Devotional for the day

[Judy Harder]

August 05, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

The Bewildering Call of God

'. . . and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.' . . . But they understood none of these things . . . -Luke 18:31, 34

God called Jesus Christ to what seemed absolute disaster. And Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death, leading every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken. His life was an absolute failure from every standpoint except God's. But what seemed to be failure from man's standpoint was a triumph from God's standpoint, because God's purpose is never the same as man's purpose.

This bewildering call of God comes into our lives as well. The call of God can never be understood absolutely or explained externally; it is a call that can only be perceived and understood internally by our true inner-nature. The call of God is like the call of the sea- no one hears it except the person who has the nature of the sea in him. What God calls us to cannot be definitely stated, because His call is simply to be His friend to accomplish His own purposes. Our real test is in truly believing that God knows what He desires. The things that happen do not happen by chance- they happen entirely by the decree of God. God is sovereignly working out His own purposes.

If we are in fellowship and oneness with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, then we will no longer strive to find out what His purposes are. As we grow in the Christian life, it becomes simpler to us, because we are less inclined to say, "I wonder why God allowed this or that?" And we begin to see that the compelling purpose of God lies behind everything in life, and that God is divinely shaping us into oneness with that purpose. A Christian is someone who trusts in the knowledge and the wisdom of God, not in his own abilities. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace which should be characteristic of the children of God.
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Your Three-Way Calling

In Jude 1, we read the following greeting,         

Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ.

The Greek word for called here is used in three different ways.  As believers in Jesus Christ, this word tells us we are called to three things:

1.      It is used for those who are summoned to an office, duty, or a responsibility.  Friend, every believer has been called.  You have a duty, you have an office, and you have a responsibility.  We have all been called to do something for Christ.  We are ambassadors for Christ, and we need to represent Him to a lost and dying world.

2.      The word called is also used in the Greek language to summon someone to a feast or a festival.  And you know what?  You have been called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and you will sit down one day to enjoy all the things God has planned for eternity.

3.      Finally, the word translated called in this passage is used to summon someone into court to give an account for themselves, or to summon them to judgment.  One day we will have to give an account of our lives.  One day every one of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for the works done in the body.

You have a responsibility to represent Christ to our dying world, to someday celebrate the marriage supper of the Lamb, and to ultimately give an account of your life.

I pray you will embrace and fulfill your calling today!
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Read: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16
You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and revealed them to little children. - Matthew 11:25

TODAY IN THE WORD
For 1,400 years, no one knew how to read Egyptian hieroglyphics. In 1799, some of Napoleon's troops stationed in Egypt discovered a black basalt stone slab on which were written words from three different languages: 2 were forms of hieroglyphics, one Greek. After working diligently for 14 years, French linguist Jean-Francois Champollion cracked the code and translated the hieroglyphics.
Without translators, dictionaries, or diligent study, we can't understand another language. Today's reading shows us that spiritual realities and truths are communicated to us in a spiritual language. These truths are unintelligible to the world. Verse 7 describes this wisdom as "hidden." What God knows, what God purposes and plans, and what God does-all this is incomprehensible to us. The senses we've been given in our physical bodies to perceive the material world-our eyes, ears, and minds-can't perceive or apprehend the realities of the gospel. The Bible speaks of the gospel as a mystery, shrouded and hidden from human eyes (cf. Rom. 16:25; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:26). That's why spiritual understanding relies not on human cleverness but on the willing revelation of God.

This passage identifies three gifts for believers in Christ, each connected to a member of the Trinity. First, we know that God has prepared great wonders for those who love Him (v. 9). This verse echoes Isaiah 64:4, which identifies God's help for His people who wait for Him. Second, believers have the "mind of Christ," which makes it possible for us to receive His instruction (v. 16). Third, we have the Holy Spirit, who acts to reveal God to us and enables us to understand spiritual truth (vv. 10-14).

This passage should provoke great soberness, humility, and joy in us. Without an active work of God, no one can grasp the gospel. The most intellectually astute might fail to understand it. Our embrace of the cross of Christ is only possible because of the work of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can rejoice that He hasn't abandoned us to our own wisdom, senses, and understanding.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
This passage can help us pray for those we love who do not yet know God. We can pray that the Holy Spirit will provide the spiritual discernment to understand spiritual truth. We can pray that Jesus will bestow on them the mind of Christ. And we can pray that God the Father will prepare great wonders of salvation for them. Our own humility and joy in response to our salvation is also a powerful testimony to the powerful work of the Trinity in our lives.

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 06, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

The Cross in Prayer

We too often think of the Cross of Christ as something we have to get through, yet we get through for the purpose of getting into it. The Cross represents only one thing for us- complete, entire, absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ- and there is nothing in which this identification is more real to us than in prayer.
"Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him" ( Matthew 6:8  ). Then why should we ask? The point of prayer is not to get answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him. If we pray only because we want answers, we will become irritated and angry with God. We receive an answer every time we pray, but it does not always come in the way we expect, and our spiritual irritation shows our refusal to identify ourselves truly with our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove that God answers prayer, but to be living trophies of God's grace.

". . . I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you . . ." ( John 16:26-27  ). Have you reached such a level of intimacy with God that the only thing that can account for your prayer life is that it has become one with the prayer life of Jesus Christ? Has our Lord exchanged your life with His vital life? If so, then "in that day" you will be so closely identified with Jesus that there will be no distinction.

When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to place the blame on someone else. That is always a trap of Satan. When you seem to have no answer, there is always a reason- God uses these times to give you deep personal instruction, and it is not for anyone else but you.
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Your Calling to Judgment

One of the three ways in which we are called as believers, which we looked at in yesterday's devotional, is a call or summons to judgment.  And frankly, the thought of it unsettles me. 

In fact, when I read what the apostle Paul says about the judgment seat of Christ, it is very sobering.  He tells us that someday we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for the works done in the body.  In 2 Corinthians 5:11, he states this about that day,

Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

Think about that for a moment.  Isn't that unsettling to you?

The apostle Paul who wrote the great majority of the New Testament, who walked the known world three times to establish churches and to preach the gospel where it had been previously unpreached, who gave his life, and according to church history, was even martyred for the cause of Christ, refers to the judgment seat of Christ as "the terror of the Lord."

Wow!  That is just unnerving.

Someday I really want to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."  I'm taking God's call seriously.  Now, I am enjoying life to the max, but there is always that serious edge knowing that I am going to have to stand before Jesus someday.

My prayer for you today is that you, too, would take your call before the judgment seat of Christ seriously.  Someday you will stand before our Lord and give an account of every part of your life.

May you hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
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Read: 1 Corinthians 3:1-4
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. - 1 Corinthians 3:1

TODAY IN THE WORD
Recently, some Christian colleges loosened rules for how students dress and spend their leisure time. One reversed its no-dancing policy for students and no-drinking policy for faculty and staff-a long overdue decision, some supporters argued; a harbinger of moral laxity, opponents disputed.
Centuries after the church in Corinth, groups still use different criteria to evaluate spirituality. How do we preserve moral standards and a spiritual climate in our Christian communities? Some denominations value the manifestation of certain spiritual gifts to show that someone is spiritually mature. In other churches, the mastery of biblical knowledge is highly prized. For still other churches or denominations, someone is judged by how moral he is and how well he avoids certain highly visible sins.

The Corinthians judged one another by worldly standards of wisdom and eloquence and classified one another by these false categories. As Paul had argued, their standards were informed by the values of the culture, not the values of the cross. The result was factional in-fighting and attitudes of haughty superiority. Many within the church believed that they had attained a superior wisdom and spiritual standing, and this inflated their sense of self-importance.

Paul takes direct aim at their pride in the opening verses of chapter three. For those who take pride in their supposed spiritual maturity, he calls them worldly and infantile. In fact, he notes that he cannot even address them spiritually when they don't have the spiritual maturity to understand or embrace what he says?

Paul radically redefines worldliness here. It isn't the absence of spiritual knowledge (as the Corinthians might have thought) or moral laxity (as we tend to think). Worldliness is stubborn willfulness and inflated self-importance when it comes to matters of opinion. This attitude of pride and superiority leads to division and to jealousy. Haughty arrogance and self-certainty destroys the health of a Christian community. This is in direct contrast to the attitude of our Savior (see Phil. 2:5-11).
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
When we think about advancing in our spiritual life, we often set our sights on knowing more Scripture, serving more vigorously, and avoiding sin. And all these are good! But we also need to take inventory of our relationships. Do any of those relationships suffer from a willful pride in our heart? Do we esteem ourselves better than another? Have we valued unity in the body of Christ as much as Paul does in his letter to the Corinthians? If there are relationships in your church that you can take a step toward mending, do that today.

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 07, 2010

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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No Plan B

Have you ever thought of the fact that in eternity past God planned for you, me, and every other believer to be His Plan "A" to take His salvation to the world?

Read the words of Jude 1:3,

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

In this verse, Jude is telling those to whom he is writing, "I have written to exhort you, to call you near to God, and that you might contend (literally fight) for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints."

He is referring to the doctrine of Jesus Christ:  His crucifixion, His suffering for our sins, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His imminent return.

Notice his words, though, that it "was once for all delivered."  In other words, God is not changing His plan now.  It was delivered to us to both defend and to declare, once and for all.  There is no Plan B.  We are it.

This means the gospel has literally been entrusted to you and to me as the Church...the body of Christ.  God has chosen that through the foolishness of preaching men would be saved.

The good news of Jesus Christ, God's only method of bringing salvation to a lost and dying world, the only method of changing men and women's eternal destination, has been delivered to us.

Isn't that an awesome thought?  That is why my passion is to bring a living Jesus to a dying world.  Because there is no Plan B.
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Read: 1 Corinthians 3:5-17
And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. - Ephesians 2:22

TODAY IN THE WORD
Wheaton College recently hosted a panel of business leaders to discuss the topic, "Business as Mission." They considered what it might look like to affect issues of global poverty and social injustice by establishing businesses in the poorest countries. One African man, when asked how to most effectively address the dire needs in Africa, answered, "Come and build relationships. Change happens in the context of relationship."
His answer might not surprise us if we know a little something about African culture. It reflects the high priority Africans place on relationship and community. But it's not the way we Americans think. We tend to prize the individual-his rights, his freedoms, and his potential.

That lens is one we have to readily acknowledge (and shed) when we come to a passage like the one we've read today. Paul isn't addressing individual believers in this passage. The testing he alludes to in verses 13 through 15 isn't the testing of one's own individual spiritual life. The temple he refers to in verse 16 isn't the individual body of the believer. This entire passage intends to defend the sacredness of the community of believers, the church. Paul uses three metaphors to explain this: the church as God's field, the church as God's building, and the church as God's temple.

The field, the building, the temple-all belong to God. Although Paul, Apollos, and others have contributed to the work of building the church in Corinth, ultimately it's been fully and completely the work of God. Paul planted, Apollos watered, but the church grew because God made in grow. Paul laid a foundation, others are building on that foundation, but the church stands because Jesus Christ Himself is the foundation. The church is the dwelling place of the Spirit of God, and none can destroy that temple without the judgment of God falling heavy upon him.

This means that the factions into which the church at Corinth has splintered are ridiculous. They deny the unity and sacredness of God's church.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
How often do you think of your identity beyond individual categories? What would it look like to consider more seriously the importance of your participation in your church? Would you treat the relationships you share with your brothers and sisters as more sacred? Would you expend more energy toward building up and serving the local church of which you are a part? It is all too easy to have a consumer mentality toward church: what does it provide me? How am I growing? What different questions does the passage beckon us to ask?

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 08, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

Prayer in the Father's Honor
 
. . . that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God -Luke 1:35

If the Son of God has been born into my human flesh, then am I allowing His holy innocence, simplicity, and oneness with the Father the opportunity to exhibit itself in me? What was true of the Virgin Mary in the history of the Son of God's birth on earth is true of every saint. God's Son is born into me through the direct act of God; then I as His child must exercise the right of a child- the right of always being face to face with my Father through prayer. Do I find myself continually saying in amazement to the commonsense part of my life, "Why did you want me to turn here or to go over there? 'Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?' " ( Luke 2:49  ). Whatever our circumstances may be, that holy, innocent, and eternal Child must be in contact with His Father.

Am I simple enough to identify myself with my Lord in this way? Is He having His wonderful way with me? Is God's will being fulfilled in that His Son has been formed in me (see Galatians 4:19  ), or have I carefully pushed Him to one side? Oh, the noisy outcry of today! Why does everyone seem to be crying out so loudly? People today are crying out for the Son of God to be put to death. There is no room here for God's Son right now- no room for quiet, holy fellowship and oneness with the Father.

Is the Son of God praying in me, bringing honor to the Father, or am I dictating my demands to Him? Is He ministering in me as He did in the time of His manhood here on earth? Is God's Son in me going through His passion, suffering so that His own purposes might be fulfilled? The more a person knows of the inner life of God's most mature saints, the more he sees what God's purpose really is: to ". . . fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . ." ( Colossians 1:24  ). And when we think of what it takes to "fill up," there is always something yet to be done.
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Forgetting the Past

Philippians 3:13. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
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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Read: 1 Corinthians 3:18-23
It is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. - 2 Corinthians 10:18

TODAY IN THE WORD
Beauty pageants, Disney princesses, and Barbie: in recent generations, they've fueled the ire of some and sparked cultural debate. The ideal of feminine beauty plastered on magazine covers and media screens seems dangerously unattainable, and considering the power of digital photo enhancement, altogether false.
The standard we use to compare ourselves matters. We judge ourselves by how we look, how smart we are, and how successful we deem ourselves to be.

What about in the church? The point that Paul makes in the final verses of chapter three is that we can't be too careful when choosing the standard by which we judge ourselves, especially in the area of spiritual maturity.

The Corinthians had imbibed the cultural values of their day. They bought into the lie that what matters most is how eloquently one speaks and how much one knows. What mattered most in Corinthian culture was the so-called wisdom one had attained. This had created a dangerous disunity in the church. Each faction boasted of their superiority, and the church divided into "haves" and the "have-nots."

Paul's criticism is clear. Their self-judgment was deluded. They had been deceived. By judging themselves according to false, worldly standards, they had arrived at erroneous conclusions. They were not wise; they were fools. And if they thought themselves to be wise, they needed to cling more closely to the foolish message of the cross and to Jesus Christ, the supreme Fool.

In these final verses of chapter three, Paul inverts a popular saying of Greco-Roman philosophy of that time: "The wise man possesses all things." It was a way of saying that wisdom, or Sophia, mattered more than anything else. Paul's argument goes something like this: "All things are yours, but you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." It encapsulates his whole argument of chapter three: everything belongs to God, and this truth unifies the church and defeats human pride.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
It is so easy to judge ourselves by false standards, isn't it? The world defines our worth by our physical attractiveness, our earning power, and the success of our families. When we judge ourselves by these standards, we can be led falsely into either shame or pride. But the standard Paul sets up throughout the entire letter of 1 Corinthians is radically defined by God: we have the standard of Christ crucified, the foolish wisdom of God who is "our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1:30).

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 09, 2010

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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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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Read: 1 Corinthians 4:1-7
Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. - Romans 14:4

TODAY IN THE WORD
This year, Toyota executives have been called before congressional panels to answer questions regarding the safety of their vehicles. Reports of unintended acceleration (and injuries and death) have obviously alarmed the general public, and these executives were called to give an account for their products.
All of us are accountable to someone. If we work for a company, we're accountable to our boss. When working for the government, we're accountable to the taxpayer. But as servants of the Christ, we're accountable to the Lord. Paul makes the case that neither he nor any other apostle can or should be judged by the Corinthians. Later in the letter, we learn that the Corinthians were in fact second-guessing his authority and performance as an apostle (cf. 9:3). But Paul dismissed their criticism by explaining that he and the other apostles have been appointed by God and are ultimately accountable to God. No other judgment but God's matters. The Corinthians, who think they are so wise, are not in a position to judge Paul, and Paul certainly doesn't make it his goal to please them or curry their favor. The tone of the letter and the force of his criticisms are evidence enough of that.

Paul even disqualifies himself from the task of judging his own heart. Though his conscience is clear, he does not presume to be the final word in his own judgment. When Christ returns, He will judge. He is the arbiter of what is true. He can evaluate the motives of our hearts. And He is the only one whose commendation matters.

Again and again, Paul deals a blow to human pride and arrogance. Our ability to judge the hearts of others-even to judge our own motives completely-is flawed. Everything we have, we've been given by God. There is no reason for boasting of the privileges and gifts we've received. And there cannot be boasting before the Lord's return, for only then will we finally know the truth of the content of our character, our conduct, and our service.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
This passage teaches us never to presume that we are fully blameless in any given situation. We can rationally analyze any situation and deduce that our methods and motives have been pure. But the truth is that we cannot with certainty understand ourselves. There are unexplored places in our hearts and minds we do not know. Peter was an example of this. "Lord, I will die with you!" he declared emphatically when only a short time later, he denied the Lord three times. Pray the words of Psalm 139:23-24 and trust God to be the judge.

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 10, 2010

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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Six Times We Should Seek God

But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul (Deuteronomy 4:29).

In today's devotional, I want to show you the first three of six times we should seek the Lord:

1.  When we have sinned. 

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

If you sin, do not run from God, run to Him.  Do not allow shame to keep you          away.

2.  When we are feeling dry spiritually.

O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water (Psalm 63:1).

When you sense a distance between you and God, or if you feel dry spiritually, do not delay!  Seek Him early.

When my potted plants feel dry, I water them.  I do not wait until they turn brown and are almost dead.  If the soil is dry and the leaves begin to droop, they are in need of water right then, and so it is when you are feeling spiritually dry.

One of the keys to keeping potted plants-and our spiritual lives-healthy is to tend to them early.

3.  When we are fearful.

I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears (Psalm 34:4).

When you are fearful or anxious, it is time to seek the Lord.  When you seek Him you can expect to be delivered from all of your fears!   
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Read: 1 Corinthians 4:8-20
For Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses. . . . For when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:10

TODAY IN THE WORD
In A.D. 155, Polycarp, the 86-year-old Christian bishop of Smyrna, was brought into the city arena where the Roman governor demanded he swear allegiance to Caesar. The crowd murderously chanted, "Death to the godless! Death to Polycarp!" Refusing to renounce Christ, Polycarp was tied to the stake, and the straw and wood kindling were doused with oil and the fire lit.
Many Christians still suffer violent persecution across the globe, and the possibility of martyrdom was real for apostles like Paul, who suffered innumerable hardships. Commitment to Christ and missionary work cost them material comfort and personal reputation. Hunger, thirst, homelessness, public ridicule-these followers paid a high price for faith in Jesus.

Contrasted with the willingness of the apostles to suffer hardship for the gospel is the Corinthians' attitude of entitlement. They saw themselves as meriting the treatment of kings! We've already seen how the Corinthians had been lured into the corrupt and godless value system of the culture around them. They prized the wisdom of the world rather than the Cross. And because they saw themselves as already possessing this worldly wisdom, it had only served to inflate their self-regard. In fact, Paul notes that they are so self-satisfied that they have no hunger for the things of God (v. . Paul had to challenge such arrogance, and he does so by holding up as example the suffering of the apostles.

If God had meant for each of His followers to achieve the stature of kings and queens, why had He subjected the apostles to such public humiliation? In verse nine, God is compared to a victorious Roman general who parades triumphantly after battle through the city, His enemies trailing behind Him in procession. Surprisingly, those at the end of the procession aren't the enemies of God. They are the apostles themselves! No special, privileged treatment is reserved for the apostles. Instead, they are humiliated in the worst kind of way, having become "the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world" (v. 13).
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
What demands have we put on God? Do we believe that we deserve certain things from Him or that we should be exempt from hardship? Would we rather be content with the trappings of the world's comfort and success than eagerly pursue the kingdom of God? The suffering of the apostles proves that while God is certainly good and faithful, bad things can happen to His people. In fact, the Bible promises suffering to those who want to follow Christ faithfully (2 Tim. 3:12). Our hope is that God's strength is made perfect when we are most weak.

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 11, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

This Experience Must Come
 
Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha . . . saw him no more -2 Kings 2:11-12

It is not wrong for you to depend on your "Elijah" for as long as God gives him to you. But remember that the time will come when he must leave and will no longer be your guide and your leader, because God does not intend for him to stay. Even the thought of that causes you to say, "I cannot continue without my 'Elijah.' " Yet God says you must continue.

Alone at Your "Jordan" ( Kings 2:14  ). The Jordan River represents the type of separation where you have no fellowship with anyone else, and where no one else can take your responsibility from you. You now have to put to the test what you learned when you were with your "Elijah." You have been to the Jordan over and over again with Elijah, but now you are facing it alone. There is no use in saying that you cannot go- the experience is here, and you must go. If you truly want to know whether or not God is the God your faith believes Him to be, then go through your "Jordan" alone.

Alone at Your "Jericho" ( 2 Kings 2:15  ). Jericho represents the place where you have seen your "Elijah" do great things. Yet when you come alone to your "Jericho," you have a strong reluctance to take the initiative and trust in God, wanting, instead, for someone else to take it for you. But if you remain true to what you learned while with your "Elijah," you will receive a sign, as Elisha did, that God is with you.

Alone at Your "Bethel" ( 2 Kings 2:23 ). At your "Bethel" you will find yourself at your wits' end but at the beginning of God's wisdom. When you come to your wits' end and feel inclined to panic- don't! Stand true to God and He will bring out His truth in a way that will make your life an expression of worship. Put into practice what you learned while with your "Elijah"- use his mantle and pray (see 2 Kings 2:13-14  ). Make a determination to trust in God, and do not even look for Elijah anymore.
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Six Times We Should Seek God (Part Two)

In yesterday's devotional, we looked at three times we should seek God. Today we will look at three more:

4.  When we are in trouble.

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my hand was stretched       out in the night without ceasing; my soul refused to be comforted (Psalm 77:2).

In Hosea 5:15 the Lord says, "...in their affliction they will earnestly    seek me."

I don't like to admit it, but the truth is that at times I have sought God more earnestly when I have been in trouble.  Problems have a way of getting us on our knees.  If you are in trouble today - seek Him!

5.  When all is well.

Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His face evermore! (Psalm 105:4).

If you will carefully read the preceding verses of this psalm, you will find that the context is one of blessing and not trouble.

This may be the most important time of all to seek Him.  May we never become smug and think that we do not need God when all is well.

6.  Continually.

Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His face evermore!

(1 Chronicles 16:11).

The word evermore in this verse means continually or at all times.

When you have sinned, when you are dry, when you are afraid, when you are in trouble, when all is well, and in any other situation - you need to seek God!
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Read: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13
Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? - 1 Corinthians 5:6

TODAY IN THE WORD
In recent years the Roman Catholic Church has been riddled with scandal and charged with complicity in numerous accounts of child abuse by clergy. Victims who were sexually abused as children by their priests have come forward to say that church leaders knew of the abuse and yet refused to do anything about it. Are silent church leaders any less guilty than the abusers themselves?
Paul levels a charge of complicit sin against the Corinthians in today's reading. With the knowledge of the church, a man was still publicly enjoying an incestuous relationship with his father's wife. It's a grievous sin that even the pagans themselves would have disdained. The church had done nothing about it. In fact, Paul describes their attitude as arrogant (once again)!

What we have in this passage are solemn words of instruction. First, Paul wants his readers to understand what it means to be the church. The blood of the Passover Lamb, Christ, has given us a distinct identity as God's covenant community. The moral standards to which we are held are different than the moral standards of the prevailing culture. Not only that, but the way we treat church members who compromise those standards is different than the way we would treat those outside the church.

When flagrant sin has been committed in the church, and when there has been no remorse or repentance (as seems to be the case here), the church's first reaction should be grief (v. 2). We hardly need explosive, self-righteous tirades. We need tears. We are called to grieve the power of sin to destroy fellowship with God and the integrity of the church's identity.

Grieve, we must, and with that sorrow we must also exclude the guilty person from our fellowship (v. 9). This is an act of hope. By handing "this man over to Satan" (v. 5), by removing him from the protection and privilege of one belonging to the church community, we pray fervently that his new vulnerability will renew a fear of God and ignite repentance.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Church discipline is rare today, probably because we're confused about our responsibilities and the biblical commands. This case from 1 Corinthians contains several elements to guide us. First, this man's sin was egregious; second, he was continuing in that sin publicly and shamelessly. We don't need to be scouring each other's lives to find places of moral failure, but when there is shameless, unrepentant, and public sin in our church, that must be dealt with. Matthew 18:15-20 gives us further instruction for this process.

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 12, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

The Theology of Resting in God
 
Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? -Matthew 8:26

When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point, then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of those people who do not even know God. We come to our wits' end, showing that we don't have even the slightest amount of confidence in Him or in His sovereign control of the world. To us He seems to be asleep, and we can see nothing but giant, breaking waves on the sea ahead of us.

". . . O you of little faith!" What a stinging pain must have shot through the disciples as they surely thought to themselves, "We missed the mark again!" And what a sharp pain will go through us when we suddenly realize that we could have produced complete and utter joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, in spite of what we were facing.

There are times when there is no storm or crisis in our lives, and we do all that is humanly possible. But it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to place our trust in Him, the crisis will reveal that we can go to the point of breaking, yet without breaking our confidence in Him.

We have been talking quite a lot about sanctification, but what will be the result in our lives? It will be expressed in our lives as a peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness with Him. And this oneness will make us not only blameless in His sight, but also a profound joy to Him.
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True Satisfaction

Isaiah 14:12-15 records the fall of Satan.  Created as God's archangel, we read about the dissatisfaction that got him in trouble,

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!  For you have said in your heart:  'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'  Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit."

Clearly his problem was pride.  "I will, I will, I will...I am going to be like God."  He wasn't satisfied with being the archangel that God had created him to be.  He wanted to take God's place.

The root of Satan's pride was his discontent with the post and station that the supreme Monarch of the universe had assigned and allotted him.  He thought he deserved better.

We all have our sphere of influence, and we all have our gifting from God.  Your sphere of influence and gifting are different than mine, and mine are different than yours.  It is unwise to desire something that someone else has rather than exploring what God has given you and developing that to its highest potential.

When you look over the fence, it looks like the grass is greener on the other side, but when you hop over, you find out it is spray-painted!

You will only be satisfied if you will develop what God has put inside of you and take that to its highest level possible.  That is what you will be rewarded for.
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Read: 1 Corinthians 6:1-11
If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment? - 1 Corinthians 6:1

TODAY IN THE WORD
In 2009, Jonathan Lee Riches earned the honor in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most litigious man: he had sued scores of people, including the coach of the New England Patriots and Martha Stewart. How did Riches handle the prestigious nomination to a world record? Why, he sued, of course.
In the United States, the most litigious nation in the world, we're well acquainted with the subject of today's reading: lawsuits. The Corinthians also lived in a litigious culture. There are some differences between the historical context and what should be true today. The majority of plaintiffs in the Corinthian context would have been wealthy and privileged. The judges, too, would have shared a high social status. This corrupted the legal system. court cases were a sham. Lawsuits were decided in favor of those with the most money, power, and social standing.

The Corinthians participated in this unjust system. Apparently, believers within the church were taking other believers to court. And based upon the historical evidence, the privileged and wealthy were cheating and defrauding their poorer brothers. Paul would not tolerate such behavior in the community of saints, and he gives a number of reasons why.

First, he frames the issue as an eschatological one, calling to mind eternal realities. In eternity, we will judge the angels. Can it be, then, that no believer in the Corinthian church is competent for judging disputes of "trivial matters" today? (Notice Paul's ironic use of the word, wise, in verse 5.) Can these cases be rightly discerned by "the wicked," those who will not inherit God's kingdom?

The real question concerns identity. Just as in the case of flagrant sin in the church, unlawful court cases between believers compromised the church's identity. We are God's people, God's family. We are brothers and sisters. Not only does this bear on our relationship in heaven, but it must impact the way we relate to each other here and now.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Paul challenges the Corinthian believers to be willing to suffer wrong and be cheated rather than do anything to compromise the unity and integrity of the church. Whether or not you've actually brought a formal lawsuit against another believer, maybe it's true that you've drawn up a list of "charges" against another brother or sister. You've spent time enumerating the ways you've been wronged. You've tallied the offenses and declared a verdict. What might God say to you today through today's reading?


GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 13, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

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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True Redemption

The passage of Scripture I want to call your attention to today is Ephesians 4:8-10,

Therefore He says:  "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men."  (Now this, "He ascended"-what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?  He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

Before Jesus ascended, what did He do?  He descended.  I didn't write that.  The Bible says that.  And when He descended, what did He do?  He led captivity captive.  That refers to the Old Testament saints who were in what is called "Abraham's bosom" or Paradise.

Jesus went down there.  They were in captivity in the sense that they could not go to heaven until Christ's sacrifice.  But after Christ died, having paid the price for our sins, He went and emptied Paradise and He led captivity captive.  He brought those saints up to heaven.

Here is what I want you to picture.  Jesus, through His death and resurrection,  defeated hell and death.  He took the keys away from the devil, stripped him of his power and his authority, and won redemption for the human race.  Then He went to Paradise and there He saw Abraham, David, Moses, Ezekiel, Joshua, Esther, Ruth-all of the people who served the Lord under the Old Covenant.

He threw the door open and said, "Hey, guys!  Time to come home!   It's been done!  The thing the prophets prophesied about, here I am!  I am the reality.  Time to leave this place and come to heaven with me!"

Then He who descended, ascended, leading all of those Old Testament saints to heaven with Him!  And He sent back the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost to empower us to tell the story of His resurrection and His victory.

Let us make that our passion!  To proclaim the resurrected Jesus who has paid the price for our redemption.
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Read: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

TODAY IN THE WORD
Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1850, provoked a maelstrom of public outrage at the institution of slavery. The novel gives voice to the suffering of slaves, such as this Kentucky slave named George: "Why, now comes my master, takes me right away from my work, and my friends, and all I like, and grinds me down into the very dirt! And why? Because he says, I forgot who I was. . . . I am desperate. I'll fight for my liberty to the last breath I breathe!"
To George, freedom was something worth dying for. And freedom is central to the gospel of Jesus. Paul preached and wrote extensively about the freedom Jesus Christ purchased for us on the cross: the freedom from sin and the freedom for restored fellowship with God. But the Corinthians had been abusing their freedom in Christ. Today's reading brings us to the first of several examples of that abuse.

Their freedom had been used to justify sexual misconduct. It might have been that the Corinthian men were continuing in the accepted cultural practice of visiting prostitutes. But their promiscuity might also have been broader than that. The line of defense by which they had justified their actions sounds something like this: In Christ, we are free to do what we want. There is no law that forbids us these sexual pleasures. And of what consequence is it really, for do our physical bodies matter? The stomach for food, food for the stomach-and well, we know why we have our sex organs!

Paul counters their rationalizations with a theological framework. Here he seizes yet another opportunity to address the subject of identity: every Christian believer is part of the body of Christ. This isn't merely a symbolic or mystical reality. It means that our physical bodies, every appendage, organ, and skin cell, belong to God. Our bodies do matter. They will one day be resurrected just as Jesus was raised bodily.

Do we dare join what is holy to what is defiled? Can we carelessly desecrate the dwelling place of God?
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
We easily slip into Gnostic thinking, a danger many of the early Christians also faced. Gnosticism taught that the spiritual was good and the material was bad. With such a view, it would be easy to diminish the importance of the body. But this passage today clearly challenges that kind of thinking. Our bodies matter to God, and this will force us to confront a number of things in our own lives: body image, sexual behavior, eating practices, and addiction to unhealthy substances.
 
GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 14, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him -Hebrews 12:5

It is very easy to grieve the Spirit of God; we do it by despising the discipline of the Lord, or by becoming discouraged when He rebukes us. If our experience of being set apart from sin and being made holy through the process of sanctification is still very shallow, we tend to mistake the reality of God for something else. And when the Spirit of God gives us a sense of warning or restraint, we are apt to say mistakenly, "Oh, that must be from the devil."

"Do not quench the Spirit" ( 1 Thessalonians 5:19  ), and do not despise Him when He says to you, in effect, "Don't be blind on this point anymore- you are not as far along spiritually as you thought you were. Until now I have not been able to reveal this to you, but I'm revealing it to you right now." When the Lord disciplines you like that, let Him have His way with you. Allow Him to put you into a right-standing relationship before God.

". . . nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him." We begin to pout, become irritated with God, and then say, "Oh well, I can't help it. I prayed and things didn't turn out right anyway. So I'm simply going to give up on everything." Just think what would happen if we acted like this in any other area of our lives!

Am I fully prepared to allow God to grip me by His power and do a work in me that is truly worthy of Himself? Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me- sanctification is God's idea of what He wants to do for me. But He has to get me into the state of mind and spirit where I will allow Him to sanctify me completely, whatever the cost (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24  ).
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Search the Scriptures

After Paul preached the gospel to the Bereans, they did something that others had not done-they searched the Scriptures.

These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so (Acts 17:11).

According to the next verse, the result of their search was that many of them believed.

Jesus said in John 5:39, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me."

I once heard a Jewish believer share his testimony.  His daughter, who had become a Christian, challenged him to read through the New Testament.

He began in Matthew and was astonished to find so many Old Testament references to the Messiah being fulfilled by Jesus.

His initial reason for searching the Scriptures was to prove that his daughter was wrong, but instead, he ended up giving his heart to Christ.  The Scriptures testified of Jesus!

Look for Him as you read the Holy Scriptures, and encourage others to do the same.
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Read: 1 Corinthians 7:1-24
Keeping God's commands is what counts. - 1 Corinthians 7:19

TODAY IN THE WORD
Legalism is an ever-present danger in the church. It's tempting to find confidence by the rules we're keeping. Legalism confuses universal biblical truth with the preferences of any one community, and then asserts its own spiritual superiority over others not adhering to its rules and preferences.
The struggle of the Corinthians with legalism in today's reading might seem surprising, given our earlier study of their abuse of freedom. In fact, both problems plagued this church. Someone (or some faction) in the community had reportedly been teaching that it was best for everyone, married and unmarried alike, to remain abstinent. And just a chapter earlier, Paul was forbidding the Corinthians from having sexual intercourse with prostitutes! It may be that because the Corinthian community was fractured by dissent, one faction had been reveling in their "freedom" in Christ while another had been forbidding every kind of sexual activity. Notice that both extremes are rooted in a disregard for the bodies God has created.

To set the record straight about sex and marriage, Paul answers a letter that the Corinthians had written to him previously. He had been asked to either validate or refute this teaching on sex. Paul answers this way: first, sexual intercourse is reserved for marriage. Second, within the confines of the marriage relationship, husbands and wives should enjoy sex frequently.

The reasons are two-fold. First, a wife's body belongs to her husband, and the husband's body belongs to his wife. Second, the temptation to sexual immorality is real. When husbands and wives enjoy healthy and meaningful sex in their marriage, this serves to protect them from sinfully pursuing their passions and pleasures in illicit relationships.

The key verses of today's reading are verses 17 and 24. They explain in part how it is that we must understand and live out our identity in Christ. One godly saint echoed Paul when he said, "Our sanctification does not depend as much on changing our activities as it does on doing them for God rather than for ourselves."
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
This weekend, take some time to think through your own identity. On a sheet of paper, make a list of the words you would use to describe yourself. When you have finished, review your words in light of what 1 Corinthians has said about our identity. Are there any attributes that you rank too highly? Do you need a stronger grasp of your membership in the body of Christ? In your prayer time, ask God to shape your understanding of your actions and attitudes as a Christian.

GOD BLESS!