Words of Encouragement and Thoughts (6)

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R

And I want to show you great and marvelous things.

Jeremiah 33:3
Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. (NIV Bible)

When my children were very small, they would be full of questions. "Dad, why is the sky blue? Dad, where do animals go when they die? Dad?" Their probes would go on and on. While I didn't always have the answer to their questions, I never turned them away or forbid them from asking again. In fact, I actually marveled at their inquisitive nature and their desire to learn all about their surroundings.

I felt it was a privilege that they would choose to come to me and feel free to ask me anything they wanted. If I delight in unlocking some of life's more simple mysteries to my children, how much MORE does our Father in heaven desire to reveal His heart to us! (Matthew 7:11).

When we call out to the Lord, He is always faithful to answer our cry to reveal the mysteries of His kingdom to us. The bible says in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10-No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him? but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. (NIV Bible)

Just as my little children had free access to my lap at question time, so we have full access to our Father's throne room in heaven. Anytime, night or day, we can come to Him with all our questions and concerns with complete confidence knowing that He promises to answer us and tell us great and unsearchable things that we do not know.

PRAYER
Father, I call out to You today in full confidence that You hear me and are willing to answer my cry. I come to You with an expectant heart, ready to sit down on Your lap so that You might reveal to me the great mysteries of Your kingdom and show me great and unsearchable things that I do not know. In the name of Your beloved Son Jesus I pray, AMEN.

Father's Love Letter devotional

Stagnant Christians

In His Presence: Colossians 4:2

The carnal Christian is a stagnant Christian. The apostle Paul told the church in Corinth: “Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly” (1 Corinthians 3:2-3). Even though a carnal Christian is saved, he has had little or no development over time. It is dismaying as a pastor to watch Christians who come to church week after week, month after month, year after year, making no progress even though they may be performing. They commit the same old sins the same way. They are not overcoming these sins that in time they should be mature enough to overcome. They refuse to think biblically.

What marks a stagnant Christian is their persistence in the milk of the word. We can call them the “A B C” Christians. “A B C” Christians are still learning how to read, while their peers are graduating from high school. The difference between the stagnant and growing Christian is that the stagnant Christian does not use the time since salvation to grow spiritually.

A carnal Christian is like a vehicle that has stalled because it has run out of gasoline. We are stalled if we still measure success in our spiritual lives purely by how much we were entertained in church. The Holy Spirit is there to provide the power, but your spiritual life needs gas. There’s nothing wrong with the engine, but the gasoline needed for this car to run is our commitment to grow. It needs our persistence.

One Minute Please

We have to make a decision on our own to move from the milk of the Word to solid food.

Alternative View with Dr. Tony Evans‏

DARKNESS

“Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let [them] trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon [their] God.” Isaiah 50:10

According to Isaiah, even though we are Christians we can experience dark times in our lives. The darkness mentioned here is not the darkness of evil which the New Testament refers to (Matthew 6:23), but rather the darkness—or wilderness experience—that trials and hard times can bring.

Some of us know about the “dark night of the soul.” We feel overwhelmed. We feel as though we’re in the depths. It seems we can go no lower. There’s nothing but blackness.

But Isaiah says the way out of the darkness is to “trust in the name of the Lord, and stay (rely) upon God.” The word “stay” denotes a reliance on or belief in God that says, “I know that I know that I know God is who He says He is and He will do what He says He will do. No matter what, I will trust Him.” To stay upon God means to cling to Him, lean hard on Him, and to wait patiently for His deliverance.

Sometimes it takes a long time to get through the darkness. We can get weary in the process and think, What’s the use? But if we keep going and stay (rely) on God, He will bring us to the light.

PRAYER: Deliverer God, in my dark time, help me to trust You and to lean upon You and cling to You, waiting patiently for Your light. Related verses: 2 Samuel 22:29; Psalm 18:28, 107:13-14, 112:4, 139:11-12; Isaiah 9:2; Daniel 2:22; Micah 7:8

Elsie Brunk . Streams of Living Water for a Thirsty Soul: Inspirations for Days of Discouragement, Depression, and Despair

I came across this thought in "The Daily Bible Study-Letter to the Romans Commentary" by William Barclay. It is based on Romans 13:1-4 with church and state. However the thought that I am sharing is slightly different.

"But there was more in Paul's thought than simply the shortness of time. He expected the Second Coming of Christ. The Early Church expected it at any moment, and therefore it had the urgency to be ready. That expectancy has grown dim and faint; but one permanent fact remains-no man knows when God will rise and bid him go. The time grows ever shorter, for we are every day one day nearer that time. We, too must have all things ready."

"The Early Church expected it at any moment, and therefore it had the urgency to be ready."

We also should have this same mindset. To expect Christ's coming at any moment. This is no time to be living in sin, to backbite, back-stab one another, etc. Let's ask ourselves these questions.

Would I want Christ to return when I am in the middle of my sin?
Would I want Christ to return when I am speaking wrongly of someone?

I'm sure there would be many questions we could add to the list. So let us act as if Christ will return at any moment. Let Christ find us doing for Him, living a pure and holy life, encouraging and lifting one another up in prayer.

Moriah Ruth

Love the Lord God with all your heart, mind and soul. Live fully for Him.

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Moriah Ruth

Carnality by Choice

In His Presence: Galatians 6:2

“Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin”(Hebrews 3:12-13).

When God saved us, He saved us to serve Christ. Occasional lapses into sin do not imply carnality. Everyone sins. Carnality is the state where the person has the mindset of seeking to gratify themselves rather than please Christ.

No Christian has to be carnal. Being carnal is a decision of the will. Carnal Christians have grown up physically and should be able to feed themselves. But they can’t. That is because a carnal Christian is a person who has developed a mindset of disobedience. They willfully live in sin, controlled by the old person they used to be. They are saved and the Holy Spirit is in them, but they are not allowing the Holy Spirit to grow them.

There is a difference between a baby Christian and a carnal Christian. Baby Christians are young in the Lord and do not yet have the capacity to eat on their own. Someone else has to feed them—to give them the Word. A young Christian desires the milk of the Word of God. “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Peter 2:2).

One Minute Please

Have you become hardened to sin in your life? Are you a carnal Christian?

Alternative View with Dr. Tony Evans‏

COMMUNION WITH GOD

Philippians 3:7-10

God created men and women to be in relationship with Him. The type of communion Adam and Eve first enjoyed with Him was meant for us as well. But when sin entered the world, everything changed. God’s intended intimate relationship with mankind was broken, and it has been passed down through the generations in that damaged condition.

But as we know, that’s not the end of the story. Jesus came to die in our place, bringing forgiveness for our sins and restoring our relationship with the Father. Through faith in Christ, we are adopted into God’s family and belong to Him forever—just as He originally planned. He has provided us with everything we need to experience intimacy with Him.

So what happens if, following salvation, new believers never go deeper? Some may drift away from their initial zeal for the Lord, failing to make Bible reading or church attendance a regular occurrence. Perhaps others try to focus on the Lord but allow earthly matters to distract them. Over time, some Christians settle for what’s comfortable and familiar. Sadly, they will miss out on the deep contentment God wanted to provide. Yet those who make Jesus the priority of their life will have a deepening relationship with Him, which transcends any earthly one.

Communion with God made King David “fully satisfied as with the richest of foods” (Psalms 63:5 NIV). And Paul viewed his own accomplishments as nothing in comparison with “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:8). Draw near to God, and experience the blessings of knowing Him.

InTouch Daily devotional

Becoming Entirely His

Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. —James 1:4

Many of us appear to be all right in general, but there are still some areas in which we are careless and lazy; it is not a matter of sin, but the remnants of our carnal life that tend to make us careless. Carelessness is an insult to the Holy Spirit. We should have no carelessness about us either in the way we worship God, or even in the way we eat and drink.

Not only must our relationship to God be right, but the outward expression of that relationship must also be right. Ultimately, God will allow nothing to escape; every detail of our lives is under His scrutiny. God will bring us back in countless ways to the same point over and over again. And He never tires of bringing us back to that one point until we learn the lesson, because His purpose is to produce the finished product. It may be a problem arising from our impulsive nature, but again and again, with the most persistent patience, God has brought us back to that one particular point. Or the problem may be our idle and wandering thinking, or our independent nature and self-interest. Through this process, God is trying to impress upon us the one thing that is not entirely right in our lives.

We have been having a wonderful time in our studies over the revealed truth of God’s redemption, and our hearts are perfect toward Him. And His wonderful work in us makes us know that overall we are right with Him. “Let patience have its perfect work….” The Holy Spirit speaking through James said, “Now let your patience become a finished product.” Beware of becoming careless over the small details of life and saying, “Oh, that will have to do for now.” Whatever it may be, God will point it out with persistence until we become entirely His.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L

Utmost For His Highest devotional

If you seek me with all your heart you will find me.

Deuteronomy 4:29
But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. (NIV Bible)

The Lord encourages us to seek Him with all our heart and all our soul. If we do pursue Him with everything within us, He promises that we will find Him. I imagine this to be similar to a child's game of hide and seek. When my children were young, they would love to play this game with my wife and I. They would turn towards the wall and close their eyes and count to ten.

In the mean time, we would scamper off into another part of the house to find a place in which to hide. At the count of ten, our children would shriek in delight and begin their quest to find us. Their anticipation would build as they would open every closet door and look under every bed.

While the searching part of the game was always fun, it was the finding part that was the real climax! We never chose a place too hard for our children to find us for we loved the moment when our children would finally catch us. Our cry of "You found me!" and their cry of "I found you!" would happen simultaneously followed by a mutual celebration that the game was over.

The game wouldn't have been fun if our intention was to hide so that our children would never find us. The fun is in being found. I think it is the same way in our relationship with God. When He calls us to search for Him, He never hides Himself so well that He cannot be found.

PRAYER
Father, I am thankful that You do not make it difficult for me to find You, for You are never far away and are always happy to be found! I pray that I might pursue You with all my heart and my soul, all the while having a child-like anticipation of finding You! In the name of your beloved Son Jesus I pray, AMEN.

Father's Love Letter devotional

Thank you for sharing Cassia.