Confirming One’s Calling and Election

2 Peter 1:5-7 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Friday, October 2, 2015

Proverbs 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Facing God

The Hebrews did what God commanded-and God protected them. Joshua 5:1 says, "So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites. . .and all the kings of the Canaanites. . . heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan. . .their heart melted, and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the children of Israel."
Devotion prompted divine protection. Don't face Satan by facing Satan. Face Satan by facing God. Don't give Old Scratch the time of day. Colossians 2:15 says, "God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless."
Satan is a fallen angel whose time is short. Don't let him mess with your glory days. Neutralize him. Join me at GloryDaysToday.com to remember what God has done!


Proverbs 2

The Benefits of Wisdom
2 My child,[a] listen to what I say,
    and treasure my commands.
2 Tune your ears to wisdom,
    and concentrate on understanding.
3 Cry out for insight,
    and ask for understanding.
4 Search for them as you would for silver;
    seek them like hidden treasures.
5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
    and you will gain knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord grants wisdom!
    From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.
    He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.
8 He guards the paths of the just
    and protects those who are faithful to him.
9 Then you will understand what is right, just, and fair,
    and you will find the right way to go.
10 For wisdom will enter your heart,
    and knowledge will fill you with joy.
11 Wise choices will watch over you.
    Understanding will keep you safe.
12 Wisdom will save you from evil people,
    from those whose words are twisted.
13 These men turn from the right way
    to walk down dark paths.
14 They take pleasure in doing wrong,
    and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil.
15 Their actions are crooked,
    and their ways are wrong.
16 Wisdom will save you from the immoral woman,
    from the seductive words of the promiscuous woman.
17 She has abandoned her husband
    and ignores the covenant she made before God.
18 Entering her house leads to death;
    it is the road to the grave.[b]
19 The man who visits her is doomed.
    He will never reach the paths of life.
20 Follow the steps of good men instead,
    and stay on the paths of the righteous.
21 For only the godly will live in the land,
    and those with integrity will remain in it.
22 But the wicked will be removed from the land,
    and the treacherous will be uprooted.

Footnotes:

2:1 Hebrew My son.
2:18 Hebrew to the spirits of the dead.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 02, 2015

Read: Joshua 24:2,8-14

Joshua said to the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Long ago your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River,[a] and they worshiped other gods.

Footnotes:

24:2 Hebrew the river; also in 24:3, 14, 15.

INSIGHT:
In Genesis 15, God promised Abraham that He would give his descendants possession of a great stretch of land that was occupied by other people. Several hundred years later, under the leadership of Joshua, God fulfilled His promise, and the people of Israel took possession of the Promised Land. In today’s passage, Joshua reminds the Israelites that it was not by their own military might that they did this, but it was God who gave them the land. As a result of God’s provision (defeating the armies of the other people), Joshua reminded them to fear and serve the Lord. J.R. Hudberg

We Have Fruit!

By Tim Gustafson

I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build. Joshua 24:13

The young mother sighed as she scraped together lunch for her 3-year-old daughter. Spying the empty fruit basket on the table in their tiny kitchen, she sighed and said aloud, “If we just had a basket of fruit, I would feel rich!” Her little girl overheard her.

Weeks passed. God sustained the small family. Still, the struggling mom worried. Then one day her little girl bounded into the kitchen. “Look, Mommy, we’re rich!” she exclaimed, pointing at the full fruit basket on the table. Nothing had changed except that the family had purchased a bag of apples.

When Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, was about to die, he shared a message from the Lord that recounted all God had done for them. And he noted, “You lived in the wilderness for a long time” (Josh. 24:7). Then he said, “[God] gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant” (v. 13). Joshua set up a large stone to remind Israel of God’s provision (v. 26).

Like the Israelites, after a time of challenge and scarcity, that family now lives in a different place and enjoys fruit trees in a spacious yard, planted years earlier by a previous owner. If you visit them, you’ll find a bowl of fruit in their kitchen. It reminds them of God’s goodness and how a 3-year-old infused her family with faith, joy, and perspective.

Thank God for how He has provided in the past. Thank Him for what He will do. Ask Him what He wants you to do. Then trust Him.

Remembering God’s provision for yesterday gives hope and strength for today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 02, 2015

The Place of Humiliation

If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. —Mark 9:22

After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see Mark 9:5-6, Mark 9:14-23).

“If you can do anything….” It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation?

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand.  Not Knowing Whither, 888 L


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 02, 2015

The Trouble With Christians - Part 2 - #7495

There are five Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John - and the Christian. Most people never read the first four. That observation, made a long time ago, could not be more true today.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Trouble With Christians - Part 2."

If our world's getting darker, then something must be wrong with what folks are "reading," in the Christians - the messengers - they know. We talked about that yesterday. And then there must be something wrong with their message. No, wait! Actually, with the way they represent the message.

That message is, as the Bible says is the "good news about Jesus" - the love that died for us, the power that crushed death. So the problem sure isn't the message. But the Good News doesn't sound as good when it's obscured by three mistakes that we messengers make.

Number one, our tone. So many unbelievers I know use some unwelcome words to describe Christians. You may have heard them: "angry," "you're judgmental," "you're condemning." Did you know up to 80% of communication is tone? Not what we say, but how we say it. So is our tone drowning out our message?

Jesus' main man, Simon Peter, seemed to learn that over time. Earlier, he was brash, he was explosive. But later, he said we should "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone...with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15). Is that how people feel when they're with us - "gentled" and "respected"? Is it our message folks are rejecting or our tone? This isn't about winning an argument. It's about winning a heart.

Then secondly, our retreat may be part of the problem our message gets obscured. We Jesus-followers have one authority for the message that changes eternities. It's God's Word. "All Scripture" the Bible calls it. And it says it is "God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16).

But as our culture moves, Christians tend to move with it. Always keeping an apparently "righteous distance" but quickly ending up where non-believers were as little as ten years ago. And reinterpreting, rationalizing, diluting their source, the Bible, to justify their flexible "truth."

When we adjust our beliefs to placate our culture, we are no longer the choice Jesus called us to be. We're just an echo of our culture, losing the power of God's voice for some wimpy blend of Christianity and cultural appeasement.

As Martin Luther essentially stood against the whole world in his day, here was his anchor verse: "Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens" (Psalm 119:89). If it stands firm in the heavens, I can't change it on earth.

Thirdly, I think our message can be obscured by our baggage. The Gospel is compelling when it's just the Gospel. But some people never get to the Gospel because of the baggage we encumber it with: church, denomination, culture wars, rules, condemning people's lifestyles.

It's all about Jesus. Jesus made it all about Jesus with His simple invitation, "Follow Me" (Mark 1:17). "Come to Me" (Matthew 11:28). "Trust in Me" (John 14:1). That's why Paul, Jesus' greatest ambassador said in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 2:2, "I resolved when I was among you to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Charles Spurgeon said the Cross is "that magnificent magnet." Because "if they perceive," Spurgeon said, "that He loved them and gave Himself for them, their hearts are stolen away."

That message, uncompromised, unencumbered, delivered with love, is what it has always been. Romans 1:16, "The power of God at work, saving everyone who believes." It's all about Jesus and His Cross. Stick to that!

Messengers who act like Jesus, a message that's all about Jesus. That is a bright light on an otherwise dark and dangerous stretch of beach.