Day: February 5, 2016

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One Light at a Time

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Ephesians 5:8

Imagine walking into a pitch-dark room—no windows, no lamps, no shadows, no light of any kind. You light a single candle and hold it over your head. When your eyes adjust, you can see a bit of what’s in the room. Now imagine that same room with five people with candles—the overall light is brighter. Then imagine ten people with candles, then twenty-five, then fifty. At some point the darkness is overcome by the light.

Think of that room as this spiritually dark world (Colossians 1:13). Being born into this world is like walking into that dark room. Your candle is lit when you receive and believe the Gospel. Even a tiny bit of light dispels some of the darkness. Then you share the Gospel—the candles of others are lit—and more and more darkness is driven out. Every time the Gospel is shared, Satan’s kingdom of darkness is threatened. When the Gospel is embraced, Satan’s influence and dominion (1 John 5:19) is weakened.

Paul wrote that we were once darkness but are now light “in the Lord.” Our responsibility is to invade Satan’s kingdom with the light of the glory of God in Christ.

In the last analysis there is only one means of evangelism: namely, the gospel of Christ explained and applied. J. I. Packer

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The Effectiveness Of God’s Way

Exodus 3:1-22

Yesterday we observed how ineffective Moses’ self-reliant actions were. Today we will see what God can do in the life of someone who is fully submitted to Him. If we let Moses’ example teach us about the dangers of self-sufficiency and the advantages of depending on the Lord, we’ll save ourselves a lot of hardship.

When we submit to God’s way, He’ll do amazing things in and through our life. Despite past failures, Moses was still used in accomplishing the divine plan, but only after he became usable—that is, humbled and broken of his self-will. Just consider what God achieved when Moses relinquished control.

-He showed He could do great things through a yielded person.
-He got more done in less time and with fewer resources. There was no insurrection or lengthy war—just a dramatic display of His power.
-He proved the superiority of His way by freeing over two million people without the loss of a single Hebrew life.
-He sent slaves out of bondage with their captors’ riches (Ex. 3:21-22).
-He proved to both the Israelites and the Egyptians that He alone is the God of heaven and earth.
-He received all the glory.

Our past failures never prevent God’s willingness or ability to use us. In fact, our weakness is a great opportunity for the display of His power. In our own strength, we are totally ineffective. But when we submit to the Lord’s authority in our life, we can experience His victory in whatever He calls us to do.

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Prophecy

“I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.” (Deuteronomy 18:18)

Two types of prophecy must be distinguished. When a prophet foretells or predicts, he represents the future in light of the present. But frequently the prophetic message consisted of rebuking, reproving, counseling, or admonishing, i.e., forth-telling, rather than foretelling. As such, he portrays the present in light of the future.

It is the predictive type of prophecy that provides such a strong argument for rational faith. Neither human intuition about the future nor limited Satanic control of the future can account for the hundreds of specific biblical prophecies that have been literally and specifically fulfilled. These could only come by divine revelation from the One who both knows and controls the future.

Actually, predictive prophecy provides a double defense: Not only does it prove the divine origin, inspiration, and authority of Scripture, but since over half of the prophecies converge on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, it advocates His deity and Messiahship. One could hardly read Isaiah 52:13–53:12 or Psalm 22 without recognizing that these are prophetic portraits of Christ on the cross. Others, equally specific, deal with other aspects of His life and ministry.

Still others predict the coming Kingdom to be set up by Christ, in which we as believers will have a part. Having seen so many prophecies literally fulfilled, we can have complete confidence that these others will come to pass as well. “We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). JDM

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A Sense of the Present God

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. —Acts 16:25

Wherever faith has been original, wherever it has proved itself to be real, it has invariably had upon it a sense of the present God. The holy Scriptures possess in marked degree this feeling of actual encounter with a real Person. The men and women of the Bible talked with God. They spoke to Him and heard Him speak in words they could understand. With Him they held person-to-person interaction, and a sense of shining reality is upon their words and deeds….

It was this that filled with abiding wonder the first members of the Church of Christ. The solemn delight which those early disciples knew sprang straight from the conviction that there was One in the midst of them. They knew that the Majesty in the heavens was confronting them on earth: They were in the very Presence of God. And the power of that conviction to arrest attention and hold it for a lifetime, to elevate, to transform, to fill with uncontrollable moral happiness, to send men singing to prison and to death, has been one of the wonders of history and a marvel of the world.

Lord, may I respond like Paul and Silas to whatever I will face today, knowing that Your Presence is always with me. Amen.

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Jesus Did Say He Was God

But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. (Hebrews 1:8)

The more we study the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when He lived on earth among us, the more certain we are about who He is.

Some critics have scoffed: “Jesus did not claim to be God. He only said He was the Son of Man.”

It is true that Jesus used the term, “Son of Man” frequently. But He testified boldly, even among those who were His sworn enemies, that He was God. He said with great forcefulness that He had come from the Father in heaven and that He was equal with the Father.

Bible-believing Christians stand together on this. They may differ about the mode of baptism, church polity or the return of the Lord. But they agree on the deity of the eternal Son. Jesus Christ is of one substance with the Father—begotten, not created (Nicene Creed). In our defense of this truth we must be very careful and old— belligerent, if need be!

Christ is the brightness of God’s glory, and the express image of God’s Person!

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If we had the blessings without asking for them

If we had the blessings without asking for them, we should think them common things; but prayer makes the common pebbles of God’s temporal bounties more precious than diamonds; and spiritual prayer cuts the diamond, and makes it glisten more. When thou art wrestling, like Jacob with the angel, and are nearly thrown down, ask the Holy Spirit to nerve thine arm. Consider how the Holy Spirit is the chariot-wheel of prayer. Prayer may be the chariot, the desire may draw it forth, but the Spirit is the very wheel whereby it moveth.