VIDEO Timely Scriptures

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!  Psalm 107:31

 

The Pilgrims had a rough voyage aboard the Mayflower, but they read their Bible every day. Just when things seemed hopeless, they came upon Psalm 107:23-30: “Those who go down to the sea in ships…. Are at their wits’ end. Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm…. Then they are glad…. So He guides them to their desired haven.”

We have many storms in life; but when we’re reading our Bible every day, the Lord has Scripture for us. The truth of God’s Word offers hope for each day.

Sometimes it’s helpful to have a Bible with wide margins so we can jot down the date and occasion when a particular verse speaks to us. There’s never a day when Scripture is silent, and we’ll never have a problem for which there isn’t a verse to help. Reading devotional books is good, but remember—it’s only a supplement to the actual reading of God’s Word.

The Lord has a verse for you today. Don’t miss it!

Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.  Ronald Reagan

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Giving Thanks, Psalm 107 – Pastor Chuck Smith – Topical Bible Study

Be Free Indeed

If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  John 8:36

The film Amistad tells the story of West African slaves in 1839 taking over the boat that was transporting them and killing the captain and some of the crew. Eventually they were recaptured, imprisoned, and taken to trial. An unforgettable courtroom scene features Cinqué, leader of the slaves, passionately pleading for freedom. Three simple words—repeated with increasing force by a shackled man with broken English—eventually silenced the courtroom, “Give us free!” Justice was served and the men were freed.

Most people today aren’t in danger of being physically bound, yet true liberation from the spiritual bondage of sin remains elusive. The words of Jesus in John 8:36 offer sweet relief: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus pointed to Himself as the source of true emancipation because He offers forgiveness to anyone who believes in Him. Though some in Christ’s audience claimed freedom (v. 33), their words, attitudes, and actions regarding Jesus betrayed their claim.

Jesus longs to hear those who would echo Cinqué’s plea and say, “Give me freedom!” With compassion He awaits the cries of those who are shackled by unbelief or fear or failure. Freedom is a matter of the heart. Such liberty is reserved for those who believe that Jesus is God’s Son who was sent into the world to break the power of sin’s hold on us through His death and resurrection.

By:  Arthur Jackson

Reflect & Pray

How has Jesus set you free? What can you share with others about God’s liberating power?

Jesus, help me to believe that You can set me free.

Expanding the Horizons

Acts 1:1-8

The horizon is the farthest point of land or water that a person can see, where earth and sky meet. Yet the universe extends far beyond what the eye can behold. Similarly, the church’s vision can be limited. God said to bring the gospel to every nation, but we often confine our outreach to what we think is manageable.

Sometimes what holds us back from fulfilling God’s command is our limited experiences and understanding. We may act according to logic, but God calls us to obey in faith. For example, rational thought might lead people to avoid missions in a foreign country because it isn’t safe. Or perhaps there’s a language barrier. But Jesus said, “The things that are impossible with people are possible with God” (Luke 18:27). He is fully aware of our human limitations, so He provides guidance, wisdom, and strength to accomplish His will.

The church is to share the gospel, and God will call individuals to fulfill this commission in different ways. We’re all to participate through prayer and giving, and some are also called to action. Pray for direction and wisdom in communicating the good news of salvation to the world. The Holy Spirit will lead and empower you.

Thank You for Everything

“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 5:20)

Being thankful for everything that happens in his or her life to a Christian believer is listed in this section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians as one of the evidences that a Christian is indeed “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).

That is not all. Not only for everything, but in everything we should give thanks to God. “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). These two commands are easy to obey when the living is easy, as the song says, though we might easily forget to do so. But when the Lord is allowing us to hurt for a while, thanksgiving becomes hard. It is hard while we are experiencing the difficulty and just as hard when it has passed with no relief in sight. The two small prepositions “in” and “for” are different in New Testament Greek as well as in modern English, and God really wants us to learn how to thank Him both during and after the hard experience.

Because He has allowed it for a good purpose! The apostle James urges us to “count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations” (that is, “various testings”); “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:3-4). Paul says that we can even “glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:3-5). Patience and real love will come to characterize a habitually thankful Christian. HMM

Don’t Let Me Live Wrongly

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

—Philippians 1:6

 

For years I have made a practice of writing many of my earnest prayers to God in a little book—a book now well worn. I still turn often to the petitions I recorded in that book. I remind God often of what my prayers have been.One prayer in the book—and God knows it well by this time, for I pray it often—goes like this:

Oh God, Let me die rather than to go on day by day living wrong…. I want to be right so that I can die right. Lord, I do not want my life to be extended if it would mean that I should cease to live right and fail in my mission to glorify You all of my days!…

As you will recall from Second Kings 20, the Lord gave Hezekiah a fifteen-year extension of life. Restored to health and vigor, Hezekiah disgraced himself and dishonored God before he died and was buried.

I would not want an extra fifteen years in which to backslide and dishonor my Lord. I would rather go home right now than to live on—if living on was to be a waste of God’s time and my own!   JIV141-142

Please, Father, help me to finish well. Amen.

 

In Spirit and in Truth

Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.

—John 9:31

 

We need to double our efforts to tell the world that God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

It must be by the Holy Spirit and truth. We cannot worship in the spirit alone, for the spirit without truth is helpless.

We cannot worship in truth alone, for that would be theology without fire.

Worship must be in spirit and in truth!

It must be the truth of God and the Spirit of God. When a person, yielding to God and believing the truth of God, is filled with the Spirit of God, even his faintest whisper will be worship. WHT045-046

I can offer no worship wholly pleasing to God if I know that I am harboring elements in my life that are displeasing to Him. I cannot truly and joyfully worship God on Sunday and not worship Him on Monday….I repeat my view of worship—no worship is wholly pleasing to God until there is nothing in me displeasing to God. WHT124-125

 

Hedges

2 Corinthians 5:15

 

I saw it so clearly, Lord,

Through the words of one of your servants.

 

I have built hedges around my life

without realizing it.

Higher and higher they have grown

without my knowledge.

 

These hedges have shut others out and myself in.

It was comfortable, so comfortable and cozy.

Less demanded of me,

less expected of me, only myself to consider.

 

I have hedged about my time. My time!

Did I create time to be my own?

Have I sovereign right to twenty-four hours a day?

Is not each hour a token of Your grace?

 

I have hedged about my leisure,

My free time is my own, I have said,

and I have miserly gloated over it,

resenting any encroachment upon it.

 

I have hedged about my love.

These, and these only, I care for,

my nearest, my dearest, my friends,

all precious because they are mine.

 

Forgive me, Lord. Forgive my selfish living,

my disregard of others.

Help me to tear down the high hedges I have built

and in their place to plant an open garden.

Then I can look out

and others can look in

and we shall be drawn nearer to one another.

Flora Larsson, Just A Moment, Lord

 

VIDEO The Future – How to Seek the Holy Spirit

Therefore comfort one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:18

Peter Drucker said, “Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.”

But wait!

We know “that in the last days perilous times will come” (2 Timothy 3:1), and there will be “wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6). Just as the world reaches a crisis point, Jesus will come to rapture His people (1 Thessalonians 4:16). A man of evil will arise who will exalt “himself above all that is called God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4). He will establish a treaty with Israel, but after three and a half years he will break it (Daniel 9:27). He will then set up his image in the rebuilt Jewish temple, which will spark the Great Tribulation. Just when the Antichrist seems about to destroy Israel, Jesus will return (Zechariah 14:4). Christ will reign on earth a thousand years (Revelation 20:4). Then God will welcome His children into the new heaven and the new earth, and the eternal city (Revelation 21:1-2). “Thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

Who says you can’t know the future?

Prophecy is important to God, and He desires for us to understand His plans. David Jeremiah

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How to Seek the Holy Spirit – John Piper

Right Beside You

The Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him. Deuteronomy 4:7

Each day at a post office in Jerusalem, workers sort through piles of undeliverable letters in an attempt to guide each to its recipient. Many end up in a specially marked box labeled “Letters to God.”

About a thousand such letters reach Jerusalem each year, addressed simply to God or Jesus. Puzzled by what to do with them, one worker began taking the letters to Jerusalem’s Western Wall to have them placed between its stone blocks with other written prayers. Most of the letters ask for a job, a spouse, or good health. Some request forgiveness, others just offer thanks. One man asked God if his deceased wife could appear in his dreams because he longed to see her again. Each sender believed God would listen, if only He could be reached.

The Israelites learned much as they journeyed through the wilderness. One lesson was that their God wasn’t like the other gods known at the time—distant, deaf, geographically bound, reached only by lengthy pilgrimage or international mail. No, “the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him” (Deuteronomy 4:7). What other people could claim that? This was revolutionary news!

God doesn’t live in Jerusalem. He’s close by us, wherever we are. Some still need to discover this radical truth. If only each of those letters could be sent the reply: God is right beside you. Just talk to Him.

By:  Sheridan Voysey

Reflect & Pray

God’s accessibility to us is a profound gift. How can you avoid taking it for granted? Who in your life needs to know of God’s readiness to hear their prayer?

God, You are bigger than the universe yet closer than a breath. Thank You for being so interested in us, attending to every prayer.

Where the Battles Are Won

Matthew 26:36-56

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus wrestled with the knowledge that He would die on the cross, bearing the weight of our sin and being spiritually separated from the Father.

Jesus got alone before the Father and cried out. And when He left that garden, He walked out with calm resolve. Jesus would still drink the cup of suffering and separation, but He knew that in the end, He would triumph (Heb. 12:2). That’s why He could face the cross, the beatings, and the humiliation. When Jesus went to confront the arresting party, He was ready—so much so that the Pharisees and soldiers “drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:6). He allowed them to arrest Him, determined to do His Father’s will.

We, too, can come to know God’s heart and mind when we’re in the habit of regularly spending time alone with Him. Then as difficult decisions come, we’ll be better prepared to discern His will.

When we fully surrender to the Father’s plan, we put our decision-making into the hands of an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God, who holds the past, present, and future. Even in staggering trials, you can move forward with courage and power that will glorify Him.