Seeking Him Out

Have You Found God's Amazing Grace?

2011-12-10T08:00:00.001-06:00

"Only fools say in their hearts, 'There is no God'

They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; no one does good!

…Oh, that salvation would come from Mount Zion to rescue Israel!

For when the Lord restores his people, Jacob will shout with joy, and Israel will rejoice."

Psalm 14:1-7

Rescued from rebellion

Young John Newton called himself an atheist, and his life demonstrated his lack of belief in God. Even the coarsest sailors aboard his slave-trading ship could not stand his filthy speech. He brutalized the male slaves and sexually abused the women, and he prodded other sailors to do the same. The ship's captain finally put him ashore on the coast of Africa, and there he became a servant of slavers.

Finally rescued by another merchant ship, Newton once again fouled the ship with his presence. In a drunken stupor he almost plunged overboard, and the captain wished that he had. Then, amazingly in the midst of a vicious ocean storm in 1748, God touched his heart. Years after his remarkable conversion, Newton commented, "I see no reason why the Lord singled me out for mercy…unless it was to show that with him nothing is impossible."

The fool who had said in his heart that there was no God was now transformed. He became famous throughout England, both as a preacher and a writer of hymns. Without a doubt, the best-known hymn of this former atheist is the following:

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind but now I see.

JOHN NEWTON

Do you show mercy to others?

2011-12-09T08:00:00.001-06:00

"God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy."

Matthew 5:7

A parable of mercy

Jesus once told a parable of a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. One servant came before him who owed him ten thousand talents—a debt far beyond the means of a servant. When he couldn't pay, the king ordered that he and his family be sold into slavery, but the servant begged for mercy. Then the king took pity on him, canceled the debt, and set the servant free.

The servant did not show similar mercy to another slave who owed him money and had the man thrown into prison. The master heard what had happened, reinstated the debt and threw him into prison.

"That's what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters in your heart," Jesus said, summing up the moral to the story (Matt. 18:23-35).

Have you ever prayed for forgiveness on Sunday than demanded your way on Monday? Have you ever reflected on the cross one moment and inwardly scowled at a brother the next? Ever yelled at your kids for making you late to church? If so, then read the parable again. Jesus' point is simple: Those who have been forgiven of so much should learn to forgive. People redeemed from certain death should act like redeemed people. Those who have received the ultimate act of mercy should learn to be merciful. Anything less shows how little we understand the true depth of the Master's kindness.

Does God treat you the way you deserve?

2011-12-08T08:00:00.001-06:00

Praise the Lord, I tell myself; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, I tell myself, and never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He ransoms me from death and surrounds me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle's! The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly. He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious; he is slow to anger and full of unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He has not punished us for all our sins, nor does he deal with us as we desire. For his unfailing love toward those who love him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west.

Psalm 103:1-12

Mercy is compassion, poured out on needy people. But the mercy of God, which he expects us to model, goes one step further. God's mercy is undeserved favor. Even when we don't deserve mercy, God still extends it to us. Our sin and rebellion against God deserve his punishment; but instead he offers us forgiveness and eternal life. If God was merciful toward us despite our sin, how merciful should we be toward those who have wronged us?

Is Your Home Marked By the Fruits of the Spirit?

2011-12-07T08:00:00.001-06:00

"When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.…Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. It we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or irritate one another, or by jealous of one another."

Galatians 5:22-26

The Spirit-filled home

"How do you remember your childhood home? Was it a loving and welcoming place? Maybe there were evidences of kindness and generosity—fresh homemade cookies, a dollhouse or model planes you and your dad built together, a warm welcome always waiting for you, an old couch to be shared with brothers and sisters.

Perhaps you don't have such wonderful childhood memories. Not everyone does. Homes can be places of cruelty as well—places full of criticism and humiliation, places characterized by conflict, jealousy, and pain. Loving homes don't just magically appear. They are the result of a husband and wife's commitment to letting God's Spirit control their lives. When you follow the Spirit's leading, God produces kindness, goodness, patience, and love in your lives. Then the home a marriage creates can become a light to the neighborhood, a place where friends and neighbors can experience genuine love and acceptance. If you are married, what type of home do you want your marriage to create? Ask God today to plant the seeds of loving kindness in your life, your marriage, and your home."

The fruit of kindness

2011-12-06T08:00:00.001-06:00

"When the Holy Spirit controls your life, he will produce this kind of fruit in us:…kindness, goodness."

Galatians 5:22

In spite of it all

"On that ghastly Friday morning, which ironically has become known as "Good Friday," Jesus was a swollen, bloody mess. Most of his friends had hightailed it hours before, leaving him alone to face the physical agony of crucifixion, the emotional anguish of a jeering crowd, and the spiritual horror of separation from God the Father.

Yet during this entire nightmare, Christ responded, well, strangely. On the way to his execution, he paused to console a group of grief-stricken women. He used what little breath he was able to catch to pray for those who were so merciless to him. He demonstrated compassion and forgiveness to a criminal dying at his side. And he took pains, literally, to see that his grief-stricken mother below him would be cared for by a friend.

In the ultimate "tough time," Christ oozed kindness and goodness. And because his Spirit lives in us, we also have the capacity to use personal tragedy as an opportunity to care for others.

Praying God's Promise:

Cause your kindness and goodness to flow through me, Lord. It is not natural for me to think of others or to think of glorifying you, especially when my own life is filled with pain. Teach me to live supernaturally. I want to be selfless like you, Jesus, always looking for opportunities to bless others.

Have you been used to comfort others?

2011-12-05T08:00:00.001-06:00

"All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ."

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

May our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father, who loved us and in his special favor gave us everlasting comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and give you strength in every good thing you do and say.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

God's comfort

"How often have you noticed that soon after you receive comfort for some troubling situation, you encounter someone else facing a similar situation? It is God who leads us to these people, for the comfort we provide for them seems more credible because they know we have "been there." Paul praises the Lord in his letter to the Corinthian church that God "comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others" with "the same comfort God has given us."

In what ways has God comforted you in the trials you have had to go through? Pray that God may use you to comfort others.

A prayer for today…

Dear Lord, thank you for comforting me. Use me to comfort others…

Reflecting Christ

2011-12-04T08:00:00.001-06:00

"…you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience."

Colossians 3:12

Clothed in kindness

"A doctor once stepped into a taxicab and discovered an unusually friendly driver.…he asked the man why he was so cheerful. "It all started," he said, "when I heard about a taxi driver who was so kind to a passenger that the man remembered him in his will, leaving him $65,000. I thought I would try it, and maybe somebody might leave me something. But after I tried it, I found it was so much fun being good that I decided I would do it for the fun of it, reward or no reward."

The world would certainly be a more cheerful place if we all had such good dispositions. Imagine walking down the street and seeing nothing but smiling faces.…

Life is not a bed of roses, and most people are too happy to let you know that. That's what we tell ourselves when we want to appease our guilt on those dark and dreary days. I'm not the only one who's had a bad day, we think. People are just going to have to understand.

Maybe they do, but how does Jesus feel about it? Kindness should flow out of the life of a Christian. The world has an excuse to be angry, but we don't. Redeemed people should act like they're happy to be redeemed.

This is what separates believers from those who haven't discovered the goodness of Christ. We have a reason to rejoice. We have a standard to uphold. We have a Savior to pattern our life after.

God is always ready to help us and expects us to help others

2011-12-03T08:00:00.001-06:00

"Don't forget to do good and to share what you have with those in need, for such sacrifices are very pleasing to God."

Hebrews 13:16

In His steps

"Have you seen kids wearing bracelets with the initials WWJD—"What Would Jesus Do?" The story behind those bracelets begins a century ago, when a minister named Charles Sheldon wrote a novel titled In His Steps. One Sunday morning at First Church, Pastor Henry Maxwell is preaching a sermon about how to follow Christ's example of sacrificial love.

The service is suddenly interrupted when a tramp stands up. He's been out of work for a year, he says, yet not one person in town has helped him find another job. Twisting his shabby hat in his hands, the tramps says, "I was wondering if what you call following Jesus is the same thing as what he taught.…I get puzzled when I see so many Christians living in luxury and remember how my wife died in a tenement.…what would Jesus do?" At that point, to the congregation's horror, the tramp collapses and dies.

The following Sunday, the minister makes a stunning proposal: He's looking for volunteers willing to pledge themselves for an entire year to do nothing without first asking, "What would Jesus do?" Some fifty people make the pledge, and a remarkable series of events begins.

Some of these people pay a high price for their obedience. But they also learn the joy of following faithfully in his footsteps.

A few years ago, a Holland, Michigan, youth leader was so inspired by this classic story that she had bracelets made bearing the letters WWJD and gave them to the kids in her church. The idea caught fire, and today millions wear them.

Judging by appearances

2011-12-02T08:00:00.001-06:00

"The trouble with you is that you make your decisions on the basis of appearance. You must recognize that we belong to Christ."

Job 14:5

Little Woman, Long Shadow

"Two weeks before Christmas, on December 12, 1840, a baby girl was born into an aristocratic plantation family in Albemarle County, Virginia. Her name was Charlotte Diggs Moon, but everyone called her "Lottie." She grew to just four feet three inches, yet her intellect and force of personality were enormous. Lottie spoke six languages and earned a master's degree in education in 1861.

Lottie came from a family of dedicated Southern Baptists, but she became a staunch skeptic. Yet, it would be her intellect and skepticism that would bring her to faith one sleepless night in December 1858 as she pondered a message by Dr. John Broadus.

At age thirty-three, Lottie heard a call to missions "as clear as a bell." In July 1873 the foreign mission board of the Southern Baptist Convention appointed her its first unmarried missionary to China. She tirelessly advocated for the needs of the people of China. In 1888 she persuaded SBC women to take an annual missions offering on Christmas Eve. By 1912, despite such gifts, thousands of people were dying every day in famine-ravaged Shantung Province.

At seventy-two, Lottie Moon was coming home. But that same night, aboard a ship off Japan, she died—of complications from starvation. A few months before she had written, "If I had a thousand lives, I would give them all for the women of China." The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering continues to this day. The 2010 goal is $175 million.

How do you respond to those who seek to hurt you?

2011-12-01T08:00:00.001-06:00

"Love your enemies! Do good to them! Lend to them! And don't be concerned that they might not repay. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to the unthankful and to those who are wicked! You must be compassionate, just as the Father is compassionate."

Luke 6:35-36

The sign of a loving heart

"Our enemies are out to hurt us. They want to steal from us, cheat us, and do evil against us. Yet Jesus says we are to be kind to them. What is his point? We reflect—or should reflect—God to the world, and God is kind—even to the unkind, the ungrateful, and those whom we consider to be "hopeless" cases. Kindness is based on the love we have for others, not the love others deserve.

Kindness is the sign of a loving heart, one of the greatest of all virtues. A kind person is pleasant, good, gracious—always appreciated. There's a lot of talk these days about "random acts of kindness." Maybe this is because we live in a society starved for good deeds. God is our model for kindness. The kindest act ever committed was God's sending his own Son, Jesus, to die for our sins so that we might live forever in heaven. God also showers us with kindness each day, sending sunshine and rain, food and friends, comfort and encouragement, boundless love and wisdom.

Hope In Your Eternal Inheritance

2011-11-30T08:00:00.001-06:00

"I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people.

I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him."

Ephesians 1:18-19

Paul's prayer for the Ephesians

"While the believers in Ephesus enjoyed the luxuries and wealth of a cosmopolitan city located on major trade routes, Paul was confined to a small room in Rome, under the constant watch of a Roman guard. But who would ever guess from Paul's prayer that he was deprived of anything?

Paul's confident description of God's power does not betray a hint of hopelessness. Instead, Paul speaks of the rich inheritance and wonderful future he would have in heaven. Paul's future on earth was in the hands of Caesar. Yet Paul's ultimate hopes weren't set on this world; his hopes were set on heaven and eternity.

In your prayers, place your hopes on your eternal inheritance in heaven, just as Paul did. Pray that God might help you understand how powerful he is.

A prayer for today…

Dear Lord, help me understand the wonderful future you have promised me…

What is your concept of heaven?

2011-11-29T08:00:00.001-06:00

"How happy are those who fear the Lord—all who follow his ways! You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How happy you will be! How rich your life!"

Psalm 128:1-2

Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

He died for us so that we can live with him forever, whether we are dead or alive at the time of his return.

1 Thessalonians 5:10

Made for another world

"Most of us find it very difficult to want "Heaven" at all—except in so far as "Heaven" means meeting again our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained: Our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Another reason is that when the real want for Heaven is present in us, we might not recognize it. Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

C.S. Lewis

Let him see

2011-11-28T08:00:00.001-06:00

Elisha told him. "For there are more on our side than on theirs." Then Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes and let him see." The Lord opened his servant's eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.

2 Kings 6:15-17

God's strength is greater

The Aramean army was advancing. Enemy horses, troops, and chariots were everywhere, surrounding the city with the express purpose of seizing Elisha. No wonder his servant was petrified when he woke up to the sight of a massive army bearing down on them. When the servant cried out to his master, Elisha shared how he perceived in spirit the might of the Lord, which was far greater than the forces opposing them. And when Elisha prays for God to open his servant's eyes so that he, too, can see what Elisha has seen, immediately he perceives the horses and chariots of fire protecting them.

The Lord is ready to open our eyes afresh for each new situation and to show us his vast resources. His strength and might are far greater than the enemy's, but we, like the servant, see "through a glass darkly," and we need for God to open our spiritual eyes.

LORD, grant me the light this day in the unseen realm to see how your strength is greater than any foe that threatens to assail me. Open my eyes, Lord! Remind me of your awesome power and unlimited resources, and then let me take courage because you are fighting for me!

Freed by "foolishness"

2011-11-27T08:00:00.001-06:00

So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world's brilliant debaters? God has made them all look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense.

1 Corinthians 1:20

We were deceived by the wisdom of the serpent, but we are freed by the foolishness of God.

St. Augustine

The wisdom of the world

The wisdom of the world would never have chosen a cross for its salvation. The wisdom of the world always chooses the path of obvious victory. It knows nothing of the deeper battles and subtleties of faith. It acts on what it sees on the surface and grabs as much visible glory as it can. It will not wait; it seizes the day.

We are not born of that spirit. We are born of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God will lead us to the Cross. He points us to eternal realities, not temporary glory. While earthly wisdom tells us to get what we can while we can get it, God's wisdom shows us the reality of eternity that lies beyond the visible nature of this corrupt world. It shows us the Resurrection beyond the Cross.

Those of us who seek true wisdom do not simply desire information from God. We want to know what He is like. We must come to see Him as the source of all truth, and we must take our cures from Him. We shouldn't be satisfied with Him just telling us what to believe. We need to see it in action.

God has given us the answer, of course. We can examine the wisdom of Jesus, which led Him to death for a greater good. What He did in surrendering to the Cross was absolute foolishness in the eyes of the world. And it still is. But we can see beyond the Cross if we are wise, and based on what we see, we can walk toward it with confidence.

Bound to be true

2011-11-26T08:00:00.004-06:00

Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who…keep their promise even when it hurts.

Psalm 15:1,4

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have.
Abraham Lincoln

Breach of contract

A man I was discipling was involved in a difficult suit with his partners; they had committed acts that had breached contracts and given them substantial liability.

His business partners wouldn't admit, much less deal with, the problem. So my friend arranged a luncheon during which he introduced me as his personal lawyer. His partners were surprised and even irritated as we began talking about the case, but after about 30 minutes they seemed relieved to finally be confronting the issues.

After about two hours, everyone agreed they would try to settle the case. My friend, who was mostly responsible for the problem, agreed to bear a disproportionately larger part of the financial settlement.

The case was settled within 30 days. Its impact on the reputation and customer base of the firm was minimal, and the partners saw my friend in a new light. He was someone who had courage, conviction, and conscience. He was a man of character.
Phil Downer in Eternal Impact

Rather than looking out for selfish gain in the courts, believers are commanded to work out disputes with justice and fairness. At the heart of such resolution of problems is the commitment of believers to "keep their promises even when it hurts" (Psalm 15:4).

How often do you ask God to hurry?

2011-11-25T08:00:00.004-06:00

"O Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry! Listen when I cry to you for help! Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering."

Psalm 141:1-2 4

The Second Thanksgiving

"The year was 1623. The Pilgrims had been in the New World for two and half years. The first Thanksgiving of 1621 was only a memory by this time because this summer's drought was jeopardizing everything. Not even the Indians could remember anything like it. The settlers had planted more corn than before, but without any rainfall, there would be no harvest. Daily they had prayed that God would send rain, but he hadn't answered. As the psalmist did in Psalm 141:1, they were begging God to hurry.

Finally, the settlers set aside an entire day for prayer and worship. As they went for worship, the "heavens were as clear and the drought as like to continue as it ever was," yet when they left the meeting, "the weather was overcast, the clouds gathered on all sides." For the next 14 days there were "moderate showers of rain," according to Edward Winslow, one of the Pilgrims.

The Indians watched and were amazed at how the God of the new settlers had answered their prayers, and that year, after the harvest, a second Thanksgiving was celebrated with the Indians joining in as well.

"Hurry up, Lord," we often prod, wondering why the Almighty doesn't seem to be in as much of a rush as we are. Sometimes we need to set our watches to his clock. May you have a blessed Thanksgiving!

What Thanksgiving should be

2011-11-24T08:00:00.001-06:00

"How wonderful it is, how pleasant when brothers live together in harmony!"

Psalm 133:1

Fighting historical vandalism

"In an article in Focus on the Family's Citizen magazine, Douglas Phillips describes how he took his family to Plymouth, Massachusetts, a few years ago and was shocked at what he found. Atop Cole's Hill, the burial ground for Pilgrims who died that first hard winter, Phillips was startled to see a city truck pull up and men pile out carrying shovels. They told Phillips the city was placing a new monument.

"Most revolutions are staged at night," Phillips wrote, so he wasn't surprised the next day to find stone markers all over Plymouth designating Thanksgiving as a day of mourning — a day to recall how the Pilgrims murdered and stole from their Indian neighbors. That afternoon, demonstrators — mostly white college kids — celebrated their victory by defacing the traditional monuments. Plymouth had transformed a tale of religious freedom into a story of genocide.

The historical reality is totally different. While it's true that later settlers abused the Native Americans, the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians lived together in peace for 50 years. They signed covenants, bought and sold property, and fought against mutual enemies.

The modern obsession with group identity and victimhood encourages us to see those assigned to other groups as our enemies. When we interact with them, we ought to recall the relationship between the Pilgrims and the Indians and model not hostility and hatred but brotherly love. As the psalmist notes, a willingness to get along with others makes for a pleasant and peaceful life.

The Living Truth

2011-11-23T08:00:00.001-06:00

Jesus said…"I came to bring truth to the world. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true."

John 18:37

A wife prays for her husband's salvation

After a rather gentle talk [one evening] about Christianity, [my wife Davy] went to bed, leaving me lying upon the sofa in front of the fire reading.…A half hour passed. I let the book fall and switched off the lamp. Gazing upon the glowing coals, I wondered with a strange mixture of hope and fear whether Christ might be in very truth my God. Suddenly I became aware that Davy was praying beside me—she had stolen into the room in her nightgown and knelt down by the sofa. I looked at the quiet figure for a few moments. I have never seen her pray. Then she spoke.
"When I was in bed," she said very softly, "it seemed to me that God was telling me to come to you. I have prayed to God to fulfill your soul."
She paused a moment, and then she whispered: "Oh, my dearest—please believe!"
Moved almost to tears, I whispered back—a broken whisper, she wrote in the Journal [the book we both kept of our searching for God and truth]—I whispered, "Oh, I do believe." I was shaken by the affirmation that swept over me.
"Hold to this moment," she murmured. "Hold to it when doubts come. This is the truth—I know it it."

Sheldon Vanauken in A Severe Mercy

Born of the Spirit

2011-11-22T08:00:00.001-06:00

"Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."

John 3:8

Who died on November 22, 1963?

Many will correctly answer, "President John F. Kennedy." But also on that day another person died who was mightier in God's kingdom. His name was C. S. Lewis.

His initials stood for Clive Staples, but to his friends he was known as "Jack." Born near Belfast, Ireland, in 1898, he was raised as an Anglican. But at the age of ten his world was shaken when his mother died of cancer. Jack wanted nothing to do with a God so cruel as to take his mother. By his early teenage years he had become an atheist.

Jack's spiritual pilgrimage back to God began in 1926 with a conversation with a cynical friend whose belief in the Trinity challenged Lewis' atheistic presuppositions.

Through the influence of various philosophers he read and conversations with his intellectual colleagues, including J. R. R. Tolkien, he began to realize that an absolute Spirit or God existed and that the events of the Bible had really happened.

By 1931, he had passed from merely believing in God to trusting in him as his Savior.

In 1941, Lewis burst on the literary scene with The Screwtape Letters. Books then began to flow from his pen at an amazing rate.

C. S. Lewis is considered the most influential Christian author of the twentieth century — quite a leap from the atheism of his youth.

Final thought: God blesses those who seek after Him!

Hearing God

2011-11-21T08:00:00.001-06:00

"My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me."

John 10:27

He knows our name, our nature

Usually, when someone says, "God has been speaking to me lately," we get a little suspicious (justly so, in many cases). Many who say God speaks to them are far too often what I describe as a few clowns short of a circus.

Yet as our Good Shepherd, Jesus promises that we can hear and know His voice. This does not, however, need to be some mysterious, mystical process. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that God speaks to you quite often.

You see, the Good Shepherd knows not only your name (John 10:3), but your nature.

Yes, God speaks—but we do not always like what He says. Have you sensed the conviction of the Holy Spirit when you were in a relationship or a place you did not belong? At times, God's Holy Spirit whispers in the stillness of your heart, "What are you doing here?" How else can we know when God is speaking to us?

God speaks to us through His word. (Psalm 119:105)

God speaks to us through circumstances (Psalm 119:67)

God speaks to through His peace (Colossians 3:15)

And once we have heard God's voice, what should we do? We must follow. Jesus calls, we responds. He whispers, we move. We follow—and then we keep on listening.

Telling others

2011-11-20T08:00:00.001-06:00

"Jesus traveled throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogues, preaching everywhere the Good News about the Kingdom."

Matthew 4:23

Good News

"In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when the Pevensies learn from Mr. and Mrs. Beaver that Aslan is "on the move," it has an effect on all but Edmund "like the first signs of spring, like good news." And of course that promise sounds great to Peter, Susan, and Lucy—they've sought to do the right thing all along. But for Edmund, who has already decided to head down the wrong path on the side of the White Witch, these prophecies sound more like bad news.

The phrase "good news" has spiritual connotations, as C.S. Lewis more than likely recognized. It's the original meaning of the word gospel, which comes from the Old English godspell or good spell, meaning "a good story" or "good news." For Christians, the good "spell"—the great story, the wonderful news—is that Christ's death and resurrection have saved us from the bad "spell" of sin and death: Those who believe in Jesus are free and forgiven and will spend eternity with God. That's the gospel.

Telling people they're messed up and are on the losing side is not good news, no matter how you spin it. It may be true, but it's not helpful if you don't tell the important parts of the story, too: that the forces of darkness are not going to have the last word, that the rightful King has returned, that the Kingdom will be restored. Then the hearers can wrestle on their own with whether or not they'll choose the winning side, the side of the King.

Wise with spiritual wisdom

2011-11-19T08:00:00.001-06:00

"We ask God to give you a complete understanding of what he wants to do in your lives, and we ask him to make you wise with spiritual wisdom.

Colossians 1:9

Discerning cultural trends

"C. S. Lewis was born on this day in 1898, and 40-plus years after his death it is startlingly clear that he was not only a keen apologist but also a true prophet for our postmodern age.

Lewis wrote his book Miracles in 1947, before most Christians were aware of the emerging philosophy of naturalism, which says that there is a naturalistic explanation for everything in the universe.

Naturalism undercuts any objective morality, opening a door to tyranny. In The Abolition of Man, Lewis warned that naturalism turns human beings into objects to be controlled and turns values into "mere natural phenomena" that can be selected and inculcated into a passive population by powerful Conditioners. He predicted a time when those who want to remold human nature "will be armed with the powers of an omnicompetent state and an irresistible scientific technique."

Why was Lewis so uncannily prophetic?

One reason is that Lewis was a professor with a specialty in medieval literature. This gave him a mental framework shaped by the whole scope of intellectual history and Christian thought.

We Christians need to liberate ourselves from the prison of our own narrow worldview and immerse ourselves in Christian ideas "down the ages." The best way to celebrate Lewis' birthday is to be at our posts, as he liked to say, with renewed spirits and with probing and informed minds.

Have you ever rebelled against God?

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"My wayward children," says the Lord, "come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts."

Jeremiah 3:22

"When I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and you stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, 'I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.' And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone."

Psalm 32:3-5

"Create in me a new heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me... Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you."

Psalm 41:10,12

A tug-of-war with God

The rebel rejects the expectations, rules, and power of the organization or individual holding authority.

Rebellion can be good, as when we rebel against unjust or sinful societal pressure.

Rebellion is like a great tug-of-war; the authority figure holds one end of the rope while the rebel pulls on the other. The picture changes dramatically if we imagine the rebel's feet being mired in quicksand. Such is rebellion against God. God pulls on the rope, not to ruin our lives, but to lead us toward safe footing.

At times, God's Holy Spirit whispers in the stillness of your heart, "What are you doing here?"

How else can we know when God is speaking to us?

God speaks to us through His word. (Psalm 119:105)

God speaks to us through circumstances (Psalm 119:67)

God speaks to through His peace (Colossians 3:15)

God will catch you

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There is no one like the God of Israel. He rides across the heavens to help you, across the skies in majestic splendor. The eternal God is your refuge, and his everlasting arms are under you.

Deuteronomy 33:26-27

When you are at the end of your rope, God is there to catch you—but not before.
Erwin W. Lutzer

God's everlasting arms

Our world seemed to be falling apart. My husband was severely depressed, and his business was crumbling. As I tried to support and nurture our children, help my husband, and take up the slack financially, I became drained physically, spiritually, and mentally. I cried out to God in exhaustion, and I felt his everlasting arms underneath me. Quieting my racing heart, the Lord reminded me that although my own resources might be exhausted, his resources were limitless.

During that difficult season I experienced God as my refuge when there was nowhere else to turn, and I felt his security in the middle of a very uncertain, insecure time.

In today's passage Moses praises the Lord and assures the Israelites that God will be with them no matter what adversity or trial they encounter—that he is their refuge and underneath them are his everlasting arms. Do you need to feel God's everlasting arms carrying you today because your strength is exhausted? Do you know someone who is in desperate straits and needs God's help? Pray these verses for yourself or for someone else, and proclaim God's faithfulness.

LORD, there is no one like you! You ride across the heavens in majestic splendor to help us when we cry out to you. May we experience you today as our refuge and sense your everlasting arms of protection and love holding us. I praise you for your faithfulness and unparalleled power.

Trusting in God's promises

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I bow before your holy Temple as I worship. I will give thanks to your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness, because your promises are backed by all the honor of your name.

Psalm 138:2

God makes a promise, faith believes it, hope anticipates it, patience quietly awaits it.

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Precious promises

When David Livingstone had to pass through the most dangerous country of the fierce native chief Mburuma and decide whether to furtively sneak through at night or go by day and risk being killed, he staked his life on the promise of Jesus' presence in Matthew 29:19-20: "Go and make disciples of all nations.…And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." He wrote in his journal, "[I]t is the word of a Gentleman of the most sacred and strictest honor, so there's an end on it!" Livingstone knew that God backs up his promises with all the honor of his name, so he proceeded in broad daylight, trusting in his Savior's promise. God fulfilled his Word, and Livingstone made the crossing safely because the Lord Jesus was beside him, just as he said he would be. God's promises are just as true and alive today for those who will pray them, trust them, stand on them, and walk in them.

THANK YOU, FATHER, for backing your promises by all the honor of your name. It is a mighty and powerful and trustworthy name! I give thanks to you for your unfailing love and faithfulness. Help me to move forward under your direction in the light of your unfailing and precious promises in Jesus name.

What will your life accomplish?

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"You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live and we are not given a minute longer."

Job 14:5 LT

Miracle Baby

"John and Betty Stam met at Moody Bible Institute while both were studying to become missionaries to China. After going there separately under the China Inland Mission (CIM), they were unexpectedly reunited and a year later were married. In September 1934, their daughter, Helen, was born. Their lives were suddenly changed on December 6, 1934, when communist soldiers arrested the Stams.

The Stams were forced to make a difficult march to the town of Miao-shou. They were horrified to hear the soldiers discuss plans to murder their baby to make the trip easier. An old farmer stepped forward to object. Little Helen was spared when the man agreed to take her place—and was shot on the spot.

Arriving in Miao-shou, Helen was taken from them. Marched to a place of execution, a local Christian doctor begged for their lives. He was condemned to die and John begged for mercy for the doctor. John, Betty, and the doctor were all beheaded.

Helen was found by a Chinese evangelist named Lo who, at great risk, was able to bring her to her grandparents in Tsinan. The news of the "Miracle Baby" and her parents' martyrdom spread around the world. Hundreds pledged their lives to missionary service. A fellow missionary wrote "A life which had the longest span of years might not have been able to do one-hundredth of the work for Christ which they have done in a day."

Where is the focus of your life?

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"Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next. This is true, and everyone should accept it. We work hard and suffer much in order that people will believe the truth, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and particularly of those who believe."

1 Timothy 4:8-10

The faithful worker

"A friend of Bernie May's (U.S. division director of Wycliffe) had the opportunity to meet a king and queen. This man worked in a tiny nation, doing community-development work. Struggling to encourage tribal people living in the high mountain valleys was difficult, and he often wondered if he was doing any good. It was easy to get discouraged.

He was invited to a stand-up dinner party on the castle lawn, hosted by the queen. He felt deeply honored to be invited. In the crowd of about 400 local people, he stood out as an obvious Westerner.

The king and queen spent an hour and a half going through the crowd, greeting each guest. When the royal couple came to May's friend, he told them his name and the work he was doing The king hesitated. He was not familiar with the mountain village where the man worked. The queen, who had met him earlier, gave a brief explanation to the king. The king then asked how long he had been there.

He replied, "Sixteen years." The king seemed touched. Looking him in the eye, he said meaningfully, "Excellent." He then moved on to the next person.

Bernie May's friend admitted it was a short conversation, but that was all he needed to hear. He had heard the king say, "Excellent."

Hope in your eternal inheritance

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I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him."

Ephesians 1:18-19

Paul's prayer for the Ephesians

In your prayers, place your hopes on your eternal inheritance in heaven, just as Paul did. Pray that God might help you understand how powerful he is.

A prayer for today…

Dear Lord, help me understand the wonderful future you have promised me…

Where is your desire?

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Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth.

Psalm 73:25 NLT

Heart's desire

In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when the Beavers inform the children that Aslan is on the move, the children feel a strange stirring in their hearts. Peter in particular says he's "longing" to meet this Aslan.…he doesn't say he's curious; he says he's longing, and that carries a very different meaning….

To long for something means you've had it in your mind for a while, the way you fix your heart on getting that iPod for Christmas…. Longing carries with it the concept of desire.

Yearning Desire. It's a theme that weaves throughout the life and works of C. S. Lewis. In Surprised by Joy, he introduces the concept of longing as the signature quest of his childhood and young adulthood.

It wasn't until Lewis converted to Christianity that he eventually realized what he'd been longing for: God. Not the Norse gods of the pagan world, not even the gods or spirits of fantasy worlds, but the God of the Bible—a real, living Being in whom we can have life forever.

With our own friends, part of our role is to help them understand that their longing comes from an inborn desire to know the King of the universe. And, like the Beavers with Peter, we are to tell our friends about the King—that his return is imminent, that he is on the move even now.

We're all longing to meet the true King. Will you recognize his name when you hear it? Will you help others do the same?

Have you refused to listen to God?

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"Now if you will fear and worship the Lord and listen to his voice, and if you do not rebel against the Lord's commands, and if you and your king follow the Lord your God, then all will be well. But if you rebel against the Lord's commands and refuse to listen to him, then his hand will be as heavy upon you as it was upon your ancestors."

1 Samuel 12:14-15

But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land I am giving them!" This place was known as Meribah, because it was where the people of Israel argued with the Lord, and where he demonstrated his holiness among them.

Numbers 20:12-13

O universal strength, I know it well
It is but froth of folly to rebel
For thou art Lord and hast the keys of Hell.

C.S. Lewis

To reject God call is to rebel

"The word rebel conjures up images of motorcycles, black leather jackets, tattoos, and arrogant, angry attitudes. Sometimes rebellion against God does manifest itself in such dramatic forms, but rebellion can be much more subtle.

A failure to worship God leads to a failure to listen to his commands. Such disrespect is rebellion against God—whether we wear black leather or suits and ties.

What subtle forms of rebellion tend to creep into your life?

What is trust?

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Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O Lord, have never abandoned anyone who searches for you.

Psalm 9:10

Trust involves letting go and knowing God will catch you.
James Dobson

Why Not?

Something is holding us back. Perhaps it is a fear that maybe we are wrong about God. Maybe we feel presumptuous. It is possible, if we have been disappointed in the past, that our misunderstanding is haunting us. We hear a voice in the back of our minds that says, "What if God doesn't come through? What if he makes it more difficult than I can handle? What if all my hopes are illusions?" So we hesitate to trust God. We pray and we hope, but faith remains incomplete and doubts linger. We'll ask Him to help us, but we withhold judgment until we've seen His response.

We are called to believe God with reckless abandon—not just believe that He is there and that He is involved with us somehow; but that He is actively, personally seeking our good and answering our prayers. We are to give up our own strategies and ambitions, to relinquish all "Plan Bs," to recklessly, irrevocably cast ourselves completely into His arms.

God called Abraham to leave Haran and go to a place to be revealed later. Jesus invited Peter to step out of the boat and walk on water. That kind of call is scary, though typical in God's Kingdom. But why is it scary? Where could He lead us that we'd regret? Would He ever lead us into danger but not out of it?

God calls us to "reckless" trust, the kind that prepares no safety net and reserves nothing for a spiritually rainy day. Try to find someone God had forsaken, observe His faithfulness, and ask yourself: "Why wouldn't I trust Him wholeheartedly? Think about it. Why not?

With what attitude do you enter a worship service?

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"Enter his gates with thanksgiving: go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.

For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation."

Psalm 100:4-5

If thou wouldst thus leave thy heart with God on Saturday nith, thou shouldst fint it with him in the Lord's day morning.

Puritan preacher Geroge Swinnock

Giving thanks for God's goodness

"Imagine yourself entering the gates at the entrance to the temple alongside a throng of people gathering to praise the Lord. As you near the courts of the temple, you are swept up in the words of this prayer uttered by all those around you: "Enter his gates with thanksgiving…" This prayer functioned as a call to worship for people entering the temple. It helped the people to focus their thoughts on God and his good gifts to them. It set a tone of thankfulness for the worship service that would follow.

Let the words of this prayer focus your thoughts on God's goodness to you. Come into his presence with thanksgiving and praise on your lips.

A prayer for today…

Dear Lord, I enter into your presence with thanksgiving and praise, for you are good…

Would you ever renounce your faith?

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Arise, O Lord! Do not let mere mortals defy you! Let the nations be judged in your presence. Make them tremble in fear, O Lord. Let them know they are merely human.

Psalm 9:19-20

Forty martyrs

The emperor decided to make an example of the soldiers, so he marched them onto a frozen lake and stripped them of their clothes. "Renounce your God and you will be spared from death," he told them. Not one man came forward. Throughout the night the men stayed together, singing their song of victory: "Forty Martyrs for Christ."

When morning came, 39 of the men had frozen to death. The one survivor recanted his confession of faith. The officer in charge that night had been so moved by the scene that during his watch he'd come to Jesus, so he broke rank and walked out onto the ice. Stripping his clothes he openly confessed his faith in Christ. He refused to renounce his new faith. When the ordeal was over, the Roman soldiers carried 40 frozen men off of the ice.

In comparison, my life is like a long night on a soft mattress. I may one day be faced with serious consequences for my faith. You may, too. Will we have the strength of character and heart and faith to stand strong just the same?"

Thankful for God's presence

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"Worship and serve him with your whole heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and understands and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him.…"

1 Chronicles 28:9

"[As we near closer to Thanksgiving, our promise this week is not about the usual themes of bounty, but the blessings found when we seek God. For it is from an intimate relationship with God that his blessings flow.]

Heart to heart, mind to mind, soul to soul — this is intimacy. There is relational intimacy, where two people become soul mates, free to openly share all their burdens, fears, and joys with each other. Then there is physical intimacy, reserved only for marriage, where a man and woman, through their sexual relationship, reach new heights of vulnerability that should allow them to communicate at the most profound level. And finally there is intimacy with God, where we learn to understand the very heart of God. As we do this, all other intimacy takes on new and even greater meaning.

How do you respond to deep distress?

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"But while in deep distress, Manasseh sought the Lord his God and cried out humbly to the God of his ancestors."

2 Chronicles 33:12

Into the heart of Africa

"Peter Cameron Scott was born in Glasgow in 1867 and became the founder of the Africa Inland Mission. But his beginnings in Africa were anything but auspicious. His first trip to Africa ended in a severe attack of malaria that sent him home. He resolved to return after recuperation.

His return was especially gratifying to Scott, because this time his brother John joined him. But before long John was struck down by fever. All alone, Peter buried his brother, and in the agony of those days recommitted himself to preaching the gospel in Africa. Yet again his health gave way and he had to return to England.

How would he ever pull out of the desolation and depression of those days? He had pledged himself to God. But where could he find the strength to go back again to Africa? With man it was impossible!

He found the strength in Westminster Abbey. David Livingstone's tomb is there. Scott enterer quietly, found the tomb, and knelt in front of it to pray. The inscription read:

OTHER SHEEP I HAVE

WHICH ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD;

THEM I ALSO MUST BRING.

He arose from his knees with a new hope. He returned to Africa. And the mission he founded is a vibrant, growing force for the gospel today in Africa."

God's guidance

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"I will bless the Lord who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me.

I know the Lord is always with me, I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me."

Psalm 16:7-8

The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.

Psalm 37:23-24

Giving thanks that God is near

Sometimes we try to "ride out the storms" in our lives — doing this the best we can. We think, If I can just hang on and be strong, I can get through this. David knew he couldn't make it on his own. In the past, he had found help in the Lord God. And in this prayer, David again sought the Lord's protection: "Keep me safe, O God, for I have come to you for refuge" (v. 1). He rejoiced in the guidance and assistance the Lord had given him. Though his enemies were trying to shake and topple him, David stood firm because God was "right beside" him.

In prayer today, acknowledge that God is right beside you — upholding and guiding you. Thank him that he helps you and does not leave you to struggle on your own.

A prayer for today…

Dear Lord, I will not be shaken, for you are right beside me…

God's "protective shade"

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The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.

Psalm 121:5

Secure with the keeper

"It was dark and cold that November morning when the Livingstone family woke up to say farewell to their son David. He was leaving Scotland for the heart of Africa. Mrs. Livingstone made coffee; Mr. Livingstone dressed warmly to walk his son to Glasgow. David got the family Bible and read the comforting words of Psalm 121 with the family.

A dozen years later, Dr. Livingstone was contemplating a trip deeper into the unexplored interior of Africa along with his wife and children. Just before he left, he received a letter from his mother-in-law, Mary Moffat, who was also a missionary. "My dear Livingstone," she began. "Hitherto I have kept up my spirits and have been enabled to believe that our Great Master may yet bring you out in safety." She said that she was clinging to the promises of Psalm 121 and Psalm 91. "Unceasing prayer is made for you." Then she added, "Every petition, however fervent, must be with submission to his will."

Protected? Yes. Submissive to his will? That, too.

Jesus guaranteed us that in this world we will have trouble (John 16:33). But no matter what happens, we can never be separated from God's love or God's purposes. He promises to preserve us from evil but not to pave over every pothole in life's road.

He who began will not quit

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"And I am sure that God, who began a good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again."

Philippians 1:6

Let this encourage God's holy people to endure persecution patiently and remain firm to the end, obeying his commands and trusting in Jesus.

Revelation 14:12

God's promise to continue working in our lives requires perseverance on our part.

Whether you are an athlete undergoing grueling physical conditioning, an employee struggling under a mountain of work, or a Christian suffering persecution, the key to perseverance is a clear vision of the goal.

While the goal of an athlete is to win the race and goal of the employee is a job well done, the goal of the believer is nothing less than eternity in the presence of the Lord.

The writer of Revelation encourages Christians to keep their eyes on Jesus, who will reward the faithful, and to obey his Word to the end. When you feel like giving up, remember the glory that awaits you as a child of God.

Where do you turn when threatened?

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"Send your light and your truth; let them guide me

Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live.

There I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy.

I will praise you with my harp, O God, my God!

Why am I discouraged? Why so sad?

I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!"

Psalm 43:3-5

An appeal for guidance

"Being lost in the darkness can be a very frightening situation. But imagine if your were also being pursued by people who were out to kill you!

This was the psalmist's urgent dilemma, and he didn't know which way to turn. But he did know to whom he would cry out for help. He asked God to show him the way, to guide him in the truth, and to lead him to the Lord's presence.

Pray that God will guide your steps.

Set your sights on your final destination—God's dwelling place—and encourage yourself with the prospect of living joyfully in the Lord's presence.

A prayer for today…

Dear God, guide me with your light and truth…

Choosing whom to serve

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"As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord."

Joshua 24:15

A momentous document

"The date was November 11, 1620, and the place was the Mayflower, anchored off the coast of Cape Cod. One hundred and two passengers, including 34 children had spent seven weeks crossing the ocean from England. Among them were 27 adults and 14 children who were Pilgrims, separatists who had fled England for Holland, yet wished to retain their English heritage. They made arrangements with the Virginia Company to settle just south of the Hudson River within the northernmost boundary of the Virginia Charter. However, fierce winds blew them off course to the north — to the shores of Cape Cod.

They realized they would be on their own since they had no agreement with the New England Company. On board the ship some of the non-Pilgrim bonded servants and those hired by contract greeted the decision to settle in Cape Cod as an opportunity for rebellion. The Pilgrim leadership saw that they must act quickly to prevent a mutiny.

The result came to be known as the Mayflower Compact, the first time in recorded history in which free men covenanted together to form a civil government with the authority to enact laws that the people promised to obey.

Before leaving the Netherlands, the Pilgrims had knelt on the dock to ask God's blessing on their voyage. After the first winter on Cape Cod, 47 people died, leaving only three families intact. These humble Christian men and women were to be the seeds of what would become the United States of America."

Responding to those who attack you

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"Lord, have mercy on me. See how I suffer at the hands of those who hate me. Snatch me back from the jaws of death.

Save me, so I can praise you publicly at Jerusalem's gates, so I can rejoice that you have rescued me…

Arise, O Lord! Do not let mere mortals defy you! Let the nations be judged in your presence.

Make them tremble in fear, O Lord. Let them know they are merely human."

Psalm 9:13-14, 19-20

Asking God to relieve our suffering

"Life is difficult enough without people seeking to attack us in one way or another. But as David quickly learned when he became king, the more responsibility and power we are given, the more enemies oppose us.

When we are being attacked by our enemies, we instinctively fight back. But as this prayer shows, our first response to opposition should be to bring the situation to God in prayer. Instead of plotting how he could destroy his enemies, David identified how his current predicament could bring glory and honor to God.

What difficult and troublesome situations have you gone through? Submit those situations to God, and ask him to save you so that you may rejoice in him.

A prayer for today…

Dear Lord, you know how I am suffering. Please save me so I can rejoice in you…

Bearing up to persecution

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But I know the Lord will surely help those they persecute; he will maintain the rights of the poor.

Psalm 140:12

Praising God in suffering

"Young Charles Simeon had reason to question Psalm 140:12. A recent graduate of Cambridge, he had been installed as rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in that college town, much to the dismay of the liberal-thinking parishioners, who couldn't abide the evangelical preaching of this Bible-loving cleric. When the old-time members locked their pew doors to keep out other worshippers, Simeon put seats in the aisles. Then members came early and threw out the aisle seats.

Nicknamed Sims, Simeon was hooted at when he walked in the town. "I was the object of much contempt and derision," he admits. One day he took a walk, asking God to guide him to "some text which should sustain me." Opening his New Testament, he read about Simon of Cyrene, who bore the cross of Jesus. Simeon found this to be great encouragement indeed, partly because he thought they might have given Simon of Cyrene the nickname of Sims, too! "To have the cross laid upon me that I might bear it after Jesus. What a privilege! Now I would leap and sing joy, as one whom Jesus was honoring with a participation in his sufferings."

If you're facing times of persecution and feel that you're misunderstood, learn a lesson from Sims and start praising God.

Would you ever renounce your faith?

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Arise, O Lord! Do not let mere mortals defy you! Let the nations be judged in your presence.

Make them tremble in fear, O Lord. Let them know they are merely human.

Psalm 9:19-20 NLT

"History knows them as the 40 martyrs of Sebaste. They were soldiers in the famed Twelfth Legion of Rome's imperial army, around A.D. 320. One day the captain informed his troops that Emperor Licinius had sent down an edict commanding all soldiers to offer a sacrifice to his pagan god. Forty of the soldiers were followers of Christ, and they refused.

The emperor decided to make an example of the soldiers, so he marched them onto a frozen lake and stripped them of their clothes. "Renounce your God and you will be spared from death," he told them. Not one man came forward. Throughout the night the men stayed together, singing their song of victory: "Forty Martyrs for Christ."

When morning came, 39 of the men had frozen to death. The one survivor recanted his confession of faith. The officer in charge that night had been so moved by the scene that during his watch he'd come to Jesus, so he broke rank and walked out onto the ice. Stripping his clothes he openly confessed his faith in Christ. He refused to renounce his new faith. When the ordeal was over, the Roman soldiers carried 40 frozen men off of the ice.

In comparison, my life is like a long night on a soft mattress. I may one day be faced with serious consequences for my faith. You may, too. Will we have the strength of character and heart and faith to stand strong just the same?"

Forty martyrs

"I will come back"

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[Jesus said], "When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know where I am going and how to get there."

John 14:3-4

His promise to return

As a child, George Tulloch was fascinated by stories of the Titanic.…In 1996 he put together a team of the best scientists and sailors and set out to the exact spot where the Titanic sank in 1912. He and his crew were able to recover numerous artifacts from the ship—eyeglasses, jewelry, dishware, some coins and the like. But the most exciting thing they found was a large piece of the hull resting several hundred yards away.

The team did its best to raise the twenty-ton piece of iron, but to no avail. At one point the team almost had it.…but a storm blew in and.…the Atlantic reclaimed its treasure. Then Tulloch did something surprising before they were forced to retreat. He descended into the deep once more in a small submarine, and using a robotic arm, he attached a small handmade placard onto the section. It said, "I will come back. George Tulloch."

For a lot of the same reasons, Jesus left us a similar message. "I am going to prepare a place for you..…When everything is ready, I will come and get you" (John 14:2-3). Some may wonder why he cared in the first place. Why would he even want to reclaim us? What good are we to him? In many ways we're just as worthless and cumbersome and unyielding as that lazy piece of iron in the Atlantic.

But Jesus doesn't see us that way. He's dreamed of this moment since the beginning of creation, and now that the time is near he can't help but leave this mark on our hearts. "I'm leaving now. But don't worry, I'll be back.

More persecution leads to more comfort

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"You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ."

2 Corinthians 1:5 NLT

About this week's promise:

"The central message of Christianity, that all have sinned and are lost apart from Christ, is offensive to most people. After all, we humans are proud, and we don't like to consider that we are ever in the wrong.

Because Christianity is offensive, those who bear its message are perceived as offensive also. Stephen became the first Christian martyr because the Jewish leaders who sent Jesus to the cross were enraged by his ringing accusation of their sin (Acts 7:51-8:3).

As believers, we must ask God for the courage to speak the truth and the grace to endure any unjust treatment that may result. When we consider the impact of Stephen's death—the eventual conversion of the young man Saul (later called Paul) and the spread of the gospel (Acts 8:4)—we see that even terrible persecution, in God's hands, can lead to great glory."

How will you be remembered?

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"For Solomon has abandoned me…"

1 Kings 11:33

Final epitaphs

"How would you like to be remembered after your death? Have you considered what the epitaph on your gravestone might read?

One headstone in Ribbesford, England, marking the grave of a woman named Anna Wallace, reads: "The children of Israel wanted bread, and the Lord sent them manna. Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife, and the Devil sent him Anna."

Not the final words Anna expected, I'm sure. But as always, those she left behind got the last word.

You have to cringe and wonder when you see the gravestone of a man from Plymouth, Massachusetts, named John McMahon. It says: "He Was a Failure As a Husband and Father." How would you like that as your legacy?

But the saddest epitaph of all isn't found on a tombstone; it's found is the pages of Scripture. When faced with the task of memorializing the wise king Solomon, God had some sobering words. "Solomon has abandoned me and worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians…He has not followed my ways and done what is pleasing in my sight. He had not obeyed my laws and regulations as his father, David, did." Solomon was buried in the city of David, and in spite of all the good things he did, he will forever be remembered as the king who turned his back on God.

We would all do well do ask ourselves a simple question: If God were to write my obituary, what would he record?"

What is real?

2011-10-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

1 Corinthians 15:55

Redemptive Reality

"Roberto Benigni, who wrote, directed, and starred in Life is Beautiful, is a comic genius who has been called the Italian Charlie Chaplin. But the subject of his 1997 film, the Holocaust, is anything but funny.

Benigni's character, a sad-sack waiter named Guido, courts the affections of a local schoolteacher and through various hilarious adventures wins her heart. They marry and have a son.

Then things take a dark turn: Father and son, who are Jewish, are sent to a concentration camp. To shield his son from the horrors they're going through, Guido concocts a wild story, telling the boy that the whole experience is really just an elaborate game.

How did Benigni dare to use humor in a film about a great moral evil? He did it by expressing the Christian idea that there's more to life than what we see. In the scene in which the father is being led away to be killed, he spots his son and makes a funny face. The message is that there is something that triumphs over even death, some transcendent reality that, even in this ultimate moment of gravity, enables Guido to make his son laugh.

Most of our cultural leaders operate from a purely naturalistic perspective, but Scripture teaches that there are eternal things. Life is Beautiful is not the gospel story, but it does point to the gospel because it's about how God's redemptive reality trumps the very worst this world has to offer."

The times and seasons are God's

2011-10-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

"There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to rebuild. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4

What a difference a year can make

"On November 3, 1745, David Brainerd, a 27-year-old missionary to the Indians of Crossweeksung, New Jersey, baptized fourteen converts. This was part of what he called a ""remarkable work of grace"" with which God blessed his labors among the Native Americans of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Brainerd became a leader of the Great Awakening and a missionary to the American Indians after being expelled from Yale in his third year when he questioned the salvation of a faulty member.

The baptisms on this day brought the total of baptized believers to 47. A year later this remarkable work of God among the Indians continued, but the work of David Brained was coming to a close. Brainerd, at the age of 28, was dying of tuberculosis and would have to return to New England where friends and family could care for him.

Desperately weak in body on November 3, 1746, Brainerd spent the day bidding farewell to his beloved Indian flock. Tears flowed as he left each house. His farewells took most of the day, and in the evening he rode off, his mission completed. A year later David Brainerd was dead at the age of 29."

A message for all people

2011-10-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

With my authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: "There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me."

Luke 24:47

A man named Muhammad

In an age of pluralism, most people assume that all religions have equal access to heaven. One getting much attention today is Islam.

Muhammad, the founder of Islam, the world's youngest major religion, was born in Mecca between 570 and 580.

When he was forty, Muhammad claimed that he received a prophetic call from Alah through the angel Gabriel. He began preaching monotheism, a final judgment, alms, prayer, and surrender to the will of Allah. Persecution in his hometown of Mecca forced him to flee to Medina. Traditionally dated to July 15, 622, that flight, or hegira, marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar.

During his time in Medina, Muhammad's revelations become more legalistic and more secular and Islam, as the new religion was called, became a community and state with Muhammad as ruler and lawgiver.

By the time he died on June 8, 632, almost all of Arabia embraced Islam. The successors to Muhammad encouraged jihad, or holy war, against non-Muslims and within a century built an empire stretching from Spain all the way across North Africa to India.

In 1900 only 12 percent of the world's population embraced Islam; by 2000 it had grown to 21 percent, partly due to a higher birth rate. Islam is the majority religion in forty-two countries and territories. Most of these countries prohibit Christian evangelism and exclude Christian missionaries, yet since 1980 more Muslims have turned to Christ than in any earlier period in history. Pray that the doors will open even wider and that many more will come to Christ…while there is still time.

Christ Will Return

2011-10-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

No clever story

We were not making up clever stories when we told you about the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and his coming again. We have seen his majestic splendor with our own eyes.

2 Peter 1:16

Fulfillment of prophecy?

On June 7, 1967, a date clear to the heart of every patriotic Israeli, the army of Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem. The previous month the Egyptians had decided to attempt once more to conquer Israel. Israel felt its only hope was to launch a preemptive strike, which it did on June 5. Two days later the Israelis captured the Old City of Jerusalem, which had been part of Jordan. As a result of this military victory in what is known as the Six-Day War, Israel once again possessed her ancient capital.

From the beginning of Jesus' ministry he warned the Jews of God's coming wrath unless they repented (Matthew 3:8). The Roman army, under general Titus, completely destroyed the city and temple in A.D. 70.

Jesus had also prophesied that following its defeat "Jerusalem will be…trampled down by the Gentiles until the age of the Gentiles comes to an end" (Luke 21:24). Does this mean that the "age of the Gentiles" came to end on June 7, 1967? Revelation 11:2 seems to answer no. It states that the Gentiles "will trample the holy city for forty-two months," apparently the three and a half years period to the second coming of Christ, implying that the Jews will not be in control of Jerusalem at this time. June 7, 1967 was an extremely significant event in Jewish history, but it was not the fulfillment of prophecy.

Reflection

When you read the unfulfilled prophecies of the Bible, do you believe that they will be literally fulfilled? The first coming of Jesus Christ fulfilled many prophecies, and his second coming will fulfill many more.

Everyone Will See

2011-10-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

[Jesus said], "Then everyone will see the Son of Man arrive on the clouds with power and great glory. So when all these things begin to happen, stand straight and look up, for your salvation is near!"

Luke 21:27-28

No fear of judgment

What images come to mind when you think of "end times prophecies"?…Most people, if they were honest, would admit that their view of the end times is a frightening one.…They imagine an angry and vengeful God hovering high above it all, bent on destruction and raining terror on all who have rejected him.

Have we missed something? In many ways I think we have. God didn't reveal these graphic images of the coming judgment to express his wrath or even to frighten us into believing. He revealed them to show us his wonderful grace and mercy in the midst of our sin and unworthiness. The story isn't about pending gloom and doom, but it's about a loving Father who will do anything he can to help people escape the consequences of evil.

Bible prophecy isn't intended to frighten us, but it's to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is real and omnipotent and active in our lives; to warn us of the very real danger lying ahead for those who reject his love and mercy; and to encourage us to accept his gracious and free offer of salvation through his Son, Jesus.

In his first letter to Timothy, Paul tells us that God "wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth" (2:4).…Time and again in Scripture we are told that God longs for his people to be with him in heaven. The Bible is not a story of wrath and judgment but of unconditional love and redemption. God longs to be with us and wants desperately for us to accept his hand of salvation. What we do is up to us.

What will be your legacy?

2011-10-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

"I will not die, but I will live to tell what the Lord has done."

Psalm 118:17

Famous last words

"John Wycliffe lay dying in Lutterworth, England. The year was 1384, and most of his influential friends in church and state had deserted him. Many thought he had gone too far.

For one thing, Wycliffe had dared to translate the Bible into English. He also urged a separation of church and state in order to reform the church. He attacked the corruption and the abuses of power that he observed—particularly among the friars. But most of all he preached that the Bible should be made available in every language.

It sounded like heresy, and since Wycliffe was now at the point of death, some felt he should reconsider his statements. So four friars and four senators crowded into his bedroom. They spoke sternly to him, reminding him of all he had advocated. Now was the time to confess the error of his ways.

Wycliffe was surprisingly alert. He asked if he could be raised in his bed so he could speak more clearly. Then he summoned all his remaining strength to quote Psalm 118:17, or at least part of it: "I will not die, but I will live, and will again declare the evil deed of the friars."

Wycliffe died, but his message and work lived on: the English Bible available to the common people. People die, but what they have begun is not halted by death. The trail they have left behind them goes on ahead of them."

Who do you listen to?

2011-10-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

"Therefore anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven."

Matthew 18:4

But his officers tried to reason with him and said, "Sir, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply to go and wash and be cured!" So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his flesh became as healthy as a young child's, and he was healed!

2 Kings 5:13-15

And all of you, serve each other in humility, for "God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble." So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and in his good time he will honor you.

1 Peter 5:5-6

The most important thing

"One of the greatest theologians in the history of Christendom was undoubtedly Aurelious Augustinius, better known as St. Augustine, who was converted in the year 387 and later became Bishop of Hippo in North Africa. One of his memorable sayings was this—"For those who would learn God's ways, humility is the first thing, humility is the second, and humility is the third." That may at first sound like an unwarranted exaggeration, but it is surely an echo of these words in the Old Testament—" has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

God blesses humble people

2011-10-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

God as house-builder

"Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is useless. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good."

Psalm 127:1

Unless the Lord builds the house

"Benjamin Franklin is best known for his inventions (lightning rod) and his aphorisms ("early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise"). But he was also a key figure when the thirteen colonies were giving birth to a new nation.

At the age of 81, Franklin was the oldest representative at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Weeks after the convention began, representatives were still haggling about the relative voting power of large states and small states. Then Franklin stood up and said,

"In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard and they were graciously answered.…Have we now forgotten this powerful Friend? Do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing proof I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men.…We have been assured, sir, that 'except the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it,' and without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel."

The verse from Psalm 127 had its effect. A compromise was soon worked out, and a Constitution ratified by the states the following year.

Do you pray like the Pharisee or the tax collector?

2011-10-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

"The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: 'I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don't sin, I don't commit adultery, I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.'

But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, 'O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.'"

Luke 18:11-13

The lesson of two prayers

"These two prayers stand in sharp contrast to one another.

The Pharisee barely acknowledges God at all. He used his time in the Temple as an opportunity to justify himself. In the guise of thanking God, he cut down others and congratulated himself. There was no humility in him.

The tax collector, on the other hand, was rightfully aware of his sin before the most holy God. He made no claims for himself. He didn't try to justify his action. He only admitted he was a sinner.

Jesus declared that it was the humble tax collector, not the proud Pharisee, whom God was willing to justify.

May God give us the courage to admit our true condition before him. Take time to meditate on God's holiness, and give up justifying yourself. In humility, cast yourself on the Lord's mercy.

A prayer for today...

O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner

Content to stay at the back of the line

2011-10-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

"God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them."

Matthew 5:3

The poor in spirit

"There is probably no living man through whom God has worked more mightily than Billy Graham. Dr. Graham has reached more people with the gospel of Jesus than perhaps any person in history. Yet those who know him best don't usually talk about his accomplishments or the number of people he's led to Christ. They talk of his unbelievable humility.

Several years ago Dr. Graham was interviewed on PrimeTime Live. He was sitting somberly in a chair when the last question came his way: "What do you want people to say about you when you're gone?" His response took many by surprise. "I don't want people to say anything about me. I want them to talk about my Savior. The only thing I want to hear is Jesus saying, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.'" Then he bowed his head and said softly, "But I'm not sure I'm going to hear that." It was a rare but honest look into the true nature of Billy Graham's heart. In spite of all he's done for the work of the Kingdom, he still sees himself unworthy of God's commendation.

The highest honor in heaven is reserved for those who least expect it. The first in line to receive his blessing will likely be the ones who were content to stay at the back of the line on earth. If you want to know the true strength and power of Billy Graham's life, look at his heart, not his crusade attendances. God doesn't save us because of who we are or what we've done, but because of our faith in accepting his gift of salvation."

Humility, not humiliation

2011-10-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

"You rescue those who are humble, but you humiliate the proud."

Psalm 18:27

The high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, the Holy One, says this: "I live in that high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts."

Isaiah 57:15

"May God's grace give you the necessary humility. Try not to think—much less, speak—of their sins. One's own are a much more profitable theme! And if on consideration, one can find no faults on one's own side, then cry for mercy: for this must be a most dangerous delusion.

C.S. Lewis

Humility is not effacing oneself. It is not destroying one's sense of self-worth. It is honest recognition of our own worth, our worth as God sees us.

Pride elevated us above others, and often above God himself. But to destroy one's sense of self-worth is also unacceptable, for it denies the value God placed upon us when he created us in his image and when he sent his Son to die for us.

Christ did not die for worms but for people he loves very much, and those people have great worth or value in God's eyes.

To see ourselves as God sees us—that is our goal.

A reformer's refuge

2011-10-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

"A mighty fortress is our God.

A bulwark never failing.

Our helper He amid the flood

Of mortal ills prevailing.

For still our ancient foe

Doth seek to work us woe—

His craft and pow'r are great,

And, armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not His equal."

A Mighty Fortress is Our God

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear, even if earthquakes come and mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!

Psalm 46:1-3

The great reformer

"After posting his ninety-five theses on the door of Wittenberg's Castle Church in October 1517, Martin Luther faced many years of trials and persecution. And during the years of the ensuing Protestant Reformation, Luther came to know better than most the gracious power of God's sheltering hand. He confidently stepped forward to defend the truth he found in God's Word, despite excommunication from the Roman church, continual threats to his life and freedom, and times of intense spiritual battle.

In the comforting words of Psalm 46, Luther found the inspiration for this hymn that would become the battle cry of the Protestant Reformation. Many who suffered for their faith during that time found solid comfort in Luther's words of faith and praise. "A might fortress is our God!"

God is our security

2011-10-13T08:00:00.001-05:00

Put on the whole armor, and take up your shield. Prepare for battle, and come to my aid.

Psalm 35:2

Security is our nearness to God, not our distance from danger.

Kenneth R. Hendre

In the gun sights

When Ira Sankey was at the height of his ministry, he was traveling on a steamer in the Delaware River. Some passengers had seen his picture in the newspaper and knew he was associated with evangelist D. L. Moody. When they asked him to sing one of his own compositions, Sankey said he preferred a hymn by William Bradbury, "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us." One of the stanzas begins, "We are thine, do thou befriend us; be the guardian of our way."

When he finished, a man stepped out and inquired, "Were you in the army, Mr. Sankey?"

"Yes, I joined up in 1860."

"Did you ever do guard duty at night in Maryland, about 1862?"

"Yes, I did."

"Well, I was in the Confederate Army," said the stranger. "I saw you one night at Sharpsburg. I had you in my gun sight as you stood there in the light of the full moon. Just as I was about the pull the trigger, you began to sing. It was the same hymn you sang tonight," the man told an astonished Sankey. "I couldn't shoot you."

I. M. Anderson in Moody

Life is filled with near misses. We know only a fraction of the many situations in which God preserves us from severe physical and emotional injury.

God blesses in the midst of suffering

2011-10-12T08:00:00.001-05:00

"Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest."

Psalm 126:5-6

For he has not ignored the suffering of the needy. He has not turned and walked away. He has listened to their cries for help.

Psalm 22:24

Those who suffer the same things from the same people for the same Person can scarcely not love each other.
C. S. Lewis

Suffering—the soil of spiritual growth

"The Bible does not promise that Christians won't suffer. In fact, the Scriptures give much evidence that we can expect to suffer, given the evil that is in the world around us and the sin that is in us.

What God does promise is that our suffering can become the catalyst for new growth. God promises to redeem our suffering into his glory.

What griefs are you currently suffering? Can you entrust them to God, confident that he will use them to bring new growth into your life?

The worst kind of suffering is that which we experience alone. When we suffer with another person who is sympathetic to our problem, the suffering is easier to bear. Throughout history, God has sympathized with suffering people. He hears our cries. How would your life and outlook be different if you become convinced that God never failed to respond to your pain?

Facing the furnace

2011-10-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty."

Daniel 3:17

A candle in the darkness

"In 1989, Lazlo Tokes was the pastor of a fast-growing reformed church in the city of Timisoara, Romania. His powerful preaching had caught the attention of communist officials, and they began a strategy of suppression. Just before Christmas, they decided to send him into exile.

But when the police arrived to hustle Pastor Tokes away, they were stopped cold. Around the church stood a wall of humanity. Christians from around the city—Baptist, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Catholic—had joined together to protest.

All through the day they held their post. As it grew dark, a Baptist student named Daniel Gavra pulled out a packet of candles, lit one, and passed it on to his neighbor.

Then he lit another. One by one the burning candles were passed out among the crowd. Soon the darkness of the December night was pierced by the light of hundreds of candles. When Pastor Tokes looked out his window, he saw a sea of faces lit up by a warm glow.

Two days later, police finally broke through the crowd and dragged Pastor Tokes away. But that was not the end. People streamed to the city square. Hundreds were shot, Young Daniel's leg was blown off. Yet the brave example set in Timisoara inspired the rest of the nation. Within days, the entire population of Romania had risen up and the bloody dictator Ceausescu was gone."

God is a refuge for the oppressed

2011-10-10T08:00:00.001-05:00

"You are loving and kind to thousands, though children suffer for their parents' sins. You are the great and powerful God, the Lord Almighty."

Jeremiah 32:18

The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

Psalm 9:9

"It isn't fair that we should suffer for our father's or grandfather's sins, or that innocent people be crippled by drunk drivers, or that millions starve because of corrupt governments. But all these things are realities in a world ruined by sin.

What can we do? We can recognize unfairness and injustice as facts of life (which is not the same as calling them acceptable). We can also determine to live in a way that is just and fair; with God's help, we can rise above the corruption.

The abused need not become abusers, and the impoverished need not live in moral poverty. Unbelieving parents need not inflict their despair and hard hearts upon their children.

Ask God to show you how to be a light and a welcome relief in an unjust world.

God's gift of salvation

2011-10-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

"Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you.

Psalm 130:3-4

The afternoon of Aldersgate

"On May 24, 1738, John Wesley was depressed. He had been wrestling with spiritual questions. Was faith alone enough for salvation? If so, could a man be converted instantaneously?

That afternoon at London's St. Paul's Cathedral, he heard an anthem sung that opened his heart. Based on Psalm 130, it began, "Out of the deeps of long distress, the borders of despair…" He was greatly moved because the anthem from Psalm 130 told his personal story. That evening he attended a meeting in a little chapel on Aldersgate Street, heard a reading from the introduction to Luther's commentary on Romans, and felt his heart "strangely warmed." He had taken the leap from verse 1 to verse 5 of the psalm.

Many outstanding Christians have loved this psalm. One of them was John Owen, who wrote an extended commentary on it—with nearly three hundred pages on verse 4 alone! He loved that verse because once when he was "brought to the mouth of grace" and when his soul was "oppressed with horror and darkness," that fourth verse brought him close to God.

God offers forgiveness, verse 4 says. Forgiveness is God's free gift. Have you accepted it yet?

Confession: the first and necessary step

2011-10-08T08:00:00.003-05:00

"But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong."

1 John 1:9

The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51:17

Intimacy with God can be restored

"There's nothing like a tough time to reveal what we're made of. When trouble rears its ugly, scary head, either we trust the promises of God and respond with obedience, or we panic and react sinfully.

Too often we are guilty of the latter. When things fall apart, we become sarcastic, possessive, moody, self-centered, bitter, envious…or a hundred other unflattering things. Now the situation is really messy. Not only are we facing trouble, but we've complicated the matter by pulling away from God. Our doubt and disobedience have alienated us from the One we need most.

The good news is that intimacy with God can be restored by simply acknowledging our wrong attitudes and actions. The word confession in the New Testament literally means "to say the same thing." In other words, we agree with God—about our wrong choices, about his perfect forgiveness, and about the truth that we are brand-new people who have the power to say no to future temptation.

If you've added to your troubles recently by responding wrongly, confession is your bridge back to God.

A prayer for forgiveness and mercy

2011-10-07T08:00:00.003-05:00

"Nothing can ever separate us from His love…

Romans 8:38

For the honor of your name, O Lord, forgive my many, many sins… Turn to me and have mercy on me, for I am alone and in deep distress. My problems go from bad to worse. O, save me from them all! Feel my pain and see my trouble. Forgive all my sins."

Psalm 25:11, Psalm 25:16-18

Like dominoes…

"Have you ever felt as though the problems in your life were like a series of dominoes? One domino falls down, and it sets off a chain reaction that knocks down the rest of the dominoes. David felt that his problems were going from bad to worse—his enemies had surrounded him, waiting for his ultimate demise. David could see no way out. But even in his despair, he knew there was one whom he could always trust to help him. He turned to God, confessed his sins, asked for forgiveness, and pleaded for mercy.When we are separated from God because of our sins, we need to repent and ask for forgiveness. Then, with a clean heart, we can come before him and ask for help. He will hear and answer us "for the honor of his name."

A prayer for today:

Dear God, for the honor of your name, please forgive mymany, many sins and have mercy ON ME!…

A two-way street

2011-10-06T08:00:00.001-05:00

"Come now, let us argue this out," says the Lord. "No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can remove it. I can make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you as white as wool."

Isaiah 1:18

"Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land."

2 Chronicles 7:14

"The situation referred to in these verses is what we call a "two-way street." We move in humility and repentance toward God, against whom we have sinned. In turn, God moves toward us with forgiveness and restoration. When we obey God, he will send blessing. And when we disobey God, we have the option of humble repentance. Blessings can flow again if our repentance is genuine and not merely a ploy to get "back on God's good side."

This two-way principle is also at work in all our human relationships. When sin has damaged a relationship, we can be restored through honest repentance, met with forgiveness. Sometimes, both parties must repent and forgive, because the fault is shared.

Staying pure

2011-10-05T08:00:00.001-05:00

"How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word and following its rules. I have tried my best to find you—don't let me wander from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."

Psalm 119:9-11

Piling on

"In the game of football it's called "piling on": You're already down when suddenly you get pummeled again by your opponent. In real life it's called spiritual warfare, and it's often disguised. You're suffering through a hard time when suddenly the enemy comes at you with what actually looks like relief.

Ah, how vulnerable we are in such moments! After all I've had to endure lately, I think I deserve a little break! How easy it is to rationalize! Would it really be so wrong for me to ________? Why not?

Of course, this is the nature of temptation. On the front end, sin looks "heavenly." On the back side, it is always hellish and makes bad situations worse.

Our only hope is in living out the promise that God's Word can keep us from sin. By filling our hearts and minds with the truth of God's Word, we are able to recognize the enemy's lies. That is how we stay pure in hard, tempting times (see Matthew 4:1-11). It is how we avoid Satan's deceptive attempts to hit us again when we're down.

Praying God's Promise:

God, when I hide your Word in my heart, I can keep from sinning! Grant me the wisdom to seek you and to hide your Word in my heart. I need discernment to apply your truth to everyday situations, especially when I am going through difficult times.

How well are you running the race?

2011-10-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You also must run in such a way that you will win. All athletes practice self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I am not like a boxer who misses his punches. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what I should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Running the Race

As he watched athletes training for and competing in their games, Paul saw an illustration of the struggles and victories of the Christian life. Although our final victory over death through Christ is always assured, we must strive for daily victory over the issues and temptations we face now.

We discipline ourselves, not in order to earn salvation, but to experience the joy and victory God intends for us now!

Look hard at your spiritual life. Are you vigorously participating in the game, barely keeping pace, or merely watching from the stands?

Are you wearing the full armor of God?

2011-10-03T08:00:00.001-05:00

Be strong with the Lord's mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies and tricks of the Devil. For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.

Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.

Ephesians 6:10-18

This is perhaps the Bible's most comprehensive teaching about the resources believers have to overcome evil. Spiritual forces lurk behind many of our conflicts. Therefore, you should not attack the people manipulated by evil but focus directly on the evil itself. Rely on truth, faith, the power of your testimony, the wisdom of God's word, and the power of prayer. When these are mobilized, evil succumbs, God wins, and you win.

Have you known joy even in the midst of trouble?

2011-10-02T08:00:00.001-05:00

We know that the same God who raised our Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself along with you. All of these things are for your benefit. And as God's grace brings more and more people to Christ, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.… For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.

2 Corinthians 4:14-18

Too easily pleased

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is not part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

Have you experienced God's presence as you pray?

2011-10-01T08:00:00.001-05:00

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!… I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.

Philippians 4:4,12

Arise, O God, and scatter your enemies. Let those who hate God run for their lives. Drive them off like smoke blown by the wind. Melt them like wax in fire. Let the wicked perish in the presence of God.

But let the godly rejoice. Let them be glad in God's presence. Let them be filled with joy. Sing praises to God and to his name! Sing loud praises to him who rides the clouds. His name is the Lord—rejoice in his presence.
Psalm 68:1-4
Rejoicing in God's presence
Too often, we approach our prayer time with reluctance. It is almost as if we are saying, "Not again. I'm too busy to find time to talk to God." As this prayer in Psalm 68 indicates, David cultivated an attitude of joy when he approached God in prayer. He understood what a privilege it was to talk to the Almighty. God's enemies wouldn't even be able to stand in the Lord's presence. Though David was astonished by God's power, he was filled with joy because he was allowed to enter God's presence. He counted himself among the godly—those who reverence God and obey his laws.

When you enter God's presence in prayer, thank God for listening to you.

A Vision of Heaven

2011-09-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

Now I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. And the one sitting on the horse was named Faithful and True. For he judges fairly and then goes to war. His eyes were bright like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him, and only he knew what it meant. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God.

Revelation 19:11-13

Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne; Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but is own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who died for thee, and hail Him as they matchless King through all eternity.
Crown Him with Many Crowns,
Matthew Bridges (1800-1894)

Crown Him with Many Crowns

Matthew Bridges became a convert to Roman Catholicism at the age of forty-eight and published this hymn three years later under the title "The Song of the Seraphs." Godfrey Thring, an Anglican clergyman, added several stanzas to the hymn about thirty years later, with Bridges's approval. So a Roman Catholic layman and an Anglican cleric, who probably never met, were coauthors of a hymn about heaven, where Christians of every tribe and tongue, as well as of every denomination, will crown Him Lord of all.

One of the aspects that Godfrey Thring felt was missing in the original was a stanza on the Resurrection, and so it was added. "His glories now we sing who died and rose on high, who died, eternal life to bring, and lives, that death may die."

What should be our attitude in prayer?

2011-09-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. So he said to Samuel, "Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, 'Yes, Lord, your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went back to bed. And the Lord came and called as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel replied, "Yes, your servant is listening."

1 Samuel 3:8-10

Speak, Lord, in the stillness, while I wait on Thee; hushed my heart to listen in expectancy.
Speak, O blessed Master, in this quiet hour, let me see Thy face, Lord, feel Thy touch of power.
Emily May Grimes

God revealed

God revealed himself mightily to the prophet Elijah, sending fire to burn the sacrifice on Mount Carmel. But later, as Elijah moped on the mountain, the Lord taught him an important lesson. There was a wind, an earthquake, and a fire—but the Lord was not in any of these. Then came a still, small voice. That was how God chose to speak to His prophet.

The same is true today. We long for fire from heaven to silence the skeptics once and for all, but God doesn't usually work that way. Long ago He revealed Himself as a helpless baby sleeping in a dirty feed trough, and today He speaks quietly to ordinary people like you and me—if only we are still enough to listen. That is the sentiment expressed by Emily May Grimes in the words of the hymn, "Speak, Lord, in the Stillness."

Does God really care about the poor?

2011-09-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Who else protects the poor and needy from those who want to rob them?

Psalm 35:10

As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord is thinking of me right now.

Psalm 40:17

He will rescue the poor when they cry to him; he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them.

Psalm 72:12

"I'll just have to go blind"

A man was having a lot of trouble with his eyes. His doctor examined him and recommended the name of another doctor he should visit, saying, "I would advise you to go at once and take plenty of money with you, for it's going to cost a lot."

The man had eighty dollars in the bank, so he got his money and went to see the other doctor. After examining him, the doctor said, "I never accept less than five hundred dollars for this particular operation."

"Well, then," said the man, "I guess I'll just have to go blind, because I have only eighty dollars."

But the good doctor said, "There is one other way to solve our trouble. You don't have enough to pay the bill, and I can't charge you as little as eighty dollars, but there is another way open to us—I will do the operation for nothing." And that is just what he did.

The Power in Prayer

2011-09-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

[Jesus told them,] "Now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven."

Luke 24:49

Though the Bible be crowded with golden promises from board to board, yet they will be inoperative until we turn them into prayer.

F. B. Meyer (1847-1929)

Golden promises

Before Jesus sent out the disciples to take the message of the gospel to all nations, he assured them of his promise to send the Holy Spirit. That promise motivated them to continue with one accord in prayer (Acts 1:14).

God's promises are provided to stir us and inspire us to pray. Those precious promises—there are hundreds throughout the Bible—show us things God has purposed and wants us to ask for, just as he wanted his disciples to ask for the Holy Spirit so they would have power for ministry.

These golden promises teach us about how to pray, and they build our faith. "If I am to have faith when I pray," said American evangelist R.A. Torrey, "I must find some promise in the Word of God on which to rest my faith.…If there is no promise in the Word of God, and no clear leading of the Spirit, there can be no real faith."

Today, ask the Lord which of his promises he wants you to pray about. The Holy Spirit will fill you with power from on high to accomplish what needs to be done.

THANK YOU, FATHER, for the promises in your word. May they be incentives for me to continue in prayer so that your will may be accomplished and your kingdom will come in my life, family, nation, and world. Holy Spirit, thank you for dwelling within me and for filling me with your power. Let my prayers be pleasing to you, Father, as your Spirit leads me in praying in light of your promises.

Fill yourself with the Word

2011-09-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your Word and following its rules.

Psalm 119:9

Let the Bible fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet.
Henrietta Mears

A drunk meets a cop

Dawson Troter, founder of the Navigators, was student body president, basketball team captain, and class valedictorian when he was in high school. But then life fizzled out. He gambled, drank to excess, and caroused. He was staggering through the streets one night when a policeman stopped him, took his car keys, and asked, "Son, do you like this kind of life?" "Sir, I hate it," replied Trotman. Instead of arresting him for drunkenness, the policeman urged Dawson to change his life.
That encounter was a turning point. Dawson attended a church gathering were he was challenged to memorize ten Bible verses stressing salvation. Trotman memorized the verses, then memorized another ten the next week. Several weeks later, as he pondered the meaning of what he had learned, he quietly prayed, "Oh God, whatever it means to receive Jesus, I want to do it right now."
Trotman never got away from the power of the Word. As his knowledge of the Bible grew, he realized that a combination of prayer, worship, service, and the study of Scripture produced spiritual growth.
Harold J. Sala in Heroes

David used every technique he knew to ensure that he'd do things God's way. He programmed God's Word into himself so that he could retrieve it at crucial points along the way. He recited God's Word aloud, reinforcing his learning. He studied and reflected on God's Word. All this transformed his character and kept him on the right path.

The Word Convicts

2011-09-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

When the king heard what was written in the law, he tore his clothes in despair.

2 Chronicles 34:19

A rampage of revival

If Josiah, kind of Judah, had kept a journal, we might have noted this first significant entry: "Eight years old today" (2 Chronicles 34:1). At that tender age, Josiah had a scepter thrust into his hand. Yet he didn't let the super-responsibilities of those years allow him to forget his Creator. Rather, he "did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight." (34:2)

Another important entry might have been "Sixteen years old toda2 Chronicles 34:3).y" ( That's when Josiah began to rid his country of the pagan shrines, idols, and images that had accumulated during the reigns of prior kings. After he purified the land, Josiah ordered the repair and restoration of the temple.

"Twenty-six years old" (2 Chronicles 34:8) was the midpoint of Josiah's 31-year reign. It was also Back-to-the-Word time. When Hilkiah the high priest stumbled across the "Book of the Law of the Lord as it had been given to Moses" (34:14) and had it read to Josiah, the king was devastated.

Josiah went on a rampage of revival, first making his people covenant to obey the Lord and his laws. Second, he destroyed all idols and required everyone to worship the Lord. And third, he initiated a Passover celebration on a scale that hadn't been seen since the time of the prophet Samuel.

Josiah did everything he could to bring Judah back to God and the treasury of his Word, but the clock of God's favor was running out. Sadly, because the people tired of Josiah's revival, within twenty-five years of Josiah's death, Jerusalem was destroyed and all it people taken in to captivity.

God's Word Is Powerful

2011-09-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

Blessed are those who die in the Lord…They are blessed indeed, for they will rest from all their toils and trials; for their good deeds follow them!

Revelation 14:13

From killers to converts

In January 1956 the news media told the world how five missionaries had been martyred by members of a primitive Ecuadorian tribe, the Waodani, popularly known until recently as the "Aucas." What happened to the tribe after that fateful day?

Rachel Saint, the sister of slain missionary Nate Saint, had already learned their language from Dayuma, who had fled from her tribe ten years earlier. As Rachel learned the language, Dayuma learned more and more of what Christ's love could mean for her personally. She finally confessed her faith in Christ to become the first convert. In 1957 Betty Elliot, who continued serving in Ecuador after the death of her husband, Jim, made contact with two women who had left the tribe, looking for Dayuma.

Over time, Dayuma was able to return and share the gospel with her fellow Waodani. One by one they began to put their trust in the Lord Jesus (including the five men who had murdered the missionaries).

Rachel Saint began the translation of the New Testament into Waorani, the official language of the tribe. It was completed by Catherine Peake and Rose Jung. On June 11, 1992, the Waodani finally received the New Testament in their language. The "Auca Five" did not die in vain.

The servant's reward

2011-09-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward.

Matthew 24:46

A day of reward

There are as many ways to look at the return of Jesus as there are opinions about how it will happen.…To the Romans, Paul calls is the "day of God's wrath" (Romans 2:5).…In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul refers to it as the "day of the Lord" (1 Cor. 5:5). And in his second letter to the same church he calls it the "day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2).…To the Ephesians he calls it a "day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). And he encourages the church of Philippi to stand strong until the "day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6). Jude doesn't even try to describe it—he just calls it the "great Day". (Jude 1:6)

Each of these phrases suggests a unique and different view.…But there's one I like the best. For followers of Jesus, it will be a day of reward.

James tells us, "God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him: (James 1:12).…In his second letter to Timothy [Paul says], "Now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that great day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his glorious return" (4:8).

But it is Jesus himself who puts it best: "Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven" (Matt. 5:12). As Christians, we have a lot to look forward to!

How well are you doing at following Jesus' final instructions?

2011-09-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere.

Mark 16:15

"You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself."

Matthew 22:37-38

The real work

On October 20, 1968, a dramatic moment took place at the Mexico City Olympics. A few thousand spectators remained in the almost-dark Olympic Stadium awaiting one last runner.

Finally the wail of police sirens ripped the air. As all eyes turned to the gate, a lone runner wearing the colors of Tanzania staggered into the stadium. John Stephen Akhwari was the last contestant to finish the 26-mile contest. He had injured his leg in a fall and entered the track bloodied and crudely bandaged. While he hobbled the final, lonely lap, spectators rose and applauded him as if he had won.

After the race, someone asked him why he had refused to quit. "My country did not send me 7,000 miles to start the race," he replied simply. "They sent me 7,000 miles to finish it."

To help us achieve a strong finish in our race of faith, Jesus Christ promised that "Whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man will also confess before the angels of God."

You too can finish the race well by eagerly confessing Christ before others.

God gives us strength to cope with hard work - A True Story

2011-09-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

How diligently do you do your work?

Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Romans 12:11

Personal responsibility comes home

The USS Astoria was the first U.S. cruiser to engage the Japanese during the Battle of Savo Island, a night action fought 8-9, August 1942.

About 0200 hours Signalman 3rd Class Elgin Staples was swept overboard by the blast when the number one 8-inch gun turret exploded. He was kept afloat by a narrow life belt that he managed to activate.

At around 0600 hours, Staples was rescued by a passing destroyer and returned to the Astoria, whose captain was attempting to save the cruiser by beaching her. The effort failed, and Staples, still wearing the same life belt, found himself back in the water. Picked up again, he was one of 500 survivors.

On board a transport, he closely examined the life belt that had served him so well. It had been manufactured by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio, and bore a registration number.

Given home leave, Staples asked his mother, who worked for Firestone, about the purpose of the number on the belt. She replied that the company insisted on personal responsibility for the war effort, and that the number was unique and assigned to only one inspector. Staples remembered everything about the life belt, and quoted the number. It was his mother's personal code and affixed to every item she was responsible for approving.

Christ as our High Priest

2011-09-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.

Hebrews 4:15-16

I am overcome with joy because of your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul. You have not handed me over to my enemy but have set me in a safe place.

Psalm 31:7-8

The depth of the Divine mercy

I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing: the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked on his own feet. But who can duly adore that love which opens the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape. The words complle intrate, compel them to come in, have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder to use them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.

C. S. Lewis in Surprised

Are you looking at God's mercy as a quick fix?

2011-09-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

After giving instructions to completely destroy a town, including its people and livestock, should the people of Israel be enticed to turn to the worship of foreign gods? Moses tells the people: Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors.

The Lord your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him.

Deuteronomy 13:12-18

A sincere heart

These verses make it clear that God's mercy is extended to those whose hearts are sincere. The Israelites were headed for a land that, much like our society today, was infested with materialism, the craving of creature comforts and "the good life." God is not interested in sharing his mercy with those who simply need a quick fix for the problems their sinful lifestyles have created. Such people have no intention of accepting God's mercy as a new lease on life; they are simply looking for a way to save themselves from deserved consequences.

God wants to show us abundant mercy, but he is looking for those who will gratefully accept it and allow it to change the way they live. Do you want God's mercy as a quick fix or as a permanent new way of life?

Does God hear our prayers for mercy on behalf of others?

2011-09-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

Abraham approached him and said, "Will you destroy both innocent and guilty alike? Suppose you find fifty innocent people there within the city—will you still destroy it, and not spare it for their sakes? Surely you wouldn't do such a thing, destroying the innocent with the guilty. Why, you would be treating the innocent and the guilty exactly the same! Surely you wouldn't do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?" [The Lord responds that he will not destroy the city. Abraham persists, reducing the number to 45, then 40, 30, 20 and finally ten]. And the Lord said, "Then, for the sake of the ten, I will not destroy it."

Genesis 18:23-31

Abraham's prayer for mercy

In the days before their fiery judgment, the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah probably had no idea that their neighbor Abraham was agonizing with God over their fate. Abraham saw the need for justice, but he also begged God to show them his mercy. He asked God to spare the city for just a handful of righteous people, and God agreed. In addition, God sent his angels to protect Lot's innocent family and get them out of harm's way. But as Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction illustrates, there's a limit to his mercy, for the God of justice will not let sin go unpunished forever.

Just as he listened to righteous Abraham long ago, God will listen to your cries for justice and your pleas for mercy. In the end, God will do what is right.

How well do you understand God's Word?

2011-09-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds so they will understand them, and I will write them on their hearts so they will obey them. I will be their God, and they will be my people!

Hebrews 8:10

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophets themselves or because they wanted to prophesy. It was the Holy Spirit who moved the prophets to speak from God.

2 Peter 1:20-21

How remarkable that the God of the universe would actually want to communicate with us! We are creatures of a material, physical world to which we relate through our five senses. God is a spiritual being. We in our physical state cannot see him, hear him, or touch him, so how can he communicate with us? Through the Bible.

Over several centuries, God inspired a select number of people to write down what he felt we needed to know about him and how he expects us to live. These writings have been collected into this book, called the Holy Bible. In a miraculous way, the Bible speaks to each of us. Its truths apply across generations, across cultures, across all life experience.

When it comes to reading the Bible, most of us read just enough to get by. Read God's Word daily so you can thoroughly understand all God wants you to know.

Have you refused to follow God?

2011-09-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

"Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the Lord, your God and committed adultery against him by worshipping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to follow me. I, the Lord, have spoken!"

Jeremiah 3:13

The high cost of removing our guilt

Jesus paid a high price—his life—in order to remove our guilt before a holy God. While Jesus paid the price only he could pay, freedom from guilt is costly for us in other ways. The high price for us is the difficult task of admitting to God (and often others) that we were wrong and that we need forgiveness. This is called confession. As costly as confession is, the rewards are even greater: peace with ourselves and others, restored relationships, the removal of sin, and a renewed relationship with God.

But pride is a powerful force in our lives. Pride tells us, "All is well! You're OK!" Pride denies the reality of sin; in contrast, guilt warns us that all is not well. Guilt acknowledges the presence of sin and urges us to confess it. So these two—guilt and pride—battle it out in our souls. When guilt wins, a sin that separated us from God is removed. When pride wins, we remain isolated from God's grace, love, and care. There may be a high cost to removing guilt, but there is a higher cost to keeping it.

Should you feel guilty?

2011-09-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commandments of the Lord are clear, giving insight to life. Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair. They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. They are a warning to those who hear them; there is great reward for those who obey them. How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep me from deliberate sins! Don't let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.

Psalm 19:7-13

No reason to feel guilty

In the beginning of this passage, the psalmist speaks of the perfect law of God and the way it protects us, makes us wise, and gives us joy and light. God's Word is sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb, warning us, and giving success to those who obey.

Recognizing the power, sweetness, and beauty of God's Word, however, brings us face to face with the darkness of the sins lurking in our heart—some that we are all too familiar with and others that we have committed unknowingly. Confession shines the bright light of God's forgiveness into these dark corners of the heart, exposes them, and cleanses them. This cleansing forgiveness in turn brings freedom from guilt. Once forgiven, we have no reason to feel guilty anymore.

What is the worst sin we can commit?

2011-09-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

And when he comes, he will convince the world of its sin, and of God's righteousness, and of the coming judgment.

John 16:8

The worst sin

What would you consider the worst sin you could commit? Adultery? Stealing? Murder? You might be surprised by the answer the Bible gives.

The worst sin—and the one with the most far-reaching consequences—is this: to refuse to believe in Jesus Christ.

Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit convicts guilty men and women of sin "because they do not believe in Me." (John 16:9) On that final day, it will not so much be the sin question as it will be the Son in question. All sins can be dealt with and forgiven if we believe in Jesus.

We must not forget that knowledge brings responsibility. It is a grave thing to shake off the conviction of the Spirit.

Jesus said the Spirit came to convict us "of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged" (John 16:11). The ruler or prince of this world, Satan, was judged at Calvary. When Jesus went to the cross and died in our place, Satan lost his death grip on humanity.

The spirit convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, but He wants most of all to give us assurance of forgiven sin. Why not let Him do what He really desires to do? Why not come to Jesus? Or if you have already done that, help someone else to follow your example.

Paul points the way

2011-09-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

On the Sabbath [Paul and Barnabas] went to the synagogue for the services. After the usual readings from the books of Moses and from the Prophets, those in charge of the service sent them this message: "Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for us, come and give it."

[After recounting God's plan from Moses to Jesus, Paul said] "Brothers, listen! In this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is freed from all guilt and declared right with God—something the Jewish law could never do. Be careful! Don't let the prophets' words apply to you. For they said, 'Look you mockers, be amazed and die! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe even if someone told you about it.'"

Acts 14:13-41

About this week's promise

Have you ever had a guilty feeling about something? Perhaps you did something wrong and felt guilty about it. Perhaps you have magnified the feeling of guilt beyond the "wrongness" of the act that precipitated the guilty feeling. Or perhaps you feel justly guilty for a sin, and you don't know what to do about it. The best way to relieve justifiable guilt is to confess the sin to God and ask him to forgive you. Forgiveness is the only cleansing agent that can remove both guilt and a guilty feeling about a sin.

How can hope for the future help me live today?

2011-09-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

What we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God's curse. All creation anticipates the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us. Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don't need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don't have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently.

Romans 8:18-25

"Everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will have eternal life."

Matthew 19:29

Facing trials

We have strength and courage to face the trials of this life because we can look beyond them to the glory that God has in store for us. We know the sacrifices we make now will be rewarded by God.

How does God lead?

2011-09-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

"My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish."

John 10:27-28

Hearing His voice

As our Good Shepherd, Jesus promises that we can hear and know His voice. This does not, however, have to be some mysterious, mystical process. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that God speaks to you quite often. I would venture to say He has spoken to you lately and may be speaking to you right now in some way.

God speaks to us through His Word. God will never lead us contrary to His written Word. It is our litmus test, our bedrock, our absolute.

God speaks to us through circumstances. Those circumstances can include failure. Jonah certainly heard God through his mistake. God may even speak to us through tragedy or hardship. C. S. Lewis wrote that, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to arouse a deaf world."

God speaks to us through His peace. When we live in God's will, we enjoy His peace. Do you need God to make a crucial call in your life? Then listen for His peace.

And once we have heard God's voice, what should we do? We must follow. Jesus calls, we respond. He whispers, we move. We follow—and then we keep on listening.

Do you seek the counsel of others?

2011-09-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

My child, listen to me and treasure my instructions. Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight and understanding. Search for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God. For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He grants a treasure of good sense to the godly. He is their shield, protecting those who walk with integrity.

Proverbs 2:1-7

Accepting advice

The degree to which people will listen is determined by the degree to which we have wise counsel for them. If you want people to listen to you, you yourself must listen to the right adviser. Like Samuel, listen to the Lord's counsel—read his Word and hear what he says. There is no wiser counselor than he who knows every moment of every tomorrow and knows how you will fit into those moments.

If you think you know it all, you probably know less than you think. If, in humility, you recognize how much help and counsel you need, you will likely seek it and get it. No one wants to waste time counseling a fool, because the fool doesn't want counsel. We all enjoy sharing wisdom with the wise, and when we do, we discover new wisdom for our own needs. Proverbs 14:7 tells us that we should stay away from fools if we are looking for wise counsel.

How can I deal with feelings of hopelessness?

2011-09-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

"The truth is that you will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."

Jeremiah 29:10-11

A future and a hope

Jeremiah 29:11 is a favorite verse of many, but it comes in a context that may add even greater meaning.

It appears in the middle of the prophet's announcement. The people of Israel were going to spend a long exile away from their homeland—70 years—as God's discipline. After that, God would return them to the land. In other words, God had a plan for their future.

Our sinfulness often leads to dismal situations and feelings of despair. But we must always remember that hopelessness does not come from God. God is the author of hope. Even the Exile, with its seeming hopelessness, was part of God's long-range plan for his people. And his plans were good.

If you are facing hopelessness, you may be inheriting the results of some other person's sinful decisions and actions. Or you may be reaping your own bad rewards. You may not have really discovered the hope that is found in God's love for you through Jesus Christ. Reject despair and seek out God's plan—and his hopes—for you.

Where do we find God's presence?

2011-09-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

Open for me the gates where the righteous enter; and I will go in and thank the Lord. Those gates lead to the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there. I thank you for answering my prayer and saving me!

Psalm 118:19-21

The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him sincerely.

Psalm 145:18

Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come fearlessly into God's presence, assured of his glad welcome.

Ephesians 3:12

Prayer brings us to His presence

[Psalm 118] pictures a victorious yet battle-weary king at the helm of a throng of grateful people entering the gates of the temple to thank God for saving them. During those times, the temple represented God's presence—the place where followers would go to pray to the Lord. Today, we enter into God's presence in a car, at work, or in the aisles of a grocery store—wherever we take time to pray to him. We can be sure God hears our prayers and answers each one wherever and whenever they are uttered. And by doing so, he gives us even more reasons to pray.

Just like the victorious king in this psalm, we should enter God's presence by thanking him for answering prayers. What answers to prayer are you thankful for today?

How can I make my prayers effective?

2011-09-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. As you make your requests, plead for God's mercy upon them, and give thanks. Pray this way for kings and all others who are in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity.

1 Timothy 2:1-2

Praying effectively

Paul urges Timothy to lift up requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving.

A request is a need, a deep desire for something we don't have—something only God can supply.

A prayer is a word of praise and adoration. A more accurate translation of this word from the original Greek might be to "worship in earnest."

Intercession is praying on behalf of others. Our prayers should regularly reflect this kind of selfless lifestyle.

Thanksgiving involved remembering those past prayers that have already been answered, acknowledging that we not only trust God's supremacy and involvement in our life but also how his hand has moved and guided us in the past.

When we pray effectively, we do more than communicate with God—we commune with him. We become one in mind and spirit and purpose. Today, let the focus of your prayer time be to connect with God in a very real and personal way, not as a slave would petition his master, but as a son would enjoy the company of a loving and gracious father.

What is the worst sin we can commit?

2011-09-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

And when he comes, he will convince the world of its sin, and of God's righteousness, and of the coming judgment.

John 16:8

The worst sin

What would you consider the worst sin you could commit? Adultery? Stealing? Murder? You might be surprised by the answer the Bible gives.

The worst sin—and the one with the most far-reaching consequences—is this: to refuse to believe in Jesus Christ.

Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit convicts guilty men and women of sin "because they do not believe in Me." (John 16:9) On that final day, it will not so much be the sin question as it will be the Son in question. All sins can be dealt with and forgiven if we believe in Jesus.

We must not forget that knowledge brings responsibility. It is a grave thing to shake off the conviction of the Spirit.

Jesus said the Spirit came to convict us "of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged" (John 16:11). The ruler or prince of this world, Satan, was judged at Calvary. When Jesus went to the cross and died in our place, Satan lost his death grip on humanity.

Think you're an exception?

2011-09-05T08:00:00.009-05:00

For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious ideal.

Romans 3:23

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

James 4:17

Details, please?

(1.) Remember what St. John says: "If our heart condemns us, God is stronger than our heart." The feeling of being, or not being, forgiven and loved is not what matters. One must come down to brass tacks. If there is a particular sin on your conscience, repent and confess it. If there isn't, tell the despondent devil not to be silly. You can't help hearing his voice (the odious inner radio), but you must treat it merely like a buzzing in your ears or any other irrational nuisance.

(2.) Remember the story in the Imitation, how the Christ on the crucifix suddenly spoke to the monk who was so anxious about his salvation and said, "If you knew that all was well, what would you, today, do or stop doing?" When you have found the answer, do it or stop doing it. You see, one must always get back to the practical and definite. What the devil loves is that vague cloud of unspecified guilt feeling or unspecified virtue by which he lures us into despair or presumption. "Details, please?" is the answer.

(3.) The sense of dereliction cannot be a bad symptom, for Our Lord Himself experienced it in its depth—"Why has thou forsaken me?"
C.S.Lewis

Should you feel guilty?

2011-09-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

Psalm 19:7-13

No reason to feel guilty

How is your prayer life?

2011-09-03T08:00:00.001-05:00

The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness. The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him sincerely. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them.

Psalm 145:17-19

Then Saul said, "Let's chase the Philistines all night and destroy every last one of them." His men replied, "We'll do whatever you think is best." But the priest said, "Let's ask God first."

1 Samuel 14:36

The next morning Jesus awoke long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray.

Mark 1:35

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

The most universally practiced yet least understood of human experiences, prayer is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. Its simplest definition is communication with God. Yet so often we approach prayer like a one-way telephone conversation, forgetting that God also wants to speak to us. Prayer appears nearly on every page of the Bible as the very essence of a faith relationship with the living God.

Paul points the way

2011-09-02T08:00:00.001-05:00

Acts 14:13-41

About this week's promise