May 31 / One Minute Devotionals

Put God First by Oswald Chambers

Put God First

May 31, 2016

Jesus did not commit Himself to them…for He knew what was in man. —John 2:24-25

Put Trust in God First. Our Lord never put His trust in any person. Yet He was never suspicious, never bitter, and never lost hope for anyone, because He put His trust in God first. He trusted absolutely in what God’s grace could do for others. If I put my trust in human beings first, the end result will be my despair and hopelessness toward everyone. I will become bitter because I have insisted that people be what no person can ever be— absolutely perfect and right. Never trust anything in yourself or in anyone else, except the grace of God.

Put God’s Will First. “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:9).

A person’s obedience is to what he sees to be a need— our Lord’s obedience was to the will of His Father. The rallying cry today is, “We must get to work! The heathen are dying without God. We must go and tell them about Him.” But we must first make sure that God’s “needs” and His will in us personally are being met. Jesus said, “…tarry…until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The purpose of our Christian training is to get us into the right relationship to the “needs” of God and His will. Once God’s “needs” in us have been met, He will open the way for us to accomplish His will, meeting His “needs” elsewhere.

Put God’s Son First. “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” (Matthew 18:5).

God came as a baby, giving and entrusting Himself to me. He expects my personal life to be a “Bethlehem.” Am I allowing my natural life to be slowly transformed by the indwelling life of the Son of God? God’s ultimate purpose is that His Son might be exhibited in me.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading.  My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L

Living in God's Calling by Charles Stanley

Esther 3:13; Esther 4:4-16

Knowing that we have a calling from God is one thing, but living it out is another. Esther reached a point in her life when fulfilling God’s plan became risky. The Lord had placed her in a position of influence, but using that power could cost the young woman her life.

Few are called to be rulers, but we have all been given places of influence to one degree or another. The Lord has placed you in your family, community, and church to fulfill His purposes for your life in this generation. As long as you are breathing, He is still working out His will for you.

How will you respond to His calling? There are only two options: Cooperate by submitting to His plan, or resist Him. Trying to avoid or ignore the opportunities He presents is a form of resistance. Maybe the cost of obedience seems too high, but what about the cost of disobedience?

Eventually, every Christian is going to encounter a situation that tests his or her willingness to obey God. When that time comes, remember the lesson from Esther. If you refuse, the Lord will use someone else, and you will lose the opportunity to fulfill His calling. Maybe you have been placed in a difficult situation “for such a time as this”—to be an influence for Christ in our dark world. (See Est. 4:14.)

Living in God’s calling isn’t always easy, but it is always worth the risk. Each step will reveal the faithfulness of our Lord, encouraging us to trust Him in the next opportunity He provides. As our faith grows, His perfect timing will become evident, and we’ll look with joy and expectation for what awaits us.

All Things Through Christ by D. James Kennedy

Today’s devotional reading for: TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2016   All Things Through Christ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. —Philippians 4:13 Devotion: We were created by God to do great things, to soar high and to make an impact upon our world for Him. In fact, most of the great men and women who have accomplished impressive things in this world have been men and women who have dreamed dreams of what God, by His grace, could do in their lives. I suppose everybody has dreamed dreams. The problem is that we all as children had great visions, but alas, as we grew up, most of those dreams faded away. They are destroyed by that pesky voice that whispers, “You can’t do it. You never have, you never could, and you never will.” So like acid rain that falls upon our dreams, they slowly disappear. Our great visions fade and our ambitions corrode because we believe the negative words of the devil: “You can’t, you can’t, you can’t.” And so, we invent all kinds of reasons why we can’t. The apostle Paul had no such limitations. He said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).  Paul is not talking about PMA—a “Positive Mental Attitude.” He did not say, “I can do all things through PMA”—but through Jesus. May God help us to realize that we can do all things through Christ. He is the creator of dreams and the source of our strength. Question to ponder: Is there something great or small that God has put on your heart to accomplish for Him?

Prayer Wrestling by Adrian Rogers

Love Worth Finding

MAY 31 Prayer Wrestling “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” - Romans 15:30 One of the things I’m trying to cure myself of is casual prayer, prayer that is not intense, prayer that costs little. Do you know the Bible calls prayer “wrestling”? Paul said, “…that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." Have you ever thought of prayer as striving, as wrestling? If you really get into intercession, you’re going to find out that the devil will fight you and oppose you. Prayer is work. I’d rather preach for an hour than to pray for a half an hour, so far as the labor that it takes for genuine prayer. Ask yourself: How much genuine agonizing do I do in prayer?

May 31 / Springs in the Valley by L.B. Cowman

May 31

There came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. (Mark 14:3)

The very nature of God is extravagance. How many sunrises and sunsets does God make?

Gloriously wasteful, O my Lord, art Thou! 

Sunset faints after sunset into the night… 

How many flowers and birds, how many ineffable beauties all over the world, lavish desert blossoms that only His eyes see?

Mary’s act was one of spontaneous extravagance. Mary of Bethany revealed in her act of extravagant devotion, that the unconscious sympathy of her life was with Jesus Christ. “She hath done what she could”—to the absolute limit of what a human can do. It was impossible to do more. The only thing that Jesus Christ ever commended was this act of Mary’s, and He said: “Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her,” because in the anointing our Lord saw an exact illustration of what He, Himself, was about to do. He put Mary’s act alongside His own Cross. God shattered the life of His own Son to save the world. Are we prepared to pour out our lives for Him? Our Lord is carried beyond Himself with joy when He sees any of us doing what Mary of Bethany did Have I ever produced in the heart of the Lord Jesus what Mary of Bethany produced? “She hath done what she could”—to the absolute limit. I have not done what I could until I have done the same.
OSWALD CHAMBERS

Is the precious ointment poured on the feet of the Master ever wasted? Eternity will answer the question. GOLD CORD

The only way to keep a thing is to throw it away!

Seeds which mildew in the garner 

Scattered, fill with gold the plain. 

To keep your treasure is to die—to lose it is to live— 

The angels keep the records in God’s countinghouse—so give! 

PATIENCE STRONG

Cowman, L. B. E.. Springs in the Valley (pp. 166-167). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

May 31 / Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman

Streams in the Desert You will come to your grave in a full age, As stacks of grain are harvested in their season. (Job 5:26) A gentleman, writing about the breaking up of old ships, recently said that it is not the age alone which improves the quality of the fiber in the wood of an old vessel, but the straining and wrenching of the vessel by the sea, the chemical action of the bilge water, and of many kinds of cargoes. Some planks and veneers made from an oak beam which had been part of a ship eighty years old were exhibited a few years ago at a fashionable furniture store on Broadway, New York, and attracted general notice for the exquisite coloring and beautiful grain. Equally striking were some beams of mahogany taken from a bark which sailed the seas sixty years ago. The years and the traffic had contracted the pores and deepened the color, until it looked as superb in its chromatic intensity as an antique Chinese vase. It was made into a cabinet, and has today a place of honor in the drawing-room of a wealthy New York family. So there is a vast difference between the quality of old people who have lived flabby, self-indulgent, useless lives, and the fiber of those who have sailed all seas and carried all cargoes as the servants of God and the helpers of their fellow men. Not only the wrenching and straining of life, but also something of the sweetness of the cargoes carried get into the very pores and fiber of character. —Louis Albert Banks When the sun goes below the horizon he is not set; the heavens glow for a full hour after his departure. And when a great and good man sets, the sky of this world is luminous long after he is out of sight. Such a man cannot die out of this world. When he goes he leaves behind him much of himself. Being dead, he speaks. —Beecher When Victor Hugo was past eighty years of age he gave expression to his religious faith in these sublime sentences: "I feel in myself the future life. I am like a forest which has been more than once cut down. The new shoots are livelier than ever. I am rising toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. The earth gives me its generous sap, but Heaven lights me with its unknown worlds. “You say the soul is nothing but the resultant of the bodily powers. Why, then, is my soul more luminous when my bodily powers begin to fail? Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. I breathe at this hour the fragrance of the lilacs, the violets, and the roses as at twenty years. The nearer I approach the end the plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds which invite me. It is marvelous, yet simple.”

NIV 365 / God's Worship Tent

The NIV 365-Day Devotional Reading Plan

Day 152 of 365 God's Worship Tent God's Story While Moses is on the mountain with God, God tells him that Aaron and his sons are to be set apart to serve him as priests in his tabernacle. God shows Moses what they are to wear and how to consecrate them. Every day for a week, precious rams and bulls are to be sacrificed, and Aaron and his sons are to be painted with the offering blood and anointing oil. God will soak them in holiness. The altar is also to be consecrated with offerings, and daily sacrifices are to continuously burn on it. After giving construction instructions for the furnishings in the tabernacle, God identifies two men, Bezalel and Oholiab, to whom he imparts creative abilities. They will lead the work to create the artful furniture and implements of God's tabernacle. The King's Heart God, the infinite Holy One, the Purity Presence, is so holy, so pure, that he is all-consuming. Just as light consumes the darkness, God's holiness would consume unholy people if they entered into his presence. When people have deadly illnesses - ones where personal contact means imminent death - we quarantine them. For a time, as God was relating to his people, it was as if he had lovingly quarantined himself. If he were to unleash even a bit of himself, his people would not survive. But God wants to share his heart. The separation wouldn't do. So the Sovereign-God made provisions. He made a way for his sin-stained people to draw closer to his perfectly pure presence. But the cost to maintain holiness while drawing sinful people near would be high. God first made a way through the tabernacle. His people would feel the weight of the distance between them as animals gave their lives to serve as coverings. But the people could come closer to him. Later he made a way through the complete, very personal "provision" - his own self, the lifeblood of his very own Son. He himself would pay the steep price to reconcile the impure with the pure. God's holiness is so great that the highest price must be paid to uphold it. But God's love for us is so great that he paid it himself. Insight Incense often represents prayer in Scripture (see Revelation 5:8; 8:3 - 4). The altar of incense would be placed directly in front of the curtain that shielded the Most Holy Place, where God's Presence dwelled. God was painting a powerful picture of what our prayers look like in heaven. Taken from NIV Discover God's Heart Devotional Bible Exodus 31:12-18 Exodus 31:12-18 KJV 12 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 13 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. 14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord : whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. 18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Need for Inner Change by Billy Graham

Day By Day With Billy Graham

Day 152 of 366 Need For Inner Change The world says that all we need to do is be decent, respectable, and reasonable. True, that is all one needs to do to be a member of the Great Society, but to be a member of the Kingdom of God, there must be an inner change. A Communist in Hyde Park, London, pointed to a tramp and said, "Communism will put a new suit on that man." A Christian standing nearby said, "Yes, but Christ will put a new man in that suit!" Daily Prayer Thank You, Lord Jesus, for the change that came deep within me when I received You. 2 Corinthians 5:17 2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Thirsty Hearts by David Jeremiah

Tuesday, May 31 Thirsty Hearts And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 5:2 Recommended Reading John 4:1-42 We seek solace in physical comforts and people, forgetting that every sip of water and experience is a dim reflection of the eternal life and everlasting love Christ offers us. Our need for love is like our need for water: continuous. A single cup of water will not sustain us for a month, and a single experience of friendship will not sustain us for a lifetime. We long for more, wanting to know we are loved and valued. When Jesus met the woman at the well, He spoke to her of life-giving water: drink once and be satisfied forever. This water would quench her thirst and become “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14b). Jesus was offering Himself—all she had to do was ask. How often do we go through the day, forgetting to invite Jesus in? Jesus desires to satisfy our deepest needs and transform us to become like Him, bringing life and hope wherever we go. A Single Thought: He [Jesus] died for you as certainly as if you had been the only lost one. A.W. Tozer

Knowing and Doing / Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread -- Knowing and Doing May 31, 2016

Read: Mark 10:17-27 Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 13-14; John 12:1-26 With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God. —Mark 10:27 Chinese philosopher Han Feizi made this observation about life: “Knowing the facts is easy. Knowing how to act based on the facts is difficult.” A rich man with that problem once came to Jesus. He knew the law of Moses and believed he had kept the commandments since his youth (Mark 10:20). But he seems to be wondering what additional facts he might hear from Jesus. “ ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ” (v. 17). Jesus’ answer disappointed the rich man. He told him to sell his possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow Him (v. 21). With these few words Jesus exposed a fact the man didn’t want to hear. He loved and relied on his wealth more than he trusted Jesus. Abandoning the security of his money to follow Jesus was too great a risk, and he went away sad (v. 22). What was the Teacher thinking? His own disciples were alarmed and asked, “Who then can be saved?” He replied, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God” (v. 27). It takes courage and faith. “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). —Poh Fang Chia God, thank You for the good news of Jesus. Give us the courage to act on what we know to be true, and to accept the salvation offered through Jesus. Thank You that You will give us the strength to act on the facts. Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. Acts 16:31 INSIGHT: The rich young ruler (Matt. 19:20; Luke 18:18) believed he had earned his place in heaven (Mark 10:19-20). But Jesus revealed that the young man had put his trust in material things (vv. 21-22) and that salvation is obtained when we love God first and trust in Jesus only (v. 21). Sim Kay Tee

It's Not Over Till It's Over by Max Lucado

The 05/30/2016 edition:

It’s Not Over Till It’s Over

In Jeremiah 32:27 God says, “I am the Lord, the God of every person on the earth, nothing is impossible for me.” We need to hear that God is still in control. We need to hear that it’s not over until he says so. We need to hear that life’s mishaps and tragedies are not a reason to bail out. Corrie ten Boom used to say, “When the train goes through a tunnel and the world gets dark, do you jump out? Of course not. You sit still and trust the engineer to get you through.” The way to deal with discouragement? The cure for disappointment? Go back and read the story of God. Read it again and again. Be reminded that you aren’t the first person to weep. And you aren’t the first person to be helped. Read the story and remember the story is yours! From More to Your Story For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

May 30 / One Minute Devotionals

"Yes-- But...!" by Oswald Chambers

“Yes—But…!”

May 30, 2016

Lord, I will follow You, but… —Luke 9:61

Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about…?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”

Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.

By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them.  The Place of Help, 1032 L

Called for God's Purpose by Charles Stanley

Esther 2:1-8; Esther 2:17

The story of Esther is filled with romance, adventure, and danger. Her ordinary Jewish life suddenly became remarkable when she found herself crowned Queen of Persia. We clearly see the Lord’s sovereign hand at work as He called her to fulfill a very important role in His plan for the Jews. But can you imagine how upset, confused, and uncertain Esther must have felt as the details were unfolding?

We may feel the same perplexity as we live each day without knowing the future. Sometimes it is easier to see God’s calling in someone else’s life than in our own. His plans and purposes are working out in perfect progression, but from an earthly perspective, the developments may seem chaotic and bewildering.

Esther’s story is an encouragement to trust in God’s will and purpose for our life. Every believer in Christ has a calling from the Lord. He doesn’t save us and then leave us to fend for ourselves; instead, He continually guides each of His children in the work He has planned for his or her life.

God’s calling includes not only what we do but also who we are. Each experience in life is a tool that the Lord uses to shape and equip us to become the person He wants each one to be—with regard to character as well as conduct.

Begin looking for the Lord’s hand in your life. He is working out His plan, sometimes silently and softly, sometimes with jarring disruptions. But He is always there, directing and moving. Never imagine yourself to be insignificant in His eyes. You’re so highly esteemed that almighty God has designed a unique calling just for you.

Lest We Forget by D. James Kennedy

Today’s devotional reading for: MONDAY, MAY 30, 2016   Lest We Forget Now the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. —2 Corinthians 3:17 Devotion: Memorial Day is a time to remember those brave men and women who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. Tragically, hundreds of millions of people do not live in liberty. Ironically, freedom is something that is easily taken for granted. It is like the air we breathe. It is not until it is gone that we even think about it. John Adams, our second president, made a declaration to future years, saying this: “Posterity: You will never know how much it has cost my generation to procure your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.” One great truth that Americans have forgotten, I believe, is that the source of liberty comes from only one place: it comes from God; it has come from Christ, who alone can make people free. Wherever the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ with its emphasis upon grace and the Cross has been preached, it has been followed by civil and political liberty. Would that the flame of freedom and liberty that burned so brightly in the hearts of our founders be fanned into a flame again in America. This Memorial Day is a good time to begin. Question to ponder: Are you thankful for your freedom? Is there any survivor of a fallen soldier that you can thank today?

May 30 / Springs in the Valley by L.B. Cowman

May 30

I have finished my course. (2 Tim. 4:7)

There is a course prepared for each believer from the moment of his new birth, providing for the fullest maturity of the new life within him, and the highest which God can make of his life in the use of every faculty for His service. To discover that course and fulfill it is the one duty of every soul. Others cannot judge what that course is; God alone knows it. And God can just as certainly make known and guide the believer into that course today, as He did with Jeremiah and other prophets, Paul and Timothy and other apostles.
J. P. L.

Why do I drift on a storm-tossed sea, 

With neither compass, nor star, nor chart, 

When, as I drift, God’s own plan for me 

Waits at the door of my slow-trusting heart? 

Down from the heavens it drops like a scroll, 

Each day a bit will the Master unroll, 

Each day a mite of the veil will He lift. 

Why do I falter? Why wander, and drift? 

Drifting, while God’s at the helm to steer; 

Groping, when God lays the course so clear; 

Swerving, though straight into port I might sail; 

Wrecking, when heaven lies just within hail. 

Help me, O God, in the plan to believe; 

Help me my fragment each day to receive. 

Oh, that my will may with Thine have no strife!

 God-yielded wills find the God-planned life. 

JAMES H. MCCONKEY

Cowman, L. B. E.. Springs in the Valley (pp. 165-166). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

May 30 / Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman

Streams in the Desert

And they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one was able to learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. (Rev 14:3) There are songs which can only be learned in the valley. No art can teach them; no rules of voice can make them perfectly sung. Their music is in the heart. They are songs of memory, of personal experience. They bring out their burden from the shadow of the past; they mount on the wings of yesterday. St. John says that even in Heaven there will be a song that can only be fully sung by the sons of earth—the strain of redemption. Doubtless it is a song of triumph, a hymn of victory to the Christ who made us free. But the sense of triumph must come from the memory of the chain. No angel, no archangel can sing it so sweetly as I can. To sing it as I sing it, they must pass through my exile, and this they cannot do. None can learn it but the children of the Cross. And so, my soul, thou art receiving a music lesson from thy Father. Thou art being educated for the choir invisible. There are parts of the symphony that none can take but thee. There are chords too minor for the angels. There may be heights in the symphony which are beyond the scale—heights which angels alone can reach; but there are depths which belong to thee, and can only be touched by thee. Thy Father is training thee for the part the angels cannot sing; and the school is sorrow. I have heard many say that He sends sorrow to prove thee; nay, He sends sorrow to educate thee, to train thee for the choir invisible. In the night He is preparing thy song. In the valley He is tuning thy voice. In the cloud He is deepening thy chords. In the rain He is sweetening thy melody. In the cold He is moulding thy expression. In the transition from hope to fear He is perfecting thy lights. Despise not thy school of sorrow, O my soul; it will give thee a unique part in the universal song. —George Matheson “Is the midnight closing round you? Are the shadows dark and long? Ask Him to come close beside you, And He’ll give you a new, sweet song. He’ll give it and sing it with you; And when weakness lets it down, He’ll take up the broken cadence, And blend it with His own. “And many a rapturous minstrel Among those sons of light, Will say of His sweetest music ’I learned it in the night.’ And many a rolling anthem, That fills the Father’s home, Sobbed out its first rehearsal, In the shade of a darkened room.”

God Has a Plan for Your Life by Adrian Rogers

Love Worth Finding

MAY 30 God Has a Plan for Your Life  “…let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” - Hebrews 12:1 God has a plan for my life, and God has a plan for your life. Do you know God's plan for your life? I don’t care whether you’re nine or ninety, man or woman, rich or poor, God has a plan for your life! God has a race He wants you to run! And the Bible says you’re to run the race that is set before you. Have you ever taken time to get alone with God and make your life a sheet of blank paper, sign your name at the bottom, and say, “God, You fill it in. Whatever Your will is, I'll do it”? The will of God—nothing more, nothing less, nothing else, nothing but!

Salvation is Free by Billy Graham

Day By Day With Billy Graham

Day 151 of 366 Salvation is Free Salvation is free! God puts no price tag on the Gift of gifts-it's free! Preachers are not salesmen, for they have nothing to sell. They are bearers of Good News-the good tidings that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3). Money can't buy it. Man's righteousness can't earn it. Social prestige can't help you acquire it. Morality can't purchase it. It is, as Isaiah said, "without money and without price." God is not a bargaining God. You cannot barter with Him. You must do business with Him on His own terms. He holds in His omnipotent hand the priceless, precious, eternal gift of salvation, and He bids you to take it without money and without price. The best things in life are free, are they not? The air we breathe is not sold by the cubic foot. The water which flows crystal clear from the mountain stream is free for the taking. Love is free, faith is free, hope is free. Daily Prayer Even though my salvation was obtained only through the costliest sacrifice ever made, You freely gave it to me. Lord, I praise You for this gift so lovingly given. Romans 3:24 Romans 3:24 KJV 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: