Many Christians view their conversion something like a car wash. You go in a filthy clunker, and you come out with your sins washed away-a cleansed clunker. But conversion is more than a removal of sin. It is a deposit of power! It is as if a brand-new Ferrari engine was mounted in your frame. God removed the old motor that was caked, cracked, and broken with rebellion and evil; and he replaced it with a humming, roaring version of himself.
The Apostle Paul described it as being "a new creation, old things have passed away; behold all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). You are fully equipped. Do you need more energy? You have it. More kindness? It's yours.
Hebrews 13:21 promises that God will equip you with all you need for doing His will. Just press the gas pedal. God has given you everything you need for living a godly life!
From Glory Days
Psalm 108
A song. A psalm of David.
1 My heart is confident in you, O God;
no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart!
2 Wake up, lyre and harp!
I will wake the dawn with my song.
3 I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
I will sing your praises among the nations.
4 For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.
May your glory shine over all the earth.
6 Now rescue your beloved people.
Answer and save us by your power.
7 God has promised this by his holiness[a]:
“I will divide up Shechem with joy.
I will measure out the valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine,
and Manasseh, too.
Ephraim, my helmet, will produce my warriors,
and Judah, my scepter, will produce my kings.
9 But Moab, my washbasin, will become my servant,
and I will wipe my feet on Edom
and shout in triumph over Philistia.”
10 Who will bring me into the fortified city?
Who will bring me victory over Edom?
11 Have you rejected us, O God?
Will you no longer march with our armies?
12 Oh, please help us against our enemies,
for all human help is useless.
13 With God’s help we will do mighty things,
for he will trample down our foes.
Footnotes:
108:7 Or in his sanctuary.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, September 11, 2015
Read: Matthew 26:36-42
Jesus Prays in Gethsemane
36 Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” 37 He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. 38 He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
39 He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”
40 Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? 41 Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”
42 Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away[a] unless I drink it, your will be done.”
Footnotes:
26:42 Greek If this cannot pass.
INSIGHT:
While Gethsemane is usually referred to as a “garden,” it was in reality more like an orchard of olive trees. A portion of that orchard still remains today at the foot of the Mount of Olives, just across the Brook Kidron from the old city of Jerusalem and the temple mount. From Gethsemane, you have a clear view of the Eastern Gate where it is believed the Messiah will enter Jerusalem when He returns to earth at His second coming. Imagine: In the shadow of the place where Jesus will be greatly honored as the arriving King is the garden where His sufferings began. Bill Crowder
In the Garden
By Joe Stowell
My Father, . . . may your will be done. Matthew 26:42
My forefathers were pioneers in Michigan. They cleared the land, planted crops, and cultivated gardens to raise food for their families. This agrarian bent has been passed down through the generations. My dad grew up on a Michigan farm and loved gardening, which may explain why I love gardening and the smell of fertile soil. Cultivating plants that bear beautiful flowers and tending roses that fragrantly grace our yard with beauty are enjoyable pastimes for me. If it weren’t for the weeds it would be wonderful!
When I have to wrestle with the weeds, I am reminded of the garden of Eden; it was a perfect garden until Adam and Eve disobeyed God and thorns and thistles became a reality for them and every gardener since then (Gen. 3:17-18).
The Bible also mentions another garden—the garden of Gethsemane where Christ, in deep distress, pleaded with His Father to find another way to reverse sin’s consequences that were born in Eden. In Gethsemane, Jesus surrendered to His Father by uttering words of full obedience in the face of great pain: “Your will be done” (Matt. 26:42).
Because Jesus surrendered in that garden, we now harvest the benefits of His amazing grace. May this lead us to surrender to His weeding of sin from our lives.
Lord, thank You for the amazing price You paid to free me from sin. May the reality of the victory You won encourage me to reject the sin that entangles my ability to be fruitful for You.
Spiritual growth occurs when faith is cultivated.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, September 11, 2015
Missionary Weapons (2)
If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. —John 13:14
Ministering in Everyday Opportunities. Ministering in everyday opportunities that surround us does not mean that we select our own surroundings— it means being God’s very special choice to be available for use in any of the seemingly random surroundings which He has engineered for us. The very character we exhibit in our present surroundings is an indication of what we will be like in other surroundings.
The things Jesus did were the most menial of everyday tasks, and this is an indication that it takes all of God’s power in me to accomplish even the most common tasks in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels, dishes, sandals, and all the other ordinary things in our lives reveal what we are made of more quickly than anything else. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the most menial duty as it ought to be done.
Jesus said, “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). Notice the kind of people that God brings around you, and you will be humiliated once you realize that this is actually His way of revealing to you the kind of person you have been to Him. Now He says we should exhibit to those around us exactly what He has exhibited to us.
Do you find yourself responding by saying, “Oh, I will do all that once I’m out on the mission field”? Talking in this way is like trying to produce the weapons of war while in the trenches of the battlefield— you will be killed while trying to do it.
We have to go the “second mile” with God (see Matthew 5:41). Yet some of us become worn out in the first ten steps. Then we say, “Well, I’ll just wait until I get closer to the next big crisis in my life.” But if we do not steadily minister in everyday opportunities, we will do nothing when the crisis comes.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The sympathy which is reverent with what it cannot understand is worth its weight in gold. Baffled to Fight Better, 69 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, September 11, 2015
Talking With God - Monologue or Dialogue - #7480
Well, depending on what generation you might be from, there's a bunch of us who would have never imagined we'd get a telephone call from a computer. But here we are, and we've all at one time or another answered a call and there was a computer on the other end. But it's really not a meaningful communication experience. The computer does all the talking. You ever tried to say, "Hello! Hello! Who is this?" There's no answer. Don't even try to talk to that computer caller. He only does one-way communication. You know that God gets a lot of calls like that?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Talking With God - Monologue or Dialogue."
Our word for today from the Word of God; we are in the life of Samuel. Not when he is that great judge of Israel, but when he is just a young boy in training in the home of Eli. Eli is the Priest at the temple, and we read that several times during the night young Samuel has heard a voice calling for him. He thinks it's Eli, and Eli says, "Not me. Go back to bed." Finally he discovers on the third call who it is that has been calling him. "The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, 'Samuel, Samuel?' Then Samuel said, 'Speak, for your servant is listening.'" (1 Samuel 3:10)
Now that's the right approach. But a lot of times we rewrite that, "Listen, Lord, your servant is speaking." I mean, look, we've got busy lives. We run into the Throne Room from which the universe is governed, dump what we have to say and run out again-sort of like that computer-before the Lord can say what He has to say.
Now if I came to your house and I sat down in the living room and talked for an hour solid-never let you say anything, never let you ask anything, went to the door and walked out, you'd say, "Man, that Hutchcraft guy is rude!" Well, we do that to God all the time and it is rude. He says, "Be still and know that I am God. Wait on the Lord." Elijah found out that God's voice was not in the wind, not in the fire, not in the earthquake, but was a still, small voice. God speaks when you give Him space to do it, when you give Him silence to do it.
We're uncomfortable with silence. We feel like nothing's happening. But with God, silence is where it happens. Feel free to give God your thanks, and your needs, and your hurts, and your praise, and your questions. But then, allow time to be quiet. Linger in God's presence.
That gives Him opportunity to show you a perspective you didn't have before; to break a log jam in your mind; to show you a solution or an insight; to speak something to your heart-a new way of looking at a person or a new way of looking at a step you ought to take or a situation you have to manage. Those are blessed moments; moments that we busy Christians often miss out on. "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening."
If you're like me, listening to God is going to take a lot of self-control and a little practice, but it is so worth it. God has so much He wants to show you, but He probably won't interrupt you while you're talking. So would you let prayer be a dialogue, not just a monologue? You're not a computer caller are you?
Listen and let God write His thoughts on the blank slate of your waiting heart.
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