A Self-Righteous Spirit

Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…

 

Or how will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye;’ and behold, the beam is in your own eye? - Matthew 7:4

 

But is it not a kindness to a friend to take the mote out of his eye? If we met a neighbour with a cinder in his eye, would it not be a brotherly thing to stop and take it out for him? Then why is it not just as true a kindness to want to cure another’s fault, even though we have the same fault ourselves? If we did it in the right spirit it would be. We are bound to seek the welfare of our friends in every possible way, and therefore, if we discover in them things that mar their beauty, we should seek the removal of those things.

But the trouble is we are not apt to look at our neighbour’s faults in this loving and sympathetic way. To begin with, we do not know, or at least we do not confess, that we ourselves have beams in our own eyes; we are not even aware that there are motes in our own eyes. It is the self-righteous spirit that our Lord is here condemning. A man holds up his hands in horror at the speckle has found in his neighbour’s character; and his neighbour, looking up, sees in him an immensely magnified copy of the speck. Will the neighbour be greatly benefited by the rebuke?

Suppose a bad-tempered man lectures us on the sin of giving way to temper, or a dishonest man on some apparent lack of honesty, or a liar on the wickedness of falsehood, or a bad-mannered man on some discourtesy of ours, or a hypocrite on insincerity, what good will such lectures do, even admitting that we are conscious of the faults? We are only irritated by the unfitness of such rebukes from those in whom the faults are ten times greater than in us. We wonder how people can have the face to talk about motes in our eyes when huge beams project from their own eyes. Truly this is not the way to tell others of their faults.

The Unprofitable Servant

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

The "unprofitable servant" is the one who "hid" his talent. Too lazy to invest
his life and time in God's interests, he became "slothful" in the things of
God. This was the busy man or woman who came to God's house once a week to
maintain a semblance of religion.

Here is what the Lord will say of haphazard, halfhearted service to Him:

"Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not.
. . . Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then
at my coming I should have received mine own with [interest]. . . . Cast ye the
unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth” (Matthew 25:26-27, 30).

What weeping and wailing there will be when the unprofitable servant's book is
opened. The Judge will show the world how much time and effort he spent making
money, seeking personal security, building up bank accounts, fretting, ignoring
family, forgetting God and forsaking the assembly of believers.

On that day God will bring forth the record of every neglected church meeting,
every lazy and self-centered activity. Then, right before this servant's eyes
will appear everything he spent his lifetime accumulating: houses, cars,
furnishings, boats, clothes, jewelry, stocks and bonds.

A spark from the Judge's eye will ignite everything like a hydrogen meltdown.
An angel will be standing before the Judge and his hands will hold a mound of
dust. The Lord will turn to the unprofitable one and say, "This is what your
lifetime of business amounted to. I needed you and called you, but you
neglected Me. You gave Me so little of your time until finally you pushed Me
out of your life completely. You wasted your life for a handful of dust. You
were warned that it would all burn as grass in an oven!"

Oh, what regret there will be on that day for one who has no time for God now!
He attends the obligatory Sunday morning service with his wife and children
because it is "the American way." But he has no heart for God! 
 



Read this devotion online: http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/21264?src=devo-email

A Self-Roghteous Spirit

Česky: Ženské oko. English: A woman’s eye. Esperanto: Virina okulo. Français : Un œil de femme. Slovenčina: Ženské oko. Српски / Srpski: Женско око. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…

Or how will you tell your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye;’ and behold, the beam is in your own eye? - Matthew 7:4

 

But is it not a kindness to a friend to take the mote out of his eye? If we met a neighbour with a cinder in his eye, would it not be a brotherly thing to stop and take it out for him? Then why is it not just as true a kindness to want to cure another’s fault, even though we have the same fault ourselves? If we did it in the right spirit it would be. We are bound to seek the welfare of our friends in every possible way, and therefore, if we discover in them things that mar their beauty, we should seek the removal of those things.

But the trouble is we are not apt to look at our neighbour’s faults in this loving and sympathetic way. To begin with, we do not know, or at least we do not confess, that we ourselves have beams in our own eyes; we are not even aware that there are motes in our own eyes. It is the self-righteous spirit that our Lord is here condemning. A man holds up his hands in horror at the speckle has found in his neighbour’s character; and his neighbour, looking up, sees in him an immensely magnified copy of the speck. Will the neighbour be greatly benefited by the rebuke?

Suppose a bad-tempered man lectures us on the sin of giving way to temper, or a dishonest man on some apparent lack of honesty, or a liar on the wickedness of falsehood, or a bad-mannered man on some discourtesy of ours, or a hypocrite on insincerity, what good will such lectures do, even admitting that we are conscious of the faults? We are only irritated by the unfitness of such rebukes from those in whom the faults are ten times greater than in us. We wonder how people can have the face to talk about motes in our eyes when huge beams project from their own eyes. Truly this is not the way to tell others of their faults.

Learn From God’s Creation

Image via Wikipedia

Today God Is First By Os Hillman
Monday, December 05 2011

“For since the creation of the world God‘s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Rom 1:19-20).

Have you ever had someone say, “I don’t see any evidence of God. How can a person believe in someone you can’t see or see any evidence even exists?”

The Bible tells us that God is revealed in His creation everyday. Look at the human body and consider the likelihood of how thousands of body parts that must work together. Someone created it to work this well. If it were a manufactured product, it would be in the repair shop all the time because of all the moving parts required to make it work.

Consider the wonderful order and balance of nature and how the seas know their boundaries, the beauty of the mountains, and the balance of rain and oxygen needed to balance the ecosystems. Consider God’s signature, the rainbow.

The 12th century Scottish Christian mystic, Richard of St. Victor said, “The whole of this sensible world is like a book written by the finger of God.” Look at nature and wonder at the creative design of the hundreds of thousands of species of animals like the tiger, the elephant, the great whales, and the millions of species of birds, just to name a few.

Consider the planet we live on. “The Earth is a rough sphere about eight thousand miles in diameter, which means that it’s about four thousand miles straight down to the center. We’re accustomed to thinking of it as a ball of rock, but that’s not so: the great majority of the Earth is liquid – molten rock called magma swirling, incredible slowly, beneath our feet. The solid part of the earth that we live on, and in whose hollows the sea sits, is called the crust, and on average it’s only a few miles thick – maybe ten miles. That’s like a layer a third of a millimeter thick coating a football. We live on that incredibly fragile, thin layer of plates floating on the subterranean sea of magma.”*

Yes, God has revealed Himself in His creation.

The Catastrophe

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

A scientist said of the catastrophe, “The whole world shook.” Another
called it “the worst natural disaster in the world’s history.” They were
describing the underwater earthquake that devastated entire coasts in Asia a
few years ago. Tens of thousands were left dead. We continue to see disasters
around us.

When horrible events strike, I go to the Father with one question: “Lord,
what is this all about? Was this simply an unexplainable accident of nature, or
is there something your people ought to know as to why it happened?”

We mourn for the indescribable pain and misery endured by multitudes. We pray
earnestly for those afflicted. Our ministry has sent thousands of dollars
through Christian relief agencies to help rebuild churches and homes in
devastated areas. Scripture tells us our heavenly Father is touched by the very
feelings of the wounded and the Holy Spirit pours out comfort to all believers
in the nations affected.

America is a compassionate and giving nation and I thank God for the response
of so many who pray, give and go to those areas to help. But something deep
within my soul troubles me. The magnitude of the disasters does not seem to
sink in. We appear to be numbed, stupefied by it all.

I thank God for good reports of blessings in many areas of the world, including
America. But if we cannot be brought to our knees by unleashed power—if we
cannot humble ourselves after witnessing terrible natural disasters—what will
it take to silence the God-mockers? Are we now shockproof?

Think of this:

* The expulsion of God from our society in the name of political correctness
* The whole world turning to secularism and materialism
* A church growing more worldly than the world itself
* The rise of violence and apathy
* The Bible no longer being accepted as God’s Word
* A day “when everything that can be shaken” is being shaken
* When thoughtful people everywhere have an intuition that “somebody is
tinkering with nature, something is happening that cannot be explained away”
* When society continues its business without a single “God pause,”
without even a thought that God will not be mocked

When these things happen, we have come near or crossed a line into a spiritual
stupor that no amount of divine mercy can awaken.

God is merciful, gracious and ready to forgive. May Jesus demonstrate His love
and compassion through His disciples as the day of the Lord approaches.

Lost,Yet Found

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

For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it. - Matthew 16:25

 

It is self-serving to be governed by self-interest — to be consumed with yourself and avoid sacrifice — to live to accumulate as much as you can to bring you comfort, pleasure, or power. If this is the motive for life then it is a life wasted! That is the deep meaning of our Jesus’ words. Self-seeking is self-losing. We have not really learned how to live at all until we have learned to live for Christ. What we keep for ourselves we lose; it is only what we give away that we really keep. Selfishness is not only sin; it is also spiritual death.

The way to save one’s life, says Jesus, is to lose it. Christ Himself lost His life, poured it out in loving self-sacrifice for the good of others. It seemed a waste, but was it? He found it again in greater glory. Paul lost his life for Christ, renounced everything for His sake, suffered everything, and gave his very life at the last; but did he lose anything by his self-sacrifice?

A young girl, beautiful, cultured, honored, with a lovely home and many friends, turned away from ease, refinement, and luxury, and went to teach freed slaves in America. She lived among them, and gave out her rich young life in efforts to help them up and save them. One day she became sick and died. Her friends said: “Oh, what a waste of precious life!” But was it a waste?

All who truly follow Christ make this choice between saving and losing their life – that is, between making self-interest and Christ the motive in living. When we follow Christ, we may never be called actually to make great sacrifices; but that we are ready to make them is implied by our agreement of discipleship. This losing of our lives is to save them — it is sowing a seed in the ground, losing it for a while, to later reap a rich harvest.

Apply This To Your Life Today… What have you got to lose except your own pride and selfishness? Give it all to Christ!

Being a Vessel to Bless Others

Today God Is First By Os Hillman

“One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”Proverbs 11:24-25

One of the reasons God entrusts money to us is to bless other Christians by meeting their needs. God uses the transfer of money within the Body of Christ to build unity among Christians. Sometimes we withhold money that God has designated for someone else. He wants to bless through us, but His will cannot be accomplished through us if we are disobedient.

This was the case for a business owner who tells of the time when God told him to forego a company bonus one year. God directed him to share his year-end bonus with an employee to show his appreciation for him. He wrestled with God for three full days before obeying the Lord on the matter. When he finally met with the employee to give him his check, the man said he had been praying about a financial need he had three days earlier. He had decided to borrow the money to meet his need. The amount of money he borrowed was the exact amount the business owner gave him.

God had already planned to provide for the employee through the business owner, but because he was hesitant, he almost missed the opportunity to be an instrument of God in this man’s life. Even so, he could have prevented the man from having to borrow money. It was an important lesson for the business owner.

How many people do we let down because we feel the “harvest” God provides is all ours? In America, the pressure is always on to move up the ladder of material accumulation. Jesus warned us about this. If our focus is on accumulation, we will not look for opportunities to be God’s vessels of financial blessing to others. Ask the Lord if you have an open hand when it comes to finances.

When a Nation Turns It’s Back on God

2 CHRONICLES 33:1-25

Hezekiah was a god-fearing king who brought about reformation among the Israelites. His son Manasseh, however, was an evil ruler. He had watched his father walk with God and live according to Scripture. Yet he chose to ignore the Lord.

Manasseh worshipped false gods, even to the point of sacrificing his sons by fire in order to praise Molech. He practiced much evil—including witchcraft and sorcery— and led Israel astray, thereby provoking God to anger. The king, along with the people, paid a high price for his rebellion.

This story illustrates the Lord’s intolerance of a nation’s disregard toward Him. Now consider our country. We, too, are a nation that pushes God aside—one that has turned away from the only true God and embraced idols. Perhaps these aren’t statues of stone, but we worship money, sports ability, fame, and reputation, to name a few.

The United States of America was founded on biblical principles with the intent to guarantee freedom of worship. But over time, we have removed the Lord from many aspects of public life. Prayer in schools, for instance, was deemed unconstitutional. What was once a “nation under God” has turned into a country that tolerates a growing number of sins and yet belittles absolute truth.

If a nation turns its back on the Lord, His judgment is inevitable unless the people repent and make Him Lord once again. As believers, our responsibility is to pray that God would draw the heart of our country back to Himself—and to help the gospel and truth spread through our land.

Dr. Charles Stanley

The Comfortable Church

MATTHEW 28:16-20

I think it’s fairly evident that the society we live in is very self-centered, and this same characteristic can be present in a church. Whenever a local body of believers develops an inward focus, its fruitfulness in ministry begins to decrease, and each member’s Christian walk is hindered.

Many believers want their church to be cozy and comfortable. They come to listen to a nice sermon, fellowship with friends, and have their needs met. But God never intended for the gathering of His people to be like a country club; He calls us to join an army that will bring the gospel into enemy territory.

An effective church—one that poses a real threat to the Enemy—is a body of disciplined people who have been taught the truth of Scripture, trained for service, and helped to mature spiritually. But all this is accomplished for the purpose of going out into the world, not for becoming a self-contained sanctuary of Christian comfort.

The urgency of the Lord’s command and the desperate condition of humanity should motivate us to leave the safety of our Christian fellowships and deliver the message of salvation through Jesus. To avoid this responsibility is to miss the Father‘s plan for your life and the opportunity to help build His kingdom.

None of us want to waste time or energy on trivial things and thereby miss the exciting fulfillment of God’s will. He has called us, not to a life of comfortable tradition, but to an adventure of obedience. Answer His call—you’ll help fill His kingdom with people from every tribe and nation.

Peace And Reconciliation

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READ: Matthew 18:21-35

Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? —Matthew 18:33

When the US Civil War ended in 1865, more than half a million soldiers lay dead, the economy was shattered, and people remained deeply divided politically. The observance of Mother’s Day in the United States began with two women’s efforts for peace and reconciliation during this time of anguish. In 1870, Julia Ward Howe called for an International Mother’s Day on which women would unite in opposing war in all its forms. A few years later, Anna Reeves Jarvis began her annual Mother’s Friendship Day in an effort to reunite families and neighbors alienated by the war. There is always great suffering when friends and families are fractured and unwilling to forgive.

The gospel of Jesus Christbrings the promise of peace and reconciliation with God and with each other. When Peter asked Jesus how often he should forgive a brother who sinned against him (Matt. 18:21), the Lord surprised everyone with His answer of “seventy times seven” (v.22). Then He told an unforgettable story about a servant who had received forgiveness and failed to pass it on (vv.23-35). As God freely forgives us, so He requires that we extend what we have received to others.

With God’s love and power, forgiveness is always possible. —David McCasland

Oh, what joy and peace we forfeit,
When forgiveness we withhold;
Fellowship with God is broken,
And the heart grows hard and cold. —D. De Haan

Forgiveness is Christianity in action.