Devotional for the day

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Watching With Jesus
 
Stay here and watch with Me -Matthew 26:38

Watch with Me." Jesus was saying, in effect, "Watch with no private point of view at all, but watch solely and entirely with Me." In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible even in the circumstances of our own lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular "Gethsemane" experience of our own. But we refuse to go, saying, "No, Lord, I can't see the meaning of this, and besides, it's very painful." And how can we possibly watch with Someone who is so incomprehensible? How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane, when we don't even know why He is suffering? We don't know how to watch with Him- we are only used to the idea of Jesus watching with us.

The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not fully understand His purpose. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept as a result of their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest and most intimate relationship of their lives they "all . . . forsook Him and fled" (Matthew 26:56).

"They were all filled with the Holy Spirit . . ." (Acts 2:4). "They" refers to the same people, but something wonderful has happened between these two events- our Lord's death, resurrection, and ascension- and the disciples have now been invaded and "filled with the Holy Spirit." Our Lord had said, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you . . ." (Acts 1:. This meant that they learned to watch with Him the rest of their lives.


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The Prayer of Supplication

Today I want to focus your attention on the prayer of supplication.  Ephesians 6:18 tells us,

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints

When Paul says, Praying always with all prayer, the Greek word he uses for prayer is just a general term for prayer used throughout the New Testament.

But the word he uses translated supplication means prayer for definite, specific needs.  Most generally, you will find that this is a prayer prayed for others, as is the case in this verse.

In Philippians 1:4, Paul uses this same word for supplication, when he says,

Always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy.

Both the words translated prayer and request are the Greek word for supplication that we just read in Ephesians 6:18.  But here it is translated as prayer and request.

I want you to notice who he is saying to pray for,  Always in every prayer of mine making request for you all.  It is for someone else.

Recently, I had a pastor friend ask me to pray for his church and their finances.  He said things were really tight.  So several times I brought the issue before God and made specific requests about it...or supplications.

Now, I did not pray, "I believe I receive it."  That is not my place.  What I did do was pray for God to help them.  I prayed that God would give them wisdom, that God would inspire the people in the church to give, that people would have a heart for souls, and a number of other specific requests over the following several days.

That is the prayer of supplication...praying specific requests for specific people.


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In His Presence:



Do You Need to Change Your Expectations?


Acts 3
   

As a pastor, I witness people accepting their circumstances with a "crippling" mindset rather than believing God for something better in life.

They are like the lame man in Acts 3 who sat by the gate, Beautiful, begging for money.  His only expectation was that a passerby will take pity on him and toss a coin his way.  He never expected anything better. He was crippled in his body and his mind. 

That's the mindset of those who don't expect things can change in their lives.  We all face bad days, but we don't have to let them turn into a bad life.

Do you know anyone like that?  Is that you?  Jesus' disciples offered the lame man miraculous healing in both his body and his mind.  You too can move forward no matter what you face in life.

In His Presence:   

[Judy Harder]

September 6, 2013

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The Far-Reaching Rivers of Life
 
He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water -John 7:38
A river reaches places which its source never knows. And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, "rivers of living water" will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even "to the end of the earth" (Acts 1: regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow- "This is the work of God, that you believe. . ." (John 6:29). God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others.

A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, but then comes to an obstacle. And for a while it is blocked, yet it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, only later to emerge again even broader and greater than ever. Do you see God using the lives of others, but an obstacle has come into your life and you do not seem to be of any use to God? Then keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you around the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty. The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river that will flow steadily through you if you will simply remember to stay focused on the Source. Never allow anything to come between you and Jesus Christ- not emotion nor experience- nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.

Think of the healing and far-reaching rivers developing and nourishing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up wonderful truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is another indication of the wider power of the river that He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has developed and nourished in you mighty, rushing rivers of blessing for others.


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The Prayer of Intercession

Today I want to help you understand the prayer of intercession...the sixth and last of the kinds of prayer we have been covering over the last week of devotionals.

1 Timothy 2:1 points us to this type of prayer,

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.

Intercession, as we find it here, is a technical term for approaching a king on behalf of another.  In a general sense, related to prayer, intercession is seeking God on the behalf of others.  But, more specifically, it is coming to God for one who has no standing with Him.

A number of years ago, I was ministering in Nigeria, speaking at a large conference in the city of Onitsha.  While there, we were invited to go meet the king of Onitsha.

It was pretty exciting driving in a motorcade with little flags on all the cars.  I felt like a big shot!  But when we got to the palace, we had to have someone go on our behalf in order to meet with the king.  I had no standing with the king, and neither did anyone else in our party.

The person who brought us to the king of Onitsha was an intercessor.  And that is the idea of this word intercession.  You are coming to the King of kings on the behalf of someone who presently has no standing with Him.

Do you remember when Abraham went before God for the city of Sodom-desiring that God would spare Sodom?  What was Abraham doing?  He was acting as an intercessor.  He was coming between God and someone who had no standing with God.

We all should be praying prayers of intercession.  You and I are to make intercession for the lost.


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In His Presence:



God Wants to Amaze You


Luke 5
How do you respond when you get a tremendous blessing?  We all want to be blessed.  Do you accept with gratitude? Do you let the blessing absorb you?

In the gospels, at Jesus' direction Peter let down his net in the water, and the blessing was so huge that the abundance of fish tore holes in Peter's net.  His boat was dangerously close to capsizing.

In Luke 5:8, it reads, When Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!"Peter saw beyond the blessing.  Peter saw Jesus and recognized his own limitations and his need for the Savior.

Jesus amazed Peter with the overload of fish because He wanted Peter to follow Him and get to know Him better.  God wants to amaze you so that you can better understand who He is and love Him even more.

In His Presence: 

[Judy Harder]

September 9, 2013
 
Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Do It Yourself (2)
. . . bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ . . . -2 Corinthians 10:5
Determinedly Discipline Other Things. This is another difficult aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul said, according to the Moffatt translation of this verse, ". . . I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ . . . ." So much Christian work today has never been disciplined, but has simply come into being by impulse! In our Lord's life every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There was never the slightest tendency to follow the impulse of His own will as distinct from His Father's will- "the Son can do nothing of Himself . . . " (John 5:19). Then compare this with what we do- we take "every thought" or project that comes to us by impulse and jump into action immediately, instead of imprisoning and disciplining ourselves to obey Christ.

Practical work for Christians is greatly overemphasized today, and the saints who are "bringing every thought [and project] into captivity" are criticized and told that they are not determined, and that they lack zeal for God or zeal for the souls of others. But true determination and zeal are found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that arises from our own undisciplined human nature. It is inconceivable, but true nevertheless, that saints are not "bringing every thought [and project] into captivity," but are simply doing work for God that has been instigated by their own human nature, and has not been made spiritual through determined discipline.

We have a tendency to forget that a person is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation, but is also committed, responsible, and accountable to Jesus Christ's view of God, the world, and of sin and the devil. This means that each person must recognize the responsibility to "be transformed by the renewing of [his] mind. . . ." (Romans 12:2).
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Instruments in the Hands of God

Yesterday we saw that the first sign a person has lost their spiritual edge is that he or she no longer recognizes the voice of the Holy Spirit and His leading.

The second characteristic of someone who has lost their edge spiritually is they lose their usefulness as an instrument in the hands of God.

Revelation 14:14-16 tells us,

Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.  And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, "Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe."  So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

The One sitting on the cloud with a crown on His head is the Lord Jesus Christ.  The harvest on the earth is the salvation of lost humanity, men and women who do not yet have a relationship with God.

Then what is the sharp sickle?  It is the Church.  It is you.  It is me.  If God is going to reap the harvest of lost humanity, it is going to be through His people.

You and I are to be a sharp sickle in God's hand in His great plan of mankind's redemption.  That means the housewife, the doctor, the businessman, the student, the truck driver...every one of us.  We are to be setting our hand to whatever practical work we have been gifted to do to see people being saved and being discipled.

Let us determine to be an effective instrument-a sharp sickle-in the hand of our God.


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Empowered by the Spirit



Colossians 3
 

Before His ascension to heaven, Jesus promised His followers that He would send a Helper who would be with the believers forever. Jesus instructed them to stay in Jerusalem until they had received the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit's job is to empower us Christians to progress in our spiritual lives. Far too many Christians find themselves on a spiritual treadmill. They're working up a sweat with religious activities, but still remain in the same place spiritually. 

If your life seems powerless right now, you may have a connection problem between you and the Holy Spirit. The disciples were so in tuned to the Holy Spirit that they were able to write the New Testament three decades after Christ's death. The Holy Spirit - the Helper - empowered the apostles to remember.

When you have the Holy Spirit, you have all the power you need to live the Christian life.

 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Missionary Weapons (1)
When you were under the fig tree, I saw you -John 1:48
Worshiping in Everyday Occasions. We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us- it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, "If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion"? Yet you won't rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God's training ground. If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person's true character.

A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness. The time will come, as Nathanael experienced in this passage, that a private "fig-tree" life will no longer be possible. Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself to be of no value there if you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions in your own home. If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready. It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God.

Are you saying, "But I can't be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances; I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn't come yet, but when it does, of course I will be ready"? No, you will not. If you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions, when you get involved in God's work, you will not only be useless yourself but also a hindrance to those around you.

God's training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshiping life of the saint.


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No Exemption

2 Kings 6:1-7 gives us some important insight into how to regain our spiritual edge,

And the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, "See now, the place where we dwell with you is too small for us.  Please, let us go to the Jordan, and let every man take a beam from there, and let us make there a place where we may dwell."  So he answered, "Go."  Then one said, "Please consent to go with your servants."  And he answered, "I will go."  So he went with them.  And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.  But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, "Alas, master!  For it was borrowed."  So the man of God said, "Where did it fall?"  And he showed him the place.  So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float.  Therefore he said, "Pick it up for yourself."  So he reached out his hand and took it.

There are a number of principles I want to draw from this story.

Although we will be focusing on the one man who experienced the loss of his ax head, for today's devotion I want to draw your attention to the majority.

As we see from this Scripture, this school for the prophets was needing to expand, to build a bigger building.  And notice that everyone had a part to play in what God was doing.  It says "Let every man take a beam from there, and let us make there a place where we may dwell."

In God's Kingdom plan, being spiritually sharp is not for just a few people.  We all have a responsibility to grow.  There is no exemption.

God has a role for you to play.  You have not been given an exemption from being a part of God's kingdom plan.  He has a part for you to play in His great plan to reach the world!


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Marriage
Scripture Reading: and Life Lessons

Ephesians 5:21-33
 

God designed marriage to be successful. He intended couples in covenant with Him and one another to have beautiful, fulfilling relationships, not disastrous, emotionally-draining ones.  While marriage is at the heart of our culture, only when couples begin to properly live out covenant relationships in marriage will the fabric of our society be altered.

Adam and Eve, before they fell into sin, experienced the only perfect marriage in history. God commanded them to be fruitful and multiply. God instituted marriage for procreation, and both parents were to rear the children in fear and admonition of the Lord. Marriage and

parenting
are vital for the continued godly dominion over the earth.

Marriage also completes us as individuals. In marriage, God has deeper levels of maturity and much higher heights of potential planned for couples.  Marriage is also an illustration of the divine.  When Christian couples live their lives according to God's principles, the world sees what Jesus and His bride look like. 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Ministering as opportunity surrounds us. This does not mean selecting our surroundings, it means being very selectly God's in any haphazard surroundings which He engineers for us. The characteristics we manifest in our immediate surroundings are indications of what we will be like in other surroundings.

The things that Jesus did were of the most menial and commonplace order, and this is an indication that it takes all God's power in me to do the most commonplace things in His way. Can I use a towel as He did? Towels and dishes and sandals, all the ordinary sordid things of our lives, reveal more quickly than anything what we are made of. It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the meanest duty as it ought to be done.

"I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you." Watch the kind of people God brings around you, and you will be humiliated to find that this is His way of revealing to you the kind of person you have been to Him. Now, He says, exhibit to that one exactly what I have shown to you.

"Oh," you say, "I will do all that when I get out into the foreign field." To talk in this way is like trying to produce the munitions of war in the trenches - you will be killed while you are doing it.

We have to go the "second mile" with God. Some of us get played out in the first ten yards, because God compels us to go where we cannot see the way, and we say - "I will wait till I get nearer the big crisis." If we do not do the running steadily in the little ways, we shall do nothing in the crisis.


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Be Watchful

We started in yesterday's devotional to look at the lessons we can learn about regaining our spiritual edge from the story in 2 Kings 6.  In verses 4-5 we are told about the guy who loses his cutting edge,

...when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.  But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, "Alas, master!  For it was borrowed."

Notice this guy is working hard, cutting down a tree.  But, in the midst of this effort, he loses his cutting edge.  His ax head falls into the water.

Now you might think, "Well, you wouldn't end up in a state like that, you wouldn't lose your edge, unless you were out of God's will."

But if you read yesterday's devotional, you will see these guys were in the will of God.  They were moving by divine permission.  The prophet not only said go, he went with them, showing just how much this was the right thing to do.

Or you might think, "Well, a spiritual man or a spiritual woman wouldn't have lost their edge."  No, there is no indication that the guy who lost his cutting edge was unspiritual.  Every indication tells us he was spiritually strong.

So what does this teach us?  Be careful not to think we cannot lose our spiritual edge.  It can happen to you, and it can happen to me.  We all can lose our cutting edge if we are not careful.

My friend, it is vital to take care not to lose your spiritual edge.  This is something you have to work at to maintain.  Just because you have it today doesn't mean you will have it tomorrow.

The good news is that if you have lost your spiritual edge, you can regain it!  Even better, be watchful to maintain your edge-staying sharp for God!

 

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The Context of Giving Thanks



Ephesians 5:21-33
 

First Thessalonians 5:18 commands us to be thankful in everything; it doesn't say be thankful for everything.  There is a distinct difference.  When things go wrong, we are to give thanks to God in the midst of the trouble.

Although all your worldly efforts and pursuits may fail and you're in the worse season of life, you must still praise God for all He has done.  You may not be able to praise God for your circumstances, but you can praise God that He is with you in those circumstances.

Job praised God even at the lowest point of his life. King Jehoshaphat was terrified of the approaching enemy.  Yet he commanded the people to praise God. God saved Israel. When you give thanks, you are in God's will.  He puts everything together in His time and His will. Let's give Him thanks everyday for the way He works in our lives.

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Going Through Spiritual Confusion
 
Jesus answered and said, 'You do not know what you ask' -Matthew 20:22
There are times in your spiritual life when there is confusion, and the way out of it is not simply to say that you should not be confused. It is not a matter of right and wrong, but a matter of God taking you through a way that you temporarily do not understand. And it is only by going through the spiritual confusion that you will come to the understanding of what God wants for you.

The Shrouding of His Friendship (see Luke 11:5-8). Jesus gave the illustration here of a man who appears not to care for his friend. He was saying, in effect, that is how the heavenly Father will appear to you at times. You will think that He is an unkind friend, but remember?He is not. The time will come when everything will be explained. There seems to be a cloud on the friendship of the heart, and often even love itself has to wait in pain and tears for the blessing of fuller fellowship and oneness. When God appears to be completely shrouded, will you hang on with confidence in Him?

The Shadow on His Fatherhood (see Luke 11:11-13). Jesus said that there are times when your Father will appear as if He were an unnatural father?as if He were callous and indifferent- but remember, He is not. "Everyone who asks receives . . ." (Luke 11:10). If all you see is a shadow on the face of the Father right now, hang on to the fact that He will ultimately give you clear understanding and will fully justify Himself in everything that He has allowed into your life.

The Strangeness of His Faithfulness (see Luke 18:1-8). "When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:. Will He find the kind of faith that counts on Him in spite of the confusion? Stand firm in faith, believing that what Jesus said is true, although in the meantime you do not understand what God is doing. He has bigger issues at stake than the particular things you are asking of Him right now.


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Are You Just Swinging the Handle?

As you look at your life today in honesty and transparency, perhaps you would have to say that you have lost that edge, that excitement, that zeal, that spiritual passion you once had.

If indeed you have lost your edge, how can you get it back?  Over the next seven days, I will help you understand how to regain your spiritual edge based on 2 Kings 6.

The first principle I want to focus on is based on the man who lost his ax head, as we learn in 2 Kings 6:4-5,

...when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees.  But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water.

Now, it would have been senseless for him to have kept chopping with a wooden handle with no ax head on it, wouldn't it?!  He would make no progress.

And yet that is what a lot of Christians do today.  They have lost their cutting edge, and they are just going through the motions, making no progress at all.

They are chopping away with just a wooden handle!

They think, "Well, I know I'm supposed to go to church, so I will go.  As long as I keep busy, maybe nobody's going to know the state of my heart."  And they will do this not just for weeks or months, but some people have been doing this for years.

No progress, no growth.  They are just swinging that handle without an ax head.

If this is you, do not just keep swinging the ax handle.  If you are not making progress, admit it.  Until you are willing to face up to the fact that you have not been growing, you can never regain your spiritual edge.


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Apostasy



Deuteronomy 13:4
The carnal Christian is also characterized by rejection of the Christian

faith
. If the carnal Christian stays on the road to carnality long enough, he will apostatize-fall away from the life of faith. He or she may deny Christianity. Can a Christian go so far as to become a rank sinner in his actions? Yes, "for if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment" (Hebrews 10:26-27).

God will intervene on behalf of the carnal Christian, but He will also judge. Even the blood of Jesus will not save him from God's wrath. This does not mean that salvation will be lost, but God will judge that person. There will be emotional consequences. It may even mean an end to his life. The price tag for apostasy is staggering. "Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" (vv. 28-29).

One Minute Please

A person is not beyond help if he is disinterested in the things of God, if his insensitivity to sin becomes normal, or if he withdraws from fellowship. But when he goes down the road of rejecting faith, he is close to the point of no return.

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
After Surrender- Then What?
 
I have finished the work which You have given Me to do -John 17:4
True surrender is not simply surrender of our external life but surrender of our will- and once that is done, surrender is complete. The greatest crisis we ever face is the surrender of our will. Yet God never forces a person's will into surrender, and He never begs. He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. And once that battle has been fought, it never needs to be fought again.

Surrender for Deliverance. "Come to Me . . . and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). It is only after we have begun to experience what salvation really means that we surrender our will to Jesus for rest. Whatever is causing us a sense of uncertainty is actually a call to our will- "Come to Me." And it is a voluntary coming.

Surrender for Devotion. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . . " (Matthew 16:24). The surrender here is of my self to Jesus, with His rest at the heart of my being. He says, "If you want to be My disciple, you must give up your right to yourself to Me." And once this is done, the remainder of your life will exhibit nothing but the evidence of this surrender, and you never need to be concerned again with what the future may hold for you. Whatever your circumstances may be, Jesus is totally sufficient (see 2 Corinthians 12:9 and (Philippians 4:19).

Surrender for Death. ". . . another will gird you . . ." (John 21:18 ; also see John21:19). Have you learned what it means to be girded for death? Beware of some surrender that you make to God in an ecstatic moment in your life, because you are apt to take it back again. True surrender is a matter of being "united together [with Jesus] in the likeness of His death" (Romans 6:5) until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.

And after you surrender- then what? Your entire life should be characterized by an eagerness to maintain unbroken fellowship and oneness with God.


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Looking to the Master

In 2 Kings 6:5, we read the second in our series of seven principles to regain our spiritual edge.  It is the response of the man who lost his cutting edge,

But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, "Alas, master!  For it was borrowed."

When this man lost his ax head and it fell into the water, he cried out and said, "Alas, master!"  He went to the prophet.

The prophet was God's representative in that day.  He was the mouthpiece of God.  If you wanted to hear from God, you went to the prophet, and the prophet would give a word from God.

Today, thank goodness, we have direct access to God as individuals.  We can go directly to the Lord Jesus Christ who is our Master.  And that is the second principle to regaining your spiritual edge.  You need to realize the only One who can restore your edge once it is lost, is the Lord Jesus Himself.

You need to get your eyes off of men and get your eyes on the Master.  Some people make a great mistake because they have their eyes on men.  You will always be disappointed if your eyes are on men instead of on the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is only One who can help you regain your spiritual edge, and that is Jesus Christ.  No man or woman can take His place.

So today, put your eyes on the Master.  Cry out to Him to help you regain your spiritual edge.


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Spiritual Discipline

In His Presence:

James 1:2
When a person's carnality reaches the point of rejecting the Christian

faith

, many things can happen. Financial, emotional, social, and mental difficulties are just a few things that could catch up with them. If they live in persistent rebellion against God, God is going to discipline them. "We had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplines us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness" (Hebrews 12:9-10).

The purpose of God's discipline is to bring us back to Him in reconciliation. He does not discipline in vengeance or because He is angry. Our parents disciplined us the best they could, but God disciplines perfectly every time. He knows everything. He knows what the carnal Christian has done, so God is never caught by surprise.

"All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful" (v. 11). A person living in carnality is going to experience discipline that will hurt. What is the difference between a Christian in the will of God going through trials, and a person out of the will of God going through discipline? If we are in the will of God, we can "consider it all joy" (James 1:2). If we are out of God's will, we will not have joy in the midst of our problems.

One Minute Please

"To those who have been trained by [discipline], afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:11).

[Judy Harder]

September 16, 2013

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Praying to God in Secret
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place . . . -Matthew 6:6

The primary thought in the area of religion is- keep your eyes on God, not on people. Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.

"When you pray, do not use vain repetitions . . ." (Matthew 6:7). God does not hear us because we pray earnestly- He hears us solely on the basis of redemption. God is never impressed by our earnestness. Prayer is not simply getting things from God- that is only the most elementary kind of prayer. Prayer is coming into perfect fellowship and oneness with God. If the Son of God has been formed in us through regeneration (see Galatians 4:19), then He will continue to press on beyond our common sense and will change our attitude about the things for which we pray.

"Everyone who asks receives . . ." (Matthew 7:. We pray religious nonsense without even involving our will, and then we say that God did not answer- but in reality we have never asked for anything. Jesus said, ". . . you will ask what you desire. . ." (John 15:7). Asking means that our will must be involved. Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, He spoke with wonderful childlike simplicity. Then we respond with our critical attitude, saying, "Yes, but even Jesus said that we must ask." But remember that we have to ask things of God that are in keeping with the God whom Jesus Christ revealed.
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The Cross is Enough

Key number five to regaining your spiritual edge is also found in 2 Kings 6:6,

So the man of God said, "Where did it fall?"  And he showed him the place.  So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float.

Why a stick?  What does a piece of wood have to do with it?

Please remember that this story is in here for our benefit, and every part of it is significant.  I believe this piece of wood is a type of, or points to, another piece of wood where something happened that is very significant to us.

I believe it points to the cross, that piece of wood where Christ was crucified for you and for me, and that God wants us to realize that Jesus' sacrifice at Calvary was enough to take care of all our problems, and restore us no matter our spiritual state.

It is enough to cleanse us and restore our spiritual edge.  In fact, it is the only thing that has the power to do it.

If you have lost your zeal for God and you have become spiritually dull, repent and say, "Jesus, I believe that Your work on the cross was enough to restore me."

If you apply what He did on that piece of wood, it is enough to restore you, no matter how far you have fallen away from where you should be.  He took your failure, and He nailed it to that cross.  He rose from the dead victorious on the third day, and He offers that victory to you!

If you have lost your cutting edge, the cross of Christ and the blood shed upon that cross are enough to take care of everything.
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  How Should Christians Vote?
Scripture Reading:  Proverbs 26:12; 1 John 3:3-7
To answer the question of how should Christians vote, I must speak theologically and not politically.  If you were to come to me for individual counseling, I would identify the causes of your personal dilemma, take my Bible and speak God's truth into your situation.
I would use the same Bible to prescribe biblical solutions to a family in shambles and a congregation in chaos.  The Bible that can put together a person, a home and a church can put a country back together.
It's amazing that Christianity rarely comes up in the discussion about candidates, parties and party platforms.  God is more involved in this election than you might think.  The goal of government is to mirror the rule of God.  The less the government lines up with God's Kingdom, the less the culture will receive from God.  How should Christians vote?  Christians should vote from God's Kingdom perspective.
 
 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Is There Good in Temptation?
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man . . . -1 Corinthians 10:13
The word temptation has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer, simply because we have refused to allow God to lift us to a higher level where we would face temptations of another kind.

A person's inner nature, what he possesses in the inner, spiritual part of his being, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the true nature of the person being tempted and reveals the possibilities of his nature. Every person actually determines or sets the level of his own temptation, because temptation will come to him in accordance with the level of his controlling, inner nature.

Temptation comes to me, suggesting a possible shortcut to the realization of my highest goal- it does not direct me toward what I understand to be evil, but toward what I understand to be good. Temptation is something that confuses me for a while, and I don't know whether something is right or wrong. When I yield to it, I have made lust a god, and the temptation itself becomes the proof that it was only my own fear that prevented me from falling into the sin earlier.

Temptation is not something we can escape; in fact, it is essential to the well-rounded life of a person. Beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else-what you go through is the common inheritance of the human race, not something that no one has ever before endured. God does not save us from temptations-He sustains us in the midst of them (see Hebrews 2:18 and Hebrews 4:15-16).
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A Miracle-Working God

Once again I want to take us back to 2 Kings 6:6, which provides for us the sixth key to regaining your cutting edge.

So the man of God said, "Where did it fall?"  And he showed him the place.  So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float.

Perhaps you are wondering just what other principle for regaining your spiritual edge can come from this verse.  Well, there is one more, and it is critical to understand because it points to God's part in the process of restoration.

I want you to look at the words, "And he made the iron float."

I don't know about you, but I have never seen an iron ax head float.  Clearly this was a miracle.  God worked a miracle when the man did his part, looking to the master, taking responsibility, and going to the place where the ax head was lost.

You do your part; God does His part.  I like the King James Version as it says, ...the iron did swim.  It was against that ax head's nature to swim, but God made it swim.

God brings the restoration.  He brings the healing.  He brings back that sensitivity and usefulness to Him.  I pray that right now God is at work in your heart, and you are responding, making adjustments...regaining your cutting edge.

As you admit to those areas where you have lost your spiritual edge, God is going to restore it.  God's part is to make that ax head float once you have admitted where you have failed!

He can restore what has been lost, even if it takes His miracle power to do it.

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Transforming Our Culture
Scripture Reading:  Romans 12:9-16

When  Jesus Christ returns, we will no longer need to worry about transforming our  culture because He will set up His Kingdom rule. But until that time, we need  to reach the world for Him and for our children, grandchildren and  great-grandchildren.

What  is the role of Christians in our society? Jeremiah 29:4-11 illustrates this  foundational principle: Society is transformed when God's people execute His  strategy in history in a Christ-centered way.

The  prophet Jeremiah challenged the Jews in Babylonian captivity to regain their  spiritual clarity. The Babylonian pagans  were not Israel's  greatest problem to deal with. The Jews had become pagans themselves and had  failed to remain God's distinct, unique people. 

When the church fails to be God's unique people, the entire culture will  suffer the effects of sin.

[Judy Harder]

 

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
His Temptation and Ours
We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin -Hebrews 4:15
Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, "Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed." But through regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to us as unbelievers because they were not at home in our human nature. Our Lord's temptations and ours are in different realms until we are born again and become His brothers. The temptations of Jesus are not those of a mere man, but the temptations of God as Man. Through regeneration, the Son of God is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19), and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us just to make us do wrong things- he tempts us to make us lose what God has put into us through regeneration, namely, the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come to us on the premise of tempting us to sin, but on the premise of shifting our point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.

Temptation means a test of the possessions held within the inner, spiritual part of our being by a power outside us and foreign to us. This makes the temptation of our Lord explainable. After Jesus' baptism, having accepted His mission of being the One "who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) He "was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness" (Matthew 4:1) and into the testing devices of the devil. Yet He did not become weary or exhausted. He went through the temptation "without sin," and He retained all the possessions of His spiritual nature completely intact.
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Take It!

The seventh and final key to regaining your cutting edge is found in verse 7 of 2 Kings 6, the passage we have been looking at over the last several days.  Here is what that verse says,

Therefore he said, "Pick it up for yourself."  So he reached out his hand and took it.

The sixth key was something that only God could do, and that is to make the ax head float; that is, to restore your cutting edge.

Now we see what we must do in response.  You and I must receive what God is offering.  Unless you take hold of what God is offering, your spiritual edge will never be restored.

Perhaps over the last several days, as we have looked at how to restore your spiritual edge, God has been speaking to you.  Maybe you have come to realize that you are not where you should be in your relationship with God.

Maybe you have lost that sensitivity.  Maybe you have lost your cutting edge.  I am telling you, you can reach out and take what God is doing to restore your cutting edge.

I want to challenge you to take some time today to search your heart.  If you have lost your cutting edge, stop swinging an empty handle and just going through the motions.

Be honest and admit you have lost that edge, determine where it fell, look to the Master, listen to His voice, take responsibility, know that the cross of Christ is completely sufficient to restore you, and then take hold of what God is doing to restore your edge.

God can work that miracle in your life if you will only do your part!


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  Don't Depend on Pharaoh
Scripture Reading: Exodus 35:30-33; Proverbs 22:29 

Believe it or not, God's strategy to transform society includes the development of economic stability.  What does economics have to do with transforming a culture?

In Deuteronomy 28:12, God told Israel that if they would obey Him, they would be a lender to other nations and never a borrower. When God's people disobeyed, they became debtors and were plunged into poverty. They had to depend on pagans, on Pharaoh, for their livelihood.

This economic strategy remains a good one for today. Pagans will not finance God's program. With economic independence via hard work and skills, God's people can continue to make an impact for Christ. We can do His business His way because we're using His resources.

As long as you are working for and dependent upon Pharaoh, he will never let you go.