VIDEO Have You Come to “When” Yet?

The Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. —Job 42:10

A pitiful, sickly, and self-centered kind of prayer and a determined effort and selfish desire to be right with God are never found in the New Testament. The fact that I am trying to be right with God is actually a sign that I am rebelling against the atonement by the Cross of Christ. I pray, “Lord, I will purify my heart if You will answer my prayer— I will walk rightly before You if You will help me.” But I cannot make myself right with God; I cannot make my life perfect. I can only be right with God if I accept the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to surrender all my rights and demands, and cease from every self-effort. I must leave myself completely alone in His hands, and then I can begin to pour my life out in the priestly work of intercession. There is a great deal of prayer that comes from actual disbelief in the atonement. Jesus is not just beginning to save us— He has already saved us completely. It is an accomplished fact, and it is an insult to Him for us to ask Him to do what He has already done.

If you are not now receiving the “hundredfold” which Jesus promised (see Matthew 19:29), and not getting insight into God’s Word, then start praying for your friends— enter into the ministry of the inner life. “The Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends.” As a saved soul, the real business of your life is intercessory prayer. Whatever circumstances God may place you in, always pray immediately that His atonement may be recognized and as fully understood in the lives of others as it has been in yours. Pray for your friends now, and pray for those with whom you come in contact now.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand.  Not Knowing Whither, 888 L

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Church At Home | Daily Devotionals | Job 42:10

Spending Time with God

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16

A River Runs Through It is Norman Maclean’s masterful story of two boys growing up in western Montana with their father, a Presbyterian minister. On Sunday mornings, Norman and his brother, Paul, went to church where they heard their father preach. Once Sunday evening rolled around, there was another service and their father would preach again. But between those two services, they were free to walk the hills and streams with him “while he unwound between services.” It was an intentional withdrawing on their father’s part to “restore his soul and be filled again to overflowing for the evening sermon.”

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus is seen teaching multitudes on hillsides and cities, and healing the sick and diseased who were brought to Him. All this interaction was in line with the Son of Man’s mission “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). But it’s also noted that He “often withdrew to lonely places” (5:16). His time there was spent communing with the Father, being renewed and restored to step back once more into His mission.

In our faithful efforts to serve, it’s good for us to remember that Jesus often withdrew. If this practice was important for Jesus, how much more so for us? May we regularly spend time with our Father, who can fill us again to overflowing.

By:  John Blase

Reflect & Pray

What comes to mind when you think of a “lonely” place? When and where can you withdraw to simply spend time with the Father?

Thank You for the reminder, Father, of my need for time spent with You. I need Your grace and strength to renew my often-weary soul.

To learn more about spending time with God in prayer, visit ChristianUniversity.org/SF120.

Sunday Reflection: Trading Worry for Peace

To get the most out of this devotion, set aside time to read the Scripture referenced throughout.

Jesus’ values are nothing like the world’s, so grasping who we are as God’s children can be hard (Rom. 8:16-17). Since the culture’s way of thinking is powerful and at times intoxicating, it’s easy to lose our way while pursuing the abundant life God promises. If that happens, the freedom we expected to experience in Christ can feel weighed down by sinful behaviors and thought patterns—not least of which is worry.

Anxiety comes readily when things go awry, and we think the responsible course of action is to take matters into our own hands, strategizing for every negative possibility. That might seem like the path to peace, but it will never liberate us from our fears. Eventually, we’ll realize we can’t do it on our own.

Jesus sets His followers free from worry (Matt. 6:25-34). But we must continually submit ourselves to His care. Then we can rest assured, knowing that no matter what our circumstances are, He’ll always come through for us—perhaps not in the manner we expect, but in ways that help us grow closer to Him, the only true source of peace.  

Think about it
• What do you gain from worrying about circumstances? What do you lose?

The Peace of Thy Children

“And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” (Isaiah 54:13)

This prophetic verse has its primary fulfillment still in the future. Nevertheless, it states a basic principle that is always valid and that is especially relevant on Father’s Day. The greatest honor that children can bestow on a father is a solid Christian character of their own, but that must first be his own gift to them. Before sons and daughters can experience real peace of soul, they must first be taught of the Lord themselves, and the heavenly Father has delegated this responsibility first of all to human fathers.

The classic example is Abraham, “the father of all them that believe” (Romans 4:11). God’s testimony concerning Abraham was this: “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment” (Genesis 18:19). This is the first reference in Scripture to the training of children, and it is significant that it stresses paternal instruction in the things of God. Furthermore, the instruction should be diligent and continual: “When thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deuteronomy 6:7).

The classic New Testament teaching on child training has the same message: “Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

Not wrath, but peace, as our text suggests. Great shall be the peace of our children when they know the Lord and keep His ways. Great, also, is the joy of a godly father when he can see the blessing of the Lord on his children and then on his grandchildren. “Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers” (Proverbs 17:6). HMM

“One Thing Thou Lackest”

Mark 10:13-22

THERE is no more touching scene in all the life of our Lord than His blessing the little children (Matt. 19:13-15; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17). Let it never be forgotten that the true Christian is childlike. We often think that the walk of faith is a profound matter that only a few can learn, when really it is a simple matter that few ever reach because they will not unlearn—get down to its simplicity. To be converted and become as little children was our Lord’s way of stating it (Matt. 18:3), but that does not appeal to our vanity and pride, so very few ever meet those plain terms.

The incident of the rich young ruler (Matt. 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23) sets forth a model young man who still lacks something and knows it, but does not meet the demand of Christ. How Jesus always put His finger on the weak spot in every life! Here the trouble was in the young man’s great possessions—so that must be removed. He would not be saved by giving up his possessions, but his possessions were the hindrance that must be cleared before he could ever be a disciple.

Some do not like negative preaching today, and they tell us we should never emphasize giving up—but here our Lord certainly did, as in many other cases.

There is irony in the statement that the young man went away grieved because “he had great possessions.” As a matter of fact, he had nothing and had missed his chance of true riches.

Jesus commented on the difficulty of a rich man entering heaven, not because he is rich so much as because he must become as though he had nothing and be poor in spirit, and very few will do that. A rich man need not give up his property unless specially led to do so, but he must be as though he had it not. Our Lord went on to give the parable of the laborers in the vineyard who went to work at different hours, yet each received the same pay (Matt. 20:1-16). It can be understood only in the light of what has just gone before. Peter had just spoken of their having forsaken all to follow Jesus, as though he expected greater reward for the disciples than for others. But we learn here that God has no favorites and that all receive the same reward, in kind if not in degree. The disciples expected greater reward because they followed earlier, but Paul and Stephen and Barnabas outshone most of them later. The whole story is based upon the principle “the first shall be last and the last first.” That principle still is true, and we cannot measure reward by our own estimates, by length of service or any other external considerations.

Many are called with a general calling, but few are chosen because few respond. And there is no favoritism among those chosen. The reward of all servants is to dwell in God’s Presence. Men may have varying capacities for the enjoyment of this reward but God Himself is our reward, as He told Abraham. Above all else stands the sovereignty of God and His right to manage His own business as He pleases. Jesus does not try to teach everything in one parable, and we do wrong to try to cover too much in one lesson. This simply teaches impartiality in God’s rewards.

The Forgotten Father

I am ascending to My Father and your Father— to My God and your God.—John 20:17

The theme in this verse—My Father and your Father—is one that I view as among the greatest I have ever tackled, and I approach it with the earnest prayer that as the Father revealed Himself through the “Word made flesh” (God’s most perfect self-revelation), so He might reveal Himself also through the words that are being written about Him here.

It has been said that the Christian faith is essentially a Father movement. Yet theologian Tom Smail suggested that in today’s church the Father is forgotten in precisely the same way that the Spirit was forgotten before the growth of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements. Can this be true? Are we in danger of focusing so much on the work of the Holy Spirit that we forget the Father? I think that in some sections of the church there are evidences that this is the case. We hear much about the Son and much about the Spirit, but how much do we hear about the Father? When our Lord Jesus Christ lived on this earth, He fulfilled many roles—Savior, Shepherd, Deliverer, Healer, Prophet, Life-giver—but the overall purpose of His being here was to restore us to relationship with the Father. Some of the greatest words He ever uttered are the words of our text for today: “I am ascending to My Father and your Father.” Your Father.

Let those words sing their way into your consciousness. Through our Lord’s redemptive work on the cross, God is not just the Father of Jesus. He is our Father too.

Prayer

O God my Father, over these coming weeks give me a new understanding of what it means to have You as my Father. I am standing on the shore of a great and wondrous truth. Help me launch out into the deep. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Further Study

Ac 17:22-30; Dt 32:18; Ps 44:20-21; Isa 17:10-11

In what way is God unknown today?

What are our modern-day idol substitutes?

The Conqueror

Luke 1:74

I want to see if there is not something said in the Bible about holiness of heart as definitely as we Salvationists say it, although in somewhat different phraseology. Now Zacharias was a good man; we read that he was “upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments… blamelessly” (Luke 1:6). Consequently, let us listen to what he has to say in his prophecy of Christ: “That we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness… all the days of our life” (Luke 1:74 KJV). God grant that may be your experience.

It is a charge brought against us by some that we make a hobby of the subject of holiness—that, like Paganini with his violin, we are always fiddling on one string. If it were so, I suppose he could have replied, or somebody for him, that he was able to bring more music out of his one string than his rivals could bring out of their four. And if it is true that we are too frequently engaged on this one topic, I think there are a good many who can bear witness that there has been brought out of it some music wonderfully enthralling, which music has been made a wonderful blessing to them, and to many who are round about them. But I take exception to the correctness of this charge. I say, varying the figure, we are running our “Hallelujah Express” to Heaven not on one line, but on three.

The first line of these rails we call pardon, and I am sure we very often talk about that. The second we term purity—a clean heart, with a clean life. The third term is sacrifice, or the giving up of all that we possess to the service of our great Lord and Sovereign.

That is, first, saved from hell and having the consciousness of it with our feet consciously on the rock of salvation. Secondly, saved from inward as well as outward sin. Thirdly, having been saved from the penalty and power of inbred sin, being enabled by grace to devote all we possess to the great work of leading to the Savior those who are around us.

We read that Jesus Christ came that He might deliver us out of the hands of our enemies. Our iniquities are the enemies referred to here. The whole teaching of the Bible can be brought to show that spiritual deliverance is the work which Jesus undertook, and which He wants to accomplish for us.

William Booth, Salvation Soldiery