Nov 18, 2013
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the death of beloved writer C.S. Lewis. “C.S. Lewis and Intelligent Design” is the third of three short documentaries inspired by the book The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society. Lewis is best known for his magical stories about Narnia, but a new documentary explores his life-long struggle to find intelligent design in a world filled with pain.
For more information visit http://www.cslewisweb.com.
Help from the Outside
God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 1 John 3:20
On a business trip, my husband had just settled into his hotel room when he heard an unusual noise. He stepped into the hall to investigate and heard someone yelling from a nearby room. With the help of a hotel worker, he discovered that a man had become trapped in the bathroom. The lock on the bathroom door had malfunctioned and the man trapped inside started to panic. He felt like he couldn’t breathe and began yelling for help.
Sometimes in life we feel trapped. We are banging on the door, pulling on the handle, but we can’t get free. We need help from the outside, just like the man in the hotel.
To get that outside assistance, we have to admit that we are helpless on our own. Sometimes we look inward for the answers to our problems, yet the Bible says “the heart is deceitful” (Jer. 17:9). In truth, we are often the source of our problems in life.
Thankfully, “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20). Because of this, He knows exactly how to help us. Lasting heart-level change and real progress with our problems originate with God. Trusting Him and living to please Him means we can flourish and be truly free.
Heavenly Father, I humble myself before You. I can’t solve my problems on my own. Please help me to seek Your help and perspective.
God helps those who know they are helpless.
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
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The Consecration of Spiritual Power
…by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. —Galatians 6:14
If I dwell on the Cross of Christ, I do not simply become inwardly devout and solely interested in my own holiness— I become strongly focused on Jesus Christ’s interests. Our Lord was not a recluse nor a fanatical holy man practicing self-denial. He did not physically cut Himself off from society, but He was inwardly disconnected all the time. He was not aloof, but He lived in another world. In fact, He was so much in the common everyday world that the religious people of His day accused Him of being a glutton and a drunkard. Yet our Lord never allowed anything to interfere with His consecration of spiritual power.
It is not genuine consecration to think that we can refuse to be used of God now in order to store up our spiritual power for later use. That is a hopeless mistake. The Spirit of God has set a great many people free from their sin, yet they are experiencing no fullness in their lives— no true sense of freedom. The kind of religious life we see around the world today is entirely different from the vigorous holiness of the life of Jesus Christ. “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). We are to be in the world but not of it— to be separated internally, not externally (see John 17:16).
We must never allow anything to interfere with the consecration of our spiritual power. Consecration (being dedicated to God’s service) is our part; sanctification (being set apart from sin and being made holy) is God’s part. We must make a deliberate determination to be interested only in what God is interested. The way to make that determination, when faced with a perplexing problem, is to ask yourself, “Is this the kind of thing in which Jesus Christ is interested, or is it something in which the spirit that is diametrically opposed to Jesus is interested?”
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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. Conformed to His Image, 381 L
OSWALD CHAMBERS
Ephesians 1:1-8
What would it take for you to consider yourself rich? Would it require a healthy bank account? A fancy new car in the garage? The freedom to go online, click a few buttons, and have anything you want delivered right to your door?
You may not be so bold as to answer yes to the above questions, but does your life reflect this kind of attitude? Sadly, many believers are completely overtaken by the world’s standard of riches and define wealth by how much they possess.
This happens whether one is wealthy or not. For the well-off, the temptation is to see money as the defining characteristic of their lives; for the poor, money becomes the be-all-end-all goal of comfort and satisfaction. You see, greed is no respecter of persons. It attacks rich and poor alike.
What many believers fail to realize is that in Jesus Christ we are all rich. Sure, you may have a mortgage or rent due each month, a car payment, and credit card bills; however, if you have placed your faith in Jesus, you can boldly acknowledge that almighty God has already poured His richest blessings upon you. Hallelujah!
Ephesians 1:3 says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Did you notice the tense of the verb there? The past tense—“has blessed”—is used, meaning it’s already happened. And He does not give just a little bit here and there; rather, He lavishly pours out His blessings on us.
Look beyond your finances today, and prayerfully list all of the blessings in your life. Tomorrow, we will take a closer look at some of God’s choicest gifts.
“Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” (1 Peter 4:19)
This is the only verse in the New Testament describing the Creator as faithful. God had a very specific purpose in creating the universe and especially man, and He will surely accomplish that great purpose.
The Scriptures repeatedly stress God’s faithfulness. With respect to the physical universe, “for ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth” (Psalm 119:89-90). As far as His promises to His people are concerned, “know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9).
The faithful Creator is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, and He rebukes the compromising church of the last days with these majestic words: “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God” (Revelation 3:14). Although many professing believers will prove unfaithful to Him, “yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).
The triumphant book of Revelation comes directly “from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness” (Revelation 1:5); and when He finally returns to earth in power and glory, His very name shall be “called Faithful and True” (Revelation 19:11). He is both Alpha and Omega, and thus all His “words are true and faithful” (Revelation 21:5). Our salvation is sure, therefore, because “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24). HMM
And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he
prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. —Genesis 32:24-25
The enemy never quite knows how to deal with a humble man; he is so used to dealing with proud, stubborn people that a meek man upsets his timetable. And furthermore, the man of true humility has God fighting on his side—who can win against God?
Strange as it may seem, we often win over our enemies only after we have first been soundly defeated by the Lord Himself. God often conquers our enemies by conquering us…. When God foresees that we must meet a deadly opponent, he assures our victory by bringing us down in humbleness at His own feet. After that, everything is easy. We have put ourselves in a position where God can fight for us, and in a situation like that, the outcome is decided from eternity.
Lord, help me to submit willingly to You, in complete humility, without struggle or wrestling. Then You fight for me against my strong enemy. I’ll rest—and revel—in Your victory. Amen.
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. Galatians 6:1
It is quite natural, and even spiritual, to feel sorrow and heaviness when we see the professed followers of Christ walking in the ways of the world. Our first impulse may be to go straight to them and upbraid them indignantly, but such methods are seldom successful. The heat in our spirit may not be from the Holy Spirit, and if it is not then it can very well do more harm than good.
Satan has achieved a real victory when he succeeds in getting us to react in an unspiritual way toward sins and failures in our brethren. We cannot fight sin with sin or draw men to God by frowning at them in fleshly anger, “for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”
Often acts done in a spirit of religious irritation have consequences far beyond anything we could have guessed. Moses allowed himself to become vexed with Israel and in a fit of pique smote the rock. With the same stroke he closed the land of promise against him for the rest of his life.
It is not an easy task to stand for God as we should in our generation and yet maintain a spirit of kindliness toward the very ones we are sent to reprove—but it is not impossible! In this as in everything else, Christ is our perfect example and He can do the impossible if we but yield and obey. He will surely show us how to oppose with kindness and reprove with charity and the power of the Holy Spirit within will enable us to follow His blessed example!
That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ROMANS 15:6
It may be difficult for the average Christian to get hold of the idea that his daily labors can be performed as acts of worship acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
We must practice living to the glory of God actually and determinedly. By one act of consecration of our total selves to God, we can make every subsequent act express that consecration. By meditation upon this truth, by talking it over with God often in our prayers, by recalling it to our minds frequently as we move about among men, a sense of its wondrous meaning will begin to take hold of us.
The New Testament accepts as a matter of course that in His incarnation, our Lord took upon Him a real human body. He lived in that body here among men and never once performed a nonsacred act!
Brethren, we must offer all our acts to God and believe that He accepts them. We should then keep reminding God in our times of private prayer that we mean every act for His glory. We thus meet the temptations and trials by the exercise of an aggressive faith in the sufficiency of Christ!
Lord, as I face various temptations and trials this week, I pray that Your Spirit will help me “exercise aggressive faith in the sufficiency of Christ.”
