Leaving a Lasting Impact / Charles Stanley

Leaving a Lasting Impact

Matthew 5:13-16

On this Independence Day, consider the question, How do you use the gift of freedom? God gives all believers true liberty through His Son Jesus Christ. Do you squander that blessing or share it with others? The problem is, some people are so focused on their own needs and desires that they fail to impact even their closest neighbor.

Think about the people you see every week. Do you know how many of your neighbors are sick? Are there people in your church who struggle to make it from day to day? Do you know if any of your coworkers are going through hardships? Most likely, there are individuals all around you who could use assistance. But being self-focused limits our ability to notice those people, let alone reach out to them.

Jesus taught His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men” (Matt. 5:13). In order for salt to remain useful, it must maintain its purity and potency. Likewise, we must endeavor to lead holy, humble, and loving lives, focusing on the Savior’s will rather than our own.

God has prepared the good works that we are to walk in (Eph. 2:10). Our job is to choose to do so.

Whether or not we affect our world positively depends on the focus of our heart. Do you look inward to consider how you can do more to get ahead and add to your lot in life? Or do you look outward and think about ways that you can do more to serve others? 

Are You Relying on Your Strength? / Adrian Rogers

Are You Relying on Your Strength?

Proverbs 4:23

Sermon: 1978 – The High Cost of Low Living

Pray Over This

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”

Proverbs 4:23

Ponder This

If you study the great saints of God, you find out they failed at their point of strength, not weakness. What was Simon Peter’s greatest strength? His courage. In Luke 22:33, he said, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.” He was the one who pulled out a sword and went after the man in the garden of Gethsemane. (See John 18:10.) Peter had physical courage and strength. You wouldn’t want to get in a fistfight with Peter. He was a big and tough fisherman. And yet where did he fail? At the point of his courage. Those who identified him as one of Jesus’ disciples prompted him to curse and deny the Lord Jesus Christ. (See Matthew 26:74-75.) We must be careful that it is not our own strength we rely on and boast in. Proverbs 4:23 reminds us we must guard our hearts with diligence. If we don’t, we’ll trust in the place where we will certainly fail.

• Where are you most tempted to rely on your own strength?
• When have you failed because you trusted in your own strength over God’s strength?

Practice This

Write out a list of your personal strengths. Take time to reflect on this list and thank God for the ways He has gifted you, then ask Him to help you guard your heart against trusting in yourself over Him. 

Celestial Communion / ODB

 

Celestial Communion Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. 1 Corinthians 11:26 READ 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 When Apollo 11’s Eagle lunar module landed on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969, the space travelers took time to recover from their flight before stepping onto the moon’s surface. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin had received permission to bring bread and wine so he could take Communion. After reading Scripture, he tasted the first foods ever consumed on the moon. Later, he wrote: “I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup.” As Aldrin enjoyed this celestial Communion, his actions proclaimed his belief in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and the guarantee of His second coming. The apostle Paul encourages us to remember how Jesus sat with His disciples “on the night he was betrayed” (1 Corinthians 11:23). Christ compared His soon-to-be sacrificed body to the bread (v. 24). He declared the wine as a symbol of “the new covenant” that secured our forgiveness and salvation through His blood shed on the cross (v. 25). Whenever and wherever we take Communion, we’re proclaiming our trust in the reality of Jesus’ sacrifice and our hope in His promised second coming (v. 26). No matter where we are, we can celebrate our faith in the one and only risen and returning Savior—Jesus Christ—with confidence.  By Xochitl Dixon What has kept you from prayerfully taking Communion in remembrance of Christ? How does it make you feel to know that a fellow believer took Communion to honor Jesus on the moon? Jesus, please help me live boldly for You until You come again!

SCRIPTURE INSIGHT Paul’s use of the words “on the night [Jesus] was betrayed” (1 Corinthians 11:23) underscores the serious nature of the matter he was addressing. It was Christ who implemented the first Communion (Lord’s Supper), and He did so on the Passover night before His crucifixion. Paul revisits the importance of this ordinance to correct a serious error in the church at Corinth. He led into this section by saying, “In the following directives I have no praise for you” (v. 17)—stern words to hear from an apostle of Jesus. The apostle pointed out how there were “divisions” among the people (v. 18). Some were eating too much while others went hungry, and some were even getting drunk. The apostle found such behavior appalling and warned of God’s judgment on those who were offending in this matter (vv. 27–32). He concluded by appealing for their renewed unity (v. 33). Tim Gustafson

Not Long or Loud / David Jeremiah

 

Not Long or Loud And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. . . . [or] use vain repetitions as the heathen do. Matthew 6:5   Elijah and the pagan prophets had a powerful encounter on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). The true deity—the God of Israel or Baal—would prove himself by sending fire to consume a sacrifice. The pagan prophets spent the entire day calling upon Baal, to no avail. They shouted, danced, and cut themselves, all for the purpose of getting their god’s attention—and he never responded.

Recommended Reading: Luke 18: 10 – 14

Pagan worshipers spent much of their time seeking to gain the attention of their deity in order to receive his favor and blessing. Some of this mentality had apparently worked its way into Jewish religious life. Jesus warned His audiences against praying like pagans: making a spectacle in public, babbling the same words over and over, trying to impress God and gain His favor (Matthew 6:5-7). Jesus said, “Do not be like them” (Matthew 6:8). Instead, pray to God as you would talk to a father: “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). We get God’s ear as His child when we come to Him in the Name of His Son, not because we pray long and loud prayers. All that needs to be spoken or written about prayer is in the Bible. E. F. Hallock

How to steer clear of the enemy’s trap / Senior Living

 How to steer clear of the enemy’s trap

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us… - Hebrews 12:1

Perhaps you’ve heard of the clever way African Bushmen used to trap monkeys for food. They’d use a box or some other container and put a hole in it just big enough for the monkey to stick in his hand. In the box was a banana to serve as bait for the unsuspecting monkey.

The monkey would stick his hand in the box to grab the banana, only to discover that the hole wasn’t big enough to pull the banana out. But instead of letting go, the monkey would pull and pull, hopelessly stuck, until the hunter would come and kill the monkey.

It can be easy, from our perspective, to wonder why the monkey wouldn’t simply let the banana go. But when it comes to sin, many people behave the same way. They hold on relentlessly to the bait of the enemy – the sin that entangles them – until it ultimately leads to their destruction.

Let go of the banana. Don’t let the sin in your life ensnare you and put you in danger. Release the things that drag you down and make you susceptible to Satan’s influence. Steer clear of sin and stay free from being entangled in the enemy’s trap!

Prayer Challenge

Pray and ask God to give you the strength to resist the enemy’s trap by steering clear of the sinful temptations in your life.

Questions for Thought

How have you seen yourself or others harmed in the past by falling into the trap of sin?

What are some of the traps the enemy has placed in your life today that are important for you to avoid?

On Our Behalf / Alistair Begg

 

On Our Behalf

Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. 

They have made for themselves gods of gold. 

But now, if you will forgive their sin—

but if not, please blot me out of your book 

that you have written.

Exodus 32:31-32

When the Israelites were redeemed from bondage, God instructed them to ask their former Egyptian landlords and owners for gold, silver, and clothes to take with them as they crossed over into the promised land. This would provide the material for the construction of the tabernacle-tent in which God would dwell among His people.

The Israelites hadn’t gone far when Moses was called up Mount Sinai to meet with God. When Moses was gone longer than expected, though, the people grew impatient and demanded of his brother, Aaron, “Make us gods who shall go before us” (Exodus 32:1). So Aaron told them to “take off the rings of gold … and bring them to me,” and he used that gold to make a golden calf: “and they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel’” (v 2, 4). God had provided them with all they needed for the work He would call them to, and instead they abused His gifts to chase after their own ambitions and to worship a false god of their own making. We might not make a golden calf, but we are not immune from doing the same thing with what God has graciously given us.

When Moses returned, he was dismayed at all he observed. Bowing low to the ground before God, he interceded on behalf of the people, essentially saying, You’re the God who has made a covenant with Your people. Please, keep Your covenant! Even though we’ve taken what You have provided for us and have wasted it in the construction of false gods, don’t leave us alone. Please don’t abandon the work of Your hands(Exodus 32:11-13). 

It is remarkable that Moses, who was entirely blameless, should so identify himself with the people. It is still more remarkable that he should be more willing to be blotted out of the Lord’s “book” of His people than he was to see the people cast off by God. 

In Moses’ intercession, we see glimpses of what ultimately would be fulfilled in the New Testament. God is never the author of unfinished business when it comes to His children. Christ intercedes on our behalf, and “all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20). In other words, God’s promises—that He will keep His people and complete the good work He has begun in them—are utterly fulfilled in Jesus Himself.

We are “prone to wander” and “prone to leave the God [we] love.”[1] We are those who use what God gives to pursue our idols. We need an intercessor—and we have one! The Lord Jesus was blotted out in order that we might be forgiven our sin. When we confess our sin to Jesus, we are coming to the one who has already intervened on our behalf. Let His remarkable love for you win your heart back from wandering after idols, and come back to using all you have to serve the God who gave you all you need. 

James 4:4-10

In the Cool of the Day / Spurgeon

 

In the Cool of the Day

. . . The sound of the Lord God 

walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

Genesis 3:8

My soul, now that the cool of the day has come, retire awhile and hearken to the voice of God. He is always ready to speak with you when you are prepared to hear. If there is any slowness to commune, it is not on His part, but altogether on yours, for He stands at the door and knocks, and if His people will but open, He rejoices to enter. But in what state is my heart, which is my Lord’s garden? May I venture to hope that it is well trimmed and watered and is bringing forth fruit fit for Him? If not, He will have much to reprove, but still I pray Him to come to me, for nothing can so certainly bring my heart into a right condition as the presence of the Sun of Righteousness, who brings healing in His wings.

Come, therefore, O Lord, my God, my soul invites You earnestly and waits for You eagerly. Come to me, O Jesus, my well-beloved, and plant fresh flowers in my garden, such as I see blooming in such perfection in Your matchless character! Come, O my Father, who is the Gardener, and deal with me in Your tenderness and prudence! Come, O Holy Spirit, and saturate my whole nature, as the herbs are now moistened with the evening dews. O that God would speak to me. Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears! O that He would walk with me; I am ready to give up my whole heart and mind to Him, and every other thought is hushed.

I am only asking what He delights to give. I am sure that He will condescend to have fellowship with me, for He has given me His Holy Spirit to abide with me forever. Sweet is the cool twilight, when every star seems like the eye of heaven and the cool wind is as the breath of celestial love. My Father, my elder Brother, my sweet Comforter, speak now in loving-kindness, for You have opened my ear and I am not rebellious.

A Spiritual Reboot / Greg Laurie

A Spiritual Reboot

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you” (Psalm 51:12 NLT).

Evangelist Billy Sunday said, “They tell me a revival is only temporary; so is a bath, but it does you good.”

Periodically, we need a spiritual reboot. Revival is like the spark that starts the engine. We need God to intervene, and we need to keep fuel on the fire.

Years ago, I was staying at a friend’s cabin, which had no central heating. That meant getting a fire started in the fireplace and then keeping wood on the fire. Everything was going great, except the fireplace was filling up with ash. And the metal bucket for disposing of the ashes was filling up to the top.

A while later, I was sure the embers in the bucket had cooled off. It had been a long time. So I took the bucket outside, where it was very cold and very dark. Then I threw out the ashes. Much to my surprise, a few embers fell out with the ashes. And before I knew it, little fires had started.

Thankfully, I somehow managed to put out all the flames before the fires spread.

In the same way, revival is the spark that starts the fire we keep feeding. Just as I needed to keep fuel on the fire to keep the cabin heated, we need to feed the fire of revival. And we start by refueling ourselves spiritually.

When we’re doing the things we always should be doing as Christians—reading the Bible, having a prayer life, being involved in our church, sharing our faith—it fuels the fire of revival and keeps that fire burning. But we when we neglect those things, we begin to fade.

If you want to see a revival, then do revival-like things. Don’t overly mystify it. Just do the things you know you should be doing as a follower of Jesus Christ.

 

The Battle for the Mind By Emma Danzey

 The Battle for the Mind

By Emma Danzey

2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

We Demolish Arguments and Every Pretension Against God
Have you ever had difficulties with your thought life? Have you faced the daily challenge of trying to do war with lies from the enemy? You are not alone. Scripture tells us to guard our hearts and our minds in Christ. This is because on a daily basis, our emotions and thoughts are under attack from sin and the enemy. We are told lies about God, ourselves and others. The very first sins at the Garden of Eden were influenced by the words of the enemy, causing them to doubt God. We struggle with pondering negativity and impurity. We wrestle with fears and anxieties. Our fallen minds can be susceptible to the power of darkness if we are not careful. We have to seek out the light of Christ.

I love how 2 Corinthians 10:5 uses the strong verb demolish. This is not a fluffy word. This is not an easy task, this is a full blown take down of spiritual warfare. It is kind of like the saying, “Don’t play with fire.” If we give the sinful thoughts any space in our heads, it is a danger. If we entertain anxious thoughts and create scenarios, it will lead to our own destruction. We can demolish arguments and every pretension or we can be demolished by them. We might appear to be the targets, but ultimately the attacks from the enemy are against God.

Take Captive Every Thought
On our own, we cannot achieve this. We need the Holy Spirit’s help to put on the full armor of God and protect our thought lives. We are weak, but Christ is strong and His power rests within the heart of every believer. Jesus died and rose on our behalf. He made a way to be reunited with the Father. The same power that rose Jesus from the grave is within all of His disciples. He is the One who enables us to take every thought captive. This is impossible on our own. When that hateful thought begins, the Spirit helps us nip it in the bud. When the fear sneaks up on us, we can talk back to it with Scripture. When our minds are tempted, we can cry out to the Lord and ask Him to help us think on things above. Taking thoughts captive means that we are active in our approach, we take our hearts and minds seriously and rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us into victory.

Make Every Thought Obedient to Christ 
Lastly, I love how this verse tells us to make every thought obedient to Christ. We do not just want to get rid of unhealthy and sinful thinking, we want to make it obedient to our Savior. We can bring Him our thoughts and ask Him to help us within the struggle. We can remember that although our minds are powerful, our God is much greater than any thought. This is where we see change in patterns. My mother-in-law recently shared some fun facts about what she learned about neurology. She told me that thoughts that are negative actually appear to look like a dying tree on a brain scan, but thoughts that are positive appear as a healthy, amazing tree. We have to make choices each day if we want our minds to focus on life or death; things of the Spirit, or things of the flesh. When we make our thoughts obedient to Jesus, we are laying down our sins and retraining our patterns of thought to think on the things that He desires for us. He is life and we can find great freedom in Him.

Intersecting Faith and Life:
What are some difficult thoughts in which you have been battling lately? How can you demolish the lies and sinful thinking? How can you begin to take your thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ daily? 

Further Reading:

• Isaiah 26:3
• Ephesians 6:10-11
• Philippians 4:7

Persistence, Part Two / Chuck Swindoll

Persistence, Part Two

by Pastor Chuck SwindollScriptures: Luke 11:5–8

Yesterday, we focused on Philippians 1:6, noting that God "who began a good work . . . will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." And, since we are to be "imitators of God" (Ephesians 5:1), it seems to me we oughta be about the business of persistence. It sure is easy to bail out theologically. You know, the age-old sovereignty cop-out. "If God wants such-and-such to happen, He's gonna have to do it all. I'm unable in myself." Now there may be a few occasions where that is an appropriate game plan; but by and large, His Spirit is willing, but our flesh is weak—dare I say lazy and indifferent? Unlike our Father, we tend to fade in the stretch.

May I get painfully personal? A proper, nutritional diet and a realistic program of exercise. Most folks I know have lost hundreds of pounds in their lifetime, only to put 'em on again. They all started well . . . but just about the time persistence was paying off, they quit. Believe me, I understand. That was the story of my life for about twenty years. But one day—one eventful, life-changing day—I stopped all the excuses (glands, stress, travel, reward for hard work, expensive wardrobe, not as heavy as a rhino, my wife Cynthia's good cooking, etc.) and began a sensible process of taking off and keeping off fifty-five unwanted and unhealthy pounds of fat.

People didn't help much. Can't remember the number of times they warned me about being too thin, that I shouldn't take such "risks." I was "looking ill." A rumor spread that I had cancer. Some thought I'd died. Would you believe that my wife got several sympathy cards expressing sorrow over my death? But I stayed at it. By the grace and power of Almighty God, I persisted.

All because of a simple, personal decision. Simple, yes . . . but easy? You gotta be kidding. Perhaps the single toughest decision of my adult life. Personal, yes . . . but automatic? It's still an everyday battle—no, three-times-a-day battle. And my relentless commitment to conditioning gets tougher every month, I openly confess. But with every mile I pound out in my sneakers, I cast another vote for persistence.

Enough about me—you've got the next season stretching out in front of you. Think of these weeks as a time framework for your own investment. Choose an objective carefully, state it clearly in writing, then, with the persistence of an athlete training for the next Olympiad, go for the goal!

Trust me; when this season gives way to the next, you'll be so glad you did. And by then, you'll have a new two-word motto:

Persistence pays. 

Daily Blessings / July 1

 Daily Blessings

“As the deer pants after the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, O God.” - Ps 42:1

What a striking figure has David made use of in these words. Conceive a wounded stag, with the arrow in his flank or pursued by a crowd of hunters and hounds, all eager to pull him down; conceive him to have run for some space of time under a burning sun and over heaps of sand; and conceive that at a distance this poor wounded or hunted animal sees water gently flowing along. Oh, how it pants! How its heaving sides gasp, and how it longs for the cooling stream, not only that it may drink large draughts of the fresh waters and lave its panting flanks and weary, parched limbs—but, by swimming across, may haply escape the dogs and hunters at its heels. How strong, how striking the figure.

And yet strong as it is, how earnestly does David employ it to set forth the panting of his soul after God. We cannot, perhaps, rise up into the fullness of this figure; we cannot, we dare not lay our feelings stretched fully out side by side with his, or use the same burning, vehement, ardent expressions. But we may at least see from them what the saints of God have experienced in times of temptation and trial in days of old; and we may in some measure compare the feelings of our soul with theirs—sometimes to fill us with shame and confusion at our short-comings, sometimes to stimulate and encourage us so far as we experience a degree of similar teachings; for these things are written for our instruction, “upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

Thus in various ways and to various ends we may, with God’s help and blessing, look at and into such expressions as we find in the words of David, and in the fear of God search our hearts to see if we can find anything there corresponding to the work of grace that the Holy Spirit describes as existing in his soul. Nor be utterly cast down nor wholly discouraged if you cannot find a full or close similarity. Can you find any? If so, take encouragement, for the Lord despises not the day of small things. It is his own work upon the heart and his own work alone to which he has regard, as David felt when he said, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me—your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; forsake not the works of your own hands” (Psalm 138:8). And that work will ever be a copy in full or in miniature, a complete or reduced photograph, of the work of grace described in the Scripture as carried on by the Spirit in the hearts of God’s saints of old.

Promises Fulfilled / Streams

 Promises Fulfilled

There shall be a performance - Luke 1:45

“My words shall be fulfilled in their season” (their fixed appointed time) (Greek, Luke 1:20).

There shall be a performance of those things  

That loving heart hath waited long to see;  

Those words shall be fulfilled to which she clings,  

Because her God hath promised faithfully;  

And, knowing Him, she ne’er can doubt His Word;  

“He speaks and it is done.” The mighty Lord!  

There shall be a performance of those things,  

O burdened heart, rest ever in His care;  

In quietness beneath His shadowing wings  

Await the answer to thy longing prayer.  

When thou hast “cast thy care,” the heart then sings,  

There shall be a performance of those things.  

There shall be a performance of those things,  

O tired heart, believe and wait and pray;  

At eventide the peaceful vesper rings,  

Though cloud and rain and storm have filled the day.  

Faith pierces through the mist of doubt that bars  

The coming night sometimes, and finds the stars.  

There shall be a performance of those things,  

O trusting heart, the Lord to thee hath told;  

Let Faith and Hope arise, and plume their wings,  

And soar towards the sunrise clouds of gold;  

The portals of the rosy dawn swing wide,  

Revealing joys the darkening night did hide.  

—Bessie Porter

Matthew Henry says: "We must depend upon the performance of the promise, when all the ways leading up to it are shut up. ’For all the promises of God in him are yea (yes), and in him Amen (so be it), unto the glory of God by us.’ (2 Cor. 1:20).

Joseph / Max Lucado

 

Joseph

Click below to listen to today's devotional

JOSEPH 

“…an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’” (Matthew 1:20 NIV).

You’ve stood where Joseph stood, caught between what God says and what makes sense. Each of us knows what it’s like to search the night for a light. Perhaps outside an emergency room, on the gravel of a roadside, on the manicured grass of a cemetery. We’ve questioned God’s plan.

Let me urge you to do what Joseph did—obey. Because Joseph obeyed, God used him to change the world. God still looks for Josephs today. Common people who serve an uncommon God. Will you be that kind of person? Will you serve…even when you don’t understand?

Bible in One Year: June 30

 Bible in One Year: Job 17-19; Acts 10:1-23