How infiltrated are you with God's patience? You've heard about it. Read about it. Perhaps underlined Bible passages regarding it. But have you received it? The proof is in your patience. Patience deeply received results in patience freely offered! Remember the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:34? "Then the angry king sent the man to prison until he had paid every penny." Whew! we sigh. It's a good thing God doesn't imprison the impatient in real life.
Don't be so sure. Impatience still imprisons the soul. But God does more than demand patience from us; he offers it to us. According to Galatians 5:22, patience is a fruit of his Spirit. Have you asked God to give you some fruit? Did you…um…grow impatient? Well, ask him again and again.
From A Love Worth Giving
Amos 8
A Basket of Ripe Fruit
This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: a basket of ripe fruit. 2 “What do you see, Amos?” he asked.
“A basket of ripe fruit,” I answered.
Then the Lord said to me, “The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
3 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.[d] Many, many bodies—flung everywhere! Silence!”
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land,
5 saying,
“When will the New Moon be over
that we may sell grain,
and the Sabbath be ended
that we may market wheat?”—
skimping on the measure,
boosting the price
and cheating with dishonest scales,
6 buying the poor with silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
7 The Lord has sworn by himself, the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget anything they have done.
8 “Will not the land tremble for this,
and all who live in it mourn?
The whole land will rise like the Nile;
it will be stirred up and then sink
like the river of Egypt.
9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.
13 “In that day
“the lovely young women and strong young men
will faint because of thirst.
14 Those who swear by the sin of Samaria—
who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’
or, ‘As surely as the god[e] of Beersheba lives’—
they will fall, never to rise again.”
Footnotes:
Amos 8:3 Or “the temple singers will wail
Amos 8:14 Hebrew the way
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Read: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
INSIGHT:
Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church emphasizes the distinction between wisdom and folly and how in Christ God accomplishes His redemptive plan in unexpected ways (see 1:18–3:23). This letter also contains practical advice and everyday wisdom, as seen in today’s passage. Through two different metaphors (a runner and a boxer), Paul reminds the Corinthians that doing anything—especially following Christ—without a goal in mind is the height of foolishness. A runner with no destination will simply tire and quit, and a boxer beating the air never puts his training to practical use. We follow Christ to become like Him and receive the prize.
Training for Life
By Amy Boucher Pye
I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest . . . I myself should become disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:27 nkjv
I recently met a woman who has pushed her body and mind to the limit. She climbed mountains, faced death, and even broke a Guinness world record. Now she’s engaged in a different challenge—that of raising her special-needs child. The courage and faith she employed while ascending the mountains she now pours into motherhood.
In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul speaks of a runner competing in a race. After urging a church enamored with their rights to give consideration to one another (ch. 8), he explains how he sees the challenges of love and self-sacrifice to be like a marathon of endurance (ch. 9). As followers of Jesus, they are to relinquish their rights in obedience to Him.
Obedience leads to endurance which leads to the prize that lasts forever.
As athletes train their bodies that they might win the crown, we too train our bodies and minds for our souls to flourish. As we ask the Holy Spirit to transform us, moment by moment, we leave our old selves behind. Empowered by God, we stop ourselves from uttering that cruel word. We put away our electronic device and remain present with our friends. We don’t have to speak the last word in a disagreement.
As we train to run in the Spirit of Christ, how might God want to mold us today?
Lord, let me not demand my rights, but train to win the prize that lasts forever.
Amy Boucher Pye is a writer, editor, and speaker. The author of Finding Myself in Britain: Our Search for Faith, Home, and True Identity, she runs the Woman Alive book club in the UK and enjoys life with her family in their English vicarage.
Training leads to transformation.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Becoming the “Filth of the World”
We have been made as the filth of the world… —1 Corinthians 4:13
These words are not an exaggeration. The only reason they may not be true of us who call ourselves ministers of the gospel is not that Paul forgot or misunderstood the exact truth of them, but that we are too cautious and concerned about our own desires to allow ourselves to become the refuse or “filth of the world.” “Fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ…” (Colossians 1:24) is not the result of the holiness of sanctification, but the evidence of consecration— being “separated to the gospel of God…” (Romans 1:1).
“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you…” (1 Peter 4:12). If we do think the things we encounter are strange, it is because we are fearful and cowardly. We pay such close attention to our own interests and desires that we stay out of the mire and say, “I won’t submit; I won’t bow or bend.” And you don’t have to— you can be saved by the “skin of your teeth” if you like. You can refuse to let God count you as one who is “separated to the gospel….” Or you can say, “I don’t care if I am treated like ‘the filth of the world’ as long as the gospel is proclaimed.” A true servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to experience martyrdom for the reality of the gospel of God. When a moral person is confronted with contempt, immorality, disloyalty, or dishonesty, he is so repulsed by the offense that he turns away and in despair closes his heart to the offender. But the miracle of the redemptive reality of God is that the worst and the vilest offender can never exhaust the depths of His love. Paul did not say that God separated him to show what a wonderful man He could make of him, but “to reveal His Son in me…” (Galatians 1:16).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him. So Send I You, 1301 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
The Message in the Moose - for the Things We Run Into - #7583
If I was back in elementary school, and they asked me to write a composition on "My Summer," I'd have one word on the paper. Amazing! Because I spent it on Indian reservations with a team of 60 Native American young people who stood on reservation basketball courts, pouring out their Hope Story of how Jesus has rescued them. I had a front row seat on God's awesomeness.
And then there was the moose.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Message in the Moose - for the Things We Run Into."
Our son, who directs all our organization's Native work, was driving his rented RV back to our lodging place after a team outreach. When suddenly, there was the moose crashing head first into the windshield on the driver's side, shattering it completely propelling broken glass way back in the RV.
We raced to the scene, not knowing what to expect. There was our daughter-in-law, standing in front of that disabled RV repeating over and over again, "God is so good! God is so good!" Yes, He is. Even the police were amazed that there was no significant injury. Locals told me grimly, "Things like this don't usually end well." We consider it a miracle. Miracle #1, that is.
Obviously, a lot of repairs were needed, including re-alignment which meant putting the RV up on a rack. And that's when they found it. Loose parts underneath that were not caused by the accident and that almost surely meant disaster down the road. The mechanic explained the real possibility. He said, "Your RV could suddenly pitch forward and roll end-over-end" obviously with potentially deadly consequences.
When my son called to tell me about this disturbing discovery, he began with four words that, at first, seemed a little curious, "God sent a moose." Well, you know what? Yes, He did. To reveal what otherwise might never have been known until it was too late. "God is so good! God is so good!"
The Moose Mess has revealed more than problems with an RV. It sheds a whole new light on many things that I run into, that you run into, all humans run into: medical challenges, painful losses, family conflict, major disappointment, a financial hit, maybe it's a child in trouble, a broken relationship. How about a broken heart? When we hit it, everything stops, and it usually hits suddenly.
But, just as that night of the moose, God is always doing something much bigger than the thing we can see. Don't forget that. God's always doing something much bigger than what we can see. We saw the moose. But the moose was just part of the story. The real story was God was using the moose to prevent a much larger tragedy and showing us how great His power is and His love for us.
There are some very familiar words in the Biblical affirmation that's our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Romans 8:28. It takes on new significance after the night of the moose. "All things work together for good..." "All things work together for good for those who love God and are the called according to His purpose." He didn't say all things are good. But He said, "All things work together for good."
The Cross of Jesus wasn't good. It was awful. But what looked at that time like the greatest tragedy in human history turned out to bring about the greatest good of all; the payment for our sin that makes possible life with God forever.
So when a "moose" suddenly crashes into my life, seemingly wrecking things, I need to remember the God of the "something bigger" who's weaving a beautiful tapestry that sometimes includes some very dark threads. And He's using today's mess to accomplish tomorrow's miracle.
If I can remember that, maybe I, too, will be able to say, "God sent a moose."