Max Lucado Daily: THE SEAL OF THE SPIRIT
God never promises the absence of distress on your new-beginning journey, but he does promise the assuring presence of his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit invisibly, yet indispensably, serves as a rudder for the ship of your soul, keeping you afloat and on track. This is no solo journey that you’re on. The Spirit seals you. To protect a letter, you seal the envelope. Sealing declares ownership and secures contents.
When you accepted Christ, God sealed you with the Spirit. Ephesians 1:13 says, “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” When hell’s interlopers come seeking you to snatch you from God, the seal turns them away. He bought you, he owns you, he protects you. God paid too high a price to leave you unguarded. You have the promise and presence of the Holy Spirit.
Revelation 4
A Door into Heaven
Then I looked, and, oh!—a door open into Heaven. The trumpet-voice, the first voice in my vision, called out, “Ascend and enter. I’ll show you what happens next.”
2-6 I was caught up at once in deep worship and, oh!—a Throne set in Heaven with One Seated on the Throne, suffused in gem hues of amber and flame with a nimbus of emerald. Twenty-four thrones circled the Throne, with Twenty-four Elders seated, white-robed, gold-crowned. Lightning flash and thunder crash pulsed from the Throne. Seven fire-blazing torches fronted the Throne (these are the Sevenfold Spirit of God). Before the Throne it was like a clear crystal sea.
6-8 Prowling around the Throne were Four Animals, all eyes. Eyes to look ahead, eyes to look behind. The first Animal like a lion, the second like an ox, the third with a human face, the fourth like an eagle in flight. The Four Animals were winged, each with six wings. They were all eyes, seeing around and within. And they chanted night and day, never taking a break:
Holy, holy, holy
Is God our Master, Sovereign-Strong,
The Was, The Is, The Coming.
9-11 Every time the Animals gave glory and honor and thanks to the One Seated on the Throne—the age-after-age Living One—the Twenty-four Elders would fall prostrate before the One Seated on the Throne. They worshiped the age-after-age Living One. They threw their crowns at the foot of the Throne, chanting,
Worthy, O Master! Yes, our God!
Take the glory! the honor! the power!
You created it all;
It was created because you wanted it.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Read: Romans 12:1–3
A Living Sacrifice
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Humble Service in the Body of Christ
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
INSIGHT
The Greek word phronéo (to think, exercise the mind) gets a lot of play in Romans 12. In the original language, it’s used four times in Romans 12:3 presenting three different forms of the word. The English Standard Version offers a more literal rendering of this verse: “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” This same word appears twice in Romans 12:16. This comes through more clearly in the New American Standard Version: “Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind.” The transformation of our lives includes a change in the way we think.
Thinking Differently - By Winn Collier
Do not conform to the pattern of this world. Romans 12:2
During college, I spent a good chunk of a summer in Venezuela. The food was astounding, the people delightful, the weather and hospitality beautiful. Within the first day or two, however, I recognized that my views on time management weren’t shared by my new friends. If we planned to have lunch at noon, this meant anywhere between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m. The same for meetings or travel: timeframes were approximations without rigid punctuality. I learned that my idea of “being on time” was far more culturally formed than I’d realized.
All of us are shaped by the cultural values that surround us, usually without us ever noticing. Paul calls this cultural force the “world” (Romans 12:2). Here, “world” doesn’t mean the physical universe, but rather refers to the ways of thinking pervading our existence. It refers to the unquestioned assumptions and guiding ideals handed to us simply because we live in a particular place and time.
Paul warns us to be vigilant to “not conform to the pattern of this world.” Instead, we must be “transformed by the renewing of [our] mind” (v. 2). Rather than passively taking on the ways of thinking and believing that engulf us, we’re called to actively pursue God’s way of thinking and to learn how to understand His “good, pleasing and perfect will” (v. 2). May we learn to follow God rather than every other voice.
How would you describe the values and assumptions that surround you? What would it look like for you to not conform to the world’s ways and to instead follow Jesus’ ways?
God, I don’t even recognize my assumptions and values most of the time. Help me to live out Your truth and Your mind in it all.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
The Inspiration of Spiritual Initiative
Arise from the dead… —Ephesians 5:14
Not all initiative, the willingness to take the first step, is inspired by God. Someone may say to you, “Get up and get going! Take your reluctance by the throat and throw it overboard— just do what needs to be done!” That is what we mean by ordinary human initiative. But when the Spirit of God comes to us and says, in effect, “Get up and get going,” suddenly we find that the initiative is inspired.
We all have many dreams and aspirations when we are young, but sooner or later we realize we have no power to accomplish them. We cannot do the things we long to do, so our tendency is to think of our dreams and aspirations as dead. But God comes and says to us, “Arise from the dead….” When God sends His inspiration, it comes to us with such miraculous power that we are able to “arise from the dead” and do the impossible. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life and power comes after we “get up and get going.” God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us life as we overcome. When the inspiration of God comes, and He says, “Arise from the dead…,” we have to get ourselves up; God will not lift us up. Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch out your hand” (Matthew 12:13). As soon as the man did so, his hand was healed. But he had to take the initiative. If we will take the initiative to overcome, we will find that we have the inspiration of God, because He immediately gives us the power of life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Crises reveal character. When we are put to the test the hidden resources of our character are revealed exactly. Disciples Indeed, 393 R
Bible in a Year: Leviticus 19-20; Matthew 27:51-66
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Tired of Searching, Ready to Find - #8897
My friend Jim was young, but already a veteran rock climber. He was going to college only a few miles from one of America's most majestic mountain peaks...and one of the most challenging and dangerous to climb. He was excited to climb another towering mountain with a longtime veteran of those slopes. The mountain is actually part of the highest peak, but it's known as Disappointment Peak. It got its name from climbers who used that approach to get to the top of that ultimate mountain top. It's a tough climb, but you're inspired by the sense you're getting closer and closer to your majestic goal. And then, after a long, hard climb, you suddenly come to this chasm; a chasm that is uncrossable and thousands of feet deep. You thought you were on your way to the goal you were shooting for. Sorry, it's Disappointment Peak.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Tired of Searching, Ready to Find."
A lot of people are climbing Disappointment Peak; a long road to what they believe will be the mountaintop they're looking for. But as many who have climbed it will tell you, it really does lead to disappointment instead of fulfillment. Of course, we're all looking for different mountaintops: the relationship that will give us the real and lasting love we want so much, or the accomplishment that will give us the importance, the significance we're hoping for, the religion or spirituality that will finally give us peace in our soul.
We're all looking for different things, but we're all looking for what will give life real meaning, love and fulfillment. Gail Sheehy became a best-selling author decades ago with her book, Passages. It described our life journeys in terms of passages from one search to another. Then later on she wrote about the generation that has shaped our culture and our values more than any other - the Baby Boomers. She said, "The search for meaning has become the universal occupation of the Second Adulthood." She said that this spiritual imperative grows stronger as we grow older. So our searching doesn't diminish; it just intensifies.
But maybe you're tired of searching. You ready to find? You tired of Disappointment Peak? You're ready to find what your soul's been looking for so long. Actually, there's only one person who can tell us what we're here for. It's the One who put us here. Of course, that's God. And in the world's best-selling book, the Bible - the only book God ever wrote - He reveals the top of the mountain we were made for...the reason He put us here.
In Colossians 1:16, our word for today from the Word of God, it simply says, speaking of Jesus Christ, that we were "created by Him and for Him." You were created by Jesus, you were created for Jesus, and you're going to have a hole in your heart until you have Jesus. He said, "He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty" (John 6:35).
The Bible reveals that our heart is searching because we're away from the God we were made for. We were created for Him, but we've lived for ourselves, thus creating an uncrossable chasm between us and the God who made us. Uncrossable except for the cross - the cross where Jesus died to pay for our rebellion against God and make a way back to Him.
In the sentences that follow the revelation that we were "created by Him and for Him," we read that Jesus "made peace (with God) through His blood, shed on the cross." It took that sacrifice to provide a way to the God who is the love, is the meaning we've been looking for. Across that chasm between God and us is now a bridge - the cross of Jesus.
He's the end of your lifelong search. And the Savior will become your Savior the day you reach for Him and tell Him, "Jesus, you're the One I've been looking for. I've done my life my way, not Your way, and I resign. I was made by you and for you, and beginning today I'm yours."
You tired of searching? You ready to find home? Check out our website today. I think you'll find the way home. It's ANewStory.com.
You've wasted enough time on Disappointment Peak, but a climb up one more hill will take you where you want to be. It's that hill where Jesus died for you - that's where your search finally ends.
From my daily reading of the bible, Our Daily Bread Devotionals, My Utmost for His Highest and Ron Hutchcraft "A Word with You" and occasionally others.