Love Worth Finding

[Judy Harder]

November 12

Hungry for God

"With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation." - Psalm 91:16

One day I was eating in a cafeteria in New York when the door of the restaurant opened and a man ran in. He rushed to a table that had been abandoned by patrons just shortly before. He began to stuff his mouth with the leftovers when the management discovered him. He rushed out like a squirrel scurrying to safety. No pride. He didn't care what people thought.

A man who is starving is dead serious about the matter of getting food. He's focused. He's only got one thing on his mind—where is his next meal? He's not concerned about popularity, position, or possessions.

What are you hungry for today? Is Jesus enough to satisfy your appetite?

When a person is thirsty or hungry enough, he will pay any price.

[Judy Harder]

November 13

Ask for Help from the Teacher

"Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." - Psalm 119:18

Have you ever thought you could just go to the Bible and pull some truth out of it for your life? Let me tell you friend: you cannot do that. Your mind will never comprehend the things of God apart from the Holy Spirit illuminating you.

First, we must lay our intellectual pride in the dust, and with open arms and a heart of faith, approach God's Word for wisdom, discernment, and knowledge. Then He will teach us.

It took a supernatural miracle to write the Word of God. It takes a supernatural miracle for you to understand it. When God begins to write His Word upon your heart, you are going to lead a supernatural life! Ask Him for that!

[Judy Harder]

November 14

Whose Clothes Are You Wearing?

"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." - Isaiah 61:10

There are some who may be reading this who are going to be absolutely speechless when they stand before the King of Heaven. They are church members, but they're not saved. Instead, they're dressed in the rags of self-righteousness rather than the wedding garment of His righteousness.

In 1834 hymn writer Edward Mote wrote this timeless pledge, "When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh may I then in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne."

It would be tragic indeed for those who acted in every conceivable religious way to think they can come to the wedding without Christ's righteousness. I'm not trying to get you to doubt your salvation, but I want to ask you, are you saved? How do you know?

[Judy Harder]

November 15

Is There Enough "Goodness" in Your Cup?

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." - Isaiah 64:6

There is none good, no not one. If you asked every single human being on planet earth to deposit in a cup all of his or her goodness, there would not be enough goodness in that cup to save even one person!

Isaiah 64:6 says our righteousness is as "filthy rags" in the sight of God. The cross of Jesus Christ is our only hope. Jesus took our sin upon the cross. Jesus took our shame upon the cross. Jesus took our suffering upon the cross. And by His death, He paid the sin debt and now we have His righteousness.

In 1906, Jessie Brown Pounds wrote these words: "I must needs go home by the way of the cross, there's no other way but this; I shall ne'er get sight of the gates of light, if the way of the cross I miss."

Get this clear with yourself: Whose righteousness are you depending on? Your own? Your accumulated lifetime of "good works"? Or the righteousness of the sinless Lamb of God, Who became your substitute on the Cross and paid your sin debt in full?

[Judy Harder]

November 17

An Extreme Make-Over is Underway

"Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified." - Romans 8:30

Dr. Scofield, who edited the Scofield Bible, says that "predestination is the effective exercise of the will of God by which things before determined by Him are brought to pass." That is, God says He is determined to do something and then He does it. God's wisdom is sovereign.

What did God predestinate? That those whom God foreknew will be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, who is the Firstborn.

God had one Son and He said, "I want more just like Him." And so God is redeeming a whole race of people, so that all these people might be conformed to the image of God's Son.

If you are saved, you are predestined to be like Jesus. When God foreknew that you would receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then He said, "It is settled. You will one day be like My Son."

Thank God for what He has done and is going to do, in shaping you into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.