If you were told you were free to enter the Oval Office at the White House, you’d shake your head and chuckle, “You’re one brick short of a load, buddy.” Multiply your disbelief by a thousand, and you’ll have an idea how a Jew would feel if someone told him he could enter the Holy of Holies–a part of the Temple no one could enter except the high priest and then only one day a year. Why? Because the glory of God was present there.
God is holy, and we are sinners, and there is a distance between us. Like Job we say, “If only there were a mediator who could bring us together.” 1 Timothy 2:5 says, “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Jesus Christ.”
God welcomes you. He’s not avoiding you. The door is open. God invites you in!
From He Chose the Nails
Matthew 8:18-34
The Cost of Following Jesus
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. 19 Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
21 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Jesus Calms the Storm
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”
Jesus Restores Two Demon-Possessed Men
28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes,[a] two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29 “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”
30 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31 The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
32 He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.
Footnotes:
Matthew 8:28 Some manuscripts Gergesenes; other manuscripts Gerasenes
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: John 5:24-30
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
Insight
In our passage today, John portrays Jesus as both life-giver and judge (5:24). As life-giver, Jesus gives us eternal life. As judge, Jesus will not condemn us (Rom. 8:1). God has given Jesus authority to be life-giver and judge “because He is the Son of Man” (John 5:27). The title “the Son of Man” is a Messianic title (Dan. 7:13-14) that speaks of Jesus’ deity and humanity. Jesus used the title synonymously with “the Son of God” (Matt. 26:63-64).
Victory Over Death!
By Dennis Fisher
The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth. —John 5:28-29
An ancient painting I saw recently made a deep impression on me. Its title, Anastasis, means “resurrection,” and it depicts the triumph of Christ’s victory over death in a stunning way. The Lord Jesus, newly emerged from the tomb, is pulling Adam and Eve out of their coffins to eternal life. What is so amazing about this artwork is the way it shows how spiritual and physical death, the result of the fall, were dramatically reversed by the risen Christ.
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| Anastasis |
Prior to His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus predicted a future day when He will call believers into a new and glorified existence: “The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth” (John 5:28-29).
Because of Christ’s victory over death, the grave is not final. We naturally will feel sorrow and grief when those we love die and we are separated from them in this life. But the believer does not grieve as one who has no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). The witness of Jesus’ resurrection is that all Christians will one day be taken from their graves to be clothed with glorified resurrection bodies (1 Cor. 15:42-44). And so “we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17).
Dear Lord, thank You for sacrificing Your life for our
sins so that we might live. We’re thankful that
because You died and rose again, we can have
assurance that one day we’ll be with You in a place of no more death.
Because Christ is alive, we too shall live.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, April 21, 2014
Don’t Hurt the Lord
Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? —John 14:9
Our Lord must be repeatedly astounded at us-astounded at how “un-simple” we are. It is our own opinions that make us dense and slow to understand, but when we are simple we are never dense; we have discernment all the time. Philip expected the future revelation of a tremendous mystery, but not in Jesus, the Person he thought he already knew. The mystery of God is not in what is going to be-it is now, though we look for it to be revealed in the future in some overwhelming, momentous event. We have no reluctance to obey Jesus, but it is highly probable that we are hurting Him by what we ask-”Lord, show us the Father . . .” (John 14:8). His response immediately comes back to us as He says, “Can’t you see Him? He is always right here or He is nowhere to be found.” We look for God to exhibit Himself to His children, but God only exhibits Himself in His children. And while others see the evidence, the child of God does not. We want to be fully aware of what God is doing in us, but we cannot have complete awareness and expect to remain reasonable or balanced in our expectations of Him. If all we are asking God to give us is experiences, and the awareness of those experiences is blocking our way, we hurt the Lord. The very questions we ask hurt Jesus, because they are not the questions of a child.
“Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (14:1, 27). Am I then hurting Jesus by allowing my heart to be troubled? . If I believe in Jesus and His attributes, am I living up to my belief? Am I allowing anything to disturb my heart, or am I allowing any questions to come in which are unsound or unbalanced? I have to get to the point of the absolute and unquestionable relationship that takes everything exactly as it comes from Him. God never guides us at some time in the future, but always here and now. Realize that the Lord is here now, and the freedom you receive is immediate.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Rapture Practice - #7116
Monday, April 21, 2014
Back in my old Bible school days, some of my friends liked to get a little "punchy" when they got tired. And that's when you would see them doing what they would call "rapture practice." Yeah, you probably know the Bible describes Christ's coming for His own people, and a trumpet will sound and Christians caught up in the air to meet Him.
Well, one of my crazy friends would suddenly walk into the room and announce, "Rapture practice!" And then he'd go "ta-da!" That's the trumpet. And the other guys would respond. They would raise their hands above their heads and jump into the air. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm just telling you about it. I did not invent this.
Christians have had the opportunity for a much more serious rapture practice. I mean, a popular book predicted a date on which the author had rather, he thought, scientifically calculated that Christ would return. Many believers knew about that date and thought about it, even though Christ did not return as predicted at that point.
Look, He will when He's ready; not when we set the date. He said no man would know the day or the hour when He would come. But many believers started to think about it a lot. And even though some of us are uncomfortable with date setting, and we should be, that prediction made a lot of folks look at their lives. And that's a good thing just in case it was the right date. Jesus will return - maybe soon. Maybe we could use a little preparation.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Rapture Practice."
Our word for today from the Word of God is from 1 Peter 4:7 where Peter begins, "The end of all things is near." These are instructions for how to live when time is short. I feel that shortness of time. Do you? I feel it with my children. I feel it with my grandchildren. I feel like I'm running out of time to mark their lives. I feel that as my life seems to just fly by, and you don't have to have many birthdays to be like, "How can I be this old this fast?"
I look at the prophetic stage that seems to be set right now. I mean, a volatile middle east and Israel in the middle of it all. And the incredible rise of anti-Christian theology, and the marginalization of those who are loyal to Christ. And the Bible describes the falling away of Christians, global warming alarms, and all kinds of unprecedented occurrences and recurrences of natural disasters.
However you cut it, these are urgent times. I can't say Jesus is coming back at a certain time. I can say I'm not sure the world has ever looked more like the world He said He's return to than it looks right now. Look, this is a blueprint for people who are running out of time.
1 Peter 4:7 gives this instruction to people living in urgent times. "The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray." Any proper response to urgent times begins on your knees. And there are two prerequisites here to urgent times praying. First, you've got to have a clear mind. In other words, before you pray, make sure your mind is in neutral - that you're objective. That you come to God, not with your mind all made up, but you come with a blank piece of paper that says, "God, whatever you say to me, that's it. I'll do it."
Then it says to be self-controlled. You have to come to Him with controlled emotions. A pre-conceived mindset when you pray, or run-away feelings can lead you astray. They can confuse you. They can distort things, destroy judgment. They can drown out the voice of God. God wants to direct you, especially in these urgent times. He wants you to pray boldly. Before you can, you have to dethrone your own pre-conceptions and your own emotions, and then totally center on your sovereign Lord.
If you feel the shortness of time, don't panic. Don't go running around all over the place. First, get on your knees a lot more and listen for God's direction. It's never been more important that you have a God-directed day. There's no time to waste on your bright ideas or your personally conceived plans. The best practice for Christ's return is to spend time in His powerful presence.
