VIDEO They Came Back!

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. John 10:27-28

Last June, New York’s Governor’s Island invited Sam, Flour, Evening, Chad, and Philip Aries back for a second summer of ministry—munching on unwanted invasive plants. The five sheep were a hit in 2021, and gardener Malcolm Gore welcomed back the flock with open arms. “It felt like they recognized me, recognized my voice, they came right over.”[1]

Jesus has assigned us to the island of this world, and He’s our Governor and Shepherd. We recognize Him, know His Voice, and draw near to Him. He’s placed us here to impede the sinfulness of this world and to follow Him wherever He leads. All of Psalm 23 is applied to Jesus in John 10, for He leads us in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake.

What a blessed thought! We are the sheep of God’s pasture. Those of us who know the Shepherd’s Voice are known by Him—and nothing will separate us from His care.

Every day may be a day of blessing, every hour an hour of victory, but if lived in the thought that Jehovah in his might is your shepherd. J. Wilber Chapman

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My Sheep Hear My Voice by Shane Idleman

Opportunities to Shine

Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16

In March 2020, while walking his dog in New York City’s Central Park, Whitney, a retired financial expert, saw trucks, stacks of tarps, and white tents, each bearing a cross and the name of a charity he’d never heard of before. When he discovered the group was building a field hospital for his fellow New Yorkers with COVID-19, he asked if he could help. For weeks, despite differing faiths and politics, he and his family pitched in wherever they could. Whitney stated, “Every single person I’ve met has been a genuinely nice person.” And he applauded the fact that no one was paying them to “help my city in our hour of deep, deep need.”

In response to the tremendous needs resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, unlikely partners in service were brought together, and believers in Jesus were given new opportunities to share Christ’s light with others. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught His followers to “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds” (Matthew 5:16). We shine Christ’s light by letting the Spirit guide us in loving, kind, and good words and actions (see Galatians 5:22–23). When we allow the light we’ve received from Jesus to shine clearly in our daily lives, we also “glorify [our] Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

This day and every day may we shine for Christ, as He helps us be salt and light in a world that desperately needs Him.

By:  Alyson Kieda

Reflect & Pray

Where do you see an opportunity to share hope and light with others today? When has someone been light to you in a difficult time?

Jesus, help me to shine Your light in all I say and do.

Does God Love Me?

In moments of doubt, choose to believe the truth of God’s Word. Psalm 145:7-9

Life can hit us with the most unexpected and undesirable circumstances. When that happens, we might wonder, Does God really care about me? Here are three truths to remember:

1. Scripture tells us, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). This means His very nature is characterized by compassion and concern. Love originated with God, and He is the greatest example of how to express it. Together with the reality that God is holy, this means our Father is perfect in His love—He’ll never make a mistake in the way He cares for us. 

2. God loves us because He calls us His children. “To those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,” writes John in his gospel (John 1:12 NIV). Sadly, for some who’ve had a difficult upbringing, this may not be encouraging news. But God is the perfect parent, and He loves us perfectly.

3. God gave the supreme demonstration of His love at the cross. God’s Son came to earth as an expression of His Father’s infinite love and sacrificially did for us what no one else could do. 

After considering these three facts about God’s love, how could we not expect Him to take care of even the smallest details of our life? Look for ways He is expressing His love to you, and remember Jesus’s own words on the subject: “Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). 

Our Living Lord

“Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.” (John 14:19)

We who believe on Christ have the promise of everlasting life because He lives, and we see Him by faith. Christ Himself is “our life” (Colossians 3:4), in fact.

He is the very sustainer of our life. He is both the “living water” (John 4:10) that is “springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14) and “the living bread which came down from heaven,” such wonderful bread “that a man may eat thereof, and not die” (John 6:50-51).

Not only does Christ give us His living bread and living water, but also He provides Himself as the living way to God. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Hebrews 10:19-20).

He is also the solid foundation on which we build our lives, and that very foundation is vibrant with life. “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:4-5). Our spiritual lives are built on a living stone, nourished on living bread and living water while entering by a living way into the presence of the living God!

He “hath begotten us again unto a lively hope [same as ‘living hope’] by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4). “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). All this is ours through our loving, living Lord! HMM

God’s Kind of Power

I am the vine, ye are the branches…without me ye can do nothing.—John 15:5

“Ye shall receive power.” This was and is a unique afflatus, an enduement of supernatural energy affecting every department of the believer’s life and remaining with him forever. It is not physical power nor even mental power though it may touch everything both mental and physical in its benign outworking.

It is, too, another kind of power than that seen in nature, in the lunar attraction that creates the tides or the angry flash that splits the great oak during a storm.

This power from God operates on another level and affects another department of His wide creation. It is spiritual power. It is the kind of power that God is.

It is the ability to achieve spiritual and moral ends. Its long-range result is to produce Godlike character in men and women who were once wholly evil by nature and by choice. POM089-090

[The] renovation of character and conduct is only in and through Christ Himself….The cleansed temple must be possessed and occupied by the Lord of the temple. unknown

Getting What We Give

Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness or you’ll be like him yourself.—Proverbs 26:4

Karl Menninger says: “I know from clinical experience that in some women, the degree of discomfort both in pregnancy and parturition (childbirth) has been directly proportional to the intensity of their resentment at having to live through this phase of the female role.”

Sometimes resentments and grudges can be unconscious. As one doctor put it: “It is very difficult to get people to see that illness is the price they pay for their unconscious resentments toward the very things they protest they love.” A woman of sixty-five gave her heart to Christ and said: “I’ve lived with a stone in my heart ever since my mother said she hated me for stopping her from going to another man. Now this stone has gone. I’m free—for the first time in almost half a century.”

A man gave a golf ball the name of someone he disliked and struck it, but the ball went into the rough. Isn’t that instructive? If you bear a grudge against anyone, you can neither see straight nor drive straight. The fact is this—you cannot hurt another person without hurting yourself. As the Chinese put it: “He who spits against the wind spits in his own face.” We become the product of the qualities we give out. If we give out evil in return for good, then we become evil; we become the thing we give out. But if we give out good for evil, we become good. So mark this and mark it well—you cannot maintain spiritual freshness while you are bearing a grudge.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I see that I cannot be an echo of the treatment people give to me. I must echo You and treat people as You treat them. But I cannot do this except by Your grace. I receive that grace now. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Further Study

Rm 12:1-17; Lv 19:18; Pr 20:22

What are we not to do?

What are we not to say?

A Defeated Enemy

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed over them by Him.—Colossians 2:15

Christians are not called to defeat Satan. God has already done that in Christ! Nor is it our mandate to “bind” Satan. Jesus has already set limits on the extent and duration of Satan’s freedom. Satan, “our ancient foe,” was decisively and completely defeated by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and in His resurrection. With regard to Satan, our assignment is to trust in the victory that Christ already achieved and daily resist him with the truth of his defeat, as Jesus did.

Satan is the father of lies and a master deceiver (John 8:44). If he can convince you that God has not defeated him, then you will not experience Jesus’ victory. You will find yourself fighting battles that Christ has already won! You will fear Satan though he has already been utterly and humiliatingly defeated. Your responsibility is to resist Satan, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). When you resist him, you are acknowledging that Jesus has defeated him and given you victory over his influence. God has provided you with spiritual armor that is more than sufficient to withstand any assault by Satan (Eph. 6:10–20).

VIDEO Faith

Without faith it is impossible to please Him… —Hebrews 11:6

Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth. The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship. Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration. Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short. Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life. “We know that all things work together for good…” (Romans 8:28) so that no matter what happens, the transforming power of God’s providence transforms perfect faith into reality. Faith always works in a personal way, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children.

For every detail of common sense in life, there is a truth God has revealed by which we can prove in our practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first. The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word” (for example, see Matthew 6:33). Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a fight, not just sometimes. God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us. Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Defenders of the faith are inclined to be bitter until they learn to walk in the light of the Lord. When you have learned to walk in the light of the Lord, bitterness and contention are impossible. Biblical Psychology

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Enoch: The Walk of Faith (Hebrews 11:5-6)

Hope in God

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” Lamentations 3:24

As the holiday season approached, package shipments were delayed due to an unprecedented influx of online orders. I can remember a time when my family preferred to simply go to the store and purchase items because we knew we had very little control over the speed of mail delivery. However, when my mother signed up for an account that included expedited shipping, this expectation changed. Now with a two-day guaranteed delivery, we’re accustomed to receiving things quickly, and we become frustrated by delays.  

We live in a world accustomed to instant gratification, and waiting can be difficult. But in the spiritual realm, patience is still rewarded. When the book of Lamentations was written, the Israelites were mourning the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army, and they faced a series of challenges. However, in the midst of chaos, the writer boldly affirmed that because he was confident that God would meet his needs, he would wait on Him (Lamentations 3:24). God knows we’re inclined to become anxious when answers to our prayers are delayed. Scripture encourages us by reminding us to wait on God. We don’t have to be consumed or worried because “his compassions never fail” (v. 22). Instead, with God’s help we can “be still . . . and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7). May we wait on God, trusting in His love and faithfulness even as we wrestle with longings and unanswered prayers.

By:  Kimya Loder

Reflect & Pray

How have you been waiting for God? How might you trust His timing?

Heavenly Father, sometimes it can be difficult to wait on You. Please give me the strength to continue hoping in You.

Sunday Reflection: Be Brave, Be Loved

Healing is possible after we have been hurt by others

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

This month, we explored what it means to be members of a community—along with the blessings and requirements that come with such involvement. God made us to serve and live alongside one another, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. Nor does it mean we’ll avoid getting hurt along the way. At some point, we’re likely to fail each other.

When that happens, we might find it helpful to limit—for a time—the people we allow into our life. Doing so can help us recover from past pain and find a way forward, but we can’t remain in that state forever. The Lord calls us to love and forgive one another, just as He has done with us (Ephesians 4:32). 

If we can give ourselves to this process, we’ll eventually be willing to take risks again—to open up and share our true self. That can be scary at times, but when we choose to be vulnerable, we experience the deeper, more fulfilling relationships God wants us to enjoy.

Think about it

• If you’ve been hurt in the past, ask a trusted friend to help you process what happened. If you have hurt another person, be brave and offer him or her an honest apology. Both actions can bring about great healing and joy.