Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 30
A Love that Never Fails
Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:8 (NIV)
Some of you are so thirsty for this type of love. A love that never fails. Those who should have loved you didn’t. Those who could have loved you didn’t. You were left at the hospital. Left at the altar. Left with an empty bed. Left with a broken heart. Left with your question “Does anybody love me?”
Please listen to heaven’s answer. God loves you. Personally. Powerfully. Passionately. Others have promised and failed. But God has promised and succeeded. He loves you with and unfailing love. And his love—if you will let it—can fill you and leave you with a love worth giving.
So come. Come thirsty and drink deeply.
1 John 5
Faith in the Son of God
1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
6This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7For there are three that testify: 8the[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Concluding Remarks
13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
16If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. 17All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
18We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. 19We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
21Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 John 5:6-13
6This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7For there are three that testify: 8the[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Concluding Remarks
13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
September 30, 2008
That You May Know
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 1 John 5:6-13
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. —1 John 5:13
One day, while Wim was in the marketplace in the Netherlands, he struck up a conversation with a woman who remarked that you can get to heaven by doing good works.
His attempt to explain that it is by God’s grace that we are “saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8) brought a smile as the woman repeated confidently: “and . . . by doing good works.” Then another woman volunteered, “You can hope you’ll go to heaven, but you can’t be sure.” Wim’s assertion that he did know for sure was met with a muttered, “Nobody knows for sure.”
Wim then showed the woman what 1 John 5:11-13 says. He explained: “See, it doesn’t say hope there, it says know.” Unconvinced, she said, “Like you, my pastor says that we have to have faith, but you really never know whether you’ve been good enough. You may think you have, but who can be sure?”
To some, Wim’s confidence may seem incredible. But he based his words on this statement: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works” (Eph. 2:8-9).
It’s true. We can’t be good enough. We can never do enough good things. But we can be sure of heaven if we simply believe on the Lord (Acts 16:31). — Cindy Hess Kasper
We cannot earn our way to heaven
By word or work or worth;
But if we trust in Christ to save us,
Then we’ll enjoy new birth. —Branon
We are saved by God’s mercy, not by our merit—by Christ’s dying, not by our doing.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 30, 2008
The Assigning of the Call
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church . . . —Colossians 1:24
We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, "Here am I! Send me" ( Isaiah 6:8 ).
This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, "If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!" But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed— you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.
I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Where the Spotlight Belongs - #5667 - September 30, 2008
Category: Your Most Important Relationship
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
When you speak in public settings as much as I do, you learn there are two people in that auditorium you really want on your side. One is the man in charge of the sound. Without him, no one can hear you. The other is the man in charge of the spotlight, because without him, no one can see you.
After all, I'm not that big you know, and I disappear pretty easily in a crowd. In any large event, the spotlight man really is one of the unsung heroes. I mean, you don't think about him; he's invisible for the most part, but he sure makes a difference in the program...unless he forgets where the spotlight goes. Imagine the announcer says, "And now here's our host, Guy Smiley." And as the M. C. appears on stage, the spotlight man suddenly swings that light around until it's shining right on him! You can't see the man you're supposed to be looking at because the guy with the spotlight has you looking at him!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Where the Spotlight Belongs."
The problem of the misplaced spotlight has happened over and over again, with the spotlight that is supposed to be shining on God and God alone. Now you may not have a union card, but if you're a Jesus-follower, you're a spotlight operator. The question is, who's the spotlight on?
King David must have struggled with that sometimes. He says in our word for today from the Word of God in Psalm 115:1, "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name be the glory." It's interesting he says "not to us" twice isn't it? Almost as if he needs to hear himself say it again. "The glory is not supposed to go to us - not to us." God should always get all the credit.
Jeremiah asks this probing question - one which I need to listen to and maybe you do, too. He says in Jeremiah 45:5, "Should you then seek great things for yourself?" Then this sober warning, "Seek them not." God Himself soberly warns us, "I am the Lord. That is My name. And My glory I will not give to another." But listen, it's tempting to grab a little of the glory, isn't it? After you've made a good impression or done a good job, just to think, "Hey, aren't I something?" Then God weighs in with His reality check question from 1 Corinthians 4:7, "What do you have that you did not receive?" Or as 2 Corinthians 4:7 says in the Living Bible, "Our only power and success comes from God."
Could it be that you've been turning the light that's supposed to be illuminating Jesus on yourself? Pride has subtly started to creep in, you're making sure that folks hear about what you did, you're pushing, you're promoting yourself a little more, you're getting slightly addicted to the attention, to the applause. Without realizing it, you have reversed John's equation, "He must increase; I must decrease."
Throughout Scripture, throughout history, pride has been the subtle destroyer of people that God wanted to use. As soon as He started to use them, they forgot it was Him, not them, that any success is a gift from God, not an achievement by us. It's all about Jesus; it's nothing about you. And even though men can't usually see the pride in your heart like they can see the more outward sins, God can see it and He'll not tolerate it.
All the good things God has given you, all the good things God has done for you and through you are your spotlight to shine on the only Star there really is in this show - the Lord God himself.
If you've been turning that spotlight on yourself lately, it's time to put it back where it belongs. "Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your Name be the glory."
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
1 John 4, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 29
A Place for the Weary
Do not lose the courage you had in the past, which has a great reward.
Hebrews 10:35 (NCV)
Is there anything more frail than a bruised reed? Look at the bruised reed at the water's edge. A once slender and tall stalk of sturdy river grass, it is now bowed and bent.
Are you a bruised reed? Was it so long ago that you stood so tall, so proud?...
Then something happened. You were bruised...
by harsh words
by a friend's anger
by a spouse's betrayal ....
The bruised reed .... Society knows what to do with you .... The world will break you off; the world will snuff you out.
But the artists of Scripture proclaim that God won't. Painted on canvas after canvas is the tender touch of a Creator who has a special place for the bruised and weary of the world. A God who is the friend of the wounded heart.
1 John 4
Test the Spirits
1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
God's Love and Ours
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son[b] into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[c] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
James 1
1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:
Greetings.
Trials and Temptations
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
September 29, 2008
Ask Me Now
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: James 1:1-8
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. —James 1:5
Whether you need a weather forecast for Singapore or driving directions to a restaurant in Chicago, the answer may be just a cell-phone call away. A California-based mobile service called AskMeNow utilizes Internet content sources to send text-message replies to queries from registered users on just about any subject. In many cases, a text-message reply may be received within minutes of submitting a question.
In a sense, the invitation to ask anything, anytime, anywhere mirrors God’s call to all who follow Jesus: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach” (James 1:5). But this is more than a mobile information service. It is our heavenly Father’s promise to provide the guidance we need, especially during trying times.
All we need is a sincere desire to follow God’s direction and faith that His way is best. Because the Lord “gives generously to all men without making them feel foolish or guilty,” we can ask in faith without doubting (vv.5-6 Phillips).
The Internet is a great place to find helpful information, but there is only one source of divine wisdom to direct our steps each day. The Father invites our sincere requests anytime, anywhere. — David C. McCasland
My Lord is ever with me
Along life’s busy way;
I trust in Him completely
For guidance day by day. —Anon.
Be smart—ask for God’s wisdom.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 29, 2008
The Awareness of the Call
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
. . . for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! —1 Corinthians 9:16
We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God. If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called. The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. But however quickly or slowly this awareness comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural— something that is inexpressible and produces a "glow." At any moment the sudden awareness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life may break through— "I chose you . . ." ( John 15:16 ). The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. You are not called to preach the gospel because you are sanctified; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a compulsion that was placed upon him.
If you have ignored, and thereby removed, the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances. See where you have put your own ideas of service or your particular abilities ahead of the call of God. Paul said, ". . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!" He had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to "preach the gospel" was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength.
If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Impressive on the Outside, Nothing on the Inside - #5666 - September 29, 2008
Category: Your Most Important Relationship
Monday, September 29, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Hollywood is a world of illusions. If you didn't know that already, you learn it for sure when you tour one of the major movie studios. I toured one where they have a lot of our movies and TV shows filmed, and I saw this old Western town, there was a World War II vintage French village, and a 1930s neighborhood in Chicago - some really impressive buildings. Until you open a door and go inside any of those buildings. There's nothing there. It's all just a set!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Impressive on the Outside, Nothing on the Inside."
Unfortunately, that describes more than just a Hollywood studio set. It describes a lot of people's lives. Maybe, if you're honest, it could describe yours.
Our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Timothy 3:5, describes people who have "a form of godliness" (that means they look good on the outside), but they are "denying its power." Then it talks about people who are "always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth." So, the Bible says there are people with impressive exteriors, but behind the set, there's emptiness. They have religion, but no real spiritual power. Do you ever feel that way? They have education, but no real answers.
Back in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon described the great "set" that he had up in his life. He had massive wealth, fabulous entertainment, and great accomplishments. But in his own words, he described it all as "meaningless, a chasing after the wind" (Ecclesiastes 1:14). Behind an impressive set, he was feeling empty. Look, I've had a state champion high school athlete ask me, after having all his dreams come true, "Why do I feel so empty?" A couple of days later a community leader, active in his church, asked me almost the exact same question.
Maybe your life has a great set for people to see, success, friends, and a sense of humor, but you know that behind the act there's no power, there are no answers, and there is no peace even after years of wearing the right mask and saying all the right things. Clearly, behind the set, something is missing. Solomon figured out what it is. He said, "God has set eternity in the hearts of men" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). You need something eternal, something forever to fill that hole in your heart.
What's missing is that vital relationship that you were made for. Speaking of Jesus, Colossians 1:16 says that you were "created by Him and for Him." You're missing Jesus in your heart. Even religious people can miss Him. Your Christian exterior may actually have allowed you to believe that you have Jesus when, in reality, you've never consciously given yourself to the Man who died to pay for all your sin.
If you're tired of just repainting the scenery of your life and improving the exterior, why not open the door of that set and let Jesus into the emptiness inside. If you want to begin for real, finally, your personal relationship with Him, tell Him that right now. "Jesus, I was made by you and for you, but I've lived pretty much for me. And today I turn from that. I believe you died to pay the death penalty for every wrong thing I've ever done, and today I am giving myself totally to you because you gave yourself totally for me." He's alive! He walked out of His grave. He's ready to come into your life this very day.
A lot of people have found encouragement and even the way home at our website YoursForLife.net. I'd encourage you to go there if you're at the point of saying, "I want to be sure I have this relationship with Jesus Christ. Or I'd be glad to send you my booklet Yours For Life at no cost, if you'll just call toll free 877-741-1200.
You see, Jesus is the One who goes in that hole in your heart. And He can take a life that has been just a "set" and make it a home that you can really live in.
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 29
A Place for the Weary
Do not lose the courage you had in the past, which has a great reward.
Hebrews 10:35 (NCV)
Is there anything more frail than a bruised reed? Look at the bruised reed at the water's edge. A once slender and tall stalk of sturdy river grass, it is now bowed and bent.
Are you a bruised reed? Was it so long ago that you stood so tall, so proud?...
Then something happened. You were bruised...
by harsh words
by a friend's anger
by a spouse's betrayal ....
The bruised reed .... Society knows what to do with you .... The world will break you off; the world will snuff you out.
But the artists of Scripture proclaim that God won't. Painted on canvas after canvas is the tender touch of a Creator who has a special place for the bruised and weary of the world. A God who is the friend of the wounded heart.
1 John 4
Test the Spirits
1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit[a] of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
God's Love and Ours
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son[b] into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[c] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
James 1
1James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:
Greetings.
Trials and Temptations
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
September 29, 2008
Ask Me Now
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: James 1:1-8
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. —James 1:5
Whether you need a weather forecast for Singapore or driving directions to a restaurant in Chicago, the answer may be just a cell-phone call away. A California-based mobile service called AskMeNow utilizes Internet content sources to send text-message replies to queries from registered users on just about any subject. In many cases, a text-message reply may be received within minutes of submitting a question.
In a sense, the invitation to ask anything, anytime, anywhere mirrors God’s call to all who follow Jesus: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach” (James 1:5). But this is more than a mobile information service. It is our heavenly Father’s promise to provide the guidance we need, especially during trying times.
All we need is a sincere desire to follow God’s direction and faith that His way is best. Because the Lord “gives generously to all men without making them feel foolish or guilty,” we can ask in faith without doubting (vv.5-6 Phillips).
The Internet is a great place to find helpful information, but there is only one source of divine wisdom to direct our steps each day. The Father invites our sincere requests anytime, anywhere. — David C. McCasland
My Lord is ever with me
Along life’s busy way;
I trust in Him completely
For guidance day by day. —Anon.
Be smart—ask for God’s wisdom.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 29, 2008
The Awareness of the Call
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
. . . for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! —1 Corinthians 9:16
We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God. If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called. The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. But however quickly or slowly this awareness comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural— something that is inexpressible and produces a "glow." At any moment the sudden awareness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life may break through— "I chose you . . ." ( John 15:16 ). The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. You are not called to preach the gospel because you are sanctified; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a compulsion that was placed upon him.
If you have ignored, and thereby removed, the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances. See where you have put your own ideas of service or your particular abilities ahead of the call of God. Paul said, ". . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!" He had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to "preach the gospel" was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength.
If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Impressive on the Outside, Nothing on the Inside - #5666 - September 29, 2008
Category: Your Most Important Relationship
Monday, September 29, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Hollywood is a world of illusions. If you didn't know that already, you learn it for sure when you tour one of the major movie studios. I toured one where they have a lot of our movies and TV shows filmed, and I saw this old Western town, there was a World War II vintage French village, and a 1930s neighborhood in Chicago - some really impressive buildings. Until you open a door and go inside any of those buildings. There's nothing there. It's all just a set!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Impressive on the Outside, Nothing on the Inside."
Unfortunately, that describes more than just a Hollywood studio set. It describes a lot of people's lives. Maybe, if you're honest, it could describe yours.
Our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Timothy 3:5, describes people who have "a form of godliness" (that means they look good on the outside), but they are "denying its power." Then it talks about people who are "always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth." So, the Bible says there are people with impressive exteriors, but behind the set, there's emptiness. They have religion, but no real spiritual power. Do you ever feel that way? They have education, but no real answers.
Back in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon described the great "set" that he had up in his life. He had massive wealth, fabulous entertainment, and great accomplishments. But in his own words, he described it all as "meaningless, a chasing after the wind" (Ecclesiastes 1:14). Behind an impressive set, he was feeling empty. Look, I've had a state champion high school athlete ask me, after having all his dreams come true, "Why do I feel so empty?" A couple of days later a community leader, active in his church, asked me almost the exact same question.
Maybe your life has a great set for people to see, success, friends, and a sense of humor, but you know that behind the act there's no power, there are no answers, and there is no peace even after years of wearing the right mask and saying all the right things. Clearly, behind the set, something is missing. Solomon figured out what it is. He said, "God has set eternity in the hearts of men" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). You need something eternal, something forever to fill that hole in your heart.
What's missing is that vital relationship that you were made for. Speaking of Jesus, Colossians 1:16 says that you were "created by Him and for Him." You're missing Jesus in your heart. Even religious people can miss Him. Your Christian exterior may actually have allowed you to believe that you have Jesus when, in reality, you've never consciously given yourself to the Man who died to pay for all your sin.
If you're tired of just repainting the scenery of your life and improving the exterior, why not open the door of that set and let Jesus into the emptiness inside. If you want to begin for real, finally, your personal relationship with Him, tell Him that right now. "Jesus, I was made by you and for you, but I've lived pretty much for me. And today I turn from that. I believe you died to pay the death penalty for every wrong thing I've ever done, and today I am giving myself totally to you because you gave yourself totally for me." He's alive! He walked out of His grave. He's ready to come into your life this very day.
A lot of people have found encouragement and even the way home at our website YoursForLife.net. I'd encourage you to go there if you're at the point of saying, "I want to be sure I have this relationship with Jesus Christ. Or I'd be glad to send you my booklet Yours For Life at no cost, if you'll just call toll free 877-741-1200.
You see, Jesus is the One who goes in that hole in your heart. And He can take a life that has been just a "set" and make it a home that you can really live in.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
1 John 3, daily reading and devotions
Receive God’s Hope, by Max Lucado
Sunday, September 28, 2008
“Come near to God and God will come near to you.”
James 4:8
Your toughest challenge is nothing more than bobby pins and rubber bands to God. Bobby pins and rubber bands?
My older sister used to give them to me when I was a child. I would ride my tricycle up and down the sidewalk, pretending that the bobby pins were keys and my trike was a truck. But one day I lost the “keys.” Crisis! What was I going to do? My search yielded nothing but tears and fear. But when I confessed my mistake to my sister, she just smiled. Being a decade older, she had a better perspective.
God has a better perspective as well. With all due respect, our severest struggles are, in his view, nothing worse than lost bobby pins and rubber bands. He is not confounded, confused, or discouraged.
Receive his hope, won’t you? Receive it because you need it. Receive it so you can share it.
1 John 3
1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,[a]we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
Love one another
11This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 13Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 116
1 I love the LORD, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
2 Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The cords of death entangled me,
the anguish of the grave [a] came upon me;
I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
4 Then I called on the name of the LORD :
"O LORD, save me!"
5 The LORD is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.
6 The LORD protects the simplehearted;
when I was in great need, he saved me.
7 Be at rest once more, O my soul,
for the LORD has been good to you.
8 For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling,
9 that I may walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
10 I believed; therefore [b] I said,
"I am greatly afflicted."
11 And in my dismay I said,
"All men are liars."
12 How can I repay the LORD
for all his goodness to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD.
14 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his saints.
16 O LORD, truly I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant [c] ;
you have freed me from my chains.
17 I will sacrifice a thank offering to you
and call on the name of the LORD.
18 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the LORD—
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD. [d]
September 28, 2008
Showing Up
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READ: Psalm 116
Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. —Psalm 116:2
Leonardo da Vinci spent 10 years drawing ears, elbows, hands, and other parts of the body in many different aspects. Then one day he set aside the exercises and painted what he saw. Likewise, athletes and musicians never become great without regular practice.
For years I resisted a regular routine of prayer, believing that communication with God should be spontaneous and free. But I found that I needed the discipline of regularity to make possible those exceptional times of free communication with God. Eventually I learned that spontaneity often flows from discipline.
The writer Nancy Mairs says she attends church in the same spirit she goes to her desk every morning to write, so that if an idea comes she’ll be there to receive it. I approach prayer the same way. I keep on whether it feels like I am profiting or not. I show up in hopes of getting to know God better, perhaps hearing from Him in ways accessible only through solitude.
The English word meditate derives from a Latin word that means “to rehearse.” Often my prayers seem like a kind of rehearsal. I go over basic notes (the Lord’s Prayer), practice familiar pieces (the Psalms), and try out a few new tunes. Mainly, I show up. — Philip Yancey
Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant’s lips can try;
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high. —Montgomery
Prayer is an intimate conversation with our God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 28, 2008
The "Go" of Unconditional Identification
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READ:
Jesus . . . said to him, ’One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor . . . and come, take up the cross, and follow Me’ —Mark 10:21
The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple. Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships. Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but deals solely with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us truly know what is meant by the absolute "go" of unconditional identification with, and abandonment and surrender to, Jesus.
"Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . ." ( Mark 10:21 ). This look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you? This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates, and captivates. Where you are soft and pliable with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on having your own way, and always certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.
"One thing you lack . . . ." From Jesus Christ’s perspective, oneness with Him, with nothing between, is the only good thing.
". . . sell whatever you have . . . ." I must humble myself until I am merely a living person. I must essentially renounce possessions of all kinds, not for salvation (for only one thing saves a person and that is absolute reliance in faith upon Jesus Christ), but to follow Jesus. ". . . come. . . and follow Me." And the road is the way He went.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
“Come near to God and God will come near to you.”
James 4:8
Your toughest challenge is nothing more than bobby pins and rubber bands to God. Bobby pins and rubber bands?
My older sister used to give them to me when I was a child. I would ride my tricycle up and down the sidewalk, pretending that the bobby pins were keys and my trike was a truck. But one day I lost the “keys.” Crisis! What was I going to do? My search yielded nothing but tears and fear. But when I confessed my mistake to my sister, she just smiled. Being a decade older, she had a better perspective.
God has a better perspective as well. With all due respect, our severest struggles are, in his view, nothing worse than lost bobby pins and rubber bands. He is not confounded, confused, or discouraged.
Receive his hope, won’t you? Receive it because you need it. Receive it so you can share it.
1 John 3
1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,[a]we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
Love one another
11This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 13Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 116
1 I love the LORD, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
2 Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The cords of death entangled me,
the anguish of the grave [a] came upon me;
I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
4 Then I called on the name of the LORD :
"O LORD, save me!"
5 The LORD is gracious and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.
6 The LORD protects the simplehearted;
when I was in great need, he saved me.
7 Be at rest once more, O my soul,
for the LORD has been good to you.
8 For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling,
9 that I may walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
10 I believed; therefore [b] I said,
"I am greatly afflicted."
11 And in my dismay I said,
"All men are liars."
12 How can I repay the LORD
for all his goodness to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD.
14 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his saints.
16 O LORD, truly I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant [c] ;
you have freed me from my chains.
17 I will sacrifice a thank offering to you
and call on the name of the LORD.
18 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the LORD—
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD. [d]
September 28, 2008
Showing Up
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Psalm 116
Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. —Psalm 116:2
Leonardo da Vinci spent 10 years drawing ears, elbows, hands, and other parts of the body in many different aspects. Then one day he set aside the exercises and painted what he saw. Likewise, athletes and musicians never become great without regular practice.
For years I resisted a regular routine of prayer, believing that communication with God should be spontaneous and free. But I found that I needed the discipline of regularity to make possible those exceptional times of free communication with God. Eventually I learned that spontaneity often flows from discipline.
The writer Nancy Mairs says she attends church in the same spirit she goes to her desk every morning to write, so that if an idea comes she’ll be there to receive it. I approach prayer the same way. I keep on whether it feels like I am profiting or not. I show up in hopes of getting to know God better, perhaps hearing from Him in ways accessible only through solitude.
The English word meditate derives from a Latin word that means “to rehearse.” Often my prayers seem like a kind of rehearsal. I go over basic notes (the Lord’s Prayer), practice familiar pieces (the Psalms), and try out a few new tunes. Mainly, I show up. — Philip Yancey
Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant’s lips can try;
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high. —Montgomery
Prayer is an intimate conversation with our God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 28, 2008
The "Go" of Unconditional Identification
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
Jesus . . . said to him, ’One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor . . . and come, take up the cross, and follow Me’ —Mark 10:21
The rich young ruler had the controlling passion to be perfect. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him. Our Lord never places anyone’s personal holiness above everything else when He calls a disciple. Jesus’ primary consideration is my absolute annihilation of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships. Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification, but deals solely with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. Very few of us truly know what is meant by the absolute "go" of unconditional identification with, and abandonment and surrender to, Jesus.
"Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him . . ." ( Mark 10:21 ). This look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing. Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you? This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates, and captivates. Where you are soft and pliable with God is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on having your own way, and always certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze.
"One thing you lack . . . ." From Jesus Christ’s perspective, oneness with Him, with nothing between, is the only good thing.
". . . sell whatever you have . . . ." I must humble myself until I am merely a living person. I must essentially renounce possessions of all kinds, not for salvation (for only one thing saves a person and that is absolute reliance in faith upon Jesus Christ), but to follow Jesus. ". . . come. . . and follow Me." And the road is the way He went.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
1 John 2, and devotionals
It’s Going to Be Okay
by Max Lucado
Bill Tucker was sixteen years old when his dad suffered a health crisis and consequently had to leave his business. Even after Mr. Tucker regained his health, the Tucker family struggled financially, barely getting by.
Mr. Tucker, an entrepreneurial sort, came up with an idea. He won the bid to reupholster the chairs at the local movie theater. This stunned his family. He had never stitched a seat. He didn’t even own a sewing apparatus. Still, he found someone to teach him the skill and located an industrial-strength machine. The family scraped together every cent they had to buy it. They drained savings accounts and dug coins out of the sofa. Finally, they had enough.
It was a fine day when Bill road with his dad to pick up the equipment. Bill remembers a jovial, hour-long trip discussing the bright horizons this new opportunity afforded them. They loaded the machine in the back of their truck and secured it right behind the cab. Mr. Tucker then invited his son to drive home. I’ll let Bill tell you what happened next:
“As we were driving along, we were excited, and I, like any sixteen-year-old driver, was probably not paying enough attention to my speed. Just as we were turning on the cloverleaf to get on the expressway, I will never ever, ever forget watching that sewing machine, which was already top-heavy, begin to tip. I slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. I saw it go over the side. I jumped out and ran around the back of the truck. As I rounded the corner, I saw our hope and our dream lying on its side in pieces. And then I saw my dad just looking. All of his risk and all of his endeavor and all of his struggling and all of his dream, all of his hope to take care of his family was lying there, shattered.
“You know what comes next don’t you? ‘Stupid, punk kid driving too fast, not paying attention, ruined the family by taking away our livelihood.’ But that’s not what he said. He looked right at me. ‘Oh, Bill, I am so sorry.’ And he walked over, put his arms around me, and said, ‘Son, this is going to be okay.’
God is whispering the same to you. Those are his arms you feel. Trust him. That is his voice you hear. Believe him. Allow the only decision maker in the universe to comfort you. Life at times appears to fall to pieces, seem irreparable. But it’s going to be okay. How can you know? Because God so loved the world. If God can make a billion galaxies, can’t he make good out of our bad and sense out of our faltering lives? Of course he can. He is God.
1 John 2
1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for[a] the sins of the whole world.
3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love[b] is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him[c] to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
12I write to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children,
because you have known the Father.
14I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God lives in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
Do Not Love the World
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Warning Against Antichrists
18Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.[d] 21I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. 23No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.
26I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
Children of God
28And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
29If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
2 Timothy 4:9-18
Personal Remarks
9Do your best to come to me quickly, 10for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. 11Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 12I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 13When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
14Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. 15You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
16At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 17But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. 18The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
September 27, 2008
Famous Last Words
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READ: 2 Timothy 4:9-18
At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. —2 Timothy 4:16
Just days before his death, Gandhi wrote, “All about me is darkness; I am praying for light.” By contrast, evangelist D. L. Moody’s last recorded words were, “This is my triumph; this my coronation day! It is glorious!” In both cases, their last words were significant expressions of their perspectives on life, death, and everything in between.
Aside from some personal greetings, Paul’s last recorded words dealt not with what he had done in life and ministry but rather with how he viewed people. What makes it even more significant is that some of those words were about people who had disappointed him.
Regarding an individual who had harmed him by opposing his ministry, Paul trusted the Lord to deal with him. And when considering those who had abandoned him when imprisoned, he asked others to handle them graciously: “At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them” (2 Tim. 4:16). His last words were those of compassion and kindness instead of harshness and retaliation.
Will our last words show the grace of Christ or the bitterness of a wounded heart? Our answer should impact the words we use today. — Bill Crowder
What have you written on memory’s page?
Deeds that were done in the Master’s name?
Words that were spoken to spread His fame?
What have you written today? —Anon.
What words will be your legacy?
My utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 27, 2008
The "Go" of Renunciation
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READ:
. . . someone said to Him, ’Lord, I will follow You wherever You go’ —Luke 9:57
Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, "for He knew what was in man" ( John 2:25 ). We would have said, "I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!" Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to be hurt or offended. Jesus Christ had no tenderness whatsoever toward anything that was ultimately going to ruin a person in his service to God. Our Lord’s answers were not based on some whim or impulsive thought, but on the knowledge of "what was in man." If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you can be sure that there is something in you that He wants to hurt to the point of its death.
Luke 9:58 . These words destroy the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do. And the strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows for nothing to remain in my life but my Lord, myself, and a sense of desperate hope. He says that I must let everyone else come or go, and that I must be guided solely by my relationship to Him. And He says, ". . . the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."
Luke 9:59 . This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor did he want to show a lack of respect for his father. We put our sense of loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to take last place. When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ whatever the cost.
Luke 9:61 . The person who says, "Lord, I will follow You, but . . .," is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes, as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.
by Max Lucado
Bill Tucker was sixteen years old when his dad suffered a health crisis and consequently had to leave his business. Even after Mr. Tucker regained his health, the Tucker family struggled financially, barely getting by.
Mr. Tucker, an entrepreneurial sort, came up with an idea. He won the bid to reupholster the chairs at the local movie theater. This stunned his family. He had never stitched a seat. He didn’t even own a sewing apparatus. Still, he found someone to teach him the skill and located an industrial-strength machine. The family scraped together every cent they had to buy it. They drained savings accounts and dug coins out of the sofa. Finally, they had enough.
It was a fine day when Bill road with his dad to pick up the equipment. Bill remembers a jovial, hour-long trip discussing the bright horizons this new opportunity afforded them. They loaded the machine in the back of their truck and secured it right behind the cab. Mr. Tucker then invited his son to drive home. I’ll let Bill tell you what happened next:
“As we were driving along, we were excited, and I, like any sixteen-year-old driver, was probably not paying enough attention to my speed. Just as we were turning on the cloverleaf to get on the expressway, I will never ever, ever forget watching that sewing machine, which was already top-heavy, begin to tip. I slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. I saw it go over the side. I jumped out and ran around the back of the truck. As I rounded the corner, I saw our hope and our dream lying on its side in pieces. And then I saw my dad just looking. All of his risk and all of his endeavor and all of his struggling and all of his dream, all of his hope to take care of his family was lying there, shattered.
“You know what comes next don’t you? ‘Stupid, punk kid driving too fast, not paying attention, ruined the family by taking away our livelihood.’ But that’s not what he said. He looked right at me. ‘Oh, Bill, I am so sorry.’ And he walked over, put his arms around me, and said, ‘Son, this is going to be okay.’
God is whispering the same to you. Those are his arms you feel. Trust him. That is his voice you hear. Believe him. Allow the only decision maker in the universe to comfort you. Life at times appears to fall to pieces, seem irreparable. But it’s going to be okay. How can you know? Because God so loved the world. If God can make a billion galaxies, can’t he make good out of our bad and sense out of our faltering lives? Of course he can. He is God.
1 John 2
1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for[a] the sins of the whole world.
3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love[b] is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him[c] to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
12I write to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
13I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children,
because you have known the Father.
14I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God lives in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
Do Not Love the World
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Warning Against Antichrists
18Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.[d] 21I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. 22Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son. 23No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.
26I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
Children of God
28And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
29If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
2 Timothy 4:9-18
Personal Remarks
9Do your best to come to me quickly, 10for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. 11Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 12I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 13When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
14Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. 15You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
16At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 17But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. 18The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
September 27, 2008
Famous Last Words
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 2 Timothy 4:9-18
At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. —2 Timothy 4:16
Just days before his death, Gandhi wrote, “All about me is darkness; I am praying for light.” By contrast, evangelist D. L. Moody’s last recorded words were, “This is my triumph; this my coronation day! It is glorious!” In both cases, their last words were significant expressions of their perspectives on life, death, and everything in between.
Aside from some personal greetings, Paul’s last recorded words dealt not with what he had done in life and ministry but rather with how he viewed people. What makes it even more significant is that some of those words were about people who had disappointed him.
Regarding an individual who had harmed him by opposing his ministry, Paul trusted the Lord to deal with him. And when considering those who had abandoned him when imprisoned, he asked others to handle them graciously: “At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them” (2 Tim. 4:16). His last words were those of compassion and kindness instead of harshness and retaliation.
Will our last words show the grace of Christ or the bitterness of a wounded heart? Our answer should impact the words we use today. — Bill Crowder
What have you written on memory’s page?
Deeds that were done in the Master’s name?
Words that were spoken to spread His fame?
What have you written today? —Anon.
What words will be your legacy?
My utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 27, 2008
The "Go" of Renunciation
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READ:
. . . someone said to Him, ’Lord, I will follow You wherever You go’ —Luke 9:57
Our Lord’s attitude toward this man was one of severe discouragement, "for He knew what was in man" ( John 2:25 ). We would have said, "I can’t imagine why He lost the opportunity of winning that man! Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!" Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to be hurt or offended. Jesus Christ had no tenderness whatsoever toward anything that was ultimately going to ruin a person in his service to God. Our Lord’s answers were not based on some whim or impulsive thought, but on the knowledge of "what was in man." If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you can be sure that there is something in you that He wants to hurt to the point of its death.
Luke 9:58 . These words destroy the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do. And the strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows for nothing to remain in my life but my Lord, myself, and a sense of desperate hope. He says that I must let everyone else come or go, and that I must be guided solely by my relationship to Him. And He says, ". . . the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."
Luke 9:59 . This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor did he want to show a lack of respect for his father. We put our sense of loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to take last place. When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ whatever the cost.
Luke 9:61 . The person who says, "Lord, I will follow You, but . . .," is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes. This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for good-byes; good-byes, as we often use them, are pagan, not Christian, because they divert us from the call. Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop.
Friday, September 26, 2008
1 John 1, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 26
Repentance Is a Decision
Perhaps you do not understand that God is kind to you so you will change your hearts and lives.
Romans 2:4 (NCV)
No one is happier than the one who has sincerely repented of wrong. Repentance is the decision to turn from selfish desires and seek God. It is a genuine, sincere regret that creates sorrow and moves us to admit wrong and desire to do better.
It's an inward conviction that expresses itself in outward actions.
You look at the love of God and you can't believe he's loved you like he has, and this realization motivates you to change your life. That is the nature of repentance.
1 John 1
The Word of Life
1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our[a] joy complete.
Walking in the light
5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin.
8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Colossians 3
Rules for Holy Living
1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
September 26, 2008
Things Above
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Colossians 3:1-13
Seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. —Colossians 3:1
Stepping outside and gazing heavenward on a star-studded evening always helps to soothe my soul after a trouble-filled day. When I peer into the night sky, I forget, at least for a moment, the cares of life on earth.
Ancient Israel’s prolific songwriter wrote a poem thousands of years ago that still rings true: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Ps. 8:3-4).
When we try to imagine the immensity of God’s heavens, our problems indeed seem trivial. Yet God doesn’t think so! With all the galaxies He has to attend to, God is mindful of us. And not only are we on His mind, He cares for us.
No wonder the apostle Paul advised new believers to set their minds on things above (Col. 3:2). In doing so, we raise our thoughts above the level of earthly disputes and focus instead on our loving, heavenly Father, who wants us to know Him, to know how to live peacefully with one another, and to know that we can live eternally with Him in a place even more beautiful than the heavens.
“The heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps. 19:1). Let’s join creation in praise to Him. — Julie Ackerman Link
Bless the Lord and sing His praises,
Bless the Lord now, O my soul;
Join the song all heaven raises,
Let the anthem loudly roll! —Peterson
© Renewal 1986, John W. Peterson Music Company.
Because God gives us everything, we owe Him all our praise.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 26, 2008
The "Go" of Reconciliation
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
If you . . . remember that your brother has something against you . . . —Matthew 5:23
This verse says, "If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you . . . ." It is not saying, "If you search and find something because of your unbalanced sensitivity," but, "If you . . . remember . . . ." In other words, if something is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God— "First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift" (Matthew 5:24 ). Never object to the intense sensitivity of the Spirit of God in you when He is instructing you down to the smallest detail.
"First be reconciled to your brother . . . ." Our Lord’s directive is simple— "First be reconciled . . . ." He says, in effect, "Go back the way you came— the way indicated to you by the conviction given to you at the altar; have an attitude in your mind and soul toward the person who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing." Jesus does not mention the other person— He says for you to go. It is not a matter of your rights. The true mark of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus.
". . . and then come and offer your gift." The process of reconciliation is clearly marked. First we have the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden restraint by the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit, and then we are stopped at the point of our conviction. This is followed by obedience to the Word of God, which builds an attitude or state of mind that places no blame on the one with whom you have been in the wrong. And finally there is the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Putting it On Or Rubbing it in - #5665 - September 26, 2008
Category: Your Relationships
Friday, September 26, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
My poor children! As they were growing up, they had to listen to me speak so many times. One of those times was at a major youth convention in Laramie, Wyoming. My 12-year-old son and I were sitting together on the airplane flight back from the convention. Suddenly he said, "You know, I really liked the meetings, Dad, and I liked your speaking." Then he went on to explain, "There was something different this time, Dad. I listened this time." Great, I think. I asked him what he'd learned, and what he told me was not anything, of course, that I had said at the convention. It was original from him! He said, "Well, Dad, I learned that Christianity is a lot like suntan lotion." Right! I asked him, "How?" He said, "Well, if you put just one big blob of lotion on your arm or your face, it won't help much. It doesn't do much good unless you rub it in!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Putting it On Or Rubbing it in."
A 12-year-old boy had pretty well nailed it. If you look at many of us who name the name of Christ these days, you'll see people who pretty much believe all the right things and do a lot of the right things, but when it comes to our everyday lives we are actually pretty powerless and inconsistent. And many of us have this gnawing restlessness inside us that says, "This can't be all there is to the Jesus-thing." Well, it isn't!
To use my son's analogy from years ago, we have the right "lotion." In fact, we have a big blob of Bible knowledge on the outside. But, remember, "It doesn't do you much good unless you rub it in," which leads us to this sobering word for today from the Word of God in James 1:22. It describes Christians who are "deceiving themselves" it says. Self-deceived believers - kidding themselves. Well, here's how that happens.
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." The passage then goes on to compare a person who reads the Bible and remains unchanged as being like a man who looks at himself in the mirror and walks away without working on his appearance. God says here, "It's not what you know spiritually that matters, it's what you do as a result of what you know." Unfortunately, too many of us are satisfied with just believing it. We think we're in good shape with God because we agree with all the right things, but it's passive agreement. If you tell me that staying out in the sun unprotected can give me skin cancer, agreement won't do me much good. I'll still get skin cancer if I don't do something; if I don't change as a result of the truth that I agree with.
Now, you can tell if you're just putting on the Jesus-life instead of rubbing it in. You can tell by how much you worry about your problems instead of trusting God with them, by how little you love people who don't love you or who are different from "your kind," by all that junk you allow into your heart, by how lame your prayers are, by how selfish you are, how proud you are, by how seldom you ever tell anyone about Jesus.
When you rub in what the Bible says about these issues, you start changing the way you are! When you just put a blob of Bible on your skin, you think you're OK but you keep on living the same old way - the un-Jesus way. When you open your mind to the words of God, open up your life, too! All this Bible you're learning and believing is supposed to be growing a Jesus-heart in you and a life that looks more and more like His. Every day, open yourself up to God's Holy Spirit to take the words He inspired and to rub them into your life.
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 26
Repentance Is a Decision
Perhaps you do not understand that God is kind to you so you will change your hearts and lives.
Romans 2:4 (NCV)
No one is happier than the one who has sincerely repented of wrong. Repentance is the decision to turn from selfish desires and seek God. It is a genuine, sincere regret that creates sorrow and moves us to admit wrong and desire to do better.
It's an inward conviction that expresses itself in outward actions.
You look at the love of God and you can't believe he's loved you like he has, and this realization motivates you to change your life. That is the nature of repentance.
1 John 1
The Word of Life
1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our[a] joy complete.
Walking in the light
5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin.
8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Colossians 3
Rules for Holy Living
1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
September 26, 2008
Things Above
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Colossians 3:1-13
Seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. —Colossians 3:1
Stepping outside and gazing heavenward on a star-studded evening always helps to soothe my soul after a trouble-filled day. When I peer into the night sky, I forget, at least for a moment, the cares of life on earth.
Ancient Israel’s prolific songwriter wrote a poem thousands of years ago that still rings true: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Ps. 8:3-4).
When we try to imagine the immensity of God’s heavens, our problems indeed seem trivial. Yet God doesn’t think so! With all the galaxies He has to attend to, God is mindful of us. And not only are we on His mind, He cares for us.
No wonder the apostle Paul advised new believers to set their minds on things above (Col. 3:2). In doing so, we raise our thoughts above the level of earthly disputes and focus instead on our loving, heavenly Father, who wants us to know Him, to know how to live peacefully with one another, and to know that we can live eternally with Him in a place even more beautiful than the heavens.
“The heavens declare the glory of God” (Ps. 19:1). Let’s join creation in praise to Him. — Julie Ackerman Link
Bless the Lord and sing His praises,
Bless the Lord now, O my soul;
Join the song all heaven raises,
Let the anthem loudly roll! —Peterson
© Renewal 1986, John W. Peterson Music Company.
Because God gives us everything, we owe Him all our praise.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 26, 2008
The "Go" of Reconciliation
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
If you . . . remember that your brother has something against you . . . —Matthew 5:23
This verse says, "If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you . . . ." It is not saying, "If you search and find something because of your unbalanced sensitivity," but, "If you . . . remember . . . ." In other words, if something is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God— "First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift" (Matthew 5:24 ). Never object to the intense sensitivity of the Spirit of God in you when He is instructing you down to the smallest detail.
"First be reconciled to your brother . . . ." Our Lord’s directive is simple— "First be reconciled . . . ." He says, in effect, "Go back the way you came— the way indicated to you by the conviction given to you at the altar; have an attitude in your mind and soul toward the person who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing." Jesus does not mention the other person— He says for you to go. It is not a matter of your rights. The true mark of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus.
". . . and then come and offer your gift." The process of reconciliation is clearly marked. First we have the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden restraint by the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit, and then we are stopped at the point of our conviction. This is followed by obedience to the Word of God, which builds an attitude or state of mind that places no blame on the one with whom you have been in the wrong. And finally there is the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Putting it On Or Rubbing it in - #5665 - September 26, 2008
Category: Your Relationships
Friday, September 26, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
My poor children! As they were growing up, they had to listen to me speak so many times. One of those times was at a major youth convention in Laramie, Wyoming. My 12-year-old son and I were sitting together on the airplane flight back from the convention. Suddenly he said, "You know, I really liked the meetings, Dad, and I liked your speaking." Then he went on to explain, "There was something different this time, Dad. I listened this time." Great, I think. I asked him what he'd learned, and what he told me was not anything, of course, that I had said at the convention. It was original from him! He said, "Well, Dad, I learned that Christianity is a lot like suntan lotion." Right! I asked him, "How?" He said, "Well, if you put just one big blob of lotion on your arm or your face, it won't help much. It doesn't do much good unless you rub it in!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Putting it On Or Rubbing it in."
A 12-year-old boy had pretty well nailed it. If you look at many of us who name the name of Christ these days, you'll see people who pretty much believe all the right things and do a lot of the right things, but when it comes to our everyday lives we are actually pretty powerless and inconsistent. And many of us have this gnawing restlessness inside us that says, "This can't be all there is to the Jesus-thing." Well, it isn't!
To use my son's analogy from years ago, we have the right "lotion." In fact, we have a big blob of Bible knowledge on the outside. But, remember, "It doesn't do you much good unless you rub it in," which leads us to this sobering word for today from the Word of God in James 1:22. It describes Christians who are "deceiving themselves" it says. Self-deceived believers - kidding themselves. Well, here's how that happens.
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." The passage then goes on to compare a person who reads the Bible and remains unchanged as being like a man who looks at himself in the mirror and walks away without working on his appearance. God says here, "It's not what you know spiritually that matters, it's what you do as a result of what you know." Unfortunately, too many of us are satisfied with just believing it. We think we're in good shape with God because we agree with all the right things, but it's passive agreement. If you tell me that staying out in the sun unprotected can give me skin cancer, agreement won't do me much good. I'll still get skin cancer if I don't do something; if I don't change as a result of the truth that I agree with.
Now, you can tell if you're just putting on the Jesus-life instead of rubbing it in. You can tell by how much you worry about your problems instead of trusting God with them, by how little you love people who don't love you or who are different from "your kind," by all that junk you allow into your heart, by how lame your prayers are, by how selfish you are, how proud you are, by how seldom you ever tell anyone about Jesus.
When you rub in what the Bible says about these issues, you start changing the way you are! When you just put a blob of Bible on your skin, you think you're OK but you keep on living the same old way - the un-Jesus way. When you open your mind to the words of God, open up your life, too! All this Bible you're learning and believing is supposed to be growing a Jesus-heart in you and a life that looks more and more like His. Every day, open yourself up to God's Holy Spirit to take the words He inspired and to rub them into your life.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
2 Peter 3, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 25
Christ Came to Serve
They all may call on the name of the LORD, to serve Him with one accord.
Zephaniah 3:9 (NKJV)
Jesus came to serve.
He let a woman in Samaria interrupt his rest, a woman in adultery interrupt his sermon, a woman with a disease interrupt his plans, and one with remorse interrupt his meal.
Though none of the apostles washed his feet, he washed theirs. Though none of the soldiers at the cross begged for mercy, he extended it. And though his followers skedaddled like scared rabbits on Thursday, he came searching for them on Easter Sunday. The resurrected King ascended to heaven only after he’d spent forty days with his friends—teaching them, encouraging them…serving them.
Why? It’s what he came to do. He came to serve.
2 Peter 3
The Day of the Lord
1Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.[a]
11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.[b]That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
14So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Galatians 5:16-24
Life by the Spirit
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
September 25, 2008
The Power Of Patience
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Galatians 5:16-24
The fruit of the Spirit is . . . longsuffering. —Galatians 5:22
We’ve all heard the prayer: “Lord, make me more patient—and do it now!”
Why is it that patience evaporates when we are late for a critical engagement and are caught in a traffic jam? Or we rush to the “10 items or less” line at the store, only to find someone in front of us with 16 items!
Being forced to wait ratchets up the stress and shortens our fuse. When that happens, we not only fail to be patient but we undercut the Spirit’s work in our lives.
Patience is not just a virtue, it’s a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22)—which means that demonstrations of impatience reveal the sour fruit of our fallen hearts rather than the sweetness of Jesus in our lives. Since God is a patient God, when we abandon patience we miss the opportunity to show our world the glory of God through our lives.
Bursts of impatience only demonstrate that we are more concerned with our own agendas than the needs and struggles of others. So let’s all take a deep breath and turn our focus away from ourselves by patiently loving others instead of ourselves in the midst of stress.
Patience gives us the privilege of sharing the refreshing fruit of God with others. — Joe Stowell
Our wrath uncurbed will not fulfill
God’s perfect plan for us;
We must be patient and refuse
To fret, to fume, to fuss. —Sper
Be patient. Show your world what God is really like.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 25, 2008
The "Go" of Relationship
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two—Matthew 5:41
Our Lord’s teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that He demands for us is an impossible one unless He has done a super-natural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that His disciple does not allow even the slightest trace of resentment in his heart when faced with tyranny and injustice. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear the strain, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself— a relationship that has been examined, purified, and tested until only one purpose remains and I can truly say, "I am here for God to send me where He will." Everything else may become blurred, but this relationship with Jesus Christ must never be.
The Sermon on the Mount is not some unattainable goal; it is a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has changed my nature by putting His own nature in me. Jesus Christ is the only One who can fulfill the Sermon on the Mount.
If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally. And as long as we consciously maintain the determined purpose to be His disciples, we can be sure that we are not disciples. Jesus says, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you. . ." ( John 15:16 ). That is the way the grace of God begins. It is a constraint we can never escape; we can disobey it, but we can never start it or produce it ourselves. We are drawn to God by a work of His supernatural grace, and we can never trace back to find where the work began. Our Lord’s making of a disciple is supernatural. He does not build on any natural capacity of ours at all. God does not ask us to do the things that are naturally easy for us— He only asks us to do the things that we are perfectly fit to do through His grace, and that is where the cross we must bear will always come.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Storming Home - #5664 - September 25, 2008
Category: Your Personal Power
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
It was the only kind of day they have at O'Hare Airport - busy. It was August, and I was one of the thousands of passengers there who had plans and schedules, things we had to do, places we had to be. But, as far as I know, none of us made it. Chicago had a record-breaking storm that day - over nine inches of rain. There was massive flooding, in fact so much, that the airport was literally flooded closed. That created an interesting dynamic with no one able to come in or go out. It was sort of like Camp O'Hare all of a sudden. Many of us spent the day trying to find either a way out, or a phone to call out, or a place to spend the night. And it was a few years ago and you weren't talking cell phones. And virtually no one did what he or she had planned to do. Oh no! Our plans didn't go through all because of one storm! The rich, the poor, the powerful, the unknown, the young, the old - it didn't matter. Suddenly your destiny was out of your control. Storms will do that to you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Storming Home."
It's not uncommon for life's hard times to be portrayed in Scripture as storms. And that's appropriate because storms are often situations where you have no control over your outcome. Like all of us upended passengers that day at O'Hare Airport. Maybe like the situation you're in right now: medically, financially, or in your family, your business, maybe your ministry. It's "out-of-control" time. It's storm time.
Our Word for today from the Word of God comes from Nahum 1:3. It's this wonderful anchor verse buried in one of those often-neglected Minor Prophet books in the Old Testament. "The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and the storm." Out of control? Yours, yes. His, no.
Paul experienced that in a dramatic incident recorded in Acts 27. He was being transported from Israel to Rome, by ship and under Roman guard. But their ship was hit by a hurricane-like storm that battered them for two weeks! They had to throw their valuable cargo overboard, much of their equipment, and they didn't see the sun, the moon, or the stars for two weeks! They had no way to navigate, no way to know where they were headed. Paul describes them as just being "carried along." That sense of having no control of where you're going might sound painfully familiar.
Here's the exciting part. When they were finally driven aground, they ended up on the island of Malta. Guess where? Just south of Rome. All the time that they had apparently been out-of-control, there were right on course. So are you.
That's what the prophet meant when he said, "The Lord has His way in the storm." Your situation is out-of-control, but it is in God's control. In fact, God uses these stormy times in powerful ways to show you how much you need Him, how much you can rely on Him, to draw you closer to anchor people in your life, to help you see sin that you would otherwise would never face, to make changes you'd otherwise never consider. And then He brings you safely to your destination.
Maybe the winds in your life are intensifying right now. You can't find the things that you've always navigated by and the flood of your frustration and fear is rising. Listen, everything is under control. If you relax and you let God navigate, you are in for a wonderful surprise when the storm passes. The storm that blew you around so violently was actually blowing you home.
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 25
Christ Came to Serve
They all may call on the name of the LORD, to serve Him with one accord.
Zephaniah 3:9 (NKJV)
Jesus came to serve.
He let a woman in Samaria interrupt his rest, a woman in adultery interrupt his sermon, a woman with a disease interrupt his plans, and one with remorse interrupt his meal.
Though none of the apostles washed his feet, he washed theirs. Though none of the soldiers at the cross begged for mercy, he extended it. And though his followers skedaddled like scared rabbits on Thursday, he came searching for them on Easter Sunday. The resurrected King ascended to heaven only after he’d spent forty days with his friends—teaching them, encouraging them…serving them.
Why? It’s what he came to do. He came to serve.
2 Peter 3
The Day of the Lord
1Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.[a]
11Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.[b]That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
14So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. 18But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Galatians 5:16-24
Life by the Spirit
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
September 25, 2008
The Power Of Patience
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Galatians 5:16-24
The fruit of the Spirit is . . . longsuffering. —Galatians 5:22
We’ve all heard the prayer: “Lord, make me more patient—and do it now!”
Why is it that patience evaporates when we are late for a critical engagement and are caught in a traffic jam? Or we rush to the “10 items or less” line at the store, only to find someone in front of us with 16 items!
Being forced to wait ratchets up the stress and shortens our fuse. When that happens, we not only fail to be patient but we undercut the Spirit’s work in our lives.
Patience is not just a virtue, it’s a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22)—which means that demonstrations of impatience reveal the sour fruit of our fallen hearts rather than the sweetness of Jesus in our lives. Since God is a patient God, when we abandon patience we miss the opportunity to show our world the glory of God through our lives.
Bursts of impatience only demonstrate that we are more concerned with our own agendas than the needs and struggles of others. So let’s all take a deep breath and turn our focus away from ourselves by patiently loving others instead of ourselves in the midst of stress.
Patience gives us the privilege of sharing the refreshing fruit of God with others. — Joe Stowell
Our wrath uncurbed will not fulfill
God’s perfect plan for us;
We must be patient and refuse
To fret, to fume, to fuss. —Sper
Be patient. Show your world what God is really like.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 25, 2008
The "Go" of Relationship
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two—Matthew 5:41
Our Lord’s teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that He demands for us is an impossible one unless He has done a super-natural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that His disciple does not allow even the slightest trace of resentment in his heart when faced with tyranny and injustice. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear the strain, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself— a relationship that has been examined, purified, and tested until only one purpose remains and I can truly say, "I am here for God to send me where He will." Everything else may become blurred, but this relationship with Jesus Christ must never be.
The Sermon on the Mount is not some unattainable goal; it is a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has changed my nature by putting His own nature in me. Jesus Christ is the only One who can fulfill the Sermon on the Mount.
If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally. And as long as we consciously maintain the determined purpose to be His disciples, we can be sure that we are not disciples. Jesus says, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you. . ." ( John 15:16 ). That is the way the grace of God begins. It is a constraint we can never escape; we can disobey it, but we can never start it or produce it ourselves. We are drawn to God by a work of His supernatural grace, and we can never trace back to find where the work began. Our Lord’s making of a disciple is supernatural. He does not build on any natural capacity of ours at all. God does not ask us to do the things that are naturally easy for us— He only asks us to do the things that we are perfectly fit to do through His grace, and that is where the cross we must bear will always come.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Storming Home - #5664 - September 25, 2008
Category: Your Personal Power
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
It was the only kind of day they have at O'Hare Airport - busy. It was August, and I was one of the thousands of passengers there who had plans and schedules, things we had to do, places we had to be. But, as far as I know, none of us made it. Chicago had a record-breaking storm that day - over nine inches of rain. There was massive flooding, in fact so much, that the airport was literally flooded closed. That created an interesting dynamic with no one able to come in or go out. It was sort of like Camp O'Hare all of a sudden. Many of us spent the day trying to find either a way out, or a phone to call out, or a place to spend the night. And it was a few years ago and you weren't talking cell phones. And virtually no one did what he or she had planned to do. Oh no! Our plans didn't go through all because of one storm! The rich, the poor, the powerful, the unknown, the young, the old - it didn't matter. Suddenly your destiny was out of your control. Storms will do that to you.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Storming Home."
It's not uncommon for life's hard times to be portrayed in Scripture as storms. And that's appropriate because storms are often situations where you have no control over your outcome. Like all of us upended passengers that day at O'Hare Airport. Maybe like the situation you're in right now: medically, financially, or in your family, your business, maybe your ministry. It's "out-of-control" time. It's storm time.
Our Word for today from the Word of God comes from Nahum 1:3. It's this wonderful anchor verse buried in one of those often-neglected Minor Prophet books in the Old Testament. "The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and the storm." Out of control? Yours, yes. His, no.
Paul experienced that in a dramatic incident recorded in Acts 27. He was being transported from Israel to Rome, by ship and under Roman guard. But their ship was hit by a hurricane-like storm that battered them for two weeks! They had to throw their valuable cargo overboard, much of their equipment, and they didn't see the sun, the moon, or the stars for two weeks! They had no way to navigate, no way to know where they were headed. Paul describes them as just being "carried along." That sense of having no control of where you're going might sound painfully familiar.
Here's the exciting part. When they were finally driven aground, they ended up on the island of Malta. Guess where? Just south of Rome. All the time that they had apparently been out-of-control, there were right on course. So are you.
That's what the prophet meant when he said, "The Lord has His way in the storm." Your situation is out-of-control, but it is in God's control. In fact, God uses these stormy times in powerful ways to show you how much you need Him, how much you can rely on Him, to draw you closer to anchor people in your life, to help you see sin that you would otherwise would never face, to make changes you'd otherwise never consider. And then He brings you safely to your destination.
Maybe the winds in your life are intensifying right now. You can't find the things that you've always navigated by and the flood of your frustration and fear is rising. Listen, everything is under control. If you relax and you let God navigate, you are in for a wonderful surprise when the storm passes. The storm that blew you around so violently was actually blowing you home.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
2 Peter 2, daily reading and devotions
Get Over Yourself, by Max Lucado
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
“In humility consider others better than yourselves.”
Philippians 2:3 NIV
Columnist Rick Reilly gave this advice to rookie professional athletes: “Stop thumping your chest. The line blocked, the quarterback threw you a perfect spiral while getting his head knocked off, and the good receiver blew the double coverage. Get over yourself.”
The truth is, every touchdown in life is a team effort. Applaud your teammates. An elementary-age boy came home from the tryouts for the school play. “Mommy, Mommy,” he announced, “I got a part. I’ve been chosen to sit in the audience and cheer.” When you have a chance to clap and cheer, do you take it? If you do, your head is starting to fit your hat size.
2 Peter 2
False Teachers and Their Destruction
1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,[a] putting them into gloomy dungeons[b] to be held for judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.[c] 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature[d] and despise authority.
Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; 11yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. 12But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.[e] 14With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit,"[f]and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Hebrews 11:8-16
8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he[a]considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
September 24, 2008
Building A City
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Hebrews 11:8-16
They desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. —Hebrews 11:16
For 41 years, New York’s Empire State Building enjoyed the distinction of being the world’s tallest building at 1,250 feet. Since then, others have passed it, including the 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the 1,670-foot Taipei 101 building. The 2,657-foot Burj in Dubai to be completed in late 2008 will surpass those by far.
From ancient times, man has tried to distinguish himself through monuments of all kinds. It is still the dream of many today.
The writer to the Hebrews presents a better way to achieve significance. He noted that heroes of the faith never lost sight of the fact that they “were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb. 11:13). As a result, “God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (v.16).
It is a fact of life that every monumental work will likely be surpassed. Even man’s biggest “successes” are fleeting. Our best efforts can bring only temporary honor, which all too soon will be eclipsed by the new and greater achievements of others. But those who invest their efforts in living to please God have a lasting city and an everlasting honor to look forward to. God is even now preparing these for them.
Who is building your life? You or God? — C. P. Hia
True greatness does not lie with those
Who strive for worldly fame;
It lies instead with those who choose
To serve in Jesus’ name. —D. De Haan
A solid foundation gives strength to a building and a life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 24, 2008
The "Go" of Preparation
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift—Matthew 5:23-24
It is easy for us to imagine that we will suddenly come to a point in our lives where we are fully prepared, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished. In fact, it is a process that must be steadily maintained. It is dangerous to become settled and complacent in our present level of experience. The Christian life requires preparation and more preparation.
The sense of sacrifice in the Christian life is readily appealing to a new Christian. From a human standpoint, the one thing that attracts us to Jesus Christ is our sense of the heroic, and a close examination of us by our Lord’s words suddenly puts this tide of enthusiasm to the test. ". . . go your way. First be reconciled to your brother. . . ." The "go" of preparation is to allow the Word of God to examine you closely. Your sense of heroic sacrifice is not good enough. The thing the Holy Spirit will detect in you is your nature that can never work in His service. And no one but God can detect that nature in you. Do you have anything to hide from God? If you do, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin in your life, don’t just admit it— confess it. Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master, whatever the humiliation to your right to yourself may be?
Never disregard a conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to you. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to bring it to your mind, it is the very thing He is detecting in you. You were looking for some big thing to give up, while God is telling you of some tiny thing that must go. But behind that tiny thing lies the stronghold of obstinacy, and you say, "I will not give up my right to myself"— the very thing that God intends you to give up if you are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Nuisance Or Need? - #5663 - September 24, 2008
Category: Your Mission
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Life has a lot of disrupting sounds. And you can learn to tune a lot of them out: sirens screaming, telephones ringing, TVs blaring, trains rumbling. But there's one sound it's almost impossible to ignore - a baby's crying. If there's a baby in your house and he starts crying, what should you do? Just yell, "Nuisance!" and shut the door? Turn up the music? Yell back? Not unless you're a hopeless rookie at handling babies. No, you know the crying isn't the problem. It's what's causing the crying. Pointing at the baby and saying, "Stop that!" probably won't make a lot of difference. See, the crying isn't going to stop until her little tummy is filled, or until he gets the relief that only a good burp can give, or until you get the baby out of that mess. Yeah, the crying is a nuisance, but the need behind the crying - that's the real issue.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Nuisance Or Need?"
Our Word for today comes from the Word of God from Luke 18:35. "As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting at the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, 'Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.' He called out, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!'"
"Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to Him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' 'Lord, I want to see,' he replied." The Bible goes on to tell us that he received his sight and he followed Jesus. And all the people who had been trying to get this nuisance to shut up, started praising God for what He had done.
When the people of Jericho saw this blind man, they saw a nuisance, and they told him, "Stop crying!" You and I are surrounded by people who are crying, not with the howls of a baby, but crying with their actions or with their attitude. Frankly, some of the people in our world, even in our family, seem like a nuisance sometimes, don't they?
But where others see a nuisance, Jesus sees a need! He goes to the need behind the blind man's crying. Now, in your life there are obnoxious people; there are mean people, folks who demand a lot of your time and attention; complainers; problem people. Honestly, there are people, who for one reason or another, well, you'd just like to close the door on like almost everyone else has.
And you will unless you see them through the eyes of Jesus. Then you'll see the need behind the deeds, like a mother who looks past a baby's crying to find out where it hurts. Usually, a person is a nuisance because he or she has needs no one has stopped to meet. Would you do what Jesus did for this annoying blind man? Would you stop for that person?
They may need someone who takes time to listen, someone who praises the good in them, someone to notice them and treat them like they matter. They're crying out for someone who will reach inside and find out what's making them bleed, who will include them. That crying person in a hurting person - a wounded person, but you can be part of God's healing in that person's life.
God has put us here to do what Jesus would do if He were in that situation. He's assigned you to a place where there are some hurting people, people who are crying because they need someone to get at the need that's been making them cry maybe for a long time. Would you be their Jesus-person? When others see a nuisance, you look for the need and you stop to help heal them.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
“In humility consider others better than yourselves.”
Philippians 2:3 NIV
Columnist Rick Reilly gave this advice to rookie professional athletes: “Stop thumping your chest. The line blocked, the quarterback threw you a perfect spiral while getting his head knocked off, and the good receiver blew the double coverage. Get over yourself.”
The truth is, every touchdown in life is a team effort. Applaud your teammates. An elementary-age boy came home from the tryouts for the school play. “Mommy, Mommy,” he announced, “I got a part. I’ve been chosen to sit in the audience and cheer.” When you have a chance to clap and cheer, do you take it? If you do, your head is starting to fit your hat size.
2 Peter 2
False Teachers and Their Destruction
1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,[a] putting them into gloomy dungeons[b] to be held for judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.[c] 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature[d] and despise authority.
Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; 11yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. 12But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.[e] 14With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit,"[f]and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Hebrews 11:8-16
8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he[a]considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
September 24, 2008
Building A City
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READ: Hebrews 11:8-16
They desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God. —Hebrews 11:16
For 41 years, New York’s Empire State Building enjoyed the distinction of being the world’s tallest building at 1,250 feet. Since then, others have passed it, including the 1,483-foot Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the 1,670-foot Taipei 101 building. The 2,657-foot Burj in Dubai to be completed in late 2008 will surpass those by far.
From ancient times, man has tried to distinguish himself through monuments of all kinds. It is still the dream of many today.
The writer to the Hebrews presents a better way to achieve significance. He noted that heroes of the faith never lost sight of the fact that they “were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb. 11:13). As a result, “God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them” (v.16).
It is a fact of life that every monumental work will likely be surpassed. Even man’s biggest “successes” are fleeting. Our best efforts can bring only temporary honor, which all too soon will be eclipsed by the new and greater achievements of others. But those who invest their efforts in living to please God have a lasting city and an everlasting honor to look forward to. God is even now preparing these for them.
Who is building your life? You or God? — C. P. Hia
True greatness does not lie with those
Who strive for worldly fame;
It lies instead with those who choose
To serve in Jesus’ name. —D. De Haan
A solid foundation gives strength to a building and a life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 24, 2008
The "Go" of Preparation
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READ:
If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift—Matthew 5:23-24
It is easy for us to imagine that we will suddenly come to a point in our lives where we are fully prepared, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished. In fact, it is a process that must be steadily maintained. It is dangerous to become settled and complacent in our present level of experience. The Christian life requires preparation and more preparation.
The sense of sacrifice in the Christian life is readily appealing to a new Christian. From a human standpoint, the one thing that attracts us to Jesus Christ is our sense of the heroic, and a close examination of us by our Lord’s words suddenly puts this tide of enthusiasm to the test. ". . . go your way. First be reconciled to your brother. . . ." The "go" of preparation is to allow the Word of God to examine you closely. Your sense of heroic sacrifice is not good enough. The thing the Holy Spirit will detect in you is your nature that can never work in His service. And no one but God can detect that nature in you. Do you have anything to hide from God? If you do, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin in your life, don’t just admit it— confess it. Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master, whatever the humiliation to your right to yourself may be?
Never disregard a conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to you. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to bring it to your mind, it is the very thing He is detecting in you. You were looking for some big thing to give up, while God is telling you of some tiny thing that must go. But behind that tiny thing lies the stronghold of obstinacy, and you say, "I will not give up my right to myself"— the very thing that God intends you to give up if you are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Nuisance Or Need? - #5663 - September 24, 2008
Category: Your Mission
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Life has a lot of disrupting sounds. And you can learn to tune a lot of them out: sirens screaming, telephones ringing, TVs blaring, trains rumbling. But there's one sound it's almost impossible to ignore - a baby's crying. If there's a baby in your house and he starts crying, what should you do? Just yell, "Nuisance!" and shut the door? Turn up the music? Yell back? Not unless you're a hopeless rookie at handling babies. No, you know the crying isn't the problem. It's what's causing the crying. Pointing at the baby and saying, "Stop that!" probably won't make a lot of difference. See, the crying isn't going to stop until her little tummy is filled, or until he gets the relief that only a good burp can give, or until you get the baby out of that mess. Yeah, the crying is a nuisance, but the need behind the crying - that's the real issue.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Nuisance Or Need?"
Our Word for today comes from the Word of God from Luke 18:35. "As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting at the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, 'Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.' He called out, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!'"
"Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to Him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, 'What do you want Me to do for you?' 'Lord, I want to see,' he replied." The Bible goes on to tell us that he received his sight and he followed Jesus. And all the people who had been trying to get this nuisance to shut up, started praising God for what He had done.
When the people of Jericho saw this blind man, they saw a nuisance, and they told him, "Stop crying!" You and I are surrounded by people who are crying, not with the howls of a baby, but crying with their actions or with their attitude. Frankly, some of the people in our world, even in our family, seem like a nuisance sometimes, don't they?
But where others see a nuisance, Jesus sees a need! He goes to the need behind the blind man's crying. Now, in your life there are obnoxious people; there are mean people, folks who demand a lot of your time and attention; complainers; problem people. Honestly, there are people, who for one reason or another, well, you'd just like to close the door on like almost everyone else has.
And you will unless you see them through the eyes of Jesus. Then you'll see the need behind the deeds, like a mother who looks past a baby's crying to find out where it hurts. Usually, a person is a nuisance because he or she has needs no one has stopped to meet. Would you do what Jesus did for this annoying blind man? Would you stop for that person?
They may need someone who takes time to listen, someone who praises the good in them, someone to notice them and treat them like they matter. They're crying out for someone who will reach inside and find out what's making them bleed, who will include them. That crying person in a hurting person - a wounded person, but you can be part of God's healing in that person's life.
God has put us here to do what Jesus would do if He were in that situation. He's assigned you to a place where there are some hurting people, people who are crying because they need someone to get at the need that's been making them cry maybe for a long time. Would you be their Jesus-person? When others see a nuisance, you look for the need and you stop to help heal them.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
2 Peter 1, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 23
The Proper View of Self
To him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think….be glory.
Ephesians 3:20-21 (NKJV)
There are two extremes of poor I-sight.
Self-loving and self-loathing. We swing from one side to the other. Promotions and demotions bump us back and forth. One day too high on self, the next too hard on self. Neither is correct. Self-elevation and self-deprecation are equally inaccurate. Where is the truth?
Smack-dab in the middle. Dead center between “I can do anything” and “I can’t do anything” lies “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13).
Neither omnipotent nor impotent, neither God’s MVP nor God’s mistake. Not self-secure or insecure, but God-secure—a self-worth based in our identity as children of God. The proper view of self is in the middle.
2 Peter 1
1Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
2Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Making One's Calling and Election Sure
3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For 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. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Prophecy of Scripture
12So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
16We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."[a] 18We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
19And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 33:8-22
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD;
let all the people of the world revere him.
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
10 The LORD foils the plans of the nations;
he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever,
the purposes of his heart through all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he chose for his inheritance.
13 From heaven the LORD looks down
and sees all mankind;
14 from his dwelling place he watches
all who live on earth-
15 he who forms the hearts of all,
who considers everything they do.
16 No king is saved by the size of his army;
no warrior escapes by his great strength.
17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
despite all its great strength it cannot save.
18 But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
19 to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.
20 We wait in hope for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
21 In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,
even as we put our hope in you.
September 23, 2008
He Watches Over Us
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READ: Psalm 33:8-22
From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth. —Psalm 33:14
In the early 1960s, I read the novel 1984 by George Orwell, which made famous the phrase “Big Brother is watching you.” In this imaginary society, all aspects of life are under surveillance.
Today, there are an estimated 4.2 million closed-circuit video cameras in the UK alone! London is saturated with them. These cameras watch lobbies and sidewalks for security reasons. They even monitor traffic.
Psalm 33 tells us that God is also watching from on high (v.14). He sees not just images and activities but discerns thoughts and motives. As Creator God, when He speaks, it will be done (v.9). His eternal purposes march on unhindered (vv.10-11). Earthly obstacles are mere steppingstones to Him. Though many may depend on military strength for deliverance and safety, their hope is in vain (vv.16-17).
Yet we who fear the Lord need not flee from this awesome God. The psalmist affirms, “The eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy . . . . He is our help and our shield” (vv.18,20).
The eye of the Lord may be fearsome, but we who trust in Him rejoice. He is not an intrusive “Big Brother” but our loving heavenly Father who watches over us. — Albert Lee
The Rock of Ages stands secure,
He always will be there;
He watches over all His own
To calm their anxious care. —Keith
Keep your eyes on the Lord; He never takes His eyes off you.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 23, 2008
The Missionary’s Goal
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READ:
He . . . said to them, ’Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem . . . ’ —Luke 18:31
In our natural life our ambitions change as we grow, but in the Christian life the goal is given at the very beginning, and the beginning and the end are exactly the same, namely, our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him?". . . till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . ." ( Ephesians 4:13 ), not simply to our own idea of what the Christian life should be. The goal of the missionary is to do God’s will, not to be useful or to win the lost. A missionary is useful and he does win the lost, but that is not his goal. His goal is to do the will of his Lord.
In our Lord’s life, Jerusalem was the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will upon the cross, and unless we go there with Jesus we will have no friendship or fellowship with Him. Nothing ever diverted our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted, or lingered in others where He was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned our Lord even the slightest degree away from His purpose to go "up to Jerusalem."
"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master" ( Matthew 10:24 ). In other words, the same things that happened to our Lord will happen to us on our way to our "Jerusalem." There will be works of God exhibited through us, people will get blessed, and one or two will show gratitude while the rest will show total ingratitude, but nothing must divert us from going "up to [our] Jerusalem."
". . . there they crucified Him . . ." ( Luke 23:33 ). That is what happened when our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that event is the doorway to our salvation. The saints, however, do not end in crucifixion; by the Lord’s grace they end in glory. In the meantime our watchword should be summed up by each of us saying, "I too go ’up to Jerusalem.’ "
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Your Emergency Lights - #5662 - September 23, 2008
Category: Your Most Important Relationship
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I was at my friend Dave's house, meeting with a group of teenagers and it happened. We had been eating together out on his porch when the sky suddenly turned really nasty. We hustled inside, just before the skies started dumping rain and the thunder and lightning started - big time thunder and lightning. I wanted to continue our conversation under the dining room table, but no one wanted to join me there. So we went to the living room. Now you may have heard that theory about the origin of the universe - the Big Bang. Well, we heard it right then and there. Not the one that some people say started the universe, but the one that knocked all the lights out. That lightning bolt had knocked out all the electrical power in the area. But were we in total darkness? Oh no. My friend Dave is a bright boy. After the last hurricane in their area, he installed some emergency lights on a battery-powered auxiliary power system. So we had lights; lights that reverted to internal power when everything else failed!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Emergency Lights."
Old Testament prophet Habakkuk - a man who felt like all the lights had gone out. He was really struggling with events that he didn't like - he didn't understand. His book opens with him asking a question many of us have asked at one time or another, "How long, O Lord?" He was having a hard time waiting for God to do what He was going to do. Nothing was going the way Habakkuk had hoped it would.
But his heart has totally changed by the end of the book. In Habakkuk 3:16 he says, "Yet I will wait patiently." He's taken hands off and he's finally quit trying to tell God how to run things. Now here's where he describes a situation like that stormy night in my friend's house when everything that might produce light fails.
Verse 17, "Though the fig tree does not bud and there no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fail and the fields produce no crops..." Now think just a minute, in a farming area, this is a description of total disaster. He says, "though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls." OK, wait a minute. We're talking the total triumph of Murphy's Law here. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. Does that sound familiar at all? All the reasons for being happy seem to have failed. The lights of joy have gone out.
Though all the external sources of joy have failed, Habakkuk concludes, "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength." This man of God says, "I've found a source of joy that is totally independent of how things are going, totally independent of any circumstances. I am anchoring myself to the Sovereign Lord who is totally in charge, whether it looks like it or not...on my God who is my Savior in this situation...on my Lord who literally is my strength to handle this hard time."
We're talking Murphy-proof joy; a light that stays on when all the external power sources fail. And, as a result, "The Sovereign Lord" he says, "enables me to go on to the heights." By carrying me through this disastrous time, God has put me on a high place where I have the perspective to see the big picture, to see my personal situation, my personal history through God's eyes.
So, if your joy is attached to your circumstances, when the storm knocks them out, you'll be in the dark. But if your joy is internally generated from an unshakable relationship with your awesome, Sovereign Lord, then you have light that will be there when every other light fails.
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 23
The Proper View of Self
To him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think….be glory.
Ephesians 3:20-21 (NKJV)
There are two extremes of poor I-sight.
Self-loving and self-loathing. We swing from one side to the other. Promotions and demotions bump us back and forth. One day too high on self, the next too hard on self. Neither is correct. Self-elevation and self-deprecation are equally inaccurate. Where is the truth?
Smack-dab in the middle. Dead center between “I can do anything” and “I can’t do anything” lies “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13).
Neither omnipotent nor impotent, neither God’s MVP nor God’s mistake. Not self-secure or insecure, but God-secure—a self-worth based in our identity as children of God. The proper view of self is in the middle.
2 Peter 1
1Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:
2Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Making One's Calling and Election Sure
3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For 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. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Prophecy of Scripture
12So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.
16We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."[a] 18We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
19And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 33:8-22
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD;
let all the people of the world revere him.
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
10 The LORD foils the plans of the nations;
he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever,
the purposes of his heart through all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he chose for his inheritance.
13 From heaven the LORD looks down
and sees all mankind;
14 from his dwelling place he watches
all who live on earth-
15 he who forms the hearts of all,
who considers everything they do.
16 No king is saved by the size of his army;
no warrior escapes by his great strength.
17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
despite all its great strength it cannot save.
18 But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
19 to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.
20 We wait in hope for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
21 In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,
even as we put our hope in you.
September 23, 2008
He Watches Over Us
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Psalm 33:8-22
From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth. —Psalm 33:14
In the early 1960s, I read the novel 1984 by George Orwell, which made famous the phrase “Big Brother is watching you.” In this imaginary society, all aspects of life are under surveillance.
Today, there are an estimated 4.2 million closed-circuit video cameras in the UK alone! London is saturated with them. These cameras watch lobbies and sidewalks for security reasons. They even monitor traffic.
Psalm 33 tells us that God is also watching from on high (v.14). He sees not just images and activities but discerns thoughts and motives. As Creator God, when He speaks, it will be done (v.9). His eternal purposes march on unhindered (vv.10-11). Earthly obstacles are mere steppingstones to Him. Though many may depend on military strength for deliverance and safety, their hope is in vain (vv.16-17).
Yet we who fear the Lord need not flee from this awesome God. The psalmist affirms, “The eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy . . . . He is our help and our shield” (vv.18,20).
The eye of the Lord may be fearsome, but we who trust in Him rejoice. He is not an intrusive “Big Brother” but our loving heavenly Father who watches over us. — Albert Lee
The Rock of Ages stands secure,
He always will be there;
He watches over all His own
To calm their anxious care. —Keith
Keep your eyes on the Lord; He never takes His eyes off you.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 23, 2008
The Missionary’s Goal
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
He . . . said to them, ’Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem . . . ’ —Luke 18:31
In our natural life our ambitions change as we grow, but in the Christian life the goal is given at the very beginning, and the beginning and the end are exactly the same, namely, our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him?". . . till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ . . ." ( Ephesians 4:13 ), not simply to our own idea of what the Christian life should be. The goal of the missionary is to do God’s will, not to be useful or to win the lost. A missionary is useful and he does win the lost, but that is not his goal. His goal is to do the will of his Lord.
In our Lord’s life, Jerusalem was the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will upon the cross, and unless we go there with Jesus we will have no friendship or fellowship with Him. Nothing ever diverted our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted, or lingered in others where He was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned our Lord even the slightest degree away from His purpose to go "up to Jerusalem."
"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master" ( Matthew 10:24 ). In other words, the same things that happened to our Lord will happen to us on our way to our "Jerusalem." There will be works of God exhibited through us, people will get blessed, and one or two will show gratitude while the rest will show total ingratitude, but nothing must divert us from going "up to [our] Jerusalem."
". . . there they crucified Him . . ." ( Luke 23:33 ). That is what happened when our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that event is the doorway to our salvation. The saints, however, do not end in crucifixion; by the Lord’s grace they end in glory. In the meantime our watchword should be summed up by each of us saying, "I too go ’up to Jerusalem.’ "
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Your Emergency Lights - #5662 - September 23, 2008
Category: Your Most Important Relationship
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
I was at my friend Dave's house, meeting with a group of teenagers and it happened. We had been eating together out on his porch when the sky suddenly turned really nasty. We hustled inside, just before the skies started dumping rain and the thunder and lightning started - big time thunder and lightning. I wanted to continue our conversation under the dining room table, but no one wanted to join me there. So we went to the living room. Now you may have heard that theory about the origin of the universe - the Big Bang. Well, we heard it right then and there. Not the one that some people say started the universe, but the one that knocked all the lights out. That lightning bolt had knocked out all the electrical power in the area. But were we in total darkness? Oh no. My friend Dave is a bright boy. After the last hurricane in their area, he installed some emergency lights on a battery-powered auxiliary power system. So we had lights; lights that reverted to internal power when everything else failed!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Emergency Lights."
Old Testament prophet Habakkuk - a man who felt like all the lights had gone out. He was really struggling with events that he didn't like - he didn't understand. His book opens with him asking a question many of us have asked at one time or another, "How long, O Lord?" He was having a hard time waiting for God to do what He was going to do. Nothing was going the way Habakkuk had hoped it would.
But his heart has totally changed by the end of the book. In Habakkuk 3:16 he says, "Yet I will wait patiently." He's taken hands off and he's finally quit trying to tell God how to run things. Now here's where he describes a situation like that stormy night in my friend's house when everything that might produce light fails.
Verse 17, "Though the fig tree does not bud and there no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fail and the fields produce no crops..." Now think just a minute, in a farming area, this is a description of total disaster. He says, "though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls." OK, wait a minute. We're talking the total triumph of Murphy's Law here. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. Does that sound familiar at all? All the reasons for being happy seem to have failed. The lights of joy have gone out.
Though all the external sources of joy have failed, Habakkuk concludes, "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength." This man of God says, "I've found a source of joy that is totally independent of how things are going, totally independent of any circumstances. I am anchoring myself to the Sovereign Lord who is totally in charge, whether it looks like it or not...on my God who is my Savior in this situation...on my Lord who literally is my strength to handle this hard time."
We're talking Murphy-proof joy; a light that stays on when all the external power sources fail. And, as a result, "The Sovereign Lord" he says, "enables me to go on to the heights." By carrying me through this disastrous time, God has put me on a high place where I have the perspective to see the big picture, to see my personal situation, my personal history through God's eyes.
So, if your joy is attached to your circumstances, when the storm knocks them out, you'll be in the dark. But if your joy is internally generated from an unshakable relationship with your awesome, Sovereign Lord, then you have light that will be there when every other light fails.
Monday, September 22, 2008
1 Peter 5, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 22
God Knows the Answers
If any of you needs wisdom, you should ask God for it.
James 1:5 (NCV)
Thomas came with doubts. Did Christ turn him away?
Moses had his reservations. Did God tell him to go home?
Job had his struggles. Did God avoid him?
Paul had his hard times. Did God abandon him?
No. God never turns away the sincere heart. Tough questions don't stump God. He invites our probing.
Mark it down. God never turns away the honest seeker. Go to God with your questions. You may not find all the answers, but in finding God, you know the One who does.
1 Peter 5
To Elders and Young Men
1To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
5Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."[a] 6Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
10And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Final Greetings
12With the help of Silas,[b] whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. 13She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. 14Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 John 3:16-20
16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
September 22, 2008
Arms Of Love
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 1 John 3:16-20
Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. —1 John 3:18
Many college students go on summer missions trips. But rarely does one come back with plans to rescue a baby. Mallery Thurlow, a student at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, went to Haiti to help distribute food. One day a mother showed up at the distribution center with a very sick infant in her arms. The woman was out of options. The baby needed surgery, but no one would perform it. Without intervention, the baby would die. Mallery took baby Rose into her arms—and into her heart.
After returning to the US, Mallery searched for someone to operate on baby Rose. Most doctors held out little hope. Finally, Rose was granted a visa to leave Haiti, and Mallery went back to get her. Detroit Children’s Hospital donated the $100,000 surgery, and it was successful. A little life was saved.
It’s unlikely that we will have such a dramatic impact on others. Yet challenged by this student’s willingness, we can find ways to provide help. She didn’t let circumstances, youth, or inconvenience stop her from saving Rose’s life.
Like Mallery, we are called to love “in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). Who needs you to be God’s arms of love today? — Dave Branon
When you see someone in need,
Love demands a loving deed;
Don’t just say you love him true,
Prove it by the deeds you do. —Sper
Compassion puts love into action.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 22, 2008
The Missionary’s Master and Teacher
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am . . . . I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master . . . —John 13:13, 16
To have a master and teacher is not the same thing as being mastered and taught. Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and is able to satisfy them fully. It means having someone who has made me secure in the knowledge that he has met and solved all the doubts, uncertainties, and problems in my mind. To have a master and teacher is this and nothing less— ". . . for One is your Teacher, the Christ . . ." ( Matthew 23:8 ).
Our Lord never takes measures to make me do what He wants. Sometimes I wish God would master and control me to make me do what He wants, but He will not. And at other times I wish He would leave me alone, and He does not.
"You call Me Teacher and Lord . . ."— but is He? Teacher, Master, and Lord have little place in our vocabulary. We prefer the words Savior, Sanctifier, and Healer. The only word that truly describes the experience of being mastered is love, and we know little about love as God reveals it in His Word. The way we use the word obey is proof of this. In the Bible, obedience is based on a relationship between equals; for example, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not simply God’s servant— He was His Son. ". . . though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience. . ." (Hebrews 5:8 ). If we are consciously aware that we are being mastered, that idea itself is proof that we have no master. If that is our attitude toward Jesus, we are far away from having the relationship He wants with us. He wants us in a relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that we have no conscious awareness
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Your Final Answer - #5661 - September 22, 2008
Category: Your Relationships
Monday, September 22, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
A few years ago, an old TV format got resurrected and came back big time! It was the old quiz millions of dollars - "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" Some Joe or Joan Ordinaryperson was show! The program that first captured the attention of millions of viewers was about winning asked a series of multiple-choice questions that got increasingly harder and were worth increasingly more. Now, if you needed help on a couple, you could call some person you've designated as your "lifeline." You could even listen to the opinions of the studio audience. But eventually, the spotlight was just on you, the contestant, and the host who was pressing the question. And when you finally gave your answer, the host asked that tension-building, unnerving question, "Is that your final answer?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Final Answer."
That may be the very question God is asking you about what you're doing with Jesus Christ, "Is that your final answer?" Someday, and no one knows when, you will have given your final answer about Jesus. And there will be no more chances. If your answer is right, God has promised you eternal life in heaven. If your answer is wrong, you will have to pay forever for your sins in a place that God calls hell; sins that Jesus already paid for on the cross so you wouldn't have to. But you must grab God's Rescuer in total trust or you won't be saved.
In Isaiah 55:6, our word for today from the Word of God, the Lord gives a loving invitation, also a sobering warning. "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near." Implication: you won't always be able to find Him; you won't always find Him there when you call. Someday, and you won't know that it's that day, you will give what turns out to be your final answer as to whether or not you're going to give yourself to Jesus. And when you stand before God, there will be no "lifelines" to reach for. You're not just deciding about Jesus. You're, in fact, deciding about where you will spend all eternity.
That's not my idea. It's what God Himself says in places like John 3:36 in the Bible, "Whoever believes in the Son (that's Jesus) has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." Now, you have to reach for Him "while He may be found...and while He is near." And that may be right now. You can feel a tug of Jesus in your heart again. You know you've never really committed yourself to Him; you know you need to. And some day you plan to.
But you don't come to Jesus when you're ready; you come when He's ready. Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless the Father...draws him" (John 6:44). If He's drawing you now, he's ready. Now is when you'd better come. There's no guarantee how many times He will come this close again. Tragically, so many people have slipped into eternity having given a deadly final answer to Jesus. An answer like "No," or "I'll take my chances," or "I hope I'm good enough," or "Later." All wrong - all deadly forever.
But today He's still near. He can still be found. And if you've never really trusted Jesus to be your Personal Rescuer from the penalty of your personal sins, don't wait another day to answer "yes" to Him. If you want Him in your heart, tell Him, "Jesus, I believe that when you died on that cross, it was my sins you were paying for. I believe you are not on that cross any more. You are alive and waiting to come into my life at my invitation. I turn from running my own life. Beginning today, Jesus, I am yours...all yours."
If you want to be sure you belong to Him, our website has been a help, I think, to a lot of people when they got to that point. If you are there today, would you go to YoursForLife.net. I think it will help you know that you've begun your relationship with Jesus Christ.
One day your answer to Jesus will be your final answer. Be sure that you've said, "Yes, Jesus, I'm yours."
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
September 22
God Knows the Answers
If any of you needs wisdom, you should ask God for it.
James 1:5 (NCV)
Thomas came with doubts. Did Christ turn him away?
Moses had his reservations. Did God tell him to go home?
Job had his struggles. Did God avoid him?
Paul had his hard times. Did God abandon him?
No. God never turns away the sincere heart. Tough questions don't stump God. He invites our probing.
Mark it down. God never turns away the honest seeker. Go to God with your questions. You may not find all the answers, but in finding God, you know the One who does.
1 Peter 5
To Elders and Young Men
1To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
5Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."[a] 6Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
10And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Final Greetings
12With the help of Silas,[b] whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. 13She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. 14Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 John 3:16-20
16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
September 22, 2008
Arms Of Love
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: 1 John 3:16-20
Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. —1 John 3:18
Many college students go on summer missions trips. But rarely does one come back with plans to rescue a baby. Mallery Thurlow, a student at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, went to Haiti to help distribute food. One day a mother showed up at the distribution center with a very sick infant in her arms. The woman was out of options. The baby needed surgery, but no one would perform it. Without intervention, the baby would die. Mallery took baby Rose into her arms—and into her heart.
After returning to the US, Mallery searched for someone to operate on baby Rose. Most doctors held out little hope. Finally, Rose was granted a visa to leave Haiti, and Mallery went back to get her. Detroit Children’s Hospital donated the $100,000 surgery, and it was successful. A little life was saved.
It’s unlikely that we will have such a dramatic impact on others. Yet challenged by this student’s willingness, we can find ways to provide help. She didn’t let circumstances, youth, or inconvenience stop her from saving Rose’s life.
Like Mallery, we are called to love “in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). Who needs you to be God’s arms of love today? — Dave Branon
When you see someone in need,
Love demands a loving deed;
Don’t just say you love him true,
Prove it by the deeds you do. —Sper
Compassion puts love into action.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
September 22, 2008
The Missionary’s Master and Teacher
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am . . . . I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master . . . —John 13:13, 16
To have a master and teacher is not the same thing as being mastered and taught. Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and is able to satisfy them fully. It means having someone who has made me secure in the knowledge that he has met and solved all the doubts, uncertainties, and problems in my mind. To have a master and teacher is this and nothing less— ". . . for One is your Teacher, the Christ . . ." ( Matthew 23:8 ).
Our Lord never takes measures to make me do what He wants. Sometimes I wish God would master and control me to make me do what He wants, but He will not. And at other times I wish He would leave me alone, and He does not.
"You call Me Teacher and Lord . . ."— but is He? Teacher, Master, and Lord have little place in our vocabulary. We prefer the words Savior, Sanctifier, and Healer. The only word that truly describes the experience of being mastered is love, and we know little about love as God reveals it in His Word. The way we use the word obey is proof of this. In the Bible, obedience is based on a relationship between equals; for example, that of a son with his father. Our Lord was not simply God’s servant— He was His Son. ". . . though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience. . ." (Hebrews 5:8 ). If we are consciously aware that we are being mastered, that idea itself is proof that we have no master. If that is our attitude toward Jesus, we are far away from having the relationship He wants with us. He wants us in a relationship where He is so easily our Master and Teacher that we have no conscious awareness
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Your Final Answer - #5661 - September 22, 2008
Category: Your Relationships
Monday, September 22, 2008
Download MP3 (right click to save)
A few years ago, an old TV format got resurrected and came back big time! It was the old quiz millions of dollars - "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" Some Joe or Joan Ordinaryperson was show! The program that first captured the attention of millions of viewers was about winning asked a series of multiple-choice questions that got increasingly harder and were worth increasingly more. Now, if you needed help on a couple, you could call some person you've designated as your "lifeline." You could even listen to the opinions of the studio audience. But eventually, the spotlight was just on you, the contestant, and the host who was pressing the question. And when you finally gave your answer, the host asked that tension-building, unnerving question, "Is that your final answer?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Final Answer."
That may be the very question God is asking you about what you're doing with Jesus Christ, "Is that your final answer?" Someday, and no one knows when, you will have given your final answer about Jesus. And there will be no more chances. If your answer is right, God has promised you eternal life in heaven. If your answer is wrong, you will have to pay forever for your sins in a place that God calls hell; sins that Jesus already paid for on the cross so you wouldn't have to. But you must grab God's Rescuer in total trust or you won't be saved.
In Isaiah 55:6, our word for today from the Word of God, the Lord gives a loving invitation, also a sobering warning. "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near." Implication: you won't always be able to find Him; you won't always find Him there when you call. Someday, and you won't know that it's that day, you will give what turns out to be your final answer as to whether or not you're going to give yourself to Jesus. And when you stand before God, there will be no "lifelines" to reach for. You're not just deciding about Jesus. You're, in fact, deciding about where you will spend all eternity.
That's not my idea. It's what God Himself says in places like John 3:36 in the Bible, "Whoever believes in the Son (that's Jesus) has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." Now, you have to reach for Him "while He may be found...and while He is near." And that may be right now. You can feel a tug of Jesus in your heart again. You know you've never really committed yourself to Him; you know you need to. And some day you plan to.
But you don't come to Jesus when you're ready; you come when He's ready. Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless the Father...draws him" (John 6:44). If He's drawing you now, he's ready. Now is when you'd better come. There's no guarantee how many times He will come this close again. Tragically, so many people have slipped into eternity having given a deadly final answer to Jesus. An answer like "No," or "I'll take my chances," or "I hope I'm good enough," or "Later." All wrong - all deadly forever.
But today He's still near. He can still be found. And if you've never really trusted Jesus to be your Personal Rescuer from the penalty of your personal sins, don't wait another day to answer "yes" to Him. If you want Him in your heart, tell Him, "Jesus, I believe that when you died on that cross, it was my sins you were paying for. I believe you are not on that cross any more. You are alive and waiting to come into my life at my invitation. I turn from running my own life. Beginning today, Jesus, I am yours...all yours."
If you want to be sure you belong to Him, our website has been a help, I think, to a lot of people when they got to that point. If you are there today, would you go to YoursForLife.net. I think it will help you know that you've begun your relationship with Jesus Christ.
One day your answer to Jesus will be your final answer. Be sure that you've said, "Yes, Jesus, I'm yours."
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