MaxLucado.com: A New Birth
God is often more patient with us than we are with ourselves. We assume if we fall, we aren’t born again. If we have the old desires, we must not be a new creation.
If you’re anxious please remember what Paul said in Philippians 1:6, “God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again.”
In many ways your new birth is like your first. In your new birth God provides what you need; someone else feels the pain, and someone else does the work. And just as parents are patient with their newborn, so God is patient with you. But there’s one difference. The first time you had no choice about being born. This time you do.
The power is God’s. The effort is God’s. The pain is God’s. But the choice is yours.
From A Gentle Thunder
Psalm 76
An Asaph Psalm
1–3 76 God is well-known in Judah;
in Israel, he’s a household name.
He keeps a house in Salem,
his own suite of rooms in Zion.
That’s where, using arrows for kindling,
he made a bonfire of weapons of war.
4–6 Oh, how bright you shine!
Outshining their huge piles of loot!
The warriors were plundered
and left there impotent.
And now there’s nothing to them,
nothing to show for their swagger and threats.
Your sudden roar, God of Jacob,
knocked the wind out of horse and rider.
7–10 Fierce you are, and fearsome!
Who can stand up to your rising anger?
From heaven you thunder judgment;
earth falls to her knees and holds her breath.
God stands tall and makes things right,
he saves all the wretched on earth.
Instead of smoldering rage—God-praise!
All that sputtering rage—now a garland for God!
11–12 Do for God what you said you’d do—
he is, after all, your God.
Let everyone in town bring offerings
to the One Who Watches our every move.
Nobody gets by with anything,
no one plays fast and loose with him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, November 09, 2024
Today's Scripture
1 Peter 4:7-11
Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!
Insight
Peter tells his readers (believers in Jesus scattered due to Roman persecution; see 1 Peter 1:1) to use the gifts they’ve received, such as hospitality, serving, and speaking (4:9-11), “to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace” (v. 10). In Romans 12, Paul includes prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, and showing mercy (vv. 6-8). In 1 Corinthians 12, he notes “there are different kinds of gifts . . . service . . . [and] working, . . . but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work” (vv. 4-6). The Spirit gives spiritual gifts to all believers in Jesus. These include messages of wisdom and knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in different kinds of tongues, and interpretation of tongues (vv. 8-11). All gifts are to be used to benefit and build up others. By: Alyson Kieda
Serving with Love
Use whatever gift you have received to serve others. 1 Peter 4:10
When Krystal first started work at a Virginia coffee shop, she served a customer named Ibby. Because Ibby is hearing impaired, he placed his order using a typed note on his phone. After Krystal learned Ibby was a regular customer, she determined to serve him better by learning enough American Sign Language so he could place his order without writing it down.
In a small way, Krystal showed Ibby the kind of love and service Peter encourages us all to offer one another. In his letter to believers in Jesus who’d been scattered and exiled, the apostle indicates that they ought to “love each other deeply” and use their gifts “to serve others” (1 Peter 4:8, 10). Whatever skills and abilities He’s equipped us with are gifts we can use to benefit others. As we do, our words and actions can bring honor to God.
Peter’s words were especially important to those he wrote to, for they were experiencing a season of pain and isolation. He encouraged them to serve one another during the time of distress to help them bear up under their trials. Though we may not know the specific pain another person experiences, God can help us to show empathy as well as graciously and cheerfully serve one another with our words, resources, and abilities. May God help us serve others as a reflection of His love. By: Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
When have you experienced the kind of hospitality Peter encourages? Who could you serve with your words, skills, and resources today?
Father, please help me to serve those around me with all that You’ve given me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, November 09, 2024
Sacramental Service
I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions. — Colossians 1:24
As Christian workers, we have to be like sacramental go-betweens—so identified with our Lord and the reality of his redemption that he can continually bring his creating life through us. This doesn’t mean that Christ superimposes his personality on ours or overwhelms us with his strength. It means that his real presence comes through every element of our lives and of the work we do for him.
When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words become like holy vessels. God uses them on the ground of his redemption to create something in those who listen—something which would not be created otherwise. If we preach the effects of the redemption on human life instead of preaching the revelation about Jesus, the result in those who listen won’t be rebirth but merely refined spiritual culture. The Spirit of God isn’t able to witness through this type of preaching, because such preaching belongs to a different domain, a worldly domain. We have to make sure that we are in such living sympathy with God that through our preaching he can create in other souls the things which he alone can do.
“What a wonderful personality!” “What a fascinating speaker!” “What fantastic insight!” What chance does the gospel of God have in all that noise? It can’t get through because the line of attraction is always the line of appeal. If a preacher tries to attract with his or her personality, the appeal will be his or her personality. But if a preacher is identified with the Lord’s personality, then the appeal will be what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to lift up human beings. Jesus says we are to elevate him: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).
Jeremiah 46-47; Hebrews 6
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
When a man’s heart is right with God the mysterious utterances of the Bible are spirit and life to him. Spiritual truth is discernible only to a pure heart, not to a keen intellect. It is not a question of profundity of intellect, but of purity of heart.
Bringing Sons Unto Glory, 231 L
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