Devotional for the day

[Judy Harder]

October 29, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH 

"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Romans 5:10

I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me, repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause. It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God; and by the supernatural miracle of God's grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.

The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of Our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvellous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement. The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done - "It is finished."

Pay Your Taxes!

For he is God's minister to you for good.  But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.  Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake.  For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.  Render therefore to all their due:  taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

While I do not like working hard and in the end sending a large portion of every dollar to support the government, it is the right thing to do.  I am absolutely amazed when I learn of Christians who try to dodge their responsibility to pay taxes.

Friend, you must be honest and pay your taxes.  Certainly take advantage of all that the law allows, and do not pay more than you need to, but don't hide anything.  You need to make sure you do this because when you do, you are being obedient to God.

And there are always blessings tied to obedience-even if it is obeying God by paying your taxes!

What I want to address today is the need to pay our taxes with honesty, not trying to dodge our responsibility.  It is a critical part of obeying the laws of the land as we discussed yesterday. Yesterday we learned from Romans 13:1-3 that we need to submit ourselves to the laws of the land if we want to live lives free from fear.  I want to focus your attention today on the remainder of that passage, Romans 13:4-7,
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Read: Hebrews 12:14-29
See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble. - Hebrews 12:15


TODAY IN THE WORD
A satirical newspaper once published an article titled: "Church splits over the correct spelling of Hallelujah." While some church splits have ostensibly been over issues like the color of the carpet, anyone who has been through a church split can attest that the experience is no laughing matter. No matter what people think they're arguing about, the root problems are often ego, control, selfishness, and bitterness.
Our passage today warns that rejecting the grace of God leads to bitterness, which can destroy the body of believers. We saw the example of Esau in our study yesterday, and today's text expands on reasons why we should grow in the grace of God.

Following Christ compels us to "make every effort to live in peace with all men"; in contrast, refusing the grace of God creates a "bitter root" that "grows up to cause trouble" (vv. 14-15). The contrast between holiness and sexual immorality also indicates our spiritual condition. Our relationship with God is proved in our relationships with others-if we are responding to others with bitterness, trouble-making, or lust, we are ultimately missing the grace of God.

The warning comes starkly from verse 25: "See to it that you do not refuse him [God] who speaks." We have no reason or excuse to refuse God's grace. He does not speak to us harshly, causing us to tremble in fear; because of Jesus, we are invited into a "joyful assembly," a community of believers surrounded by angels in worship to the Lord (vv. 18-24). Because God extends His grace to us in this way, with joy and love, the penalty for turning to selfishness and bitterness is even greater.

Instead, our response should be gratitude and worship. We understand the power and holiness of God, and we offer our praise and thanks "with reverence and awe" (v. 28). Even these warnings are a form of grace to His people. He does not try to trick us or manipulate people into worship, nor does He delight in abject fear. He invites us to an eternal life of rejoicing, guaranteed by the blood of Jesus.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Our text is bracketed with descriptions of how we should behave toward others and God: "Make every effort to live in peace with all men" and "worship God acceptably with reverence and awe" (vv. 14, 28). Does this describe your church, and your own attitude? If not, begin by confessing your own bitterness or selfishness and receive God's grace to renew your walk in holiness. Pray also for your church, especially those with whom you disagree, that you will be reconciled.

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

November 1, 2010



Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers

The Trial of Faith 

"If you have faith as a mustard seed . . . nothing will be impossible for you -Matthew 17:20

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith- faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to "walk by faith" (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God's character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him- a faith that says, "I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do." The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is- "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15).

Obedience

One of those is King Saul.  When he was told by God to make an end of the Amalekites and to destroy all of their property, he did not do it.

Instead of obeying God, he saved the oxen and the sheep, along with some other things, and then claimed he had obeyed God.  But when Samuel heard the oxen and the sheep, Saul knew he had been caught.  So he changed his story.  He said, "Well, these things are just a sacrifice to God."

In response to this act of disobedience, this is what Samuel, the prophet, said.  We find it in 1 Samuel 15:22,

So Samuel said:  "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams."

Another reason why obedience is better than sacrifice is because it is preventative.  In Saul's day, sacrifices were made to cover sin, but if he had obeyed, there would have been no need for sacrifice.  Obedience would have prevented his sin.

So do what God desires.  Obey what He commands.  It is always better.

God does not want religious lip service.  He wants obedience.  Obedience is better than sacrifice.  One reason for that is because you cannot make up by sacrifice what you lose through disobedience. To God, obedience is a big deal.  And one of the best ways to see just how importantly He regards it is to learn from those who disobeyed.
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Read: Revelation 22:7-21
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. - Revelation 22:21
TODAY IN THE WORD
Sigrid Paul gave birth to a son in East Berlin in 1961. The delivery was difficult, and the baby needed medical attention available only in a hospital in West Berlin. While he was receiving treatment, overnight the Berlin Wall went up-separating Sigrid in the East from her baby in the West. When she asked the government for permission to visit him, she was denied. Desperate, she made plans to escape from East Germany, but was caught and imprisoned for two years. Finally ransomed by the West German government, she was reunited with her son when he was nearly five years old.
During the separation, Sigrid never stopped feeling or acting like a mother longing to see her child. It is the relief from this longing that makes reunions so wonderful. We currently long to be united fully with our Savior, and our passage today says that we have the grace of God while we wait.

First, we have the promises of Jesus that He is going to return for us (vv. 7, 12, 20). We know that our God is absolutely faithful-He has provided His Word to remind us of what He has done in the past so that we have hope for what He will do in the future.

Second, we worship and obey the Lord while we wait (vv. 9, 12, 14). Scripture tells us what it means to have a life that brings glory to God; we do not have the excuse of ignorance. Our growth in knowledge and grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ demonstrates our commitment to faith and prepares us to live with Him forever.

Third, we live in the present with a view toward our eternal future (vv. 12, 17, 19). We anticipate the reward of seeing Jesus, and we respond to the invitation to the "free gift of the water of life." We take seriously the warning to respect the Word of God, for we know what is at stake.

Ultimately, God's people are characterized by grace (v. 21). From the depths of our being we look forward to finally, freely dwelling with God, and we cry out, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus" (v. 20).
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
As a way to close our study on the grace and knowledge of God, spend time thinking about how you can grow in these areas. This might be a time of reflection, journaling, or perhaps taking specific actions. Close your devotional time by looking forward to Christ's return. You might write down what excites you most about seeing Him, or sing songs that focus on the coming of Jesus and living forever with God. This active focus on His return can conform our hearts to His grace.


GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

November 2, 2010





Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

Obedience or Independence?

If you love Me, keep My commandments -John 14:15

Our Lord never insists obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an "If," meaning, "You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so." "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . ." (Luke 9:23). In other words, "To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me." Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. That is why He sounds so stern (see Luke 14:26). Never try to make sense from these words by separating them from the One who spoke them.

The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then, when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When God's redemption brings a human soul to the point of obedience, it always produces. If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.

Opening the Door to Calamity

In 1 Kings 13:21-25, God provides us with quite an unusual story,

And he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says the LORD:  'Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the LORD said to you, "Eat no bread and drink no water," your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'"  So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back.  When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him.  And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it.  The lion also stood by the corpse.  And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse.  Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
Notice that the lion did something very unnatural.  The guy disobeyed, the lion killed him, but the lion didn't go after the donkey.  The donkey didn't run away, but the lion didn't try to kill the donkey, nor did it drag the guy off to eat him.

And to top it all off, now people start to walk by.  Look, people do not walk by wild lions!  But here they are:  the donkey, the lion, the dead guy, and people are walking by.

What is God up to here?  He is giving a snapshot, something He wants indelibly burned into their understanding:  Disobedience opens the door to calamity.

If you choose to disobey God, know you have opened your life to calamity!
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Read: 2 Kings 2
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. - Isaiah 40:8

TODAY IN THE WORD
Throughout history, the transfer of leadership has been a tenuous moment. Even today, some nations around the world teeter on the brink of civil war when one leader dies and another comes to power. With such shifts in leadership often comes the question: What will the future hold?
A similar question underlies today's passage as we read about the end of the prophet Elijah's ministry in Israel. His impending end was seemingly known by all, and Scripture builds our suspense for ten verses before we learn his (and Israel's) fate. When Elijah was finally taken up in miraculous fashion, Elisha's words summarized the sentiment of the moment: "Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" (v. 14). The answer is found in the details of the text.

Just as Elisha accompanied Elijah from Bethel to Jericho to the Jordan, so now starting in verse 14, Elisha retraced those steps, moving from the Jordan to Jericho to Bethel, performing notably miraculous actions. He parted the Jordan, healed deathly water, and cursed opponents of God. Where is God? He is right here, just as He had been for generations. Circumstances change and leaders come and go, but God and His powerful word remain the same.

Our passage illustrates God's enduring presence in a two-fold manner. First, we see God's restorative power (vv. 19-22). Through Elisha, God's grace healed the tainted waters of the cursed land (cf. Josh. 6:26). Just as Moses healed the bitter waters of Marah (cf. Ex. 15:22-26), so now God's restorative power continued. Isn't this the ultimate message of the gospel, that God can reverse a once cursed and fallen land and bring about blessing and life?

Second, we see God's power in judgment (vv. 23-25). As the youths of Bethel (a hot-bed of idolatry; see 1 Kings 12:25-33) maliciously rejected God and His prophet, the consequence were consistent with the warnings of judgment in Leviticus 26:21-22. God's powerful word brings either blessing or curse, depending on how we receive that word. The real question is not, Where is God?, but How will you respond to His enduring presence?
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Do you ever wonder where God is as you consider the future? Do you doubt His presence, His power, and His care, wondering if He can ever restore the brokenness of your own life? Be encouraged by God's enduring power and presence in our lives. Perhaps you can make a list of the anxieties in your own life, then bring them before the Lord asking Him to instill you with confidence in His enduring word that can heal even those most broken aspects of our lives.


GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

November 3, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers 

A Bondservant of Jesus

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . . -Galatians 2:20

These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, ". . . for My sake" (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes a strong saint.

Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is- will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable- "I have been crucified with Christ . . . ."

The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.

One student a year who hears God's call would be sufficient for God to have called the Bible Training College into existence. This college has no value as an organization, not even academically. Its sole value for existence is for God to help Himself to lives. Will we allow Him to help Himself to us, or are we more concerned with our own ideas of what we are going to be?

The Cost of Disobedience

1 Peter 5:8 tells us,

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.           

I believe God wants you to get a snapshot of that lion in 1 Kings 13 imprinted in your mind.  He wants you to understand that if you willfully disobey God, your adversary, the devil, is not going to just be roaring at you.  Like that lion, he is going to be putting a paw on you.

Frankly, I don't know about you, but I don't want his paw on my finances, on my family, on my health, or on anything else.  I don't want him sinking his teeth into my marriage.  But disobedience opens the door to that.

James 4:7 says,

Therefore submit to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

If you are disobedient in areas of your life, knowingly disobedient, your authority in Christ will not work.

So here is the question:  Today are you being willfully disobedient to God in any area of your life?  If so, confess and repent.  Otherwise you can be sure the devil will get a paw on your life.

You see, you have been given authority in your life over the devil.  This verse makes it clear-you can resist him.  But your authority in Christ as a believer only operates as you have submitted yourself to God's authority through obedience. In our last devotional, we read the story from 1 Kings 13 about the lion that killed the prophet for his disobedience.  We learned how that story illustrates for us the importance of obedience, and how disobedience opens the door to calamity in our lives.
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Read: 2 Kings 3
But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. - 1 John 2:1


TODAY IN THE WORD
There was a young man who, once grown and out of the house, slowly drifted away from his parents' lives. Now fully on his own, the selfish man rarely called home or stopped by for visits, except on rare occasions: when he was short on money. Perfectly content to live most of his life on his own terms, a financial crisis would always bring him crawling back home begging for a parental bailout.
Joram behaved in a similar way in today's reading. As the king of Israel, Joram determined to bring the wayward Moabites back under his thumb, enlisting the help of the kings of Judah and Edom to do so. No sooner had Joram led forth his expedition, however, than we are told they met with a crisis: "the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them" (v. 9).

Notice the responses to this difficult situation. While Joram immediately blamed God, Jehoshaphat's words offered a wiser way: "Is there no prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of the LORD through him?" (v. 11). These kings were in a fix and only godly Jehoshaphat recognized the importance of God's word in a difficult time. When Elisha the prophet had been called, the word was given: water will come, and Moab will fall. Indeed, God declared that it was too easy simply to provide needed water; He would defeat Moab as well. It turned out that the provision of water was also the provision of victory over Moab.

Understand the message here. To this wicked and rash king Joram, God delivered grace upon grace. But notice too the reason: it was not Joram who secured God's favor, it was Jehoshaphat, godly king in the line of David (vv. 13-14; cf. 1 Kings 22:41-43). Israel's victory over Moab may have been incomplete (vv. 26-27), but it was more than Joram ever deserved. We, like Joram, also receive God's abundant grace because another Righteous One stands by our side "who speaks to the Father in our defense" (1 John 2:1).
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Let today's passage probe your heart: do you seek God's wisdom in all you do? Do you wait until you're in trouble before calling upon Him, or even blame God when things don't go your way? Perhaps you wonder whether you're worthy to approach God for help. Reflect on 1 John 1:5-2:2, a reminder that God's blessing of grace and victory over sin comes freely to us because of Christ. Then offer Him your thanks today for the blessing you have in Christ. 

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

November 4, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers 

The Authority of Truth

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you -James 4:8

It is essential that you give people the opportunity to act on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual- you cannot act for him. It must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical message should always lead him to action. Refusing to act leaves a person paralyzed, exactly where he was previously. But once he acts, he is never the same. It is the apparent folly of the truth that stands in the way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Once I press myself into action, I immediately begin to live. Anything less is merely existing. The moments I truly live are the moments when I act with my entire will.

When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will, not necessarily externally in your physical life. Record it with ink and with blood- work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God's almighty power is available on his behalf. We come up to the truth of God, confess we are wrong, but go back again. Then we approach it again and turn back, until we finally learn we have no business going back. When we are confronted with such a word of truth from our redeeming Lord, we must move directly to transact business with Him. "Come to Me . . ." (Matthew 11:28). His word come means "to act." Yet the last thing we want to do is come. But everyone who does come knows that, at that very moment, the supernatural power of the life of God invades him. The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil is now paralyzed; not by your act, but because your act has joined you to God and tapped you in to His redemptive power.

The Reward for Obedience

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

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

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

"Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth."
All of the incredible material blessings God promised in the following verses hinged on one thing...obedience.

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

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

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

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

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

God will reward you for your obedience to Him!
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Read: 2 Kings 3
But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. - 1 John 2:1


TODAY IN THE WORD
There was a young man who, once grown and out of the house, slowly drifted away from his parents' lives. Now fully on his own, the selfish man rarely called home or stopped by for visits, except on rare occasions: when he was short on money. Perfectly content to live most of his life on his own terms, a financial crisis would always bring him crawling back home begging for a parental bailout.
Joram behaved in a similar way in today's reading. As the king of Israel, Joram determined to bring the wayward Moabites back under his thumb, enlisting the help of the kings of Judah and Edom to do so. No sooner had Joram led forth his expedition, however, than we are told they met with a crisis: "the army had no more water for themselves or for the animals with them" (v. 9).

Notice the responses to this difficult situation. While Joram immediately blamed God, Jehoshaphat's words offered a wiser way: "Is there no prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of the LORD through him?" (v. 11). These kings were in a fix and only godly Jehoshaphat recognized the importance of God's word in a difficult time. When Elisha the prophet had been called, the word was given: water will come, and Moab will fall. Indeed, God declared that it was too easy simply to provide needed water; He would defeat Moab as well. It turned out that the provision of water was also the provision of victory over Moab.

Understand the message here. To this wicked and rash king Joram, God delivered grace upon grace. But notice too the reason: it was not Joram who secured God's favor, it was Jehoshaphat, godly king in the line of David (vv. 13-14; cf. 1 Kings 22:41-43). Israel's victory over Moab may have been incomplete (vv. 26-27), but it was more than Joram ever deserved. We, like Joram, also receive God's abundant grace because another Righteous One stands by our side "who speaks to the Father in our defense" (1 John 2:1).
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Let today's passage probe your heart: do you seek God's wisdom in all you do? Do you wait until you're in trouble before calling upon Him, or even blame God when things don't go your way? Perhaps you wonder whether you're worthy to approach God for help. Reflect on 1 John 1:5-2:2, a reminder that God's blessing of grace and victory over sin comes freely to us because of Christ. Then offer Him your thanks today for the blessing you have in Christ. 

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

November 5, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers 

Partakers of His Suffering


. . . but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings . . . -1 Peter 4:13


If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all. They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others. Because of this process, you will never be surprised by what comes your way. You say, "Oh, I can't deal with that person." Why can't you? God gave you sufficient opportunities to learn from Him about that problem; but you turned away, not heeding the lesson, because it seemed foolish to spend your time that way.

The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He suffered "according to the will of God" (1 Peter 4:19), having a different point of view of suffering from ours. It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. When it comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want to know God's purpose beforehand. In the history of the Christian church, the tendency has been to avoid being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. People have sought to carry out God's orders through a shortcut of their own. God's way is always the way of suffering- the way of the "long road home."

Are we partakers of Christ's sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through- we go through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment, and realize- "God has strengthened me and I didn't even know it!"

The Attitude of Obedience


Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.

Jesus could have said no, but He didn't.  He said, "Yes, Father."

And as He prayed in Gethsemane, agonizing over the thought of being separated from the bright presence of the Father, He said, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will" (Matthew 26:39).

He could have said no.  But He said, "Yes, Father."

And even hanging upon the cross, having been beaten and disfigured, gasping for every breath, knowing that the end was near-He became obedient to death.

He could have said no.  But He said, "Yes, Father."

Through His attitude of obedience, we can receive eternal life.  I am so grateful our Savior obeyed the Father!

That is the same attitude of obedience that should be in us.

When Jesus coexisted with the Father in eternity past, the Father said, "Son, we need You to go down and be born in a stable, be raised in a poor carpenter's home, and give up Your life." Over the last several devotionals, we have learned the importance and reward of obedience.  Today I want you to see the underlying attitude of obedience, modeled by our Lord.  It is found in Philippians 2:5-9, 
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Read: 2 Kings 4:8-37
Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? - 1 Corinthians 15:55



TODAY IN THE WORD
In his musical composition Peter and the Wolf, Serge Prokofiev employed a technique known as leitmotif in which each character in the story is represented by a particular musical instrument. When the listener hears the oboe, for instance, one knows that the duck has entered the scene. Leitmotif can also be a literary term referring to recurring themes throughout the work, identifying for the reader central motifs of the narrative.
As one reads through today's passage, it becomes obvious that the story of the Shunammite woman falls into a familiar scriptural leitmotif: a barren woman gets a child. Much like the stories of Sarah (Genesis 11-21), Rebekah (Gen. 25:21), and Rachel (Gen. 29:31-30:24), we meet in today's reading a faithful, yet barren, woman. Having receiving much kindness from this woman, Elisha learned of her heart's desire and promised that she would soon have a child. A year later, the woman bore a son.

All seemed well to this point, another story of God's generous provision for His people. But then things turned dark. Before reaching adulthood, the child died and the woman was left with perplexity and "bitter distress" (v. 27). Why would God grant the happiness of a child only to take him away so quickly? With that anxiety in her heart, the woman turned to Elisha, and in doing so essentially turned to God Himself. In a living act of faith, the woman clung to God during desperate, confusing times (see vv. 27, 30).

Elisha too modeled true faith; without answers himself (v. 27), Elisha went to the dead boy, "shut the door . . . and prayed to the LORD" (v. 33). Both the woman and the prophet turned to God in times of distress. And what started as a story about a barren woman soon became a marvelous declaration of God's triumph over death-and a preview of the coming, final resurrection in Christ of all God's faithful people (see 1 Corinthians 15). Although suffering and death still remain (even this boy would eventually die again), they do not have the final say. Today's resurrection account proclaims that message.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Many of us know the pain of losing a loved one, and those moments of grief and loss may tempt us to question God's power or love. Let today's message reorient your thinking. Realize that in the raising of this woman's son, we are given a picture of Christ's final and ultimate defeat of death where we can join with Paul in proclaiming: "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" Make that your quiet but powerful reminder today.
 

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

November 6, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers 

Intimate Theology

Do you believe this? -John 11:26

Martha believed in the power available to Jesus Christ; she believed that if He had been there He could have healed her brother; she also believed that Jesus had a special intimacy with God, and that whatever He asked of God, God would do. But- she needed a closer personal intimacy with Jesus. Martha's theology had its fulfillment in the future. But Jesus continued to attract and draw her in until her belief became an intimate possession. It then slowly emerged into a personal inheritance- "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ . . ." (John 11:27).

Is the Lord dealing with you in the same way? Is Jesus teaching you to have a personal intimacy with Himself? Allow Him to drive His question home to you- "Do you believe this?" Are you facing an area of doubt in your life? Have you come, like Martha, to a crossroads of overwhelming circumstances where your theology is about to become a very personal belief? This happens only when a personal problem brings the awareness of our personal need.

To believe is to commit. In the area of intellectual learning I commit myself mentally, and reject anything not related to that belief. In the realm of personal belief I commit myself morally to my convictions and refuse to compromise. But in intimate personal belief I commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ and make a determination to be dominated by Him alone.

Then, when I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and He says to me, "Do you believe this?" I find that faith is as natural as breathing. And I am staggered when I think how foolish I have been in not trusting Him earlier

The Supremacy of Jesus

Hebrews 1:1-8 reads,

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

God speaks to us through His Son. 
Jesus is the heir of all things. 
God made all things through Jesus. 
Jesus is the express image of God the Father. 
He upholds all things with the word of His power. 
He purged our sins. 
Jesus is the Son of God, not a servant as are the angels. 
He is worthy of our worship. 
Jesus is God Himself. 
That is the supremacy of Jesus!
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Read: 2 Kings 4:38-44
For this is what the LORD says: "They will eat and have some left over." - 2 Kings 4:43
TODAY IN THE WORD
One day a little girl asked her mother, "Where did I come from?" After a moment of shock, the mother calmed her nerves and launched into a lengthy and comprehensive explanation of the wonder of pregnancy and birth. After she finished, there was a long pause. Then the little girl replied, "Oh, because my friend says she came from Cleveland."
Like this interaction between mother and child, sometimes in Scripture we focus on the wrong details. Many commentaries spend large amounts of time exploring the puzzles in today's passage: exactly what's wrong with the stew? Will it kill them or only make them sick? How does the addition of flour fix the problem? One important detail, however, is often overlooked, and it holds our two food miracles together. Verse 38 tells us "there was a famine in that region." This was a time of serious dearth and deficiency; a spoiled meal or a hundred hungry people to feed was not just an inconvenience, it was a moment of great magnitude, perhaps even one of life and death.

Into this context of famine and scarcity, today's reading speaks an overarching message of God's abundance in deficient times. With God's intervention, a pot of death became a much-needed meal of sustenance and nourishment. A hungry crowd of one hundred was miraculously fed with only twenty loaves of bread. Not only were they fed, but as the Lord promised, they had some left over. Lest we miss the point about God's provision for the mundane necessities of life, Scripture uses the verb "to eat" eight different times in just seven verses. These two stories are all about food. And it was God who was doing the feeding and providing!

Of course we must be careful here. Today's reading is not a promise that God's children will never go hungry or that we will always have food in abundance. But it does show us that God's power and will are not thwarted even by great need or seemingly impossible circumstances. Nothing is too difficult or too trivial for God.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Each day we have food is a day when God has continued to provide. Christians in more affluent countries often take this for granted; but around the world children, women, and men are desperate for food and clean water. Consider supporting one of several Christian ministries that work to share the gospel with tangible resources like food, water, and other necessities to those in need. Visit www.samaritanspurse.org or www.worldvision.org to see how you can get involved.

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

November 8, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers 

The Unrivaled Power of Prayer

We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered -Romans 8:26


We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don't often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.

"He," the Holy Spirit in you, "makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:27). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.

The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. ". . . your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit . . ." (1 Corinthians 6:19). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, ". . . He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple" (Mark 11:16). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer . . . . But you have made it a 'den of thieves' " (Mark 11:17).

Have we come to realize that our "body is the temple of the Holy Spirit"? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a "temple of the Holy Spirit." He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don't know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.

Are You a "Convenient Christian"?


It is like the men and women of Israel who came to the prophet Jeremiah one day to see if it was God's desire for them to go to Egypt.  You find their story in Jeremiah 42-43. 

After they asked Jeremiah to ask God on their behalf, they said (Jeremiah 42:6),

"Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God."

But just a few verses later, when Jeremiah tells them, "This is the word of the Lord:  Don't go into Egypt.  Stay here," they respond this way (Jeremiah 43:2),

"You speak falsely!  The LORD our God has not sent you to say, 'Do not go to Egypt to dwell there.'"

Some people's posture is, "God, I'm going to do anything you say...as long as it agrees with my viewpoint."  Some will say, "Lord, I'm going to be obedient and give an offering...but I'm not giving ten percent of my income.  You can forget that because I just don't see it that way."

Or, "God, I'm going to do whatever You say, but I'm not going to forgive so-and-so because what they did to me is just unforgivable."

Friend, we can't pick and choose.  It has to be, "God, I am going to do whatever You say.  I'm going to do it whether it rubs the cat's fur the wrong way, whether it plows my field crossways...pleasing, displeasing, I'm going to obey."

Do not be a "convenient Christian."

Now that sounds pretty good.  These folks seem like they have it together spiritually and truly desire to obey God.  Some Christians are "convenient Christians."  These are believers who seek to obey God, but only when it is convenient.   
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Read: 2 Kings 6:1-23
Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." - 2 Kings 6:17

TODAY IN THE WORD
In an age of identity theft, our personal and financial security seems daily at risk. Knowledge of this persistent fear leads one company to offer full, guaranteed protection against identity theft. For a monthly fee, they will monitor your identity credentials and notify you of abnormal activity. Their motto: "We watch out for you so you don't have to."
While there may be consolation in knowing some company watches out for you, today's passage teaches us that there is also a God who watches over and cares for us. Sometimes we just need the vision of faith to see it. Our reading begins with the account of an axhead accidentally slipping into the river. Elisha recovered the tool by miraculously making the axhead float. One may wonder why such a seemingly inconsequential story is included in Scripture. If nothing else, the episode tells us that God cares for our needs no matter how trivial they seem. Have you ever avoided praying for something, thinking God doesn't care about such small concerns? Today's text speaks otherwise; God watches over us-even in the small things.

The second half of today's reading demonstrates that God watches over us in the big things, too. Aram and Israel were at war (again). Elisha warned the Israelite king of the Aramean's plans until the frustrated Aramean king sent his troops to capture the prophet. The army surrounded the town, and Elisha's servant feared the worst. Elisha prayed: "O LORD open his eyes so he may see" (v. 17), and the servant observed the hills filled with God's blazing, heavenly army. Of course, God's army was there all along; what changed was not God's decision to protect Elisha, but the servant's ability to see.

Continuing the theme of sight, the Aramean army was temporarily blinded until they were delivered into the hand of the Israelite king. At the urging of Elisha, the armies were fed, then sent home with a clear message blazoned in their memories: God cares for His people; you just need the right vision to see it.
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
The last stanza of a 1904 hymn, "God Will Take Care of You," conveys today's message: "No matter what may be the test / God will take care of you; / lean, weary one, upon his breast, / God will take care of you." Big or small, God can handle your problems and provide for your needs-in a wondrous display of power or a quiet assurance of His love. Either way, He is here and He cares. Ask God today to open your eyes that you may have that vision of faith.

GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

November 9, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers 

Sacred Service
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . . -Colossians 1:24

The Christian worker has to be a sacred "go-between." He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual's personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker's life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.

When we say, "What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!" then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32).

God Leads from Within

The new covenant better than the old covenant.  One reason is found in Hebrews 8:8-11 which says,

..."Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD:  I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them."
In the Old Testament, God had to lead His people externally.  When fleeing Egypt, God led them by night with a pillar of fire and by day with a pillar of cloud.  They did not intuitively know where God wanted them to go or what God wanted them to do.

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

God was saying that while under the old covenant, He led His people by a pillar of fire, and now He is coming to dwell and lead from the inside of each believer!
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Read: 2 Kings 6:24-7:20
He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea. - Psalm 102:17


TODAY IN THE WORD
The period from 1921 to 1923 was marked by hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic. In early 1921, roughly sixty German Marks equaled one U.S. dollar. By 1923, through a series of economic circumstances and governmental decisions, the exchange rate became four trillion German Marks per U.S. dollar! At its worst, prices doubled every two days. In late November 1923, when a new currency was introduced, the old Marks became worthless and were collected to be recycled as paper. No one living in the Weimar Republic could deny those were desperate times.
Israelites living in Samaria knew desperate times as well, as today's reading makes painfully clear. Suffering the consequences of covenantal disobedience (see Deut. 28:45-57), the city of Samaria was under siege by the Arameans. Sustenance was scarce and food prices were sky high. So desperate was the situation that citizens had resorted to eating their own children in order to survive.

When the king of Israel heard first-hand of this drastic practice, he tore his robes and grieved the situation. Yet instead of turning to God in sorrow over his disobedience and idolatry, he blamed God and Elisha for such desperate times. He wanted revenge instead of repentance. His anger toward God was clear: "This disaster is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?" (6:33).

Surprisingly, the king got a message of hope: this time tomorrow, the crisis would be over. And now the test remained: will you believe the explicit promise of God? The servant voiced his disbelief, and the king displayed sheer skepticism (see 7:12), but the bulk of the passage highlights the fulfillment of that word.

Run off by God's power (note 7:6-7), the Arameans abandoned their camp. Four lowly lepers reported the news to the king, royal messengers verified it, and the word of God was fulfilled: food prices dropped and the king's disbelieving servant was dead. Scripture underscores the reliability of God's promises by telling us four different times that everything happened just as God said it would (7:16-20).
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
When God speaks His word of promise, it can be trusted. Scripture provides us with a multitude of promises from our God: His care for our needs (Phil. 4:19), His constant presence with us (Heb. 13:5); His aid in temptation (1 Cor. 10:13); His mighty future return (Rev. 22:7). Choose one of these, or another promise you find in Scripture, and post it someplace where you will see it throughout the day. Each time you see it, pause to give thanks for God's promising word.


GOD BLESS!

[Judy Harder]

November 10, 2010

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers 

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

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

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

No More Remembrance

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

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

Under the new covenant, God does not remember.

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

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

That is truly good news!
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Read: 2 Kings 8
"For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone," declares the Sovereign LORD. "Repent and live!" - Ezekiel 18:32


TODAY IN THE WORD
Before filming The Girl from Petrovka, actor Anthony Hopkins searched in vain throughout London bookstores for the George Feifer book by the same name. No bookstore had any, but Hopkins finally discovered a discarded copy left lying in a train station. Years later, Hopkins met Feifer and learned that the author had lost his own annotated copy. Hopkins retrieved his own and showed it to Feifer. To the amazement of both, it was none other than Feifer's own lost copy!
Gehazi and the king of Israel experienced a similar coincidence in today's reading. Just as Gehazi was telling the king about the time Elisha restored a woman's son to life, the Shunammite woman herself appeared. In response, the king ordered the woman to have all her land and possessions restored. Of course, Scripture's point is not to offer examples of coincidence, but to show God's grace bestowed upon His faithful people, orchestrating all the details in order to do so.

If earlier chapters demonstrated Elisha's ministry of God's grace, verses 7 through 15 highlight Elisha's ministry of God's judgment. Hazael had been sent to Elisha by the ailing Aramean king Ben-Hadad to discover whether recovery was likely. Elisha's puzzling answer in verse 10 suggested that if he were left alone Ben-Hadad would recover, but with Hazael's involvement, he would not. In fulfillment of 1 Kings 19:15-17, Elisha declared that Hazael would become the next Aramean king and would inflict extreme violence on the Israelites. Such news brought Elisha to tears, but delight to Hazael (who promptly returned and killed his king!).

Although we do not yet see the promised destruction of Israel by the Arameans, the mindful reader knows it is coming, and the rest of chapter 8 exhibits the spiraling direction of both Israel and Judah away from God and toward His judgment. Verses 16 through 29 record that the family ties between Judah's kings and Israel's kings were working their ill effect. The Judean kings, like the kings of Israel, "did evil in the eyes of the LORD" (vv. 18, 27).
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TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Today we see kindness shown to one, but judgment promised to disobedient Israel. Notice Elisha's response; like Jesus weeping over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44), Elisha displayed God's deep love for His people-even when disobedient. We are encouraged to see God not as an angry judge, but as a loving God who wants us to live and be blessed rather than reject Him and die. Take heart in the words of our key verse today (Ezek. 18:32).

GOD BLESS!