War: September 2, 2016

TODAY’S WORD FOR FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 2016.

WAR

DEFINITION:

Armed conflict between those in opposition to each other or between nations; any strife or conflict to hostility.

SCRIPTURE:

But I say to you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. Luke 6:27-28.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

War is a very complicated and disturbing subject both to the believers and the non-believers. We must first as believers consider the condition of the fallen world we live in. War is a natural consequence of sin. Some conflicts are fueled by leaders with evil intentions and desires. Other conflicts are a battle between right and wrong. God does not like bloodshed, but if evil is not forcefully resisted, the wicked will prevail.

The Lord established government as a means to promote good and to restrain evil. Some rulers abuse the authority given them and act wickedly with the result being war. We share this word “war” with you today because so many of our wonderful friends who are reading these daily devotionals are living in “war zones”. We pray that these thoughts will be a source of encouragement to those living every day with “war.”

The Old Testament gives us evidence that at times God uses war to achieve His purpose. He commanded the Israelites to fight for the possession of the land He had promised them and to kill the inhabitants who were very evil (Deuteronomy chapter 20).  God also used war to judge and punish wicked nations (Jeremiah chapter 25). God also used war to punish His own people for their evil ways (Jeremiah 5).

Many people ask a very important question: “How can the God who told Israel to destroy the Canaanites be the same God who told us to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate you?” To understand this we must be able to understand that God distinguishes commands given to nations and instructions given to individuals. Look at two verses to clarify this in your mind. In Romans 13:4 God calls nations or governments ministers of God for good and entrusts them with avenging evil. But in Romans 12:19 He is talking to individuals when He says for us to never take our own revenge.

Jesus also tells us in Luke that loving our enemies is the only way to protect ourselves as believers from bitterness. Unfortunately, many people today turn this around. They are quick to fight personal battles but slow to affirm the avenging of evil as a nation.

America was founded by our forefathers as a nation under God. For several Christmas seasons now some of the American news media reported on “the war against Christmas.” There were those who were demanding that Christmas nativity displays be taken down if they were on public property. Many judicial buildings display the TEN COMMANDMENTS from the Bible on their facilities. For some time there have been demands that they be removed.

We must face it, there is a war going on against those who believe in God. What those who oppose the followers of Jesus do not understand is that they are in a war against God. This is not new to our generation.

Satan is the leader of this war. It began in heaven when Satan rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven (Revelation 12:7-9). It continued on earth when Satan brought his war to the Garden of Eden and successfully tempted Adam and Eve to sin against God.

Satan continues to recruit his army of followers to carry on his war against God. When will it end? Daniel 9:26 tells us, “War will continue until the end.” When is the end? When Jesus returns and sets up His Kingdom on earth and reigns as King forever and Satan is cast into the lake of fire.

Until then we as believers are in the war and we must be armed and ready with the Word of God and we must be diligent in preparing our children to stand strong against their enemy, Satan.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Isaiah 12:2.

Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the Lord God, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.

PRAYER:

Help me to remember that Your goal is to destroy wickedness and not people. Help me to do my part in overcoming evil as I look forward to the day when You will defeat all evil and I will reign with You for an eternity.

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Service: September 1, 2016

TODAY’S WORD FOR THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 1, 2016.

SERVICE

DEFINITION:

An act of helpful activity; the serving of God in obedience; work done in subjection to another.

SCRIPTURE:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16.

I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices (reasonable service), holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1. (NIV)

With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men. Ephesians 6:7

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

The apostle Paul lived a life of service, second maybe to no one in Biblical history. God called Paul to a ministry of faith and service. No other person did more to spread the good news of the gospel and shape the history of Christianity than Paul. It was Paul whom Christ used to write 13 of the New Testament books and win the first European convert to Christianity (Acts 16:14).

Paul also lived a life of service by becoming a great missionary bringing many Jewish and countless Gentiles to a saving knowledge of the Lord. Paul was also used by God to explain many of the doctrines of the new faith. Paul suffered many hardships throughout much of his life for serving the Lord. He did not let any of his suffering deter him from preaching the gospel. Truly, the apostle Paul lived a life of service to His Lord after he had that encounter with God on the road to Damascus.

In the book of Romans we find many principles of service that Paul refers to in his life that we can apply to our lives. In the verse we have written above from Romans 12, Paul is talking to the believers in the Church of Rome. He has reminded them that all that they do is for the glory of God thus we must respond to our Lord by offering ourselves for service that glorifies Him and pleases Him and not men. We serve the Lord by laying aside our desires in order to serve others. Serving the Lord may require us to give up something.

Paul was a person with unshakeable convictions and unswerving confidence in the gospel. These are the first two principles that believers today must grasp. When we were raising our children we would constantly remind our children that they needed to stay true to their convictions. Because we spent time daily with the family reading the Bible, praying and talking about what we believed they lived by their convictions with unswerving confidence in the Lord. That does not mean that there were not times of wavering but when we make it our goal to be pleasing to God our Godly convictions will guide us and give us victory over Satan’s temptations.

How many people, including yourself, would you say you know that have unshakeable convictions and unswerving confidence in the Bible? One guideline would be to look at the Ten Commandments and see if any are broken in your daily life. Those who desire to serve the Lord must first be willing to obey His commandments. Obedience will be evident in the lives of those with Godly convictions.

Paul is blunt in his presentation as a preacher, evangelist and teacher, in calling sin what it is. He is equally strong in describing the potential of God’s forgiveness for any and all of these sins through the provision of Jesus Christ. His message is always clear, without compromise and to the point. Paul also preached integrity with the truth. He insists that integrity and truth be evident into day by day living. Truth and honesty are to be exemplified not in just what we say we believe but in our every action.

Paul in his life of service to the believers constantly presented a solution to the frustrating sense of failure often experiences by new believers. Paul was a master in getting to the core issues believers must deal with in their life and very practical in presenting spiritual truth in confronting the problems and temptations we face living in this sinful world. He showed people how to live what they believed. Paul practiced what he preached! As believers today, we need to work on these principles. Read the book of Romans and you will understand the great truths of the gospel that Paul applied to his life of service. Consider how to apply these truths to your life today.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Isaiah 12:2.

Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the Lord God, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.

PRAYER:

Help me today to follow Paul’s example and make it a priority to serve You by serving others. Prepare my heart to be willing to give up what I want to do in order to serve someone in their time of need. Keep me humble and obedient to Your will so that I can be used of You.

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Rejection: August 31, 2016

TODAY’S WORD FOR WEDNESDAY AUGUST 31, 2016.

REJECTION

DEFINITION:

To cast out; to discard as unsatisfactory or useless; something or someone not wanted; to refuse to accept or admit; to refuse to have or recognize.

SCRIPTURE:

He came unto His own and His own did not receive Him. John 1:11

My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Psalm 22:1 and Mark 15:34.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

It is one thing to be rejected by friends and associates, but quite different to be rejected by family. No matter what, rejection hurts. The good news is that if we confess our sins and ask Jesus to come into our heart, He will not reject us but accept us as one of His children.

By the definition above, rejection is being cast out or discarded as unsatisfactory and not wanted. When one is rejected they are cast out and unwanted because someone feels they are unsatisfactory.

Some rejection is brought on by one’s own actions, but often it is because of prejudice or jealousy or a difference in belief. When a family rejects one of their own it is usually based on a major conflict between standards of right and wrong.

Rejection usually results in separation and abandonment. Children who are abandoned by their parents or even their friends are often innocent victims but they feel the pain of rejection for a lifetime.

While Jesus lived here on this earth He experienced the pain and hurt of rejection. Jesus truly knew the meaning of rejection. First, even his own people, the Jews, the scripture says, rejected Him. Secondly, it was the rejection and abandonment of His Father that He knew He must experience when He took our sins upon Himself that brought Him to His knees in the garden of Gethsemane beseeching His Father to take that cup from Him.

We cannot begin to imagine the agony of the physical pain that Jesus endured as He hung on the cross. There is no more painful death than death by crucifixion. As horrible as the pain was, it was the rejection and abandonment of His Father that caused Jesus to cry out in agony, “My God, My God why have You forsaken Me?” It is because Jesus went through that suffering of rejection by His Father for our sins that we do not have to endure the rejection of our heavenly Father.

“Why does nobody care?” was the question that rings so clear in my mind from a young girl living in a home that the organization I was formerly with sponsored for children with cancer in Honduras. Our interpreter told us what the girl was saying but we really did not need an interpreter because it shown so clearly on her face.

There was no cancer medicine in the whole country to help children with cancer. This young girl and her mother, sitting by her side, felt so rejected, desperate and so alone. Did anyone care? We tried to assure them that help was on the way and that we did care.

Our organization did respond and soon there was medicine and even state of the art equipment to help assist children put their cancer into remission. Unfortunately, the equipment and medicine did not arrive in time to save this young girl’s life, but thousands of children since have been helped because this one girl moved us to action. Her feeling of rejection was used by God to enable many other children in her country get the help they need.

All of us have days and times that we feel rejected and that no one cares. It may be because of a spouse, a parent, a child or a friend. When these moments of rejection come our way we must look to the Lord for special strength that only He can give. When we are feeling down cast, and that no one cares, the only way to look is up. God understands how you feel because He knew rejection.

You must remember that at the lowest times of your life when you feel rejection that God loves you. When we come to Him with repentant hearts and in faith, believing in Him, He will never reject us.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Isaiah 12:2.

Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the Lord God, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.

PRAYER:

Thank You Lord, for the blessed assurance I have that You will never reject me because You have promised to never leave or forsake those who love and obey You. Thank You for suffering rejection on the cross to save me from my sins.

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Creation: August 30, 2016

TODAY’S WORD FOR TUESDAY AUGUST 30, 2016.

CREATION

DEFINITION:

The act of bringing something into existence; an original product; original handiwork.

SCRIPTURE:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. II Corinthians 5:17

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

It is important that we consider several things when we read the first verse in the Bible. First, the Bible is not only a book about God but it is the book from God. Secondly, in the beginning refers to the beginning of creation. Remember that God was unformed, unmade, uncreated and had no beginning. He always was, always is, and always shall be. And finally God created the heavens and the earth, in other words, the entire universe.

God is also our creator since the Word says he created man. Along with being our creator He is our sustainer, our judge and our hope in this world and for eternity. What an awesome series of events to understand. The six days of creation, as outlined in the book of Genesis, clearly tells us that we are here and what we have here is all because of God and His love for us. God loves us so much that He not only created the world for us, but He created us in His image. God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.

Adam and Eve however did not remain good. They rebelled against God and their sin separated them from God. In His mercy God provided a way of salvation to cleanse them and all mankind of their sin and enable all mankind to be reconciled to Himself. When we are reconciled to God through His Son we become a new creation; II Corinthians 5:17. Believers become new people on the inside. The Holy Spirit indwells them and changes them. He doesn’t just reform them he recreates them.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior we are not merely turning over a new leaf we are beginning a whole new life. Old things are passed away. These are the things that controlled our life before our salvation. He then tells us that all things become new. As a new creation of our Lord the things that dominated our lives before we found Jesus are now history and no longer important. We have a whole new purpose, to serve Jesus and Him alone.

Yes, God is our creator. We can be assured that the God who had power to create us has the power to redeem us and recreate us. He created the world we live in and He created our new life when we found Jesus as our Savior. What an awesome God he is.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Isaiah 12:2.

Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the Lord God, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.

PRAYER:

What a privilege that we have knowing that You are our creator. Thank You for the salvation you provided for all those you created and for the assurance we, as believers, now have of spending an eternity in heaven with You, our creator, our redeemer and our Lord.

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Content: August 29, 2016

TODAY’S WORD FOR MONDAY AUGUST 29, 2016.

CONTENT

DEFINITION:

Satisfied; at ease in mind; happy; wanting no more.

SCRIPTURE:

Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content. Philippians 4:11.

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. I Timothy 6:6-7.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

The apostle Paul wrote the two verses above, one to the church at Philippi and one to Timothy to help them understand the true meaning of contentment and how to find it. Paul was well educated and held an esteemed position as a Pharisee, yet he willingly gave it all up to serve his Lord and Savior and to preach the message of salvation to the multitudes. As a result he lived a hard life traveling from place to place, with no home and often without food, and suffering great persecution.

So why was he able to write that he could be content in all circumstances? It was because he had learned to rely on God for his contentment. Rather than focusing on what he didn’t have he focused on what he did have. He had God’s power to strengthen him to face whatever circumstance He was in, whether he had plenty or whether he was in great need.

As believers we need to learn to trust in the Lord for contentment as Paul did. When God is blessing us with abundance we are to be content in Him. When we are in a state of crises we are to be content in Him. This is a difficult principle to learn but this is what God wants of us as believers and children of God. It is always easy to be content when all is going well but most difficult in a time of crisis.

In Philippians 4:12-13 Paul said that he had learned the secret of being content. The secret he says is, “I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength”.

We see people all around us today looking to find contentment. Many people spend every moment of their free time sitting in a chair, eating food and watching the television or surfing the web on the computer. For them this is contentment. When the cable or the computer goes out they quickly get frustrated and there goes there contentment.

There are others that are content only when they are working and making money. For others contentment is going places or doing “fun” things. These things are very temporal and do not bring contentment that satisfies for very long.

We all know people that are never content. They seem to constantly be complaining. They seem to be lonely and unfulfilled and searching for happiness. They always want more but when they get it they are still not happy. They are basically a “pain in the neck” to their families and friends. The word contentment does not seem to be in their vocabulary, because they have never learned to trust in the Lord and not on “things.”

As believers in Jesus we need to realize that the verse above from I Timothy is so very true. We brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we will carry nothing out. Whatever we have has been given to us from God. When we are thankful for what we have we will be content in whatever state we are in.

We have no control over crises that we may face like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, civil wars or other disasters. God has a reason that He allows us to go through these situations. We may find ourselves in circumstances we are not content to be in but, God will protect us and bless us if we stay true to Him.

One final thought concerning contentment. We have talked above about being content in whatever situation we are in spiritually. But we would like to look at the word contentment from a different perspective. Most believers in Jesus today are content in what they have and where they are. God does not want us to get so content that we become complacent and neglect doing what he has called us to do. What is it that God has called us to do? “Go ye into the world and preach the good news to all creation” Mark 16:15. What is the good news? God loves us so much He gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for our sins that all those who believe can be forgiven and live eternally with God (John 3:16).

Only as believer’s spread God’s message of love and salvation will others come to know the contentment that comes from knowing Jesus and trusting in His power to enable them to do all things through His strength.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Isaiah 12:2.

Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the Lord God, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.

PRAYER:

It is my prayer today that I be content no matter what I face today knowing that You are my Savior and Lord and that You are with me in all circumstances. May I be a leader of my family showing them how to be content in You through every situation, good or bad, that we may face. May I learn to stand up for what the scriptures have taught me and be a shining light honoring You.

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