July 8
The Perfect Priest
On the day when the Lord Jesus comes,...all the people who have believed will be amazed at Jesus.
2 Thessalonians 1:10 (NCV)
When we see Christ, what will we see?
We will see the perfect priest. "He was dressed in a long robe and had a gold band around his chest" (Rev. 1:13). The first readers of this message knew the significance of the robe and band. Jesus is wearing the clothing of a priest. A priest presents people to God and God to people.
You have known other priests. There have been others in your life, whether clergy or not, who sought to bring you to God. But they, too, needed a priest. Some needed a priest more than you did. They, like you, were sinful. Not so with Jesus. "Jesus is the kind of high priest we need. He is holy, sinless, pure, not influenced by sinners, and he is raised above the heavens" (Heb. 7:26).
Jesus is the perfect priest.
From: When Christ Comes
Copyright (Word Publishing, 1999)
Max Lucado
1 Corinthians 16
The Collection for God's People
1Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. 4If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.
Personal Requests
5After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you—for I will be going through Macedonia. 6Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, 9because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.
10If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am. 11No one, then, should refuse to accept him. Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me. I am expecting him along with the brothers.
12Now about our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers. He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity.
13Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. 14Do everything in love.
15You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. I urge you, brothers, 16to submit to such as these and to everyone who joins in the work, and labors at it. 17I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. 18For they refreshed my spirit and yours also. Such men deserve recognition.
Final Greetings
19The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla[a] greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house. 20All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
21I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand.
22If anyone does not love the Lord—a curse be on him. Come, O Lord[b]!
23The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
24My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen.[c]
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Revelation 21
The New Jerusalem
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
July 8, 2008
The Time Machine
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READ: Revelation 21:1-4
With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. —2 Peter 3:8
In 1896, H. G. Wells published a book titled The Time Machine, an imaginative tale of a scientist who builds a machine that can transport someone through time. The time traveler is preoccupied with the future, not the past. Like many scientists, he believes “progress” will enable the human race to build a better world. Yet in Wells’ book, this science-fiction story does not have a happy ending.
The protagonist travels millions of years into the future. There the world has grown cold and dark. As a bleak snow falls, he sees the last remnants of life awaiting extinction. Thoroughly sickened by the twilight of life on our planet, the scientist returns to the time of his origin to report his anguish.
The biblical view of the future is very different. It tells us that God is Lord over time itself: “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). We can be optimistic about the future because God will replace our world with a new one. In that new heaven and new earth we will experience blessed fellowship with our Creator for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4). Even now, Jesus is preparing a place for those who love Him (John 14:1-3), a place where “there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying” (Rev. 21:4). — Dennis Fisher
If God has made this world so fair,
Where sin and death abound,
How beautiful beyond compare
Will paradise be found! —Montgomery
Jesus is preparing a place for us and preparing us for that place.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
July 8, 2008
Will To Be Faithful
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READ:
. . . choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . . —Joshua 24:15
A person’s will is embodied in the actions of the whole person. I cannot give up my will— I must exercise it, putting it into action. I must will to obey, and I must will to receive God’s Spirit. When God gives me a vision of truth, there is never a question of what He will do, but only of what I will do. The Lord has been placing in front of each of us some big proposals and plans. The best thing to do is to remember what you did before when you were touched by God. Recall the moment when you were saved, or first recognized Jesus, or realized some truth. It was easy then to yield your allegiance to God. Immediately recall those moments each time the Spirit of God brings some new proposal before you.
". . . choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. . . ." Your choice must be a deliberate determination— it is not something into which you will automatically drift. And everything else in your life will be held in temporary suspension until you make a decision. The proposal is between you and God— do not "confer with flesh and blood" about it ( Galatians 1:16 ). With every new proposal, the people around us seem to become more and more isolated, and that is where the tension develops. God allows the opinion of His other saints to matter to you, and yet you become less and less certain that others really understand the step you are taking. You have no business trying to find out where God is leading— the only thing God will explain to you is Himself.
Openly declare to Him, "I will be faithful." But remember that as soon as you choose to be faithful to Jesus Christ, "You are witnesses against yourselves . . ." ( Joshua 24:22 ). Don’t consult with other Christians, but simply and freely declare before Him, "I will serve You." Will to be faithful— and give other people credit for being faithful too.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Hero School - #5607
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
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A while back, some of my ministry friends decided they would accept what some might call a challenge to your manhood. They signed up for a rigorous, two-week stress camping program that is called, euphemistically, Character Building. It is - if you make it. They usually just refer to this program in descriptive shorthand - the wilderness. For two weeks, my friend Jim climbed mountains, navigated some serious whitewater, hiked for hours at a time with a heavy backpack, ate off the land, and even endured the final exam of a solo in the wilderness where you are totally on your own for a couple of days. Well, Jim's outlook on life was different after that experience. Whenever some major stress or intimidating problem would come up, he would just smile and say the words that were on one of his favorite shirts, "I can handle it. I've been to the wilderness."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hero School."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 6:4-9. And we're hearing from a veteran of many of life's wildernesses. If you check out this passage carefully, you'll see Paul describes what I call nine pains, and what I call nine gains that must have come, at least in part, from the nine pains.
He says that he served God with great endurance "in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, in sleepless nights, and hunger." That's the pain of the wilderness Paul has traveled. Now, let's listen to the gains, "In purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left." I believe we get more of each of those powerful qualities from the hammering we get in the wilderness!
In fact, nothing increases your strength and your character like the wilderness does. That's why the launching pad for Jesus' public ministry was 40 days in the wilderness - the training for Moses' powerful leadership of God's people was 40 years in the wilderness - and maybe why you are serving your time in the wilderness, right now. You may be asking, "What's wrong?" God's answer may very well be, "Nothing's wrong! Something's right!" He believes in you, He wants to build a warrior out of you, He wants to bless you more, use you more, make you more like His Son Jesus, but that will take the heat and the hurt and the stress of the wilderness!
When my friend went into that wilderness program he was stretched, pushed, challenged and he was hurting sometimes. But he wouldn't trade those weeks for anything; they put life's hard times in perspective and they brought out strength in him and poise in him that he'd never known before. That's God's plan for your wilderness program.
All of God's great heroes are forged in the wilderness, not in the spotlight. Chuck Swindoll says, "I have never known a man or woman God has used mightily whom He has not first allowed to be hurt deeply." Now, why? Because the pain and the struggle is what strips us of our self-sufficiency, and drives us deep into His strength.
So, if you're in a wilderness time right now, you may be in God's school for heroes. It won't always be wilderness, but you will always be able to say, "I can handle it! I've been to the wilderness!"
