Daily Word…

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Colossians 2:16-17

Do you remember the story of Pavlov’s dog? Pavlov, a scientist, performed an experiment where he would ring a bell and then feed his dog. Then again, he would ring a bell and feed him, ring a bell and feed him. And to the amazement of Pavlov, whenever this dog would hear the bell, he would begin to salivate and prepare for the meal. He was conditioned by the sound of the bell to get ready to eat.

Throughout the Old Testament, God was conditioning mankind with signs and symbols of greater truths that were yet to come. He was preparing the way for the One who would come and finally, forever, bring redemption for the sin of the world. The signs, the symbols, the types, the illustrations, the examples of the Old Testament all speak of the One who would come and give His life for you.

So by the time Jesus came to earth in the New Testament, the Jews who had been truly following God were ready to listen. But many rejected Him because they had a false impression of the purpose of those signs and symbols. Yet, one thing remains abundantly clear: those signs pointed to Christ.

The Gospels tell us that for 33 years God walked upon the face of this earth. That’s the central story in the Bible around which all others hinge. So when you feel like you’re getting bogged down in the ritual instruction of the Old Testament, remember that it’s a powerful story of a greater truth to come.
THE STORY OF CHRIST IS THE FOCUS OF GOD’S PLAN FOR THE AGES. SO AS YOU READ THE OLD TESTAMENT, REMEMBER THAT THE RITUAL INSTRUCTION WAS MEANT TO PREPARE THE WORLD FOR A GREATER TRUTH TO COME.

From Pastor Graham

Be Gentle and Patient

By David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 - April 27, 2011]

“And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God
in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

If you want to be kindhearted—to take up the towel to restore a brother or
sister—you do not need to know the details of how that person got dirty.
Jesus did not ask His disciples, “How did you get such filthy feet?” He wanted
only to get the dust off of them. His love for them was unconditional.

Likewise, those who walk in the fullness of Jesus Christ must have this
attitude of love toward those with dirty feet. We are not to ask for details.
Instead, we are to say, “Let me wash your feet.”

Too often Christians want to delve into all the gory details of a situation.
They come to a believer who has dirty feet, saying, “I want to wash your feet.
But tell me, what happened? How’d you get so dirty?”

At some point in the story of failure, the curious comforter realizes, “Oh, my,
this is worse than I thought. I can’t get involved in this.” And after a few
more details, he comes to the end of his puny human mercy. He judges the person
as too evil, beyond help, and he drops his towel and goes his way.

Beloved, you cannot wash feet in a judge’s robes. You have to take off your
self-righteous garments before you can do any cleansing. Paul says we are to be
gentle and patient with all people: “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel
but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who
are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may
know the truth” (2 Timothy 2:24-25).

Paul is saying, “You must be tenderhearted with everyone, willing to wash their
feet. God will have mercy on them and deliver them from their sin.”

 

They’re ordinary people Who love God from the heart « bummyla

The Lamb of God

Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…

and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” - John 1:36

This was the first gospel sermon, and it is a model for all preachers and teachers. The preacher pointed his own followers away from himself to Christ. This same beautiful unselfishness appears in all John’s course. He was only a voice, announcing the coming of a King. He was not that Light, but only one bearing witness of that Light. With throngs following him, the moment Jesus came, John asked the throngs to leave him and go after Jesus. His whole ministry was simply a pointing of people to Christ.

This is what all Christian workers should do; they should preach and teach Christ, not themselves. They should not seek to win attention to themselves, but to get all to see Christ and to love Him. Like John, they should be willing to decrease that Christ might increase; they should be satisfied to fade away like the morning star in the brightness of the sun’s rising.

This name by which John drew attention to Jesus is so very important. He called Him the Lamb of God. This meant that Christ had come into the world not alone to be a teacher, but chiefly to be a sacrifice for the sin of the world, to die in the place of sinners. He was called a lamb, no doubt, because of His gentleness and meekness; but the principal reason was because He was to save us from our sins by bearing them Himself. Just the day before this, John said of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

Not only did He take our sin upon Himself; He bore it away into eternal forgetfulness, to be remembered no more forever. Now all who come to Him are safe forever from condemnation. Long ago their sins were laid on the atoning Lamb, and they will never have to be borne a second time. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”

Daily Word…

“… if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”

Matthew 5:41

I heard a wonderful story recently about a man in our church, an attorney, who had driven almost two hours from home to consult with a client about some legal issues. He met with the whole family and spent much of the afternoon discussing legal matters. After the business was completed, he got in his car and headed home.

He was several miles down the road, and felt the Spirit of God convicting him that he needed to go back and share Christ with that family. So he turned his car around, went back, sat down with that family, and led them to faith in Jesus Christ!

Obedience isn’t always easy, is it? It wasn’t convenient for this fine man to turn his car around and go share Christ with this family, but it was what God wanted him to do. And very often, God calls Christians to go the extra mile to show others the love of Christ.

Maybe you’ve found yourself resistant at times to being inconvenienced for the sake of Christ. But Jesus is clear… go the extra mile. Show others you love them by being okay with “inconvenience.” Let the interruptions of life be your ministry as you plant the seed of the Gospel in the lives of as many people as you can!

DON’T LET “INCONVENIENCE” PREVENT OBEDIENCE. GO THE EXTRA MILE TO SHOW THE LOVE OF CHRIST TO OTHERS!

Pastor Graham

Embracing the Lean Times

Wednesday, March 30 2011

“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” - Jeremiah 17:7

Have you ever considered at what point a test becomes so difficult that you decide you can no longer trust in God and you must take over to solve the problem? The prophet Jeremiah describes a situation in which the temptation to solve a financial problem can become so great that we trust in man’s way to solve it.

This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

Jeremiah drew a sharp comparison between the man who trusts in his own effort to solve his problem and the man who trusts in God when he cannot see the outcome. The man who trusts in God bears fruit despite the circumstances in his life. He does not shrivel when the heat comes; in fact, his roots go deeper into God’s grace. He continues to bear fruit in spite of his circumstances.

Recently, a friend from South Africa explained to me that whenever a plant lives in an arid climate, the roots drive deeper and deeper into the soil to get the water they need. This forces the plant to develop a root system that is far beyond the normal plant because it is forced to go deeper to gain the water it needs. Sometimes God forces us to go deeper into the grace of His love in order to build a greater foundation in our own lives. These lean times are designed to accomplish this in us. If you find yourself in this condition, ask the Lord who provides the water for our soul for the grace you need today to continue to bear fruit in the desert.

 Today God Is First 

 By Os Hillman

Daily Word

“For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’”

John 4:37

The great English preacher Francis Dixon asked a young man in his church named Noelle to give his testimony at a revival. So Noelle stood up and gave this testimony:

“I was in Sydney, Australia when a little old man walked up to me and said, ‘Sir, if you were to die today, do you know where you would spend eternity?’

“With that the old man turned on his heel, said, ‘Toodle-loo’, and walked away. So when I got back to England the first thing that I did was to seek out a pastor who led me to Christ.”

After the service, a young man came up to Noelle and said, “That’s my testimony too. I met that same man!” Francis Dixon was so moved by this that when he went on a world tour of preaching, he shared it at every meeting. And when he preached in cities across Australia, he came across hundreds of people with the very same story.

So when Dixon made it to Sydney, he tracked down this old man at his home and told him about all of those people who had come to Christ through him. The old gentleman broke down and said, “Sir, this is the first time in my life that I’ve known of anyone who has ever come to Jesus because of my witness.”

Some sow the seeds; some harvest. So whatever role God calls you to fulfill, be faithful in it because you never know the impact you can have!

GOD GIVES EVERY CHRISTIAN A DIFFERENT ROLE IN HIS KINGDOM PURPOSES. SO WHEREVER HE CALLS YOU, BE FAITHFUL AND WATCH WHAT HAPPENS!

From Pastor Graham

God Will Not Walk Out On You

By David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 - April 27, 2011]

Psalm 107 has been called “the Old Testament love feast.” One of the most
encouraging passages in all of God’s Word, it is for those needing
forgiveness, deliverance or restoration. The final verse promises the reader an
understanding of who God truly is: “Whoso is wise, and will observe these
things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord” (Psalm
107:43).

“O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the
enemy; and gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west,
from the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a
solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them” (Psalm 107:1-5).

Here is a classification of people who once knew the fullness of the Lord and
at some time in their life discovered glorious deliverance. Now, however, they
are in a solitary wilderness, wandering alone, and they cannot find the city.

“The city” in the Old Testament is always Zion, which represents God’s true
church. Today, of course, it signifies the true body of Christ, those who
worship in spirit and in truth but cannot seem to find “the city.” They no
longer attend church, refusing to worship with any body of believers—because
there is little or no spiritual reality to be found.

Indeed, there are multitudes of starving Christians who go from church to
church today trying to find their place. In the end, they give up even seeking
a good church because they are determined that there are none. Perhaps you say,
“Brother Dave, I can’t find a Christ-centered, holiness-seeking church in my
area. I can’t find the city.”

Beloved, God has provided a solution. “Then they cried unto the Lord in their
trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth
by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation” (Psalm 107:6-7).

God says, “I will show you the body—I will lead you right to them.” Rest
assured, Jesus has His body of believers all over the world and if you cry out
to Him, He will miraculously bring like-minded Christians to you.

Walking with God « bummyla

Enduring Temptation

Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine..

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.- Matthew 4:1

The time is to be noted. It was just after the wonderful scenes of our Lord’s baptism. The heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended and abode upon him, and the Father’s voice was heard from heaven in approval and witness; then immediately came the terrible experience here described. Spiritual privileges do not save us from fiery trials. Indeed there is no time when Satan is so sure to come with his subtle arts as just when we have passed through some season of special blessing. When we go from our prayer closet after a time of tender communion he meets us at the door with some evil suggestion. It is after we have been nearest to God that we are sure to find the devil most active. He is not half so anxious to tempt worldly Christians as those who are glowing with spiritual zeal.

An old writer says: “All the while our Savior lay in his father’s shop and meddled only with carpenter’s chips, the devil troubled him not; now that he is to enter more publicly upon his mediatorship the tempter pierceth his tender soul with many sorrows by solicitation to sin.” It is the same with us. So long as we move on quietly in our ordinary life he does not trouble himself to harm us; but when we rouse up to new consecration and new activity in God’s service he pounces upon us and tries to destroy us. It is therefore in our times of greatest spiritual exaltation that we need to be most watchful. We learn here also that we may expect to endure temptation in this world. New power came to Jesus through his conflicts. His life was developed and made perfect through sufferings. Then he was fitted for sympathy with us in our temptations by himself being tempted in all points as we are. Temptations resisted always bring new strength. Victorious struggle prepares us for helping others in their temptations.

A True Servant

John 13:1-15

Do you equate success with wealth, acclaim, and power? If we measured by these standards, then Jesus, who was rejected by His community and didn’t even have a house of His own, was a failure. But, of course, we know that’s not the case. So God must use something other than these worldly goals to define success. In fact, Scripture is clear that Jesus Christ is our example–we should strive to be like Him.

So, what exactly was our Savior’s mission? In today’s passage, we see the answer through His actions: He came to serve. The disciples, wanting recognition and reward, were arguing about who’d be the greatest in heaven. In contrast, Jesus took off His outer garment and performed the task of the lowliest servant: He washed the dirty feet of His followers. The next day, Almighty God was crucified by His own creation. In allowing this, He offered salvation to all–even those who nailed Him to a cross.

Jesus deserved glory but chose sacrifice and pain. And He asks that we follow His example of service. With the exception of Judas, His disciples obeyed. In fact, they all faced great difficulty and most died brutal deaths because of their faith. But they willingly walked the path of humility because of what Jesus had taught them: “The last shall be first, and the first last” (Matt. 20:16).

How do you spend your resources and time? And which topics dominate your thoughts and conversation? These are a few indicators of the driving goals in your life. You may long for worldly recognition, but God has a higher calling for His children. Ask Him to foster a servant’s attitude in your heart.

Dr. Charles Stanley

God Has Need of Your Donkey

 Today God By Os Hillman
Monday, February 20 2012

“Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them” (Matt 21:2-3).

In Bible times, donkeys were a primary means for distributing goods and services. They represented commerce in the scriptures. Jesus told the disciples He had need of someone’s donkey to ride into Jerusalem, the religious and spiritual center of their society. It would become known as Jesus’ triumphal entry.

A friend and I were attending a Christian business conference in Singapore. It was the night before I was to speak a second time when I was prompted to add a teaching segment on the above passage of scripture.

I am sure the disciples must have been uneasy with their master’s request to untie a perfect stranger’s donkey and take it. After all, He was asking them to take what was the equivalent to a man’s “truck.” And men love their trucks! Jesus was illustrating that He wanted to use that man’s donkey, or that which represented their work, to bring glory to the Father.

The next morning my friend and I went to breakfast. While we were eating, a lady named Maggie joined us. Maggie was from Malaysia and was an intercessor for the conference. She fasted 40 days in preparation for the event. “So, Maggie, has the Lord spoken to you about this conference?” I said. “Oh yes,” she said, very excitedly. On September 17 the Lord said that the Singapore business people needed to give their donkeys to the Lord.” My friend and I looked at one another in amazement. God was confirming His Word to me from the night before.

That day the focus of our conference became the need for the Singapore business people to “give their donkeys” to the Lord.

Friend, have you ever dedicated your work life to the Lord? Today, why not commit your donkey to the Lord. He will use it to bring glory to Himself and fulfill your life more than you could ever imagine.