Heedfulness or Hypocrisy in Ourselves? / Oswald Chambers

 

Heedfulness or Hypocrisy in Ourselves? If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.  1 JOHN 5:16 If we are not heedful and pay no attention to the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other people are failing, and then we take our discernment and turn it into comments of ridicule and criticism, instead of turning it into intercession on their behalf. God reveals this truth about others to us not through the sharpness of our minds but through the direct penetration of His Spirit. If we are not attentive, we will be completely unaware of the source of the discernment God has given us, becoming critical of others and forgetting that God says, “…he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.” Be careful that you don’t become a hypocrite by spending all your time trying to get others right with God before you worship Him yourself. One of the most subtle and illusive burdens God ever places on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning others. He gives us discernment so that we may accept the responsibility for those souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them (see Philippians 2:5). We should intercede in accordance with what God says He will give us, namely, “life for those who commit sin not leading to death.” It is not that we are able to bring God into contact with our minds, but that we awaken ourselves to the point where God is able to convey His mind to us regarding the people for whom we intercede. Can Jesus Christ see the agony of His soul in us? He can’t unless we are so closely identified with Him that we have His view concerning the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so wholeheartedly that Jesus Christ will be completely and overwhelmingly satisfied with us as intercessors. From My Utmost for His Highest Updated Edition

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….” from So Send I You, 1325 R

Building to Last Forever / Charles Stanley

 

Building to Last Forever

1 Corinthians 3:11-15

When a high-rise building goes up in my city of Atlanta, Georgia, I think about all the construction involved. Underneath is a grid of steel and concrete giving strength to all the floors stacked overhead. In a similar way, we need a firm foundation to build a life with purpose. Jesus lays that groundwork for believers when they receive His salvation. 

Christ’s saving grace gives His followers a new life. Sins are wiped away so that we have a clean “work site,” so to speak. Empowered by Jesus’ strength and wisdom, we can build on His foundation. The decision that needs to be made is whether to shape our eternal legacy with God-serving activities and habits or selfish ones. 

Paul separates spiritual construction material into two categories: durable metal and dry kindling (1 Corinthians 3:12). A grass hut is easily destroyed by fire, but at the judgment, we want to greet the Lord from a sturdy structure, built with gleaming bricks of godly service and a diligent application of Scripture. 

The life we create is useful to God only if it is consistent with Jesus Christ’s foundation. You might say that He is the architect and the Bible is the blueprint for successful living—and it’s in our best interest to follow those plans. 

Wisely Weeding / ODB

 

Wisely Weeding Search me, God, and know my heart. Psalm 139:23 READ PSALM 139:1–6, 23–24

My grandchildren are running around my backyard. Playing games? No, pulling weeds. “Pulling them up by the roots!” the youngest says, showing me a hefty prize. Her delight as we tackled weeds that day was how much we enjoyed plucking the weedy roots—clearing away each pesky menace. Before the joy, however, came the choice to go after them. Intentional weeding is also the first step in removing personal sin. Thus, David prayed: “Search me, God, and know my heart. . . . See if there is any offensive way in me” (Psalm 139:23-24). What a wise approach, to go after our sin by asking God to show it to us. He above all knows everything about us. “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me,” wrote the psalmist. “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar” (vv. 1-2). “Such knowledge,” David added, “is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain” (v. 6). Even before a sin takes root, therefore, God can alert us to the danger. He knows our “landscape.” So when a sneaky sinful attitude tries to take root, He’s first to know and point it out. “Where can I go from your Spirit,” wrote David. “Where can I flee from your presence?” (v. 7). May we closely follow our Savior to higher ground! By Patricia Raybon Loving God, when You show me my personal sin, point me to Your plan to pull those weeds. When you ask God to search your heart, what personal wrongs do you discover? How does intentional “weeding” help rid you of a relentless sin?

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT In the Bible we read of God’s omniscience—His knowledge of everything. In 1 Samuel 2:3, Hannah declares that He’s the “God who knows.” In Psalm 44:21, the psalmist says “he knows the secrets of the heart.” In Psalm 139, David marvels that God knows his every move and thought (vv. 1-4). Yet instead of trembling with fear, David’s awestruck at the thought that God has such intimate knowledge of him (v. 6). Why? Because David has a close relationship with God—he loves and is loved by Him. As a result, he can ask God to search his heart and, if he’s found wanting, to lead him down the right path (vv. 23-24). Our all-seeing and all-knowing God “searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought” (1 Chronicles 28:9). Alyson Kieda

Jesus Bore the Curse Upon Humanity / Adrian Rogers

 Jesus Bore the Curse Upon Humanity

Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you…” Genesis 3:17-18 

Before His crucifixion, Roman soldiers crowned the Lord Jesus with a circlet made of long, sharp thorns. It was a sick form of torture, a cruel mockery, a wicked act of hatred and rebellion. Unwittingly, they were part of a drama that had been written before the world was swung into space. It was not accidental. Though done by wicked men, it was part of God’s magnificent plan. 

In the Garden of Eden, there had been no thorns, thistles, or brambles. The first rose bloomed without thorns. The crown of thorns symbolized the curse that fell upon all humanity—you, me, all of us—because of sin.  

Jesus wore the thorns because He bore the curse resulting from our rebellion. No matter your occupation or station in life, you’ll be among thorns. Your body, like the apostle Paul, will have a thorn in the flesh. The thorns on Jesus’ head spoke of the sickness and suffering we all experience because sin marred creation (Romans 8:22). Death always accompanies sin. 

The thorny pathway we walk, the curse that’s on everything, is because of sin. Look at every hospital, mental institution, jail, every sick or crippled body and say “Sin did this.”  Look at heartache, pain, and anguish. Write over it one word: SIN. Thorns are the symbol. Who is taking care of your sin today? Who is paying the price for it? Is it under the blood? Are you trusting Christ alone for that?

For more from Love Worth Finding and Pastor Adrian Rogers, please visit www.lwf.org. 

You can also listen to Adrian Rogers at OnePlace.com.

Watch Adrian Rogers and Love Worth Finding Video Online.

Cool Skepticism / Chuck Swindoll

 Cool Skepticism

by Pastor Chuck SwindollScriptures: Exodus 14; Luke 9:10–17; 2 Peter 3

Nine-year-old Danny came bursting out of Sunday school like a wild stallion. His eyes were darting in every direction as he tried to locate either his mom or dad. Finally, after a quick search, he grabbed his daddy by the leg and yelled, "Man, that story of Moses and all those people crossing the Red Sea was great!" His father looked down, smiled, and asked the boy to tell him about it.

"Well, the Israelites got out of Egypt, but Pharaoh and his army chased after them. So the Jews ran as fast as they could until they got to the Red Sea. The Egyptian Army was gettin' closer and closer. So Moses got on his walkie-talkie and told the Israeli Air Force to bomb the Egyptians. While that was happening, the Israeli Navy built a pontoon bridge so the people could cross over. They made it!"

By now old dad was shocked. "Is that the way they taught you the story?"

"Well, no, not exactly," Danny admitted, "but if I told it to you the way they told it to us, you'd never believe it, Dad."

With childlike innocence the little guy put his finger on the pulse of our sophisticated adult world where cool skepticism reigns supreme. It's becoming increasingly more popular to operate in the black-and-white world of facts . . . and, of course, to leave no space for the miraculous.

It's really not a new mentality. Peter mentions it in one of his letters:

I want to remind you that in the last days there will come scoffers who will . . . laugh at the truth. This will be their line of argument: "So Jesus promised to come back, did he? Then where is he? He'll never come! Why, as far back as anyone can remember everything has remained exactly as it was since the first day of creation" (2 Peter 3:3–4 TLB).

Skeptics think like that. If they could choose their favorite hymn, it would certainly include the words, "As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be. . . ."

Take gravity. Heavy objects fall toward earth. Always. So a builder can construct a house and never worry about his materials floating away. Count on it. Take chemistry. Mixing certain elements in precise proportions yields the same result. Always. So a doctor can prescribe a medication with predictable confidence. Take astronomy. The sun, the moon, those stars work in perfect harmony. Always. Even the mysterious eclipse comes as no surprise. Take anatomy. Whether it's the pupil of the eye expanding and contracting in response to light or our skin regulating our body temperature or our built-in defense mechanism fighting disease, we operate strictly on the basis of facts. Hard, immutable, stubborn facts. Reliable as the sunset. Real as a toothache. Clear as an X-ray. Absolute, unbending, undeniable.

People who conduct their lives according to such thinking are called smart. They haven't a fraction of tolerance for the supernatural. To them it is sloppy to think in terms of the unexplainable, the "miraculous." If insurance companies choose to leave room for "acts of God," that's their business . . . but those are fightin' words in laboratories and operating rooms and scientific rap sessions and among newspaper editors.

Then what about miracles? Well, let's limit them to a child's world of fiction and fables. And, if necessary, to stained glass sanctuaries where emotion runs high and imagination is needed to make all those stories interesting. After all, what's a little religion without a pocketful of miracles? And if we started trying to account for all those things in the Bible, think of the time it would take to explain stuff like how the sun stood still, or why all those fish filled the disciples' nets, or what brought Lazarus back from beyond, or why Jesus's body has never been found, or how the death of Christ cleans up lives year after year, or how come the Bible is still around.

Smart, keen-thinking skeptics don't have to worry about explaining little things like that. It's easier to simply embrace a wholesale denial of the miraculous . . . which is fine and dandy . . . until the skeptics themselves get sick, face death, and need miraculous help crossing that final river.

What happens then? Hey, if I told you what the Bible really says, you'd never believe it.

The Ascension / David Jeremiah

 

The Ascension For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Hebrews 9:24    Preaching through the Bible sometimes results in important events getting little attention. An example is the ascension of Christ into heaven forty days after His resurrection—one of the most important events in all of Christian theology. But going verse-by-verse through the New Testament means you only encounter three references to this important event: Mark 16:19; Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:9-11. But an entire chapter of the book of Hebrews discusses the implications of the ascension: Christ entering the heavenly sanctuary as our High Priest and Intercessor before the throne of God (Hebrews 9).

Recommended Reading: Acts 1: 9 – 11

We should take great joy from the Ascension of Jesus and contemplate what it means for us. As our High Priest, Christ presented Himself to the Father and secured the eternal redemption of His Church by His own blood. As our Intercessor, Christ stands between us and God the Father, defending us against Satan’s accusations (Romans 8:33-34). You are saved, and remained saved and sanctified, because Christ ascended to heaven. Praise God today for what the ascension of Christ means in your life: saved, sealed, sanctified, secure forever. Astronauts sink into insignificance beside this Ascension! Vance Havner

March 31 / Senior Living

 Psalms 34:13

Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

Before she could stop herself, the words were out of her mouth. She hadn't meant to say anything, but all her friends were talking, so she put in her thoughts. Trouble was, when she began speaking, the girl they were bad-mouthing walked into the room. Actually, she liked the girl, but now any chance they had of being friends was ruined. All because she had been thoughtless and cruel.

 

James says that our tongues are mighty rudders, guiding the body where it will go. We should be very careful of the words that come out of our mouths. We can do the greatest good, and the most terrible evil, by the use of our mouths. Christians should let the truth and grace of Christ govern their language. Otherwise, terrible problems can occur. Let our words reflect our commitment to Christ, and God will bless us and defend us.

 

Prayer: Watch me, Lord, that I don't use my gifts for evil. Help me to use my mouth only for praise and encouragement, and keep me from saying things which could hurt someone or lessen their faith. Amen.

What to do when ‘good people’ need Jesus / Senior Living

 What to do when ‘good people’ need Jesus

For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”),yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. - 1 Corinthians 8:5-6

Over a century ago, a bishop in the United Brethren Church named Milton Wright pronounced from his pulpit and in a publication he edited that human flight was both impossible and contrary to the will of God. Well, in a twist of irony, two of his sons, Orville and Wilbur, would pioneer human flight in 1903, dramatically changing the course of human history.

Milton Wright is a perfect example of someone who can be sincere and well-intentioned, yet flat out wrong. A person can believe something with all of his heart, but the fact is that if it’s not true, it’s not true.

When we look at the over 7 billion people on the planet, about 66% of them don’t consider Jesus to be their savior. They follow other religions—Islam, Buddhism, New Age—and a good many of them do so very sincerely. Yet they are sincerely wrong.

As Christians, the most unloving thing we can do is sit in silence while the “good people” who don’t know Christ continue worshiping wrongly. So let’s love others well by gently and lovingly pointing them toward a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Prayer Challenge

Pray that God would help you love those of others faiths well by sharing His truth with them.

Questions for Thought

When you think about how people of others faiths practice their religion, what do you respect about their faith?

Think of some people you know who have a different religion than you. What steps can you take this week to lovingly share God’s truth with them?

Visit the Senior Living Ministries website

Weep for His Pain / Alistair Egg

 

Weep for His Pain 

With his wounds we are healed. 

Isaiah 53:5

Pilate delivered our Lord to be scourged. The Roman scourge was a most dreadful instrument of torture. It was made of the sinews of oxen, and sharp bones were intertwined among the sinews, so that every time the lash came down, these pieces of bone inflicted fearful laceration and tore off the flesh from the bone. The Savior was, no doubt, bound to the column, and thus beaten. He had been beaten before; but this from the Roman soldiers was probably the most severe of His flagellations. My soul, stand here and weep over His poor, stricken body.

Believer in Jesus, can you gaze upon Him without tears as He stands before you, the mirror of agonizing love? He is at once fair as the lily for innocence and red as the rose with the crimson of His own blood. As we feel the sure and blessed healing that His stripes have wrought in us, does not our heart melt at once with love and grief? If ever we have loved our Lord Jesus, surely we must feel that affection glowing now within our hearts.

See how the patient Jesus stands,
Insulted in His lowest case!
Sinners have bound the Almighty’s hands,
And spit in their Creator's face.

With thorns His temples gor’d and gash’d
Send streams of blood from every part;
His back’s with knotted scourges lash’d.
But sharper scourges tear His heart.

We may long to go to our bedrooms and weep; but since our business calls us away, we will first ask the Lord Jesus to print the image of His bleeding self upon the tablets of our hearts all the day, and at nightfall we will return to commune with Him and sorrow that our sin should have cost Him so dearly.

On Glory / C.S. Lewis

 On glory

[And this brings me to] the other sense of glory—glory as brightness, splendour, luminosity. We are to shine as the sun, we are to be given the Morning Star. I think I begin to see what it means. In one way, of course, God has given us the Morning Star already: you can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. What more, you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much more—something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves—that, though we cannot, yet these projections can enjoy in themselves that beauty, grace, and power of which Nature is the image. That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can’t. They tell us that “beauty born of murmuring sound” will pass into a human face; but it won’t. Or not yet. For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in. When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch.

From The Weight of Glory
Compiled in Words to Live By

The Weight of Glory: And Other Addresses. Copyright © 1949, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1976, revised 1980 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Security in Storms / Streams

 Security in Storms

The wind was contrary - Matt 14:24

Rude and blustering the winds of March often are. Do they not typify the tempestuous seasons of my life? But, indeed, I ought to be glad that I make acquaintance with these seasons. Better it is that the rains descend and the floods come than that I should stay perpetually in the Lotus Land where it seems always afternoon, or in that deep meadowed Valley of Avilion where never wind blows loudly. Storms of temptation appear cruel, but do they not give intenser earnestness to prayer? Do they not compel me to seize the promises with a tighter hand grip? Do they not leave me with a character refined?

Storms of bereavement are keen; but, then, they are one of the Father’s ways of driving me to Himself, that in the secret of His presence His voice may speak to my heart, soft and low. There is a glory of the Master which can be seen only when the wind is contrary and the ship tossed with waves.

“Jesus Christ is no security against storms, but He is perfect security in storms. He has never promised you an easy passage, only a safe landing.”

Oh, set your sail to the heavenly gale,  
And then, no matter what winds prevail,  
No reef can wreck you, no calm delay;  
No mist shall hinder, no storm shall stay;  
Though far you wander and long you roam  
Through salt sea sprays and o’er white sea foam,  
No wind that can blow but shall speed you Home.  
—Annie Johnson Flint

Endless Forgiveness / Billy Graham

 

Endless Forgiveness

Look at Christ’s death. In one biography of the great American, Daniel Webster, 863 pages deal with his career and just five pages are devoted to his death. In Hay’s life of Abraham Lincoln there are 5,000 pages but only 25 are devoted to the dramatic story of his assassination and death. In most biographies the deaths of the subjects are mere incidents at the close of the books. But when we come to the four “biographies” of Jesus, the four Gospels, we are confronted with a strange fact. One-third of Matthew is given to a description of the death of Christ. One-third of Mark, one-fourth of Luke, and one-half of John are given to His death. All these pages are devoted to the last 24 hours of His life. The death of Jesus Christ is a significant fact in human history, because Jesus Christ came for the express purpose of dying for sinners. When He left heaven, He knew He was going to the cross.

Daily Prayer

Lord Jesus, what agony You suffered for me upon the cross. I deserve Your judgment, yet You have given me forgiveness and eternal life. I praise Your beloved name.

“For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.”

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:9-10‬

The Day a Doubter Believed / Greg Laurie

 The Day a Doubter Believed

“Then Jesus told him, ‘You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me’” (John 20:29 NLT).

If you have a hard time believing there’s a God in Heaven who loves you, if it’s difficult to wrap your mind around the fact that God has a plan for your life, then Easter is for you.

Everyone struggles with doubts now and then. Oswald Chambers, author of the well-known Christian devotional My Utmost for His Highest, said, “Doubt is not always a sign that a man is wrong; it may be a sign that he is thinking.”

One of the disciples of Jesus was super skeptical. In fact, we call him doubting Thomas. After the resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples, they told Thomas about it. But Thomas said, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side” (John 20:25 NLT).

Yet the next time they met together, Thomas was there. And sure enough, Jesus appeared and said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” (verse 20 NLT).

Thomas simply said, “My Lord and my God!” (verse 28 NLT). He didn’t want to know anything more than what the others knew, but he just needed to know for himself.

So you can come to Jesus with your skepticism. You can come to Jesus with your doubt. You can even come to Jesus if you’re an outright atheist.

However, you can’t live off the faith of someone else. You need to come to the Lord and say, “I have these questions,” and then put your faith in Him.

Someone might say, “Show me, and I’ll believe.”

But God effectively says, “Believe, and I'll show you.”

You can turn your skepticism into faith, and you can turn your doubt into belief.

Copyright © 2021 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.

For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
and
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Watch Greg Laurie's weekly television broadcast on LightSource.com.

March 31 / Daily Blessings

 Daily Blessings

“Yet does he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him.” - 2 Sam 14:14

The promise runs, “I will bring again that which was driven away” (Ezekiel 34:16). Guilt, temptation, Satan, doubts, and fears had driven them away from the shelter of the tabernacle. Yet the Lord has respect unto these also. He says, “I will bring again.” But how? By nothing but a sense of mercy. It is not by frowns, but by smiles. “I drew them,” says the Lord, “with cords of a man” (that is, the tender feelings that are bound up in the human heart), “with bands of love.” You may thunder, you may lightening, you may take the whip and flog a poor backslider—but you can never flog him home. He must be drawn by mercy, by the goodness of God, which leads to repentance.

How was Peter brought back? By that look which Jesus gave him, as he stood in the hall of the high priest; that look of mingled love and reproach. It was this that made Peter go out and weep bitterly. A frown would have driven him into despair, and made him hang himself by the side of Judas; but that look of mingled reproof and love wounded and healed, filled heart and eyes with the deepest grief and sorrow; and yet poured such a healing balm into his mourning soul that when Jesus was risen from the dead, and by his angel sent him a special message that he would see him again in Galilee, he leaped into the sea to meet him, when he stood on the shore of the lake Tiberias. But for that look and for that message, he would rather have leaped to the bottom with self-reproach, than leaped to the shore with love and affection. Thus was brought again poor driven-away Peter. And thus too, by the voice of pardon, was brought again poor driven-away David. For the Lord devises means that his banished be not expelled from him.

Easter: All That Matters vs. All I Live For By: Shawn McEvoy

 Easter: All That Matters vs. All I Live For

By: Shawn McEvoy

He has risen, just as He said. - Matthew 28:6, NIV

What would I ever do if someone I knew came back from the dead? Especially if he had said he would, and if he had spent a couple nights in a grave already?

Seriously, what would I do? What would you do? Wouldn't I blab to everyone I know - and most people I don't - about this miraculous event? Heck, I tell everyone when I'm feeling under the weather or when I saw a good movie.

Then factor in that the same guy was now telling us that because of what he had done, none of the rest of us would ever have to suffer death. What's more, simply by believing what we had seen, no matter our background, history, race, or education, we could restore our long-lost connection with the Almighty, and live forever.

Man... unfortunately, I'm having a hard time conceiving what I would do. Or, even if I can conceive it, I can't quite believe it, because honestly, I have seen this, I do believe this, and yet my daily reaction to it doesn't exactly line up with The Acts of the Apostles.

Has the news of a resurrected savior really become passe?

Why don't I want to read Acts?

What am I afraid of?

That I'll be rejected?

(He who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 4:8)).

That I won't be powerful enough?

(God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline (2 Tim. 1:7)).

That the good news isn't relevant enough?

Salvation and the message of the resurrection, the miracle of born again-ness, is a salve to all wounds.

This Easter I'll join choruses like "He's Alive" while pondering and praising the miracle, but when it comes time for the next day of my life to begin, a day and a life that means nothing if not lived for my Savior, it'll be all about me again and my troubles and making my way and who cut me off and what I have to get done and who I don't like and what can we complain about today.

Yuck.

I want this Easter to be real. Because I did see it happen (so to speak; the resulting spread of those who ran to the corners of the earth to tell the story with no regard for personal safety is traceable to this day), it is real, and I'm cheating life and people God loves if I'm not shouting those facts from every corner and rooftop I can find. Everything else is just window dressing; "Christian living" is often just how we pass all our extra time in this country where so many of our basic needs are so easily met, and where we can cordon ourselves off from each other. What matters in life?

That there is life, and...
how it came about that there might never be death, but...
there are still dead men walking.
Really, why else are we here if not to keep excitedly shouting the truth of the miracle as if we'd just experienced it with our own eyes yesterday?

Intersecting Faith & Life: For the longest time, I've felt a leading in my heart to launch out into a complete study of the book of Acts, something I've never fully done. For some reason, I continue to put it off. But in my quest this year to make Easter real, I'm beginning a study of what those who witnessed the resurrection couldn't keep themselves from going out and doing. Care to join me?

Further Reading
Acts 1:1

The Dwelling Place of God / Max Lucado

 

The Dwelling Place of God

Listen to Today's Devotion Do-it-yourself Christianity isn’t much encouragement to the done-in and worn-out. “Try a little harder” is little encouragement for the abused. At some point we need more than good advice; we need help. Somewhere on this journey we realize that the fifty-fifty proposition is too little. We need help from the inside out. The kind of help Jesus promised. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it does not see him or know him. But know him, because he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17). Note the dwelling place of God: in you. Not near us, above us. But in us. In the hidden recesses of our beings dwells not an angel, not a philosophy, not a genie, but God. Imagine that. Read more When God Whispers Your Name

Holiness or Hardness Toward God? / Oswald Chambers

 

Holiness or Hardness Toward God? He…wondered that there was no intercessor…  ISAIAH 59:16 The reason many of us stop praying and become hard toward God is that we only have an emotional interest in prayer. It sounds good to say that we pray, and we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial— that our minds are quieted and our souls are uplifted when we pray. But Isaiah implied in this verse that God is amazed at such thoughts about prayer. Worship and intercession must go together; one is impossible without the other. Intercession means raising ourselves up to the point of getting the mind of Christ regarding the person for whom we are praying (see Philippians 2:5). Instead of worshiping God, we recite speeches to God about how prayer is supposed to work. Are we worshiping God or disputing Him when we say, “But God, I just don’t see how you are going to do this”? This is a sure sign that we are not worshiping. When we lose sight of God, we become hard and dogmatic. We throw our petitions at His throne and dictate to Him what we want Him to do. We don’t worship God, nor do we seek to conform our minds to the mind of Christ. And if we are hard toward God, we will become hard toward other people. Are we worshiping God in a way that will raise us up to where we can take hold of Him, having such intimate contact with Him that we know His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship with God, or have we become hard and dogmatic? Do you find yourself thinking that there is no one interceding properly? Then be that person yourself. Be a person who worships God and lives in a holy relationship with Him. Get involved in the real work of intercession, remembering that it truly is work— work that demands all your energy, but work which has no hidden pitfalls. Preaching the gospel has its share of pitfalls, but intercessory prayer has none whatsoever. From My Utmost for His Highest Updated Edition

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” from My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L

God’s Will and Prayer / Charles Stanley

 

God’s Will and Prayer

Nehemiah 1

Certain aspects of God are beyond our full understanding, and one of them is how He uses our prayers to work out His will. Although He is the sovereign, omnipotent, all-knowing God who needs no one’s help, He has chosen to allow us to participate in the achievement of His divine plans through our prayers.  

Nehemiah was moved to pray after hearing about the hardships of the Jews who’d returned to Jerusalem following Babylonian captivity. At the time, he was doing his job as the cupbearer to the King of Persia. But the Lord quickly answered Nehemiah’s prayer by paving the way and providing the resources that would allow him to rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. 

Although we may not see answers as dramatic and obvious when we pray, the Lord still wants us to present our needs and believe that He’ll respond in a way that furthers His will for our life. There will be times when we can’t perceive any change, but that doesn’t mean God is not working everything for our good. And remember, even when we don’t pray as we should, the Holy Spirit helps our weakness by interceding for us according to God’s will (Rom. 8:26-28). 

Only Jesus Could Break the Curse / Adrian Rogers

 Only Jesus Could Break the Curse 

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Hebrews 2:14

When Hebrews 2:14 says, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood,” it’s talking about you and me—for we are flesh and blood children of Adam. “He Himself likewise shared in the same” says that Jesus took upon Himself flesh and blood. Why did He do that? Why did He step out of glory? Why did the Word (Jesus) become flesh (John 1:1-3)? Why His virgin birth? 

So that He might die. 

Now, understand—God is a Spirit, and God in Spirit cannot die. But not so for mankind, the crown of His creation. For us, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20) and “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission [of sins]” (Hebrews 9:22). 

You see, because every single one of us has sinned, we were headed not only for death but eternal separation from God. Jesus had to become a flesh and blood human being so He might become the sinless sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. 

Doing that, He not only provided eternal salvation, He brought Satan’s kingdom crashing down! 

When you say “Jesus Christ is Lord” over your life, you have awesome power within you. To confess “Jesus is Lord” subdues Satan. Listen to Revelation 12:1, “And they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” What is “the word of your testimony”? That Jesus Christ is Lord. The Lord of glory destroyed the power of Satan’s kingdom. Now you belong to Him and He belongs to you.

For more from Love Worth Finding and Pastor Adrian Rogers, please visit www.lwf.org. 

You can also listen to Adrian Rogers at OnePlace.com.

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