1 John 5, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado: Grace Forgets

Do you actually believe God would make a statement like, "I will not hold their sins against them"-and then rub your nose in it whenever you ask for help?"  Was He exaggerating when He said He would cast your sins as far as the east is from the west? (Psalm 103:12).
Are you really forgiven?  Does He really forgive and forget?  Yes, but you and I don't. You still remember. That horrid lie. That jealousy. That habit. That business trip.
Do you think God is the voice that reminds you of your past?  Was God teasing when He said, "I will remember your sins no more?"  You and I just need an occasional reminder of God's nature, His forgetful nature.
It's against God's nature to remember forgiven sins. He is the God of perfect grace. Grace forgets. Period.
From God Came Near

1 John 5

New International Version (NIV)
Faith in the Incarnate Son of God

5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Concluding Affirmations

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

16 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
Footnotes:

    1 John 5:8 Late manuscripts of the Vulgate testify in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. 8 And there are three that testify on earth: the (not found in any Greek manuscript before the fourteenth century)


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    

Read: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

The Need for Self-Discipline

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Lasting Rewards

 December 13, 2013 — by C. P. Hia 

Bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things. —1 Timothy 4:8

Ukrainian gymnast Larisa Latynina held the record of 18 Olympic medals. She won them in the 1956, 1960, and 1964 Olympics. The 48-year-old record was surpassed when Michael Phelps swam for his 19th gold in the 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay in the 2012 London Games. “[Latynina] kind of got lost in history,” the publisher of the International Gymnast magazine said. When the Soviet Union broke up, “we had forgotten about her.”

Paul, the apostle, reminds us that sometimes hard work is forgotten. Athletes subject their bodies to great discipline as they train to win perishable medals for their effort (1 Cor. 9:25). But it is not just that the medals are perishable. Over time, people’s memory of those achievements dim and fade. If athletes can sacrifice so much to achieve rewards on the earth, rewards that will eventually be forgotten, how much more effort should followers of Christ exert to gain an imperishable crown? (1 Tim. 4:8).

Athletes’ sacrifice and determination are rewarded with medals, trophies, and money. But even greater, our Father in heaven rewards the discipline of His children (Luke 19:17).

God will never forget our service done out of love for Him who first loved us.
I thank You, Lord, for the opportunities to use
the gifts You have given me for Your service today.
Help me to do so in obedience, expecting nothing
more than Your “well done” as reward.
Sacrifice for the kingdom is never without reward.

    
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 13, 2013

Intercessory Prayer

. . . men always ought to pray and not lose heart —Luke 18:1

You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God. True intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that seems to be crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by His attitude toward that person or circumstance. Intercession means to “fill up . . . [with] what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” (Colossians 1:24), and this is precisely why there are so few intercessors. People describe intercession by saying, “It is putting yourself in someone else’s place.” That is not true! Intercession is putting yourself in God’s place; it is having His mind and His perspective.

As an intercessor, be careful not to seek too much information from God regarding the situation you are praying about, because you may be overwhelmed. If you know too much, more than God has ordained for you to know, you can’t pray; the circumstances of the people become so overpowering that you are no longer able to get to the underlying truth.

Our work is to be in such close contact with God that we may have His mind about everything, but we shirk that responsibility by substituting doing for interceding. And yet intercession is the only thing that has no drawbacks, because it keeps our relationship completely open with God.

What we must avoid in intercession is praying for someone to be simply “patched up.” We must pray that person completely through into contact with the very life of God. Think of the number of people God has brought across our path, only to see us drop them! When we pray on the basis of redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Hey! Look Me Over! - #7025

Friday, December 13, 2013

During the summer our family loved going to Ocean City at the Jersey Shore. Now, there's about a two and a half, three mile boardwalk there. And I'll tell you, it's interesting to just sit there and watch the people parade go by. You'll see some guys parade along with torn shirts or real mini t-shirts displaying those bulging muscles, their arms, their chest, their back. I don't do that. No, I sort of cover up as much as I can. 
As soon as cooler weather comes, a lot of us run for cover like sweaters that cover a multitude of sins. Meanwhile, our friends in the almost nothing shirts? Oh, they wear them right into December sometimes. I guess it's nice to have nothing to fear from the exposure of the summer, because you know you're in good shape.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hey! Look Me Over!"
Our word for today from the Word of God; we are in Psalm 17. I'm reading verses 2 and 3 from the pen of David. "May my vindication come from you..." he says to the Lord. "May Your eyes see what is right, though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing; I have resolved that my mouth will not sin."
That's a powerful invitation. David really is saying something pretty bold of the Lord here. It's an invitation to an examination. He says, "Lord, please give me a spiritual x-ray. Take a look at me inside and out." He says at another place, "Search me, O God, and know me."
I remember an old saying, "People who live in glass houses have to answer the door bell." Well, that's true. Everybody can see everything that's going on inside of a glass house. Now, David is a free man. You can tell that because he doesn't care where you look; which window you look in. He has no dark secrets. He said, "Look at me and then check me out any way you want."
Do you feel like that? Have you got that relaxed peace that can honestly say, "Hey, look me over!" The freest people in the world are those who can say three words about themselves, "Nothing to hide." You can be really confident about your life when you know you're right in God's eyes. That's all that matters; that's what David said here. God's the one whose blessing determines the course of your life, not the blessing of other people.
Even if you're under attack, and actually David was as you read this Psalm, you know that God will defend you. God will vindicate you. He'll make sure that your name is protected. Maybe as I speak you're thinking of a secret in your life that you hope no one ever discovers. Well, it's gonna come out. Listen to God's words, "Be sure your sin will find you out."
Why not face that darkness today voluntarily? Repent of it and tell God it makes you sad to have that sin. Confront it; make necessary changes. Make it right! Get that closet cleaned out, and then you can live each day so honestly and so purely there's no discovery you have to fear. "Go ahead, check out my character."
If you know you're in shape, then you know you have nothing to fear from exposure.

Ezra 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: He Doesn't Remember

I was thanking the Father for His mercy. I began listing the sins He'd forgiven. "Remember the time I. . ."  I was about to thank Him for another act of mercy.  But then I stopped.  Something was wrong. The word "remember" seemed displaced, off-key. It was like a baseball game in December… It didn't fit.  Does He remember?
Then I remembered His words in Isaiah 43:25, "I am He who blots out your transgressions, and I will not remember your sins." Wow!  That's a remarkable promise. God doesn't just forgive, he forgets.  He destroys the evidence. He clears the hard drive. He doesn't remember my mistakes.
He doesn't remember! For all the things He does do, this is the one thing He refuses to do!
From God Came Near

Ezra 4

Opposition to the Rebuilding

When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.”

3 But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”

4 Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building.[b] 5 They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus king of Persia and down to the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Later Opposition Under Xerxes and Artaxerxes

6 At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes,[c] they lodged an accusation against the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

7 And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. The letter was written in Aramaic script and in the Aramaic language.[d][e]

8 Rehum the commanding officer and Shimshai the secretary wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows:

9 Rehum the commanding officer and Shimshai the secretary, together with the rest of their associates—the judges, officials and administrators over the people from Persia, Uruk and Babylon, the Elamites of Susa, 10 and the other people whom the great and honorable Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the city of Samaria and elsewhere in Trans-Euphrates.

11 (This is a copy of the letter they sent him.)

To King Artaxerxes,

From your servants in Trans-Euphrates:

12 The king should know that the people who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are restoring the walls and repairing the foundations.

13 Furthermore, the king should know that if this city is built and its walls are restored, no more taxes, tribute or duty will be paid, and eventually the royal revenues will suffer.[f] 14 Now since we are under obligation to the palace and it is not proper for us to see the king dishonored, we are sending this message to inform the king, 15 so that a search may be made in the archives of your predecessors. In these records you will find that this city is a rebellious city, troublesome to kings and provinces, a place with a long history of sedition. That is why this city was destroyed. 16 We inform the king that if this city is built and its walls are restored, you will be left with nothing in Trans-Euphrates.

17 The king sent this reply:

To Rehum the commanding officer, Shimshai the secretary and the rest of their associates living in Samaria and elsewhere in Trans-Euphrates:

Greetings.

18 The letter you sent us has been read and translated in my presence. 19 I issued an order and a search was made, and it was found that this city has a long history of revolt against kings and has been a place of rebellion and sedition. 20 Jerusalem has had powerful kings ruling over the whole of Trans-Euphrates, and taxes, tribute and duty were paid to them. 21 Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order. 22 Be careful not to neglect this matter. Why let this threat grow, to the detriment of the royal interests?

23 As soon as the copy of the letter of King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum and Shimshai the secretary and their associates, they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and compelled them by force to stop.

24 Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Ezra 4:6 Hebrew Ahasuerus
Ezra 4:7 Or written in Aramaic and translated
Ezra 4:7 The text of 4:8–6:18 is in Aramaic.
Ezra 4:13 The meaning of the Aramaic for this clause is uncertain.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Romans 13:11-14

The Day Is Near

11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.[a]
Footnotes:

    Romans 13:14 In contexts like this, the Greek word for flesh (sarx) refers to the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit.

Costume Or Uniform?

 December 12, 2013 — by David C. McCasland 

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. —Romans 13:14

Eunice McGarrahan gave an inspiring talk on Christian discipleship in which she said, “A costume is something you put on and pretend that you are what you are wearing. A uniform, on the other hand, reminds you that you are, in fact, what you wear.”

Her comment sparked memories of my first day in US Army basic training when we were each given a box and ordered to put all our civilian clothes in it. The box was mailed to our home address. Every day after that, the uniform we put on reminded us that we had entered a period of disciplined training designed to change our attitudes and actions.

“Cast off the works of darkness,” the apostle Paul told the followers of Jesus living in Rome, “and . . . put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:12). He followed this with the command to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (v.14). The goal of this “casting off” and “putting on” was a new identity and transformed living (v.13).

When we choose to follow Christ as our Lord, He begins the process of making us more like Him each day. It is not a matter of pretending to be what we aren’t but of becoming more and more what we are in Christ.
O to be like Thee, O to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art!
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart. —Chisholm
Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life. —Dietrich Bonhoeffer


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 12, 2013

Personality

. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . . —John 17:22

Personality is the unique, limitless part of our life that makes us distinct from everyone else. It is too vast for us even to comprehend. An island in the sea may be just the top of a large mountain, and our personality is like that island. We don’t know the great depths of our being, therefore we cannot measure ourselves. We start out thinking we can, but soon realize that there is really only one Being who fully understands us, and that is our Creator.

Personality is the characteristic mark of the inner, spiritual man, just as individuality is the characteristic of the outer, natural man. Our Lord can never be described in terms of individuality and independence, but only in terms of His total Person— “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). Personality merges, and you only reach your true identity once you are merged with another person. When love or the Spirit of God come upon a person, he is transformed. He will then no longer insist on maintaining his individuality. Our Lord never referred to a person’s individuality or his isolated position, but spoke in terms of the total person— “. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . . .” Once your rights to yourself are surrendered to God, your true personal nature begins responding to God immediately. Jesus Christ brings freedom to your total person, and even your individuality is transformed. The transformation is brought about by love— personal devotion to Jesus. Love is the overflowing result of one person in true fellowship with another.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

It's Hard To Change the Name - #7024

Thursday, December 12, 2013

There's a spot in upstate New York where our family always loved to go for vacation. And that began years before when some friends looked at my drooping eyelids and said, "You need a vacation." I've heard those words many times. So we went off to Baker's Cabins. Now, we've stayed there at several points over the years, and then they changed the name of that place to Water's Edge. Same place, different name. Now, we went there after they changed the name to Water's Edge, and it had been called that for a while, but I could never seem to remember that name. I always called it Baker's Cabins. Even though they hadn't used that name for several years, well that was the name that was stuck in my mind. See, once you know something by a certain name, it isn't easy to make that new name stick.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "It's Hard To Change the Name."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 22:1. "A good name," God says, "is more desirable than great riches. To be esteemed is better than silver or gold." Now, the Bible is saying here we should realize the value of our name. And that doesn't just mean Ralph or Bernice or George. It's talking about your reputation; to be esteemed, to be well thought of, to be what the Bible calls "above reproach."
God says your reputation is more important, more valuable than say Donald Trump's fortune, "than great riches." If you've got a great name, if you've got a name people trust and respect, it's better than being rich. In fact, one deciding question should always be, "How is this going to affect my reputation?" And if you're a Christian, then another question should always be, "How is this going to affect Jesus' reputation?"
The problem is that a reputation sticks, even after you've changed. It's like those cabins in upstate New York. I couldn't help but remember what they were, even though they were something else for years. See, that's what happens to human reputations. Long after the thrill is gone, or the deal is made, or a relationship is a memory, the reputation that you compromised in order to get those will still be there. A reputation takes years to build; it takes a day to lose.
If you're still trying to live down an old reputation, you've changed but people are still trying to act as if it's the old you. Well, then, make every effort to go back to the people who remember the old you and tell them what Christ is doing. Tell them that you know what you were, but you know that you are a new person...or you're becoming a new person.
Work very hard at consistency in that area where perhaps you used to fail. Pay back any obligations, repair any hurts, right any wrongs that are from the old days, and ask forgiveness of those who might have been involved in that sin with you. You'll start to build a new reputation. More importantly, let's look past the past. Let's look at the future.
In your choices, always calculate the reputation factor, because "a good name is more desirable than great riches." Guard your good name; guard your Lord's good name. He's staked His reputation on us-His kids. It's His reputation now tied to yours. Before you make that compromise, consider that most important factor, "What will this do to the name...my name; His name?