Devotional for the day

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
Are You Going on With Jesus?
You are those who have continued with Me in My trials -Luke 22:28
It is true that Jesus Christ is with us through our temptations, but are we going on with Him through His temptations? Many of us turn back from going on with Jesus from the very moment we have an experience of what He can do. Watch when God changes your circumstances to see whether you are going on with Jesus, or siding with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We wear His name, but are we going on with Him? "From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more" (John 6:66).

The temptations of Jesus continued throughout His earthly life, and they will continue throughout the life of the Son of God in us. Are we going on with Jesus in the life we are living right now?

We have the idea that we ought to shield ourselves from some of the things God brings around us. May it never be! It is God who engineers our circumstances, and whatever they may be we must see that we face them while continually abiding with Him in His temptations. They are His temptations, not temptations to us, but temptations to the life of the Son of God in us. Jesus Christ's honor is at stake in our bodily lives. Are we remaining faithful to the Son of God in everything that attacks His life in us?

Are you going on with Jesus? The way goes through Gethsemane, through the city gate, and on "outside the camp" (Hebrews 13:13). The way is lonely and goes on until there is no longer even a trace of a footprint to follow- but only the voice saying, "FollowMe" (Matthew 4:19)
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Created for a Purpose

Many Christians today are not living the successful life God intends because they have missed the purpose for which they were born.

Ephesians 2:10 tells us,

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

If you are going to live successfully, you have to know what you are all about. Any tool that is used for something other than what it was created for will not be effective. And it is liable to get damaged.

At times I have needed a hammer to pound in a nail, but I have been too lazy to go out in the garage to get one (don't get too self-righteous, you've done it too!).  So I have ended up using whatever I had handy, like a wrench.

Well, you can get the nail in, but you are not going to be very effective.  You are liable to dent the wall, and you are liable to damage the wrench.

Too many Christians today are not functioning or flowing in the thing they were created for, and consequently, they are not effective.  And sometimes they get hurt and damaged.

You do have a purpose.  In fact, the word in Ephesians 2:10 translated workmanship literally means you are handcrafted by God.  The Greek word is the same word we derive our English word poem from.

In other words, your life is not to be without order or symmetry or rhyme or reason.  God has some specific things mapped out for your life.  You are not an accident.  You are not excess baggage.  You have a purpose.

Ask God today to show you that purpose, and then develop the gifts God has given you to fulfill that purpose.


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Shine Your Light in the Darkness
Scripture Reading: Romans 13:12; Ephesians 5:13; 1 Peter 2:9 

Some Christians get nervous about discussions on the Christians' responsibility to the culture. A major concern is that the Gospel will be obscured in favor of social concerns.  Let me reassure your, when it comes to the lost, evangelism must come first. We must win people to Christ.

Without Christ, it doesn't matter how much money people have or how good their jobs are. If they die without Christ, they die without hope.  We still have to live in this world until Jesus returns. We need to be salt and light in our culture just as Jesus commanded.



We are responsible to recapture our society for Jesus, point people to Him and promote His righteousness in society.  Ask yourself, "Am I making anyone around me thirsty for Christ? Am I shining my light in the darkness?"

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The Divine Commandment of Life
. . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect -Matthew 5:48
Our Lord's exhortation to us in Matthew 5:38-48 is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections- some people we like and others we don't like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another" (1 John 1:7), even those toward whom we have no affection.

The example our Lord gave us here is not that of a good person, or even of a good Christian, but of God Himself. ". . . be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." In other words, simply show to the other person what God has shown to you. And God will give you plenty of real life opportunities to prove whether or not you are "perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God's interests in other people. Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35).

The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God's life in us expresses itself as God's life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian's life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God. And when we come in contact with things that create confusion and a flurry of activity, we find to our own amazement that we have the power to stay wonderfully poised even in the center of it all.
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Keeping Your Focus

Yesterday we discovered that God does have a purpose for each of our lives.  Yet even once we discover our purpose, we must remain focused.  Luke 4:42-44 says,

Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place.  And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them; but He said to them, "I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent."  And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

I want you to notice that statement of Jesus,  "For this purpose I have been sent."  Jesus knew His purpose.  He said, "I must preach the kingdom."  But notice the people tried to distract Him from that purpose.

I am sure the people meant well, but they were trying to divert Jesus from His purpose.  But Jesus knew His purpose; therefore, He did not stay.

People will innocently divert you from doing what God has called you to do.  It is only when you know your purpose that you will not be sidetracked, and you will not be distracted from what you are supposed to do.

The apostle Paul knew his purpose.  In fact, he said this in 1 Corinthians 9:26, "So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step" (The Living Bible).  He was not about to get distracted from God's purpose for his life.

Our lives are not to be aimless, but they are to have purpose and direction, and we are to stay focused on that purpose, running straight at that goal.  Keep focused on the purpose for which God has created you.

Be able to say like Paul, "I am running straight to the goal with purpose in every step."


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  Who's the Real Enemy?
Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 

Our nation faces a crisis of social deterioration which would have been unimaginable a generation ago. Our society needs radical transformation. Yes, we're in a culture war, but we need to know who the real enemy is.

The real enemy, working behind the scenes, is Satan. Yet the number one reason Satan can influence the schools, the media and government is because Christians have abandoned our culture and handed it over.



Christian morality no longer permeates, and society has lost its best moral frame of reference. We need a whole new generation of people who know, revere and follow God. If we humble ourselves before the Father, He will give us the power to take our culture back. 

[Judy Harder]

 
Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The "Go" of Preparation

 
If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift-Matthew 5:23-24
It is easy for us to imagine that we will suddenly come to a point in our lives where we are fully prepared, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished. In fact, it is a process that must be steadily maintained. It is dangerous to become settled and complacent in our present level of experience. The Christian life requires preparation and more preparation.

The sense of sacrifice in the Christian life is readily appealing to a new Christian. From a human standpoint, the one thing that attracts us to Jesus Christ is our sense of the heroic, and a close examination of us by our Lord's words suddenly puts this tide of enthusiasm to the test. ". . . go your way. First be reconciled to your brother. . . ." The "go" of preparation is to allow the Word of God to examine you closely. Your sense of heroic sacrifice is not good enough. The thing the Holy Spirit will detect in you is your nature that can never work in His service. And no one but God can detect that nature in you. Do you have anything to hide from God? If you do, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin in your life, don't just admit it- confess it. Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master, whatever the humiliation to your right to yourself may be?

Never disregard a conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to you. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to bring it to your mind, it is the very thing He is detecting in you. You were looking for some big thing to give up, while God is telling you of some tiny thing that must go. But behind that tiny thing lies the stronghold of obstinacy, and you say, "I will not give up my right to myself"- the very thing that God intends you to give up if you are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
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The Value of Play

I think we would all agree that the Christian life is one to be taken seriously.  But in our desire to go all out for Christ, we can get to a place where we are physically, emotionally, and spiritually drained.

God does not intend for us to live our lives that way.  In fact, in 1 Timothy 6:17, Paul tells us,

God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.

You and I need to take time to enjoy the things God gives us.  In fact, Jesus said this to His disciples in Mark 6:31, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while."

It is so easy to live our lives believing that somehow it is more spiritual to be on the edge of exhaustion all the time.  But God clearly tells us that we are to take time to rejuvenate and to enjoy the things He has put into our lives.

When I was a young minister, I had the chance to meet with a seasoned minister who had literally changed the world for Christ.  I thought, "Man, this is my golden opportunity.  I'm going to ask him some questions."

So I said to him, "Look, I'm a young man in ministry.  You have had decades more experience than me.  You have impacted the world.  What is the best advice you could give me as a young minister?"

And he said, "Well, Bayless, you have a nice golf swing.  My advice is that you get some lessons.  And whatever it costs you, join a country club and play golf regularly."  Then he looked at me and said, "Golf is the only thing that's kept me alive."

It was some of the best advice I had ever received.

You need to make sure you live a balanced life.  Take time for rest and for play. Recharge your batteries.  You are in this thing for the long haul.


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All for God's Glory

Scripture Reading: Psalms 136 

First Corinthians 10:31 tells us that even our eating and drinking should be done to the glory of God.

God's glory is like a pair of colored glasses that tint everything you see.  Whatever you do should be done for His glory.  About everything, you should ask, "How will this glorify God?"

The whole earth gives us a picture of the glory of God.  Nature preaches us a sermon on His glory.  Everything should point to His glory.

Revelation 21:23 says that when we get to heaven, there will be no need of the sun or moon because the glory of the Lord will illuminate everything.  There will be no night there, for the place will be consumed with the glory of God.  His glory is so awesome that it will light up our heavenly home!

 

[Judy Harder]

 

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The "Go" of Relationship
 
Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two-Matthew 5:41
Our Lord's teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that He demands for us is an impossible one unless He has done a super-natural work in us. Jesus Christ demands that His disciple does not allow even the slightest trace of resentment in his heart when faced with tyranny and injustice. No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant. Only one thing will bear the strain, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself- a relationship that has been examined, purified, and tested until only one purpose remains and I can truly say, "I am here for God to send me where He will." Everything else may become blurred, but this relationship with Jesus Christ must never be.

The Sermon on the Mount is not some unattainable goal; it is a statement of what will happen in me when Jesus Christ has changed my nature by putting His own nature in me. Jesus Christ is the only One who can fulfill the Sermon on the Mount.

If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally. And as long as we consciously maintain the determined purpose to be His disciples, we can be sure that we are not disciples. Jesus says, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you. . ." (John 15:16). That is the way the grace of God begins. It is a constraint we can never escape; we can disobey it, but we can never start it or produce it ourselves. We are drawn to God by a work of His supernatural grace, and we can never trace back to find where the work began. Our Lord's making of a disciple is supernatural. He does not build on any natural capacity of ours at all. God does not ask us to do the things that are naturally easy for us- He only asks us to do the things that we are perfectly fit to do through His grace, and that is where the cross we must bear will always come.


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The Prayer of Personal Edification

Today's devotional brings us to the prayer of personal edification.  In 1 Corinthians 14:4, Paul writes,

He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.

In verse 14, Paul says, If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays.  Coupled together with his statement in verse 4, we can see that praying in tongues edifies our spirit.

Edifies is actually an old English word.  It means to build an edifice or building higher and higher.  The closest modern way to say that would be "charges himself with energy," just like you would recharge a battery.

When I pray in other tongues, I charge my spirit with energy.  I build myself up.  It is like my cell phone.  It needs to be recharged, or before long it will cease to work.

Sometimes I keep my phone on and talk on it while it is recharging, but when I do that it takes a whole lot longer to recharge.  If I turn it off and plug it in, the charging process happens much quicker.

Sometimes you just need to shut everything down, turn everything off, and go get away with God and pray.  Build yourself up in the Holy Spirit, especially praying in other tongues.

Sometimes after a long day I will come home just drained, tired inside and out.  Eating a good meal and getting some rest takes care of my physical tiredness, but in order to replenish my inner resources, I need to do something else.

For me, reading His Word is food for my spirit, and praying in tongues brings inward rest and rejuvenation.

Even as the Scripture declares in Isaiah 28:11-12, For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said, "This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest," and, "This is the refreshing."

Take the time to get away and recharge your spiritual batteries.


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You were Custom Made

Scripture Reading: Psalms 139   

There's nothing quite like having a custom-made shirt.  On one shirt that I had custom made - cut especially for me - I even had my initials embroidered on the cuff.  When you get something custom-made, it is fitted to your uniqueness, crafted with you in mind, and you are proud of it.

Now think about this: YOU have been custom-made by Almighty God, and your days were ordained before time into being.  When you read Psalm 139:15-16, I want you to pay close attention to how God has placed all the parts of your life in order.  He's got your whole life in His hands.  This means you can stop trying to be somebody else and be satisfied with the unique person God made you to be.

You are custom-made!  When you live in that realization, you will shine brighter than ever.  Walking in God's purpose for you will turn out to be the greatest adventure you've ever jumped into!

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The Unblameable Attitude

 
If . . thou rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee. . . . - Matthew 5:23
If when you come to the altar, there you remember that your brother has anything against you, not - If you rake up something by a morbid sensitiveness, but - "If thou rememberest," that is, if it is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God: "first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." Never object to the intense sensitiveness of the Spirit of God in you when He is educating you down to the scruple.

"First be reconciled to thy brother . . ." Our Lord's direction is simple, "first be reconciled." Go back the way you came, go the way indicated to you by the conviction given at the altar; have an attitude of mind and a temper of soul to the one who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing. Jesus does not mention the other person, He says - you go. There is no question of your rights. The stamp of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus.

"And then come and offer thy gift." The process is clearly marked. First, the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden checking by the sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit, and the stoppage at the point of conviction, then the way of obedience to the word of God, constructing an unblameable attitude of mind and temper to the one with whom you have been in the wrong; then the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.


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The Ten Commandments of Marriage

Good marriages don't just happen.  It is not just because you married the right person and got lucky.  Good marriages are built on more than passion.  They are built on principle.

In the Scriptures, we find the best guidelines and principles for a healthy marriage.  God's words and God's principles are never ever outdated...never!  They are just as applicable today as they were to ancient Jews living in Israel.

What I want to do over the next couple of weeks of devotionals is point us to principles God has given us in a place you might not think was intended for marriage.  That place is the Ten Commandments, found in Exodus 20.

Today, let me give you those Ten Commandments.  What I would like you to do is spend time reading these carefully, and then take time to pray over each one.  Ask God to begin to open your heart to see how these commands could be looked at as principles for marriage.  I had a friend who challenged me to do the same, and I was amazed at what I discovered.

"You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image...
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain...
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." 


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Created for Eternity

Scripture Reading: Psalms 90

Many people live their entire lives not really understanding why they were put on earth.  What a tragedy and grave state of existence.  It's even possible to be successful, happy and popular but miss the point of living.

The moment we become the center of life is the moment we miss the true meaning and the reason that God created us.  It's important for us to realize that God has created us for Him, not for our own benefit.  God has created all of us for eternity.  In fact, Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God has placed eternity in our hearts.

When we begin seeing life through the lens of eternity, we will live differently.  Our choices, decisions, values and priorities will line up with God's Word and His plan for our lives. 

 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The "Go" Of Renunciation

 
Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. - Luke 9:57
Our Lord's attitude to this man is one of severe discouragement because He knew what was in man. We would have said - "Fancy losing the opportunity of winning that man!" Fancy bringing about him a north wind that froze him and "turned him away discouraged!" Never apologize for your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until there is nothing left to hurt or offend. Jesus Christ has no tenderness whatever toward anything that is ultimately going to ruin a man in the service of God. Our Lord's answers are based not on caprice, but on a knowledge of what is in man. If the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you, you may be sure that there is something He wants to hurt to death.

V. 58. These words knock the heart out of serving Jesus Christ because it is pleasing to me. The rigour of rejection leaves nothing but my Lord, and myself, and a forlorn hope. "Let the hundredfold come or go, your lodestar must be your relationship to Me, and I have nowhere to lay My head."

v. 59. This man did not want to disappoint Jesus, nor to hurt his father. We put sensitive loyalty to relatives in place of loyalty to Jesus Christ and Jesus has to take the last place. In a conflict of loyalty, obey Jesus Christ at all costs.

V. 61. The one who says - "Yes, Lord, but . . ." is the one who is fiercely ready, but never goes. This man had one or two reservations. The exacting call of Jesus Christ has no margin of good-byes, because good-bye, as it is often used, is pagan, not Christian. When once the call of God comes, begin to go and never stop going.


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The First Commandment of Marriage:  Exclusivity

The first of the Ten Commandments is simply this, as found in Exodus 20:3,

"You shall have no other gods before Me."

What is God saying in this commandment?  That He wants to have an exclusive relationship with you.  He wants to be your one and only.  He will not settle for flavor of the month.

And how appropriate in marriage as well.  We are to have an exclusive relationship with our spouse.

It's been said that Henry Ford, on his golden wedding anniversary...50 years of marriage...was asked, "What's the secret of your success in marriage?"  And he said, "The secret of my successful marriage is the same secret that I have in business:  I stick to the same model."

In traditional wedding vows, the man and woman pledge their devotion until death parts them.  For life.  There is no competition.

My wife has no competition.  I am not shopping for a new model.  I do not want to trade in the old model.  I will not be shopping in the future.  One is all I need.

When God made man, He said it is good.  But then He said, "It is not good that he is alone.  I am going to make a helper suitable for him."  And the Bible says God took one of Adam's ribs, and He formed a woman, Eve, and brought her to the man.

God did not take four or five ribs and say, "Okay, Adam, here is Eve, and here is Lois, and here is Samantha, and here is Rachel."  No, it was just one.  And to have a healthy marriage relationship, that is it.

I am committed for life.  An exclusive relationship.  I am not shopping, not even window-shopping.  One God.  One wife.  That is enough.


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Living for the Right Purpose
Scripture Reading: Genesis 1:27-28; Philippians 3:8 

Purpose is a popular topic that many of us find fascinating.  We all want to be validated and know that we are here on earth for a specific reason.  We may have never learned about our purpose while growing up and may still have a difficult time understanding it. 

The good news is that God wants us to realize our purpose.  He didn't create us to live with no direction, just wandering aimlessly through life.  Too many times, we complicate God's plan for our lives.  As believers, God's highest purpose is for us to walk in a close relationship with Him and to reach others with His love.

As we walk in obedience to these basic principles outlined in His Word, God begins to reveal to us a very specific purpose that matches our DNA.  Acts 13:36 tells of David, who lived a purposeful life for the Lord in his generation.  What a great legacy to leave behind!

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotion by Oswald Chambers
My Utmost for His Highest
 
The Assigning of the Call
   I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church . . . -Colossians 1:24




We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, "Here am I! Send me" (Isaiah 6:.

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, "If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn't object!" But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed-you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children
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The Second Commandment of Marriage:  Don't Love a Substitute

In the second commandment recorded in Exodus 20:4-6, we are given the second principle for a strong marriage,

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image-any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.  For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."

God commanded that there be no carved images, whether in heaven, in earth, or in the sea.  He wanted to make sure everything was covered.  And He said not to bow down to them and worship them.  God said, "Do not make images of Me and then worship them.  Don not love or worship a substitute for Me.  Love Me."

Religion has made pictures, statues, and idols and then called them holy.  They are all imitations.  They are all substitutes.  And in marriage we should have no substitutes either.

Love your husband only.  Love your wife only.  Do not look for fulfillment in some other relationship or in some other thing.  Find your fulfillment in that relationship.

Pornography is a substitute.  When a man watches pornography, he is loving a substitute.  He is directing his passion and his sexuality toward those images.  That is a substitute, and he is robbing his wife of that intimacy.

Do not allow any substitute, no matter what it might be, to take the place of intimacy with your spouse.


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God Never Makes Mistakes
Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 32:4; Matthew 5:48

Everyone makes mistakes, right?  Be assured that God, our Creator, has never made a mistake.  Deuteronomy 32:4 says His work is perfect, and you and I are some of His greatest works.  Believe me, there are no failures or flaws in His plan for you.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1).  Those who believe that the Earth and everything on it evolved by chance or luck into what they are today are incorrect.  God purposefully and supernaturally created each and every one of us and continues to sustain us.

There is no room for chance or luck if you believe God is the Creator and Sustainer.  God's power allows all things to happen in our lives for His purpose.  We are not the coming together of random forces in the universe.  We are the creation of God's power and perfect work... never a mistake.

 

[Judy Harder]

October 1, 2013

The Utmost for His Highest

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

The Place of Exaltation
. . . Jesus took . . . them up on a high mountain apart by themselves . . . -Mark 9:2

We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God's perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life- those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.

We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, "What's the use of this experience?" We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God's purpose.

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The Third Commandment of Marriage: Speak Well of Your Mate

Exodus 20:7 gives us our third commandment of marriage,

"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain."

Many misunderstand the term, in vain.  It means empty, meaningless, insincere, not showing due respect.

When we speak flippantly or lightly about someone, we erode our respect for that person.  Some people are just far too casual in the way they speak of their spouse, and it erodes your respect for him or her.

In marriage, few things can affect the relationship like words.  Words are containers.  They can contain love; they can contain hate; they can contain joy; they can contain bitterness.

The book of James says that our tongue is like a rudder on a ship.  It will send the ship of your marriage in whatever direction your words go.  Some people are on the brink of divorce because they talk divorce.  Just listen to the words they say.  Are they negative or positive?  Critical or encouraging?

One night I was out with a couple of friends diving for lobster.  Some guys were out in one of those big, long speedboats drinking and zooming back and forth at 60 miles an hour. All of a sudden, BANG! The boat hit the rocks.

But it did not hit the rocks by itself.  It was steered into the rocks.  Just like the driver of that boat, some people are steering their marriage into the rocks of divorce, into the rocks of heartache, by the words they speak.

Think about what you say.  Are you building up your partner?  Learn to speak well of your mate.  Build them up with your words.  Be lavish with your praise.  You will be pleased with where those words will take your relationship.

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Blessed are the Merciful
Scripture Reading: Matthew 5   

All of us have had to carry heavy circumstances that weigh us down, and we needed something to lift the burden off our shoulders.  We need mercy.  Mercy reduces, removes or relieves someone's distress.  It is simply compassion in action.

The Bible says in Ephesians 2:4, God is rich in mercy.  In other words, God is rich in blessing us with divine favor and compassion, releasing us from distress, discouragement, brokenness, pain and problems.  Mercy is in fact God's reaction to our misery.

Mercy is asking God to not let us bear the full weight of our burdens.  Everyone needs mercy.  Lamentations 3 states that God's mercies are new every morning.  Every day you wake up, you wake up to mercy.  You got up today with new life, and guess what?  New life means new opportunities.  That's another day and a new opportunity to praise Him. 

 

[Judy Harder]

My Utmost for His HighestDaily Devotionals By Oswald ChambersThe Place of Humiliation
If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us -Mark 9:22


We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, "Here am I! Send me" (Isaiah 6:.

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, "If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn't object!" But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed-you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

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Affair-Proof Your Marriage with Positive Affirmation

The first way to affair-proof your marriage is to season your marriage with affirming communication.

In Song of Solomon 7:1-6 we read of how Solomon affirmed his bride,

How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O prince's daughter!  The curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman.  Your navel is a rounded goblet; it lacks no blended beverage.  Your waist is a heap of wheat set about with lilies.  Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle.  Your neck is like an ivory tower, your eyes like the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bath Rabbim.  Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus.  Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel, and the hair of your head is like purple; a king is held captive by your tresses.  How fair and how pleasant you are, O love, with your delights!

Solomon knew it was vital for him to compliment his bride's body, because, as you read in chapter 1, it is evident that it was an area of insecurity for her.

This Shulamite was a country girl.  She said, "Do not look on me for I am dark."  She was tan from working out in the vineyards.  And compared with the fair-skinned, pampered ladies of the court, she felt very insecure.

So Solomon very wisely builds her up in the area where she feels most insecure.

Speak affirming words to your mate rather than tear him or her down.  If your spouse is starved for positive affirmation, and it does not come from you, it opens a door of temptation.  The devil will send someone to give insincere compliments, and if a person is starved for it, they gravitate towards it.

Praise one another lavishly.  It is an important thing to do.

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Blessed are the Merciful
Scripture Reading: Matthew 5   

All of us have had to carry heavy circumstances that weigh us down, and we needed something to lift the burden off our shoulders.  We need mercy.  Mercy reduces, removes or relieves someone's distress.  It is simply compassion in action.

The Bible says in Ephesians 2:4, God is rich in mercy.  In other words, God is rich in blessing us with divine favor and compassion, releasing us from distress, discouragement, brokenness, pain and problems.  Mercy is in fact God's reaction to our misery.

Mercy is asking God to not let us bear the full weight of our burdens.  Everyone needs mercy.  Lamentations 3 states that God's mercies are new every morning.  Every day you wake up, you wake up to mercy.  You got up today with new life, and guess what?  New life means new opportunities.  That's another day and a new opportunity to praise Him. 

[Judy Harder]

My Utmost for His HighestDaily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers
The Place of Ministry
He said to them, 'This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting' -Mark 9:29




His disciples asked Him privately, 'Why could we not cast it out?' " (Mark 9:28). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. "This kind can come out by nothing but" concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God's work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him.

When you are brought face to face with a difficult situation and nothing happens externally, you can still know that freedom and release will be given because of your continued concentration on Jesus Christ. Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very problem itself, and all that you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way that you will never know until you see Him face to face.

We must be able to "mount up with wings like eagles" (Isaiah 40:31), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley. Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13) and what he was referring to were mostly humiliating things. And yet it is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say, "No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God." Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?

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Affair-Proof Your Marriage Through Intimacy-Part 2

Yesterday we learned the first step in experiencing intimacy in marriage...by creating an atmosphere for that intimacy.  Today, I want us to see the results of that deliberate effort.

As we mentioned yesterday, Solomon has been complimenting his wife and affirming her.  Look at her response to that affirmation in Song of Solomon 7:10,

I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me.

She is digging it!  She is saying, "He really loves me!"  Solomon's affirmation of his bride has created this atmosphere of intimacy.  And look what she says next in verse 11,

Come, my beloved, let us go forth to the field; let us lodge in the villages.

She is grabbing Solomon's hand and saying, "Let's get a hotel room!"  Then there are verses 12-13,

Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine has budded, whether the grape blossoms are open, and the pomegranates are in bloom.  There I will give you my love.  The mandrakes give off a fragrance, and at our gates are pleasant fruits, all manner, new and old, which I have laid up for you, my beloved.

Friend, catch what is going on.  Solomon has affirmed his wife saying, "Honey, you are beautiful!  I am so glad I married you.  I married out of my league.  You are wonderful.  Your body is great.  I am so happy!"

Her response?  "Wow, he loves me.  I'll tell you what, let's go away and have a little love vacation.  Let's take a few days off."  That is enough to get any husband inspired to rent a hotel room!

If you want to affair-proof your marriage, make intimacy a priority!

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Blessed are the Spiritually Famished
Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:6; Psalms 107 

We've all seen the televised images of starving children in countries experiencing food and water shortages.  Mothers, holding their babies with bellies bloated from severe malnutrition, desperately seek food and water.  If they can't find what they seek, their children will die.

This kind of desperation is what Jesus was talking about when He told us to hunger and thirst for righteousness.  He wants us to be as passionate about doing God's will as parents in developing countries are about getting food or clean water.  Our bodies can't survive without food, and our souls can't live without righteousness.

So how do we hunger and thirst for righteousness?  It is the passionate pursuit of God's righteousness in our own lives.  His righteousness is living in God's will day in and day out.

When we passionately pursue His will, other things become less of a priority and we will remove any distractions that do not contribute to that pursuit.