Turning Point with David Jeremiah

[Judy Harder]

Weekend, April 2 & 3

Cross Word Puzzles: Never Too Late

And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."
Luke 23:43

Recommended Reading
Acts 16:29-31


You may be familiar with the pastor who asked a group of children in Sunday school how many of them wanted to go to heaven. All but one little boy raised a hand. When the Pastor asked him why, he said, "Oh, I do want to go to heaven. But if you're getting up a load right now, I can't go. Mama said to come home for lunch right after church."

Rarely do we talk about going to heaven today. And Jesus only used that word to describe going there with one person: the thief on the cross. There were two thieves crucified with Jesus--one mocked Jesus while the other one asked Jesus to remember him in His kingdom. And Jesus said, "Today you will be with Me in Paradise." Jesus knew they would be dead within hours and would enter Paradise together--the place where departed saints await the resurrection of their bodies.

It's never too late to place your faith in Jesus. Even if your confession is a death-bed conversion like the thief's, Jesus will hear the cry of a repentant, faithful heart. Don't make the eternal mistake of thinking you've waited too late to believe.

Death to a saint is nothing but the taking of a sweet flower out of this wilderness, and planting of it in the garden of paradise.
Thomas Brooks

Read-Thru-the-Bible
2 Samuel 12:1-17:29

[Judy Harder]

Monday, April 4

Defending the Treasure

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
2 Corinthians 4:7

Recommended Reading
2 Cor. 4:7-12


Depending on where you live, this past winter you may have joined a growing number of homeowners who installed an insulating "jacket" around their home's hot water heater--especially if the unit is located in a garage, attic, or crawl space. The goal is to protect the water--to help it fend off the persistent, relentless encroachment of freezing cold air. To the degree it is protected, the less energy the hot water heater expends to keep the water hot.

There is something more important we have to protect: the Gospel of the grace of God. That is the treasure Paul spoke about in 2 Corinthians 4:7. Amazingly, God deposited His treasure in fragile "earthen vessels" which are subject to the persistent, relentless, encroaching ways of the world and attacks of the devil. But Paul says the treasure is protected "that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (verse 11).

If you are feeling the pressures of life today, and if you are God's child by faith in Christ, God is committed to protecting the treasure He has deposited in you.

A sovereign Protector I have... and walls of salvation surround the soul He delights to defend.
Augustus M. Toplady

Read-Thru-the-Bible
2 Samuel 18:1-19:43

[Judy Harder]

Tuesday, April 5

Joyful, Joyful!

My soul shall be joyful in the LORD.
Psalm 35:9a

Recommended Reading
Psalm 66:1-4


Have you noticed how often "joyful" occurs in great hymns? At Christmas we sing, "O Come, All Ye Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant." Fanny Crosby taught us to "Praise Him, Praise Him, Ever in Joyful Song." Another old favorite proclaims, "We Have Heard the Joyful Sound: Jesus Saves! Jesus Saves!"

The most famous "joyful" hymn is by the Princeton author and Presbyterian minister, Henry van Dyke. One day in 1907, he was fulfilling a speaking engagement at Williams College in Massachusetts. At breakfast, he handed his host a piece of paper with the words of "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee." He said, "Here is a hymn for you. Your mountains (the Berkshires) were my inspiration. It must be sung to the music of Beethoven's 'Hymn to Joy.'"

The great thing about this hymn is you don't even have to sing it. It's a prayer to be offered, and perhaps it's one you need today: "Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!"

Read-Thru-the-Bible
2 Samuel 20:1-22:51

[Judy Harder]

Wednesday, April 6

Anticipation

Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.
2 Peter 3:14

Recommended Reading
2 Peter 3:14-18


Psychologists tell us that anticipation, which is the opposite of surprise, is an emotion with marvelous healing powers. People who are snowbound sustain their spirits by anticipating the longer days of spring and summer. Couples who are separated by military deployment stay sane by anticipating their reunion. Students anticipate the end of the semester. Workers look forward to their vacations. Brides and grooms are eager for their wedding day.

Can you imagine a world without anticipation? How would we feel with nothing to look forward to? Welcome to non-Christianity. Without Christ, there's no ultimate anticipation. There may be momentary prospects and incremental excitement, but lasting expectancy is missing. The future has no promise; it holds no hope. Everything is perishing or will perish. Death is the termination of our lives, our families, our fortunes, our civilization, and even of the universe itself.

Thank God we have a message of hope! Our joy is complete as we look to the future return of our Lord and to the mansions He is preparing for us. Let's live in anticipation today!

On every page of the Bible there are words of God that give reason to hope.... In the promises of God I find inspiration and new hope.
Charles A. Allen

Read-Thru-the-Bible
2 Samuel 23:1-1 Kings 1:27

 

[Judy Harder]

Thursday, March 7

Overflow or Run-Off

For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Jeremiah 2:13

Recommended Reading
Jeremiah 2:9-13


Imagine an ever-flowing fountain, accessible and attractive, the waters fresh and pure. The flow is copious as the water gurgles and splashes from rock to rock as if dancing down stairsteps. There a person finds the overflow to meet his needs, irrigate his crops, and water his flocks. He never thirsts, and the fountain is never diminished in drought.

Now imagine this man deliberately ignoring the fountain. With illogical obstinacy he prefers to dig a hole in the ground for run-off water, which quickly seeps out of his broken cistern, leaving him nothing but mud.

That's the Bible's picture for those looking for happiness in the wrong places. The world is filled with broken cisterns--we can easily name them--but only Jesus can give satisfying joy. He said: "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

True happiness is only in Christ, the living water.

I came to Jesus, and I drank of that life-giving stream; my thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him.
Horatius Bonar

Read-Thru-the-Bible
1 Kings 1:28-3:28

[Judy Harder]

Friday, March 8

There Is a River

There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God.
Psalm 46:4a

Recommended Reading
Psalm 46


Ralph Erskine, a Scottish preacher in the 1700s, reckoned that the river in Psalm 46:4 is a picture of God Himself, for it is God alone who makes His people glad.

God the Father is a river. In Jeremiah 2:13, He is called the fountain of living waters who quenches the spiritual longings of our hearts.

God the Son is a river, for Zechariah 13 talks about the fountain that cleanses from sin, and Jesus Himself is the water of life. He promised the Samaritan woman the living water of eternal life (John 4:10).

God the Spirit is a river, for Jesus said, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." And the next verse explains, "This He spoke concerning the Spirit" (John 7:38-39).

We can't find happiness in life by looking for it. Happiness sought for its own sake is self-defeating. It's ultimately a by-product of knowing our Lord, for there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.

Read-Thru-the-Bible
1 Kings 4:1-6:38

[Judy Harder]

Weekend, April 9 & 10

Cross Word Puzzles: Forgiveness

Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."
Luke 23:34a

Recommended Reading
Luke 12:47-48


Mistakes that are made unintentionally cause the same damage as actions carried out deliberately. But they are viewed differently. Parents treat a child who makes an honest error differently from one who demonstrates defiance and rebellion. In Luke 12, Jesus drew a distinction between a servant who messes up because he doesn't know his master's will, and the servant who chooses to ignore his master's will. The former will be treated differently (better) than the latter (verses 47-48).

In an amazing way, Jesus directed a similar measure of mercy and forgiveness toward those who crucified Him, asking God to forgive them because they didn't realize what they were doing. That is, they didn't know who Jesus really was. At an even more basic level, they didn't realize how unnecessarily brutal and unjust their actions had been toward Jesus as a man. Somehow, Jesus was willing to forgive those who put Him to death on a cross.

The results of sin are always bad, but sometimes the results come about for different reasons. And God knows our heart. In every case, we are never beyond the forgiveness of God.

Forgiveness is the fragrance the flower leaves on the heel of the one who crushed it.
Unknown

Read-Thru-the-Bible
1 Kings 7:1-10:13

 

[Judy Harder]

Monday, April 11

How to Be Humble

...to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.
Titus 3:2

Recommended Reading
1 Peter 5:5-6


Desalinization--removing minerals from seawater, making it potable--is increasing as resources of clean water contract around the world. While the primary product of desalinization is water, there is a by-product: the 90+ minerals that are found in and removed from ocean water. As a by-product, these mineral elements--like salt--find their way into other products and processes.

There are by-products in the spiritual life as well--like humility. Although we are told in Scripture to "put on... humility" (Colossians 3:12), humility is almost always a by-product of other values or actions. As Paul wrote to Titus, when we speak well of others and are peaceable and gentle, we demonstrate humility (Titus 3:2). We find humility while on the way to being faithful servants of Jesus Christ and of our fellow man. When we give up self-will for God's will and care more about others than about ourselves, we find ourselves in the company of humility.

Just as pride appears with self-will, so humility appears when we submit to God's will. Instead of seeking humility today, seek God--and expect humility to follow.

A blossom is the beginning of fruit bearing, and submission the beginning of humility.
Unknown

Read-Thru-the-Bible
1 Kings 10:14 -12:33

[Judy Harder]

Tuesday, April 12

Mickey, What Happened?

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3

Recommended Reading
Proverbs 16:19-22


In her new biography of baseball star Mickey Mantle, Jane Leavy talks about the aura that surrounded Mickey as he burst onto the scene in the 1950s. Blond and blue-eyed, he had a coast-to-coast smile that made him "the first telegenic star of the new broadcast age." He was, as one teammate put it, "what everyone wanted to be and couldn't."

His fame and fortune might have made teammates envious, but it didn't bring happiness. Mickey sank into a prolonged life of alcohol and debauchery that left him saying at the end of his life, "Don't be like me."

His teammate, Cromer Smotherman, asked: "Mickey, what happened? Why did you do it? Why did you choose to live the life you did?"1

Jesus said happiness and blessings are the heritage of those who are poor in spirit. That implies a humbled contentedness with a quiet life lived for Christ alone. Whether we're well-known or unknown, our joy is in serving Jesus. Better to abide in God's love day-by-day in obscurity than ride the rollercoaster of worldly greatness to a bitter end.

1Jane Leavy, The Last Boy (NY: Harper, 2010), xiii, xv, xxiii, 31.

Read-Thru-the-Bible
1 Kings 13:1-15:34

Wednesday, April 13

Brick by Brick

Therefore we do not lose heart... the inward man is being renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:16

Recommended Reading
2 Cor. 4:13-17


Thomas Carlyle labored with intensity on the first volume of a three-part study of the French Revolution. He felt it could be his greatest work. He loaned the manuscript to his friend John Stuart Mill to read, and Mill read it by the fire. One morning the maid, cleaning the room and seeing the scattered pages on the floor, threw them in the fire. When Carlyle learned his manuscript was burned to ash, he sank into abysmal depression. Some time later, still desolate, he saw a brick mason through the window. The man was standing on a scaffold, singing and whistling to himself as he built the wall of a house one brick at a time. Watching him, Carlyle decided he would write his book again, one page at a time. His history of the revolution became famous, and he is remembered as one of Scotland's literary giants.

Perhaps you've lost something very valuable to you. Don't give up. Tomorrow still holds a bright promise, and the Lord blesses faithful, plodding work. Let's take it step-by-step, day-by-day, and moment-by-moment.

Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine, moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.
Daniel Whittle

Read-Thru-the-Bible
1 Kings 16:1-18:46

[Judy Harder]

Thursday, April 14

Comforted to Comfort Others

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
Romans 12:15

Recommended Reading
2 Cor. 1:3-5


When Mitch Albom heard that his favorite college professor was dying of Lou Gehrig's disease, he visited him for the first time in  over 20 years. He asked Morrie, the professor, why he bothered to follow the news each day since he was not going to be around to see how things turn out: "It's hard to explain, Mitch," Morrie said. "Now that I'm suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer than I ever did before.... I feel their anguish as if it were my own."*

One of the reasons God lets us suffer in life is so we can understand the suffering of others and be able to comfort them--to do unto them what we would want others to do unto us. Paul lays out the progression of comfort in suffering by saying that God comforts us when we are hurting so we can comfort others with the same comfort by which we were comforted (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). When we suffer, we should receive the comfort of God and remember it so we can replicate that comfort for another.

We don't have to pray for suffering--it will find us easily enough. But we should pray for a spiritually-empathetic heart to feel the anguish of others and be prepared to comfort them as we ourselves would want to be comforted.

*Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lessons (Broadway, 2002), p. 50.

Read-Thru-the-Bible
1 Kings 19:1-21:29


 
 
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Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah
Copyright 2011