Hand: January 23, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR FRIDAY JANUARY 23, 2015.

HAND

DEFINITION:

Help; aid; participation; custody.

SCRIPTURE:

Let Your hand become my help, for I have chosen Your precepts. Psalm 119:173.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

I can still remember when our children were trying to learn to walk. They always were reaching out to hold our hand. But soon when they gained confidence in themselves they no longer would reach for our hand. But almost without fail they would fall and sometimes even hurt themselves. Their over-confidence in themselves taught them a lesson that a strong helping hand could have kept them from falling and helped them gain confidence faster.

Many times we are sure that you have been in situations, as we have often been, when we needed to take someone’s hand to help us walk on a slippery or treacherous path. As we get older we often welcome having someone’s hand to assist us to keep us from slipping or even falling.

On a trip to Panama we had the opportunity to go to visit a remote Indian tribe. We took a bus to a remote area and then walked down a steep hill to get into a dugout canoe. The mud was very slippery and there was no railing to take hold of. We were not the least bit confident that we could get from the river bank into the canoe safely. There were no steps and the river bank was very uneven, muddy and rocky.

A teenage Indian boy, standing near the canoe with both of his bare feet planted firmly in the mud, reached out with his one hand to grab ours and with his other hand he grabbed our arm. With these helping hands we felt more confident that we could make it into the canoe. We got into the canoe, went down the river, met the tribe and returned knowing that we had a very special day. We also knew that without the helping hands of this teenage Indian boy we may have found ourselves taking an unexpected swim.

Ken remembers holding the hand of a young blind boy in Guatemala helping him to his class at the school our ministry sponsored. He was trying to learn English and spent his time asking questions about America and seemingly not concerned about his blindness. He held my hand tightly knowing that I was leading him in the right direction.

In the verse we have written above the psalmist tells us, “Let Your hand become my help, for I have chosen Your precepts.” God is holding out His hand every moment of every day for us to hold. And when we live by His precepts He has promised to lead us according to His will. When we read this verse we think back to the many times others have held out their hands to help us and the times we have held out our hands to help others.

In life we all have been in difficult situations, both physically and spiritually, where we have overestimated our feeble abilities. Those are the times we reached out for help and God’s guiding hand was always there to lead us in the right direction.

When we are fearful and discouraged God says, “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” Isaiah 41:10.

We were so grateful for the strong and steady hand of the Indian boy on that river bank in Panama but we are so much more grateful that we have God’s hand leading us and supporting us on the slippery slope of life.

When adversity begins to strike you, remember that God is ready to stretch out His hand to strengthen you.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Joshua 24:15b.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

PRAYER:

Thank You for Your strong hand that is always there for me and my family. Help us to put our complete trust in You and not to succumb to the evils of this world. Just as a child needs his father’s hand so do I need Your hand to give me daily strength and guidance.

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Target: January 22, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR THURSDAY JANUARY 22, 2015.

TARGET

DEFINITION:

A goal or objective; a design of circles.

SCRIPTURE:

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Our children were always very competitive not only among themselves but also in sports and in their school classes. Now we see the same competitiveness among our grandchildren. As parents we encouraged our children to always do their best in every task they attempted whether it was work or play. A successful life by itself demands some sort of competitiveness. Being competitive drives a person to always have goals in life and to do all one can to meet that goal and do it in a way to win.

In training our children we also warned them that they may not always win. In fact, many times in our lives we may not win, so when we lose we need to lose with graciousness and even humility. It is also very important that if you do not win that you take the time and make the effort to see how you could have improved the task you were involved in.

This is tough not only to teach but to learn. No one ever wants to lose but at times it will happen. Children today also need to be told that when one is “racing’ toward a goal that they have set, that they need to “race” fairly and abide by the rules.

Part of winning is to know your target. In the 2004 Olympics the gold medal winner in rifle shooting was ready to win his second medal in another event. He had a commanding lead and everyone was certain that he would win the second medal that he really wanted. In fact it was his best event and he was highly favored. But something went wrong. He hit the middle of the target but he had aimed at the wrong target.

This is an excellent example for all of us. When we have a goal and a target to hit, make sure that we are aiming for the right targets in life because it is so easy to get off course and aim for the wrong target.

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians (above verse) he expresses the importance of focusing on the right target in our Christian life. Paul uses this word “goal” as the same word used as an athlete running a race. The same word is also used for the object to aim for in archery. In each of these definitions the prospect of winning depends on us being focused on the proper targets. For us as believers we need to be focused on a lifetime pursuit of becoming more like our Savior, Jesus.

Take a moment now and decide what your focus is on in your life. Are you preoccupied with getting ahead in life thus making life more comfortable for you? Are you focused on the target desiring to be more like Jesus? We encourage you today to make God’s goals your goals and aim directly at that target. Keep your eyes on your target. If you take your eyes off your target you will be sure to miss it. Success in your Christian life depends on keeping your eyes on Jesus.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Joshua 24:15b.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

PRAYER:

Help me today to focus on targets that honor You. Give me goals today that will make me more like You and will also let others see Christ through me.

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Ignorance: January 21, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR WEDNESDAY JANUARY 21, 2015.

IGNORANCE

DEFINITION:

Having little or no knowledge; unlearned; uninformed; unaware.

SCRIPTURE:

As sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:21

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

It is hard for us to realize how ignorant people are concerning God and the part He plays in our lives. So many people today say that they firmly believe that God is not needed in their lives that they are very capable in living a successful life based on their own beliefs.

Do you realize that man hungers for food and God sends the sun and rain on the fields of grain? The grain is then made into flour, the flour into bread and man’s hunger is satisfied. Man hungers for love and it is God that ignites the fire of affection in another heart and the two hearts are made complete in the bonds of matrimony. These two illustrations are only two of many to illustrate how God is involved in all we do in life.

The apostle Paul in his writing to the Romans deals with a concern that seemed to be confusing believers in the church at Rome. Basically Paul is saying that ignorance, in God’s sight, does not give one an excuse for not knowing God just as ignorance does not eliminate God from the details of your life physically and spiritually.

In Romans 5:12-21, Paul sets out to show us how one man’s, Jesus, death can provide salvation for many not from a specific sin but the inherited sin that entered the human realm. Man became sinners by nature. To prove His point He uses Adam to establish the principle that it is possible for one man’s actions to affect many people. As a result of the sin of Adam we are all born with a sin nature.

In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul addresses the issue of ignorance or lack of understanding. Roman law was considered at that time to be the source of the idea that ignorance of the law excuses a person from obeying the law. Since people were ignorant of God’s righteousness, Paul wrote in Romans 10:3 that they established their own and did not submit to God’s righteousness.

Many people do this today. When we live according to our own standards of right and wrong, we might feel good about ourselves for a period of time, but that does not make us spiritually healthy. Only when we are measured by God’s standard of righteousness, which is Jesus, do we know the condition of our spiritual health.

When some people become physically sick they avoid going to the doctor because they do not want to hear that something is wrong with them. Some people avoid going to church for the same reason. They know they are spiritually sick but do not want to hear that they are doing wrong. Ignorance of our sickness doesn’t make us healthy and ignorance of our sin doesn’t make us innocent.

When God gave the law to the Children of Israel through Moses, He established that even unintentional sin required a sacrifice for forgiveness. You can read this in Leviticus 4.

None of us can achieve the righteousness of Christ, but thankfully we do not have to. In the verse we have written above the apostle Paul tells us that sin leads to certain death, but Jesus has given us His righteousness that leads to eternal life. The good news about finding out what is wrong with us is that the Great Physician can make us well.

In obedience to His heavenly Father, Jesus bore all of our sins in His own body on the cross so that by His wounds we have been healed, I Peter 2:25.

God has made known to us His great gift of salvation so that we cannot claim ignorance as an excuse for remaining in sin. God is the measurer and the healer of our spiritual health and ignorance about this on our behalf is not acceptable or a valid excuse to continue to refuse to acknowledge God as our creator and Jesus as our Redeemer.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Joshua 24:15b.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

PRAYER:

Our family rejoices that You are our Great Physician and that You know our heart. Our prayer is that You will show us any attitude or action that we might do that does not please You. Make us clean vessels for You to use and keep us in good spiritual health.

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Escape: January 20, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR TUESDAY JANUARY 20, 2015.

ESCAPE

DEFINITION:

Get away or flee as from capture or confinement; evade or avoid; elude.

SCRIPTURE:

But Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa. Jonah 1:3.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Alcatraz is a prison in the bay of San Francisco. This prison was reserved for the worst prisoners in America. They would be sent here to serve their time because the judicial system felt that escape would be impossible. Alcatraz is located on an Island in the San Francisco Bay and escape would require a long and difficult swim that most thought was humanly impossible.

Today it is a museum and several of our grandchildren went there on a school trip. Upon their return they told us about their visit and reported that some felt that one or two prisoners may have escaped, but if they did escape from the island they would have surely drowned in their attempt to swim to land.

The scripture above tells us of Jonah’s plan of escape to avoid doing what God asked him to do. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach the Word of God. Jonah did not like the assignment and decided to escape God’s presence by running away to Joppa by getting on a boat headed to Tarshish.

It was foolish for any person in the prison at Alcatraz to think that they could escape by jumping off the Island into a vast sea expanse of water like the San Francisco bay. It was even more foolish for Jonah to think he could run and escape from God, who is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and all omnipresent (present everywhere).

Just as trying to escape from Alcatraz could only lead to disaster so would Jonah’s attempt to escape from God’s presence. Jonah was hurled into a raging sea and as he was about to drown he cried out to God and even in the midst of a stormy sea God was present. God provided a great fish to swallow Jonah and saved him. You know the rest of the story about Jonah and the whale. Because of God’s miracle of deliverance, Jonah repented and yielded to God’s perfect will.

In trying to escape from doing what God wanted him to do just think about what Jonah lost. He lost not only valuable time he could have spent preaching God’s Word, but he lost his peace of mind for a period of time. It certainly must have tormented him to know he was not doing what God wanted him to do. He had lost the blessing of God’s presence, God’s provision and God’s comfort in his life.

Jonah thought he could run from God but his attempt only brought suffering on himself and those on the boat with him. Disobedience brings consequences and often affects not only the offender but those who are with him or her.

God had given Jonah a specific job to do but Jonah did not like the job description. He did not want to go to Nineveh to preach God’s message of love and forgiveness to the wicked Assyrians who he hated and feared. He did not want them to repent and be spared from God’s judgment which they deserved for all their evil ways. Jonah tried to escape to Joppa.

Like Jonah, we may be called on by God to do things we don’t like or want to do. We may feel like Jonah and want to turn and run. When we defy God and run from what He wants us to do the result is always the same. It will lead to a disaster and we lose the presence and comfort of the Lord in our lives.

Just like Jonah, we may find ourselves in the midst of a raging sea. The moment we run off to seek our own purposes, without God’s blessing, we are at sea without a pilot. Then we cry out to God asking Him where has He gone? God has not left us, we have left Him.

By this time in our life we are at the same place that Jonah was --- on the run and with no peace of mind. Sin destroys a believer’s comfort. Jonah found out, as you will, that it is harder to try to escape from doing what God wants you to do than to yield to His will -- when, where and how He directs you.

When you truly put your trust in God and communicate with Him daily, then you will not flee from what He tells you. It is hard to contend against God when you try to escape doing His will. When you trust Him, He knows what is best and will be with you always giving you His assurance of His faithfulness and the comfort of His presence.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Joshua 24:15b.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

PRAYER:

Give me the wisdom to know Your will in my life and give me the strength and the courage to obey and not to run from You to try to escape doing Your perfect will in my life. Give my family direction and guidance that only You can give us. Thank You for leading us, protecting us and blessing us.

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Neglect: January 19, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR MONDAY JANUARY 19, 2015.

NEGLECT

DEFINITION:

Disregard; fail to carry out or perform; ignore; pay no attention to.

SCRIPTURE:

Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
 James 4:17

How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Hebrews 2:3

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

James says in the above verse that when we know that something is the right thing to do and we do not do it, it is a sin. This is called a sin of omission. In any sin of omission one basically is neglecting to do right. It is as much of a sin as a sin of commission, like lying, stealing and committing adultery, in God's sight.

We all face issues and situations in life that are difficult to deal with. It is tempting to just put off dealing with them or even to ignore them completely. Unfortunately, neither putting it off nor ignoring it will make the situation go away.

Sin is sin and whether we want to face it or not, we will be held accountable for our sins. This is not an issue to be ignored. All those who neglect to deal with their sin will be judged and punished. The punishment will be severe. We will be eternally separated from God. It comes down to where we will spend eternity. Unless we repent of our sins and accept God’s gracious gift of salvation the issue will not go away no matter how much we ignore it. The writer of Hebrews asks the question which you must ask yourself: “How will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation?” God does not accept any excuses for neglecting to do what is right.

One may only have one opportunity in life to accept God's salvation. We do not know what tomorrow holds. What we do know is that if you neglect to accept Jesus as your Savior, you will have to stand before the judgment throne without any excuse.

In I Timothy 4:14 the apostle Paul exhorts Timothy and other believers not to neglect the gift that is in him, which was given him by God. We all have been given gifts that God expects us as believers to use for Him. Many never use their gifts as God desires them to and they miss wonderful opportunities to spread the gospel message and to bring glory to God. When we neglect to do what we know we should we miss out on God’s best for us.

Parents have the responsibility to, first of all, teach their children about God and Jesus so they can have the opportunity to accept Jesus as their Savior. Parents, also, must teach their children the difference between right and wrong. Children need to be taught so they know without any doubt what is good so that they understand that neglecting to do the right things in life is as much of a sin as doing the wrong thing.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Joshua 24:15b.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

PRAYER:

Give me the courage to not neglect the sins in my life and the strength to deal with each one of them and ask for forgiveness. Help me to be diligent in teaching my children about God and Jesus and how they can be saved. Help me to also teach them to be obedient to God’s commandments and do what is right.

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