Perhaps you can relate to the deflated little fellow I saw in an airport terminal. Everything about the dad’s expression said, Hurry up! We have to run if we’re going to make the connection. Can the little fellow keep up? Mom could. The big brothers could. But the little guy? He tried to match his parents’ pace, but he just couldn’t. Can you relate? Sometimes the challenge is just too much. It’s not that you don’t try. You just run out of fight.
The story of Joshua in the Bible dares us to believe our best days are ahead of us. A life in which the Bible says we are anxious for nothing, we are praying always; a life in which Paul says, we are giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Philippians 4:6). We may stumble but we don’t collapse. God has a promised land for us to take!
From Glory Days
Psalm 86
A prayer of David.
1 Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer;
answer me, for I need your help.
2 Protect me, for I am devoted to you.
Save me, for I serve you and trust you.
You are my God.
3 Be merciful to me, O Lord,
for I am calling on you constantly.
4 Give me happiness, O Lord,
for I give myself to you.
5 O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive,
so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.
6 Listen closely to my prayer, O Lord;
hear my urgent cry.
7 I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble,
and you will answer me.
8 No pagan god is like you, O Lord.
None can do what you do!
9 All the nations you made
will come and bow before you, Lord;
they will praise your holy name.
10 For you are great and perform wonderful deeds.
You alone are God.
11 Teach me your ways, O Lord,
that I may live according to your truth!
Grant me purity of heart,
so that I may honor you.
12 With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.
I will give glory to your name forever,
13 for your love for me is very great.
You have rescued me from the depths of death.[a]
14 O God, insolent people rise up against me;
a violent gang is trying to kill me.
You mean nothing to them.
15 But you, O Lord,
are a God of compassion and mercy,
slow to get angry
and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
16 Look down and have mercy on me.
Give your strength to your servant;
save me, the son of your servant.
17 Send me a sign of your favor.
Then those who hate me will be put to shame,
for you, O Lord, help and comfort me.
Footnotes:
86:13 Hebrew of Sheol.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 07, 2015
Read: 1 Peter 1:3-9
The Hope of Eternal Life
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
6 So be truly glad.[a] There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.
Footnotes:
1:6 Or So you are truly glad.
INSIGHT:
Peter wrote this letter to encourage believers in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) who were suffering because of persecution. He tells them that their sufferings serve a divine purpose by proving the genuineness and quality of their faith (1:7). These believers can “greatly rejoice” (v. 6) because they have “a living hope” that is eternal, guaranteed by the risen Christ, and divinely reserved by God (vv. 3-4). Suffering believers have the privilege of following Jesus’ example (2:21), participating not only in His sufferings, but also in His glory (1:7; 4:13). They have the opportunity and responsibility to tell others about their living hope (3:15). Sim Kay Tee
Ripples of Hope
By Bill Crowder |
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:3
In 1966, U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy made an influential visit to South Africa. There he offered words of hope to opponents of apartheid in his famous “Ripple of Hope” speech at the University of Cape Town. In his speech, he declared, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
At times in this world, hope seems scarce. Yet there is an ultimate hope readily available for the follower of Christ. Peter wrote, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
Jesus can infuse #hope into the most hopeless of situations.
Through the certainty of Christ’s resurrection, the child of God has a hope that is more than a ripple. It is an overwhelming current of confidence in the faithfulness of the One who conquered death for us. Jesus, in His victory over death—our greatest enemy—can infuse hope into the most hopeless of situations.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. Edward Mote
In Christ the hopeless find hope.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 07, 2015
Do It Yourself (1)
…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God… —2 Corinthians 10:5
Determinedly Demolish Some Things. Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength imparted by His Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to fight, but only to “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord…” (see Exodus 14:13). But every theory or thought that raises itself up as a fortified barrier “against the knowledge of God” is to be determinedly demolished by drawing on God’s power, not through human effort or by compromise (see 2 Corinthians 10:4).
It is only when God has transformed our nature and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin— Jesus Christ conquered that in His redemption of us. The conflict is waged over turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done easily, nor does God intend that it be so. It is accomplished only through a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense that He makes our character holy. He makes us holy in the sense that He has made us innocent before Him. And then we have to turn that innocence into holy character through the moral choices we make. These choices are continually opposed and hostile to the things of our natural life which have become so deeply entrenched— the very things that raise themselves up as fortified barriers “against the knowledge of God.” We can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to bring another son to glory (see Hebrews 2:10).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 07, 2015
Why God Slows You Down - #7476
It was Fall, and my wife and I were making our annual pilgrimage to go "Falling" in northwest New Jersey. We had our cider, we had our donuts and our eyes were filled with God's great autumn art show. We were headed home, and of course, I wanted to make the return trip as short as possible. That's why I wasn't very thrilled when I crested the hill and saw this long traffic jam. What is this bumper-to-bumper stuff doing in my country paradise?
I was forced to do something I can't ever remember doing on that little country highway. Drive slow! But it turned out that I did not drum my fingers on the steering wheel once or even wish I could go faster. For the first time, I noticed this beautiful little lake I had never seen before with the colorful trees all reflected in it. I saw animals and panoramas that I had missed all these years of traveling this road. Oh, they'd always been there, but I was always moving too fast.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why God Slows You Down."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God." Well, those things really go together. "Be still", and then while you're still you'll "know that I am God." It could be that God has been trying to get you to realize that He is God - for most of your life. And once you do, your life takes on a peace and a beauty you've probably never known possible before. You might finally be ready for some of that.
I had missed so much all those years on that country road because I'd always been in such a hurry. You know, people miss a relationship with their Creator the same way. The sad thing is that this is the relationship you've been looking for all your life; the one you've hoped every other person in your life would be for you and they couldn't.
The Bible says, speaking of Jesus in Colossians 1:16, "All things were made by Him and for Him." Well, that includes you and me. He's the one you were made by; He's the one you were made for, and it could be you've missed Him all these years. That's why the hole in your heart never goes away. We're traveling at high speed, high stress, high impact, and low fulfillment.
Maybe God's suddenly slowed you down, just like I was slowed down that day in the country, so I could see what I'd never seen before. Maybe He slowed you down with a change in your health, or your job, or your finances, or your marriage, or one of your children. Somehow God's forced you to hit the brakes, and He's saying, "Would you be still and know that I am God." Don't miss this incredible opportunity to finally find what you've been looking for your whole life.
The first step to experiencing God for yourself is realizing that you're not God in a sense of being boss of your own life. Most of us approach life like this, "God, I've got this idea. Why don't you run the universe and I'll run me, thank you." The Bible has a word for that - sin. And it makes it clear, "The soul that sins, it will die." We will never know God until we have faced the seriousness of us trying to be our own God. And then you've got to get rid of the sin that has separated you from your Creator. And it will separate you for all eternity if it's not removed somehow.
That can only be done by One person; the One of whom the Bible says, "God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The view God has slowed you down to see is the cross of His Son, Jesus Christ, so you can make your way to that cross to make your peace with God. Maybe you've sped by it your whole life. This is your day to stop and see that it was for you.
Haven't you lived long enough without the relationship you were made for? Let this be the day you begin your personal relationship with the man who loved you enough to die for you and was powerful enough to walk out of His grave and is ready to walk into your life this very day. You tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours."
Listen, if you are at that point and you want to get started with Jesus, that's why our website is there. I would invite you to meet us at ANewStory.com. If you want to talk with someone text us at 442-244-WORD.
After years of running so fast, He's slowed you down so you can know His love and know His peace. Don't drive by Him again.