Dwell: September 11, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2015.

DWELL

DEFINITION:

Live; reside; abide.

SCRIPTURE:

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17-19.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

The above verses were written by the Apostle Paul to the church at Ephesus and have a wealth of truths in it for us today. At the moment we accept Jesus as our Savior, Christ comes into our heart. Christ becomes part of us and begins dwelling in us at that moment. Sin is the barrier between Christ and us that keeps Him from dwelling in us. Christ is only at home with us, and finds comfort and satisfaction with us, when our hearts are cleansed of sin to make room for the filling of His Holy Spirit.

Paul tells us that from the human perspective we cannot understand the fullness of God’s love apart from genuine, Spirit empowered love found in our own life when we have Christ dwelling in us. God’s love is immeasurable and surpasses human comprehension.

When Paul refers to the breadth, length, height and depth of God’s love he is not talking about four different features of love but this is an effort by Paul to suggest the vastness and completeness of Christ’s love for us. God’s love is so wide it extends to everyone and covers the breadth of every human experience. God’s love is so long it continues through the length of our lives and from everlasting to everlasting. God’s love is so high it reaches the heights of our elation and expectation raising us up to heavenly happiness. God’s love is so deep it reaches to the depths of our discouragement and despair. The unbeliever can never grasp the greatness of God’s love.

Paul closes these three verses with a prayer that believers know the love of Christ and the fullness of God. The love that Christ has for us is unfathomable and unlimited. The fullness of God is experienced only through total devotion to Him and Jesus, our Savior, and the empowering of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Deuteronomy 33:12.

Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long.

PRAYER:

Help me to be rooted and grounded in Your Word so that I am filled with Your love. May the power of Your Word shape my life and equip me to share God’s message of love so that others can experience Christ dwelling in them.

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Disaster: September 10, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 10, 2015.

DISASTER

DEFINITION:

A great misfortune, a catastrophe; a calamitous event occurring suddenly and causing great loss of life, damage or hardship.

SCRIPTURE:

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Over the years we have experienced two large earthquakes causing damage to our house so we understand how one feels during a disaster. We have also responded, as most of you know to disasters as they happen around the world. We try to help with medical supplies, food, clothes, water and of course Bibles.

When a disaster strikes many people respond with questions like: “Why does the Lord let such things happen? Couldn’t God have stopped this? Doesn’t God care?” Non-believers have a very difficult time answering these questions because they have no relationship with God. But a believer in Jesus has the Bible to guide them as they wrestle through the same issues a non-believer may have.

The fact though is that coming to the proper conclusions on these issues one faces will depend on one’s knowledge of the Bible and the depth of one’s relationship with the Lord.

We must not let a disaster cause us to doubt God. Isaiah reminds us that we cannot know the mind of God since God does not think our way and His way is not our way (see verse above). But Isaiah assures us that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are better than our ways.

God’s wisdom and knowledge far surpasses ours. We are foolish to think that God should conform His plans and purpose to ours. We need to understand that God is never inactive. God is always at work even though it is not evident to us. In times of disaster we must put our trust in Him and he will bless us through any disaster. Disasters often serve to mold us to be more like Jesus and draw us closer to Him.

We know that God is in control. In Psalms 103:19 it is written, “The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.” Nothing in heaven or earth is outside of His control, rule or authority. In times of disaster we must continue to have faith in our creator and ruler. We can always trust in His mercy and goodness.

God ordains or permits events for His good purpose. Although we cannot comprehend what God is doing, in every incident, every disaster is a wakeup call for humanity. God is alerting us to repent. Disasters open our ears to hear from God. And we need to be reminded that the scripture tell us that in the last days there will be many disasters. Are you ready to meet Jesus in the air? We are! He may be coming soon!

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Deuteronomy 33:12.

Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long.

PRAYER:

Thank You that You are in full control and working out every detail of the issues we are facing daily according to Your good purpose in good times as well as in times of disaster. Help my heart to always be filled with hope no matter how difficult my crises.

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Destiny: September 9, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 9, 2015.

DESTINY

DEFINITION:

That which is to happen or has happened to a particular person or thing; the predetermined usually inevitable or irresistible course of events.

SCRIPTURE:

In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will. Ephesians 1:5

Beloved, now we are children of God. I John 3:2.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Have you ever asked the questions or have you been asked: What is my destiny? Who am I? Why am I here? How did I get to where I am? Where am I going? These are vital questions that all of us need to be able to answer.

Some years ago we heard the story of a young child who had been told that God created Adam and Eve from the dust of the earth and that when we died we would return to dust. Not long after being told this the child excitedly called for his or her mother to come to the bedroom and look under the bed because there was some dust under the bed and he or she could not tell if someone was coming or going.

Yes, people are continually coming into this world and continually going. We are born, we live out our life span, and then we die. And these thoughts bring to us crucial questions that need to be answered. Are you perplexed by any of the questions we asked in the first paragraph above? The Bible, God’s Word has answers for each of these questions. These are all crucial questions and you must find answers for each one.

God created each one of us and He created us for a purpose and with a destiny. Long before He created this world we live in, God, because of His love for us, planned that our destiny was to be adopted as one of His children through Jesus Christ His Son.

In I John 3, the writer, John, calls those who are believers “children of God.” The first question that may come to your mind is, “How do I become a child of God?” In John 1:12 it says we become a child of God by receiving Jesus into our heart as our Savior. To do this we must acknowledge that we are a sinner, that there is a penalty we must pay for our sins and that Jesus paid that penalty for us by dying on the cross. We must ask Him to forgive us of our sins and then receive Him as our Savior.

If we are a child of God then you may ask the question, where are we going. In John 14:1-6 we are told in the words of Jesus Himself that He is preparing us a home with Him in Heaven where we will spend eternity.

We have no control over our coming into this world but we are in control of where we are going. God has given us a free will so we choose our destiny. The choice is very simple. It is Heaven or Hell. Today is the day you should determine your destiny. Do not put it off because you do not know about tomorrow.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Deuteronomy 33:12.

Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long.

PRAYER:

Open my ears that I may hear and my eyes that I may see what Your will is for me. Thank You that I have assurance that I am a child of God knowing my sins are forgiven and that You are preparing a home for me in heaven.

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Despair: September 8, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2015.

DESPAIR

DEFINITION:

Loss of hope; hopelessness; a state of mind caused by circumstances that seem too much to cope with; a sense of futility.

SCRIPTURE:

For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great in His unfailing love. Lamentations 3:31-32.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Most of us at some time in our life will experience despair which is a state of mind caused by circumstances that seem too much to cope with. Despair can be felt in many ways. As we communicate to friends who read our devotionals, we reply to those who are so poor that they do not know where their next meal is coming from. For others the loss of a job brings despair. We hear from many single mothers who experience the feeling of despair as they are left to be mother and father to their child or children. For so many the feeling of despair brings on the feeling that God no longer cares for them.

We all have read the story of the mother Naomi in the book of Ruth. She was in deep despair and for a good reason. She had lost not only her husband but her two sons. The following account is given us about Naomi. Naomi along with her husband and two sons had to leave their home in Bethlehem and move to Moab because there was great famine in Judah, where Bethlehem is located. Her husband died in Moab, her two sons married and later died leaving Naomi, a widow, with two daughter-in-laws. In those days widows without a family were destined to a life of poverty. This is the reason for the great despair that had overwhelmed Naomi.

Naomi was like many single moms today. She felt she had no hope for the future and had become bitter. She decided to move back to her homeland and one of her widowed daughter-in-laws went with her. When she arrived back in her homeland those who knew her greeted her by her name Naomi, which means pleasant. Her despair and bitterness welled up in her and she soon let it all out by saying, do not call me Naomi but call me Mara, which means bitter.

Although Naomi had faith in God her despair had so permeated her heart and mind that she lashed out at God and blamed God for allowing all that had happened to her. When circumstances make us bitter we seem to blame God, especially if we cannot blame someone else. Just as Naomi did not see a happy ending to her life, we feel the same when we are fighting despair. Despair makes us think God has forgotten us.

Naomi’s sad story does have a happy ending. God had not forgotten her just as He will not forget us. God in His divine providence had a purpose and a plan. Through her daughter-in-law Ruth, God brought hope not only to Naomi but to all of us today.

When you read the book of Ruth you will find out that Boaz married Ruth and they have a son named Obed. And then Boaz and Ruth became the great grandparents of David. More importantly, God chose to bring His Son Jesus into the world through the line of descendants of David, Obed and Boaz.

When God allows grief to enter our life, we need to remember that He has compassion on us because of His great and unfailing love for us. He hears us when we call upon Him and rescues us from all of our troubles.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Deuteronomy 33:12.

Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long.

PRAYER:

Thank You for Your great compassion and unfailing love. Help me to remember that when I feel despair that I can call on You and that I will know that You hear me. Help me to remember that I can trust You to not only hear me, but deliver me from what troubles me.

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Depraved: September 7, 2015

TODAY’S WORD FOR MONDAY SEPTEMBER 7, 2015.

DEPRAVED

DEFINITION:

Morally corrupted; evil; perverted.

SCRIPTURE:

Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind; to do what ought not to be done. Romans 1:28.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

If you are wondering what it means to have a depraved mind it means one’s mind is corrupted by evil and leads one to do what they ought not to do. We live in a culture today that is depraved because it is guided by people with depraved minds.

Paul gives us a very detailed definition of a depraved person in Romans 1:28-32. “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant and boastful. They invent ways of being evil, they disobey their parents, and they are senseless, faithless, heartless and ruthless.”

Everyone knows in his heart that those things are wrong and God has decreed that those who do such things deserve death. And even knowing this they not only continue to do those things that Paul list above but they also approve of those who live like them and encourages others to live the same.

The Apostle Paul wrote this many years ago to the Roman church but sadly it so true today. Paul’s purpose in writing these words was to warn the church of God’s wrath that will come to those who are unrighteous. He was describing the depraved condition of the Roman society of his day. It is evident that the sinful nature of man has not changed over time.

The Romans knew about God, just as people today know about God, but they did not think it was worthwhile to acknowledge Him as God. They chose to reject God and He allowed them to reject Him. God does not force anyone to follow Him, but when people refuse to acknowledge God He turns them over to their depraved minds. Unfortunately, many people prefer to believe Satan’s lies because he reinforces their selfish desires and depraved beliefs.

Paul called on the Romans (chapter 1) to examine their lives. It is a call for us as believers also to examine our lives. Are we doing and living as God wants us to live or are we allowing our depraved minds lead us down the wrong path of life?

THERE IS NEVER A RIGHT TIME TO DO WRONG!

THERE IS NEVER A WRONG TIME TO DO RIGHT!

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Deuteronomy 33:12.

Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long.

PRAYER:

Help me to be aware of the evil in today’s society. Help me to cling to the knowledge of Your Word so that I will do what I ought to do today. Take away from me all my evil desires and depraved thoughts that will lead me to sin and fall away from following You.

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