Love Worth Finding

[Judy Harder]

JUNE 24

Are You Limiting God?

"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." - 1 Corinthians 1:27

People say, "Well, I don't believe God can use me." You're insulting God. You're limiting Him. "Well," you say, "all right then, I'll just serve God in my poor little old weak way." Quit it! He doesn't want you to serve him in your "poor little old weak way." God wants to take ordinary people and do extraordinary things through them! This is the kind of people God wants to use. He delights to use them. He's done it from the dawn on time! Gideon, Deborah, young Samuel, Ruth the widow, David the shepherd boy, Esther the orphan, Matthew the tax collector. Don't forget Cornelius, the member of an occupying army; Saul, the church-persecutor; Peter, the denier; and John Mark, the deserter.

It's not your fame; it's your faith. It's not your scholarship; it's your relationship. It's not your ability; it is your availability. It's not who you know; it's Whose you are that counts.

[Judy Harder]

JUNE 25

Gain What You Cannot Lose

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." - Philippians 1:21

Jim Elliot, martyred missionary to the Aucas in Ecuador, wrote in the flyleaf of his Bible, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." He's talking about giving his life for Christ and the gospel.

I'll tell you, in these days the most dangerous thing you can do is to play it safe. You are safer out on the waves with Jesus Christ than you are in the boat without Him. These are desperate days, and we need to live like it.

Don't just sit there and let life pass you by! You're going to die anyway. You can't save your life. You're not going to get out of it alive. And so you might as well invest it in something important.

[Judy Harder]

JUNE 26

The Sin of Silence

"For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." - Acts 4:20

Andrew Murray said, "There are two classes of Christians: soul winners, and backsliders." In my estimation, there are two great sins a Christian can commit: the greatest is to fail to love the Lord Jesus. The second greatest is not adultery or drunkenness, but it is the sin of silence—to refuse to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Suppose you knew the cure for cancer. Would you not tell it? Suppose you were on an island where people were starving to death, and you knew where there was a vast hoard of food. Would you not share what you knew?

Ours is the greatest mission, the greatest message, the greatest Master the world knows anything about. Our mission is the great commission. Our message is the saving gospel of our Lord and Savior, and our master, Jesus Christ Himself, has told us we must take the gospel to every creature on earth. Yet many Christians are sinning against this command. They're committing what I call "the sin of silence." If you're not a witness, you're not right with God, I don't care what else you may do.

I care not how faithfully you attend, how eloquently you teach, how liberally you give, how circumspectly you walk or how beautifully you sing. If you're not witnessing, you're not right with God.

[Judy Harder]

JUNE 27

Good News

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" - Isaiah 52:7

I once heard of a pastor who received word from the war department that a young soldier, reported missing in action and assumed dead, was found alive! His mother had already been informed of his death. And now they asked this pastor to be the one to tell her that her son was alive.

Do you think this pastor said, "Well, I've got a little vacation I'm going to take first, and I want to play some golf"? Of course not! What a thrill to deliver that a message! I want to tell you, there ought to be that thrill and urgency in my heart and yours every time we tell a poor, sin-sick, lost, and undone sinner there is good news that Christ died for our sins.

If you know the gospel of Jesus Christ, and you're not interested in sharing it, I sincerely doubt you've ever been saved. How could a person know the gospel and not want to share it?

[Judy Harder]

JUNE 30

Simply Obey

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord." - Isaiah 55:8

The Bible is not primarily a book to be explained; it is first and foremost a book to be believed and obeyed. Whether you understand it or not, when God says it, you just simply obey it.

And don't substitute human reasoning for obedience. So many times we like to tell God how He ought to do things. I can imagine those early disciples when Saul was making havoc of the church and hauling Christians off to prison and death. I imagine there were many praying, "Oh, God, do something about Saul. Strike him dead." But God didn't want to strike him dead. God struck him alive! And aren't you glad He did?

Isn't it strange how God works? You see, our ways and God's ways are so different. This is when we have to say, "I will trust You and obey."

[Judy Harder]

JULY 1

God Reigns, Rules, Overrules and Overrides

"The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever He will." - Proverbs 21:1

God can change a ruler, God can remove a ruler, and God can overrule a ruler.

You ask, "Should I pray for my leader if he's wicked?" You ought to pray all the more for him. Why?  Because the Bible says, "I exhort therefore, that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior." - 1Timothy 2:1-3

The greatest responsibility in America is not in the White House but in the church house. We're to pray for our government. Pray for those who are in authority.

Would you pray for America right now? You might pray, "Oh God, bless America. Lord, we deserve judgment, but we need mercy. Bring this nation, Lord, back to You. The troubles that we see in our land are tokens of Your love to bring us to our knees. Lord, it's beyond us. God, we need You in America."

[Judy Harder]

JULY 2

You Are the Salt

"Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." - Matthew 5:13

Edmund Burke wrote, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." When it comes to the political scene and government, there are some who have dropped out all together. They have the idea that if you get involved in government, somehow that is the "social gospel." So they've just hunkered down, trying to "hold on till Jesus gets here." They see the political scene as being dirty and worldly. And some have been intimidated by the great debate between church and state.

We can't drop out. It's impossible to think that God would have ordained government and told His people to stay out. Who else does that leave to run things?

Others with misguided zeal have tried to bring in the kingdom of God by political machinations. That cannot be done either. So where do we get the answers? We're not going to get the answers today from the politician who may have his personal ax to grind or from the ungodly and the humanists who don't believe the Word of God, or from finger-bumping philosophers who don't know the Word of God. The only place we're going to get the answers, I believe, is from the Word of God.

We need to confess and turn from our wicked ways. We need to speak up and stand up for what is right. Let your speech be seasoned with salt. But stand up, speak up and come out from under the rock. Stand on the rock and speak up for the Lord Jesus Christ.

[Judy Harder]

JULY 3

Turning the Tide

"I exhort therefore that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.  For this is good and acceptable and right in the sight of God our Savior." - I Timothy 2:1-3

When I was a boy in Florida, we lived at the seaside. I love the water and one of the things that always intrigued me as a boy was the changing of the tide. As we'd go out fishing, my brother and I would always be cognizant of the tides because we would come and go by the tides. The tides were important to us.

There are tides in nations too. America saw a tide of revival sweep in twice—in the First and Second Great Awakenings. But today we've seen a different tide. At this lowest point, when the tide is as low as it can get, may God grant that we see the tide begin to turn, back the other way, back to decency in America, back to standing up for the unborn.

We need to look up. Only God can help us. We need to confess up and turn from our wicked ways. We need to speak up and we need to stand up for what is right.  Pray 1Timothy 2:1-3 today.

[Judy Harder]

JULY 4

God Has Ordained Human Government

"And He changeth the times and the seasons; He removeth kings and raiseth up kings...." - Daniel 2:21

What does the Word of God have to say about government?  It teaches that God has ordained human government. The prophet Daniel said that God is the one who removes kings and God is the one who sets up kings. And Romans13 teaches that the powers that be are ordained of God.

What about wicked governments? Did God set them up? It may surprise you to learn, yes, He did. That does not mean they are God's will. God would much rather have righteousness. But by and large people get the kind of government they deserve. Wicked leaders are God's reward for a wicked people.

What are we to do as a church? What is my responsibility so far as government is concerned? First of all, we are to pray for our government. We need to pray for leaders even if they are wrong"For this is good and acceptable and right in the sight of God our Savior" (1 Timothy 2:3).I am calling upon you to confess your sins personally and our sins nationally. And I am calling upon you to pray for America as Daniel prayed for his people—in the power of the shed blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is prayer time in America.

[Judy Harder]

JULY 7

Yes, God Is Holding Us Accountable!

"We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments." - Daniel 9:5

Daniel prayed, "We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and Thy judgments." You ask, "Did Daniel do all that?" No, Daniel simply included himself in his prayer for his nation.

Does God hold me accountable for the abortion in America? Yes! Does God hold me accountable for the pornography? Yes! For the drug addiction, alcoholism, materialism, humanism? Yes, He does. Friend, if the church had done what she ought to have done, and if we would do what we ought to do, then these problems would be healed. And while we may not commit these sins, they are still our sins. Verse 20 of this same chapter makes it so clear: "While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel...."

Now, people who don't know God aren't going to confess the sin of this nation. Like Daniel, we must set our face and pray with reflection and repentance, confessing our sin and the sin of America. Only sin that is confessed is forgiven.

Have you ever set your face to prayer? So much of our prayer, I hate to say, is casual prayer, prayer that comes with almost a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. When are we going to set our face before God with fasting and determination?