Max Lucado Daily: From Glory to Glory
Do you sense a disconnect between the promises of the Bible and the reality of your life? Jesus offers abundant joy, yet you live with oppressive grief. Romans 8:37 promises we are more than conquerors-yet you are commonly conquered by temptations or weaknesses. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 you can live from glory to glory. The deed to your new life is already signed. From dry land to the Promised Land; from manna to feasts.
Joshua 21:43-45 says, "So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which he had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it." You can personalize that promise! You can realize your Glory Days! I invite you to join me in a Glory Days Scripture Memory Challenge and take to heart Joshua 21: 43-45. Let's memorize these verses together at GloryDaysToday.com!
Proverbs 5
Avoid Immoral Women
5 My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
listen carefully to my wise counsel.
2 Then you will show discernment,
and your lips will express what you’ve learned.
3 For the lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey,
and her mouth is smoother than oil.
4 But in the end she is as bitter as poison,
as dangerous as a double-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps lead straight to the grave.[a]
6 For she cares nothing about the path to life.
She staggers down a crooked trail and doesn’t realize it.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me.
Never stray from what I am about to say:
8 Stay away from her!
Don’t go near the door of her house!
9 If you do, you will lose your honor
and will lose to merciless people all you have achieved.
10 Strangers will consume your wealth,
and someone else will enjoy the fruit of your labor.
11 In the end you will groan in anguish
when disease consumes your body.
12 You will say, “How I hated discipline!
If only I had not ignored all the warnings!
13 Oh, why didn’t I listen to my teachers?
Why didn’t I pay attention to my instructors?
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin,
and now I must face public disgrace.”
15 Drink water from your own well—
share your love only with your wife.[b]
16 Why spill the water of your springs in the streets,
having sex with just anyone?[c]
17 You should reserve it for yourselves.
Never share it with strangers.
18 Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you.
Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 She is a loving deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts satisfy you always.
May you always be captivated by her love.
20 Why be captivated, my son, by an immoral woman,
or fondle the breasts of a promiscuous woman?
21 For the Lord sees clearly what a man does,
examining every path he takes.
22 An evil man is held captive by his own sins;
they are ropes that catch and hold him.
23 He will die for lack of self-control;
he will be lost because of his great foolishness.
Footnotes:
5:5 Hebrew to Sheol.
5:15 Hebrew Drink water from your own cistern, / flowing water from your own well.
5:16 Hebrew Why spill your springs in the streets, / your streams in the city squares?
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 06, 2015
Read: John 15:10-20
When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16 You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
The World’s Hatred
18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you.
INSIGHT:
Jesus used the words servants and friends to show the level of intimacy and the great privileges and responsibilities believers have with Him (v. 15). A true friend is “one in spirit” with you (see 1 Sam. 18:1) and would sacrifice his life for you (John 15:13). A friend of Jesus does whatever He commands (v. 14), but “a friend of the world” is an enemy of God (James 4:4). Sim Kay Tee
Playing with Fire
By Dennis Fisher
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. . . . And I too will love them and show myself to them. John 14:21
When I was a young boy, my mom warned me that I should never play with fire. Yet one day I decided to see what would happen if I did. Taking a book of matches and some paper, I went out into the backyard to experiment. With heart beating fast, I knelt on the ground, struck the match, and set the paper aflame.
Suddenly I saw my mother approaching. Not wanting to get caught, I put my legs over the flames to hide what I was doing. But Mom shouted, “Denny, move your legs! There’s a fire underneath them!” Fortunately, I moved my legs quickly enough and was not burned. I realized then that my mother’s rule about not playing with fire was not to spoil my fun but because of her concern to keep me safe.
God always has our best interests at heart.
Sometimes we don’t understand the reasons behind God’s commands. We may even think He is a cosmic killjoy, setting up rules and regulations to keep us from enjoying ourselves. But God asks us to obey Him because He has our best interests at heart. As we obey, we “remain in his love” and are filled with joy (John 15:10-11).
So when God warns us not to sin, He does it for our own good. He really wants to protect us from “playing with fire” and getting burned.
Dear heavenly Father, may Your Holy Spirit empower us to obey Your Word. We thank You for the protection Your precepts provide and the love and joy we find in obeying You.
God gives us loving warnings in His Word to protect us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 06, 2015
The Nature of Regeneration
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.
The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “…until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you…” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.
Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed. Our Brilliant Heritage, 946 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 06, 2015
Moving Past Your Fear - #7497
Michelle and Tara - they were the darlings of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Michelle Kwan was favored to leave Nagano with the coveted gold medal for women's figure skating. Fifteen-year-old Tara Lipinski was widely expected to win the silver as the second greatest female skater in the world. But, to the surprise of most of the world, Tara skated to the gold as the youngest skating gold medalist in Olympic history up to that time. Michelle Kwan went home with the silver. One morning afterwards, one commentator said of Tara Lipinski, "She was too young, too immature, too unrefined. It wasn't her turn. The reason Tara Lipinski couldn't win the gold medal is the reason it hangs around her neck today: She was a kid."
The writer went on to observe that while Michelle Kwan stayed with her parents in her room most of the time before her performance, young Tara was marching in the Opening Ceremony, mingling with the other athletes, cheering for her team at other events, even playing video games and football. And then, he said, "It was time to skate the long program. There was no fear. No nerves." Michelle actually talked about being, in her words, "more cautious." But for the gold medalist - they called it "no fear."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Moving Past Your Fear."
Now, if you can skate without fear, you can really enjoy what you're doing. As young Tara Lipinski said, "I let myself have fun." Fear costs you your confidence. And it might even cost you winning at what you have to do.
Our Word for today from the Word of God, 2 Timothy 1:7, "God did not give us a spirit of timidity (or, as many versions say, a spirit of fear), but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline." Under control, powerful, loving - that's how you can be if you can skate, work, live without fear; not having to respond to all the pressure, not being so concerned about failing...being tentative or trying too hard because you're afraid. Fear isn't from God. In fact, David said, "I sought the Lord and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears" (Psalm 34:4).
Right now you may be skating in an arena or in an event that, quite honestly, is making you feel afraid. Maybe it's parenting - the fear of failing with your child, the fears of what they might do or what might be done to them in a world like ours. Or you might be facing an assignment or a challenge that has its share of fear in it. It could be medical or financial or relational. But for most of us, there's an arena we have to perform in that makes us afraid. And, so often, it is the fear that makes the very thing we're afraid of happen.
When you look at all the times Jesus reprimanded His disciples for being full of fear instead of full of faith, you begin to see two mistakes that make us paralyzed or limited by fear. First, focusing on ourselves: How am I performing, what are those people going to think of me, my limitations, my inadequacies? All about me. Secondly, focusing on the situation: How big it is, how hard it is, the dangers, the "coulds," the "mights," the "what if's," the scary possibilities.
Remember God doesn't give us the spirit of fear. He gives us the spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. All the things we need to skate with championship form. So faith, which is the opposite of fear, comes not from focusing on myself or on my situation, but on my Savior! If I consciously fill up my mind with Him, the fear will start melting into faith. Why? Because I know nothing is going to happen that my God cannot handle, that my God has not approved, and that my God will not prepare me for and equip me for. Yes, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).
So as you skate in the arena God has assigned to you, don't think about yourself, don't think about the situation. Think about your Savior! Fear will paralyze you. It'll make you tense; it'll make you make mistakes. But focusing on your Lord will enable you to skate relaxed, with confidence, and yes, maybe even having some fun.
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