Jun 12, 2011
This video is all about appreciating God’s love for us as He died on the cross to save our souls and how we are lucky to have Him as our Creator, mentor and Savior.
“Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever” (Psalm 136:26).
No Go!
Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say. —Exodus 4:12 (niv)
More than 10,000 evangelists and Christian leaders sat in a giant auditorium in Amsterdam in 1986 listening to world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham. I sat among them, listening as he narrated some of his experiences. Then, to my surprise, he said, “Let me tell you: every time I stand before the congregation of God’s people to preach, I tremble and my knees wobble!”
What! I wondered. How can such a great preacher who has enthralled millions with his powerful sermons exhibit trembling and wobbling knees? Then he went on to describe not fear and stage fright, but intense humility and meekness as he felt inadequate for the daunting task to which God had called him. He relied on God for strength, not on his own eloquence.
Moses felt inadequate when God sent him to deliver the enslaved Israelites from their 400-year captivity in Egypt. Moses pleaded with the Lord to send someone else, with the excuse that he had never been a good speaker (see Ex. 4:10,13).
When God called Moses to deliver His people from Egyptian bondage, Moses was reluctant to obey, giving various reasons why he was not qualified. He questioned his own identity and worthiness (3:11), his lack of authority (3:13), his credibility and acceptability (4:1), and his incapacities (v.10). Although God answered each of Moses’s excuses, God was angry with Moses for resisting what He had asked him to do (v. 14).
We may have similar fears when God calls us to do something for Him. But His encouragement to Moses can also spur us on: “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (v.12 niv).
As Billy Graham said that day, “When God calls you, do not be afraid of trembling and wobbling knees, for He will be with you!”
What task does God have for you to do today? Depend on Him by asking for His help.
Wherever God sends us, He comes alongside us.
By Lawrence Darmani
—
Do You Worship The Work?
We are God’s fellow workers… —1 Corinthians 3:9
Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him. A great number of Christian workers worship their work. The only concern of Christian workers should be their concentration on God. This will mean that all the other boundaries of life, whether they are mental, moral, or spiritual limits, are completely free with the freedom God gives His child; that is, a worshiping child, not a wayward one. A worker who lacks this serious controlling emphasis of concentration on God is apt to become overly burdened by his work. He is a slave to his own limits, having no freedom of his body, mind, or spirit. Consequently, he becomes burned out and defeated. There is no freedom and no delight in life at all. His nerves, mind, and heart are so overwhelmed that God’s blessing cannot rest on him.
But the opposite case is equally true– once our concentration is on God, all the limits of our life are free and under the control and mastery of God alone. There is no longer any responsibility on you for the work. The only responsibility you have is to stay in living constant touch with God, and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your cooperation with Him. The freedom that comes after sanctification is the freedom of a child, and the things that used to hold your life down are gone. But be careful to remember that you have been freed for only one thing– to be absolutely devoted to your co-Worker.
We have no right to decide where we should be placed, or to have preconceived ideas as to what God is preparing us to do. God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
by Oswald Chambers
Luke 22:31-34
Peter was a man of great faith and bold action. But as readers of the New Testament know, his brash style sometimes led him to make humiliating mistakes. More than once, this disciple had to wear the label of “miserable failure” rather than that of “obedient servant.”
We can all relate when it comes to falling short of expectations. Obedience to God is a process—something we learn. And failure is a part of our development as humble servants. When we yield to temptation or rebel against God’s authority, we realize that sin has few rewards, and even those are fleeting.
Failure is an excellent learning tool, as Peter could certainly attest. Through trial and error, he discovered that one should never take his eyes off Jesus (Matthew 14:30); God’s plan must always have priority over man’s (Matthew 16:21-23; John 18:10-11); and humility is required of believers (Luke 13:5-14). He took each of those lessons to heart and thereby grew stronger in his faith. Isn’t that Romans 8:28 in action? God caused Peter’s failures to be put to good use as training material because the disciple was eager to mature and serve.
God doesn’t reward rebellion or wrongdoing. However, by His grace, He blesses those who choose repentance and embrace chastisement as a tool for growth.
We would all prefer to grow in our faith without ever making a mistake, but we cannot deny that missteps are instructive. Failure teaches us that it is much wiser to be obedient to the Lord. That’s a lesson we all should take to heart.
And the sons of Neariah; Elioenai, and Hezekiah, and Azrikam, three.” (1 Chronicles 3:23)
Elioenai’s name is in a long list of names in the book of Chronicles. In fact, it is significant that the Bible contains the proper names of more individuals than can be found in all the other books of antiquity put together—strong evidence of its historical authenticity. These were real names of real people, and each would, no doubt, have a fascinating story to tell if he could. The ancient Israelites were very conscious of their divine calling as God’s chosen people; family relationships and genealogical records were highly valued.
Godly parents were very conscious that “children are an heritage of the LORD” (Psalm 127:3) and commonly gave each of them a name with some special spiritual meaning. Neariah, whose name meant “servant of the LORD,” was a distant descendant of David, and his firstborn son was Elioenai. This was a testimony of parental faith, for it means “turning your eyes to the mighty God.”
Very little else is known about Elioenai (except the names of his two brothers and seven sons), but the lengthy genealogies break off in the generation of his sons, indicating probably that his parents were in the generation taken captive to Babylon. It is fascinating to wonder why they gave Elioenai his name and to imagine how it may have influenced the life and spiritual growth of Elioenai himself.
In any case, it is a beautiful and meaningful name, and we can hope that his character developed accordingly. For, if so, believers will be able to meet him in heaven someday.
His name still bears an urgent message to us today: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus; turn to the mighty God, your Creator and Savior!” We should also remember the example of the godly parents in ancient times, in giving our children names that will inspire them and be a testimony to others. HMM
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. —John 15:7
Prayer at its best is the expression of the total life….
All things else being equal, our prayers are only as powerful as our lives. In the long pull we pray only as well as we live….
Most of us in moments of stress have wished that we had lived so that prayer would not be so unnatural to us and have regretted that we had not cultivated prayer to the point where it would be as easy and as natural as breathing….
Undoubtedly the redemption in Christ Jesus has sufficient moral power to enable us to live in a state of purity and love where our whole life will be a prayer. Individual acts of prayer that spring out of that kind of total living will have about them a wondrous power not known to the careless or the worldly Christian.
Lord, the real key here is that there is “sufficient moral power” available. In my own strength I fail, but thank You for Your enabling power. Amen.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13
The work of God is not finished in the heart and life of the new believer when the first act of inward adjustment has given him a sense of cleansing and forgiveness, peace and rest for the first time in his life!
The Spirit would go on from there to bring the total life into harmony with that blissful “center.” This is wrought in the believer by the Word and by prayer and discipline and suffering.
It could be done by a short course in things spiritual if we were more pliable, less self-willed and stubborn; but it usually takes some time before we learn the hard lessons of faith and obedience sufficiently well to permit the work to be done within us with anything near to perfection.
In bringing many sons unto glory God works with whatever He has in whatever way He can and by whatever means He can, respecting always His own gift to us, the freedom of our wills. But of all means He uses, the Bible is the best.
The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection, and we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Any tinkering with the truth, any liberties taken with the Scriptures, and we throw ourselves out of symmetry and invite stiff discipline and severe chastisement from that loving Father who wills for us nothing less than full restoration to the image of God in Christ!
But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings. 1 PETER 4:13
The Apostle Peter stated a great Christian truth in the form of an amazing paradox: The obedient Christian believer will continue to rejoice and praise God even in the midst of continuing trials and suffering in this earthly life!
God’s people know that things here on this earth are not all they ought to be, but they refuse to join the worry brigade. They are too busy rejoicing in the gracious prospect of all that will take place when God fulfills His promises to His redeemed children.
This ability to rejoice is demonstrated throughout the Bible, and in the New Testament it rings forth like a silver bell!
The life of the normal believing child of God can never become a life of gloom and pessimism, for it is the Holy Spirit of God who keeps us above the kind of gloomy resignation that marks the secularism of the day.
We are still able to love the unlovely and to weep with those who weep, for in Peter’s words, “When Christ’s glory shall be revealed, you may be glad with exceeding joy!” (see 1 Peter 4:13).
Lord, thank You for helping me not just to cope but to rise above the difficult situations that face me at work, at home, and at church.
