEEN SPARED THE ‘BIG ONE’?

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California is more than a century overdue for the “big one,” an earthquake with a magnitude greater than 7.0. But seismologists are now reporting that they have discovered an undersea fault line that may be absorbing pressure from the San Andreas Fault and preventing the earthquake everyone fears.

Their discovery is a metaphor for our day. As cultural pressures escalate, we need hope for a future better than the present. But our hope as a nation does not lie in our nation.

Name this country: the richest in the world, the largest military on the planet, the global center of business, the world’s strongest educational system, the world’s leading currency, and the world’s highest standard of living. The answer: Great Britain in 1900.

A century ago, the United Kingdom was the largest empire the world had ever seen. As late as 1937, the “sun never set on the British empire” as it controlled lands in each of the world’s twenty-four time zones. Today the UK ranks far down the global charts for prosperity, literacy, life expectancy, and gross domestic product per capita.

My point is not to criticize Great Britain. I’m actually an Anglophile who loves visiting the UK and is fascinated by British culture and history. My purpose is to note that no nation’s future is guaranteed.

These are challenging days for America. Our politics are more divisive than I can remember. Experts report that the economy suffered a large, permanent decline in output following the Great Recession and is still struggling to gain significant momentum. According to the FBI, more than 110 Americans have been charged with supporting ISIS in the last three years.

Continue reading Denison Forum – WHY HAS CALIFORNIA BEEN SPARED THE ‘BIG ONE’? →

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – Overcoming Trials

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Hebrews 11:23-29

Moses had some tough times in his long life. He fled from a murder charge, spent years in the desert, stood toe-to-toe with a king who scorned him, led a grumbling nation through 40 years of hardship, and saw those same people run hot and cold in their allegiance. Yet once Moses learned the secret to dealing with trials, he faced them courageously.

Even though he returned to Egypt with an unmistakable call from the Lord (Ex. 3:10), appearing before Pharaoh must nonetheless have been intimidating. And Moses had to plead with the man repeatedly for the release of the Israelites. Pharaoh was not fazed by locusts, convinced by boils, or softened by water turning into blood. In fact, he made life even harder for the slaves by forcing them to find their own brickmaking materials. In turn, the Hebrews heaped ingratitude on their leader.

In spite of all the opposition, Moses kept returning to the palace until he had achieved God’s purpose—the release of His people. Hebrews 11:27 tells us that as the former prince led the exodus from Egypt, “he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.” With a stack of trials behind and despite a hint of more to come in leading this unruly people, Moses moved forward, aware that he was walking in the Lord’s presence.

God had pledged to be with Moses every step of the way (Ex. 3:12). The Israelite leader fixed his focus on that promise and the One who made it. He had the wisdom to trust that I Am (Ex. 3:14)—the eternal sovereign of the universe—would guard his way and bring him victory over trials.

Bible in One Year: Matthew 22-24

 

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Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Doing the Opposite

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Read: Colossians 2:20-3:4

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 34-36; Colossians 2

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.—Colossians 3:3

A wilderness excursion can seem daunting, but for outdoor enthusiasts this only adds to the appeal. Because hikers need more water than they can carry, they purchase bottles with built-in filters so they can use water sources along the way. But the process of drinking from such a container is counterintuitive. Tipping the bottle does nothing. A thirsty hiker has to blow into it to force the water through the filter. Reality is contrary to what seems natural.

As we follow Jesus, we find much that is counterintuitive. Paul pointed out one example: Keeping rules won’t draw us closer to God. He asked, “Why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These rules . . . are based on merely human commands and teachings” (Col. 2:20-22).

So what are we to do? Paul gave the answer. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above” (3:1). “You died,” he told people who were still very much alive, “and your life is now hidden with Christ in God” (v. 3).

We are to consider ourselves “dead” to the values of this world and alive to Christ. We now aspire to a way of life demonstrated by the One who said, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” (Matt. 20:26). —Tim Gustafson

Consider what these counterintuitive principles from the Bible might mean for you: “Whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matt. 16:25). “The last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matt. 20:16). “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10).

God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. 1 Corinthians 1:27

INSIGHT: In Colossae a false teaching known as gnosticism circulated. It promoted the idea that matter is evil and spirit is good, rejecting Jesus Christ’s full humanity as well as His complete divinity. To correct this, Paul wrote: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9). An equally destructive heresy in the spiritual life of the Colossian believers was legalism. This can be summed up as placating the gods or God by following a set of rules for behavior. The believers in Colossae fell into the trap of applying legalism to their Christian walk. Paul’s correction of legalism was logical: He argued that to experience redemption in Christ means that we die to man-made religions of this world and gain spiritual life in Him. Dennis Fisher

 

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