(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)
Max Lucado Daily:The Fire That Consumes You
God will speak to you differently than He will speak to others. Just because God spoke to Moses through a burning bush doesn’t mean we should all sit next to a bush waiting for God to speak. No, God reveals His heart personally to each person. We learn His will as we take up residence in His house and seek to listen to him every single day.
Want to know God’s will for your life? Then answer the question: What ignites your heart? Forgotten orphans? Untouched nations? The inner city? What is the fire that consumes you? Mark it down. Jesus comes to set you on fire and he will speak to you. The fire of your heart is the light of your path. Fan it at your own delight. Blow it. Stir it. Nourish it. Disregard it at your own expense! Your delight is God’s message to you!
God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing. Ephesians 2:10
from The Great House of God
Romans 8:1-21
New International Version (NIV)
Life Through the Spirit
8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life[d] because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of[e] his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[f] And by him we cry, “Abba,[g] Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Present Suffering and Future Glory
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Colossians 3:1-14
Living as Those Made Alive in Christ
3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Guard Your Brand
April 8, 2013 — by Julie Ackerman Link
Above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. —Colossians 3:14
A popular clothing retailer requires that its sales clerks dress like the models in the store windows who advertise its clothes. This practice is referred to as “guarding their brand.” The idea behind it is that shoppers will be more likely to purchase clothes because they will want to look like the people they see wearing them.
In a consumer-oriented culture, it’s easy to be seduced into thinking that we can “buy” acceptance by wearing the things that beautiful people wear. Retailers would have us believe that looking good will make us desirable.
Sometimes we even convince ourselves that we can win followers for God by making ourselves attractive to the world. But the Bible is clear about what’s really important to God. He wants us to look like Jesus in our character. In a sense, Jesus is our “brand,” for we are being conformed to His image (Rom. 8:29). We attract others to Christ when we put on His attributes, which include tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering (Col. 3:12), and, above all, love (v.14).
Instead of polishing and protecting our own image, we need to be guarding and reflecting the image of God, which is being perfected in us through Christ.
O to be like Thee! blessed Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear. —Chisholm
One of the Spirit’s roles is to form the likeness of Christ in us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
April 8, 2013
His Resurrection Destiny
Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? —Luke 24:26
Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life. His resurrection means that He has the power to convey His life to me. When I was born again, I received the very life of the risen Lord from Jesus Himself.
Christ’s resurrection destiny— His foreordained purpose— was to bring “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We never have exactly the same relationship to God that the Son of God has, but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life— a life He had never lived before He was God Incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before. And what His resurrection means for us is that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we will have a body like His glorious body, but we can know here and now the power and effectiveness of His resurrection and can “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Paul’s determined purpose was to “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).
Jesus prayed, “. . . as You have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him” (John 17:2 . The term Holy Spirit is actually another name for the experience of eternal life working in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the deity of God who continues to apply the power of the atonement by the Cross of Christ to our lives. Thank God for the glorious and majestic truth that His Spirit can work the very nature of Jesus into us, if we will only obey Him.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Bus Driver's Sacrifice - #6846
Monday, April 8, 2013
Some kids aren't even sure what their school bus driver looks like. They're still asleep when he picks them up in the morning. But every child who's ridden in that yellow "limo" knows that the "chauffeurs" come in all kinds of flavors.
You've got the kind bus driver who greets everyone by name, the grumpy ones who seem to want to be somewhere else, the wisecrackers, the happy road warriors, and then there was Chuck Poland, who really loved his Midland City, Alabama passengers - to death.
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| Chuck Poland |
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Bus Driver's Sacrifice."
Back at Super Bowl time, which preceded this incident, there was a lot of talk of "heroes" in the game. But the real hero was a man who drove a school bus that week. His daughter said that he always considered his young passengers as "his kids." Yes, he did. He put himself between them and the danger.
Honestly, I couldn't watch that story without two things happening. My heart was moved, and I thought about Jesus. So did people at this man's funeral. One fellow bus driver said, "What Chuck did was the same thing Jesus Christ did. He laid down his life to defend those schoolchildren." Those words are right out of the Bible, and they're our word for today from the Word of God, 1 John 4:16, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us."
What gets me is those words "laid down." Jesus actually said, "I lay down My life; no one takes it from Me" (John 10:17-18). How could anyone take the life of the all-powerful Son of God? He made the tree He died on. He created the men who nailed Him there. He let them beat His back bloody. He let them jam the thorns into His scalp. He let them drive spikes through His hands and feet.
But more than any Hollywood portrayal of His crucifixion could ever show, He endured a soul torment no one ever has, because He had poured out on Him all the hell of all the sin of all mankind. From His shredded soul, He cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?"
And some of those sins He died to pay for were mine. Some of them were yours. Nobody ever loved me - nobody ever could love me - like He does. The burden of my sin was forever lifted the day I said, "Jesus, I'm Yours." It was said of that Alabama bus driver, "You died knowing you kept everyone safe." I think that's the word I feel - safe. Because Jesus stood between me and the "bullets" of the judgment I deserved for my sin. Jesus died. I'm safe. I'm speechless. It's no wonder that the only thing God's going to want to know when you stand before Him is, "What did you do with My Son?"
The only life-saving choice is to put all your trust, pin all your hopes on the Man who died for your sins so you don't have to. If you've never done that, I would invite you right where you are to say, "Jesus, I'm yours." You might be ready to receive the pardon and the life that Jesus died to give you.
You can find out how to do that at our website YoursForLife.net. I pray you will, because it's time to get this settled and know you have been forgiven.