Daily Devotionals – February 19 and 20, 2012
TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 2/19/2012
Shout to the LORD, all the earth; break out in praise and sing for joy!
–Psalm 98:4, NLT
And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.
–1 Thessalonians 3:12 NLT
TODAY’S ENCOURAGING WORD – 2/20/2012
Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.
–1 Timothy 2:2, NLT
The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace.
–Psalm 29:11 NLT
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Saved From Such Men
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Sunday, February 19 2012
“O Lord, by Your hand save me from such men, from men of this world whose reward is in this life….” – Psalm 17:14
Whenever I travel over the ocean, I am always reminded of the seemingly insignificant time we have on this earth. I often imagine dropping a glass of water out the window of the jet into the huge body of water below. The Lord then reminds me that this is how my life is compared to eternity – a mere drop in the ocean.
Yet, every day millions of people will go to work seeking to gain that elusive thing called success. The rewards of this life continue to provide the incentive for 60-hour weeks or the extra weekend away from the family. Sometimes we get entrenched in the message of the world. This message is an appealing, seductive call to sell out eternity for the temporal.
As a Christian businessman, I fell for this for many years until the Lord allowed me to wake up. It took some severe wake-up calls, but they did their job. I’m so grateful the Lord cares enough to give us these wake-up calls. He knows what real life is about. We think we know what it is, only to learn once again that real life is only in what is built on eternity. How does this verse line up with where you are today? Are you building around a world whose reward is in this lifetime, or an eternal one? Do those with whom you associate live in such a way that they demonstrate their reward is not concerning this life? Jesus said to seek first His Kingdom and all these things will be added. Amen.
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Seeing Through God’s Eyes
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Monday, February 20 2012
“They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.” – 2 Samuel 1:12
How would you respond if you heard something bad happened to someone who had been trying to cut off your head for several years? King Saul had been seeking to kill David for many years before Saul was thrust into battle against the Amalekites. In this final battle, a sword killed Saul. When the news reached David, instead of rejoicing that his enemy was no longer a problem for him, he responded in a totally different manner. He mourned. Imagine that; he mourned for the one who sought to kill him.
This is a sign of one who can look past an individual who is the source of pain and consider how God views him. God looks on that individual and sees his needs and knows why he responds the way he does. When we begin to see people as God does, we’ll no longer look at them as enemies, but as souls in need of grace. This is how Jesus could give of His life for us. He saw our great need, not what we did to Him. When someone wrongs you, do you seek to retaliate, or do you pray to understand the need behind the offender’s actions? For several years a person was a source of constant pain and retaliation toward me. There was nothing I could do to change it. God allowed me to go beyond the person’s actions to understand what was the source of his need. When I gained that understanding, God gave me a picture of this person inside a prison cell and in bondage. This bondage made him respond to life in this way. I was able to pray for him and genuinely love him in spite of the fact that he persecuted me. This is the kind of love Jesus wants us to have when He tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who spitefully use us.
I believe God does a special work of grace in those who go beyond the realm of normal response to persecution. He brings us to a level of grace we never thought possible. Describing how God worked in Joseph’s life, Francis Frangipane reveals what happens when we tap into this grace:
God made him fruitful in the very things that afflicted him. In the land of your affliction, in your battle, is the place where God will make you fruitful. Consider, even now, the area of greatest affliction in your life. In that area, God will make you fruitful in such a way that your heart will be fully satisfied, and God’s heart fully glorified. God has not promised to keep us from valleys and sufferings, but to make us fruitful in them. [Francis Frangipane, Place of Immunity (Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Arrow Publications, 1996), 93]
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Wrestling With God
“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day” (Gen. 32:24).
God is wrestling with Jacob more than Jacob is wrestling with God. It was the Son of man, the Angel of the Covenant. It was God in human form pressing down and pressing out the old Jacob life; and ere the morning broke, God had prevailed and Jacob fell with his thigh dislocated. But as he fell, he fell into the arms of God, and there he clung and wrestled, too, until the blessing came; and the new life was born and he arose from the earthly to the heavenly, the human to the divine, the natural to the supernatural. And as he went forth that morning he was a weak and broken man, but God was there instead; and the heavenly voice proclaimed, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”
Beloved, this must ever be a typical scene in every transformed life. There comes a crisis-hour to each of us, if God has called us to the highest and best, when all resources fail; when we face either ruin or something higher than we ever dreamed; when we must have infinite help from God and yet, ere we can have it, we must let something go; we must surrender completely; we must cease from our own wisdom. strength, and righteousness, and become crucified with Christ and alive in Him. God knows how to lead us up to this crisis, and He knows how to lead us through.
Is He leading you thus? Is this the meaning of your deep trial, or your difficult surroundings, or that impossible situation. or that trying place through which you cannot go without Him, and yet you have not enough of Him to give you the victory?
Oh, turn to Jacob’s God! Cast yourself helplessly at His feet. Die to your strength and wisdom in His loving arms and rise, like Jacob, into His strength and all-sufficiency. There is no way out of your hard and narrow place but at the top. You must get deliverance by rising higher and coming into a new experience with God. Oh, may it bring you into all that is meant by the revelation of the Mighty One of Jacob!
–But God
***
“At Thy feet I fall,
Yield Thee Up My ALL,
To suffer LIVE, OR DIE
For my Lord crucified.”
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Spring Training for Christians
by Shawn McEvoy, Crosswalk.com Managing Editor
We don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong.
2 Corinthians 5:16, The Message
You’ve probably heard that God loves baseball. After all, He began his holy book with the words, “In the big inning…” Everyone who loves baseball like the Lord does feels a tremendous rush this time of year with another set of words: “Pitchers and catchers report.” For the uninitiated, this phrase signals the official start of spring training, which brings with it new hope, and knowledge that at least there’s a thaw and green grass in some parts of our country.
In fact, the game I love, and the game of fantasy baseball off which it is based, are both so prevalent in my mind this week that as I sat down to write this I found my mind wandering. So, noticing that a good friend, fellow fantasy baseballer and pastor was active on his Instant Messenger, I began the following conversation:
Me: I’m sitting here trying to write this week’s devotional, but I’ve got a screenful of stats in front of me, taunting me. Pastor Jay, is there any way I could combine the two? Does our league have any good devotional content?
Jay: Oh, I’m sure we do. How about how we peak spiritually at age 27, like most hitters do?
Me: Goodness, I hope that’s not true. How about our Spiritual Slugging Percentage… are we whomping our fair quota of sinners and unbelievers regularly?
Jay: Uh, right… How about how On-Base Percentage equals theological correctness/sound doctrine, and Slugging Percentage equals evangelism, the impact you’re making for the Lord?
Me: You’re on to something.
There are truly spiritual parallels everywhere.
But as is always the case, snippets of insight and truth are only valuable when applicable. The above only served to remind me that it’s time to take a break from my analysis of the statistics of men who play a game, and check in on my own statistics, go through my own spring training of sorts.
Today’s verse gives us a starting place for where to look, what kind of statistics are important in the Kingdom as opposed to the diamond. Things like height, weight, vertical leap, 40-yard-dash times, race, creed, color, gender… none of those matter. Here’s the checklist we’ll be using to see who’s gonna make the team this season:
Measurables
On-Base Percentage – Like my buddy said, in our checklist this involves good theology and doctrine. Baseballers like to hear chatter out there on the infield. Are you talking the talk?
Slugging Percentage – Now you have to put the above theology to good use, and walk the walk. How much ‘oomph’ can you contribute to the goals of the team?
Batting Average – The most you can do is just put the bat on the ball. So many other factors determine if you’re gonna get a safe hit or not, meaning you’ll probably fail to connect or reach safely at least 70 percent of the time… and that’s if you’re one of the best. The rest is up to God.
Errors – Can’t be avoided, even by the very best of us. What’s important is that we don’t grow complacent with making them. Biblical ignorance is not an acceptable excuse. Neither is yelling at your teammate for making an error.
Strikeouts and Walks – Both are fine. They reveal effort. The way you know you’re off-track is when these become Walkouts and Strikes. I don’t need to be leaving, boycotting, quitting, or checking out in the middle of a slump or when the other team is full of punks.
Sacrifices – When the coach calls for you to bunt another person into a more prominent position, will you obediently lay one down? When you can bring in a run by hitting a fly ball for an out will you gladly do so?
Intangibles
Coachability – I can’t think of a single reason or supporting scripture for a me-first attitude on the Kingdom Conquerors.
Discipline – To what do you say yes, to what do you say no? What do you fail to do? What do you never fail to do?
Leadership – Look behind you. Is anyone following?
Performance Enhancers – Yes, please. I’m simply not good enough to compete in this game without them. No, not steroids, but the Holy Spirit, and regular Bible study and prayer times.
Intersecting Faith & Life: Watch a sporting event with a younger person this week, and see how many parallels and applications you can make together to our spiritual journey.
Further Reading
Opening Day for America
Finish Strong in the 9th Inning of Life
The Magic of Opening Day
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February 20
Bearing One Another’s Burdens
Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness ; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. 5 For each one will bear his own load. 6 The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. 7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked ; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. 10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. 11 See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. 12 Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. 17 From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus. 18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.
Galatians 6:1-18
If you are looking for a way to carry out Christ’s command to love your neighbor, Paul has a suggestion: bear their burdens. At some point, everyone struggles under the weight of an oppressive situation. Believers have an obligation to get under that load next to their brothers and sisters.
Jesus sets the pattern for burden bearing. He calls to Himself all who are heavy-laden and gives them rest (Matt. 11:28-29). Since God predestines believers to be conformed to Christ’s likeness, we must imitate His care and concern for those who suffer. Acts 4:32 shows that the early church followed His example. To lift the load of poverty, they pooled their resources so that no one was in need.
Paul’s letters make clear his concern for the physical and spiritual welfare of growing churches. He fasted and prayed for them and sent missionaries when he could. He felt it was his responsibility to strengthen them, even though he sustained a personal hardship—his thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7).
A believer cannot wait until his life is clear of obstacles before reaching out to others, since that day may never come. Even though we have our own needs, we can do all things through Christ’s strength—including sharing someone else’s adversity (2 Cor. 12:9).
When you’re willing to wade into someone else’s troubles to help that person hold up under the weight, two things happen. First, he or she receives desperately needed blessings in the form of aid, support, and love. And second, you fulfill God’s command to love a neighbor as yourself.
For more biblical teaching and resources from Dr. Charles Stanley, please visit www.intouch.org.
