Turning Point with David Jeremiah

[Judy Harder]

Wednesday, May 25

Helmets and Cauliflowers

And take the helmet of salvation....
Ephesians 6:17a

Recommended Reading
Romans 8:5-9


Each of us owns a jewel more valuable than any displayed at Cartier's or Tiffany's. It's a three-pound blob of gray pulp resembling a rotting cauliflower. This jewel is the most incredible creation in God's universe, a fabulous, living supercomputer with unfathomable circuitry and unimaginable complexity. It's the human brain--a collection of billions of neurons, each as complex as a small computer. Yet the brain is only as useful as the material it feeds on. Our thoughts should be fixed on Christ and filled with His Word.

The Bible tells us to set our minds on things above, not on the things of earth (Colossians 3:2). Wearing the helmet of salvation means our minds are protected by the saving truth of Christ. We're transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2), for those who live according to the Spirit set their mind on what the Spirit desires (Romans 8:5).

Psalm 37:3 tells us, "Feed on His faithfulness." Be careful what goes into your mind today. Remember that it's the battleground of the soul--and Christ has won the victory.

Our defeat or victory begins with what we think; and if we guard our thoughts, we shall not have much trouble anywhere else along the line.
Vance Havner

Read-Thru-the-Bible
Job 14:1-16:22

:angel:Thursday, May 26

Salty Language

Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
Colossians 4:6

Recommended Reading
Colossians 4:2-6


There's an old saying: "What's down in the well comes up in the bucket." That's another way of making our Lord's point in Matthew 12:34: "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."

When we have the Scriptures wrapped around our brains like a helmet--especially through Scripture memory and meditation--our minds become filled with God's Word. It saturates our thoughts. As we fall asleep thinking on His promises and wake up with Him on our minds, it changes the patterns of our brains. We discover that we often have a word of encouragement for someone else. If we continually fill our minds with the knowledge of Christ, He will bring the needed words to mind in every situation.

Every good cook knows that salt enhances the flavor of foods. It's not just a matter of giving your meals a salty taste. There's something about salt, used in proper amounts, that brings out the taste of other ingredients and makes them more flavorful.

May God help us salt our conversations today with the flavor of His Word.

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.
Winston Churchill

Read-Thru-the-Bible
Job 17:1-20:29

[Judy Harder]

Friday, May 27

Well Armed

Take...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:17

Recommended Reading
Psalm 119:161-168


When the apostle Paul described the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit, he used an interesting Greek term for "word." He didn't employ the common word logos, but the word rhema. The meaning of rhema tends to emphasize the many sayings of God rather than the unified whole. All of the Bible is God's inspired and infallible Word; but often in our hand-to-hand combat in daily life, it's the specific verses and sayings of Scripture that we need.

Think of the Bible itself as the armory where the individual swords and daggers are stored. Paul's point isn't that we should always carry around a large black Bible for thumping and beating the devil, but that we have individual verses and statements from Scripture unsheathed in our minds and ready to use at a moment's notice.

When we memorize the many truths of the Bible and are prepared to use them, we've got a set of weapons to plunge into Satan as he tries to fill us with doubt, pride, and selfishness.

Are you working on a memory verse today?

The Bible is the Word of God. Period. But in this Word of God, we find those particular sayings that God gives us each day for the battles of life.
David Jeremiah

Read-Thru-the-Bible
Job 21:1-23:17

[Judy Harder]

Weekend, May 28 & 29

Places of Greatness: Riverside Retreat

And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.
Acts 16:13

Recommended Reading
Acts 16:11-15


Battle Creek, Michigan, is called "Cereal City" because it's the world headquarters for America's great cereal companies. But the town got its actual name from the river that flows through it, originally called the Waupakisco River. In 1824, a violent conflict arose there between surveyors and Native Americans. After the fracas, people started calling the place Battle Creek.

In Acts 16, Paul was at "battle creek," fighting for the souls of those who had gathered on the riverside. Lydia and her family were converted, and then others were saved. But the battle for souls turned ugly when Paul was arrested and beaten. Yet even that led to other conversions and to the planting of a church in the city of Philippi.

It's always a battle when we share Christ with others. A spiritual conflict rages in heavenly places as we seek to win souls. But Jesus told us that as we trust Him, rivers of living water would flow from within us. Don't be afraid of the warfare. Seek the lost at any cost and bear your witness boldly for Christ today.

Personal witnessing is hand-to-hand spiritual conflict; therefore, we must use spiritual weapons.
Lorne Sanny

Read-Thru-the-Bible
Job 24:1-31:40

[Judy Harder]

Monday, May 30

Power of the Sword

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12

Recommended Reading
Acts 7:38


In his book The Lost Art of Disciple Making (Zondervan, 1978), Leroy Eims describes his personal battle with anger and a temper. It was not until he made a covenant with God, which included memorizing and meditating on Colossians 3:8 ("But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath . . . ."), that anger loosened its grip on his emotions. He reviewed the verse daily and asked the Lord to bring it to mind whenever he was tempted to lose his temper. The Word of God became a sword with which he was able to win his spiritual battle.

Jesus used Scripture in a similar way. When He was tempted for 40 days and nights in the wilderness by Satan, Jesus rebuffed every temptation by quoting an appropriate verse from Deuteronomy (Matthew 4:1-11). If you are in a spiritual battle, your sword is to be the Word of God--the swordA of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17b). If there is a persistent spiritual battle you fight, memorize a portion of God's living and active Word to gain the victory.

The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me.
Martin Luther

Read-Thru-the-Bible
Job 32:1-34:37

[Judy Harder]

Tuesday, May 31

Making Ready for Battle

. . . praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints--
Ephesians 6:18

Recommended Reading
Philippians 4:6-7


Two soldiers, identically dressed and equipped with the finest battlefield armor and weapons, are sent into battle. One is given awards for bravery, while the other lives with the shame of having deserted his post. Such a rudimentary illustration points out a profound truth: There is more to victory in battle than armor and weapons.

In military warfare terms, call it conviction, attitude, or readiness--the mental preparation that steels one against what might come. In spiritual warfare terms, call it prayer. Paul concluded his description of the Christian's spiritual armor by exhorting the Ephesians to pray "always . . . in the Spirit" and to be "watchful . . . for all the saints." Prayer is that spiritual connection with the One Who is our armor, Jesus Christ Himself. Prayer keeps us in a state of warfare readiness--"sober [and] vigilant" (1 Peter 5:--ever alert for the enemy who is walking about seeking someone to devour.

Be committed to wearing your spiritual armor today. But don't go into battle without the readiness that comes from prayer.

It is in the closet that the battle is lost or won.
Edward Payson

Read-Thru-the-Bible
Job 35:1-37:24

[Judy Harder]

Wednesday, June 1

Battlefield Communication

...Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints--and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly....
Ephesians 6:18-19

Recommended Reading
Ephesians 6:18-24


In Ephesians 6:18-19, we have one of history's first missionary prayer requests. The apostle Paul, having written about the armor of the believer and the urgency of prayer, asked the Ephesians to pray that God would give him the ability to share the Gospel boldly at every opportunity.

Notice the alls in this passage. We're to pray always--at all times. We're to offer all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. We're to pray with all perseverance. And we're to remember all the saints.

In his book on prayer, Samuel D. Gordon wrote that this world is God's prodigal son, and that God has devised a plan for winning His prodigal back. He wants to use us in the process; and our greatest agency is prayer, which, Gordon says, is communication between God and His allies in the enemy's country. We're behind enemy lines, but prayer is our connection with the Commander.

Let's take prayer seriously and always offer all prayer in the Spirit with all perseverance for all the saints.

Communion is the basis of all prayer. It is the essential breath of the true Christian life.
S. D. Gordon

Read-Thru-the-Bible
Job 38:1-39:30

[Judy Harder]

Thursday, June 2

Save This Date!

Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
Matthew 24:42

Recommended Reading
Acts 1:4-8


"Save this date!" That's the slogan of those proffering specific dates for the return of Jesus Christ to earth.

The fourth-century Christian writer, Lactantius, determined Jesus would return in AD 520. Many believed Jesus would come in the year 1000, causing adherents to stay up all night on New Year's Eve of 999, awaiting the great event. Some among the Anabaptists believed Christ would come in 1533--exactly 1500 years after His death by their reckoning. Archbishop Ussher believed our Lord would come on a particular day in 1644. George Rapp, a religious teacher in Pennsylvania, predicted Christ's return on September 15, 1829. William Miller caused widespread panic through America by announcing October 22, 1844, as the date of Christ's return. In the 1980s, a popular booklet gave 88 reasons why the rapture would occur in 1988.

But Jesus told us to be ready anytime. Not even the angels know the exact day, but we're to "Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is" (Mark 13:33).

It might be today! Are you ready?

To be ever looking for the Lord's appearing is one of the best helps to a close walk with God.
J. C. Ryle, nineteenth-century Christian writer

Read-Thru-the-Bible
Job 40:1-42:17

[Judy Harder]

Friday, June 3

Looking Forward

...looking forward to these things...
2 Peter 3:14

Recommended Reading
Titus 2:11-14


Whatever problems you're facing, news you're dreading, or burdens you're bearing--all will be resolved within two seconds of Christ's return. This world brings tribulations, yet we can be of good cheer for He has overcome the world (John 16:33). When He comes, He will give rest to the troubled, and an eternal weight of glory for those facing, "light momentary affliction" (1 Thessalonians 1:6; 2 Corinthians 4:17). The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed (Romans 8:18).

One day soon our sighs will become songs, our heartaches hallelujahs, and our worldly woes will be swallowed up in everlasting joy. There will be no heavy hearts in our heavenly homes. That's why the Bible tells us to seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Let's set our minds on things above (Colossians 3:1-2). Great joy comes to those who look forward to the Lord's return. Learn to visualize it, meditate on it, speak of it, study it, and pray, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20)

Beyond the bounds of time and space, look forward to that happy place!
Charles Wesley

Read-Thru-the-Bible
Psalm 1:1-8:9

[Judy Harder]

Weekend, June 4 & 5

Proclaimers of God's Word: Hudson Taylor

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself... neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
John 15:4

Recommended Reading
John 15:1-5


Missionary pioneer Hudson Taylor worked so hard in China that his health nearly broke. One day a letter came from a friend who wrote about the joy of abiding in Christ. The letter said, "Abiding, not striving nor struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power...this is not new, and yet tis new to me."

Reading this at his mission station at Chin-kiang on September 4, 1869, Taylor's eyes were opened. "As I read," he recalled, "I saw it all. I looked to Jesus; and when I saw, oh how the joy flowed!" Writing to his sister, he said: "As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible, or so difficult; but the weight and strain are all gone. The last month or more has been perhaps the happiest of my life; and I long to tell you a little of what the Lord has done for my soul."

This became known as "Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret." Proclaiming the Word is not something we do for Christ but something He does through us as we abide in Him. Are you abiding in Him today?

The branch...rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it.
Hudson Taylor

Read-Thru-the-Bible
Psalm 9:1-16:11
Psalm 17:1-20:9

[Judy Harder]

Monday, June 6

When Things Look Darkest

False christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand.
Mark 13:22-23

Recommended Reading
Mark 13:21-27


The recent turmoil among the Arab states in the Middle East is a reminder that the nation of Israel and its neighbors dominate the agenda of history. We don't know the reverberations of every conflict or the consequences of every shift of power. It may be that the youth movements among Arab states will provide new openness for the Gospel. On the other hand, the shifting political structures may lead to increased radicalism, setting the stage for the Antichrist.

It's not wise to be overly dogmatic as we try to interpret current events, and we've got to be careful about false prophets who claim they are either Christ or Antichrist. The twists and turns of history are under God's providential control, and it's best to watch prayerfully so we can take advantage of open doors for evangelism while awaiting our Lord's return.

We can't be dogmatic about specific events in the headlines, but we can be fully assured that history is His-story, and that the stage is being set for His soon return. We can live every day with confidence and excitement that no matter how disturbing the news reports, our sovereign Lord is in control.

When things look darkest to the world, they look brightest to the Christian. Our King is coming back!
Vance Havner

Read-Thru-the-Bible
Psalm 21:1-25:22