Archive for January 18, 2012

Stop Condemning Yourself!

Posted: January 18, 2012 in The Encouraging Word

“There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”                 Ro 8:1 NLT

The word for you today is—stop condemning yourself! God says, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Isa 43:25). When God says He forgets your sin and you insist on remembering it, it’s like saying your standards are higher than His. That’s akin to idolatry! The Bible says, “God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph 4:32). In the Old Testament when someone sinned they brought a lamb to the priest and he would shed its blood on the altar as payment for their sin. Once that was done the record was expunged and the issue was settled. You say, “But I don’t feel forgiven.” Forgiveness comes by faith, not feelings. As long as you live by feelings Satan has a weapon he can use against you at every turn. You say, “But what I did was so wrong.” As long as you have not committed the unpardonable sin, whatever you have done is—pardonable. You say, “But Satan keeps bringing it up.” That’s because he is called the “accuser” (Rev 12:10). But notice how you overcome Satan the accuser: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (v. 11). Next time Satan accuses you, say, “I’m glad you brought that up.” Then tell him what the blood of Jesus has accomplished on your behalf. If you do that he will flee. Learn from your failure, grow stronger through it, use it to bless others, move on with your life and stop condemning yourself!

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/stop-condemning-yourself/


“Work…as though you were working for the Lord.”          Col3:23 NLT

Can you imagine a nation without a leader, a workplace without a boss, or an army without a general? It would be chaotic. Structure creates order; without it no progress can be made. That’s why you don’t park your car in the bedroom or sleep in the garage. Learn to respect those in authority over you. Honor those who have lived longer than you because they possess a wealth of knowledge. Listen to them and grow. Until you learn to take orders you will never be qualified to give them. Jesus understood this. He was the Son of God. He knew more than any other human being, yet He honored the authority of the government in power. When the Pharisees asked Him His opinion on paying taxes He answered, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mk 12:17 NKJV). Are you speaking words of doubt about your own organization? Are you belittling those in authority over you? Stop it now! True, they are not perfect. (Perhaps that’s why they can tolerate you.) If you rebel against every instruction you are given, don’t complain when those around you rebel against your words and opinions. The law of reciprocity states that if you want to be treated with respect, you must respect others. That includes those you don’t agree with, or even like. Jesus did. Pray, “Father, I know that respect for authority is taught in Your Word. So remind me today that my success depends upon my attitude toward those You’ve placed in leadership over me. As I honor them, I believe You will honor me.”

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/learn-to-respect-authority/


“We have seen his glory.”                                                    Jn 1:14 NIV

The Bible says: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came…full of grace and truth.” To know the Lord Jesus Christ personally is to love Him, to love Him is to serve Him, and to serve Him is to experience life’s highest joy and fulfillment. An unknown author wrote the following poem about Jesus. If you know Him as your Lord and Savior it will resonate in your heart. If you don’t, it’s our prayer you will want to accept Him today as your Lord and Savior:

“I walked life’s way with an easy tread, had followed where comforts and pleasures led; until one day in a quiet place, I met the Master face to face. With station and rank and wealth for my goal, much thought for my body but none for my soul; I entered to win in life’s mad race, when I met the Master face to face. I met Him, and knew Him, and blushed to see that His eyes full of sorrow were fixed on me. And I faltered and fell at His feet that day, while my castles melted and vanished away. Melted and vanished, and in their place, naught else did I see but the Master’s face; And I cried aloud, ‘O, make me meet, to follow the steps of Thy wounded feet.’ My thought is now for the souls of men; I have lost my life to find it again; e’er since one day in a quiet place, I met the Master face to face.”

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/i-met-the-master-face-to-face/


Her adversaries have become rulers; her enemies relax. Certainly the LORD caused her grief because of her many wrong acts. Her children have gone away, captive before the enemy. (CEB)

As a young Christian, I was uncomfortable with the idea that God disciplines us. I expect this had to do, in part, with my experience of discipline in my family. Though my father never abused me physically, when he got angry, it was very, very scary. So the thought of an angry God disciplining me was a most unhappy one. Thus, I never quite knew what to do with verses like Lamentations 1:5. I didn’t like the idea of a God who caused grief, even if he had good reason to do so.

In time, I became a parent. As a parent, I knew I was supposed to discipline my children. Furthermore, I knew that discipline required discomfort. To use the language of Lamentations, I needed to cause them grief or the discipline would be to no avail. But this conviction didn’t make it easy for me to take away their privileges, or send them to their rooms, or whatever else was appropriate. Honestly, I hated making my children feel pain of any kind. Yet, I did it because I loved them and wanted them to become the best people they could be.

My experience as a parent helps me to understand why God may cause his people to grieve. I can even begin to understand on a visceral level the teaching on divine discipline found in Hebrew 12: “Bear hardship for the sake of discipline. God is treating you like sons and daughters! What child isn’t disciplined by his or her father? But if you don’t experience discipline, which happens to all children, then you are illegitimate and not real sons and daughters. What’s more, we had human parents who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live? Our human parents disciplined us for a little while, as it seemed best to them, but God does it for our benefit so that we can share his holiness. No discipline is fun while it lasts, but it seems painful at the time. Later, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it” (Heb 12:7-11, CEB).

If we acknowledge that God might discipline us for our own sake, we run the risk of attributing all suffering to God’s discipline. I’ll address this in tomorrow’s reflection. For now, I would leave you with the thought that no matter the source of the pain in your life, God wants to use it to help you know him more deeply and share in his holiness.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: What are your experiences of discipline in your family? Are they positive? Negative? Mixed? As you think about your life, are there times when you believe God was disciplining you? How did this discipline happen?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me as an earthly father loves a child, and so much more. Thank you for caring about me, for desiring that I grow in holiness and love.

Now comes the hard part, Lord. I know I’m supposed to say, “Thank you for disciplining me so that I might become more like you.” But, can I say this and mean it? Can I really thank you for the times when you have either allowed or caused pain in my life? Honestly, I don’t know, Lord. And the last thing I want to do is to offer prayers that aren’t authentic. So, this much I can say and mean it, “Thank you for loving me so much that you will do what is necessary for me to be the best person I can be. Thank you for never letting go of me in the process.”

All praise be to you, God of grace beyond measure. Amen.

http://www.thehighcalling.org/reflection/why-would-god-make-our-lives-hard


Her adversaries have become rulers; her enemies relax. Certainly the LORD caused her grief because of her many wrong acts. Her children have gone away, captive before the enemy. (CEB)

In yesterday’s reflection, I began to consider the implications claim in Lamentations 1:5: “Certainly the LORD caused [Judah’s] grief because of her many wrong acts.” I noted that Scripture teaches, in this verse and others, the unsettling truth that God does at times grieve us. But I strongly warned us not to start pronouncing judgment on others in light of this fact.

For one thing, we are on dangerous ground when we pronounce judgment on others as if we are free from guilt ourselves. If we read Jeremiah 1:5 out of context, it might sound as if the writer is standing back from the grief of Judah. Yet, the rest of the book makes it abundantly clear that the writer is sharing fully in the suffering of his people. He might just as well have written, “Certainly the LORD caused us grief because of our many wrong acts.”

This is part of what concerns me when Christian pundits purport to explain God’s judgment on others, while completely ignoring what God might be saying to them. Occasionally in Scripture God speaks through the prophets to judge the nations. But, in the vast majority of cases, the prophets pronounce judgment upon the people of which they are a part. They proclaim God’s judgment on us, not them.

These days, it’s easy to point pious fingers at the sins of others. Ironically, I do this most often when judging those who pronounce God’s judgment on others. Yet, I must ask myself how open I am to receiving God’s judgment on my sin and the sin of my people, the church. Am I willing to be admonished by God’s Word in Scripture? Am I open to the possibility that God is using painful things in my life to help me become more like him? More on this tomorrow.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: Do you think God judges his people today? If so, how does judgment come? What might help you to be attentive to God’s words of admonishment? How can we avoid self-righteousness as Christians?

PRAYER: Just and holy God, I admit that sometimes I like to build myself up by considering the sins of others. I suppose I’m even tempted to take solace in the thought that you are judging them and not me. Forgive me, Lord, for my self-righteousness. Forgive me for my lack of compassion. Forgive me for my hard-heartedness.

Give me ears, Lord, to hear what you would say to me. Give me eyes to see your work in my life. Give me a heart ready for repentance.

All praise be to you, O God, because you are making me more and more like you, through Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Amen.

http://www.thehighcalling.org/reflection/god-judging-them-or-us-0


The Joy of the Lord

The Christian owes it to the world to be supernaturally joyful. In this day of universal apprehension when men’s hearts are failing them for fear of those things that are coming upon the earth, we Christians are strategically placed to display a happiness that is not of this world and to exhibit a tranquillity that will be a little bit of heaven here below. All this takes for granted that sin has been dealt with by sincere repentance and thorough amendment of life. It assumes that we are walking in the light of truth, for true joy cannot be artificially induced. The “keep smiling” school of applied psychology is not even remotely related to the true faith of Christ. The chief fun of the comedian and the good humor of the wit who is the life of the party are like flowers growing on old graves, briefly interesting, but evanescent and always touched with sadness. But the fountain of Christian joy flows out from the throne of God, pure, refreshing and sweet everlastingly.

http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer?id=432

Tozer Devotional-Faith and Moods

Posted: January 18, 2012 in A. W. Tozer

Faith and Moods

Faith is at the foundation of all Christian living, and because faith has to do with the character of God, it is safe from all vacillations of mood. A man may be believing soundly and effectively even when his mood is low, so low that he is hardly aware that he is alive emotionally at all. That is one thing, and it is good to know and still better to put in practice. But like every other truth, it has two sides. Our trouble today is that we tend to forget the other side, that is, that elevated spiritual mood is a tremendous aid to victorious living. The relation of faith to mood may be stated by means of a number of metaphors: if faith is the tree, mood is the blossom; if faith is the flower, mood is the fragrance; if faith is the instrument, mood is the melody. And who will deny the vital place of the blossom, the fragrance and the music in human life? Mood is a kind of mental weather. There is weather in which nothing will grow. The farmer knows the damage done by prolonged periods of cold, wet weather in the spring after the seed has been planted. Sometimes the seed will rot in the ground, requiring a new planting with all the loss and extra work this entails. Weather may be too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet to favor good crops, and the Christian’s moods, in like manner, may be unfavorable to spiritual growth and fruitfulness. Christian service carried on during prolonged heaviness of heart may be as good as wasted.

http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer?id=431

A Spirit of Fear · Max Lucado

Posted: January 18, 2012 in Max Lucado

A Spirit of Fear · Max Lucado.

You Are Not Alone · Max Lucado

Posted: January 18, 2012 in Max Lucado

You Are Not Alone · Max Lucado.

Regaining Our Balance

Posted: January 18, 2012 in Our Daily Bread

Regaining Our Balance.