Devotional for the day

[Judy Harder]

The Teaching of Disillusionment
Jesus did not commit Himself to them . . . , for He knew what was in man -John 2:24-25

Disillusionment means having no more misconceptions, false impressions, and false judgments in life; it means being free from these deceptions. However, though no longer deceived, our experience of disillusionment may actually leave us cynical and overly critical in our judgment of others. But the disillusionment that comes from God brings us to the point where we see people as they really are, yet without any cynicism or any stinging and bitter criticism. Many of the things in life that inflict the greatest injury, grief, or pain, stem from the fact that we suffer from illusions. We are not true to one another as facts, seeing each other as we really are; we are only true to our misconceived ideas of one another. According to our thinking, everything is either delightful and good, or it is evil, malicious, and cowardly.

Refusing to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering of human life. And this is how that suffering happens- if we love someone, but do not love God, we demand total perfection and righteousness from that person, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; yet we are demanding of a human being something which he or she cannot possibly give. There is only one Being who can completely satisfy to the absolute depth of the hurting human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is so obviously uncompromising with regard to every human relationship because He knows that every relationship that is not based on faithfulness to Himself will end in disaster. Our Lord trusted no one, and never placed His faith in people, yet He was never suspicious or bitter. Our Lord's confidence in God, and in what God's grace could do for anyone, was so perfect that He never despaired, never giving up hope for any person. If our trust is placed in human beings, we will end up despairing of everyone.


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PRAISE: The First Step in Effective Prayer

Praying consistently will change your life.  In fact, many of the blessings God wants you to enjoy will never be realized unless you pray.

I think all Christians know they are supposed to pray, and all Christians want to pray.  But many of God's people, if they are completely frank and transparent about the issue, would have to admit their prayer life is somewhere between mediocre and non-existent.

Over the next few devotionals, I want to share with you four simple points which I have put into an acronym: P-R-A-Y.  If you can spell the word pray, hopefully you will be able to remember how to make your prayer life more effective, and you will be inspired to pray more consistently.

Psalm 100 helps us understand the first letter, "P", in the word P-R-A-Y, which stands for praise.  Psalm 100:1-4 states it well,

Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!  Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing.  Know that the LORD, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.  Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.  Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Verse 2 tells us, Come before His presence with singing.  And in verse 4 notice the words "enter into."  In other words, praise is how you are to enter God's presence.  It is the best way to begin your prayer.

When you want to come to God, you start with thanksgiving.  You start with singing.  You start with praise.  Or, as The Message says, Enter with the password:  "Thank you!"

Today, and every day, make praise the starting point of every conversation with God!


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Walking in the Spirit
In His Presence: Proverbs 9:10

"We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us"(1 John 3:24).

Since we all live in the flesh, we will struggle with the desires of the flesh until we get to heaven. But we can bring these desires under the Holy Spirit's influence. "I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). Notice that the apostle Paul doesn't say we won't have the desires of the flesh when we walk in the Spirit, but that we won't carry out those desires.

Walking in the Spirit is similar to the concept of being filled with the Holy Spirit. To walk implies that the Spirit is going somewhere-there's a destination. He always goes to the same place, to that which brings God glory. In contrast, the flesh is always moving to that which will please itself. Walking is continuous, so not only do we have to pay attention to our destination, but our walking also involves dedication. Like the filling of the Holy Spirit, walking in the Spirit is ongoing. A third aspect of walking includes dependency. The act of walking is taking one step after another.

The key to walking in the Spirit is to look to Him to give us the ability to do what we know we can't do on our own. The moment we try to do it on our own, we reject the work of the Spirit. The Spirit doesn't need our help; we need His.

One Minute Please

When we walk in the Spirit, the flesh will lose its ability to have the last word.


God bless

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 

Becoming Entirely His

Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing -James 1:4

Many of us appear to be all right in general, but there are still some areas in which we are careless and lazy; it is not a matter of sin, but the remnants of our carnal life that tend to make us careless. Carelessness is an insult to the Holy Spirit. We should have no carelessness about us either in the way we worship God, or even in the way we eat and drink.

Not only must our relationship to God be right, but the outward expression of that relationship must also be right. Ultimately, God will allow nothing to escape; every detail of our lives is under His scrutiny. God will bring us back in countless ways to the same point over and over again. And He never tires of bringing us back to that one point until we learn the lesson, because His purpose is to produce the finished product. It may be a problem arising from our impulsive nature, but again and again, with the most persistent patience, God has brought us back to that one particular point. Or the problem may be our idle and wandering thinking, or our independent nature and self-interest. Through this process, God is trying to impress upon us the one thing that is not entirely right in our lives.

We have been having a wonderful time in our studies over the revealed truth of God's redemption, and our hearts are perfect toward Him. And His wonderful work in us makes us know that overall we are right with Him. "Let patience have its perfect work . . . ." The Holy Spirit speaking through James said, "Now let your patience become a finished product." Beware of becoming careless over the small details of life and saying, "Oh, that will have to do for now." Whatever it may be, God will point it out with persistence until we become entirely His


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REPENT: The Second Step in Effective Prayer

Yesterday we began to look at what makes for effective prayer by using the acronym P-R-A-Y.  The first step is praise.  Today, I want to focus on the second letter of our acronym, "R", which stands for repent.

By repentance in prayer, I mean taking the time before God to search your heart and repent of anything that has come between you and Him.  Psalm 19:12-13 expresses it well,

Who can understand his errors?  Cleanse me from secret faults.  Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.  Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.

Verse 12 begins with the question, "Who can understand his errors?"  The psalmist is telling us, "You will not always know when you do something wrong.  You will not always know when you get into an area that is not right."

What David is pointing to are the secret faults and presumptuous sins which can still have dominion over you-even though you may not be aware that what you did was wrong.

For example, sometimes we can allow attitudes to get into our hearts that we don't realize are inconsistent with God's character.  Or sometimes we can do and say things that are detrimental, not only to us, but to others, and not really understand the damage we have done.

How do you deal with these sins?  You come before God and say, "God, put the spotlight on anything in my life that has raised a barrier between You and me, and I will repent of it."

So when you pray, ask God to reveal any sin in your life you may be overlooking.  God will honor your heart of repentance.


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Remarkable Fruit

In His Presence: Matthew 11:29

"[God] made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life"(2 Corinthians 3:6).

The Holy Spirit within us makes life real; life comes alive. When we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer, life is no longer theology. It's all right to have theology in our heads, just as long as it becomes real in our lives when we grow closer to God through the Holy Spirit.

When the Holy Spirit takes over, we begin to grow. The Holy Spirit becomes our power source behind this growth so that eventually it will become evident. "The deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:19-23).

The Holy Spirit is the divine enabler who produces growth in us. Every time we try to grow independently of God, we are working against Him. Many of us spend much of our time shutting God out. We are trying to produce those fruits on our own. However, God does not need our help to grow us.

One Minute Please
When the Holy Spirit takes over our spiritual growth, He will produce remarkable fruit in us.


God bless

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 

Learning About His Ways
When Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples . . . He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities -Matthew 11:1
He comes where He commands us to leave. If you stayed home when God told you to go because you were so concerned about your own people there, then you actually robbed them of the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself. When you obeyed and left all the consequences to God, the Lord went into your city to teach, but as long as you were disobedient, you blocked His way. Watch where you begin to debate with Him and put what you call your duty into competition with His commands. If you say, "I know that He told me to go, but my duty is here," it simply means that you do not believe that Jesus means what He says.

He teaches where He instructs us not to teach. "Master . . . let us make three tabernacles . . ." (Luke 9:33).

Are we playing the part of an amateur providence, trying to play God's role in the lives of others? Are we so noisy in our instruction of other people that God cannot get near them? We must learn to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. God wants to instruct us regarding His Son, and He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration. When we become certain that God is going to work in a particular way, He will never work in that way again.

He works where He sends us to wait. ". . . tarry . . . until . . ." (Luke 24:49). "Wait on the Lord" and He will work (Psalm 37:34). But don't wait sulking spiritually and feeling sorry for yourself, just because you can't see one inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our own spiritual fits of emotion to "wait patiently for Him"? (Psalm 37:7). Waiting is not sitting with folded hands doing nothing, but it is learning to do what we are told.

These are some of the facets of His ways that we rarely recognize.


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ASK: The Third Step in Effective Prayer

So far we have discovered that praise and repentance are the first two steps to effective prayer.  Today I want to show you the very important third step of asking.

Yesterday we talked about how repentance is searching your own heart and asking God to put the spotlight on it, and then repenting of anything that He shows you.  When your heart is clean, you can have confidence before God when you ask.  As 1 John 3:21-22 says,

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.  And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

In Matthew 7:7-11, Jesus tells us,

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

Pretty clear, isn't it?  God loves you and wants the very best for you.  Be careful not to water down the words of Jesus, or somehow try and explain them away or complicate them.  He meant just what He said.

But there are some conditions.  And tomorrow we will look at those conditions for receiving what you ask God for.


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The Raging Battle

In His Presence: Psalm 37:4

"I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please"(Galatians 5:16-17).

The very Spirit of God has taken up residence in our lives if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior. God wants to express His mind, His thoughts, His desires, and His will through our mortal bodies. But for us to see this happen, we need to be under the Holy Spirit's control. While this is taking place, we are going to experience conflict within ourselves. This is one way we can know we are Christians. If we have no battles raging within, we are probably not saved. There is no opposition within us. God says the flesh and the Spirit are total opposites; they are not going to get along with each other at all.

How do we know the difference between the flesh and the Holy Spirit within us? The Spirit will want to please God, and the flesh will want to please ourselves. That's why the war going on inside of us is good, not bad. Most of us feel guilty about having such a battle. Of course, we may not like the feeling, but the two laws operating in our bodies should give us occasion to praise God.

One Minute Please

If a battle is being waged within you, that's a good thing because it indicates that the Spirit is active.


God bless

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 

Teaching of Adversity
In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world -John 16:33
The typical view of the Christian life is that it means being delivered from all adversity. But it actually means being delivered in adversity, which is something very different. "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling . . ." (Psalm 91:1,10)- the place where you are at one with God.

If you are a child of God, you will certainly encounter adversities, but Jesus says you should not be surprised when they come. "In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." He is saying, "There is nothing for you to fear." The same people who refused to talk about their adversities before they were saved often complain and worry after being born again because they have the wrong idea of what it means to live the life of a saint.

God does not give us overcoming life- He gives us life as we overcome. The strain of life is what builds our strength. If there is no strain, there will be no strength. Are you asking God to give you life, liberty, and joy? He cannot, unless you are willing to accept the strain. And once you face the strain, you will immediately get the strength. Overcome your own timidity and take the first step. Then God will give you nourishment- "To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life . . ." (Revelation 2:7). If you completely give of yourself physically, you become exhausted. But when you give of yourself spiritually, you get more strength. God never gives us strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the moment. Our temptation is to face adversities from the standpoint of our own common sense. But a saint can "be of good cheer" even when seemingly defeated by adversities, because victory is absurdly impossible to everyone, except God.


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The Conditions for Answered Prayer

Yesterday we talked about the "A" in the acronym P-R-A-Y, which is our way of understanding the steps in effective prayer.  That "A" stands for ask, and I have come to believe that too many Christians don't believe that God wants them to ask.

God wants you to ask.  He really does.  But there are some conditions He gives in order to answer your requests.  In John chapters 14-16 we find a number of these conditions.

We need to remember that these are Jesus' last hours with the disciples; and He wants them to understand how prayer really works.  Over and over He emphasizes the need to ask, but His answers will be based on three conditions.

First, in John 14:13, Jesus says your request must glorify God,

"And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."

Second, in John 15:7, He says your request must be consistent and in harmony with His Word,

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."

And finally, in John 16:23-24, Jesus sets the condition that your request bring you joy,

"And in that day you will ask Me nothing.  Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.  Until now you have asked nothing in My name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."

Over and over, Jesus commands you to ask.  But when you ask, make sure your request will glorify God, that it is consistent with His Word, and that it will bring you joy.


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What Are Carnal Christians?
In His Presence: 1 Timothy 2:1-4

What is a carnal Christian? Carnality is that spiritual state where a born-again Christian knowingly and persistently lives to please and serve self rather than Christ. Carnality is an issue with Christians only, because a carnal Christian is a genuine Christian. These people have placed their faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone, and have been born again a second time. It is possible for Christians to be on our way to heaven but be of no good to God on earth.

Christians are experiencing a crisis of carnality. Many men, women, and young people are only half-stepping with Christ. God has too many children who are not sure whose family we really want to be a part of. This indecision has led to untold agony, unanswered prayers, emotional weakness, physical weakness, loss of peace, loss of joy, and lack of stability. This does not mean that every time a Christian experiences a problem it implies that he or she is carnal. However, far too many of us are experiencing too many failures because we are, in fact, carnal and only half-stepping with the Gospel.

The apostle Paul addressed this issue with the church in Corinth: "I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly" (1 Corinthians 3:1-3).

One Minute Please

Do you want to be part of God's family or the world's family?

God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 

The Compelling Purpose of God
He . . . said to them, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem . . -Luke 18:31
Jerusalem, in the life of our Lord, represents the place where He reached the culmination of His Father's will. Jesus said, "I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me" (John 5:30). Seeking to do "the will of the Father" was the one dominating concern throughout our Lord's life. And whatever He encountered along the way, whether joy or sorrow, success or failure, He was never deterred from that purpose. ". . . He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem . . ." (Luke 9:51).

The greatest thing for us to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfill God's purpose, not our own. In the natural life our ambitions are our own, but in the Christian life we have no goals of our own. We talk so much today about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, and our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament the only aspect that is brought out is the compelling purpose of God. "You did not choose Me, but I chose you . . ." (John 15:16).

We are not taken into a conscious agreement with God's purpose- we are taken into God's purpose with no awareness of it at all. We have no idea what God's goal may be; as we continue, His purpose becomes even more and more vague. God's aim appears to have missed the mark, because we are too nearsighted to see the target at which He is aiming. At the beginning of the Christian life, we have our own ideas as to what God's purpose is. We say, "God means for me to go over there," and, "God has called me to do this special work." We do what we think is right, and yet the compelling purpose of God remains upon us. The work we do is of no account when compared with the compelling purpose of God. It is simply the scaffolding surrounding His work and His plan. "He took the twelve aside . . ." (Luke 18:31). God takes us aside all the time. We have not yet understood all there is to know of the compelling purpose of God


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YIELD: The Fourth Step in Effective Prayer

Psalm 37:4  provides us the "Y" in the acronym P-R-A-Y, the four elements to effective prayer we have been discussing over the last few devotionals.

Here is what Psalm 37:4 says,

Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Now the Hebrew word for delight in this verse literally means to become soft or pliable.  This means that "delighting" in the Lord is assuming a yielded posture before God.

So the "Y" in P-R-A-Y stands for yield.  The question is:  How do you practice yielding to God when you pray?  Yielding is when you stop talking, and  you wait, listen, and seek to hear from God.

In my own practice of prayer, I will often bow before God and ask Him, "God, is there anything You want to say to me?  Do You have any instructions for me?  Is there anything You want me to change?"

Then I silently wait for Him to speak to me.

As you assume this posture of being yielded and waiting quietly before Him, you will be surprised at some of the things that come to your attention: "You need to spend more time with your daughter," "Take your wife out on a date," "Bake your neighbor a pie and build a bridge over which the gospel can travel," "Spend more time praising Me," "Show your gratitude and appreciation for those who have been helping you in your life."

You will indeed hear from God if you ask Him to speak into your heart, and wait silently before Him. 

That is the last element of effective prayer:  praise, repent, ask, yield.  Your prayers can indeed be effective if you commit to these four principles.  That is how to  P-R-A-Y.


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Biblical Saints Living in Carnality

In His Presence: Proverbs 24:14

It is possible to be a genuine Christian and be carnal. The Bible gives us several examples of such men and women. One of these examples is Saul, son of Kish, the first king of Israel. We know that he was redeemed because the Bible says: "God changed his heart" (1 Samuel 10:9). Yet here was a man who, because of his rebellion against God, eventually sought the counsel of witches and committed suicide.

King Solomon is another example of a king who was redeemed by God but turned away from Him. At first, he was a tremendous king. The Lord appeared to him in a dream one night and said to Solomon: "Ask what you wish me to give you" (1 Kings 3:5). King Solomon replied: "Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child . . . Give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil" (vv. 7-9). Yet later in the same book it says: "King Solomon loved many foreign women" (1 Kings 11:1). When King Solomon entered the life of carnality, he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, which is about the emptiness of life.

The sons of Jacob lived in carnality for 11 years after they sold Joseph into slavery. King David lived in a state of carnality when he committed adultery and murder. When David tried to hide his sin, he covered it up until Nathan the prophet confronted him.

One Minute Please

God gives us new life. It is up to us to make it meaningful.



God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

Special or Complicit?

Preface:

I want to go on the record and say I am not qualified to preach!  I am a singer-songwriter who loves to inspire people with rhythm and rhyme.  Yet still, many of you e-mail or stop me after a concert and say, "When are you doing another devotional?"  So, can I stipulate this one time for all the rest of the times that these are just my thoughts and I could be wrong? Ok, thanks!  I appreciate you letting me share things with you that have been on my heart.  They may inspire, and they may sting, too.  Let me start letter this with a key verse that hit me hard the other day.  It's from The Message version of the Bible:

Key Verse
Romans 3:20 (Paul speaking to the Jewish people of that day)

"Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else's sin."

I love to people watch.  I always have.  My favorite thing to do is to find someone, turn to whomever I'm sitting with, point that person out and say "Hey, there goes____ !" (Inserting the name of a person they look like that we both know.)  It usually gets a good laugh or at least a smile.  I mean no harm.  It's just funny.  I even do it to myself. Whenever I see a person with a long, pointy chin or someone running with their knees all bandaged up I'll say, "Run Ernie, run."  Or, as my football coach used to scream at me, "Run Thunder-foot, RUN!"  I really am SLOW!

But there are those times; I find myself starting to size people up and pass judgment when I have no idea what they are walking thru or anything about their plight.
That, my friend, is just wrong! Why do we do this?  Self-righteousness? 

I love this quote from CS Lewis:

"A cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to Hell than a prostitute."

So, here is the newsflash that comes across my mind when I read Paul's words:

WE ARE NOT SPECIAL JUST BECAUSE WE ASKED JESUS IN OUR HEARTS!

I know that is a hard statement, but let me explain.

In our calling to promote and build the Kingdom of God, we forget that we are basically benefactors of living in grace. And that grace-filled enlightenment doesn't make us any better than someone who is still finding out that their grace-less life is a Dead End Street.

The Apostle Paul said of himself that he was the "chief of sinners."  (1 Timothy 1:15)  It doesn't sound like Paul thought he was special for writing over half of the New Testament and bringing the Gospel to the rest of the non-Jewish world.

And look at the Jewish nation.   God used them to bring the Law to mankind and to make known to everyone that a relationship with God's Holy heart was possible.  That's really living in revelation!  Being a part of something that big would make anyone feel special.  However, Paul told them "This does not make you right with God." (Romans 3:20)

It's all about "attitude" and our feelings about our relationship towards people Jesus died for. Remember the prayer of the self-righteous Pharisee as he looked at the tax collector in Luke 18:11 – 'The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: 'I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don't cheat, I don't sin, and I don't commit adultery. I'm certainly not like that tax collector!' Jesus abhorred this attitude!

Living forgiven doesn't mean we forget that we are all sinners who were "complicit" in the death of Jesus.

So where does that leave us today? Plain and simple, I believe it puts us in the same place Jesus was in when He came seeking the lost. It leaves us with the challenge to be in the world but not of it. Being light in darkness. Living a separated life does not mean we are to live insulated lives filled with pride because we are spiritual.  What good are we at that point?

So, I challenge us all to get to know and spend time with someone who is out there, I mean REALLY out there. In calm assurance of who you are in Christ, hang out with them. Eat their food, drink their wine and listen to their anger at life and at God. Listen and don't try to fix them. Earn the right to speak truth to them. And be honest.  Just because you don't know the answer does not make God less real. When you don't know the answers just say, "I don't know.  Life is a mystery and so is God.  This is not science, this is Spirit." 

Hey, one more thing, don't be afraid to show them your scars.  Tell them about past mistakes and how God's grace can bring healing. Yes, the scars remain, but remind them scars also show healing.  Even Jesus has scars that will never go away and because of them we can be healed.

And, one last warning, be ready to hear the talk from the so-called brethren.  "Look at them, they are hanging out and fellowshipping with sinners."  Yep, they said the same thing about Jesus and aren't you glad He did it anyway?  Otherwise, we would not be having this discussion today.  Bottom line: it's time to be real.  The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus made us all special by becoming sin for everyone.  Praise God that He came down to our level.  Now is the time to do the same. Follow our Master's attitude and example for Heaven's sake.

Oh What A Savior!
Ernie

[Judy Harder]

August 7, 2012

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 

Prayer in the Father's House
. . . they found Him in the temple . . . . And He said to them, '. . . Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?' -Luke 2:46, 49

Our Lord's childhood was not immaturity waiting to grow into manhood- His childhood is an eternal fact. Am I a holy, innocent child of God as a result of my identification with my Lord and Savior? Do I look at my life as being in my Father's house? Is the Son of God living in His Father's house within me?

The only abiding reality is God Himself, and His order comes to me moment by moment. Am I continually in touch with the reality of God, or do I pray only when things have gone wrong- when there is some disturbance in my life? I must learn to identify myself closely with my Lord in ways of holy fellowship and oneness that some of us have not yet even begun to learn. ". . . I must be about My Father's business"- and I must learn to live every moment of my life in my Father's house.

Think about your own circumstances. Are you so closely identified with the Lord's life that you are simply a child of God, continually talking to Him and realizing that everything comes from His hands? Is the eternal Child in you living in His Father's house? Is the grace of His ministering life being worked out through you in your home, your business, and in your circle of friends? Have you been wondering why you are going through certain circumstances? In fact, it is not that you have to go through them. It is because of your relationship with the Son of God who comes, through the providential will of His Father, into your life. You must allow Him to have His way with you, staying in perfect oneness with Him.

The life of your Lord is to become your vital, simple life, and the way He worked and lived among people while here on earth must be the way He works and lives in you.


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Forgetting the Past



The key word I want to have you focus on today is forgetting.  I want you to understand the importance of forgetting the past so you can move forward.

Some people-perhaps you-cannot reach forward because they are continually looking backwards.  Their focus is on their past sins, their past mistakes, their past failures, their past hurts.

God does not want you to live in the past, but rather focus on the future.

A while back I was visiting a friend who had a great impact on my life as a young believer.  As I was sitting at a meal with him and his wife, he began to share with me a great personal failure.

About ten years earlier, when he was pioneering a church, he fell into an adulterous relationship.  It rocked the foundation of his marriage; but he repented, got out of the relationship, and over time, God healed his marriage.  But he has not been in ministry since.

As he told me, tears began to stream down his face.  He got up from the table, went to the bathroom, and his wife looked at me and said, "Bayless, if you can help him, please do.  My husband has lived a holy life for the last ten years.  God has forgiven him, I have forgiven him, but he hasn't forgiven himself."

This man chained himself to this one past failure, and he can't get on with what God had called him to do.

Bury your past so you can uncover your future.


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Carnality by Choice
In His Presence: Galatians 6:2

"Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called 'Today,' so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin"(Hebrews 3:12-13).

When God saved us, He saved us to serve Christ. Occasional lapses into sin do not imply carnality. Everyone sins. Carnality is the state where the person has the mindset of seeking to gratify themselves rather than please Christ.

No Christian has to be carnal. Being carnal is a decision of the will. Carnal Christians have grown up physically and should be able to feed themselves. But they can't. That is because a carnal Christian is a person who has developed a mindset of disobedience. They willfully live in sin, controlled by the old person they used to be. They are saved and the Holy Spirit is in them, but they are not allowing the Holy Spirit to grow them.

There is a difference between a baby Christian and a carnal Christian. Baby Christians are young in the Lord and do not yet have the capacity to eat on their own. Someone else has to feed them-to give them the Word. A young Christian desires the milk of the Word of God. "Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation" (1 Peter 2:2).

God bless




August 8

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 

Prayer in the Father's House
If the Son of God is born into my mortal flesh, is His holy innocence and simplicity and oneness with the Father getting a chance to manifest itself in me? What was true of the Virgin Mary in the historic introduction of God's Son into this earth is true in every saint. The Son of God is born into me by the direct act of God; then I as a child of God have to exercise the right of a child, the right of being always face to face with my Father. Am I continually saying with amazement to my common-sense life - why do you want to turn me off here? Don't you know that I must be about my Father's business? Whatever the circumstances may be, that Holy Innocent Eternal Child must be in contact with His Father.

Am I simple enough to identify myself with my Lord in this way? Is He getting his wonderful way in me? Is God realizing that His Son is formed in me, or have I carefully put Him on one side? Oh, the clamour of these days! Everyone is clamouring - for what? For the Son of God to be put to death. There is no room here for the Son of God just now, no room for quiet holy communion with the Father.

Is the Son of God praying in me or am I dictating to Him? Is He ministering in me as He did in the days of His flesh? Is the Son of God in me going through His passion for His own purposes? The more one knows of the inner life of God's ripest saints, the more one sees what God's purpose is - "filling up that which is behind of the affliction of Christ." There is always something to be done in the sense of "filling up."


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Running Inside the Lines

In Philippians 3:14, Paul provides a powerful insight into his passion.  Here is what he says,

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul clearly had a goal in mind, a sense of his destiny.  And he was undaunted in seeking to reach it.

In fact, the phrase "I press toward the goal" could literally be translated from the Greek text this way,  "I run within the lines."  It paints the picture of a runner, running down a track, staying in his lane.

He is not overreaching his bounds, running in someone else's lane.  Rather, as he goes for the goal, he is running within the lines with the goal in mind.

In a little mission in Medford, Oregon, many years ago, there was a young man with a terrible drug and alcohol problem.  One night God got a hold of his life.  It was a truly dramatic conversion.

I was that young man.  And for several decades now, I have been seeking to lay hold of the reason for which He laid hold of me.  I knew that night that God had a destiny for my life.  And that is the goal I strive and press forward to achieve.

God has a destiny for your life, too.  God laid hold of your life just like He did mine, for a purpose.  If you have not already done so, you must understand and press forward to fulfill the destiny God has for your life.

If you don't know what that might be, then start asking God to reveal that to you.  Ask Him to show you the lane you are to run in.


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Carnality by Choice
In His Presence: Galatians 6:2

"Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called 'Today,' so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin"(Hebrews 3:12-13).

When God saved us, He saved us to serve Christ. Occasional lapses into sin do not imply carnality. Everyone sins. Carnality is the state where the person has the mindset of seeking to gratify themselves rather than please Christ.

No Christian has to be carnal. Being carnal is a decision of the will. Carnal Christians have grown up physically and should be able to feed themselves. But they can't. That is because a carnal Christian is a person who has developed a mindset of disobedience. They willfully live in sin, controlled by the old person they used to be. They are saved and the Holy Spirit is in them, but they are not allowing the Holy Spirit to grow them.

There is a difference between a baby Christian and a carnal Christian. Baby Christians are young in the Lord and do not yet have the capacity to eat on their own. Someone else has to feed them-to give them the Word. A young Christian desires the milk of the Word of God. "Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation" (1 Peter 2:2).





God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 

Prayer in the Father's Hearing
Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, 'Father, I thank You that You have heard Me' -John 11:41
When the Son of God prays, He is mindful and consciously aware of only His Father. God always hears the prayers of His Son, and if the Son of God has been formed in me (see Galatians 4:19) the Father will always hear my prayers. But I must see to it that the Son of God is exhibited in my human flesh. ". . . your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit . . . " (1 Corinthians 6:19), that is, your body is the Bethlehem of God's Son. Is the Son of God being given His opportunity to work in me? Is the direct simplicity of His life being worked out in me exactly as it was worked out in His life while here on earth? When I come into contact with the everyday occurrences of life as an ordinary human being, is the prayer of God's eternal Son to His Father being prayed in me? Jesus says, "In that day you will ask in My name . . ." (John 16:26). What day does He mean? He is referring to the day when the Holy Spirit has come to me and made me one with my Lord.

Is the Lord Jesus Christ being abundantly satisfied by your life, or are you exhibiting a walk of spiritual pride before Him? Never let your common sense become so prominent and forceful that it pushes the Son of God to one side. Common sense is a gift that God gave to our human nature- but common sense is not the gift of His Son. Supernatural sense is the gift of His Son, and we should never put our common sense on the throne. The Son always recognizes and identifies with the Father, but common sense has never yet done so and never will. Our ordinary abilities will never worship God unless they are transformed by the indwelling Son of God. We must make sure that our human flesh is kept in perfect submission to Him, allowing Him to work through it moment by moment. Are we living at such a level of human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being exhibited moment by moment in us?


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The Natural Man

In His Presence: 2 Timothy 3:16-17

"A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised"(1 Corinthians 2:14).

It's important to understand that when the apostle Paul talks about the natural man he is referring to an unbeliever. The non-Christian does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They seem like foolishness to him. He cannot understand it. A Christian is supposed to be supernatural man, because the Spirit of God is living within him. Non-Christians can pretend to be Christians, but can only carry spiritual things so far. They do not want spiritual things controlling their lives.

The natural man can be moral, kind-hearted, filled with good intentions and good works. Yet the non-believer does not accept spiritual things as part of his everyday life. He doesn't know what to do with them. Spiritual truth is not very important to this person. He wants to talk about everything but spiritual things. The mindset of the unbeliever is that everyone else is doing it so it must be all right. The Bible uses the word sensual to describe him.

If we could draw an analogy of the natural man and the Christian, we could compare the natural man to a surround-sound entertainment center that is not hooked up to cable or satellite. While the entertainment center is expensive and of good quality, without a signal it won't do very much. In the same way, the natural man will not get the same signals as the Christian.

One Minute Please

The natural man is not a carnal Christian even though they may appear to be similar.
 

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The Natural Man

In His Presence: 2 Timothy 3:16-17

"A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised"(1 Corinthians 2:14).

It's important to understand that when the apostle Paul talks about the natural man he is referring to an unbeliever. The non-Christian does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They seem like foolishness to him. He cannot understand it. A Christian is supposed to be supernatural man, because the Spirit of God is living within him. Non-Christians can pretend to be Christians, but can only carry spiritual things so far. They do not want spiritual things controlling their lives.

The natural man can be moral, kind-hearted, filled with good intentions and good works. Yet the non-believer does not accept spiritual things as part of his everyday life. He doesn't know what to do with them. Spiritual truth is not very important to this person. He wants to talk about everything but spiritual things. The mindset of the unbeliever is that everyone else is doing it so it must be all right. The Bible uses the word sensual to describe him.

If we could draw an analogy of the natural man and the Christian, we could compare the natural man to a surround-sound entertainment center that is not hooked up to cable or satellite. While the entertainment center is expensive and of good quality, without a signal it won't do very much. In the same way, the natural man will not get the same signals as the Christian.

One Minute Please

The natural man is not a carnal Christian even though they may appear to be similar.


God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotional

August 10, 2012

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 

The Holy Suffering of the Saint
Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good . . . -1 Peter 4:19

Choosing to suffer means that there must be something wrong with you, but choosing God's will- even if it means you will suffer- is something very different. No normal, healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he simply chooses God's will, just as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not. And no saint should ever dare to interfere with the lesson of suffering being taught in another saint's life.

The saint who satisfies the heart of Jesus will make other saints strong and mature for God. But the people used to strengthen us are never those who sympathize with us; in fact, we are hindered by those who give us their sympathy, because sympathy only serves to weaken us. No one better understands a saint than the saint who is as close and as intimate with Jesus as possible. If we accept the sympathy of another saint, our spontaneous feeling is, "God is dealing too harshly with me and making my life too difficult." That is why Jesus said that self-pity was of the devil (see Matthew 16:21-23). We must be merciful to God's reputation. It is easy for us to tarnish God's character because He never argues back; He never tries to defend or vindicate Himself. Beware of thinking that Jesus needed sympathy during His life on earth. He refused the sympathy of people because in His great wisdom He knew that no one on earth understood His purpose (see Matthew 16:23). He accepted only the sympathy of His Father and the angels (see Luke 15:10).

Look at God's incredible waste of His saints, according to the world's judgment. God seems to plant His saints in the most useless places. And then we say, "God intends for me to be here because I am so useful to Him." Yet Jesus never measured His life by how or where He was of the greatest use. God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that may be.
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The Prize

If you have read the last couple of days' devotionals, you know we have been focusing on Philippians 3:12-14.  Today I want to give you one final truth from this passage of Scripture.

It is found in verse 14 where Paul says,

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

What I want to focus our thoughts on today is the prize.  According to this passage, there is a reward for finishing, a reward that will be given openly to all those who are faithful.

In fact, the Greek word translated prize literally means a reward that is given publicly.  This is not something that is given in private.

In 2 Timothy 4:7-8, Paul says,

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.

This crown of righteousness is synonymous with the "prize."  Paul said, "It will be given to me on that Day."  Not the day Paul died, but rather on a day that has yet to arrive, when we are gathered before God's throne.

On that day, everyone will be there.  King David, Samuel the prophet, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Moses, the apostle Paul, Peter...every saint who has lived for God in every generation since the Resurrection.

On that day, we are going to be standing before God giving an account of our lives.  We are going to be rewarded publicly if we have fulfilled our job description and run within the lines of our calling while on this earth.

I urge you to prepare for that day!


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The Spiritual Man

In His Presence: Hebrews 4:12

"He who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ"(1 Corinthians 2:15-16).

The one thing that sets apart spiritual men and women-Christians-is that they have learned to think as Christ thinks because they have the mind of Christ. A spiritual person examines life from God's perspective. To "appraise" in the verse above means to examine.

What the brain is to our body, the mind is to our soul. A spiritual person has developed spiritual perception. In our planning and decision making, do we ask ourselves what God would think about this? A spiritual person should consistently take God's viewpoint into consideration in all they do. Of course, we're not expecting perfection, but there should be a pattern in our lives that includes God in all areas. The spiritual man connects present decisions with future consequences because he or she is mature.

Immature people often do not connect present decisions with future consequences. They want gratification now. Their thought is for the moment. Children are like that. How often do we encounter a child who talks about saving money? However, we do hear them talk a lot about spending money. Because of their maturity level, they can see only short-term consequences. Their view of the future is limited.

The spiritual person has learned to perceive things from a divine vantage point. He has the ability to discern.

One Minute Please

Are you a spiritual man, a natural man, or a carnal Christian?





God bless
†

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 

"Do Not Quench the Spirit"
Do not quench the Spirit -1 Thessalonians 5:19
The voice of the Spirit of God is as gentle as a summer breeze- so gentle that unless you are living in complete fellowship and oneness with God, you will never hear it. The sense of warning and restraint that the Spirit gives comes to us in the most amazingly gentle ways. And if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice, you will quench it, and your spiritual life will be impaired. This sense of restraint will always come as a "still small voice" (1 Kings 19:12), so faint that no one except a saint of God will notice it.

Beware if in sharing your personal testimony you continually have to look back, saying, "Once, a number of years ago, I was saved." If you have put your "hand to the plow" and are walking in the light, there is no "looking back"- the past is instilled into the present wonder of fellowship and oneness with God (Luke 9:62 ; also see 1 John 1:6-7). If you get out of the light, you become a sentimental Christian, and live only on your memories, and your testimony will have a hard metallic ring to it. Beware of trying to cover up your present refusal to "walk in the light" by recalling your past experiences when you did "walk in the light" (1 John 1:7). When-ever the Spirit gives you that sense of restraint, call a halt and make things right, or else you will go on quenching and grieving Him without even knowing it.

Suppose God brings you to a crisis and you almost endure it, but not completely. He will engineer the crisis again, but this time some of the intensity will be lost. You will have less discernment and more humiliation at having disobeyed. If you continue to grieve His Spirit, there will come a time when that crisis cannot be repeated, because you have totally quenched Him. But if you will go on through the crisis, your life will become a hymn of praise to God. Never become attached to anything that continues to hurt God. For you to be free of it, God must be allowed to hurt whatever it may be.

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The Entrance of Error

Jude 4 gives us an ominous warning,

For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude is giving us an idea of how the devil brings error into a church.  The key phrase is men have crept in unnoticed.  That phrase literally means to come alongside by stealth.  It pictures someone creeping in and coming alongside, like coming in through a side door.

The folks Jude is talking about look like everyone else, they talk like everyone else, but they are not like everyone else.

That is the way the devil brings error and false doctrine into the Church.  It looks like the truth, sounds good, seems like the truth, and it may even be partially true.  But there is enough poison in it to kill you.

It's like the guy who wanted to break into a used car lot to steal a bunch of auto parts.  The only problem was the two guard dogs.  So for the next week he showed up every night with some pieces of meat.

At first the dogs would bark like crazy, but after the man left, they would eat the meat.  By the end of the week, they didn't bark at all, they just wanted the meat.  So, having become familiar with the dogs, knowing that they wouldn't "sound the alarm," he approached them one last time-with poisoned meat.  The dogs ate, and he was able to get into the lot and steal all he wanted.

That is the way the devil does it a lot of times.  He sends someone among the believers in order to distract and detour them from the truth.  But it is calculated and happens by degrees.  Do not let your "inner alarm system" go silent through familiarity.

Beware of those who would move you away, even subtly, from the clearly revealed truth of God's Word.


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Crisis in Our Culture

In His Presence: Psalm 40:8

"Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse"(Malachi 4:5-6).

Men, when we look at the state of our culture and our country today, we find that we are in a crisis situation. How can we not be when 40 percent of our children go to sleep at night with no dad at home? Among the minority populations, that statistic goes up to 63 percent, and in the innermost inner cities, it rises to 83 percent. There is no respect or dignity among men anymore. They are fathering children but not taking the responsibility to help rear them. Men have become like the fabled abominable snowman, whose footprints are everywhere, but he cannot be found.

In the Bible, whenever Satan wanted to destroy a nation, he went after the male children. While the children of Israel lived in Egypt, eventually one of the pharaohs ordered the death of all male babies born in the land. In Jesus' time, King Herod ordered all the male children under the age of two to be killed in Bethlehem in his efforts to stifle the prophecy of a king born to the Jews. Satan understands that if he can immobilize the men, he can hijack the culture.

One Minute Please

To get a sense of what a real man is, we must turn to the Bible for examples and principles of manhood.

†



God bless