Evil: October 7, 2016

TODAY’S WORD FOR FRIDAY OCTOBER 7, 2016.

EVIL

DEFINITION:

Immoral; wicked; harmful; bad; sinful; of the devil.

SCRIPTURE:

You have wearied the Lord with your words. “How have we wearied Him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and He is pleased with them, or “Where is the God of justice?” Malachi 2:17.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

The book of Nehemiah closes on the theme of resisting evil. Nehemiah took a stand against evil. He was a Jew living in exile and employed by the King of Persia. When Nehemiah learned about the broken down walls of Jerusalem, he heeded the call of God to repair the damage done by the evil invaders.

Nehemiah went to the Persian King and got permission and the help to go to Jerusalem and begin to rebuild the walls. The book of Nehemiah goes through the many struggles and blessings that Nehemiah went through rebuilding the walls.

When Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem he found not just broken down walls but broken down lives. The Israelites had turned away from God and backslidden into immoral and evil ways of living.

Along with the rebuilding of the walls Nehemiah knew that the people needed to rebuild their spiritual lives. So under Nehemiah’s leadership the people returned to the Temple to listen to Ezra read God’s Word.

When the walls were rebuilt we read about the dedication of the walls (chapter 12). Nehemiah appointed two great choirs. One went to the north part of the wall and one went to the south ultimately meeting at the temple. The people played instruments, sang and shouted praises to God in celebration of the completion of this task. So great was their joy that the sound of their rejoicing could be heard far away. When Nehemiah left Jerusalem the walls were rebuilt and the Israelites had repented of their sinful ways and were serving God with joy and thanksgiving.

After Nehemiah returned to Persia, he soon heard about evil in the camp of the Israelites in Jerusalem. God’s priest Eliashib had allowed Tobiah, a pagan and enemy of God who opposed Nehemiah and all that he was doing for God, to move into the temple.

Nehemiah wept when he heard that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down. Just imagine how sad and even more upset he was when he heard that God’s temple had been desecrated. Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and responded by saying as recorded in chapter 13 verse 8, “I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.” He literally tossed Tobiah out on his ear.

And that was not all he found. He found that the priests had been stealing and not paying the Levites who worked in the Temple, taking the money that belonged to them. Then he discovered that, throughout the city, people were violating the Sabbath. They were bringing in merchandise and selling it in the streets on the Sabbath. In verse 19 we read, “When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over.”

Then Nehemiah heard that some of the vendors stayed all night outside the gate hoping someone would let them in. In verse 21 we read, “I warned them and said, why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will lay hands on you. From that time on they never came on the Sabbath.”

Evil will prevail as long as it is allowed to. Nehemiah showed action when he saw evil. As believers we need to take a stand and attack evil just as Nehemiah did. Our world is full of evil and as believers we are not to stand by and ignore it. If we do not stand up against evil, it is as if we condone evil.

We read in the verse above from Malachi that the prophet is warning the people that were saying that evil is good. They had become so conditioned too evil that they couldn’t tell evil from good. They wearied the Lord.

As a parent have you ever found yourself saying to your rebellious child, “I am sick and tired of your disobedience.” This is what it means when Malachi says, “You have wearied the Lord.”

Today’s society endorses all manner of evil, calling it good. It is bad enough that movie makers and rock stars extol the virtues of obscenity, pornography, lawlessness and produce movies and TV programs that mock God and degrade the family, but in addition many educators, politicians, judges and psychologists are equally at fault at promoting evil. We are all at fault when we do not take a stand against evil. Oh, how we weary the Lord.

We live in a culture that what God calls bad, society calls good -- and vice versa. We forget that the God of justice is still on His throne. There will be a day of judgment. As believers let us stay away from evil, stand up against evil and promote what is right and good by our words and actions.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 37:34.

Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

PRAYER:

Help me to clearly know the difference today between evil and good. Help me to stand firm for good and fight evil. May my life be a guiding example for my children of being obedient and living according to God’s standards.

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Collapse: October 6, 2016

TODAY’S WORD FOR THURSDAY OCTOBER 6, 2016.

COLLAPSE

DEFINITION:

Break; fall down; sudden failure; succumb; cave; fail.

SCRIPTURE:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. Isaiah 43:2.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Have you ever been in so much despair that you felt as if you were sinking in deep water? The difficulties in life can be oppressive and many people today feel that they are sinking fast. God does not promise that we will escape the turbulent seas of life, but He does promise, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5. This promise is one that each one of us should continually remember because it is true that Jesus does care for us. He cares so much for us that He gave His life for us.

In the verse above, Isaiah reminds us that we can trust our faithful God to always be there in all of our struggles including when we feel we are collapsing under the pressures of life and there is no hope.

We are living in an age where the lives of people all around us seem to be collapsing. The everyday situations around us, including life-styles, economic frustrations and dysfunctional families, should be of deep concern for all of us who know the Lord. We see nations collapsing economically and violent civil unrest in many parts of our world. We see families collapsing with over 50% of all marriages failing. We see children, victims of both broken homes and homes with no standards being taught, who are turning to drugs and sex and the evil ways of the world to fil their empty lives.

People are losing jobs, losing their homes, lacking the money to buy food and most people have nowhere to turn. When troubles become so overwhelming that we feel our whole world is collapsing around us, Satan knows that that is the time we are most vulnerable and he will be right there tempting with all the temptations of our morally corrupt culture. If you are facing what you feel is a “collapse” in your life, there is a verse found in I Corinthians 10:13 that we both memorized when we were children and it has been one of our favorites for years and has always helped us when we felt our world collapsing and felt we could bear no more.

From his own experience of going through difficult times, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

When difficulties seem to be sweeping over you like a flooding river remember the words said by Isaiah, “God will be with you.” When our world seems to be collapsing all around us, as believers we can be sure that God will be with us. He will protect us against a loss of our faith and will see that we will survive to see the wonders of His faithfulness. But we must keep our eyes on Him and put our complete trust in Him.

When your burdens are overwhelming you and you feel your world is collapsing around you, trust God to put His arms underneath you and lift you up.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 37:34.

Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

PRAYER:

Thank You for Your promise not to allow Satan to tempt me beyond what I can bear. When I am going through rivers of difficulty help me to remember your promise to be with me and lead me to put my trust in You.

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Failure: October 5, 2016

TODAY’S WORD FOR WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 5, 2016.

FAILURE

DEFINITION:

A falling short; nonperformance; unsuccessful.

SCRIPTURE:

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.
Psalm 37: 23-24.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

All of us at some time in our lives have experienced failure. For some many more times than others. But the real question for us to ask ourselves is how do we deal with our failures? First of all we must realize that if we fail at something, it is not final. Some people react to failure feeling their world has come to an end. Be assured that if you fail at something it is not the end.

Failure is not the end. Failure is nothing more than a starting place. When one fails as a person committing some sin or not accomplishing some project, it should be treated as a starting place and not the end of one’s life.

God takes mistakes and failures and out of them can give you miracles. Failure is simply a circumstance, an incident or an episode. You cannot let failures shape your life because it is really a point in time, a learning process by which we can move on and be successful. When one fails at something they should turn that failure into a lesson learned.

How do you handle failures? You have the option of failing backward or failing forward. You can either blame others for your failure or take the responsibility yourself and move forward.

You can repeat the same failures and continue to fail or you can learn from your failures and move forward. You can limit yourself by past failures or move forward by tackling new risks in life. You can be a quitter or persevere.

In the verses above the Psalmist reminds us that the steps of a good man, a righteous man are ordered by the Lord and though he should fail, God will uphold him with His hand.

There are two necessary requirements to escape from our failures. First, we must allow God to order our steps. This means we must seek the Lord’s advice before we step out. Secondly, we must desire to do what is right in God’s sight so that He delights in our way. What does God delight in? He delights in those who trust Him and who have a personal relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ.

When this relationship is entered into, God will be by your side at all times. You may stumble but you will not be ruined by your fall because He will be there to hold you up by His hand. What a wonderful promise for us today. We all have times when we fail but God’s love for us never fails.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 37:34.

Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

PRAYER:

Thank You for the promise, that when I fail that You will be there for me with a helping hand. Help my family to understand that You are faithful and will be with us, if we put our total trust in You, no matter what the concern or situation might be.

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Grow: October 4, 2016

TODAY’S WORD FOR TUESDAY OCTOBER 4, 2016.

GROW

DEFINITION:

Mature; develop; progress; increase.

SCRIPTURE:

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. II Peter 3:18.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

New believers come from all sorts of backgrounds. Some may have gone to church before they found Christ but never accepted Jesus as their Savior. Others may have come from a very worldly and sinful background and never darkened the door of a church or never opened a Bible to read it.

Spiritually they are as newborn babies. Just as a baby needs to be fed to thrive and grow, a new believer needs to be fed from God’s Word in order to grow and mature in their new found faith.

In Ezekiel 47, Ezekiel shares with us a vision God gave him that symbolically depicts the stages of spiritual growth through the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of those who accept Jesus as Savior. God gave Ezekiel a vision of a river flowing out from the temple. The temple symbolizes God and the river the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When we first find Jesus it is likened to walking ankle deep in the water, as portrayed by the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 47:3 and we experience only a shallow sense of God’s grace and power in our life. If a person does not begin to learn more about Christ, the Scriptures calls that person a “babe” in Christ. Such a person has not learned how to live a Spirit-lead life which is a life of obedience, trust, surrender and peace.

A lot of people today who say they are Christians want to only wade ankle deep into the grace of God. They are not motivated to want to take the next step as portrayed by Ezekiel (47:4) by wading into knee deep water which is hungering and thirsting for God. At this stage a Christian is not satisfied by being merely born again but hungers for a deeper knowledge and closer relationship with their Savior and Lord.

In Ezekiel 47: 4 the prophet talks about walking into the water up to the waist. At this point the Holy Spirit is now captivating the believer in Jesus to be possessed by His Lord giving the believer the desire to search deeper into the things of the Lord. There is less of the believer now and more of the Lord.

You can see we live today among so many Christians who are still just babes in their faith and need to be motivated to wade up to their waist in God’s Word in order to be possessed by God. Where does this motivation come from? For the most part it is not common in our churches and not taught by our pastors. It is not seen within our family structures. So the result is that we live in a world where Christians are living according to the will of the flesh rather than living according to the will of the Spirit of God.

The motivation comes from the Holy Spirit but we must be willing to listen to Him and allow Him to lead us into the deep water of His Word. It is only by reading God’s Word and applying it in our lives that we can grow into the mature Christian that our Lord wants us to be.

The apostle Paul tells us in I Corinthians about how the people in the church at Corinth were divided into factions and cliques and continually at each other’s throats, dragging one another into courts of law, gossiping against each other and undermining each other. What a mess it was! Does it sound a little like we may be facing today among those we know and perhaps even among friends and family?

The source of these divisions that we read about in the church in Corinth and what we see today in our society is pride, the fleshly desire for preeminence, and to be idolized and praised.  Paul reminds us that as long as the desire to live for worldly pleasures is alive and well in our lives, as believers we will remain spiritual infants and will never grow up into what God wants us to be.

God is not the least bit impressed by what we do in the flesh. Only what we do in the Spirit will last. The cleansing power of the cross, the shedding of blood, must come into our lives and cut off the flesh so we can experience growth and maturity. Until we learn to walk up to our waist in the water, as Ezekiel tells us, division and conflict will reign in our lives. To serve the Lord we must do more than just get our feet wet. We can’t have one foot in the world and one foot in God’s kingdom.

As Ezekiel traced the trickle of water coming from the temple it continually grew until it became a great river. As the trickle of water widened and made its way through the desert the trees grew ever more abundantly and the fish multiplied. As we allow the Holy Spirit to grow us into the mature believers God wants us to be we will be able to bear much fruit for the Lord.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 37:34.

Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

PRAYER:

Help me to step out by faith into the deep waters of Your Word and submerge myself so that there is more of You and less of me. May Your Holy Spirit work in me to draw me closer to the Lord so that others may see Christ in and through me. Help me to grow spiritually each day of my life so I will be able to bear much fruit for You.

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Battles: October 3, 2016

TODAY’S WORD FOR MONDAY OCTOBER 3, 2016.

BATTLES

DEFINITION:

A fight; a hostile encounter between opposing forces; struggle.

SCRIPTURE:

For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Galatians 5:17.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Each and every day we hear and perhaps even witness battles taking place. We can’t turn on the news without hearing about a battle somewhere between two warring factions. It could be on the streets of your city between two people or two groups. We hear of battles in the Middle East daily. In a battle both sides think they are right but sadly people on both sides suffer and often many die.

Today we want to talk about the battles we face personally in our own lives. We constantly are fighting battles in our mind between right and wrong. We often want to do something or go somewhere but something inside of us says that we should not. Thus the battle begins.

In Exodus 17, we read about a battle, symbolic of the Christian’s battle with the flesh today. The battle against the sin of the flesh is always startling to a new Christian. They have experienced the emotional and spiritual high of discovering their new faith in Christ.

And suddenly temptation pops up its ugly head and we wonder, “What happened?” This is the situation that the Children of Israel faced in Exodus 17. They had just experienced the glory of the Passover, the miracle of the Red Sea crossing, and the demonstration of God’s Fatherly love for them as He provided all of the manna needed to eat.

Life was going so good for the Children of Israel. They had been chosen by God to represent Him to the world. God was meeting their every need but soon a shocking realization confronted them. Those who belong to God have enemies. They were soon to learn that the sinful state of our fallen world requires believers to fight battles.

In Exodus 17:10 we read that Amalek attacked Israel. The Amalekites were a pagan and evil nomadic tribe. They attacked and killed others for pleasure and carried off their possessions. They saw the Israelites as an opportunity for pleasure and profit. What they did not see was that to battle against Israel they would be doing battle against God. Israel obeyed God and fought the battle according to His instructions, and because they obeyed, God gave Israel the victory.

In the verse above from Galatians, we read what the Apostle Paul tells us about the nature of the battle that constantly takes place in our lives as believers. Basically, our sinful nature often desires what is contrary to God’s Holy Spirit, and the Spirit desires for us what is contrary to our sinful nature. Thus the battle is in our inner being between God and our sinful desires.

After God gave the Israelites victory over the Amalekites Moses warned that “the Lord would be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.” Exodus 18:15. The same is true for each of us who are believers in Jesus. We will be continually at war with sin. We live in an evil and sinful world and we must daily prepare ourselves to be spiritually ready to fight the desires of our flesh which are contrary to God’s will for us.

God also promised to completely destroy the Amalekites. Although God gave the Amalekites years to repent they continued to raid and plunder the cities of Israel but ultimately the remnant of the Amalekites were finally destroyed.

God has given us His Holy Spirit to fight our battles and will make us victorious if we will just let go of our fleshly desires and do as the Holy Spirit leads us to do.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Psalm 37:34.

Wait on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

PRAYER:

Give me the strength today to fight the fleshly battles that come my way and give me victory over my evil desires. May I learn to rely on Your Holy Spirit to guide me and keep me on the path that leads to righteousness.

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