Devotional for the day

[Judy Harder]

November 10, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

Fellowship in the Gospel
. . . fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ . . . -1 Thessalonians 3:2


After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, "God has called me for this and for that," you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God's interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.

I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, "Lord, this causes me such heartache." To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy "world within the world," and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being "frost-bitten."

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The Reward for Obedience

There are two verses I want to point you to in today's devotional.  The first is Isaiah 1:19, where God says,

"If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land."

The second is Deuteronomy 28:1, which precedes a chapter of tremendous material blessings,

"Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth."

All of the incredible material blessings God promised in the following verses hinged on one thing...obedience.

God will bless you, if you will obey Him.  Now, granted, God does not settle up the first and the fifteenth of every month.  His blessings do not always arrive on our timetable, but they always arrive.

Sometimes obedience to God will cost you at first.  It may cost you friends; it may cost you time; it may cost you embarrassment; but, in the long run, it is well worth it to obey.

Prior to being saved, I was renting a room above a bar in Oregon from a friend of mine.  We smoked dope and drank a lot together.  But when I was saved, I wouldn't drink or smoke dope any more.

Even though the temptation was there, I knew I needed to obey God.  And I would not compromise.

One day my friend said, "You're no fun anymore.  You're gone."  And that was that.  I was out on the street for quite awhile.  It cost me.  But I look back now and say, "God, You have more than made that up to me.  It may have cost me initially, but I'm so glad I obeyed You."

God will reward you for your obedience to Him!

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Reversing the Generational Curse

Scripture Reading:  Mark 5:32-43

Did you know that many problems people face are linked to choices their parents, grandparents and even "great-grandpa" made?  This may be a new way of thinking for you, and it is certainly not about placing blame.  Yet we need to know God's truth about generational curses and how to live free of their bondages.

A generational curse is passed down from one generation to another due to rebellion against God.  If your family line is marked by divorce, incest, poverty, anger or other ungodly patterns, you're most likely under a generational curse.  The Bible says that these curses are tied to choices.


Deuteronomy 30:19 says we can either choose life and blessing or death and cursing.


Freedom comes when we confess the ungodly patterns, ask God for forgiveness and then walk in obedience by consistently choosing His ways.

   
God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 11, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

The Supreme Climb
He said, 'Take now your son . . .' -Genesis 22:2


God's command is, "Take now," not later. It is incredible how we debate! We know something is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it immediately. If we are to climb to the height God reveals, it can never be done later- it must be done now. And the sacrifice must be worked through our will before we actually perform it.

"So Abraham rose early in the morning . . . and went to the place of which God had told him" (Genesis 22:3). Oh, the wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not "confer with flesh and blood" (Galatians 1:16). Beware when you want to "confer with flesh and blood" or even your own thoughts, insights, or understandings- anything that is not based on your personal relationship with God. These are all things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.

Abraham did not choose what the sacrifice would be. Always guard against self-chosen service for God. Self-sacrifice may be a disease that impairs your service. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; or even if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential will of God means a hard and difficult time for you, go through it. But never decide the place of your own martyrdom, as if to say, "I will only go to there, but no farther." God chose the test for Abraham, and Abraham neither delayed nor protested, but steadily obeyed. If you are not living in touch with God, it is easy to blame Him or pass judgment on Him. You must go through the trial before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because by going through the trial you learn to know God better. God is working in us to reach His highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Supremacy of Jesus

Hebrews 1:1-8 reads,

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.  For to which of the angels did He ever say:  "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You"?  And again:  "I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son"?  But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him."  And of the angels He says: "Who makes His angels spirits And His ministers a flame of fire."  But to the Son He says:  "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom."

These eight verses tell us that Jesus is supreme, above any angel, because:

God speaks to us through His Son.
Jesus is the heir of all things.
God made all things through Jesus.
Jesus is the express image of God the Father.
He upholds all things with the word of His power.
He purged our sins.
Jesus is the Son of God, not a servant as are the angels.
He is worthy of our worship.
Jesus is God Himself.
That is the supremacy of Jesus!

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Faith And Our Feet

(Hebrews 11, Psalm 1)

Faith is not about how much you believe in what you believe. Faith is about believing that the One you believe in is believable. In fact, you can have all of the faith in the world that your SUV is going to take off and fly you to Canada cruising at 12,000 feet in the air. But that won't change the fact that you're still going to be stuck in traffic somewhere with all four wheels firmly on the ground.

Faith is about believing that the One you believe in is believable.

The way you find out if the one you believe in is believable is by knowing and experiencing Him.

It's like when a child climbs up on the back of her daddy for a piggyback ride. She doesn't get up there and start asking herself if he can hold her or if he is going to drop her. Instead, she immediately starts asking him, "Do you have me?" as she wiggles and adjusts her legs into place. 

By asking her daddy, "Do you have me?" she is affirming in her mind that the one she is putting her faith in is faithful. Because if he says, "Yes, I have you," and she rests up there only to discover that he really does have her, then the next time she climbs on for a piggy-back ride, the questions become fewer.

But until she first climbs up onto the back of her daddy, she can say all day long that she believes that he can hold her. Saying it a thousand times won't reduce the hesitation she feels when the offer to get up there is first extended. She will never get to the point where she can experience the full pleasure of his presence until she takes that first climb of faith to discover that he is faithful.

Faith experienced is faith that is real. It is an easy thing to say that you believe. It is an easy thing to feel like you believe. But faith is not situated in our feelings. Faith is situated in our feet. That's why the Bible calls it "walking by faith" rather than "feeling by faith."

 
God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 14, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

Discovering Divine Design
As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me . . . -Genesis 24:27


We should be so one with God that we don't need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child's life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God's will (see Romans 12:2). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. ". . . the Lord led me . . ." and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.

We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God's appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.

Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, "I will never do this or that," in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.
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A Better Covenant

There are two verses for your reading today.  Hebrews 7:22, which says,

By so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

And Hebrews 8:6, which tells us,

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

We have a better covenant; we have better promises.  And Jesus is the One who makes it sure.  He is the guarantee. He has personally pledged Himself to make it good.

As far as I am concerned, that takes away all reason for doubt, all reason for stressing out.  Jesus, Himself, is the pledge, the guarantee that this covenant we have called the New Testament will be good and will be fulfilled in our lives.

And He is not only the guarantee, He is the Mediator.  He is the go-between to what is truly a better covenant, established upon better promises.

Let's say your employer came to you and said, "We're going to give you a better contract.  While the old contract was good, we're going to give you one that's better.  This better contract will increase your hours, decrease your pay, eliminate your health and dental benefits, you will no longer get reimbursed for your mileage and your auto expenses, and you're going to have a shorter lunch break and no more Christmas bonuses."

Let me ask you, is that better?  No!  That is not better!  And I will never understand how people can say, "We know God healed people and worked miracles and intervened in people's lives under the Old Testament, but He doesn't anymore."

The covenant Christ bought and sealed in His blood is a better covenant, established upon better promises. Praise God!

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Holding God Accountable?

(Luke 18:1-8, Psalm 2)

One of the most important things that we can do as a Christian is to pray in line with our covenantal rights. But we often don't do this because we misunderstand what prayer is. Let me define prayer by first saying what prayer is not. Prayer is not simply talking to God. Prayer, rather, is asserting earthly permission for heavenly interference. Prayer is earth giving heaven authorization to intervene in the affairs of earth as heaven has previously stated that it would. That permission is granted based on your legal position and rights. That's why it is essential to study the Word of God and to know the rights that He has granted you through His Word.

If you are being held in bondage by an illegitimate force in your life, cry out to God. Pray to God for deliverance by appealing to Him based on your covenantal rights. There is a legal obligation that God has to respond to you based on the fact that you have a legitimate agreement with Him found in His Word. Go through the Scriptures and read everything that relates to your stronghold and pray it back to God.  When you do that, prayer is no longer just a spiritual exercise or something to check off of your "Christian List of Things To Do."

Rather, prayer becomes a legal meeting where you and God get together in agreement on the same covenantal arrangement. Prayer becomes an act of holding God accountable, in the right sense of the word, to what He holds Himself accountable: His Word.

   

God bless

[Judy Harder]

November 15, 2011


Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

"What Is That to You?"
Peter . . . said to Jesus, 'But Lord, what about this man?' Jesus said to him, '. . . what is that to you? You follow Me' -John 21:21-22


One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people's lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God's plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, "He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn't." You put your hand right in front of God's permissive will to stop it, and then God says, "What is that to you?" Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don't allow it to continue, but get into God's presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another- proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.

Most of us live only within the level of consciousness- consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we're not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach- a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint- a saint is consciously dependent on God.
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God Leads from Within

In our last devotional, we talked about the new covenant being better than the old covenant.  One reason is found in Hebrews 8:8-11 which says,

..."Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD:  I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them."

In the Old Testament, God had to lead His people externally.  When fleeing Egypt, God led them by night with a pillar of fire and by day with a pillar of cloud.  They did not intuitively know where God wanted them to go or what God wanted them to do.

But under the new covenant, God leads His people from within because He has now taken up residence within.  I believe that is why on the Day of Pentecost God chose to manifest the coming of the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire that sat upon each person individually.

God was saying that while under the old covenant, He led His people by a pillar of fire, and now He is coming to dwell and lead from the inside of each believer!

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A Pocketful of Miracles

(Exodus 14, Psalm 3)

A lot of what God wants to do in your life won't be done until you do what He has already revealed to you.

What He asks you to do isn't always all that huge, just like Moses' move at the Red Sea wasn't all that huge. All God was asking Moses to do was to hold out his stick. That's not that huge. If Moses would just hold out his stick, then God said that He would handle the rest. He would do all of the big stuff. He would open the Red Sea, harden Pharaoh's heart, make him go in after them, and close the Red Sea back up.

But to reveal the faith within us, God often asks us to do our little thing first. Hold out our sticks. Take that step. Make the move. Have the conversation. Quit the job to stay at home. Accept the job that He has shown. Stop the habit. Curb the tongue. Go to church. Go overseas. Whatever it is that He is revealing to you, God will often wait to do His big thing until you have done what He has asked you to do.

He does this because He wants us to see Him in a way we've never seen Him before. He wants us to experience Him in a way that we've never experienced Him before. He wants us to see the connection between our act of faith and His deliverance. He wants to be more than just a Cosmic-Santa Claus with a pocketful of miracles to throw down. God wants a relationship with you. He wants you to see Him up close and personal so He puts you in a situation where He is your only solution. Where it can't be fixed if He doesn't fix it. Where it can't be reversed if He doesn't reverse it. Where it can't be solved if He doesn't solve it. Because, God says, I've let you use all of the natural options available to you, and you are still stuck. Well then, when that happens, know that you are stuck with a purpose. Look to God.

 
God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 16, 2011


Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

Still Human!
. . . whatever you do, do all to the glory of God -1 Corinthians 10:31


In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.

We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience, and we mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It's one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, "What a wonderful man of prayer he is!" or, "What a great woman of devotion she is!" If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.

We want to be able to say, "Oh, I have had a wonderful call from God!" But to do even the most humbling tasks to the glory of God takes the Almighty God Incarnate working in us. To be utterly unnoticeable requires God's Spirit in us making us absolutely humanly His. The true test of a saint's life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in human life, to live a life "hidden with Christ in God" in our everyday human conditions (Colossians 3:3). Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God should be exhibited.
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No More Remembrance

Today I want to point you to another reason the new covenant in Christ is better than the old covenant.  Hebrews 10:1-3, 15-17 tells us,


For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.  For then would they not have ceased to be offered?  For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.  But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year... But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD:  I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."


Under the old covenant, God remembered the sin of Israel every year.  This meant that each year the priest would have to go into the Holy of Holies and offer the blood of an animal to cover the people's sins.

Under the new covenant, God does not remember.

Boy, am I glad that when I accepted Christ, my past was erased on God's ledger.  I had a pretty checkered past before I came to Christ.  But if today you enter my name in God's computer up in heaven...Bayless...past...push enter...push print...God's big printer prints out nothing but blank sheets.

Why?  He doesn't remember my sins anymore.  In fact, if you and I talk to Him about our past before we were saved, He says, "Sorry, it doesn't exist as far as I am concerned."

That is truly good news!

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God's Wild Ride

(1 John 1:1-4, Psalm 4)

When my wife, Lois, and I started dating, I came up with a strategy to encourage her to fall more in love with me. She was a lot in love with me from the beginning, but I wanted to increase that.

What I decided to do was to take her to the amusement park. Once we had wandered around the amusement park for a while, and had enjoyed some of the games and food, I coolly asked her if she wanted to ride the Wild Mouse. Lois had never been on the Wild Mouse ride before. But I had. I knew how wild the Wild Mouse really was. She didn't have any idea because it looked like an innocent ride.

I knew Lois' personality and that going on the Wild Mouse would be a tough situation for her. But I hadn't told her that. I had only mentioned that we should go on a nice ride together.

So we got on the Wild Mouse. The thing began to shoot out making it seem like our small car was going to fly right off of the edge of the track. Lois screamed. Then she scooted closer to me. Our car veered to the right and then shot out again making it seem like we were going to zoom straight out into mid-air. Lois screamed again. Then she scooted even more closely to me this time. By the end of the ride, Lois wasn't sitting far away from me at all. She was sitting as close as possible. That had been my plan.

I had wanted Lois to sit closer all along. The Wild Mouse accomplished that.

Sometimes God puts us on a wild ride. Life seems to be out of our control. At times, God allows these situations because He knows they will move us closer to Him and when we get closer to Him, we will discover that He is more than we ever imagined Him to be. 


God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 17, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

The Eternal Goal
By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing . . . I will bless you . . . -Genesis 22:16-17


Abraham, at this point, has reached where he is in touch with the very nature of God. He now understands the reality of God.

My goal is God Himself . . .
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.

"At any cost . . . by any road" means submitting to God's way of bringing us to the goal.

There is no possibility of questioning God when He speaks, if He speaks to His own nature in me. Prompt obedience is the only result. When Jesus says, "Come," I simply come; when He says, "Let go," I let go; when He says, "Trust God in this matter," I trust. This work of obedience is the evidence that the nature of God is in me.

God's revelation of Himself to me is influenced by my character, not by God's character.

'Tis because I am ordinary,
Thy ways so often look ordinary to me.

It is through the discipline of obedience that I get to the place where Abraham was and I see who God is. God will never be real to me until I come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ. Then I will know and can boldly proclaim, "In all the world, my God, there is none but Thee, there is none but Thee."

The promises of God are of no value to us until, through obedience, we come to understand the nature of God. We may read some things in the Bible every day for a year and they may mean nothing to us. Then, because we have been obedient to God in some small detail, we suddenly see what God means and His nature is instantly opened up to us. "All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen . . ." (2 Corinthians 1:20). Our "Yes" must be born of obedience; when by obedience we ratify a promise of God by saying, "Amen," or, "So be it." That promise becomes ours.
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Removed, Not Just Covered

Today I want to give you another reason why the new covenant is better than the old covenant.  I want you to read Hebrews 10:11 first, then Hebrews 9:25-26,

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

And then talking about Jesus,

Not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with the blood of another-He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

Under the old covenant, sins were merely covered.  In the new covenant, Jesus removes our sin.  In fact, John the Baptist declared, "Behold!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"  Jesus doesn't just cover it, He takes it away!

I want to tell you, friend, we are not just some patched up old sinners.  We have been made new creations in Christ Jesus.

I know a horse trainer who trains beautiful thoroughbred horses.  If I took a mule over to this guy and said, "Look, I want this mule to run with the thoroughbreds," he could feed it, brush its coat every day, and trim its tail and ears to look like a quarter horse.  But when the gun fires and the gates go up and the horses start to run, it is just a mule.  That is all it is!

Religion dresses up the mule, but God changes the mule into a thoroughbred.  He takes away your sin and makes you a new creature in Christ Jesus when you embrace salvation.

Our sin is not just covered, it is gone, and we have been made into new people.
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The Spiritual Stress Test

(James 1:1-7, Psalm 5)

Every summer I go to the doctor's office for an annual exam. I sit in his office and he asks me, "Tony, how are you feeling?"

Assuming that it was a good year overall, I answer, "I'm feeling fine."

But that's not the end of my appointment. The doctor doesn't take my word for it. Instead, he attaches electronic probes all over my body. Then he sticks me on a treadmill. Next, he makes the treadmill go faster and faster up an incline because what he wants to know is the real condition of my heart.

My heart might feel fine to me but at the same time, it might not be fine. The doctor can only determine the strength of my heart when he measures it under stress. So what he does is create a stressful situation where I'm walking for a long period of time. He's testing my heart to see whether how I feel is how I really am. Because it's possible to have good feelings yet still have a bad heart.

Living the Christian life is no different. It's possible to come to church every week, sing worship songs, memorize Bible verses, serve on a variety of committees and assume that your heart, faith and soul is strong. It's even easy to say things like, "I love you God. God, you are so good. I'll follow you, God. I'll do whatever you say."

But God doesn't want to just take your word for it.

He tests you, and me, because He wants what is best for us. He tests us because He is getting ready to do something amazing in our lives. The way that He tests us is by putting us in a stressful scenario ... something we often call a trial. In a trial, God reveals how strong our faith really is.

God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 18, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

Winning into Freedom
If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed -John 8:36


If there is even a trace of individual self-satisfaction left in us, it always says, "I can't surrender," or "I can't be free." But the spiritual part of our being never says "I can't"; it simply soaks up everything around it. Our spirit hungers for more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin- we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience.

God pays no attention to our natural individuality in the development of our spiritual life. His plan runs right through our natural life. We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him by saying, "I can't do that." God will not discipline us; we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our "arguments . . . and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5)- we have to do it. Don't say, "Oh, Lord, I suffer from wandering thoughts." Don't suffer from wandering thoughts. Stop listening to the tyranny of your individual natural life and win freedom into the spiritual life.

"If the Son makes you free . . . ." Do not substitute Savior for Son in this passage. The Savior has set us free from sin, but this is the freedom that comes from being set free from myself by the Son. It is what Paul meant in Galatians 2:20  when he said, "I have been crucified with Christ . . . ." His individuality had been broken and his spirit had been united with his Lord; not just merged into Him, but made one with Him. ". . . you shall be free indeed"- free to the very core of your being; free from the inside to the outside. We tend to rely on our own energy, instead of being energized by the power that comes from identification with Jesus.
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Not Guilty

The new covenant provides cleansing for a guilty conscience.  In talking about the old covenant, read Hebrews 9:9,

It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience.

Then verse 14 about the new covenant,

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

At the point of conversion, not only is sin taken away, but the burden of guilt is lifted.  The conscience is cleansed.

Even if you sin as a believer, thank God for 1 John 1:9,  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If you are still grappling with a guilty conscience after you have from your heart repented of sin and confessed it to God, then one of three things is happening:

1.      The devil is accusing you.  He is called the accuser of the brethren.  He will run by your kitchen window with flash cards which say, "Remember when you did this?  Remember when you did that!"  Do not listen to the devil.

2.      You have not forgiven yourself.  You are forgiven by God, but you have not forgiven yourself.  If God Almighty has forgiven you, you need to forgive yourself.

3.      It may just be that you need to make restitution.  That is something you will have to work out between you and God.  Sometimes when you have injured a party through your sinful act, your conscience is going to bother you until you make things right with that person.

Under the new covenant there is cleansing from a guilty conscience, and it makes an awfully soft pillow at night.

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Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

(James 1:12, Psalm 6)

Much like the stress test my doctor puts me through every summer, God allows trials and tests in our lives in order to reveal where we are along our spiritual journey. He does this for the purpose of correcting whatever happens to be wrong, revealing whatever needs to be revealed, and strengthening whatever seems to be weak so that we might move on to what He has in store for us.

When you are caught between a rock and a hard place, you feel trapped, stuck, and tired of where you are. You either don't know what to do, or you don't know how to legitimately do what you feel you need to do. You are like Israel when they faced Pharaoh on one side and the Red Sea on the other and certain death was upon them.

Getting caught between a rock and a hard place is a lose-lose deal. If it were a clear win-lose deal, then you would know how to choose and where to turn. But what do you do when there are no clear choices? What option do you choose when both options are bad? Have you ever been in a situation where all of the ways that you turn to are problems, and you are just trying to find the least possible problem to choose as the solution?

I know I've been in situations like that and it's not fun. It's about as fun as huffing and puffing on that treadmill in my doctor's office. But one thing I've learned over the years is that God has a purpose for these times in our lives. Just like my doctor is not a mean man for putting my body through all of that stress, God is not a mean God when He decrees that we go through trials.

When God wants to reveal the real condition of your heart to empower you toward His plan for your future, He puts you in one of these kinds of trials.


God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 21, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

"It is Finished!"
I have finished the work which You have given Me to do -John 17:4


The death of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment in history of the very mind and intent of God. There is no place for seeing Jesus Christ as a martyr. His death was not something that happened to Him- something that might have been prevented. His death was the very reason He came.

Never build your case for forgiveness on the idea that God is our Father and He will forgive us because He loves us. That contradicts the revealed truth of God in Jesus Christ. It makes the Cross unnecessary, and the redemption "much ado about nothing." God forgives sin only because of the death of Christ. God could forgive people in no other way than by the death of His Son, and Jesus is exalted as Savior because of His death. "We see Jesus . . . for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor . . ." (Hebrews 2:9). The greatest note of triumph ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross of Christ- "It is finished!" (John 19:30). That is the final word in the redemption of humankind.

Anything that lessens or completely obliterates the holiness of God, through a false view of His love, contradicts the truth of God as revealed by Jesus Christ. Never allow yourself to believe that Jesus Christ stands with us, and against God, out of pity and compassion, or that He became a curse for us out of sympathy for us. Jesus Christ became a curse for us by divine decree. Our part in realizing the tremendous meaning of His curse is the conviction of sin. Conviction is given to us as a gift of shame and repentance; it is the great mercy of God. Jesus Christ hates the sin in people, and Calvary is the measure of His hatred.
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For All People

In today's devotional, I want to give you the seventh reason why the new covenant in Jesus is better than the old covenant.  The old covenant was only for one nation-only one people-the Jews.

The new covenant is for the whole world.  It is for every nation, every people...anyone who will accept the free gift of salvation, by placing their faith in Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 7:25 tells us,

Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Or, as one old preacher said, "He saves to the uttermost and to the guttermost."

That may sound crass, but it is true!  Through Jesus Christ, God has made a way of salvation for every person, no matter your race, or what religion you were brought up in, or what you may have done in your life.

John 3:16 says,

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.   

That means no one has ever done anything so bad that it could make God stop loving them.  I don't care where they have been, how dark their past has been, or how burdened down their conscience is today with guilt for the things they have done-no one will be cast out if they come to Him.

His blood has the power to wash anyone clean if they will come to God through Jesus.  His sacrifice takes away the sin of the world, the burden of guilt, and the shame of sin.  He can make anyone into a new person.  Only the blood of Jesus can do that...only the blood of Jesus.  Hallelujah!

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When God Allows Your Trial

(James 2:14-24, Psalm 7)

Have you ever gotten mail in your mailbox that isn't addressed to you? You take it out of your mailbox and read that the address doesn't have your name on it. It just says, "Occupant." You get that piece of mail by virtue of you being the "occupant" of that home. Trials are a lot like that. Just by virtue of being an "occupant" on this planet in a fallen world, we will face trials.

Of course, no one likes a trial. No one wakes up in the morning, stretches and says, "Ah, what a beautiful day for a trial! I think I'd like to have a trial today!" That would be an unusual person who would do something like that. Yet no matter how much we want to avoid trials in our lives, trials are inevitable.

Trials are adverse circumstances that God allows in our lives to both identify where we are spiritually as well as to prepare us for where He wants us to go. There is no escaping them. You are either in a trial now, you've just come out of a trial, or you are getting ready to go into a trial.

But even though we all have to experience them, I want to remind you to take comfort in knowing that trials must first pass through God's hands before reaching us. Nothing comes our way without first having received His Divine approval. And in order to get His Divine approval, there must be a Divine reason for Him to approve it. We need to trust that God has our best interest in mind when He allows us to experience a trial.


God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 22, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

Shallow and Profound
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God -1 Corinthians 10:31


Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person- God became a baby.

To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all- the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, "A disciple is not above his teacher . . ." (Matthew 10:24).

We are safeguarded by the shallow things of life. We have to live the surface, commonsense life in a commonsense way. Then when God gives us the deeper things, they are obviously separated from the shallow concerns. Never show the depth of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately interested in our own character and reputation, we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.

Make a determination to take no one seriously except God. You may find that the first person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.
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The "Good Old Days"

Hebrews 11:13-16 contains a powerful truth, a perspective I want to encourage you to embrace.  These verses are talking about the great heroes of the faith from the Old Testament,       

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.  And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.  But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

These heroes of the faith sought a better homeland.  In verse 15 it talks about calling to mind the countryfrom which they had come, but the word country is just added by the translators.  It really has the intent of saying if they had constantly thought about from where they had come, there would have been a great temptation to return there.

As you read this passage, it is easy to see why some people struggle so much with past sins.  As verse 15 says, Truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.

The reason some people constantly struggle with returning to their old life, finding a multitude of opportunities to return, is because they keep calling it to mind.  They keep rehearsing the "good old days."  Perhaps you struggle with that as well.

If you do, seek to remember the "good old days" as they really were.  Don't forget about all the pain.  Don't forget about the way you struggled, the reason you came to Christ in the first place.  Stop rehearsing the past.  If the "good old days" were so good, you would not have gotten saved.

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Culd-e-Sac Christianity

(Jeremiah 31:31-34, Psalm

Sometimes I get the impression that when we ask God to bless us, we forget the full definition of a blessing. We forget that God doesn't want us to be culd-e-sac Christians where all of our blessings end with us. God wants us to be conduit Christians where all of our blessings extend through us to others.

For example, when God blessed Abraham in the Old Testament, we read that He said, "Indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

God said that He was not only going to bring His favor on Abraham but that His favor on Abraham would extend out to be a blessing on others as well. God never designs our blessings to stop with us, but our blessings should always extend to others


God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 23, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

The Distraction of Contempt
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us! For we are exceedingly filled with contempt -Psalm 123:3


What we must beware of is not damage to our belief in God but damage to our Christian disposition or state of mind. "Take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously" (Malachi 2:16). Our state of mind is powerful in its effects. It can be the enemy that penetrates right into our soul and distracts our mind from God. There are certain attitudes we should never dare to indulge. If we do, we will find they have distracted us from faith in God. Until we get back into a quiet mood before Him, our faith is of no value, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is what rules our lives.

Beware of "the cares of this world . . ." (Mark 4:19). They are the very things that produce the wrong attitudes in our soul. It is incredible what enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention away from God. Refuse to be swamped by "the cares of this world."

Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, "O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself." Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul's faith in God. Don't say, "I must explain myself," or, "I must get people to understand." Our Lord never explained anything- He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.

When we discern that other people are not growing spiritually and allow that discernment to turn to criticism, we block our fellowship with God. God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.
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  The Right Perspective

In today's devotional, I want to take you back to the Scripture we looked at yesterday, Hebrews 11:13-16,

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.  And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.  But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

Yesterday we talked about how it is so easy to remember "the good old days," but with selective memory, not really remembering the pain and struggle.

Today, I want you to see an important perspective the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11 provide for us.  What did they do?  They looked to the future.  These men and women of God walked as strangers and pilgrims on this earth because they looked for a better homeland, a better place, which God would prepare for them.

I'm telling you, there is a better homeland than our world today.  There is a city called the New Jerusalem.  There is a place that does not need the light of the sun nor the light of the moon because the Lamb-Jesus Christ-is its light.

In that city, every tear is wiped away.  There is no more sin, no more sickness, no more pain, and no more suffering.

Like the heroes of old, I have my eye on that heavenly city.  It is better than anything we have here!  I pray that this will be your perspective today...and every day...as well.

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Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time?

(John 11, Psalm 9)

How do you know when God is ready to break through your rock and a hard place situation? You know because He will invade your ordinary with something extraordinary. He will come to your normal with something abnormal. He will create a scenario that doesn't make sense.

When God creates a scenario that doesn't make sense, it is not supposed to make sense. Don't ignore God showing up in a way that you can't explain. The reason you can't explain it is because it is God showing up in it. The Bible is replete with examples of when God was getting ready to move in a rock and a hard place situation and the thing that He did was show up in a way that human understanding couldn't explain.

My best advice to you is that if you are in a wilderness, or if you are between a rock and a hard place and can't find a good way out of what seems like a never-ending situation, look for God to show up in a way that you can't explain. His ways are not your ways. His thoughts are not your thoughts. God is not like you or me. If God were living in the era of Soul Music, his favorite song would be, "Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time?" Didn't I show up in a way that you couldn't explain?


God bless