Devotional for the day

[Judy Harder]

August 21, 2013
 
Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The Ministry of the Unnoticed
 
Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . -Matthew 5:3
The New Testament notices things that do not seem worthy of notice by our standards. "Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . ." This literally means, "Blessed are the paupers." Paupers are remarkably commonplace! The preaching of today tends to point out a person's strength of will or the beauty of his character- things that are easily noticed. The statement we so often hear, "Make a decision for Jesus Christ," places the emphasis on something our Lord never trusted. He never asks us to decide for Him, but to yield to Him- something very different. At the foundation of Jesus Christ's kingdom is the genuine loveliness of those who are commonplace. I am truly blessed in my poverty. If I have no strength of will and a nature without worth or excellence, then Jesus says to me, "Blessed are you, because it is through your poverty that you can enter My kingdom." I cannot enter His kingdom by virtue of my goodness- I can only enter it as an absolute pauper.

The true character of the loveliness that speaks for God is always unnoticed by the one possessing that quality. Conscious influence is prideful and unchristian. If I wonder if I am being of any use to God, I instantly lose the beauty and the freshness of the touch of the Lord. "He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). And if I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord.

Who are the people who have influenced us most? Certainly not the ones who thought they did, but those who did not have even the slightest idea that they were influencing us. In the Christian life, godly influence is never conscious of itself. If we are conscious of our influence, it ceases to have the genuine loveliness which is characteristic of the touch of Jesus. We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring.


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No Unbelievers in Hell

In Luke Chapter 16, Jesus tells a very sobering story,

"The rich man also died and was buried.  And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom... Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment'" (Luke 16:22b-23 and 27-28).

Everyone in hell believes in evangelism.  They are crying out lest their loved ones end up with them.

Two thousand years have passed and this rich man has had no relief.  A billion years from now he will just be getting started in his torment and pain.  Listen to his cry,  "My brothers! Send someone to my family!"

Hell is for unbelievers but there are no unbelievers in hell!

Several years ago a man came weeping to the altar of our church.  A message had been preached that night from these very Scriptures.  After giving his heart to Christ (and after a long time of almost uncontrollable weeping), he told us this story:

He said,  "I died twice on the operating table during heart surgery.  Each time I died, I left my body and went to hell.  It was so horrifying that I tried to put it out of my mind.  As the message was preached tonight, all the details of my experience came flooding back into my mind."

He did not need to be convinced that hell was real.  That night he accepted Christ and was liberated from the fear of returning to that place of torment.

Jesus alone can rescue us from the terrors of hell and bring us safely to heaven. Shouldn't we be telling people there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun?  Shouldn't we be warning them and encouraging them to accept Christ-while there is still time?!


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Consequences of Neglect

In His Presence: Psalms 103:12

Husbands often take their wives for granted; wives often take their husbands for granted. In much the same way, Christians often take "so great a salvation" for granted (Hebrews 2:3). It is a salvation that cost God His Son. It is a salvation that has given us eternal life. Our salvation has provided us with the enablement of the Holy Spirit. This salvation has given to us the authority of God's Word. It has provided us a home in heaven. This is a salvation that's replete with eternal rewards. It calms the most hurting heart and restores the broken life. How can people neglect that kind of salvation?

Nothing and no one can compare with this salvation. How can we pass over this? We will not escape; there is a price. "You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, 'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him, for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives' . . .  But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons" (Hebrews 12:4-8).

The natural product of being a Christian is to be disciplined as a son. But neglecting our great salvation comes with further discipline, because the discipline must turn us away from our wandering.

One Minute Please
When we don't remember what we have, we take it for granted.
 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
"I Indeed . . . But He"
 
I indeed baptize you with water . . . but He . . . will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire -Matthew 3:11
Have I ever come to the point in my life where I can say, "I indeed . . . but He . . ."? Until that moment comes, I will never know what the baptism of the Holy Spirit means. I indeed am at the end, and I cannot do anything more- butHe begins right there- He does the things that no one else can ever do. Am I prepared for His coming? Jesus cannot come and do His work in me as long as there is anything blocking the way, whether it is something good or bad. When He comes to me, am I prepared for Him to drag every wrong thing I have ever done into the light? That is exactly where He comes. Wherever I know I am unclean is where He will put His feet and stand, and wherever I think I am clean is where He will remove His feet and walk away.

Repentance does not cause a sense of sin- it causes a sense of inexpressible unworthiness. When I repent, I realize that I am absolutely helpless, and I know that through and through I am not worthy even to carry His sandals. Have I repented like that, or do I have a lingering thought of possibly trying to defend my actions? The reason God cannot come into my life is that I am not at the point of complete repentance.

"He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." John is not speaking here of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an experience, but as a work performed by Jesus Christ. "He will baptize you . . . ." The only experience that those who are baptized with the Holy Spirit are ever conscious of is the experience of sensing their absolute unworthiness.

"I indeed" was this in the past, "but He" came and something miraculous happened. Get to the end of yourself where you can do nothing, but where He does everything.


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Inwardly Compelled

It was love that motivated the Father to send His Son Jesus to redeem mankind. That same love has been poured out into the heart of every believer.

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:5).

God's love in us calls and compels us to do something about the plight of lost people.  Even as Paul says in   2 Corinthians 5:14 , For the love of Christ compels us.

A few years ago, late at night I would hear what seemed to be a very faint chime or bell.  Several times I got out of bed to try and find the source of the sound, but it always stopped before I could discover it.

Finally, one evening, I found out what it was.  It was an old watch I had, tucked away in a drawer under some junk.  Every evening, the alarm would go off at the same time.

The call of God's love in your heart can be like that.  Sounding regularly but seldom heard.  Buried under personal ambitions, cares and problems, daily routines and the general busyness of life.  But it is unmistakably there!

The same love that moved Jesus to heal the sick and minister God's life to broken people is in you!  Listen to it.  Get in touch with it and express it to someone in need.


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Hardened Hearts

In His Presence: Proverbs 19:20-21

"Just as the Holy Spirit says, 'Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the days of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me . . .  I was angry with this generation, and said, "They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know My ways"; As I swore in My wrath, "They shall not enter My rest" ' ''(Hebrews 3:7-11).

For many years the sons of Israel lived in the land of Egypt. Eventually the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites and forced them to make buildings of bricks. They suffered terribly until finally God raised up a leader to guide them back to the Promised Land, where God had taken Abraham hundreds of years before. Moses led them out of Egypt and into the wilderness of Sinai. There they began to complain bitterly about the lack of food and water and tried God's patience. God said their hearts were hardened.

The Hebrews' hearts were hardened because they were tricked by sin. Sin leads us to stop believing God. We believe the sin instead. One of the reasons why many of us are in our present dilemma is because we have stopped believing God. We have developed hearts of unbelief.

How do we know that we have been taken in by the deceitfulness of sin? Does the sin bother us less often? When evil doesn't anger and upset us-when we have gotten used to it-our hearts have been hardened.

One Minute Please
Sin provides short-term gratification leading to long-term disaster.

[Judy Harder]

Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Prayer- Battle in "The Secret Place"
 
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly -Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, "Dream about your Father who is in the secret place," but He said, ". . . pray to your Father who is in the secret place. . . ." Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.

We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, "This needs to be done, and I have to do that today." Jesus says to "shut your door." Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from "the secret place"- He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in "the secret place," it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into "the secret place," and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and "pray to your Father who is in the secret place," every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.


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"Come Over and Help Us"

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night.  A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."  Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them (Acts 16:9-10).

The world is in need and they are calling!  I can hear Africa, Asia, voices from South America and Europe calling out.  China and Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines...voices from around the globe crying out, "Come over and help us!"

The call may be coming from down your street or from the next aisle in the grocery store.  "Help me!  I'm lost.  I want to find God.  I have problems I can't cope with.  I have an aching void in my heart that I don't know how to fill.  Is there anyone out there with answers?!"

Who will go to them if not you and me?

To say, "I don't feel called to go to them," is equivalent to a strong swimmer standing on the shore of a lake saying he doesn't feel called to save the man drowning before his eyes.

Ask God today to direct you to someone whose heart has cried out for answers and help.  Chances are you won't have to go too far to find them.
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Dullness of Hearing

In His Presence: 2 Corinthians 5:20

Carnal Christians are characterized by a willful refusal to grow. The writer of Hebrews says that they "have become dull of hearing. For though by this time [they] ought to be teachers, [they] have need again for someone to teach [them] the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and [yet they] have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the world of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil" (Hebrews 5:11-14).

The writer here says they had become dull of hearing. Notice that he says they havebecome dull of hearing, not that theyare dull of hearing. This implies that they used to be good listeners at one time, but that changed. They had become willfully rebellious against God. They started by being neglectful and disinterested, and then they became insensitive to sin.

The Greek term used here to mean "dull of hearing" has to do with slowness of perception due to moral laxness. It was the word used as an epitaph for a mule! So the writer was telling his readers that they had become like mules. Now mules are not the greatest thinkers; they are used for manual labor. The mule-minded Christians had regressed so much that they were of little value to God-not because God had made them that way, but because they had become that way.

One Minute Please

People become dull of hearing as a result of choices they have made.

[Judy Harder]

August 26, 2013
 
Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Are You Ever Troubled?
 
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you . . . -John 14:27
There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always "spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? ". . . My peace I give to you. . ."- a peace that comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment.

Are you severely troubled right now? Are you afraid and confused by the waves and the turbulence God sovereignly allows to enter your life? Have you left no stone of your faith unturned, yet still not found any well of peace, joy, or comfort? Does your life seem completely barren to you? Then look up and receive the quiet contentment of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting His peace is proof that you are right with God, because you are exhibiting the freedom to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. Allowing anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you either causes you to become troubled or gives you a false sense of security.

With regard to the problem that is pressing in on you right now, are you "looking unto Jesus" (Hebrews 12:2) and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious blessing of peace exhibited in and through you. But if you only try to worry your way out of the problem, you destroy His effectiveness in you, and you deserve whatever you get. We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, "Let not your heart be troubled . . ." (John 14:27).


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Clean and Committed

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him.  For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).

When God looks at us, the first thing He sees is the state of our heart.  In the next few devotionals we are going to look at several different aspects of the heart-things that must be present in order to experience the richer blessings of God.

·        A clean heart.  Psalm 51:10 says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."

Every once in a while I have to clean out the drains throughout our house.  It is amazing how quickly they become clogged.  If I do not clean them, before long, the sinks get stopped up and the water will not flow through anymore.

If we don't periodically take time before God to have our hearts purified and cleansed, pretty soon His blessings can no longer flow to us or through us.

·        A committed heart.  2 Chronicles 16:9 (NIV) says, "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him."

I believe it is important to be committed to God before seeking His blessings.

God told Moses to tell Pharaoh, "Let my people go, that they may serve me."  Most people want to be delivered from their captivity, but they are not so keen on the "serving God" part of the deal.

The Lord is looking for committed hearts.  Does your heart belong fully to Him?  If not, commit it to Him today!
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A Simple Test

In His Presence: Psalms 25:14-15

The writer of Hebrews included a simple test to determine who is a "milk" Christian-a carnal Christian-and who is a "meat" Christian-a mature Christian. "By this time you ought to be teachers" (Hebrews 5:12). We should be able to sit down with our children and explain simple Bible truths. Husbands should be able to sit down with their wives and answer their questions. By this time, if we are meaty, mature Christians, we should be able to sit down with the Bible and help someone else know the Truth. We should be able to lead an unbeliever to the Lord.

"Everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness . . . But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil"(Hebrews 5:13-14). If we willfully refuse to go deeper into the things of God, we will not use the Word because we won't know the Word. The old saying goes, "If you don't use it, you lose it." We can't lose our salvation, but we can forget how to walk in the Word and how to be His representatives.

If we are mature Christians we use God's Word every day. We practice His Word in our everyday life. The phrase "senses trained" comes from the Greek root word forgymnasium, like a training ground. We are trained in discernment of good and evil.

One Minute Please
Moving from milk to meat is learning God's Word and practicing it until it becomes a habit, a natural way of thinking, and a normal way of perceiving things.
 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Living Your Theology
 
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you . . . -John 12:35

Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. "If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:23). The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you. Continually bring the truth out into your real life, working it out into every area, or else even the light that you possess will itself prove to be a curse.

The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.

Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common everyday relationships. Our Lord said, ". . . unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:20). In other words, you must be more moral than the most moral person you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you working it out in the everyday issues of your life? Every detail of your life, whether physical, moral, or spiritual, is to be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.


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Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth

In yesterday's devotional we began looking at different conditions of the heart-conditions that are necessary in order to experience the richer blessings of God.  Today we will continue looking at those conditions.

·        A grateful heart.  Deuteronomy 28:45-47 (Amplified) says,

All these curses shall come upon you and shall pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.  They shall be upon you for a sign [of warning to other nations] and for a wonder, and upon your descendants forever.  Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness of [mind and] heart [in gratitude] for the abundance of all [with which He had blessed you].

William Shakespeare said, "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child."  Do you express gratitude to God for all the things He has blessed you with, or do you take His blessings for granted?

Many years ago, when I was serving in a small church, one of my duties was to take groceries to families in need.  I was shocked at the ingratitude of some that received the gift of food delivered to their homes.  While some were truly grateful, others acted as if it was somehow owed to them-even complaining because their favorite foods were not included!

Hopefully you have taken time recently to thank God for the blessings He has bestowed on your life.  If not, take time today to express your gratitude to Him who is the source of every good thing you enjoy.


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Neglectful Christians

In His Presence: Psalms 62:8

A person does not fall into carnality overnight. He does not lapse into carnality because he or she did one thing wrong. There is a pattern that takes time to establish. The carnal Christian is characterized by the neglect of spiritual matters.

"If the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" (Hebrews 2:2-3). The author of Hebrews was writing to a group of Jewish Christians who had turned their backs on faith. They were genuine Christians, but had demonstrated the neglect that is one of the first signs of carnality. To neglect simply means to show disinterest. It's not that the Christian is doing a lot of wrong things, but it is evident that they are doing very little that's right. Neglect is an act of passive disobedience rather than active disobedience. This Christian is not doing the things that are necessary to catapult us down the road to spiritual growth and maturity.

Passive, benign neglect opens the door to failure. Some marriages end in divorce not because there was an adultery committed, but because the husband sat in front of the TV too much. Some of us are going down the road to carnality not because we have committed gross sins, but because Satan has done just enough to keep us out of the Word of God and off our knees.

One Minute Please
The road to carnality starts with neglect-failure to do the things that are necessary for us to mature in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The Purpose of Prayer
 
. . . one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray . . .' -Luke 11:1
Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person's life will suffer if he doesn't pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.

"Ask, and you will receive . . ." (John 16:24). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, ". . . unless you . . . become as little children . . ." (Matthew 18:3). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits' end. When a person is at his wits' end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems- the very things that have brought you to your wits' end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.

To say that "prayer changes things" is not as close to the truth as saying, "Prayer changes me and then I change things." God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person's inner nature.


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Listening and Believing

For the last several devotionals we have been looking at heart attitudes that are conducive to receiving God's blessings. Today we will discuss a few more.

·        A listening heart.  Luke 5:15 says, However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.

The people came to hear and then be healed.  Some did not want to take the time to listen, they just wanted the blessing so they could be on their way.

Listen to what the apostle Paul said to some people in Acts 28:27, For the hearts of this people have grown dull.  Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.

We must have listening, receptive hearts if we are going to experience healing or any other of God's blessings.

·        A believing heart.  Proverbs 3:5 says, Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and lean not on your own understanding.

Many years ago I was hiking up a canyon with one of my sons.  He was about eight years old at the time.  We reached a place where he could only get up by trusting me.

I dropped him a rope and pulled him up to where I was.  He needed to believe that I would not let go.  Because he did, and put actions with his belief, my strength was made available to him and he reached a place he could not have gotten to on his own.

God's strength is made available to the believing heart, and as we believe He brings us to places we could never reach on our own.


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Apostasy

In His Presence: Deuteronomy 13:4

The carnal Christian is also characterized by rejection of the Christian faith. If the carnal Christian stays on the road to carnality long enough, he will apostatize-fall away from the life of faith. He or she may deny Christianity. Can a Christian go so far as to become a rank sinner in his actions? Yes, "for if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment" (Hebrews 10:26-27).

God will intervene on behalf of the carnal Christian, but He will also judge. Even the blood of Jesus will not save him from God's wrath. This does not mean that salvation will be lost, but God will judge that person. There will be emotional consequences. It may even mean an end to his life. The price tag for apostasy is staggering. "Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" (vv. 28-29).

One Minute Please
A person is not beyond help if he is disinterested

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The Unsurpassed Intimacy of Tested Faith
 
Jesus said to her, 'Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?' -John 11:40
Every time you venture out in your life of faith, you will find something in your circumstances that, from a commonsense standpoint, will flatly contradict your faith. But common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense. In fact, they are as different as the natural life and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture out with courage on the words of Jesus Christ, while the realities of your commonsense life continue to shout, "It's all a lie"? When you are on the mountaintop, it's easy to say, "Oh yes, I believe God can do it," but you have to come down from the mountain to the demon-possessed valley and face the realities that scoff at your Mount-of-Transfiguration belief (see Luke 9:28-42). Every time my theology becomes clear to my own mind, I encounter something that contradicts it. As soon as I say, "I believe 'God shall supply all [my] need,' " the testing of my faith begins (Philippians 4:19). When my strength runs dry and my vision is blinded, will I endure this trial of my faith victoriously or will I turn back in defeat?

Faith must be tested, because it can only become your intimate possession through conflict. What is challenging your faith right now? The test will either prove your faith right, or it will kill it. Jesus said, "Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me" Matthew 11:6). The ultimate thing is confidence in Jesus. "We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end . . ." (Hebrews 3:14). Believe steadfastly on Him and everything that challenges you will strengthen your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith up to the point of our physical death, which is the last great test. Faith is absolute trust in God- trust that could never imagine that He would forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5-6).

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Unless They Are Agreed

Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? (Amos 3:3).

In order to walk with God, one must agree with Him.  In order to experience the fulfillment of His promises in our lives, we must agree with what those promises say-whether we understand how they could ever come to pass or not.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she would give birth to a son, she asked, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" (Luke 1:34).

A pretty fair question, don't you think?  It seemed impossible to Mary.  She could not get her mind around how Gabriel's announcement could ever come to pass.

I love the angel's response to her question, "The Holy Spirit..." (Luke 1:35). That is the answer to your impossibilities as well.  When you can't understand how a promise from God could ever be fulfilled, the answer is "The Holy Spirit!"

At this point Mary could have said, "No way!  This makes no sense to me.  I don't accept it!"  But she didn't.  She said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord!  Let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38).

Mary agreed with God's promise and accepted it.  Then the miracle happened.

Whatever you are facing today, make the decision to agree with God and His promises.  The Holy Spirit can bring His Word to pass!


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Spiritual Discipline

In His Presence: James 1:2

When a person's carnality reaches the point of rejecting the Christian faith, many things can happen. Financial, emotional, social, and mental difficulties are just a few things that could catch up with them. If they live in persistent rebellion against God, God is going to discipline them. "We had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplines us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness" (Hebrews 12:9-10).

The purpose of God's discipline is to bring us back to Him in reconciliation. He does not discipline in vengeance or because He is angry. Our parents disciplined us the best they could, but God disciplines perfectly every time. He knows everything. He knows what the carnal Christian has done, so God is never caught by surprise.

"All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful" (v. 11). A person living in carnality is going to experience discipline that will hurt. What is the difference between a Christian in the will of God going through trials, and a person out of the will of God going through discipline? If we are in the will of God, we can "consider it all joy" (James 1:2). If we are out of God's will, we will not have joy in the midst of our problems.

One Minute Please
"To those who have been trained by [discipline], afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:11).

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Usefulness or Relationship?
 
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven -Luke 10:20
Jesus Christ is saying here, "Don't rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me." The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service- rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you do not have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour "rivers of living water" through you (John 7:38). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to "walk in the light as He is in the light" (1 John 1:7).

Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone's usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint's usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person's life is that person's relationship with God- something of great value to His Father. Jesus is "bringing many sons to glory . . ." (Hebrews 2:10).

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Grumbling and Complaining

One of the things I believe grieves the heart of God is when His children grumble and complain.  In Jude 6 we find some interesting insight into this destructive behavior,

These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

The word complainer is really two Greek words stuck together.  The first word means to blame, and the second word means your fate or lot in life.  The point is that complainers blame someone else for their lot in life.

Isn't it always amazing how someone can make wrong choices, and when they have to face the consequences of those choices, it is always somebody else's fault?

I have two pieces of advice for you on this.  First, if you are a complainer and grumbler, stop.  God is not honored, and you are only showing that you are "walking according to your own lust," not according to God's Spirit.

Second, stay away from people like that or you will end up being like them.   Proverbs 22:24-25 says,

Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul.

Their attitudes and mindsets will bleed off on you.

Did you ever throw a pair of jeans in the washing machine with a red shirt?  What happened to your blue jeans?  They turned pink, didn't they?  The red dye bled over into the blue jeans, and the blue jeans were no longer blue.  They were pink.

If you hang around with people who grumble and complain, their attitudes will bleed over into your way of thinking.  And the last thing you want to be is a grumbler and complainer.


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Marriage Is A Covenant

In His Presence: Genesis 2:18; 1 Corinthians 11:8-9

Marriage is a covenantal union designed to strengthen the capability of each partner to carry out the plan of God in their lives. Whether your marriage has drifted off course or was never on course at all, God can redeem your marriage to make it satisfying and whole.

One way of beginning this process is by understanding that marriage is a covenant. Many of us in our day today have lost touch with this word - covenant. But if we do not know what a covenant is, then we do not know what we are supposed to have, develop, or protect over time. It's like trying to hit a bull's eye without a target.

According to God as He lays it out for us in the Scripture, a covenant is a spiritually binding relationship between God and His people inclusive of certain agreements, conditions, benefits and effects.

Whenever God wanted to formalize His relationship with His people, He would establish a covenant. Simply stated, it is a formal arrangement made within a legal capacity between God and His people. In order to enjoy a satisfying marital relationship, we must first begin by aligning our thinking with God's thinking on the matter. Without a divine frame of reference, we will stray from God's formula for a healthy, productive home.

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
A Life of Pure and Holy Sacrifice
 
He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow . . . -John 7:38
Jesus did not say, "He who believes in Me will realize all the blessings of the fullness of God," but, in essence, "He who believes in Me will have everything he receives escape out of him." Our Lord's teaching was always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a person- His purpose is to make a person exactly like Himself, and the Son of God is characterized by self-expenditure. If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours through us that really counts. God's purpose is not simply to make us beautiful, plump grapes, but to make us grapes so that He may squeeze the sweetness out of us. Our spiritual life cannot be measured by success as the world measures it, but only by what God pours through us- and we cannot measure that at all.

When Mary of Bethany "broke the flask . . . of very costly oil . . . and poured it on [Jesus'] head," it was an act for which no one else saw any special occasion; in fact, ". . . there were some who . . . said, 'Why was this fragrant oil wasted?' " (Mark 14:3-4). But Jesus commended Mary for her extravagant act of devotion, and said, ". . . wherever this gospel is preached . . . what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her" (Mark 14:9). Our Lord is filled with overflowing joy whenever He sees any of us doing what Mary did- not being bound by a particular set of rules, but being totally surrendered to Him. God poured out the life of His Son "that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17). Are we prepared to pour out our lives for Him?

"He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water"- and hundreds of other lives will be continually refreshed. Now is the time for us to break "the flask" of our lives, to stop seeking our own satisfaction, and to pour out our lives before Him. Our Lord is asking who of us will do it for Him?


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The Prayer of Faith

Yesterday we learned about the prayer of dedication.  Today I want to help you understand the prayer of faith.  This kind of prayer is found in Mark 11:22-24,

So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."

With the prayer of faith, at the moment you pray you are to believe that you receive what you pray for.  Not when the circumstances look different, not at some point in the future, but when you pray.  The Amplified Bible says, Believe that it is granted to you.

When you pray, believe that God hears you and that He has sent the answer, whether you feel differently or not.  Before you ever get up off your knees, believe that heaven has sent the answer.

1 John 5:14-15 says it this way,

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

The prayer of faith is prayed when you know and understand God's will.  Friend, the Bible is a revelation of the will of God.  Prayer will not reach beyond the will of God, and God's Word reveals His will to us.

So pray the prayer of faith according to His will, and you can be assured He hears you and heaven has sent the answer to your prayer.
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In His Presence:



Marriage is God's House

Genesis 2:19-24

 

If you were to come over to my house, I would welcome you inside but there would be a set of rules by which to abide. Just like I would need to abide by the rules for your house. For example, in my home, I don't allow smoking. So if you smoke, you would need to put out your cigarette before you came in my home.

I am able to make these rules and enforce them because it is my house. Marriage is God's house. He came up with the idea. And it can only run right when it is run by His rules.

What married couples often want to do, though, is to have God's institution of marriage, yet run it by their own rules. They want to get married in the church so that God will bless their marriage, but then they want to leave God standing at the altar. They want to make up their own rules for how a marriage should be run.

But let me tell you a secret. It is a very powerful secret. Pay attention: You don't get God's results without operating by God's rules. You don't get God's blessings in your marriage, and in your home, without following God's instructions. You don't enjoy God's provision, protection, and peace in your relationships without abiding by God's policies concerning the covenantal union of marriage.

[Judy Harder]

 Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Pouring Out the Water of Satisfaction
 
He would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord -2 Samuel 23:16

What has been like "water from the well of Bethlehem" to you recently- love, friendship, or maybe some spiritual blessing ( 2 Samuel 23:16 )? Have you taken whatever it may be, even at the risk of damaging your own soul, simply to satisfy yourself? If you have, then you cannot pour it out "to the Lord." You can never set apart for God something that you desire for yourself to achieve your own satisfaction. If you try to satisfy yourself with a blessing from God, it will corrupt you. You must sacrifice it, pouring it out to God- something that your common sense says is an absurd waste.

How can I pour out "to the Lord" natural love and spiritual blessings? There is only one way- I must make a determination in my mind to do so. There are certain things other people do that could never be received by someone who does not know God, because it is humanly impossible to repay them. As soon as I realize that something is too wonderful for me, that I am not worthy to receive it, and that it is not meant for a human being at all, I must pour it out "to the Lord." Then these very things that have come to me will be poured out as "rivers of living water" all around me (John 7:38). And until I pour these things out to God, they actually endanger those I love, as well as myself, because they will be turned into lust. Yes, we can be lustful in things that are not sordid and vile. Even love must be transformed by being poured out "to the Lord."

If you have become bitter and sour, it is because when God gave you a blessing you hoarded it. Yet if you had poured it out to Him, you would have been the sweetest person on earth. If you are always keeping blessings to yourself and never learning to pour out anything "to the Lord," other people will never have their vision of God expanded through you.


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The Prayer of Agreement

In the last two devotionals, we have learned about the prayer of dedication and the prayer of faith.  Today I want to help you understand the prayer of agreement.

This prayer is found in Matthew 18:19, where Jesus says,

, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven."

When I pray with other people, nine times out of ten this is the prayer that I pray with them.  And most of the time I will quote this verse to them.

I remember working for a ministry years ago and praying with the folks who called on the phone.  When I prayed with someone, I would walk them through this verse before we prayed.

The steps I pointed out were simple:

There needs to be at least two of us praying.
We need to agree.
We need to be on earth (I usually got a laugh out of this one).
What we are asking God for needs to come under the category of "anything" (which their request always did).
God will do it.
The only part people ever got hung up on was the agreement.  "What does it mean to agree?" they would ask.  I would say, "Simple, to agree means to agree."  Don't over-spiritualize it.  If we decide to get lunch together at a certain time at a certain place, and you say, "Ok, see you there," we have just agreed.

To agree in prayer is no different.

Read this verse again.  Look at it step by step, and follow it-in all its simplicity.  If we do our part, God will do His.


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In His Presence:



Why Did God Make Marriage?
In His Presence:

Genesis 2:25
When we read in our passage for today that Adam and Eve were naked before each other, I want us to realize that the word used here means more than physical nakedness. It means they were transparent. They were open to one another. They had become best friends.

Is your wife or your husband your best friend? Is he or she the person you share your total being with? That's important, because the reason God created marriage was so that you and I could experience the Trinity.

What is the Trinity? Three coequal persons who are one. What is marriage? Three persons who become one - a man, a woman, and the Lord. That's marriage. It's a picture of a higher unity, a symbol on earth standing for the reality in heaven. The marriage relationship is the closest we'll get in this life to the oneness and unity of the Trinity.

Will you join me in praying that God will enable us to make our marriages everything He meant them to be ... and will you join me in committing yourself to this goal?