FAITH:
4. GUARD YOUR WORDS ABOUT OTHERS
Never pass anything on - about anybody else that will hurt him. "Love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). The talebearer has no place in God's favor. if you know something that would hinder or hurt the reputation of one of God's children, bury it forever. Find a little garden out back - a little spot somewhere - and when somebody comes around with an evil story, take it out and bury it and say, "Here lies in peace the story about my brother." God will take care of it. "With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged."
If you want God to be good to you, you are going to have to be good to His children. You say, "But that's not grace." Well, grace gets you into the kingdom of God. That is unmerited favor. But after you are seated at the Father's table, He expects to teach you table manners. And He won't let you eat unless you obey the etiquette of the table. And what is that? The etiquette of the table is that you don't tell stories about the brother who is sitting at the table with you - no matter what his denomination, or nationality, or background.
5. NEVER ACCEPT ANY GLORY
God is jealous of His glory and He will not give His glory to another. He will not even share His glory with another. It is quite natural, I should say, for people to hope that maybe their Christian service will give them a chance to display their talents. True, they want to serve the Lord. But they also want other people to know they are serving the Lord. They want to have a reputation among the saints. That is very dangerous ground - seeking a reputation among the saints. It's bad enough to seek a reputation in the world, but it's worse to seek a reputation among the people of God. Our Lord gave up His reputation, and so must we.
Meister Eckhart once preached a sermon on Christ cleansing the Temple. He said, "Now there was nothing wrong with those men selling and buying there. There was nothing wrong with exchanging money there; it had to be. The sin lay in their doing it for profit. They got a percentage on serving the Lord." And then he made the application: "Anybody that serves for a commission, for what little bit of glory he can get out of it, is a merchant, and he ought to be cast out of the temple."
I go along with this. If you are serving the Lord, and yet slyly -perhaps scarcely known to you - you are hoping to get just a little five percent commission, then look out! it will chill the power of God in your spirit. You must determine that you will never take any glory, but see that God gets it all.
Now, it is the easiest possible thing to give a message like this. The hard thing is to make it work in one's own life. Remember that these five vows are not something you write in the back of your Bible and forget. They have got to be written in your own blood. They have to be made final, irrevocable, if it only comes off the surface, it is no good. Much of our consecration is just that way - it comes off the surface. Many of our promises conic off the surface. No, no. Let it come out of the depths of your heart, the deep depths of' your spirit.
These vows cut against the old human nature. They introduce the cross into your life, and nobody ever walks back from carrying his cross. When you make these vows, remember, they strike at the heart of your self-life and there is never a place to go back to. And I say, "Woe unto the triflers!"
In America - and maybe in other places too - SO many people are saying, "Try Jesus try God!" Triflers, experimenters, tasters they arc. Like a rabbit with a half dozen holes so if one is stopped up lie can flee to another! No! From the cross there is no place to flee You don't "try" Jesus. He is not there to be experimented with. Christ is not on trial. You are. I am. He is not! God raised Him from the dead and forever confirmed His deity and scaled Him and set Him at His own right hand as Lord and Christ. Turn everything over to Him, and you'll find your life begin to lift. You'll blossom in a wonderful way.
Now, if you happen to be one of those on whom God has laid His hand for a deeper life, a more powerful life, a fuller life -then I wonder if you would be willing to pray this kind of prayer: -0 God, glorify Thyself at my expense. Send me the bill - anything, Lord. I set no price. I will not dicker or bargain. Glorify Thyself. I'll take the consequences.
This kind of praying is simple, but it's deep and wonderful and powerful. I believe that if you can pray a prayer like that, it will be the ramp from which you can take off into higher heights and bluer skies in the things of the Spirit.
FRIENDS:
Father, Assure us that we are your people and that you are our God. Remind us that the love of Christ compels us to do what we never thought we could do and grow to heights we never imagined. Precious is the name of Jesus! In Jesus' name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
May 1
Mark 9:33-50; 2 Cor 1:1-11; Psalms 95; 1 Samuel 1-2
May 2
Mark 10:1-16; 2 Cor 1:12-24; Psalms 96; 1 Samuel 3-5
May 3
Mark 10:17-34; 2 Cor 2; Psalms 97; 1 Samuel 6-8
~Samuel~
It's the end of the race that matters.
Trophies aren't given for great starts. Medals aren't awarded for entering the race. A good start is crucial, but in the end, the end is all that matters.
First Samuel is a book of good starts but bad finishes.
It seems that every key character put his best food forward and ended up in last place.
Take Eli for example.
A sterling religious leader. A man with a heart for God. Perceptive and strong, the last of the great priests. But look at the end of his life. The ark of the covenant has been captured. Two of his rebellious sons are killed. When he hears of their deaths, he falls over and breaks his neck.
Samuel is another case. Dedicated to God's service by Hannah, his mother, he anointed Israel's first kings. But he didn't learn from Eli's mistakes. Just like his mentor, he failed to train his family and his sons turned away from God.
But the most dramatic example is Saul, Israel's first king. He seemed to be the perfect man---handsome and meek, brave and victorious in battle. But success led to disobedience, and he slid from prominence to paranoia to suicide.
Why are these stories in the Bible? To remind us that we too are in a race. And that race isn't over. How we started isn't nearly as important as how we finish.
FOOD:
Raisin-Orange Coffee Cake
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup raisins
3 cups Bisquick baking mix
3/4 cup dairy sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup margarine or butter, melted
Brown Sugar Topping (below)
Heat oven to 400°. Generously grease round pan, 9 x 1 1/2 inches. Mix marmalade and raisins. Mix baking mix, sour cream and milk until soft dough forms; beat vigorously 30 seconds. Gently smooth into ball on surface floured with baking mix. Knead 10 times. Divide into 12 parts. Shape each into 3 1/2-inch round. Place 1 teaspoon marmalade mixture in center of each. Bring edges together; pinch. Dip bottom of each into margarine, then into Brown Sugar Topping. Arrange 7 balls, coated sides up, evenly spaced in pan. Place remaining balls in spaces on top. Bake until golden, 25 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. 6 to 8 servings.
Brown Sugar Topping: Mix 3 tablespoons Bisquick baking mix, 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar and 3 tablespoons quick-cooking oats until crumbly.
High Altitude: Heat oven to 450°. Use square pan, 9×9x2 inches. Decrease sour cream to 1/2 cup. Increase milk to 1/2 cup. Arrange 12 balls in single layer in pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.
FUN:
A priest was preparing a man for his long journey into the night. Whispering firmly, the priest said, "Denounce the devil! Let him know how little you think of his evil." The dying man said nothing.
The priest repeated his order. Still the dying man said nothing. The priest asked, "Why do you refuse to denounce the devil and his evil?" The dying man said, "Until I know where I'm heading, I don't think I ought to aggravate anybody."
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Vows 2 and 3
FAITH:
2. NEVER OWN ANYTHING
I do not mean by this that you cannot have things. I mean that you ought to get delivered from the sense of possessing them. This sense of possessing is what hinders us. All babies are born with their fists clenched, and it seems to me it means, "This is mine!" One of the first things they say when they begin to speak, is "mine" in an angry voice. That sense of "This is mine" 'is a very injurious thing to the spirit. If you can get rid of it so that you have no feeling of possessing anything, there will come a great sense of freedom and liberty into your life.
Now don't think that you must sell all that you have and give it to charity. No. God will let you have your car and your business, your practice and your position, whatever it may be - provided you understand that it is not yours at all, but His, and all you are doing is just working for Him. You can be restful about it then, because we never need to worry about losing anything that belongs to someone else. If it is yours, you are always looking in your hand to see if it is still there. If it is God's, you no longer need to worry about it.
Let me point out some things you'll have to turn over to God. Property is one thing. Some of the dear Lord's children are being held back because there is a ball and chain on their legs. if it is a man, it's his big car and fine home. If it is a woman, it's her china and her Louis XIV furniture and all the rest. Take that vase for instance. There it stands. And if anybody knocked it off and broke it, the poor owner would probably lose five years from her life! it is always necessary to remember that we are only stewards of that which is usually called a possession.
3. NEVER DEFEND YOURSELF
We are all born with a desire to defend ourselves. And if you insist upon defending yourself, God will let you do it But if on turn the defense of yourself over to God, He will defend you. He told Moses in Exodus 23: "I will be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary to thine adversaries."
What do we defend? Well, we defend our talents; we defend our service; and particularly, we defend our reputation. Your reputation is what people think you are, and if a story gets out about you, the big temptation is to try to run it down.
Henry Suso was a great Christian of other days. Once he was seeking what some Christians have told me they are seeking to know God better. Let's put it like this: You are seeking to have a religious awakening within your spirit that will thrust you farther out into the deep things of God. Well, as Henry Suso was seeking God, people started telling evil stories about the man, and it grieved him so that he wept bitter tears and had great sorrow of heart.
Then one day he looked out the window and saw a dog playing on the lawn. The dog had a mat, and kept picking the mat up, tossing it over his shoulder, running and getting it, tossing it some more, picking it up and tossing it again. God said to Henry Suso, "That mat is your reputation, and I am letting the dogs of sin tear your reputation to shreds and toss it all over the lawn for your own good, but one of these days things will change."
And this did change. it was not very long before the people who were tearing his reputation were confounded, and Suso rose into a place that made him a power in his day and a great blessing still to those who sing his hymns and read his work.
FRIENDS:
Father, How holy and great is your promise. You've been so good to us, but somehow we find things to complain about even thought we've been given life eternal. Renew our vision; help us to see heaven. Help us to be busy about the things of the kingdom. In Jesus' name, Amen.
TEN THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR
1. Morning, after a bad night
2. Fresh, local corn
3. Know someone is faithful
4. Spring break
5. The smell of the earth
6. A smiling bride
7. Seeing someone you have missed
8. A good neighbor
9. Seeing with new eyes
10. A child who has learned a new skill
FOOD:
Homemade Baking Powder
Makes about 1/3 cup
Ingredients:
1/4 cup cream of tartar
2 Tbsp baking soda
Method:
Sift both ingredients together into a small bowl; repeat process 2 more times. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 weeks; resift mixture before using.
============ ========= ========= ==
Baking Powder
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Cream Of Tartar Powder
1 Tbsp Baking Soda
1 Tbsp Cornstarch
Method:
Sift ingredients together and store in small container with tight-fitting lid.
One teaspoon of this equals 1 teaspoon of commercial baking powder.
============ ========= ========= ==
Large Batch Baking Powder
Ingredients:
1 lb Soda
1 1/2 lb Cream of tartar
1/4 lb Cornstarch
Method:
Mix all ingredients together. 1 tsp mix = 1 tsp Baking Powder
FUN:
Dear Lord,
So for today, God; I've done all right. I haven't gossiped,
haven't lost my temper, haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty,
selfish, or even indulgent.
I'm very thankful for that - But in a very short time, God, I'm
going to get out of bed, and from that moment on I'm going to
need a lot of help!
Amen.
2. NEVER OWN ANYTHING
I do not mean by this that you cannot have things. I mean that you ought to get delivered from the sense of possessing them. This sense of possessing is what hinders us. All babies are born with their fists clenched, and it seems to me it means, "This is mine!" One of the first things they say when they begin to speak, is "mine" in an angry voice. That sense of "This is mine" 'is a very injurious thing to the spirit. If you can get rid of it so that you have no feeling of possessing anything, there will come a great sense of freedom and liberty into your life.
Now don't think that you must sell all that you have and give it to charity. No. God will let you have your car and your business, your practice and your position, whatever it may be - provided you understand that it is not yours at all, but His, and all you are doing is just working for Him. You can be restful about it then, because we never need to worry about losing anything that belongs to someone else. If it is yours, you are always looking in your hand to see if it is still there. If it is God's, you no longer need to worry about it.
Let me point out some things you'll have to turn over to God. Property is one thing. Some of the dear Lord's children are being held back because there is a ball and chain on their legs. if it is a man, it's his big car and fine home. If it is a woman, it's her china and her Louis XIV furniture and all the rest. Take that vase for instance. There it stands. And if anybody knocked it off and broke it, the poor owner would probably lose five years from her life! it is always necessary to remember that we are only stewards of that which is usually called a possession.
3. NEVER DEFEND YOURSELF
We are all born with a desire to defend ourselves. And if you insist upon defending yourself, God will let you do it But if on turn the defense of yourself over to God, He will defend you. He told Moses in Exodus 23: "I will be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary to thine adversaries."
What do we defend? Well, we defend our talents; we defend our service; and particularly, we defend our reputation. Your reputation is what people think you are, and if a story gets out about you, the big temptation is to try to run it down.
Henry Suso was a great Christian of other days. Once he was seeking what some Christians have told me they are seeking to know God better. Let's put it like this: You are seeking to have a religious awakening within your spirit that will thrust you farther out into the deep things of God. Well, as Henry Suso was seeking God, people started telling evil stories about the man, and it grieved him so that he wept bitter tears and had great sorrow of heart.
Then one day he looked out the window and saw a dog playing on the lawn. The dog had a mat, and kept picking the mat up, tossing it over his shoulder, running and getting it, tossing it some more, picking it up and tossing it again. God said to Henry Suso, "That mat is your reputation, and I am letting the dogs of sin tear your reputation to shreds and toss it all over the lawn for your own good, but one of these days things will change."
And this did change. it was not very long before the people who were tearing his reputation were confounded, and Suso rose into a place that made him a power in his day and a great blessing still to those who sing his hymns and read his work.
FRIENDS:
Father, How holy and great is your promise. You've been so good to us, but somehow we find things to complain about even thought we've been given life eternal. Renew our vision; help us to see heaven. Help us to be busy about the things of the kingdom. In Jesus' name, Amen.
TEN THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR
1. Morning, after a bad night
2. Fresh, local corn
3. Know someone is faithful
4. Spring break
5. The smell of the earth
6. A smiling bride
7. Seeing someone you have missed
8. A good neighbor
9. Seeing with new eyes
10. A child who has learned a new skill
FOOD:
Homemade Baking Powder
Makes about 1/3 cup
Ingredients:
1/4 cup cream of tartar
2 Tbsp baking soda
Method:
Sift both ingredients together into a small bowl; repeat process 2 more times. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 weeks; resift mixture before using.
============ ========= ========= ==
Baking Powder
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Cream Of Tartar Powder
1 Tbsp Baking Soda
1 Tbsp Cornstarch
Method:
Sift ingredients together and store in small container with tight-fitting lid.
One teaspoon of this equals 1 teaspoon of commercial baking powder.
============ ========= ========= ==
Large Batch Baking Powder
Ingredients:
1 lb Soda
1 1/2 lb Cream of tartar
1/4 lb Cornstarch
Method:
Mix all ingredients together. 1 tsp mix = 1 tsp Baking Powder
FUN:
Dear Lord,
So for today, God; I've done all right. I haven't gossiped,
haven't lost my temper, haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty,
selfish, or even indulgent.
I'm very thankful for that - But in a very short time, God, I'm
going to get out of bed, and from that moment on I'm going to
need a lot of help!
Amen.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Vows-Part 2
FAITH:
Five Vows to Make and Keep
by A. W. Tozer
Some people object to taking vows, but in the Bible you will find many great men of God directed by covenants, promises, vows, and pledges. The psalmist was not averse to the taking of vows. He said, "Thy vows are upon me, 0 God, I will render my praises unto thee" (Psalm 56:12).
My counsel in this matter is that if you are really concerned about spiritual improvement - the gaining of new power, new life, new joy, and new personal revival within your heart -you will do well to make certain vows and proceed to keep them. if you should fail, go down in humility and repent and start over. But always keep these vows before you. They will help harmonize your heart with the vast powers that flow out and down from the throne where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
A carnal man refuses the discipline of such commitments. He says, "I want to be free. I don't want to lay any vows upon myself; I don't believe in it; it is legalism." Well, let me paint a picture of two men.
One of them will not take vows. He will not accept any responsibility. He wants to be free. And he is free - in a measure - just as a tramp is free. The tramp is free to sit on a park bench by day, sleep on a newspaper by night, get chased out of town on Thursday morning, and find his way up a set of creaky stairs in some flophouse on Thursday night. Such a man is free, but he is also useless. He clutters up the world whose air he breathes.
Let's look at another man - maybe a president or prime minister or any great man who carries upon himself the weight of government. Such men are not free. But in the sacrifice of their freedom they step up their power. if they insist upon being free, they can be free, just like the tramp. But they choose rather to be bound.
There are many religious tramps in the world who will not be bound by anything. They have turned the grace of God into personal license. But the great souls are the ones who have gone reverently to God with the understanding that in their flesh dwells no good thing. And they knew that without God's enablement any vows taken would be broken before sundown. Nevertheless, believing in God, reverently they took certain sacred vows. This is the way to spiritual power. There are five vows I have in mind which we do well to make and to keep.
1. DEAL THOROUGHLY WITH SIN
Sin has been driven underground these days and has come up with a new name and face. You may be subjected to this phenomenon in the schools. Sin is being called by various fancy names - anything but what it really is. For example, men don't get under conviction any more; they get a guilt complex.
Instead of confessing their guilt to God and getting rid of it, they sit on a couch and try and tell a man who ought to know better all about themselves. it comes out after a while that they were deeply disappointed when they were two years old or some such thing. That's supposed to make them better.
The whole thing is ridiculous, because sin is still the ancient enemy of the soul. it has never changed. We've got to deal firmly with sin in our lives. Let's remember that "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." Righteousness lies at the door of the kingdom of God. The soul that sins, it shall die.
This is not to preach sinless perfection. This is to say that every known sin is to be named, identified, and repudiated and that we must trust God for deliverance from it so that there is no conscious, deliberate sin anywhere in our lives. It is absolutely necessary that we deal thus, because God is a holy God and sin is on the throne of the world.
So don't call your sins by some other name. if you're jealous, call it jealousy. If you tend to pity yourself and feel that you are not appreciated, call it what it is - self-pity.
And then there is your temper. Don't call it indignation. Don't try to christen it by some other name Call it what it is. Because if you have a bad temper you will either get rid of it, or it will get rid of much of your spirituality and most of your joy. So let's deal with sin thoroughly. Let's be perfectly candid. God loves candid people.
FRIENDS:
Father, help us to recall the moment we first believed. The joy at no longer being a slave but your child. Set free to do great things in your name. If the first flame has flickered down, help us to fan it and bring it back to life and to tell others about the only hope this earth knows. In Jesus' name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 25
Mark 9:14-32; 1 Cor 16; Psalms 94; Ruth 4
This is the last one for April. Take time to catch up on any that you have missed and we will start again on the 1st of May.
FOOD:
Some one told me the other day that they didn't eat fish because it was too hard to cook. Here is a really easy recipe to just pop in the oven.
Oven Roasted Salmon with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Glaze
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup purchased sun-dried tomato pesto
2 teaspoons finely chopped lemon zest
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 pounds salmon fillet or 4 1/2-pound pieces
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Combine the pesto, lemon zest and mustard in a small mixing bowl and mix to combine.
Arrange the fillets in a baking dish, skin side down, allowing some space between each fillet. Using a spatula, frost each fillet with equal amounts of the pesto mixture. Roast the salmon for about 20-25 minutes, or until just cooked, depending on thickness of fillets.
FUN:
Five Vows to Make and Keep
by A. W. Tozer
Some people object to taking vows, but in the Bible you will find many great men of God directed by covenants, promises, vows, and pledges. The psalmist was not averse to the taking of vows. He said, "Thy vows are upon me, 0 God, I will render my praises unto thee" (Psalm 56:12).
My counsel in this matter is that if you are really concerned about spiritual improvement - the gaining of new power, new life, new joy, and new personal revival within your heart -you will do well to make certain vows and proceed to keep them. if you should fail, go down in humility and repent and start over. But always keep these vows before you. They will help harmonize your heart with the vast powers that flow out and down from the throne where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
A carnal man refuses the discipline of such commitments. He says, "I want to be free. I don't want to lay any vows upon myself; I don't believe in it; it is legalism." Well, let me paint a picture of two men.
One of them will not take vows. He will not accept any responsibility. He wants to be free. And he is free - in a measure - just as a tramp is free. The tramp is free to sit on a park bench by day, sleep on a newspaper by night, get chased out of town on Thursday morning, and find his way up a set of creaky stairs in some flophouse on Thursday night. Such a man is free, but he is also useless. He clutters up the world whose air he breathes.
Let's look at another man - maybe a president or prime minister or any great man who carries upon himself the weight of government. Such men are not free. But in the sacrifice of their freedom they step up their power. if they insist upon being free, they can be free, just like the tramp. But they choose rather to be bound.
There are many religious tramps in the world who will not be bound by anything. They have turned the grace of God into personal license. But the great souls are the ones who have gone reverently to God with the understanding that in their flesh dwells no good thing. And they knew that without God's enablement any vows taken would be broken before sundown. Nevertheless, believing in God, reverently they took certain sacred vows. This is the way to spiritual power. There are five vows I have in mind which we do well to make and to keep.
1. DEAL THOROUGHLY WITH SIN
Sin has been driven underground these days and has come up with a new name and face. You may be subjected to this phenomenon in the schools. Sin is being called by various fancy names - anything but what it really is. For example, men don't get under conviction any more; they get a guilt complex.
Instead of confessing their guilt to God and getting rid of it, they sit on a couch and try and tell a man who ought to know better all about themselves. it comes out after a while that they were deeply disappointed when they were two years old or some such thing. That's supposed to make them better.
The whole thing is ridiculous, because sin is still the ancient enemy of the soul. it has never changed. We've got to deal firmly with sin in our lives. Let's remember that "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." Righteousness lies at the door of the kingdom of God. The soul that sins, it shall die.
This is not to preach sinless perfection. This is to say that every known sin is to be named, identified, and repudiated and that we must trust God for deliverance from it so that there is no conscious, deliberate sin anywhere in our lives. It is absolutely necessary that we deal thus, because God is a holy God and sin is on the throne of the world.
So don't call your sins by some other name. if you're jealous, call it jealousy. If you tend to pity yourself and feel that you are not appreciated, call it what it is - self-pity.
And then there is your temper. Don't call it indignation. Don't try to christen it by some other name Call it what it is. Because if you have a bad temper you will either get rid of it, or it will get rid of much of your spirituality and most of your joy. So let's deal with sin thoroughly. Let's be perfectly candid. God loves candid people.
FRIENDS:
Father, help us to recall the moment we first believed. The joy at no longer being a slave but your child. Set free to do great things in your name. If the first flame has flickered down, help us to fan it and bring it back to life and to tell others about the only hope this earth knows. In Jesus' name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 25
Mark 9:14-32; 1 Cor 16; Psalms 94; Ruth 4
This is the last one for April. Take time to catch up on any that you have missed and we will start again on the 1st of May.
FOOD:
Some one told me the other day that they didn't eat fish because it was too hard to cook. Here is a really easy recipe to just pop in the oven.
Oven Roasted Salmon with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Glaze
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup purchased sun-dried tomato pesto
2 teaspoons finely chopped lemon zest
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 pounds salmon fillet or 4 1/2-pound pieces
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Combine the pesto, lemon zest and mustard in a small mixing bowl and mix to combine.
Arrange the fillets in a baking dish, skin side down, allowing some space between each fillet. Using a spatula, frost each fillet with equal amounts of the pesto mixture. Roast the salmon for about 20-25 minutes, or until just cooked, depending on thickness of fillets.
FUN:
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Vows Part 1
FAITH:
Very recently I had a great conversation with a dear friend. She had come upon this information and was going to share it on her blog. I loved it so much I asked if she minded if I shared it with all of you. I am going to do it in parts as it is quite long and I just did another long one a few devotionals back. This is some especially good information that will help with your walk with the Lord.
“Thy vows are upon me, O God,” he said. “I will render my praises unto thee” (Psalm 56:12).
The truest characters in the Bible were persons who made resolutions. And while they surely did not always succeed in keeping the resolutions resolving as they did, helped them to become the characters they were. Consider these examples:
Daniel: "Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which lie drank" (Daniel 1:8).
Joshua: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).
Hannah: "For this child I prayed: and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked him; therefore . . . . as long as he lives lie shall be lent to the Lord" (1 Samuel 1:27-28).
Ruth: "Intreat me not to leave thee .... for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God" (Ruth 1:16-17).
David: "I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways; I will delight myself in thy statutes; I will not forget thy word" (Psalm 119:15-1 6). At the very beginning of this new year, each of us will do well to make some resolutions. in fact, each of us should go a step farther and make some commitments. A "resolution" is only "an inward determination;" a "commitment" is "a binding promise." This year we want to make some New Year's commitments to God, and then say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Timothy 1: 12). Each should say:
I will (like Paul) forget those things which are behind, and press forward.
I will (like Abraham) trust implicitly in my God. I will (like Moses) choose rather to suffer with God's people than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
I will (like job) be patient under the trials and hard places in life.
I will (like Joshua) refuse to become discouraged because of superior numbers on the other side. I will (like Joseph) turn my back on all seductive advances of the opposite sex.
I will (like Aaron and Hur) uphold the hands of my spiritual leaders.
I will (like Andrew) strive to lead my brother into a closer walk with Christ.
I will (like Stephen) manifest a forgiving spirit toward all who seek my hurt.
I will (like Timothy) vow to study the Word of God each day.
These are some good deeds that will show our faith to be real and genuine. Realizing that I cannot hope to achieve these objectives by my own strength I will rely upon Christ, for "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).
Jonathan Edwards made the following resolutions early in life and sought to abide by them throughout his entire ministry.
1. Resolved never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I can. "For what is your life? it is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away" (James 4:14).
2 . Resolved never to do anything out of revenge. -Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19).
3. Resolved never to do anything which I should despise in another. "All things whatsoever ye Would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them" (Matthew 7:12).
4. Resolved never to do anything which I should be afraid to do, if I knew it were the last hour of my life. "But the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer" (1 Peter 4: 7).
Surely anyone who will adopt these resolutions and strive to follow them in his daily walk, will be a more useful and Christlike person.
FRIENDS:
Father, Remind us of the days when we were separated from Christ, then bring our minds back to the moment we first saw the love of your Son. Please help us to never grow complacent in our relationship with you. In Jesus' name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 24
Mark 9:1-13; 1 Cor 15:29-58; Psalms 93; Ruth 1-2
APRIL 25
Mark 9:14-32; 1 Cor 16; Psalms 94; Ruth 3-4
~Ruth~
Here is a play with four characters.
Character number one is a prostitute.
Character number two is her son. By the time we meet him he is wealthy, powerful, and single. (We wonder if his bachelorhood has anything to do with being the son of a prostitute.)
Character number three is a foreign widow in a clannish culture. Everything about her is different. Speaks with an accent. Wears a different name. Eats different food. Has a different way. Her only friend is her mother-in-law who happens also to be a widow and happens to be:
Character number four. She is older than the first widow. Too old to have kids. When her two sons die and her husband dies, she is left alone. With only a foreigner as a friend.
Four people. Each rejected. Each alone. four frazzled strings in the bottom of the knitting basket. Left untouched, awaiting the toss of the master-weaver. But he doesn't discard them.
He picks them up and weaves them together. The result? The unmarried son of the prostitute meets the foreign widow who left her homeland to accompany her mother-in-law.The mother-in-law recognized the bachelor as a relative and urges her daughter-in-law to make herself available. She does, the two marry, and the single bachelor has a wife---the young widow has a husband the the older widow has a grandson and we have a story of providential romance.
Such is the story of Ruth.
You'll recognize her as the younger widow. The older is named Naomi. Boaz is the son of the prostitute. And the prostitute? Well, she isn't mentioned in this book. But she is mentioned in, of all places, the Gospel of Matthew.
Read the words in chapter one verse five. Go ahead and flip over there.
Did you see it? Salmon was the father of Boaz. (Boaz's mother was Rahab)
Who would've thought? A harlot on Jesus' family tree.
But these kind of things happen in the Bible. Aren't we glad they do? Aren't we glad the mater-weaver has a place in his plan for each of us?
FOOD:
Does anyone out there love the Crock Pot as much as I do? Here is a great link for my fellow crockpotters....
http://crockpotrecipes101.com/blog/index.htm
FUN:
Look at the face of the little guy who is waiting his turn. I wonder if he had just been laughing a few seconds ago like the other little boys are?
Very recently I had a great conversation with a dear friend. She had come upon this information and was going to share it on her blog. I loved it so much I asked if she minded if I shared it with all of you. I am going to do it in parts as it is quite long and I just did another long one a few devotionals back. This is some especially good information that will help with your walk with the Lord.
“Thy vows are upon me, O God,” he said. “I will render my praises unto thee” (Psalm 56:12).
The truest characters in the Bible were persons who made resolutions. And while they surely did not always succeed in keeping the resolutions resolving as they did, helped them to become the characters they were. Consider these examples:
Daniel: "Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which lie drank" (Daniel 1:8).
Joshua: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).
Hannah: "For this child I prayed: and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked him; therefore . . . . as long as he lives lie shall be lent to the Lord" (1 Samuel 1:27-28).
Ruth: "Intreat me not to leave thee .... for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God" (Ruth 1:16-17).
David: "I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways; I will delight myself in thy statutes; I will not forget thy word" (Psalm 119:15-1 6). At the very beginning of this new year, each of us will do well to make some resolutions. in fact, each of us should go a step farther and make some commitments. A "resolution" is only "an inward determination;" a "commitment" is "a binding promise." This year we want to make some New Year's commitments to God, and then say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Timothy 1: 12). Each should say:
I will (like Paul) forget those things which are behind, and press forward.
I will (like Abraham) trust implicitly in my God. I will (like Moses) choose rather to suffer with God's people than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
I will (like job) be patient under the trials and hard places in life.
I will (like Joshua) refuse to become discouraged because of superior numbers on the other side. I will (like Joseph) turn my back on all seductive advances of the opposite sex.
I will (like Aaron and Hur) uphold the hands of my spiritual leaders.
I will (like Andrew) strive to lead my brother into a closer walk with Christ.
I will (like Stephen) manifest a forgiving spirit toward all who seek my hurt.
I will (like Timothy) vow to study the Word of God each day.
These are some good deeds that will show our faith to be real and genuine. Realizing that I cannot hope to achieve these objectives by my own strength I will rely upon Christ, for "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).
Jonathan Edwards made the following resolutions early in life and sought to abide by them throughout his entire ministry.
1. Resolved never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I can. "For what is your life? it is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishes away" (James 4:14).
2 . Resolved never to do anything out of revenge. -Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19).
3. Resolved never to do anything which I should despise in another. "All things whatsoever ye Would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them" (Matthew 7:12).
4. Resolved never to do anything which I should be afraid to do, if I knew it were the last hour of my life. "But the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer" (1 Peter 4: 7).
Surely anyone who will adopt these resolutions and strive to follow them in his daily walk, will be a more useful and Christlike person.
FRIENDS:
Father, Remind us of the days when we were separated from Christ, then bring our minds back to the moment we first saw the love of your Son. Please help us to never grow complacent in our relationship with you. In Jesus' name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 24
Mark 9:1-13; 1 Cor 15:29-58; Psalms 93; Ruth 1-2
APRIL 25
Mark 9:14-32; 1 Cor 16; Psalms 94; Ruth 3-4
~Ruth~
Here is a play with four characters.
Character number one is a prostitute.
Character number two is her son. By the time we meet him he is wealthy, powerful, and single. (We wonder if his bachelorhood has anything to do with being the son of a prostitute.)
Character number three is a foreign widow in a clannish culture. Everything about her is different. Speaks with an accent. Wears a different name. Eats different food. Has a different way. Her only friend is her mother-in-law who happens also to be a widow and happens to be:
Character number four. She is older than the first widow. Too old to have kids. When her two sons die and her husband dies, she is left alone. With only a foreigner as a friend.
Four people. Each rejected. Each alone. four frazzled strings in the bottom of the knitting basket. Left untouched, awaiting the toss of the master-weaver. But he doesn't discard them.
He picks them up and weaves them together. The result? The unmarried son of the prostitute meets the foreign widow who left her homeland to accompany her mother-in-law.The mother-in-law recognized the bachelor as a relative and urges her daughter-in-law to make herself available. She does, the two marry, and the single bachelor has a wife---the young widow has a husband the the older widow has a grandson and we have a story of providential romance.
Such is the story of Ruth.
You'll recognize her as the younger widow. The older is named Naomi. Boaz is the son of the prostitute. And the prostitute? Well, she isn't mentioned in this book. But she is mentioned in, of all places, the Gospel of Matthew.
Read the words in chapter one verse five. Go ahead and flip over there.
Did you see it? Salmon was the father of Boaz. (Boaz's mother was Rahab)
Who would've thought? A harlot on Jesus' family tree.
But these kind of things happen in the Bible. Aren't we glad they do? Aren't we glad the mater-weaver has a place in his plan for each of us?
FOOD:
Does anyone out there love the Crock Pot as much as I do? Here is a great link for my fellow crockpotters....
http://crockpotrecipes101.com/blog/index.htm
FUN:
Look at the face of the little guy who is waiting his turn. I wonder if he had just been laughing a few seconds ago like the other little boys are?
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Letters to Your Children
FAITH:
Genesis 49:1-33
In previous chapters Joseph played an instrumental role in saving Egypt from the famine. In the process he revealed his identity to his brothers and called his father to join them in Egypt. As the entire family was reunited, Jacob delivered a final blessing to each of his sons.
Jacob reflected upon the lives of his sons and described what they could expect in the future.
Try to write through your life. In his fine autobiographies, Frederick Buechner advises us to listen to our lives, to seek those patterns and rhythms of meaning that we often miss in the living of life but can discover on looking back. Our lives are filled with significance---if only we have eyes to see.
Tell stories. We love to hear stories because they are mostly about human beings surviving trouble. and we all need the encouragement that comes from discovering that others have been afflicted as we and have found a way to the other side. In stories are pain and struggle and failure, but also laughter and wisdom and grace. Your stories will have these things as much as anyone's, and you do not have to be good with words ot tell them powerfully.
A final word of advice---write letters and tell stories that are ultimately affirming. Don't settle scores or preach old sermons. Children are flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. Their lives are and will be difficult--as yours may have been---and they need all the encouragement they can get. They might also need a kick in the seat, but there are many ways to give them that. Speak to them words of encouragement and love. The will learn, thereby, to speak such words to others.
In writing on what you care about to those you love, you will enrich the world eternally. by Daniel Taylor
Applying it: Write a letter or note to someone you love. Tell that person a story of what God is doing in your life. Express appreciation for what that person has done in your life.
Exploring it: Blessings--Genesis 27:25-29; Deuteronomy 33; Joshua 14:13. Teaching Children--Deuteronomy 4:9; 6:6-9; Psalms 78:5-7; Proverbs 22:6; Isaiah 28:9.
FRIENDS:
Father, remind and encourage us to pray for our children. We should never underestimate the power that comes when a parent pleads with you on behalf of their child. We know that you listen to thoughtful parents. We acknowledge that the only stability in the world is the Cross of Christ and it is to that Cross we turn. In Jesus' name, Amen
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 22
Mark 8:22-30; 1 Cor 14:26-40; Psalms 91; Judges 20
APRIL 23
Mark 8:31-38; 1 Cor 15:1-28; Psalms 92; Judges 21
10 Things To Be Thankful For
1. Cold hands on a hot fore head
2. Kindliness
3. Cooking for people
4. Snoozing in a hammock
5. Visiting a place where you were a child
6. Chilled sliced fruit
7. A bowl of ice and a fan
8. Soul soothing routines
9. Curling up with a good book
10. Roasted corn
FOOD:
Kahlua Cake
1 box of Devil’s Food Cake
1 box instant vanilla pudding
2 eggs
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ cup Kahlua
1 16 ounce container of sour cream
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Powdered sugar for sprinkling
Pre heat oven to 350. Combine cake mix, pudding,eggs,oil, Kahlua and
sour cream in a large mixing bowl. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour
batter into a greased Bundt Pan. Bake for 50 minutes. Allow cake to
cool…invert cake onto serving plate…Dust cake with powdered sugar.
For special occasion…drizzle with white chocolate.
Serves 10-12
FUN:
"O' Just Great, they're gonna think I did that!!!"
Genesis 49:1-33
In previous chapters Joseph played an instrumental role in saving Egypt from the famine. In the process he revealed his identity to his brothers and called his father to join them in Egypt. As the entire family was reunited, Jacob delivered a final blessing to each of his sons.
Jacob reflected upon the lives of his sons and described what they could expect in the future.
Try to write through your life. In his fine autobiographies, Frederick Buechner advises us to listen to our lives, to seek those patterns and rhythms of meaning that we often miss in the living of life but can discover on looking back. Our lives are filled with significance---if only we have eyes to see.
Tell stories. We love to hear stories because they are mostly about human beings surviving trouble. and we all need the encouragement that comes from discovering that others have been afflicted as we and have found a way to the other side. In stories are pain and struggle and failure, but also laughter and wisdom and grace. Your stories will have these things as much as anyone's, and you do not have to be good with words ot tell them powerfully.
A final word of advice---write letters and tell stories that are ultimately affirming. Don't settle scores or preach old sermons. Children are flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. Their lives are and will be difficult--as yours may have been---and they need all the encouragement they can get. They might also need a kick in the seat, but there are many ways to give them that. Speak to them words of encouragement and love. The will learn, thereby, to speak such words to others.
In writing on what you care about to those you love, you will enrich the world eternally. by Daniel Taylor
Applying it: Write a letter or note to someone you love. Tell that person a story of what God is doing in your life. Express appreciation for what that person has done in your life.
Exploring it: Blessings--Genesis 27:25-29; Deuteronomy 33; Joshua 14:13. Teaching Children--Deuteronomy 4:9; 6:6-9; Psalms 78:5-7; Proverbs 22:6; Isaiah 28:9.
FRIENDS:
Father, remind and encourage us to pray for our children. We should never underestimate the power that comes when a parent pleads with you on behalf of their child. We know that you listen to thoughtful parents. We acknowledge that the only stability in the world is the Cross of Christ and it is to that Cross we turn. In Jesus' name, Amen
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 22
Mark 8:22-30; 1 Cor 14:26-40; Psalms 91; Judges 20
APRIL 23
Mark 8:31-38; 1 Cor 15:1-28; Psalms 92; Judges 21
10 Things To Be Thankful For
1. Cold hands on a hot fore head
2. Kindliness
3. Cooking for people
4. Snoozing in a hammock
5. Visiting a place where you were a child
6. Chilled sliced fruit
7. A bowl of ice and a fan
8. Soul soothing routines
9. Curling up with a good book
10. Roasted corn
FOOD:
Kahlua Cake
1 box of Devil’s Food Cake
1 box instant vanilla pudding
2 eggs
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ cup Kahlua
1 16 ounce container of sour cream
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Powdered sugar for sprinkling
Pre heat oven to 350. Combine cake mix, pudding,eggs,oil, Kahlua and
sour cream in a large mixing bowl. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour
batter into a greased Bundt Pan. Bake for 50 minutes. Allow cake to
cool…invert cake onto serving plate…Dust cake with powdered sugar.
For special occasion…drizzle with white chocolate.
Serves 10-12
FUN:
"O' Just Great, they're gonna think I did that!!!"
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Growing old for God~Last part.
FAITH:
A Charge to Baby Boomers
I am 61 years old—just about the oldest baby boomer (January 11, 1946). Behind me come 78 million boomers, ages 43 to 61. Over 10,000 turn sixty every day. If you read the research, we are a self-centered generation.
* Likes: working from home, anti-aging supplements, climate control
* Dislikes: wrinkles, Millennial sleeping habits, Social Security, insecurity
* Hobbies: low-impact sports, uberparenting, wining and dining
* Hangouts: farmer’s markets, tailgate parties, backyards
* Resources: $2.1 trillion
2 What will it mean to get old to the glory of God as a baby boomer in America?
It will mean a radical break with the mindset of our unbelieving peers. Especially a break with the typical dream of retirement. Ralph Winter is the founder of the
U. S. Center for World Missions and is in his early eighties, traveling, speaking, and writing for the cause of Christ in world missions. He wrote an article titled “The Retirement Booby Trap” almost 25 years ago when he was about 60. In it he said, Most men don’t die of old age, they die of retirement. I read somewhere that half the men retiring in the state of New York die within two years. Save your life and you’ll lose it. Just like other drugs, other psychological addictions, retirement is a virulent disease, not a blessing. . . . Where in the Bible do they see that? Did Moses retire? Did Paul retire? Peter? John? Do military officers retire in the middle of a war?”
3 Millions of Christian men and women are finishing their formal careers in their fifties and sixties, and for most of them there will be a good twenty years before their physical and mental powers fail. What will it mean to live those final years for the glory of God? How will we live them in such a way as to show that Christ is our highest Treasure?
The Perseverance of Charles Simeon
When I got prostate cancer and had surgery last year at age 60, I recalled the experience of Charles Simeon and prayed that his outcome would be true for me. Simeon was the pastor of Trinity Church, Cambridge, two hundred years ago. He learned a very painful lesson about God’s attitude toward his “retirement.” In 1807, after 25 years of ministry at Trinity Church, his health broke when he was 47. He became very weak and had to take an extended leave from his labor.
Handley Moule recounts the fascinating story of what God was doing in Simeon’s life.
The broken condition lasted with variations for thirteen years, till he was just sixty, and then it passed away quite suddenly and without any evident physical cause. He was on his last visit to Scotland . . . in 1819, and found himself, to his great surprise, just as he crossed the border, “almost as perceptibly renewed in strength as the woman was after she had touched the hem of our Lord’s garment.” He says that he had been promising himself, before he began to break down, a very active life up to sixty, and then a Sabbath evening [retirement!]; and that now he seemed to hear his Master saying: “I laid you aside, because you entertained with satisfaction the thought of resting from your labour; but now you have arrived at the very period when you had promised yourself that satisfaction, and have determined instead to spend your strength for me to the latest hour of your life, I have doubled, trebled, quadrupled your strength, that you may execute your desire on a more extended plan.”
4 How many Christians set their sights on a “Sabbath evening” of life—resting, playing, traveling, etc.—the world’s substitute for heaven since the world does not believe that there will be a heaven beyond the grave. The mindset or our peers is that we must reward ourselves now in this life for the long years of our labor. Eternal rest and joy after death is an irrelevant consideration. When you don’t believe in heaven to come and you are not content in the glory of Christ now, you will seek the kind of retirement that the world seeks. But what a strange reward for a Christian to set his sights on! Twenty years of leisure (!) while living in the midst of the Last Days of infinite consequence for millions of people who need Christ. What a tragic way to finish the last mile before entering the presence of the king who finished his last mile so differently!
The Perseverance of J. Oswald Sanders
When I heard J. Oswald Sanders at the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School chapel speaking at the age of 89 say that he had written a book a year for Christ since he was 70, everything in me said, “O God, don’t let me waste my final years! Don’t let me buy the American dream of retirement—month after month of leisure and play and hobbies and putzing around in the garage and rearranging the furniture and golfing and fishing and sitting and watching television. Lord, please have mercy on me. Spare me this curse. ” Making God’s Greatness Known to Future Generations That is my prayer for you as well.
I close with a passion and a promise. The passion is Psalm 71:18—a passion to make the greatness of God known to the generations we are leaving behind: “Even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.” O that God would give us a passion in our final years to spend ourselves to make him look as great as he really is—to get old to the glory of God.
We Are As Secure As Christ Is Righteous and God Is Just The promise: Isaiah 46:3-4, “[You] have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.” Don’t be afraid, Christian. You will persevere. You will make it home. Sooner than you think. Live dangerously for the one who loved you and died for you at age 33. Don’t throw your life away on the American dream of retirement. You are as secure as Christ is righteous and God is just. Don’t settle for anything less than the joyful sorrows of magnifying Christ in the sacrifices of love. And then in the Last Day, you will stand and hear, “Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.”
FRIENDS:
Father, this subject lies so close to my heart. As you grant me more years, I am more keenly aware of and have the desire to do more for the Kingdom. I pray that you will give us your heart and a servant's hands. May we see your hand stretching as far as the east is from the west. Put your hands and your arms around us and embrace us. May we be yours forever. In Jesus' name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 20
Mark 8:1-13; 1 Cor 13; Psalms 89:19-52; Judges 17-18
APRIL 21
Mark 8:14-21; 1 Cor 14:1-25; Psalms 90; Judges 19
FOOD:
Cranberry Onion Roast
Slow Cooker
1 ( 3 to 5 pound) rump roast, trimmed
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 can jellied cranberry sauce
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons flour
Rinse rump roast and pat dry. Sprinkle the onion soup mix in the bottom of the crock pot. Place the rump roast on top of the onion soup mix. Spoon the cranberry sauce around and over the roast. Cover and cook on LOW for 10 to 12 hours. Remove roast from crock pot and allow to rest while you thicken the gravy. Turn the crock pot up to HIGH.
Blend the softened butter and flour into a paste and whisk it into the gravy. Cover and cook on HIGH for about 10 minutes, until thick. Slice the roast into 1/4-inch thick slices and serve with the gravy. The slices may be frozen in the gravy in plastic freezer bags.
FUN:
Friday, April 17, 2009
Part Three of Growing Old for God
FAITH:
The Key to Growing Old to God’s Glory
Therefore, perseverance is necessary for final salvation, and perseverance is certain for all those who are in Christ. The works we do on the path of love do not win God’s favor. They result from God’s favor. Christ won God’s favor. And we receive him by faith alone. And love is the overflow and demonstration of this faith.
This is the key to growing old to the glory of God. If we are going to make God look glorious in the last years of our lives, we must be satisfied in him. He must be our Treasure. And the life that we live must flow from this all-satisfying Christ. And the life that flows from the soul that lives on Jesus is a life of love and service. This is what will make Christ look great. When our hearts find their rest in Christ, we stop using other people to meet our needs, and instead we make ourselves servants to meet their needs. This is so contrary to the unregenerate human heart that it stands out as something beautiful to be followed or something convicting to be crucified.
It works both ways. Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna illustrates both and what it may mean for us to grow old to the glory of God.
The Perseverance of Polycarp
Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna in Asian Minor. He lived from about AD 70 to 155. He is famous for his martyrdom which is recounted in The Martyrdom of Polycarp and found in Henry Bettenson’s Documents of the Christian Church (Oxford, 1967, pp. 9-12). Tensions had risen between the Christians and those who venerated Caesar. The Christians were called atheists because they refused to worship any of the Roman gods and had no images or shrines of their own. At one point, a mob cried out, “Away with the atheists; let search be made of Polycarp.”
At a cottage outside the city, he remained in prayer and did not flee. He had a vision of a burning pillow and said to his companion, “I must needs be burned alive.” The authorities sought him, and he was betrayed to them by one of his servants under torture. He came down from an upper room and talked with his accusers. “All that were present marveled at his age and constancy, and that there was so much ado about the arrest of such an old man” (p. 9). He asked for permission to pray before being taken away. They allowed it and “being so filled with the grace of God that for two hours he could not hold his peace” (p. 10).
In the town, the sheriff met him and took him into his carriage and tried to persuade him to deny Christ, “Now what harm is there in saying ‘Lord Caesar,’ and in offering incense . . . and thus saving thyself?” He answered, “I do not intend to do what you advise.” Angered, they hastened him to the stadium where there was a great tumult.
“How Can I Blaspheme My King Who Saved Me?”
The proconsul tried again to persuade him to save himself, “Have respect to thine age . . . Swear by the genius of Caesar . . . Repent . . . Say, ‘Away with the atheists! [that is, Christians].” Polycarp turned to the “mob of lawless heathen in the stadium, and he waved his hand at them, and looking up to heaven he groaned and said, ‘Away with the atheists.’” Again the proconsul said, “Swear, and I will release thee; curse the Christ.” To this Polycarp gave his most famous response, “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he hath done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?”
The proconsul said again, “Swear by the genius of Caesar.” And Polycarp answered, “If thou dost vainly imagine that I would swear by the genius of Caesar, as thou sayest, pretending not to know what I am, hear plainly that I am a Christian.” The proconsul replied, “I have wild beasts; if thou repent not, I will throw thee to them.” To which Polycarp replied, “Send for them. For repentance from better to worse is not a change permitted to us; but to change from cruelty to righteousness is a noble thing” (p. 11).
The proconsul said, “If thou doest despise the wild beasts I will make thee to be consumed by fire, if thou repent not.” Polycarp answered, “Thou threatenest the fire that burns for an hour and in a little while is quenched; for thou knowest not of the fire of the judgment to come, and the fire of the eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. But why delayest thou? Bring what thou wilt.”
The proconsul sent word that it should be proclaimed aloud to the crowd three times, “Polycarp hath confessed himself to be a Christian.” After the crowd found out that there were no beasts available for the task, they cried out for him to be burned alive. The wood was gathered, and as they were about to nail his hands to the timber he said, “Let me be as I am. He that granted me to endure the fire will grant me also to remain at the pyre unmoved, without being secured with nails.” The fire did not consume him, but an executioner drove a dagger into his body. “And all the multitude marveled at the great difference between the unbelievers and the elect.” (p. 12).
When we are so satisfied in Christ that we are enabled to willingly die for him, we are freed to love the lost as never before, and Christ is shown to be a great Treasure.
FRIENDS:
Father, We know that those who serve You most joyfully are the ones who know you most personally. That those who are quickest to speak about Jesus are those who realize how great has been their own redemption. Help us, Dear Lord, if we are lacking, to become that type of person. Help us, Teach us to be more aware of you. In Jesus' name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 18
Mark 7:1-23; 1 Cor 12:1-13; Psalms 88; Judges 13-15
APRIL 19
Mark 7:24-37; 1 Cor 12:14-31; Psalms 89:1-18; Judges 16
10 Things To Be Thankful For
1. Sharing something from your Childhood
2. The smell of the ocean
3. When someone does something that makes you laugh
4. Daffodils in a fruit jar
5. When someone goes out of their way to be kind
6. The smell of home made soap
7. Building a scrapbook
8. Looking out the window on a sunny day
9. Being able to share with someone
10. Finding a note that someone planted for you to find
FOOD:
Aunt Pajama's* Pancake Mix
*Copycat Mixes
2 cups self-rising flour
2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup non-dairy creamer powder
-----to use the mix-----
1 egg
8 ounces 7-up
1 3/4 cups prepared pancake mix
In an 8-cup container, stir together flour, Bisquick, sugar and creamer. Cover tightly. Refrigerate mix to use within 3 months. Makes 7 cups of mix.
TO USE-Into blender, put egg, 7-up and prepared pancake mix. Blend at high speed until smooth, 1 minute. Allow 1/3 c batter for each 6" pancakes.
Makes 8 pancakes.
FUN:
The Key to Growing Old to God’s Glory
Therefore, perseverance is necessary for final salvation, and perseverance is certain for all those who are in Christ. The works we do on the path of love do not win God’s favor. They result from God’s favor. Christ won God’s favor. And we receive him by faith alone. And love is the overflow and demonstration of this faith.
This is the key to growing old to the glory of God. If we are going to make God look glorious in the last years of our lives, we must be satisfied in him. He must be our Treasure. And the life that we live must flow from this all-satisfying Christ. And the life that flows from the soul that lives on Jesus is a life of love and service. This is what will make Christ look great. When our hearts find their rest in Christ, we stop using other people to meet our needs, and instead we make ourselves servants to meet their needs. This is so contrary to the unregenerate human heart that it stands out as something beautiful to be followed or something convicting to be crucified.
It works both ways. Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna illustrates both and what it may mean for us to grow old to the glory of God.
The Perseverance of Polycarp
Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna in Asian Minor. He lived from about AD 70 to 155. He is famous for his martyrdom which is recounted in The Martyrdom of Polycarp and found in Henry Bettenson’s Documents of the Christian Church (Oxford, 1967, pp. 9-12). Tensions had risen between the Christians and those who venerated Caesar. The Christians were called atheists because they refused to worship any of the Roman gods and had no images or shrines of their own. At one point, a mob cried out, “Away with the atheists; let search be made of Polycarp.”
At a cottage outside the city, he remained in prayer and did not flee. He had a vision of a burning pillow and said to his companion, “I must needs be burned alive.” The authorities sought him, and he was betrayed to them by one of his servants under torture. He came down from an upper room and talked with his accusers. “All that were present marveled at his age and constancy, and that there was so much ado about the arrest of such an old man” (p. 9). He asked for permission to pray before being taken away. They allowed it and “being so filled with the grace of God that for two hours he could not hold his peace” (p. 10).
In the town, the sheriff met him and took him into his carriage and tried to persuade him to deny Christ, “Now what harm is there in saying ‘Lord Caesar,’ and in offering incense . . . and thus saving thyself?” He answered, “I do not intend to do what you advise.” Angered, they hastened him to the stadium where there was a great tumult.
“How Can I Blaspheme My King Who Saved Me?”
The proconsul tried again to persuade him to save himself, “Have respect to thine age . . . Swear by the genius of Caesar . . . Repent . . . Say, ‘Away with the atheists! [that is, Christians].” Polycarp turned to the “mob of lawless heathen in the stadium, and he waved his hand at them, and looking up to heaven he groaned and said, ‘Away with the atheists.’” Again the proconsul said, “Swear, and I will release thee; curse the Christ.” To this Polycarp gave his most famous response, “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he hath done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?”
The proconsul said again, “Swear by the genius of Caesar.” And Polycarp answered, “If thou dost vainly imagine that I would swear by the genius of Caesar, as thou sayest, pretending not to know what I am, hear plainly that I am a Christian.” The proconsul replied, “I have wild beasts; if thou repent not, I will throw thee to them.” To which Polycarp replied, “Send for them. For repentance from better to worse is not a change permitted to us; but to change from cruelty to righteousness is a noble thing” (p. 11).
The proconsul said, “If thou doest despise the wild beasts I will make thee to be consumed by fire, if thou repent not.” Polycarp answered, “Thou threatenest the fire that burns for an hour and in a little while is quenched; for thou knowest not of the fire of the judgment to come, and the fire of the eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. But why delayest thou? Bring what thou wilt.”
The proconsul sent word that it should be proclaimed aloud to the crowd three times, “Polycarp hath confessed himself to be a Christian.” After the crowd found out that there were no beasts available for the task, they cried out for him to be burned alive. The wood was gathered, and as they were about to nail his hands to the timber he said, “Let me be as I am. He that granted me to endure the fire will grant me also to remain at the pyre unmoved, without being secured with nails.” The fire did not consume him, but an executioner drove a dagger into his body. “And all the multitude marveled at the great difference between the unbelievers and the elect.” (p. 12).
When we are so satisfied in Christ that we are enabled to willingly die for him, we are freed to love the lost as never before, and Christ is shown to be a great Treasure.
FRIENDS:
Father, We know that those who serve You most joyfully are the ones who know you most personally. That those who are quickest to speak about Jesus are those who realize how great has been their own redemption. Help us, Dear Lord, if we are lacking, to become that type of person. Help us, Teach us to be more aware of you. In Jesus' name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 18
Mark 7:1-23; 1 Cor 12:1-13; Psalms 88; Judges 13-15
APRIL 19
Mark 7:24-37; 1 Cor 12:14-31; Psalms 89:1-18; Judges 16
10 Things To Be Thankful For
1. Sharing something from your Childhood
2. The smell of the ocean
3. When someone does something that makes you laugh
4. Daffodils in a fruit jar
5. When someone goes out of their way to be kind
6. The smell of home made soap
7. Building a scrapbook
8. Looking out the window on a sunny day
9. Being able to share with someone
10. Finding a note that someone planted for you to find
FOOD:
Aunt Pajama's* Pancake Mix
*Copycat Mixes
2 cups self-rising flour
2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup non-dairy creamer powder
-----to use the mix-----
1 egg
8 ounces 7-up
1 3/4 cups prepared pancake mix
In an 8-cup container, stir together flour, Bisquick, sugar and creamer. Cover tightly. Refrigerate mix to use within 3 months. Makes 7 cups of mix.
TO USE-Into blender, put egg, 7-up and prepared pancake mix. Blend at high speed until smooth, 1 minute. Allow 1/3 c batter for each 6" pancakes.
Makes 8 pancakes.
FUN:
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Part 2 of 4 Growing old for God
FAITH:
The Fear of Not Persevering
One of the great obstacles to getting old to the glory of God is the fear that we will not persevere in treasuring Christ and loving people—we just won’t make it. We won’t be able to say with Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” The reward of final righteousness will come to those who have loved his appearing, that is, who treasure him supremely and want him to be here. So this treasuring of Christ must be included in and part of the fought-fight and the finished-race and the kept-faith. Faith includes treasuring Christ and his appearing. You don’t have faith if you don’t want Jesus.
So one great obstacle to getting old to the glory of God is the fear that we can’t maintain this treasuring of Christ. And so we can’t bear the fruit of love that flows from faith (Galatians 5:6; 1 Timothy 1:5). We’re not going to make it. And the main reason that this fear of not persevering in faith and love is an obstacle to getting old to the glory of God is that the two most common ways of overcoming this fear are deadly.
Two Deadly Ways to Overcome This Fear
There are two opposite ways to ruin your life in trying to overcome this fear. One is to assume that perseverance in faith and love is not necessary for final salvation. And the other is to assume that perseverance is necessary, and then depend on our efforts in some measure to fulfill that necessity and to secure God’s favor. Let me show why both these are devastatingly misguided and deadly, and then what is the biblical way of growing old to the glory of God.
1) Deadly: “Perseverance Is Unnecessary”
It’s a mistake to think that perseverance in faith and love is not necessary for final salvation. A deadly mistake. Jesus said in Mark 13:13, “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Hebrews 12:14 says, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” In Galatians 6:8-9, Paul says, “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.” So notice that the two reapings are corruption on the one hand and eternal life on the other hand. Then he says in the next verse, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap [that is, reap eternal life], if we do not give up.”
So clearly persevering in the furrows of faith sowing to the Spirit and bearing his fruit of love is necessary for final salvation. “God chose you,” Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, “. . . to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” “Saved through sanctification” means that sanctification—the path of love—is the path on which saved sinners go to heaven. And it’s the only path that leads to heaven.
So it is a tragic and deadly mistake to try to overcome the fear of not persevering in old age by saying you don’t have to persevere.
2) Deadly: “Perseverance Puts or Keeps God on Our Side”
But the other misguided way of overcoming the fear of not persevering is just as dangerous. It is the way that says: “Yes, perseverance in faith and love is necessary and that means I must wait till the last day for God to be 100% for me, and I must depend on my efforts to secure God’s full favor. God may get me started in the Christian life by faith in him alone, but perseverance happens another way. God makes his ongoing favor depend on my efforts.” That, I say, is deadly and leads either to despair or pride. And certainly not to perseverance.
When Does God Become 100% on Our Side?
What’s wrong with that? You can see what’s wrong if you ask this question: When does God become totally and irrevocably for us—not 99%, but 100% for us? Is it at the end of the age, at the Last Day, when he has seen our whole life and measured it to see if it is worthy of his being for us? That is not what the Bible teaches.
What the Bible teaches is that God becomes 100% irrevocably for us at the moment of justification, that is, the moment when we see Christ as a beautiful Savior and receive him as our substitute punishment and our substitute perfection. All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands for perfect righteousness were fulfilled by Christ. The moment we see (by grace!) this Treasure and receive him in this way his death counts as our death and his condemnation as our condemnation and his righteousness as our righteousness, and God becomes 100% irrevocably for us forever in that instant.
The Moment of Justification: God Is 100% For Us
“We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28). “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). So in Christ Jesus—in union with him by faith alone, by receiving all that he is for us—God is totally, 100% irrevocably for us. And the implications of that are spelled out in Romans 8:31-35:
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
And the answer to that question is, Nothing! Which means that all those who belong to Christ will persevere. They must, and they will. It is certain. Why? Because God is already now in Christ 100% for us. Perseverance is not the means by which we get God to be for us; it is the effect of the fact that God is already for us. You cannot ever make God be for you by your good works because true Christian good works are the fruit of God’s already being for you.
Good Works: The Fruit of God Already Being For Us
“By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). My hard work is not the cause but the result of blood-bought grace. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). Working out your salvation is not the cause but the result of God’s working in us—God’s being 100% for us. “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me” (Romans 15:18). If we are able to do anything by way of obedience, it is because Christ is already 100% for us.
If every exertion you make in the discipline of perseverance is a work of God, then these exertions do not make God become 100% for you. They are the result of his already being 100% for you. He is for you because you are in Christ. And you cannot improve on the perfection or the sacrifice of Christ. If by faith you are in Christ, God is as much for you in Christ as he will ever be or could ever me. You don’t persevere to obtain this. Because of this, you will persevere.
So when the fear of not persevering raises its head, don’t try to overcome it by saying, “O there is no danger, we don’t need to persevere.” You do. There will be no salvation in the end for people who do not fight the good fight and finish the race and keep the faith and treasure Christ’s appearing. And don’t try to overcome the fear of not persevering by trying to win God’s favor by your exertions in godliness. God’s favor comes by grace alone, on the basis of Christ alone, in union with Christ alone, through faith alone, to the glory of God alone. He is totally, 100% irrevocably for us because of the work of Christ if we are in Christ. And we are in Christ not by exertions but by receiving him as our sacrifice and perfection and Treasure.
Overcoming the Fear of Not Persevering
So what is the right way to overcome the fear of not persevering in old age? The key is to keep finding in Christ our highest Treasure. This is not mainly the fight to do but the fight to delight. We keep on looking away from ourselves to Christ for his blood-bought fellowship and his help. Which means we keep on believing. We keep on fighting the fight of faith by looking at Christ and valuing Christ and receiving Christ every day.
Kissing Away the Fear
Spurgeon says that God kisses away the fear of aging with his promises. Philippians 1:6: “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 1:8-9: “[He] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Jude 1:24: “[He] is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.”
Romans 8:30: “Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” No one is lost between justification and glorification. All who are justified are glorified.
The point of telling us that is to kiss away all fear. If God is for us, no one can successfully be against us (Romans 8:31).
FRIENDS:
Father, I pray that I will not grow weary but will, with your help and strength, finish the good work you started in me. I pray that I can build relationships with people and show them how to remove the strife and isolation that exists between them and God. I want to show them how to have God call them his friends. In Jesus name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 16
Mark 6:30-44; 1 Cor 11:1-16; Psalms 86; Judges 9
APRIL 17
Mark 6:45-56; 1 Cor 11:17-34; Psalms 87; Judges 10-12
FOOD:
Simple Southern-Style 'Unfried' Chicken
1 (3 1/2) pound broiler-fryer chicken, cut up
1/2 cup KRAFT LIGHT DONE RIGHT! Ranch Reduced Fat Dressing
1 (6 ounce) package SHAKE 'N BAKE Extra Crispy Seasoned Coating Mix
Remove skin from all chicken pieces except wings. Place chicken in resealable
plastic bag. Pour dressing over chicken in bag. Seal bag, turning to coat all
chicken pieces well. Refrigerate at least 30 min. to marinate.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place contents of seasoning packet on plate.
Remove chicken from bag, one piece at a time. Dip chicken in coating, turning to
coat lightly. Arrange on baking sheet. Sprinkle any remaining coating from plate
over chicken.
FUN:
Dear Friends:
You've heard about people who have been abducted and had their kidneys removed by black-market organ thieves.
My thighs were stolen from me during the night a few years ago. I went to sleep and woke up with someone else's thighs. It was just that quick. The replacements had the texture of cooked oatmeal. Whose thighs were these and what happened to mine?
I spent the entire summer looking for my thighs.. Finally, hurt and angry, I resigned myself to living out my life in jeans.. And then the thieves struck again.
My rear end was next. I knew it was the same gang, because they took pains to match my new rear-end to the thighs they had stuck me with earlier. But my new rear end was attached at least three inches lower than my original! I realized I'd have to give up my jeans in favor of long skirts.
Two years ago I realized my arms had been switched. One morning I was fixing my hair and was horrified to see the flesh of my upper arm swing to and fro with the motion of the hairbrush. This was really getting scary - my body was being replaced one section at a time. What could they do to me next?
When my poor neck suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a turkey neck, I decided to tell my story. Women of the world, wake up and smell the coffee! Those 'plastic' surgeons are using REAL replacement body parts -stolen from you and me! The next time someone you know has something 'lifted', look again - was it lifted from you?
THIS IS NOT A HOAX. This is happening to women everywhere every night.
WARN YOUR FRIENDS!
P. S. Last year I thought someone had stolen my Boobs. I was lying in bed and they were gone! But when I jumped out of bed, I was relieved to see that they had just been hiding in my armpits as I slept... Now I keep them hidden in my waistband.
The Fear of Not Persevering
One of the great obstacles to getting old to the glory of God is the fear that we will not persevere in treasuring Christ and loving people—we just won’t make it. We won’t be able to say with Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” The reward of final righteousness will come to those who have loved his appearing, that is, who treasure him supremely and want him to be here. So this treasuring of Christ must be included in and part of the fought-fight and the finished-race and the kept-faith. Faith includes treasuring Christ and his appearing. You don’t have faith if you don’t want Jesus.
So one great obstacle to getting old to the glory of God is the fear that we can’t maintain this treasuring of Christ. And so we can’t bear the fruit of love that flows from faith (Galatians 5:6; 1 Timothy 1:5). We’re not going to make it. And the main reason that this fear of not persevering in faith and love is an obstacle to getting old to the glory of God is that the two most common ways of overcoming this fear are deadly.
Two Deadly Ways to Overcome This Fear
There are two opposite ways to ruin your life in trying to overcome this fear. One is to assume that perseverance in faith and love is not necessary for final salvation. And the other is to assume that perseverance is necessary, and then depend on our efforts in some measure to fulfill that necessity and to secure God’s favor. Let me show why both these are devastatingly misguided and deadly, and then what is the biblical way of growing old to the glory of God.
1) Deadly: “Perseverance Is Unnecessary”
It’s a mistake to think that perseverance in faith and love is not necessary for final salvation. A deadly mistake. Jesus said in Mark 13:13, “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Hebrews 12:14 says, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” In Galatians 6:8-9, Paul says, “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.” So notice that the two reapings are corruption on the one hand and eternal life on the other hand. Then he says in the next verse, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap [that is, reap eternal life], if we do not give up.”
So clearly persevering in the furrows of faith sowing to the Spirit and bearing his fruit of love is necessary for final salvation. “God chose you,” Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, “. . . to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” “Saved through sanctification” means that sanctification—the path of love—is the path on which saved sinners go to heaven. And it’s the only path that leads to heaven.
So it is a tragic and deadly mistake to try to overcome the fear of not persevering in old age by saying you don’t have to persevere.
2) Deadly: “Perseverance Puts or Keeps God on Our Side”
But the other misguided way of overcoming the fear of not persevering is just as dangerous. It is the way that says: “Yes, perseverance in faith and love is necessary and that means I must wait till the last day for God to be 100% for me, and I must depend on my efforts to secure God’s full favor. God may get me started in the Christian life by faith in him alone, but perseverance happens another way. God makes his ongoing favor depend on my efforts.” That, I say, is deadly and leads either to despair or pride. And certainly not to perseverance.
When Does God Become 100% on Our Side?
What’s wrong with that? You can see what’s wrong if you ask this question: When does God become totally and irrevocably for us—not 99%, but 100% for us? Is it at the end of the age, at the Last Day, when he has seen our whole life and measured it to see if it is worthy of his being for us? That is not what the Bible teaches.
What the Bible teaches is that God becomes 100% irrevocably for us at the moment of justification, that is, the moment when we see Christ as a beautiful Savior and receive him as our substitute punishment and our substitute perfection. All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands for perfect righteousness were fulfilled by Christ. The moment we see (by grace!) this Treasure and receive him in this way his death counts as our death and his condemnation as our condemnation and his righteousness as our righteousness, and God becomes 100% irrevocably for us forever in that instant.
The Moment of Justification: God Is 100% For Us
“We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28). “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). So in Christ Jesus—in union with him by faith alone, by receiving all that he is for us—God is totally, 100% irrevocably for us. And the implications of that are spelled out in Romans 8:31-35:
If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
And the answer to that question is, Nothing! Which means that all those who belong to Christ will persevere. They must, and they will. It is certain. Why? Because God is already now in Christ 100% for us. Perseverance is not the means by which we get God to be for us; it is the effect of the fact that God is already for us. You cannot ever make God be for you by your good works because true Christian good works are the fruit of God’s already being for you.
Good Works: The Fruit of God Already Being For Us
“By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). My hard work is not the cause but the result of blood-bought grace. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). Working out your salvation is not the cause but the result of God’s working in us—God’s being 100% for us. “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me” (Romans 15:18). If we are able to do anything by way of obedience, it is because Christ is already 100% for us.
If every exertion you make in the discipline of perseverance is a work of God, then these exertions do not make God become 100% for you. They are the result of his already being 100% for you. He is for you because you are in Christ. And you cannot improve on the perfection or the sacrifice of Christ. If by faith you are in Christ, God is as much for you in Christ as he will ever be or could ever me. You don’t persevere to obtain this. Because of this, you will persevere.
So when the fear of not persevering raises its head, don’t try to overcome it by saying, “O there is no danger, we don’t need to persevere.” You do. There will be no salvation in the end for people who do not fight the good fight and finish the race and keep the faith and treasure Christ’s appearing. And don’t try to overcome the fear of not persevering by trying to win God’s favor by your exertions in godliness. God’s favor comes by grace alone, on the basis of Christ alone, in union with Christ alone, through faith alone, to the glory of God alone. He is totally, 100% irrevocably for us because of the work of Christ if we are in Christ. And we are in Christ not by exertions but by receiving him as our sacrifice and perfection and Treasure.
Overcoming the Fear of Not Persevering
So what is the right way to overcome the fear of not persevering in old age? The key is to keep finding in Christ our highest Treasure. This is not mainly the fight to do but the fight to delight. We keep on looking away from ourselves to Christ for his blood-bought fellowship and his help. Which means we keep on believing. We keep on fighting the fight of faith by looking at Christ and valuing Christ and receiving Christ every day.
Kissing Away the Fear
Spurgeon says that God kisses away the fear of aging with his promises. Philippians 1:6: “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 1:8-9: “[He] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Jude 1:24: “[He] is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.”
Romans 8:30: “Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” No one is lost between justification and glorification. All who are justified are glorified.
The point of telling us that is to kiss away all fear. If God is for us, no one can successfully be against us (Romans 8:31).
FRIENDS:
Father, I pray that I will not grow weary but will, with your help and strength, finish the good work you started in me. I pray that I can build relationships with people and show them how to remove the strife and isolation that exists between them and God. I want to show them how to have God call them his friends. In Jesus name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 16
Mark 6:30-44; 1 Cor 11:1-16; Psalms 86; Judges 9
APRIL 17
Mark 6:45-56; 1 Cor 11:17-34; Psalms 87; Judges 10-12
FOOD:
Simple Southern-Style 'Unfried' Chicken
1 (3 1/2) pound broiler-fryer chicken, cut up
1/2 cup KRAFT LIGHT DONE RIGHT! Ranch Reduced Fat Dressing
1 (6 ounce) package SHAKE 'N BAKE Extra Crispy Seasoned Coating Mix
Remove skin from all chicken pieces except wings. Place chicken in resealable
plastic bag. Pour dressing over chicken in bag. Seal bag, turning to coat all
chicken pieces well. Refrigerate at least 30 min. to marinate.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place contents of seasoning packet on plate.
Remove chicken from bag, one piece at a time. Dip chicken in coating, turning to
coat lightly. Arrange on baking sheet. Sprinkle any remaining coating from plate
over chicken.
FUN:
Dear Friends:
You've heard about people who have been abducted and had their kidneys removed by black-market organ thieves.
My thighs were stolen from me during the night a few years ago. I went to sleep and woke up with someone else's thighs. It was just that quick. The replacements had the texture of cooked oatmeal. Whose thighs were these and what happened to mine?
I spent the entire summer looking for my thighs.. Finally, hurt and angry, I resigned myself to living out my life in jeans.. And then the thieves struck again.
My rear end was next. I knew it was the same gang, because they took pains to match my new rear-end to the thighs they had stuck me with earlier. But my new rear end was attached at least three inches lower than my original! I realized I'd have to give up my jeans in favor of long skirts.
Two years ago I realized my arms had been switched. One morning I was fixing my hair and was horrified to see the flesh of my upper arm swing to and fro with the motion of the hairbrush. This was really getting scary - my body was being replaced one section at a time. What could they do to me next?
When my poor neck suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a turkey neck, I decided to tell my story. Women of the world, wake up and smell the coffee! Those 'plastic' surgeons are using REAL replacement body parts -stolen from you and me! The next time someone you know has something 'lifted', look again - was it lifted from you?
THIS IS NOT A HOAX. This is happening to women everywhere every night.
WARN YOUR FRIENDS!
P. S. Last year I thought someone had stolen my Boobs. I was lying in bed and they were gone! But when I jumped out of bed, I was relieved to see that they had just been hiding in my armpits as I slept... Now I keep them hidden in my waistband.
Monday, April 13, 2009
GROWING OLD
This is a four part devotional on the subject of growing old for God.
FAITH:
Psalm 71:18
So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.
Getting old to the glory of God means getting old in a way that makes God look glorious. It means living and dying in a way that shows God to be the all-satisfying Treasure that he is. So it would include, for example, not living in ways that makes this world look like your treasure. Which means that most of the suggestions that this world offers us for our retirement years are bad ideas. They call us to live in a way that would make this world look like our treasure. And when that happens, God is belittled.
Resolutely Resisting Retirement
Getting old to the glory of God means resolutely resisting the typical American dream of retirement. It means being so satisfied with all that God promises to be for us in Christ that we are set free from the cravings that create so much emptiness and uselessness in retirement. Instead, knowing that we have an infinitely satisfying and everlasting inheritance in God just over the horizon of life makes us zealous in our few remaining years here to spend ourselves in the sacrifices of love, not the accumulation of comforts.
The Perseverance of Raymond Lull
Consider the way Raymond Lull finished his earthly course.
Raymond Lull was born in a wealthy family on the island of Majorca off the coast of Spain in 1235. His life as a youth was dissolute, but a series of visions compelled him to follow Christ. He first entered monastic life but later became a missionary to Muslim countries in northern Africa. He learned Arabic and after returning from Africa became a professor of Arabic until he was 79. Samuel Zwemer describes the end of his life like this, and, of course, it is the exact opposite of retirement:
His pupils and friends naturally desired that he should end his days in the peaceful pursuit of learning and the comfort of companionship.
Such however was not Lull’s wish. . . . In Lull’s contemplations we read . . . “Men are wont to die, O Lord, from old age, the failure of natural warmth and excess of cold; but thus, if it be Thy will, Thy servant would not wish to die; he would prefer to die in the glow of love, even as Thou wast willing to die for him.”
The dangers and difficulties that made Lull shrink back . . . in 1291 only urged him forward to North Africa once more in 1314. His love had not grown cold, but burned the brighter . . . . He longed not only for the martyr’s crown, but also once more to see his little band of believers [in Africa]. Animated by these sentiments he crossed over to Bugia [Algeria] on August 14, and for nearly a whole year labored secretly among a little circle of converts, whom on his previous visits he had won over to the Christian faith. . . .
At length, weary of seclusion, and longing for martyrdom, he came forth into the open market and presented himself to the people as the same man whom they had once expelled from their town. It was Elijah showing himself to a mob of Ahabs! Lull stood before them and threatened them with divine wrath if they still persisted in their errors. He pleaded with love, but spoke plainly the whole truth. The consequences can be easily anticipated. Filled with fanatic fury at his boldness, and unable to reply to his arguments, the populace seized him, and dragged him out of the town; there by the command, or at least the connivance, of the king, he was stoned on the 30th of June 1315.
So, Raymond Lull was 80 years old when he gave his life for the Muslims of North Africa. Nothing could be further from the American dream of retirement than the way Lull lived out his last days.
Dying to Make Christ Look Great
In John 21:19, Jesus told Peter “by what kind of death he was to glorify God.” There are different ways of dying. And there are different ways of living just before we die. But for the Christian all of them—the final living, and the dying—are supposed to make God look glorious. All of them are supposed to show that Christ—not this world—is our supreme Treasure.
So growing old to the glory of God means using whatever strength and eyesight and hearing and mobility and resources we have left to treasure Christ and in that joy to and serve people—that is seek to bring them with us into the everlasting enjoyment of Christ. Serving people, and not ourselves, as the overflow of treasuring Christ makes Christ look great.
by John Piper
FRIENDS:
Father, Please bring to our minds the days before we knew you so we can recall the moment we first believed. Renew that joy in us. If the flame has dwindled down to a little flicker, fan it, bring it to life so we may stand face to face with the only hope the world knows. In Jesus' name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 14
Mark 6:1-13; 1 Cor 10:1-13; Psalms 84; Judges 6-7
APRIL 15
Mark 6: 14-29; 1 Cor 10: 14-33; Psalms 85; Judges 8
10 Things To Be Thankful For
1. Holiday meal prepared by loving hands
2. Little children dressed in their Sunday best
3. A three year old's imagination
4. Being truly thankful for what we have
5. The anticipation of guests coming
6. The child that is still in us
7. Keeping busy
8. Seeing young people take sermon notes in church
9. Lemons, their color, their taste in a glass of iced tea
10. Knowing you will get through a hard time because you have friends to go through it with you
FOOD:
Ham Leftovers Casserole
Makes 6 servings
This recipe combines leftover ham and mashed potatoes with cheese, garlic,
and vegetables to make a delicious casserole the whole family will love.
12 potatoes, cubed
1/2 cup milk
2 cups cooked ham, cubed
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
6 tablespoons butter, divided
1 egg
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until
tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and mash with 1/4 cup of the butter and
milk.
2 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3 Combine mashed potatoes, ham, garlic, mushroom soup, butter, egg and
parsley in a mixing bowl. Transfer mixture to greased casserole dish and
bake
for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and bake an additional 15
minutes or until cheese is melted.
FUN:
INTERESTING FACT:
At five minutes and six seconds after 4 a.m. on the 8th of July this year,
the time and date will be: 04:05:06 07/08/09..
This will never happen again.
FAITH:
Psalm 71:18
So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.
Getting old to the glory of God means getting old in a way that makes God look glorious. It means living and dying in a way that shows God to be the all-satisfying Treasure that he is. So it would include, for example, not living in ways that makes this world look like your treasure. Which means that most of the suggestions that this world offers us for our retirement years are bad ideas. They call us to live in a way that would make this world look like our treasure. And when that happens, God is belittled.
Resolutely Resisting Retirement
Getting old to the glory of God means resolutely resisting the typical American dream of retirement. It means being so satisfied with all that God promises to be for us in Christ that we are set free from the cravings that create so much emptiness and uselessness in retirement. Instead, knowing that we have an infinitely satisfying and everlasting inheritance in God just over the horizon of life makes us zealous in our few remaining years here to spend ourselves in the sacrifices of love, not the accumulation of comforts.
The Perseverance of Raymond Lull
Consider the way Raymond Lull finished his earthly course.
Raymond Lull was born in a wealthy family on the island of Majorca off the coast of Spain in 1235. His life as a youth was dissolute, but a series of visions compelled him to follow Christ. He first entered monastic life but later became a missionary to Muslim countries in northern Africa. He learned Arabic and after returning from Africa became a professor of Arabic until he was 79. Samuel Zwemer describes the end of his life like this, and, of course, it is the exact opposite of retirement:
His pupils and friends naturally desired that he should end his days in the peaceful pursuit of learning and the comfort of companionship.
Such however was not Lull’s wish. . . . In Lull’s contemplations we read . . . “Men are wont to die, O Lord, from old age, the failure of natural warmth and excess of cold; but thus, if it be Thy will, Thy servant would not wish to die; he would prefer to die in the glow of love, even as Thou wast willing to die for him.”
The dangers and difficulties that made Lull shrink back . . . in 1291 only urged him forward to North Africa once more in 1314. His love had not grown cold, but burned the brighter . . . . He longed not only for the martyr’s crown, but also once more to see his little band of believers [in Africa]. Animated by these sentiments he crossed over to Bugia [Algeria] on August 14, and for nearly a whole year labored secretly among a little circle of converts, whom on his previous visits he had won over to the Christian faith. . . .
At length, weary of seclusion, and longing for martyrdom, he came forth into the open market and presented himself to the people as the same man whom they had once expelled from their town. It was Elijah showing himself to a mob of Ahabs! Lull stood before them and threatened them with divine wrath if they still persisted in their errors. He pleaded with love, but spoke plainly the whole truth. The consequences can be easily anticipated. Filled with fanatic fury at his boldness, and unable to reply to his arguments, the populace seized him, and dragged him out of the town; there by the command, or at least the connivance, of the king, he was stoned on the 30th of June 1315.
So, Raymond Lull was 80 years old when he gave his life for the Muslims of North Africa. Nothing could be further from the American dream of retirement than the way Lull lived out his last days.
Dying to Make Christ Look Great
In John 21:19, Jesus told Peter “by what kind of death he was to glorify God.” There are different ways of dying. And there are different ways of living just before we die. But for the Christian all of them—the final living, and the dying—are supposed to make God look glorious. All of them are supposed to show that Christ—not this world—is our supreme Treasure.
So growing old to the glory of God means using whatever strength and eyesight and hearing and mobility and resources we have left to treasure Christ and in that joy to and serve people—that is seek to bring them with us into the everlasting enjoyment of Christ. Serving people, and not ourselves, as the overflow of treasuring Christ makes Christ look great.
by John Piper
FRIENDS:
Father, Please bring to our minds the days before we knew you so we can recall the moment we first believed. Renew that joy in us. If the flame has dwindled down to a little flicker, fan it, bring it to life so we may stand face to face with the only hope the world knows. In Jesus' name, Amen.
DAILY BIBLE CHALLENGE
APRIL 14
Mark 6:1-13; 1 Cor 10:1-13; Psalms 84; Judges 6-7
APRIL 15
Mark 6: 14-29; 1 Cor 10: 14-33; Psalms 85; Judges 8
10 Things To Be Thankful For
1. Holiday meal prepared by loving hands
2. Little children dressed in their Sunday best
3. A three year old's imagination
4. Being truly thankful for what we have
5. The anticipation of guests coming
6. The child that is still in us
7. Keeping busy
8. Seeing young people take sermon notes in church
9. Lemons, their color, their taste in a glass of iced tea
10. Knowing you will get through a hard time because you have friends to go through it with you
FOOD:
Ham Leftovers Casserole
Makes 6 servings
This recipe combines leftover ham and mashed potatoes with cheese, garlic,
and vegetables to make a delicious casserole the whole family will love.
12 potatoes, cubed
1/2 cup milk
2 cups cooked ham, cubed
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
6 tablespoons butter, divided
1 egg
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until
tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and mash with 1/4 cup of the butter and
milk.
2 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3 Combine mashed potatoes, ham, garlic, mushroom soup, butter, egg and
parsley in a mixing bowl. Transfer mixture to greased casserole dish and
bake
for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and bake an additional 15
minutes or until cheese is melted.
FUN:
INTERESTING FACT:
At five minutes and six seconds after 4 a.m. on the 8th of July this year,
the time and date will be: 04:05:06 07/08/09..
This will never happen again.
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- P-Dot
- Over the years of yo-yo dieting, Pills, and over eating I have ruined my metabolism. Here is how I am chosing to heal myself.
