Devotional for the day

[Judy Harder]

August 25, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

Sacrifice and Friendship
I have called you friends . . . -John 15:15

We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, "I'll surrender if . . . !" Or we approach it by saying, "I suppose I have to devote my life to God." We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.

But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14 ). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit's ultimate expression of love.

Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, "I delight to do Your will, O my God . . . ." He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2 ).

Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional- for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.

"I have called you friends. . . ." Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.

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 "walkingaccording 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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Read: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. - 1 Corinthians 12:26

TODAY IN THE WORD
The church in Haiti was not destroyed when the buildings collapsed in the January 12 earthquake. Gersan Valcin, pastor of a church in Port-au-Prince, was visiting one of his church members when a destitute woman approached whose shoes had fallen apart. The church member took off her own shoes-the only pair she owned-and gave them to the woman, who still had many miles to travel.
Here is a picture of the kind of actions and attitudes to which Paul calls the Corinthians in verse 26 of our reading today. As the church of God, we must compassionately identify with those among us who hurt. Moreover, when members of our body are honored, we celebrate together. This isn't mere sympathy or polite applause. With the kind of a radical unity in the body of Christ that Paul has been urging, we actually feel for one another. As followers of Jesus, we become like Him and take on each other's pain and celebration in an incarnational way. In Christ, our stories and our lives really matter to others.

We can see what Paul is doing as he answers the questions the Corinthians have posed to him on the subject of spiritual gifts. He's using his answer as an occasion to retrace some of his themes of the letter. We must remember that the fundamental problem the Corinthian church faced was its disunity. The disunity has expressed itself in multiple ways: believers had taken one another to court, the community had divided over the issue of whether one can eat meat sacrificed to idols, factions developed between sexual immorality and sexual asceticism, and the Lord's Supper had become another occasion of the rich shaming the poor. Spiritual gifts were another arena where the Corinthians had despised one another.

Paul teaches that every member of the body is indispensable. We cannot do without what might seem to be the weakest of our members. As infinitely complex and beautiful as the human body, the diversity of the church is there by God's creative design.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Seminary president in Port-au-Prince, Jean Dorlus, spoke of the cooperation between Americans and Haitians in the relief and rebuilding efforts in the wake of the earthquake. For all the praise he offered, he also noted, "Oh, Americans-they would be almost perfect people except for one thing: if they would listen!" His words challenge us to remember that as the body of Christ, in order to function in a healthy way, we've got to listen to one another. Real listening is the prerequisite for real compassion and unity. 

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 26, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

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 ).

Prayer?

In Ephesians 6:17-18, the apostle Paul tells us,

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

Today I want you to take special note of that phrase, "Praying always with all prayer."  In Goodspeed's translation, he puts it this way,  Use every kind of prayer and entreaty; and at every opportunity, pray in the Spirit.

I believe Paul is pointing you and me to the fact that there are different kinds of prayer.  Over the next few devotionals, I want to talk to you about those different types of prayer.

Now, I know you may be thinking, "Well, prayer is prayer. Let's not get so technical."  There is a truth there because prayer in its simplest form is just talking to God, and that is something anyone can do.

But to say, "All prayer is prayer," is equivalent to saying, "All sports are sports."  It is true in one sense, but you cannot play one kind of sport with the rules that govern a different kind of sport.

I remember when I was coaching Little League.  A ground ball was hit into the outfield.  When the outfielder got it, he threw it at the kid running to second base and hit him.  Then the outfielder started screaming, "You're out! I got you!"

Well, that works in dodge ball, but it doesn't work in baseball.  There are different kinds of prayer for different kinds of circumstances, which I look forward to helping you understand in the coming devotionals. 

Be diligent to talk to God every day, but along with that commitment, make it your aim to learn the "rules" that govern different kinds of prayer.
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Read: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. - 1 John 3:18

TODAY IN THE WORD
William Wilberforce, one of the more well-known members of the Clapham Sect, worked tirelessly in Parliament to abolish the British slave trade. But it was Hannah More, a lesser known member, who wrote this on the subject of notable Christian service: "We are apt to mistake our vocation by looking out of the way for occasions to exercise rare and great virtues, and by stepping over the ordinary ones that lie directly in the road before us."
This notion is at the heart of Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 13. What matters most isn't always our greatest achievements, spiritual or otherwise. When considered in the light of what will endure, all of the spiritual gifts, whether tongues or knowledge (which the Corinthians esteemed) or prophecy (which Paul valued), have secondary importance. What matters most is that we've acted for love and in love. Love will be the final criterion for our spiritual lives. And love is what will distinguish the Christian life and community.

We must remember that Paul wasn't waxing eloquent on the theme of love for the purposes of poetry. 1 Corinthians 13, before it became a common passage to be used in weddings, was included in a letter to a church whose sins of pride and arrogance, whose misuse and misunderstanding of spiritual gifts, and whose socioeconomic differences had become sources of division. Paul hasn't pushed the pause button on his main themes of his letter, but in this chapter, he gives feet to the character of love. It is the force that he knows can unify the Corinthian community.

When the Corinthians decide to love, the factional infighting and envious quarreling in the community will end (cf. 1:11, 3:3). When the Corinthians begin to love, the exercise of spiritual gifts will build up, rather than divide, the community. When the Corinthians consider controversial questions of Christian faith and practice, and when love governs that discussion, the unity of thought and mind to which Paul first called them will be realized (1:10).
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Love can heal what pride has injured. It can bind up the places where we've been wounded and where trust has eroded. In a commentary on 1 Corinthians, one New Testament scholar says, "Love requires the formation of character." He means to highlight that what Paul has described in this chapter isn't necessarily how we feel love for others but how we show love. To love is to need a radical inner transformation. To love is to depend on Christ, whose example defines for us what love is (1 John 3:16).

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 27, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

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.\

The Prayer of Dedication

Yesterday we began a journey to understand the different kinds of prayer for the different circumstances we face in life.  The first kind of prayer I want to point you to is the prayer of dedication.   

Mark 14:32, 35-36 helps us understand this type of prayer,

Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, "Sit here while I pray."...He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him.  And He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.  Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will."

Here we find Jesus dedicating and consecrating Himself to the will of the Father.  He is in agony; He is in distress.  This is the eve of His crucifixion.  And Jesus is saying, "Lord, if we can redeem humanity some other way, God, please!  But Your will is what is important.  So I am consecrating Myself to Your will, Father."

This prayer of dedication and consecration is one that believers should pray.  In fact, I believe every Christian should pray this prayer in a general sense after they get saved.  Just like the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, "Lord, what would You haveme to do?"

Also, when you come to specific crossroads as you follow God, if you are unsure of God's will, or you feel He may be leading you into a specific area that will require sacrifice, reestablish that consecration and dedication to God through this kind of prayer.

Christ was dedicated to do the will of the Father, and yet He reaffirmed that dedication as He prayed, "I am willing to submit Myself to You."

Pray it.  Vocalize it.  Submit yourself to His will as He reveals it.
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Read: 1 Corinthians 14:1-25
Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church. - 1 Corinthians 14:12

TODAY IN THE WORD
In 2010, Chinese authorities undertook a massive campaign to correct thousands of signs in English. A sign that should read, "Caution! Floor is slippery!" instead declared, "Slip and fall down carefully!" "No Smorking!" signs abounded to ban cigarette smoking in certain areas. Instead of "Keep off the grass!" a sign exhorted: "Please don't disturb me. I am sleeping and will feel pain." American companies trying to market their products in Chinese haven't always fared any better. KFC's "finger-lickin' good" slogan was translated as "eat your fingers off." And the original attempt to translate Coca-Cola into Chinese was rendered, "Bite the wax tadpole."
Cultural miscommunication between speakers of different languages is how Paul describes what was happening in the church of Corinth. The Corinthians were speaking in tongues in their public worship gatherings, but as their speech was unintelligible to one another, it did not benefit the community. Because of the overemphasis on tongues (and what might have been a neglect of gifts like prophecy), their worship gatherings hummed with a noise like a hack with a clarinet to his lips or the muffled bugle call on the battlefront. They don't promote the encouragement and instruction of the believers.

Paul is not sidelining the gift of tongues. He is not faulting the Corinthians for having the gift or even wanting it. He speaks in tongues and recognizes the value of tongues for one's personal edification. But he is reminding them of the purpose of spiritual gifts and how they are to function in the public worship assembly. The Corinthians should never use their gifts, especially not tongues, to inflate their own self-importance or to draw more attention to themselves during corporate worship.

Spiritual gifts are given for the common good, and when the community gathers, priority should be given to the gift of prophecy (and presumably, other gifts, such as knowledge and teaching, v. 6). The exercise of spiritual gifts should always have the intent to build up the church.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Paul's teaching to the Corinthians challenges us in a relevant way today. How eager are we to have spiritual gifts and use them? The implication is that our gifts are not static. It isn't as if the spiritual gifts we receive when we're first converted are the only gifts we'll ever have. The text invites us to consider prayerfully asking God to endow us with spiritual gifts. With faith and a desire to build up the church, we must seek God and trust Him to use us in the body of Christ as His servants.

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 28, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

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.

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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Read: 1 Corinthians 14:26-40
All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. - 1 Corinthians 14:26

TODAY IN THE WORD
With social networking sites and the ubiquity of Internet access, churches and pastors are exploring how to use these technologies to reach their communities. Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv, a cyber church, admits, "We were blown away at how people could actually worship along [online]. The whole family will gather around the computer, and they'll sing and worship together. Instead of trying to get people to come to a church, we feel like we can take a church to them."
Would Paul endorse replacing the physical gathering of the body of believers with a virtual church experience from one's smart phone? From our study of 1 Corinthians, the answer is arguably "no." Of course the Corinthians weren't tempted to do church via iPhone, but they did struggle to understand our corporate identity as the people of God. We haven't always understood why it is that the church exists and why it is that we gather each week for worship. The Corinthians treated the worship gathering as a place to showcase their spiritual gifts. We often look for the feel-good experience of church. Both attitudes fail to see that God meant for us to seek not to be strengthened, but to strengthen when we gather.

Paul's summary comments are offered in today's reading. The believers should gather together to hear from God's Word and to speak to God through prayer and praise. They are called to be expectant and eager to witness the spontaneous movement of the Spirit of God for the purpose of the common good. While there's freedom in the gatherings (it's unlikely that they had bulletins outlining exactly what would be said and when), nevertheless, there are restrictions put in place. These restrictions, such as forbidding more than one person from talking at a time or requiring interpretation for a person speaking in tongues, do not restrain the Spirit but promote order.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
What is your attitude toward Sunday gatherings at your church? Do you hope for inspirational music and a message with rhetorical flourish? Do you intend to socialize with your friends? None of these things are inherently wrong, but they can distract us from more important things. How are you serving others in the church? Are you eager to join with believers to praise God? Spend time today in prayer for your church service tomorrow, that the members will be unified in using their gifts together to worship the Lord and build up one another.

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 28, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

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 ).

Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth   

·        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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Read: 1 Corinthians 15:1-34
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. - Hebrews 12:28

TODAY IN THE WORD
For the sake of the gospel, missionaries like John and Betty Stam and Nate Saint gave their lives to share Jesus with people who had not heard of Him. For the sake of the gospel, D. L. Moody gave up a lucrative business career to reach the urban poor and marginalized with the message of salvation. For the sake of the gospel, thousands of unheralded Christians have ministered in prisons, taught Sunday school to unruly children, adopted orphans, given up vacations in order to participate in mission trips, or worked to free people from the bonds of slavery.
What is this gospel, that could compel people to action like this? As Paul nears the end of his letter, he returns to what is the fundamental issue at hand, the very theme with which he began: the gospel. In chapter 15, Paul defines what the gospel is and what its implications are for the Corinthians and indeed, for all believers.

In verses 3 through 5, Paul is citing what may be one of the earliest of Christian creeds. It announces that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and then raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the cataclysmic events of history. They have fulfilled the story God began with the nation of Israel, which He has carefully recorded in the Scriptures. The gospel is both an Old and New Testament story of God's person and work with His people.

The gospel isn't just a story rooted in past events. The gospel provides an expectant hope for what is to come. Jesus, having died for our sins and been raised, now lives to destroy the enemies of God. God's kingdom will finally and fully come through Jesus at the end of time. Our bodily resurrection is a witness to this future redemption of the world.

Because of the salvation secured by Christ and verified through the resurrection, we are compelled to act. As we share the news about Jesus with others, we are participating in God's promise to renew all creation.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Some people like to force a divide between doctrine and doing-and then emphasize whichever element they prefer as most important. But theology and practical ministry can't be split apart; they inform each other. Paul's letter to the Corinthians is full of the connections between sound theology and life together in the church. The ability to know God and the ability to serve others are both rooted in the truth and power of the gospel, the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 29, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

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 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 ).

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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Read: 1 Corinthians 15:35-58
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away! - Revelation 21:4

TODAY IN THE WORD
In his book, A Grace Disguised, Gerald Sittser describes his journey of grief. In one tragic car accident, he lost his wife, his mother, and his youngest daughter. The book offers no easy answers about the problem of suffering. As hopeful as the book is, it's also honest about loss. Sittser admits, "We recover from broken limbs, not amputations." Through the pain, Sittser holds onto the hope of the gospel: "The Easter story tells us that the last chapter of the human story is not death but life."
Sittser's book offers a thoroughly Christian view of death, the only view that makes sense of the hope of resurrection. In order to fully appreciate the doctrine of the bodily resurrection of believers (a doctrine the Corinthian believers had failed to understand), we've got to face the reality of death in all of its horror. Death is our bitter enemy. It robs, and it destroys. It is the cruel weapon of Satan himself, whose every ambition it is to plunder the goodness of God's creation and destroy life.

It's the resurrection of our bodies and the redemption of all creation, which shouts the joyful chorus that Christ has won! He has defeated Satan! War, disease, starvation, decay-the fiercest weapons of the enemy will be destroyed on the day when Jesus returns to earth, and all believers are given new bodies, spiritual bodies.

Whereas the philosophers in the time of the Corinthians conceived of enlightened spirituality as the state of the soul escaping the body, the Christian doctrine of resurrection affirms the goodness of the body. In the resurrection, our souls don't escape to heaven in a disembodied form. We will put on a new body of a different sort: imperishable, immortal, strong, and glorious.

The doctrine of resurrection fuels our energy for obeying and serving Christ in this life. Because of the resurrection of Christ and the promise of the resurrection of our own bodies, we do not believe or hope in vain.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Perhaps you've recently had someone close to you die, and you've struggled with the anger you've felt as a result. Maybe even your anger has been directed toward God. This passage of 1 Corinthians 15 tells us it's perfectly appropriate to be angry about death. It is not God's good plan for His creation! But death is not the final word; it will once and for all be destroyed. The resurrection of Christ guarantees it. If you are comforting a friend who's grieving the death of a loved one, comfort them with the hope of the resurrection!

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

August 31, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

"My Joy . . . Your Joy"
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full -John 15:11

What was the joy that Jesus had? Joy should not be confused with happiness. In fact, it is an insult to Jesus Christ to use the word happiness in connection with Him. The joy of Jesus was His absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice to His Father- the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do- ". . . who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross . . ." ( Hebrews 12:2 ). "I delight to do Your will, O my God . . ." ( Psalm 40:8 ). Jesus prayed that our joy might continue fulfilling itself until it becomes the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?

Living a full and overflowing life does not rest in bodily health, in circumstances, nor even in seeing God's work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the same fellowship and oneness with Him that Jesus Himself enjoyed. But the first thing that will hinder this joy is the subtle irritability caused by giving too much thought to our circumstances. Jesus said, ". . . the cares of this world, . . . choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful" ( Mark 4:19 ). And before we even realize what has happened, we are caught up in our cares. All that God has done for us is merely the threshold- He wants us to come to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim who Jesus is.

Have the right relationship with God, finding your joy there, and out of you "will flow rivers of living water" ( John 7:38 ). Be a fountain through which Jesus can pour His "living water." Stop being hypocritical and proud, aware only of yourself, and live "your life . . . hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3 ). A person who has the right relationship with God lives a life as natural as breathing wherever he goes. The lives that have been the greatest blessing to you are the lives of those people who themselves were unaware of having been a blessing.

The Prayer of Supplication

Today I want to focus your attention on the prayer of supplication.  Ephesians 6:18 tells us,

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

When Paul says, Praying always with all prayer, the Greek word he uses for prayer is just a general term for prayer used throughout the New Testament.

But the word he uses translated supplication means prayer for definite, specific needs.  Most generally, you will find that this is a prayer prayed for others, as is the case in this verse.

In Philippians 1:4, Paul uses this same word for supplication, when he says,

Always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy.

Both the words translated prayer and request are the Greek word for supplication that we just read in Ephesians 6:18.  But here it is translated as prayer and request.

I want you to notice who he is saying to pray for,  Always in every prayer of mine making request for you all.  It is for someone else.

Recently, I had a pastor friend ask me to pray for his church and their finances.  He said things were really tight.  So several times I brought the issue before God and made specific requests about it...or supplications.

Now, I did not pray, "I believe I receive it."  That is not my place.  What I did do was pray for God to help them.  I prayed that God would give them wisdom, that God would inspire the people in the church to give, that people would have a heart for souls, and a number of other specific requests over the following several days.

That is the prayer of supplication...praying specific requests for specific people.
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Read: 1 Corinthians 16:1-24
My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. - 1 Corinthians 16:24

TODAY IN THE WORD
John Adams and his wife, Abigail Adams, wrote over 1,100 letters to each other during the period of their courtship and John's political career. Their correspondence is rich with the details of the turbulent times leading up to the Revolutionary War and the infancy of the American democracy. Their letters have provided historians with information about the political happenings of the day as well as the ordinary routines and concerns of the American family at that time.
A letter is a fascinating window into the world of someone else. Paul's letter to the Corinthians provides such a window. Reading the Corinthians' mail, we start to understand what it must have been like to belong to this newly converted Gentile community. There was still confusion about the fundamental truths of the gospel. They continued to puzzle over questions of Christian life and practice. The pagan philosophies of their day held sway over their moral and spiritual imaginations. We know now why Paul several times compared them to immature children!

For all their abundance of spiritual gifts and direct contact with Paul, we have blessings today that the Corinthians didn't. For instance, the Scriptures were still being written in their generation, and their teaching was sporadic at best, relying upon correspondence with Paul (1 Corinthians may have been the second of a three-letter exchange) and the frequency of his visits (infrequent, we infer from chapter 16). Before we judge this church too harshly and revel in our own superiority, we should note that we continue to struggle with some of the same issues in the 21st century.

Paul ends the letter like he started it. After all the time spent to correct and rebuke them, he now affirms his confidence in them. God's grace in their lives will prevail, despite their many serious problems. He returns to the theme of love in chapter 16. He urges the Corinthians to do all that they do in love and to express that love in tangible ways to one another. He affirms his love for them in an intensely personal way, writing the words in his own hand.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
First Corinthians 16 may seem like a laundry list of last-minute afterthoughts from Paul. He discusses travel plans. He arranges for the collection of an offering promised beforehand for the poor in Jerusalem. He affirms the ministry of Timothy and Stephanas. But one important conclusion we draw from this chapter is the attention to the interconnectedness of the church throughout Asia: from Ephesus, to Jerusalem, to Galatia, and to Corinth, they were all brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. "There is one body . . . and one Lord" (Eph. 4:4, 5).

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

September 1, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

Prayer in the Father's House
. . . they found Him in the temple . . . . And He said to them, '. . . Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?' -Luke 2:46, 49

Our Lord's childhood was not immaturity waiting to grow into manhood- His childhood is an eternal fact. Am I a holy, innocent child of God as a result of my identification with my Lord and Savior? Do I look at my life as being in my Father's house? Is the Son of God living in His Father's house within me?

The only abiding reality is God Himself, and His order comes to me moment by moment. Am I continually in touch with the reality of God, or do I pray only when things have gone wrong- when there is some disturbance in my life? I must learn to identify myself closely with my Lord in ways of holy fellowship and oneness that some of us have not yet even begun to learn. ". . . I must be about My Father's business"- and I must learn to live every moment of my life in my Father's house.

Think about your own circumstances. Are you so closely identified with the Lord's life that you are simply a child of God, continually talking to Him and realizing that everything comes from His hands? Is the eternal Child in you living in His Father's house? Is the grace of His ministering life being worked out through you in your home, your business, and in your circle of friends? Have you been wondering why you are going through certain circumstances? In fact, it is not that you have to go through them. It is because of your relationship with the Son of God who comes, through the providential will of His Father, into your life. You must allow Him to have His way with you, staying in perfect oneness with Him.

The life of your Lord is to become your vital, simple life, and the way He worked and lived among people while here on earth must be the way He works and lives in you.
 
The Prayer of Intercession

Today I want to help you understand the prayer of intercession...the sixth and last of the kinds of prayer we have been covering over the last week of devotionals.

1 Timothy 2:1 points us to this type of prayer,

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.

Intercession, as we find it here, is a technical term for approaching a king on behalf of another.  In a general sense, related to prayer, intercession is seeking God on the behalf of others.  But, more specifically, it is coming to God for one who has no standing with Him.

A number of years ago, I was ministering in Nigeria, speaking at a large conference in the city of Onitsha.  While there, we were invited to go meet the king of Onitsha.

It was pretty exciting driving in a motorcade with little flags on all the cars.  I felt like a big shot!  But when we got to the palace, we had to have someone go on our behalf in order to meet with the king.  I had no standing with the king, and neither did anyone else in our party.

The person who brought us to the king of Onitsha was an intercessor.  And that is the idea of this word intercession.  You are coming to the King of kings on the behalf of someone who presently has no standing with Him.

Do you remember when Abraham went before God for the city of Sodom-desiring that God would spare Sodom?  What was Abraham doing?  He was acting as an intercessor.  He was coming between God and someone who had no standing with God.

We all should be praying prayers of intercession.  You and I are to make intercession for the lost.
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Read: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 1:8

TODAY IN THE WORD
In October 2009, a spate of articles in publications like the New York Times and The New Republic as well as on numerous parenting blogs all debated the same question: Is shouting the "new" spanking? As the practice of spanking children has declined in segments of the American population, parents admitted that they resorted to yelling and shouting instead. Now they wondered if that was really better than corporal punishment. When children misbehaved or exasperated them, was it okay to scream at them?
Every parent can relate to the occasional frustration caused by their child's actions and attitude-and as a spiritual father, Paul felt this toward his beloved church in Corinth (4:14,15). Yet in this letter to the Corinthians, which we'll study this month, Paul sent a message that is paternal and firm but never harsh or screeching. There was just cause for a tongue-lashing. The problems in the Corinthian church-including disunity, pride, misuse of spiritual gifts, and abuse of the Lord's Supper-were serious indeed.

In the opening portion of this letter Paul remains realistic in his appraisal of the Corinthians' spiritual life and practice, but he does not play the part of the scolding father. In fact, his tone is confident and expectant, because his hope for the Corinthians is rooted firmly in the unwavering faithfulness of God. Despite all their problems, Paul knows that in the end, they will be declared blameless on the day of Jesus' return. In these opening lines, he has full confidence that God has given the Corinthians a sure calling and hope, an enriching of their mouths and minds, and spiritual gifts for every need and occasion.

Exuberance abounds in the "every" and "all" of verse five. These words are only possible for those who call on the name of Jesus. In Christ, everything depends on grace, not on human performance. No one then, not even this strife-torn first-century church, falls beyond the reach of grace. God's rescue of salvation is evidence that He is committed to saving us and changing us.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Like the Corinthians, we are followers of Jesus who sometimes struggle to get along with each other. Their problems, as we'll see throughout the month, aren't unlike ours. Divisions have grown up in the church, and the community is fractured and broken. A place to begin when broken fellowship seems irreparable is the unfailing grace of God: He never gives up on us. He has declared what we should be (saints), and He is determined to make our holiness a reality. If God doesn't give up on us, can we give up on one another?

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

September 2, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

 
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?
 
Regaining Your Cutting Edge

Over the next several devotionals, I want to focus your attention on something that affects every Christian at one time or another:  Losing our spiritual edge.

God wants us to stay spiritually sharp.  Consider Ecclesiastes 10:10,

If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but wisdom brings success.

God is using this analogy to illustrate a very important truth:  If you lose your edge spiritually, you lose your effectiveness as well.

Maybe you feel that way today.  Though you are exerting strenuous effort, you are making little progress in your spiritual life.  God wants you to go forward.  He wants you to progress and not become stagnant in your spiritual life.

I have a friend whose father was a logger many years ago.  It was a time when they cut all the timber by hand with just an ax.

One day his father shared about the way he would operate.  After he chopped down a tree, he would sit on the stump of the tree he had just chopped down, take out a file he kept on his belt, and he would sharpen the edge of the ax.  He would sit there until the ax was very sharp again, then he would go after the next tree.

Each time he chopped down a tree he would do exactly the same thing.  But he said most of the other guys didt do that.  They just wanted to keep going, never stopping to sharpen their axes.

Without fail, he said, he always got more done than they did, and he used a lot less effort.  They had to exercise more strength, yet they got less done.

Over the next several days, we will look at what it takes to regain that spiritual edge.
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Read: Jonah 1:3-10
Jonah ran away from the LORD. - Jonah 1:3

TODAY IN THE WORD
Scientists studying the migration patterns of purple martins and wood thrushes recently found that these small birds can fly more than 300 miles per day. Tiny devices called "geolocators" were attached to the birds' backs to enable the researchers to track them from northwestern Pennsylvania to Central and South America and back. They also found that these birds returned north at least twice as fast as they migrated south, perhaps due to the pressing need to find a mate and build a nest.
Like these birds, the prophet Jonah was determined to cover some serious distance. He wanted to run as far and fast away as he could from God's command and the city of Nineveh. This was obviously a sinful choice. But what motivated his disobedience? It seems that a kind of ethnocentric jealousy or misplaced national loyalty was at work in his heart. Under Jeroboam II, during the time Jonah ministered, the boundaries of Israel expanded nearly to those under Solomon. Jonah may have hoped a period of national blessing was beginning. In that case, he would have welcomed the idea of God judging Nineveh and would have been very resistant to bringing God's message-which he accurately understood as not only threatening judgment but also offering mercy (4:2)-to Israel's chief enemy, Assyria. In short, Jonah refused to accept that God loved Nineveh and fled from God's call to be the messenger of His love.

Jonah headed for Tarshish, which was in the opposite direction and about as far away as one could get from Nineveh. As a prophet, surely he must have known how futile this was! God was justly angry and pursued Jonah with a storm. The Nineveh mission was important to Him, and there was no chance He would let His prophet's disobedience go unpunished. While the ship's sailors jettisoned cargo and called uselessly on their "gods" to save their lives, Jonah didn't bother-he knew God was hunting him down! Even so, he did not reveal his spiritual state to his shipmates until after God exposed him through the casting of lots (see Prov. 16:33).
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Jonah displayed theological understanding but divorced it from what he did. He knew God was loving, powerful, and sovereign, but refused to tell the Assyrians and acted as though he could run, hide, and thwart God's purpose. Sometimes we are guilty of this sin. We know God loves our neighbor, then act as if He doesn't. We know God is powerful, then act as if it depends on us. We know God is sovereign, then worry about the future. May the Lord forgive us!

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

September 3, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

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.

Are You Listening?

Yesterday we began a series of devotionals focusing on how you can regain your spiritual edge.  As we think about how to do that, it is important to consider those things that would indicate we have become spiritually dull.

I believe the number one characteristic you find in someone who has lost their cutting edge spiritually is that the voice of the Holy Spirit is no longer recognized.  Those impressions that the Spirit makes upon your heart, through which He guides you, are no longer clear.

In Matthew 13:14-15, Jesus talks about this in a pretty plain way,

"And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:  'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; 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.'"

This concern is echoed in Hebrews 5:11, where the writer, in talking about the priesthood of Christ, says,

Of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

Have you lost the edge?  Have you lost that sensitivity to the voice of God?  Hearing with the physical ears, but not understanding in the heart; seeing with the physical eyes, but not perceiving what God is doing?

Jesus said that happens when the heart becomes dull.  When someone loses that edge spiritually, it results is an insensitivity to the voice of God.

If this describes you today, ask God to open your eyes to see and your ears to hear.  Begin now to regain your spiritual edge.
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Read: Jonah 1:11-16
You may be sure that your sin will find you out. - Numbers 32:23

TODAY IN THE WORD
If you use social networking sites such as Facebook, which now boasts more than 400 million active users, you're probably familiar with receiving a request to be someone's "friend." At that point, you have a choice: you can click "confirm" or "ignore." You might later decide to "unfriend" someone, meaning to remove him or her from the list of people who have access to your personal information. Due to the popularity of such Web sites, the New Oxford American Dictionary named "unfriend" its 2009 Word of the Year.
In modern terms, Jonah was trying to "unfriend" God. God, however, is present everywhere, so there was no escape for the prophet (cf. Ps. 139:7-10). There was also no release from his calling and ministry assignment, no matter how unwelcome. Jonah tried his utmost to block God's purposes for Nineveh, but his resistance, no matter how extreme, could never thwart the divine will. When the lot settled on Jonah, he persisted in his rebellion by not repenting or calling upon the Lord but instead asking the sailors to throw him overboard.

Perhaps he had despaired to the point of suicide, knowing how God hates sin. But more likely he clung to an irrational hope that if he were to die, no one could take God's message to Nineveh. In that case, he would "die for his country" and his disobedience could still accomplish something.

The pagan sailors, to their credit, made a contrasting choice. They refused to commit murder and did everything they could to avoid throwing Jonah into the sea. When at last they felt compelled to do so, they cried out for forgiveness. After God miraculously stilled the storm and the "great fish" swallowed Jonah (an event they probably witnessed), they responded in worship, proving the sincerity of their hearts. We don't know whether this was momentary awe or a lasting conversion, but it would be reasonable to assume it was a life-changing event for at least some of the sailors. Even in the midst of Jonah's disobedience, God found a way to reveal Himself to unbelievers and bring glory to His name!
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Jesus used Jonah to answer the Pharisees' demand for a sign: "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matt. 12:38-42). They wanted supernatural verification that Jesus really did come from God-but they really wanted to discredit Jesus. Christ answered their question by prophesying His Resurrection, turning Jonah's disobedience on its head for His glory!

GOD BLESS!