The Assigning of the Call by Oswald Chambers

The Assigning of the Call I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church…  COLOSSIANS 1:24 We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed. I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children. From My Utmost for His Highest Updated Edition

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS We begin our Christian life by believing what we are told to believe, then we have to go on to so assimilate our beliefs that they work out in a way that redounds to the glory of God. The danger is in multiplying the acceptation of beliefs we do not make our own. from Conformed to His Image, 381 L

The Rule of Christ’s Peace by Charles Stanley

Colossians 3:15

There is one thing everyone wants, and that is a sense of inner peace. Many people think it comes only when all the circumstances of life are pleasant, but for Christians, God’s peace is available even when nothing around us is calm and ordered. 

Our verse today reveals a number of important truths regarding the peace of Christ: 

First of all, we are given a command: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” The implication is that we play a role in whether or not we experience His peace. And anytime we are given a command in Scripture, we can count on God to enable us to obey it. 

Second, Christ’s peace is capable of ruling in our heart. The word rule means “to act as arbiter.” An arbiter is a person who has the power or authority to decide a dispute. When doubts or worries arise, Christ’s peace reminds us of God’s truths, which have the power to quiet our heart and renew our trust in Him. This amazing peace also overflows into our relationships in the body of Christ so that we can live in harmony with one another.

Third, gratitude is an important aspect of peace. Thankfulness is the result of remembering all God’s benefits instead of dwelling on the circumstances that tend to rob us of peace. Counting our blessings in this way insures the rule of Christ’s peace in our life.

We don’t have to let our concerns and worries bury us in a sea of unrest. Christ’s peace, which is available no matter what we are facing, can strengthen our confidence and trust in Him.

A Ready Remedy by Amy Peterson

A Ready Remedy

Amy Peterson

The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5

Isaiah 53:1–6

Following the park guide, I scribbled notes as he taught about the plants of the Bahamian primeval forest. He told us which trees to avoid. The poisonwood tree, he said, secretes a black sap that causes a painful, itchy rash. But not to worry! The antidote could usually be found growing right next it. “Cut into the red bark of the gum elemi tree,” he said, “and rub the sap on the rash. It will immediately begin to heal.”

I nearly dropped my pencil in astonishment. I hadn’t expected to find a picture of salvation in the forest. But in the gum elemi tree, I saw Jesus. He’s the ready remedy wherever the poison of sin is found. Like the red bark of that tree, the blood of Jesus brings healing.

The prophet Isaiah understood that humanity needed healing. The rash of sin had infected us. Isaiah promised that our healing would come through “a man of suffering” who would take our sickness upon Himself (Isaiah 53:3). That man was Jesus. We were sick, but Christ was willing to be wounded in our place. When we believe in Him, we are healed from the sickness of sin (v. 5). It may take a lifetime to learn to live as those who’re healed—to recognize our sins and to reject them in favor of our new identity—but because of Jesus, we can.

What other pictures in the natural world do you see of the salvation God offers us? What has the healing He offers meant to you?

Wherever sin is, Jesus is there, ready to save.

Don't Compromise by Billy Graham

Don't Compromise

Horace Pitkin, the son of a wealthy merchant, was converted and went to China as a missionary. He wrote to his friends in America, saying, “It will be but a short time till we know definitely whether we can serve Him better above or here.” Shortly afterward, a mob stormed the gate of the compound where Pitkin defended the women and children. He was beheaded and his head was offered at the shrine of a heathen god, while his body was thrown into a pit with the bodies of nine Chinese Christians. 

Sherwood Eddy, writing about him, said, “Pitkin won more men by his death than he ever could have won by his life.” Christ needs people today who are made of martyr stuff! Dare to take a strong, uncompromising stand for Him.

Daily Prayer

Thank You, Lord, for the examples of those who have gone before us. Help me to take hold of Your unlimited strength, too.

“that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭NASB‬‬

Do you need comforting? by Adrian Rogers

Do you need comforting? 

SEPTEMBER 30

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 14:26

Jesus called the Holy Spirit “the Comforter.”

Whenever peace enters your heart in the midst of grief ...

Whenever joy enters your heart in the midst of a trial ...

Whenever you see evidence of His life in yours …

                  … you can be sure the Holy Spirit is flowing through your life. 

Can He forget you? Never. The seal of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is on your life if you are His child. Whenever you pass through a room or walk through a crowd, His oil of gladness sends a sweet aroma of Christ through the air!

Read 2 Corinthians 1:3-5. How can you show the comfort of Christ to someone who is hurting?

September 30 / Streams in the Desert

As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him" (Deut. 32:11-12).

Our Almighty Parent delights to conduct the tender nestlings of His care to the very edge of the precipice, and even to thrust them off into the steeps of air, that they may learn their possession of unrealized power of flight, to be forever a luxury; and if, in the attempt, they be exposed to unwonted peril, He is prepared to swoop beneath them, and to bear them upward on His mighty pinions. When God brings any of His children into a position of unparalleled difficulty, they may always count upon Him to deliver them.
--The Song of Victory

"When God puts a burden upon you He puts His own arm underneath."

There is a little plant, small and stunted, growing under the shade of a broad-spreading oak; and this little plant values the shade which covers it, and greatly does it esteem the quiet rest which its noble friend affords. But a blessing is designed for this little plant.

Once upon a time there comes along the woodman, and with his sharp axe he fells the oak. The plant weeps and cries, "My shelter is departed; every rough wind will blow upon me, and every storm will seek to uproot me!"

"No, no," saith the angel of that flower; "now will the sun get at thee; now will the shower fall on thee in more copious abundance than before; now thy stunted form shall spring up into loveliness, and thy flower, which could never have expanded itself to perfection shall now laugh in the sunshine, and men shall say, 'How greatly hath that plant increased! How glorious hath become its beauty, through the removal of that which was its shade and its delight!'"

See you not, then, that God may take away your comforts and your privileges, to make you the better Christians? Why, the Lord always trains His soldiers, not by letting them lie on feather-beds, but by turning them out, and using them to forced marches and hard service. He makes them ford through streams, and swim through rivers, and climb mountains, and walk many a long march with heavy knapsacks of sorrow on their backs. This is the way in which He makes them soldiers--not by dressing them up in fine uniforms, to swagger at the barrack gates, and to be fine gentlemen in the eyes of the loungers in the park. God knows that soldiers are only to be made in battle; they are not to be grown in peaceful times. We may grow the stuff of which soldiers are made; but warriors are really educated by the smell of powder, in the midst of whizzing bullets and roaring cannonades, not in soft and peaceful times.

Well, Christian, may not this account for it all? Is not thy Lord bringing out thy graces and making them grow? Is He not developing in you the qualities of the soldier by throwing you into the heat of battle, and should you not use every appliance to come off conqueror?

--Spurgeon

Not an Option by Alistair Begg

Not an Option

Sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
Psalms 66:2

It is not left to our own option whether or not we will praise God. Praise is God's most righteous due, and every Christian, as the recipient of His grace, is bound to praise God from day to day.

It is true that we have no authoritative text for daily praise; we have no commandment prescribing certain hours of song and thanksgiving: But the law written upon the heart teaches us that it is right to praise God; and the unwritten mandate comes to us with as much force as if it had been recorded on the tables of stone or handed to us from the top of thundering Sinai.

Yes, it is the Christian's duty to praise God. It is not only a pleasurable exercise, but it is the absolute obligation of his life. Those of you who are always mourning should not think that you are guiltless in this respect or imagine that you can discharge your duty to God without songs of praise. You are bound by the bonds of His love to bless His name as long as you live, and His praise should continually be in your mouth, for you are blessed in order that you may bless Him--"the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise";¹and if you do not praise God, you are not bringing forth the fruit that He has a right to expect from you.

Do not let your harp hang on the willows, but take it down and strum with a grateful heart, bringing out its loudest music. Arise and declare His praise. With every morning's dawn, lift up your notes of thanksgiving, and let every setting sun be followed with your song. Surround the earth with your praises; circle it with an atmosphere of melody, and God Himself will listen from heaven and accept your music.

E'en so I love Thee, and will love,
And in Thy praise will sing,
Because Thou art my loving God,
And my redeeming King.

1) Isaiah 43:21

God’s Workshop by Max Lucado

God’s Workshop
by Max Lucado

I remember knowing kids whose fathers were quite successful. One was a judge. The other a prominent physician. I attended church with the son of the mayor. “My father has an office at the courthouse,” he could claim. Guess what you can claim? “My Father rules the universe!””

Scripture says, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies announce what his hands have made.”  (Psalms 19:1) Nature is God’s workshop. The sky is his resume. You want to know who God is? See what he has done. You want to know his power? Take a look at his creation.

How vital that we pray, armed with the knowledge that God is in heaven. Pray with any lesser conviction and your prayers are timid, shallow, and hollow. But spend some time walking in the workshop of the heavens. Seeing what God has done—seeing what your Father has done and watch how your prayers are energized!

The Sanctuary by Stephen Davey

The Sanctuary
2019-09-30
And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the moneychangers, and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” John 2:15-16 There were a lot of problems with temple administration in Jesus’ day, and extortion was just one of them.  Historians record that travelers were charged $20 just to enter the temple at Passover. On top of that, the priests disobeyed God’s command in Deuteronomy 12 that every Israelite should bring a pure animal from his own flock, and they sold sacrificial animals inside the walls of the temple.  By the time of Christ, inspectors were stationed at the doors of the temple to check all incoming animals for defects. These examiners charged $5 from every person, and they often rejected pure animals in order to force travelers to buy from the temple market. Outside the temple a pair of doves cost as little as $20. Inside the temple they cost $375!   Jesus responds to these moneychangers and temple-profaners in a way He doesn’t respond to anyone else throughout the four gospels. In fact, this brief episode is the only occasion we see Him react with such an explosive outburst of indignation.  Don’t miss the reason why. He isn’t merely angry because the poor are being robbed and the worshippers are being deceived; He is angry because God’s sanctuary has lost its sanctity. God’s holy name is being trampled every time another coin drops into the coffer. Now, we can easily apply this passage to churches that sell a health-and-wealth gospel, or to a Christian industry that largely models itself after a secular industry, but the place where we most need to apply this today to our own hearts.  In 1 Corinthians 6:19, Paul warns us that our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. God’s sanctuary in the 21st century isn’t the gymnasium or auditorium or living room where you meet on Sunday mornings. It’s you.  Are you angered when you hear God’s name being blasphemed in movies and on television but unbothered by your own gossip and lust? Are you disheartened by the materialism and debauchery of church leaders but apathetic toward your own selfish striving after health, comfort, and pleasure?  It’s possible to feel angered at the compromises all around us while feeling no anger toward the compromises inside us. So what does Jesus see when He walks through the gates of your heart? Sexual immorality? Greed? Drunkenness? Materialism? Secular worldviews and ambitions? Your body is not your own. It belongs to God. And just as the temple stood for hundreds of years as the symbol and expression of God’s holiness and purity, our lives should be doing the same.  When the world looks at us they should see God in us; not because we have bumper stickers on our cars or because we wear Jesus t-shirts to work, but because His holiness is shining through us.  So today, start with your own heart. Pray for Christ to come through and clean it out, so that pure, genuine worship can sound forth once again.

How You Can Help Combat Spiritual Ignorance / Senior Living

How You Can Help Combat Spiritual Ignorance

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” -  Matthew 28:18-20

In 1883 in Allentown, New Jersey, a wooden Indian – the kind you’d see in front of a cigar shop – was placed on the ballot for Justice of the Peace under the fictitious name of Abner Robbins. When the ballots were counted, Abner won over the incumbent by seven votes.

Similarly in 1938, the name Boston Curtis appeared on the ballot for a Republican Precinct Committeeman position in Wilton, Washington. Boston Curtis, however, was a mule, sponsored by the town mayor to demonstrate how little people knew about the candidates. The mayor’s point was proven when the mule won!

In much the same way, many people say they know what they believe spiritually, even casting their “votes” by attending worship services. Yet, among those who attend those services, there is often a very real lack of understanding about some of the fundamental aspects of their faith.

What’s deeply needed among Christians today is a renewed commitment to becoming disciples, rather than church-goers. So get into God’s Word, explore biblical resources, and learn more about what you believe. When you immerse yourself in God’s teachings, you’ll help combat spiritual ignorance!

Prayer Challenge

Ask God to help you be a disciple of Jesus Christ and have the discipline to understand the fundamental aspects of your faith.

Questions for Thought

Think of one person whom you regard as well-versed in biblical knowledge. What did he or she do to reach that level?

Who are some people to whom you can reach out and ask for help in better understanding what you believe?

New Creation by David Jeremiah

New Creation His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. 2 Peter 1:3 Living in the post-Garden of Eden world—a world that labors and groans as it awaits its renewal (Romans 8:19-22)—we sometimes forget that we are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Paul’s use of the word “creation” in that verse follows his “light to shine out of darkness” phrase in 2 Corinthians 4:6—another reference to creation.

Recommended Reading: John 10:10

In spite of our living in a fallen world, we live in an Eden-like relationship with God. We are not deprived of what we need. In spite of the tension sin presents in the world, we have been given “all things that pertain to life and godliness” through Christ. In spite of the powers of darkness being present, God’s light—just as in Genesis—has been made to shine in our hearts. In spite of the evil one being present, Jesus came to give us abundant life (John 10:10). In moments where you feel limited or constrained in this world, remember that you are a new creation in Christ. Our only constraint is the limits of our faith. The whole creation is Thy charge, but saints are Thy peculiar care.  Isaac Watts

September 30 / Wisdom from the Psalms

September 30

Psalm 119:53

Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.

No one had seen Edna for weeks. They had talked to her on the phone, and she insisted that she was all right, but she had dropped her social life altogether. A group of her friends dropped by to see her, and found her terribly distraught. Weeks before, Edna had been the victim of a purse snatcher, and ever since she was afraid to go out. Television and newspapers only fueled her fears. With the way the world was moving, Edna feared she would never leave her house again.

Our world is filled with horrors. Sometimes the answer seems to be to lock the doors and wait for all that is wrong to just go away. Unfortunately, that is no way to live. In such a horrifying time, we need to draw upon the courage of the Lord to meet the world head-on. God will instill in us the power to conquer our fears and enjoy this life as the gift it was meant to be. He will also lead us in ways that we can work together to change this world for the better.

Prayer: I cannot believe the things I see and hear in the world today. Everything is so crazy. Be the source of sanity in this mixed-up world, Lord. Se my feet upon the solid rock of Your salvation. Amen.

September 30 / C.S. Lewis

Today's Reading

Remember that, as I said, the right direction leads not only to peace but to knowledge. When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either. From Mere Christianity Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity. Copyright © 1952, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1980, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Copyright © 2003 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

The Importance of a Good Example by Greg Laurie

The Importance of a Good Example

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16 NKJV).

Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider developed a close relationship with Johnny Cash and his wife June during filming of the movie Stagecoach, and was especially impressed and inspired by their strong Christian faith.

“I lived with Johnny Cash for a year, and if somebody as rough around the edges as Johnny could say that Jesus was his Savior, there had to be something to it,” Schneider told writer Tammy Leigh Maxey of Pivot Point Magazine in 2011. “If Johnny Cash felt the need to keep a Bible in the trunk of his Mercedes next to his fishing pole, there had to be something to it.”

Neither Johnny nor June ever preached to Schneider, but the way they conducted themselves, interacted with each other, and made God a daily part of and partner in their lives led him to follow suit.

“It was Johnny who led me to Christ,” Schneider said. “He was so different from many of the other Christians I’d seen, and he didn’t fit the stereotypes I had of guys in argyle sweaters happily dancing through the flowers with big smiles on their faces because life was so perfect. I just watched as Johnny’s and June’s lives were held together by the love of Christ.“

Johnny and I would be fishing, and suddenly he’d look at his watch and start heading back to the house, saying something about needing to spend some time with the Lord. It intrigued me that this rough man’s man would have these priorities, and pretty soon I was asking questions, wanting what he had. Johnny and June kept circling and trying to talk sense into me, without being sappy. And it worked. They understood that I had to be ready; so they waited patiently. That was very different from anything I’d seen before.”

Johnny understood the importance of being a good example.

Scripture Reading:

1. And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. Teach the truth so that your teaching can’t be criticized. Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us. (Titus 2:7–8 NLT)

Has your example ever sparked the interest of others? Are people curious about God because of what they see in your conduct and priorities?

2. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14–16 NKJV)

What is the ultimate goal of your good example and witness for Christ?

3. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35 NKJV)

Love is a key component of your conduct if you want to be a good example for Jesus. Is God’s love apparent in your life?

The Awareness of the Call by Oswald Chambers

The Awareness of the Call …for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!  1 CORINTHIANS 9:16 We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God. If you are able to tell exactly where you were when you received the call of God and can explain all about it, I question whether you have truly been called. The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person’s life may come like a clap of thunder or it may dawn gradually. But however quickly or slowly this awareness comes, it is always accompanied with an undercurrent of the supernatural— something that is inexpressible and produces a “glow.” At any moment the sudden awareness of this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life may break through— “I chose you…” (John 15:16). The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. You are not called to preach the gospel because you are sanctified; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different. Paul describes it as a compulsion that was placed upon him. If you have ignored, and thereby removed, the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances. See where you have put your own ideas of service or your particular abilities ahead of the call of God. Paul said, “…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” He had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to “preach the gospel” was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength. If a man or woman is called of God, it doesn’t matter how difficult the circumstances may be. God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose in the end. If you will agree with God’s purpose, He will bring not only your conscious level but also all the deeper levels of your life, which you yourself cannot reach, into perfect harmony. From My Utmost for His Highest Updated Edition

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. from The Place of Help

Our Habitation of Peace by Charles Stanley

Psalm 120:1-7

Have you ever cried out like the psalmist, asking God for deliverance from those with lying lips? Sometimes it seems that our world is being swallowed up by deception. 

One of the results of being bombarded with lies is anxiety. No matter how deep and well-founded our peace is, there are duplicitous people who might unravel it. If we believe every news commentary, we may lose hope to the point of despair. If we become victims of slanderous gossip, we could become suspicious. Every day we must decide how to handle the deception around us and choose whether we will allow ourselves to be motivated by fear.

Psalm 120 is the first of the Songs of Ascents, which the Israelites sang on their way to Jerusalem for the annual feasts. The psalmist says his dwelling place outside of Israel is with those who live by deceit and discord. In his words we sense a longing for Jerusalem, a city whose name derives from shalom, or “peace.” 

And this is our refuge as well—not the physical location, but the habitation of peace that awaits us when we go to the Scriptures to gain God’s perspective. That’s where we learn to discern truth from error and discover Christ’s peace, which transcends every circumstance. It’s also where we find the courage to stand up for truth and oppose moral compromise. 

The psalmist bemoans his situation by saying, “Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace” (Psalm 120:6). If you relate to feeling wearied by the world, find rest by inhabiting the peace found in God’s Word.

Would you like a helping of happiness? by Adrian Rogers

Would you like a helping of happiness? 

 

SEPTEMBER 29

Delight thyself in the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Psalm 37:4

Satan is a clever liar. In fact, many of his lies sound like the truth. Jesus Himself said, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).

He plays with our minds to confuse us, lying about the biggest subject of all – God. If he can deceive and distort your idea of God, then he has you in everything else.

Satan doesn’t deny the existence of God; he’s too clever for that. But he wants you to think of God as cruel, harsh and severe, filling your mind with negative thoughts, seeing God as some a cosmic killjoy.

The opposite is true.

Every time God says, “Thou shalt not,” He's just saying, “Don't hurt yourself.” Every time God says, “Thou shalt,” He's saying, “Help yourself to happiness.”

Poet Ralph W. Seager has written in “The Extravagance of God,”

More sky than man can see, 

More seas than man can sail, 

More sun than he can bear to watch, 

More stars than he can scale, 

More breath than he can breathe, 

More yield than he can sow, 

More grace than he can comprehend, 

Morelove than he can know.

If it will make you healthy, happy, holy, or wholesome, God says, “Help yourself, My child. I love you.” Meditate on these verses today: “The Lord thy God is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will He withhold from them that walk up rightly” (Psalm 84:11). “God giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (I Timothy 6:17).

Who Am I? by Tim Gustafson

Who Am I?

Tim Gustafson

“I am who I am.” Exodus 3:14

Exodus 3:10–17

Dave enjoyed his job, but for a long time he’d sensed a pull toward something else. Now he was about to fulfill his dream and step into mission work. But strangely, he began to have serious doubts.

“I don’t deserve this,” he told a friend. “The mission board doesn’t know the real me. I’m not good enough.”
Dave has some pretty good company. Mention the name of Moses and we think of leadership, strength, and the Ten Commandments. We tend to forget that Moses fled to the desert after murdering a man. We lose sight of his forty years as a fugitive. We overlook his anger problem and his intense reluctance to say yes to God.

When God showed up with marching orders (Exodus 3:1–10), Moses played the I’m-not-good-enough card. He even got into a lengthy argument with God, asking Him: “Who am I?” (v. 11). Then God told Moses who He was: “I am who I am” (v. 14). It’s impossible for us to explain that mysterious name because our indescribable God is describing His eternal presence to Moses.

A sense of our own weaknesses is healthy. But if we use them as an excuse to keep God from using us, we insult Him. What we’re really saying is that God isn’t good enough.
The question isn’t Who am I? The question is Who is the I am? 

When has thinking you’re not good enough kept you from serving God? How does it encourage you to look at Bible characters God used despite their flaws?

Eternal God, so often we doubt that You could ever use people like us. But You sent Your Son to die for the likes of us, so please forgive our doubts. Help us accept the challenges You bring our way.

The Beginning of Jesus by Billy Graham

The Beginning of Jesus

Jesus did not begin in Bethlehem. The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus said that He existed before the foundation of the world. He was there when the moon and stars were flung out into space from the Father’s flaming fingertips. He was there when God created this planet. He has always existed. He is “from everlasting to everlasting.”

Daily Prayer

You, Lord Jesus, who have always existed, came down from heaven in love and saved me from the depths of my sin. In humble adoration I praise You, my Savior and Lord.

“Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."”

‭‭John‬ ‭8:58‬ ‭NASB‬‬

September 29 / Streams in the Desert

I will give myself unto prayer (Ps. 109:4).

We are often in a religious hurry in our devotions. How much time do we spend in them daily? Can it not be easily reckoned in minutes? Who ever knew an eminently holy man who did not spend much of his time in prayer? Did ever a man exhibit much of the spirit of prayer, who did not devote much time in his closet?

Whitefield says, "Whole days and weeks have I spent prostrate on the ground, in silent or vocal prayer." "Fall upon your knees and grow there," is the language of another, who knew whereof he affirmed.

It has been said that no great work in literature or science was ever wrought by a man who did not love solitude. We may lay it down as an elemental principle of religion, that no large growth in holiness was ever gained by one who did not take time to be often, and long, alone with God.
--The Still Hour

'Come, come,' He saith, 'O soul oppressed and weary,
Come to the shadows of my desert rest;
Come walk with Me far from life's babbling discords,
And peace shall breathe like music in thy breast.'

Lessons from Leprosy by Alistair Begg

Lessons from Leprosy

And if the leprous disease has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean of the disease.
Leviticus 13:13

This regulation appears to be very strange, but there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This morning it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of this singular principle. We, too, are lepers and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be completely lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and with no part free from pollution, when he disclaims all righteousness of his own and pleads guilty before the Lord, then is he clean through the blood of Jesus and the grace of God.

Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy, but when sin is seen and felt it has received its death blow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are nothing else but sin, for no confession short of this will be the whole truth. And if the Holy Spirit is at work within us, convincing us of sin, there will be no difficulty in making such an acknowledgment--it will spring spontaneously from our lips.

What comfort this text provides to those under a deep sense of sin! Sin mourned and confessed, however deep and foul, will never shut a man out from the Lord Jesus. "Whoever comes to me I will never cast out."¹Though dishonest as the thief, though immoral as the woman who was a sinner, though fierce as Saul of Tarsus, though cruel as Manasseh, though rebellious as the prodigal, the great heart of love will look upon the man who feels himself to have no health in him and will pronounce him clean when he trusts in Jesus crucified. Come to Him, then, poor heavy-laden sinner.

Come needy, come guilty, come loathsome and bare;
You can't come too filthy--come just as you are.

1) John 6:37

Heaven's Tribunal by Max Lucado

Heaven's Tribunal
by Max Lucado

Some people will stand before God on the judgement day who didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him.  They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. They spent a lifetime dishonoring God and hurting his people. They mocked his name and made life miserable for their neighbors.

Even our judicial system forces no defense on the accused. The defendant is offered an advocate, but if he chooses to stand before the judge alone, the system permits it.  So does God.  He offers his Son as an advocate.  At the judgment Jesus will stand at the side of every person except those who refuse him.  When their deeds are read, heaven’s tribunal will hear nothing—but silence!  It’s a sobering truth in Acts 17:31, “The day is coming when God will judge the world.”

September 29 / Wisdom from the Psalms

Psalm 119:51

The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet I have not declined from thy law.

Umpiring had its good points and its bad points. Being a part of the game of baseball had always been exciting to Harry, but sometimes it wasn't worth all the abuse. Harry always gave his best effort to be fair to everyone. Still, there was no pleasing some people. All he knew was that he was going to go by the rules, and if others didn't like it, that was their tough luck. At least Harry could sleep well at night knowing that he never compromised the game due to pressure. He might make an occasional bad call, but every call he made was done with integrity.

Sometimes standing for what is right is the hardest thing we can do. Others will mock us for doing things by the book, but that should only confirm that we are on the right track. God rejoices when we do what we know is right, and He will strengthen us so we can rise above the derision.

Prayer: I find that I am too weak to stand up for what is right all the time. When I am weakest, Lord, fill me with your divine strength. Do not let me shrink from doing what I know is right. Amen.

Spiritual Gifts by John MacArthur

Spiritual Gifts

“But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7).

God wants every Christian to understand spiritual gifts and use his or hers wisely.

A spiritual gift is a channel through which the Holy Spirit ministers to the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:11). The day we were born again into God’s family, His Spirit distributed to us a spiritual gift. Therefore, having a spiritual gift does not mean a believer is “spiritual.” What we really must ask is, “Is the channel clear?” Hypothetically, someone could have all the recorded spiritual gifts and not be using any of them. Or that believer could be greatly abusing some gifts. In either case, such a person would not be spiritual.

It is also incorrect to equate a natural ability with a spiritual gift. Someone might say, “My gift is baking pies”; another might say, “I’m good at playing the piano.” Those are wonderful and useful abilities, but they are natural abilities, not spiritual gifts.

Paul illustrates the difference between abilities and gifts. He could have used his knowledge of philosophy and literature to write and deliver great orations. However, this is what he said to the Corinthians: “I did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:1-2). The Holy Spirit uses the abilities of people like Paul and speaks through them, but He expresses Himself in a supernatural way, which is not necessarily related to the person’s natural skills.

If we rely on our own ability to produce spiritual fruit, we hinder what the Spirit wants to do in us. Instead, ponder what Peter says about using your gift: “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:10-11).

Suggestions for Prayer

Thank the Lord for the special spiritual gift He has given you. Ask that He would help you use it faithfully, to its full potential.

For Further Study

Read Romans 12:4-8 and list the spiritual gifts mentioned there. What does 1 Corinthians 12, especially verses 12-31, emphasize regarding the use of the various gifts within the church?