Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
August 15
Help from the Holy Spirit
The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness.
Romans 8:26 (NEB)
The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. What a sentence worthy of a highlighter.
Who does not need this reminder? Weak bodies. Weak wills. Weakened resolves. We’ve known them all. The word weakness can refer to physical infirmities, as with the invalid who had been unable to walk for thirty-eight years (John 5:5), or spiritual impotence, as with the spiritually “helpless” of Romans 5:6.
Whether we are feeble of soul or body or both, how good to know it’s not up to us. The Spirit himself is pleading for us.
2 Thessalonians 1
1Paul, Silas[a] and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving and Prayer
3We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. 4Therefore, among God's churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.
5All this is evidence that God's judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. 6God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
11With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. 12We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.[b]
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Acts 28
Ashore on Malta
1Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta. 2The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. 3Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. 4When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, "This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live." 5But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. 6The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
7There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and for three days entertained us hospitably. 8His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. 9When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured. 10They honored us in many ways and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.
August 15, 2008
Gathering Sticks
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Acts 28:1-10
Through love serve one another. —Galatians 5:13
A painful illness had prevented Bible teacher Billy Walker from carrying on his active schedule for several months. He told a group of men that he especially missed being able to preach, but that God was teaching him throughout his recovery.
One day during his illness, as he meditated and prayed, Billy’s attention was drawn to the passage about Paul’s shipwreck on Malta recorded in Acts 28. There is more to the story than Paul’s miraculous immunity to a venomous snakebite (vv.3-6).
This great apostle to the Gentiles, preacher to thousands, worker of miracles, and writer of much of the New Testament, was stuck on an island as a prisoner. Did he lie back and bemoan his condition? Did he think he should be treated better than others because he was an apostle? No! The Scriptures tell us that he chose to contribute to the work and needs of his fellowmen. It was cold and rainy, so Paul “gathered a bundle of sticks” for a much-needed, warming fire (v.3).
Perhaps you’ve been set aside for a while due to difficult circumstances. Maybe you’ve reached the time in your life when vigorous activity is no longer possible. Don’t despair. Remember Paul’s example, and do what you can do—even if it’s simply “gathering sticks.” — David C. Egner
Start where you are in serving the Lord,
Claim His sure promise and trust in His Word;
God simply asks you to do what you can,
He’ll use your efforts to further His plan. —Anon.
God never puts you in the wrong place to serve Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 15, 2008
The Evidence of the New Birth
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
You must be born again —John 3:7
The answer to Nicodemus’ question, "How can a man be born when he is old?" is: Only when he is willing to die to everything in his life, including his rights, his virtues, and his religion, and becomes willing to receive into himself a new life that he has never before experienced ( John 3:4 ). This new life exhibits itself in our conscious repentance and through our unconscious holiness.
"But as many as received Him. . ." ( John 1:12 ). Is my knowledge of Jesus the result of my own internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I have learned through listening to others? Is there something in my life that unites me with the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior? My spiritual history must have as its underlying foundation a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. To be born again means that I see Jesus.
". . . unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God " (John 3:3). Am I seeking only for the evidence of God’s kingdom, or am I actually recognizing His absolute sovereign control? The new birth gives me a new power of vision by which I begin to discern God’s control. His sovereignty was there all the time, but with God being true to His nature, I could not see it until I received His very nature myself.
"Whoever has been born of God does not sin. . ." ( 1 John 3:9 ). Am I seeking to stop sinning or have I actually stopped? To be born of God means that I have His supernatural power to stop sinning. The Bible never asks, "Should a Christian sin?" The Bible emphatically states that a Christian must not sin. The work of the new birth is being effective in us when we do not commit sin. It is not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have actually stopped sinning. Yet 1 John 3:9 does not mean that we cannot sin— it simply means that if we will obey the life of God in us, that we do not have to sin.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Those Hard-Hitting Holy Men - #5635 - August 15, 2008
Category: Your Mission
Friday, August 15, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
When our older son was in high school, he ate, and drank, and slept football. He was a lineman and, being descended from me, he wasn't all that big. But he played with real intensity! John was one of his teammates, and John was a pretty hard-living kid who had sampled a little of everything. And John knew that our son was one of those Christian-types. And he came to him after the first week of practice and said, "Hey, Hutch, I thought you were a holy man. How come you hit so hard?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Those Hard-Hitting Holy Men."
That comment from our son's teammate was about football, but it revealed what a lot of people think Christian manhood is all about. I remember one young man from Harlem said, "The Jesus in paintings doesn't look like He could last ten minutes in my neighborhood."
Well, it's definitely time for our word for today from the Word of God, John 2, beginning in verse 14. "In the temple courts Jesus found men selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So He made a whip out of cords, and He drove all of them from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves, He said, 'Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father's house into a market!'" This is the hard-hitting Jesus! Single-handedly, He threw out the Temple Mafia. This is no wimpy Savior.
We don't have a physical description of Jesus, but we know He was a carpenter in the days before power tools, that He silently endured brutal beating, torture, and crucifixion, that He spent 40 days in the wilderness without food, and He physically expelled these crooks from the temple.
There is no doubt that Jesus was so tender that children were drawn to Him like a magnet. He was compassionate toward the outcasts, the wounded, the vulnerable. He made people feel very loved and very valuable everywhere he went. But that doesn't mean He was weak. He was every inch a man in tenderness and in strength.
There's a common misconception that Christianity is just for the ladies. And it certainly is for women; no one elevated women more than Jesus did. But look at who Jesus' first followers were - twelve men. Four of them were fishermen, for example, rugged men. And they found what millions of men have found since then: that when a man comes to Jesus, he doesn't lose his manhood, he discovers it.
A man is wired to give 110% of himself to something - like sports or business, or whatever. Every cause, though, is ultimately a letdown. It's never enough. The rush never lasts. So many of us men end up still looking for a cause that is worth everything we've got. When a man like Simon Peter encounters Christ, he says, "This is it! I have found my cause!"
As a man, you're going to be incurably restless until you find the Lord that you were built to serve. When you know you belong to the One who has everything in His control, you have an inner peace that can bring stability to every situation. You discover a better best than you have ever known. You find the power in Christ to conquer the animal inside you that has always conquered you. Plus you've got a new capacity for love and sensitivity and courage that you have never known before.
Listen to Jesus the Man - the God-Man, calling you as He did men two thousand years ago with these words. "Follow Me." He died on a cross to forgive your sin; to give you a new beginning. If you have never surrendered your life to the Man who gave His life for you, let today be your day. If you want to become a follower of Jesus Christ as so many men have over the years and discover full manhood, then I want to invite you to go to our website to follow a path there that I've tried to lay out in simple non-religious words to be sure you've begun a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's YoursForLife.net. And I hope you'll go there at your first opportunity today. Or you can send for the booklet - no charge. It's a toll free call. It's 877-741-1200.
You will find in Jesus Christ an intensity, a strength, and a passion that you have never tasted before. Jesus will make you what you were born to be.
