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Post by Obadiah on Mar 25, 2023 5:36:56 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MARCH 25TH
Husbands And WivesFor this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. Ephesians 5:31 This verse is not simply an example of beautiful, poetic language. There is a fundamental reality behind this: Husband and wife are not just two people rooming together. Their lives actually do blend into one another. They actually become one. It is, therefore, true that what hurts the wife damages the husband. It cannot help but do so. If he is bitter toward her, it will eat like a cancer in his own life and heart. That is why, if you have had a squabble with your spouse, you may find yourself unable to do your work properly that day. In Dr. Henry Brandt's helpful book The Struggle for Peace, he tells of a woman who came to him because of a great fear she had of going into supermarkets. She came to him for help in this problem, and he relied, as he always does, on the wisdom of Scripture. Remembering the verse Perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18b), he began to look for a violation of love in her life, for fear comes when there is something inhibiting the flow of love. He said to her, With whom are you angry? Finally she was able to realize that she was angry at her husband for an incident that had occurred a number of years before in a supermarket when they had had an unpleasant flare-up. As a result, she was emotionally disturbed whenever she went into a supermarket. When she dealt with her lack of love, her fear left. What happened, because of her injury toward him, reflected right back on herself. This is also true of the husband toward the wife. If we would understand this and realize that injuring our mate is the same as taking a hammer and pounding ourselves on the head or neglecting some part of our own body, we would stop trying to hurt one another. Injury to our mate is bound to come back upon us in some way. The final point the apostle makes here is given in verse 33: However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself; and the wife must respect her husband. Notice that the basis for accomplishing this is that both partners in the marriage relationship fulfill their responsibility to Christ, regardless of what the other does. That is the key. It is not Wait until he starts loving me, and then I'll submit to him, or Wait until she starts submitting to me, and then I'll love her, but it is essential to your responsibility before Christ, regardless of what the other does. To do so breaks through the vicious circle of marriage conflict and serves to restore peace and permit the other to fulfill his or her responsibility. I have seen such unilateral obedience work wonders in marriage relationships. Husbands and wives have been brought together, harmony restored in bitterly divided homes, grace and peace made to reign where there has been battle and conflict, violence, and ugliness before. Therefore, husbands, love your wife as yourself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. God grant to me the willingness and the grace to be obedient to the Lord Jesus, who is with me in every circumstance and every relationship of my life regardless of what the other person does. Life ApplicationObedience to Christ restores grace and peace in embattled relationships. Do we recognize true submission as deep recognition of the significance of His Presence? Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Mar 26, 2023 6:49:35 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MARCH 26TH
Parents And ChildrenFathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4This word translated fathers could well be translated parents, because it includes both the father and the mother. It is also true that the emphasis is laid largely upon the father, for he is responsible for what the children become. That is sobering, is it not, fathers? Mothers may enforce policy, but it is the father's task to set it and to see that his children are raised properly. There is nothing that is more dishonoring to the spirit of Christianity than the attitude adopted by many fathers: It is my job to make the living; her job is to raise the children. Not in the Word of God! In the Bible, the ultimate responsibility for what a home becomes is the father's. So the word is addressed to fathers. This is the way a father subjects himself to his children—by deliberately avoiding the things that make a child rebel. Do not exasperate your children. The word used here means anger that results in a rebellion. Fathers, do not provoke your children to the place where they completely lose control and break out against authority. There are two things that cause rebellion in children: indulgence and harshness. These two things are the negative of the two things he instructs the father to do: Bring them up in the training and the instruction [or the exhortation] of the Lord. The opposites of these are indulgence and harshness. Lack of discipline will make a child insecure, miserable, and self-centered. That is what we call a spoiled child—one who grows up to expect to have her way in everything and who rides roughshod over the feelings of everyone else. This is created by a spirit of indulgence on the part of parents who allow their children to make decisions that no child is capable of making. Parents must learn that they need to make decisions for their children for quite a while in their life and only gradually help them to learn to make those decisions as they are able to do so. In the early years of childhood parents must make almost all the decisions. One of the terribly tragic things about life today is the degree to which many parents let children make decisions they are incapable of making. The other extreme that provokes a child to revolt is harshness—rigorous, demanding discipline that is never accompanied with love or understanding. Rigid, military discipline that says, Do this, or this, or else, will inevitably drive a child to revolt as he comes to adolescence. Opposed to this the apostle puts two things—training and instruction (or exhortation) in the Lord. The word for instruction is really putting in mind in the Lord. Training and putting in mind in the Lord. As the child grows older, physical discipline is to be replaced by exhortation, by understanding—helping a child to see what lies behind the restrictions and always showing concern and love. It does not mean a total relaxing of limits, but it means a different way of enforcing them. Father, thank You that You can change the mistakes I have made as a parent into opportunities for advancement in my children's lives as well as my own life. Life ApplicationAre we, as parents, able to see and acknowledge two common behaviors that cause rebellion in our children? What training and instruction does our Father give us? Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Mar 27, 2023 6:18:54 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MARCH 27TH
Bringing Christ To Work...not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart... Ephesians 6:6 RSVSeveral times the idea is put forth: never work for men, you Christians; work only for God. You can work under a person's direction, but remember that you are working unto the Lord, that your daily task is work that He has given you to do, and you do it unto Him. What a glory this gives to every task. If you approach your work like this, you will never have another dull day. You will never be bored stiff with the routine and humdrum of what you have to do if you recognize that you are doing it with the eye of the Lord upon you and with the recognition that one day it will be made open and clear to all whether you did it as unto the Lord or unto men. What are the signs of the failure to do this? The first sign is eyeservice, which means working only when the boss is watching. When the boss is not there to observe, you quit working. Some years ago I read an account of a foreman and some primitive workers under him. He found that they were afflicted with this disease of eyeservice; they worked only when he watched them. But this particular foreman was the proud possessor of a glass eye, and he found that he could take his eye out of the socket and lay it on a stump where it could watch the men, and they would go right on working, whether he was there or not. But one day he came back to find them all lounging around. He had placed the eye on the stump, but one of the men had found a way to sneak around, come up behind the eye, and put his hat over it so that it no longer saw them. It is that attitude that so widely pervades our society today, the idea of working only when the boss is watching. If you are a Christian, this is forbidden if you want to be faithful to your Lord. Remember, the eye that watches you is not a human eye. The second sign of failure in this respect is to be men-pleasing. Notice how the apostle is putting his finger on the attitudes that he found so frequently in this relationship of labor and capital. What is being men-pleasing? It is falsely flattering the boss, apple polishing, or playing office politics. It reveals a double heart, the lack of a single eye. It reveals that we are trying to get on by making other people happy but disregarding what God thinks. These are the signs of failure. Christians are called away from these things. They have no business engaging in these types of activity if they want to be faithful to their Lord. They do not accomplish a thing. They seem to accomplish something, but in the end they do not. Christians are saved from all this if they remember that what they do is the will of God. Paul says that we are to obey our earthly masters in singleness of heart, doing the will of God from the heart. What is the will of God? Your work! The very work you are doing, where you are doing it, with your co-workers, under the present circumstances and conditions under which you have to work-that is God's choice for you, that is the will of God. Father, I live before You. There is no area of my life that is not subject to Your gaze and to Your judgment. Grant to me that I correct what is wrong in my own work in the light of this word. Life ApplicationOur workplace ethic is praiseworthy when we appropriate the power of His Presence. Do we have a tendency to strive in life and work to please others but disregard Him? Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Mar 28, 2023 4:32:36 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MARCH 28TH
The Struggle
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Ephesians 6:11Our experience confirms the suggestion of this passage—that life is basically a struggle. Life never conforms to the rosy idealism of our dreams or to the romanticism of our songs. The explanation of this struggle lies deeper than we ordinarily think. The common view of our struggle has been that we are engaged in conflict against flesh and blood, against other men and women. But Paul says the battle is not against flesh and blood; it lies deeper than that. The basic problem is that this is a battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan and that people themselves are the battlefield. The battle is visible not only in the wars, revolutions, and crime waves that fill our newspapers, but it is also seen in the inner tensions and fears of individual lives, in the neurotic problems and mental illnesses that afflict us today, in family fights and church struggles. It is even visible in nature, where all of life competes in a ruthless, deadly struggle to survive. The whole race has fallen under the control of satanic forces, which Paul calls, the world rulers of this present darkness (6:12 RSV)—a most significant phrase. The picture of the Bible from beginning to end is that all human beings without Christ, without exception, regardless of how clever or educated or cultured they may be, are the helpless victims of satanic control. Under the control of satanic forces human beings are uncomfortable and unhappy but also completely unable to escape by any wisdom or power of their own. But the good news is that some have been set free through the coming of that stronger one, Jesus Himself, who came, as John tells us, to destroy the devil's work (1 John 3:8b). Through Him deliverance is obtained. Through the amazing mystery of the cross and the resurrection, Jesus has broken the power and bondage of Satan over human lives. Those who individually receive and acknowledge this are set free to live in the freedom and liberty of the children of God. They are not set free to live unto themselves. They are set free in order to battle. That is the call that comes to all Christians. We are not set free in order to enjoy ourselves. We are set free to do battle, to engage in the fight, to overcome in our own lives, and to become the channels by which others are set free. How do you do this? Paul's answer is in one phrase: Put on the whole armor of God. Full provision has been made that you might win in this battle. This is the amazing thing we must learn. God has made full provision for us to fight these forces that hold the world in their grip. Father, tear away the delusive veils by which I have allowed myself to be rendered powerless in this great battle. Help me to understand that I would have no possibility of fighting were it not for the delivering work of the Lord Jesus, who has come to bind the power of darkness. Life ApplicationWhy does life not conform to our rosy idealism and romanticism? What is the true nature of the human struggle? How can we face life with confidence and freedom? Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Mar 29, 2023 6:32:51 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MARCH 29TH
The Breastplate Of Righteousness...with the breastplate of righteousness in place...Ephesians 6:14b Christ is the ground of your righteous standing before God, your acceptance before Him. If you are wearing that breastplate, you can rest secure that your heart, your emotions, are securely guarded and adequately protected against attack. This is perhaps the most frequent ground of attack against Christian faith. Christians often feel they lack assurance. They feel unworthy of God. They feel they are a failure in the Christian life and that God is certain to reject them, that He is no longer interested in them. They are so aware of their failures and shortcomings. Growth has been so slow. The first joy of faith has faded, and they feel God is angry with them or that He is far off somewhere. There is a constant sense of guilt. Their conscience is always stabbing them, making them unhappy. They feel God blames them. This is simply a satanic attack. How do you answer an attack like this? You are to remember that you have put on the breastplate of righteousness. In other words, you do not stand on your own merits. You never did. You never had anything worthwhile in yourself to offer to God. You gave all that up when you came to Christ. You quit trying to be good enough to please God. You came on His merits. You came on the ground of His imputed righteousness—that which He gives to you. You began your Christian life like that, and there is no change now. You are still standing before God on that basis. Paul himself used this breastplate of righteousness when he was under pressure to be discouraged and defeated. Here was a man who was small of stature and unimpressive in his personal appearance. His background was anti-Christian, and he could never get away from that completely. He had been the most hostile, brutal persecutor of the church that it had known. He must constantly have run across families with loved ones whom he had put to death. He was often reminded by many people that he was not one of the original twelve apostles, that his calling was suspect, that perhaps he really was not an apostle at all. What a ground for discouragement! How easy it would have been for him to say to himself, What's the use? Here I am working my fingers to the bone, making tents and trying to preach the gospel to these people, and look at the blessing God has brought them, but they don't care. They hurl recriminations back into my face. Why try anymore? But that is not what he does. Instead, he says, But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not without effect (1 Corinthians 15: l0a). There he is using the breastplate of righteousness. I don't care, he says, what I have been; I don't defend what I am. I simply say to you, by the grace of God, I am what I am. What I am is what Christ has made me. I'm not standing on my righteousness; I'm standing on His. I am accepted by grace, and my personal situation does not make any difference at all. So his heart was kept from discouragement. Father may these words meet me right where I am and help me right in the conflict in which I am engaged. Lift up my heart by the consciousness that Christ is my righteousness. Life ApplicationAre we still trying to be good in order to please God? Have we been met by our short- comings and resulting guilt? How can we constantly preclude this from happening? Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Mar 30, 2023 6:24:29 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MARCH 30TH
The Sword Of The Spirit
...and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:17
In this verse, the word of God does not refer to the complete Bible. There are two words used in Scripture for the word of God. There is the familiar word, logos, which is used in the opening verse of John's gospel: In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God (John 1:1). Then there is another word, rhema, which is different in meaning. Logos refers to the total utterance of God, the complete revelation of what God has said. Rhema means a specific saying of God, a passage or a verse that has special application to an immediate situation; to use a modern term, it is the Word of God applied to experience, to our existence.
Rhema is the word used here. The sword of the Spirit is the saying of God applied to a specific situation. This is the great weapon placed in the hands of a believer. Perhaps all of us have had some experience with this. We have all read passages of Scripture when the words suddenly seemed to come alive, take on flesh and bones, leap off of the page at us, or grow eyes that follow us around everywhere we go. Perhaps we have experienced this in some moment of temptation or doubt, when we were assailed by what Paul calls here the flaming arrows of the evil one (v. 16). But it has been answered immediately by a passage of Scripture that flashed to mind, something we had not been thinking of at all, but which supplied the needed answer. That is why this is called the sword of the Spirit, because it is not only originated by Him as the author of the Word, but it is also recalled to mind by the Spirit and made powerful by Him in our lives. It is His answer to the attack of the devil, who comes to discourage us, defeat us, lure us aside, deceive us, or mislead us in some way.
Looking back in my own life, I am aware of many times when this sword of the Spirit has saved me from error and delusion of some kind or other. As a young Christian, I was stopped at the edge of disobedience many times when some temptation seemed so logical, so widely practiced that I was allured by it. I was often arrested by a word I had memorized as a young Christian that has come to me many times since. It is in the book of Proverbs: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).
The more we are exposed to Scripture, the more the Spirit can use this mighty sword in our lives. If you never read or study your Bible, you are terribly exposed to defeat and despair. You have no defense, you have nothing to put up against these forces that are at work. Therefore, read your Bible regularly. The Christian who neglects the reading of the Scriptures is in disobedience to the will of the Lord. And what is the responsibility of the Christian when the Spirit places one of these sayings in your mind on some appropriate occasion? The apostle says, Take it! Heed it! Obey it! Do not reject it. Take it seriously. The Spirit of God has brought it to mind for a purpose; therefore, give heed to it, obey it.
Father, what practical import there is in knowing Your Word. Help me to take it seriously and use this great armor that is given to me in Christ.
Life Application
What is the practical & urgent import of knowing God's Word? What is the metaphor the Apostle Paul uses to emphasize its power as we engage in spiritual warfare?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Mar 31, 2023 7:34:59 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MARCH 31ST
Relevant Prayer
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests
Ephesians 6:18a
There is a strong and powerful relationship between putting on the armor of God and praying. These two things belong together; in fact, one grows out of the other. It is not enough to put on the armor of God; you must also pray. It is not enough to pray; you must also have put on the armor of God. It is impossible to divide these two. Putting on the armor is essentially something that is done in the realm of your thought life. It is an adjustment of the attitude of your heart to reality, to things as they really are. It is thinking through the implications of the fact that revelation discloses. This is always the necessary thing to do in trying to face life.
The apostle does not reverse this and say, First pray, and then put on the armor of God. This is what we try to do, and this is why our prayer life is so feeble, so impotent. There is great practical help here if we follow carefully the designated order of Scripture. I think most Christians would confess that they are dissatisfied with their prayer life. They feel it is inadequate and perhaps infrequent. Sometimes we struggle to improve the quality as well as the quantity of our prayer lives. Sometimes we adopt schedules we attempt to maintain or long lists of names and projects and places we try to remember in prayer. In other words, we begin with the doing, but when we do this we are starting at the wrong place. The place to start is not with the doing, but with the thinking.
Prayer follows putting on the armor of God. It is a natural, normal outgrowth. I am not suggesting that there is no place for Christian discipline; there is. I am not suggesting that we will not need to take our wills and put them to a task and follow through. There is this need. But the place where discipline should come in is not in praying first, but in doing what is involved in putting on the armor of God. First, think through the implications of our faith, and then prayer will follow naturally much more easily. When it comes in that order, it will be thoughtful prayer, prayer that has meaning and significance.
This is the problem with much of our praying now. It is so shallow, so superficial. Sometimes our prayers are only a cut above the simple childhood prayer: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. What is needed? Prayer should be an outgrowth of thoughtfulness about the implications of faith. This adds depth, meaning, and significance to it. Prayer should be pointed and purposeful.
If you take the whole range of Bible teaching on this great subject of prayer, you will find that underlying all the biblical presentation is the idea that prayer is conversation with God. What the apostle is saying is, After you have put on the armor of God, after you have thought through the implications of your faith in the ways that have been suggested previously, then talk to God about it. Tell Him the whole thing. Tell Him your reactions, tell Him how you feel, describe your relationship to life around you, and ask Him for what you need.
Forgive me for the way I have looked at prayer as though it were insignificant and optional. Help me to take it seriously. Help me to realize that You have made this my point of contact with You. Teach me to pray.
Life Application
Do we struggle to pray, or feel we pray too infrequently or inadequately, or realize our prayers are indeed superficial? How can we talk with God in a real & relevant way?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 1, 2023 14:07:24 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 1ST
In The Beginning
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
Each of us began life as a baby, and we were unaware of what was going on around us or what the world was like. But as we grew older, we started to take note of the world—the sky, the sea, the winds, the birds, the flowers, the animals, the trees, and all of life around us. As we became aware of the world, we inevitably asked some questions about it. Those questions are the ones answered for us in brief compass here in the opening words of Genesis.
What are the questions? First, we ask ourselves, What is all this? Driven by an insatiable curiosity, humans have been attempting to answer that question ever since they first appeared on earth. They seek to explore the universe and the world in which they live.
Second, we ask, How did it begin? This question is the emphasis of science. Then we ask, When did it all start? How long has the world been going on like this? Finally, we come to the great philosophical question, Who is behind it? Who is back of these strange and remarkable processes? These questions are answered in this verse, and thus it serves as a tremendous introduction to the great themes of the Bible.
Take the first question, the one most obvious to us—the wonder of the universe itself. In the beginning, we read, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). Someone has said that this phrase is the beginning of true science, because a fundamental part of the task of science is to observe and classify all that can be observed in the makeup of the world of nature. Here is an early attempt at classification. What do you see around you? You see two great classes of things—the heavens and the earth.
One of the marvels of the Bible is that it uses language that communicates with people of the most primitive and limited understanding, while at the same time it still has significance and inexhaustible meaning for the most erudite and learned scholars. It addresses itself with equal ease to all classes of humanity. That is the beauty of Bible language.
The Bible avoids the utter ridiculousness of some of the early myths about creation found in other religions. It was the Bible that first said that the number of the stars is beyond computation. It declares that God stretched out the heavens (Isaiah 51:13) into limitless expanse that can never be measured and filled it with stars that are as numerous as the sands upon the seashore (cf. Genesis 22:17). Modern science has now established this to be true.
It is also the Bible that says the earth is suspended over nothing (cf. Job 26:7). In that poetic way it describes the mysterious force of gravity that no one even yet understands. It was the Bible that said that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Hebrews 11:3), thus predating by many centuries the discoveries of science that finally recognized that all matter is made up of invisible energy and that matter and energy are interchangeable.
Lord, I praise You as the Creator and Sustainer of all things. From the very beginning of time, You have not changed, and I am grateful to know You as the One who has made all things.
Life Application
The design of the Bible is not to tell us how the heavens go, but rather how to go to heaven. What is the beauty of Bible language that makes it so all encompassing?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 2, 2023 11:01:09 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 2ND
Out Of The Darkness
God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day. Genesis 1:5
The present recurring twenty-four hour day is a symbolic microcosm of past ages. If that is the case, then we do not have twenty-four hour day periods in Genesis 1, but rather an indefinite length of time much more descriptively termed an age, or an epoch, of time. But each is to be characterized by an evening and a morning. Note the order of that. The evening comes first. We Westerners, with our penchant for compromise, have divided the day so that it is a sandwich, beginning with a period of darkness, then a period of light in between, and finally another period of darkness. We begin our day at midnight. But in the Eastern world the day begins at sunset, so that each day starts with an evening and ends with a period of light. That is in line with this revelation of the way God works. No matter whether it is humanity's day upon earth, an age of time, or a twenty-four hour period, each begins with a period of darkness and then a period of light. As the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:46). That is the invariable order.
What meaning does that have for us as Christians? Can we not trace the fulfillment of this in our own experience? Did we not all begin our lives in darkness, in the grip and bondage of death and darkness? Through the glorious redemption of the cross of Jesus Christ, we have passed into a period of light that is shining ever brighter till the full light of day (Proverbs 4:18); we have entered a period of growing and ever-expanding light. You can see this order in the work of the Lord Jesus Himself. There was the darkness of the crucifixion, passing very shortly into the glorious morning of the resurrection when He stepped forth into the glory of a new day and a new life. An evening and a morning, one day.
Scripture also makes clear that if we have never gone through the darkness with Him, there is no morning to come. We must not live constantly in the darkness. The testimony of Scripture is that those who cling to the darkness, who refuse to be brought into the light, become, at last, as Jude describes them, wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever (Jude 13b).
Father of lights, thank You that from dark You bring light and that You have brought that light into my own experience through faith in Jesus Christ.
Life Application
So many are still blind in total darkness, yet sincerely feel and think they see clearly. Have we by faith personally grasped Jesus' hand to lead us into His glorious life?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 3, 2023 8:25:07 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 3RD
The Invisible Kingdom
And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
Genesis 1:8 RSV
We must never read these passages in Genesis without asking ourselves what they intend to teach us on the moral or spiritual level. What inner reality is reflected in the atmosphere's ability to suspend water above the earth? The key is found in what God called this firmament: Heaven. There were heavenly waters, and there were earthly waters. Water is used very frequently in the Scriptures as a symbol of life. In the book of Revelation, John was told that the great harlot that he saw sitting upon the waters was a picture of the false church and that the waters were peoples and nations and multitudes gathered together (Revelation 17:15). Thus, the waters here in Genesis are a picture of human life.
What God is saying by this beautifully symbolic description is that there is earthly life and there is heavenly life, and, further, that we are surrounded by an invisible spiritual kingdom, just as with an invisible atmosphere. That spiritual kingdom is as real as anything we can see or taste or touch or feel. And from it, just as from the atmosphere around us, comes blessings that make human life happy and even possible—blessings such as joy, love, and peace; hope, trust, and power. Without that invisible spiritual kingdom, human life would be mere animal life devoid of all these other qualities that make life worth living.
Furthermore, as the rain falls upon the just and the unjust alike, so do these blessings come to the good and the bad equally all over the earth. Paul reminds us that all these mercies come from God upon the just and the unjust alike, in order to lead people unto repentance (cf. Romans 2:4) and to make them stop and think, Where does this come from? Why is it that we are granted the ability to love and to share companionship with others? The apostle tells us that all these blessings come from the loving heart of a Father who pours them out even upon those who are resistant to His will. He loves and blesses mankind throughout this life in order that we might come to a change of mind about ourselves and God, that we might remember where these blessings come from and open our hearts to the influences of God's gracious kingdom. These blessings grow fewer for unbelievers as life goes on because of their resistance to the grace of God, but for the believer they come in increasing abundance, pouring into the life that recognizes the spiritual atmosphere around us.
Also, just as the waters upon the earth are invisibly drawn up and disappear into the higher ocean above, so the human spirit, as it comes to the end of its journey, quite unseen, leaves this earth, for good or evil, depending on the attitude shown in life toward the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ. All this is beautifully symbolized in the creation of the firmament and the operation of the atmosphere in its physical manifestation. It is all designed to teach us that there is a life to come as well as a life now.
Lord, I realize that I only see in part with my human eyes. Open the eyes of my heart that I might see the spiritual realities that govern my own existence.
Life Application
The Genesis story of creation is meant to open our eyes to something far greater than the visible. What is the two-fold reality that governs our present and future existence?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 5, 2023 4:27:18 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 4TH
To Bring Forth Fruit
And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear. And it was so.
Genesis 1:9
God's act in calling the land up out of the oceans seems to mark the period of evening in this third day. During this period we have the rising of the continents, the weathering of the rocks, and the soil forming gradually to make preparation for the plant life that is to follow.
But remember that all this on the physical level is but a manifestation of the parallel spiritual and moral reality, and every view of nature ought to speak volumes to us about who God is, what He does, and what He intends. These things are at once real and visible and, at the same time, the picture of something unseen that relates to our inner life.
We learn that this human life on earth, between the period of birth and death, is itself divided. This is pictured for us by the rising of the land out of the ocean. The waters are a picture of human life. Rising up out of the ocean of human life is land, which has the capability of producing fruit. Thus, there exists that which is capable of producing fruit and that which is totally incapable of doing so.
There is an old humanity that, by nature, is incapable of fulfilling what God desires; a new humanity, called out of the old, is capable of producing the fruit God envisions. The old humanity is all one fallen race--blinded, darkened, confused, restless, and, as the ocean is one yet divided, so fallen humanity is separated into divisions: nations, peoples, and tongues. The prophet Isaiah says, the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud (Isaiah 57:20).
You are asking, Do you mean that all who are not Christian are wicked? We need to bear in mind that there is a respectable form of wickedness as well as a notorious form. You can be knowingly wicked, and you can be ignorantly wicked. People who are exposed to the knowledge of God's purpose, His love, and the program He has for the deliverance of humanity from its bondage and resist God's work, rejecting the Savior whom God has sent and refusing to yield to His gracious call, are clearly wicked and oppose God's will. They are raising their fist in a defiant act against their Creator. That is also why they are restless. The restlessness of our age is directly due to the fact that it is wicked. It is pictured by the ocean, with its wild, surging waves that are never still.
But out of that ocean there comes a new humanity, the earth, a fruitful race of those in Jesus Christ, all one originally in Him as the continents were once, but now divided and fragmented by the forces that have come in since to separate us from one another. Yet there is an ever-present underlying unity that we discover when we come together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, thank You that You are bringing a new humanity out of the old, and that as part of that new humanity I can bear fruit for You.
Life Application
The natural world speaks to us metaphorically about the inner life of our humanity. Can we see a distinction in our lives between the old, fallen race & new life in Christ?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 5, 2023 4:28:45 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 5TH
Signs And Seasons
God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.
Genesis 1:16
The great question is never How? but Why? The answer to the question, Why did God make the sun and moon and stars? is given in a threefold way here in this passage.
The greater light exists, first, to give light upon the earth, both during the day and at night. We all know that the sun makes the day. The rotation of the earth is what determines the length of the day, and the speed of the earth as it rotates determines the 24-hour duration. Yet that speed is regulated by the moon, which acts as a brake upon the earth. It restricts the speed of the rotation of the earth to the exact time that makes possible the 24-hour-day, which is the length of time best adapted to the needs of humans. Isn't that remarkable? Other planets have entirely different lengths of days. On some of the planets, a day would occupy months, and even years, of our time. Others have much shorter days. But God has designated a 24-hour day for our planet because it precisely fits the needs of humanity.
Second, the great lights exist to measure the process of time for days and for years, says the Scripture. They are the means by which we measure time. The orbit of earth around the sun determines the length of the year, which, again, is just right for human needs. The orbit of the earth around the sun is determined by two factors: the gravitational pull of the sun and the velocity of the earth. No one knows what determines the velocity of the earth, what strange force hurls us through space at about 1,100 miles per minute. But here we are told that God has ordained the sun and moon to provide measures of the time that mark off the segments of life we call days and years.
Third, these lights are designed to mark significant events; they are for signs and for seasons. The entire record of human history confirms the truth of this. This is exactly what the sun and moon and stars do. Eclipses are like mileposts in human history, marking off certain dates. We can study events in ancient history because eclipses have been recorded. Many times in the Bible the sun and the moon have served as great signs. We are all familiar with the story of the star of Bethlehem. It announced the birth of the greatest person ever born in the history of our globe. There is also the strange darkening of the sun at the time of the crucifixion, an unexplained darkness that lasted for three hours.
There have been other times like this. And through the Bible there runs a refrain, beginning in the early books and running through the New Testament, which says there is coming a day when the greatest event the world will ever know, the return of Jesus Christ to earth, will be heralded by the darkening of the sun and the moon's turning to blood. These bodies are provided for signs and for seasons.
You are the Lord of all creation. I see that you have created the signs and seasons to serve Your great redemptive purpose in Jesus Christ.
Life Application
Speculation can unceasingly ask how and why questions. How the seasons came to be we will never know while citizens here. But where can we find the why answers?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 6, 2023 3:58:38 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 6TH
The Heights And The Depths
And God said, Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.
Genesis 1:20
As people look at the ocean around and sky above, they see that which is essentially an alien atmosphere.
The ocean, in and of itself, is hostile to human life. We can swim in the ocean, but not for very long. If we should suddenly be cast into the midst of the ocean without any means of support, we would not last very long. It is absolutely alien to us. The air above, though it provides what we breathe to sustain life, is an alien realm as far as transportation is concerned.
Greek mythology tells the story of Icarus, the young man who dreamed of flying like the gods. Both he and his father were imprisoned, and in order to escape their prison, his father made wings of feathers and wax. Although cautioned not to fly too near the sun, Icarus did not listen, and as he soared up into the sky the wings melted, and he fell into the sea and perished. People have been dreaming of flying for centuries, but they have never been able to do it, apart from technology. So there are two realms in the natural world in which humans are unable to operate effectively.
The oceans are a picture of unredeemed and barren humanity, the world without Christ, the world of organized society with its systems of values, its power structures, and its methods of operating. As Christians, you and I know well that if individual believers attempt to live in that kind of a world on their own resources, they are doomed. It is not very long before their spiritual life is suffocated, and they find themselves unable to live spiritually. If they try it on their own, they are doomed, and they will drown.
On the other hand, the atmosphere is a picture of the spiritual life, the place where we live in the realm of divine reality, a life that is pleasing to God. Here again, if individual believers attempt to operate in this realm on their own resources they will not die, but they will find they get nowhere. Trying to live the Christian life in the energy of the flesh, in a dedicated, sincere effort to do that which is pleasing to God apart from a dependence upon the life of the Spirit of God within, always ends up in frustration and bafflement. This is what Christians discover as they go along, that they are not made for this realm; they cannot operate in and of themselves. They find themselves like a person trying to fly through the sky with his or her own arms, frustrated, baffled, impotent, unable to function.
But here is the picture of this fifth day: By a direct impartation of divine life, on which humanity learns to depend, a believer can live in the hostile environment of the world as a fish lives in the sea--gracefully, powerfully, abundantly. People can learn to operate in this realm and live in this hostile atmosphere effectively. Also, in that rarefied atmosphere of the spiritual life where a fall would be fatal, a believer, depending upon the life of God within, can fly like a bird.
Teach me, Lord, to wait upon You that I might mount up with wings like eagles (Isaiah 40:31 RSV).
Life Application
How do sky and ocean picture realms where we cannot survive or be effective? How is it possible to live in the world's hostile environment with adequate grace & power?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 7, 2023 7:45:57 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 7TH
Born To Reign
Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.
Genesis 1:26
Man was given dominion over all the created universe. He was made to govern and to master the world in which he was placed. Even though man was fallen, he has never forgotten that command, and this accounts for his unending persistence in trying to master the forces of earth, to climb the highest mountain and explore the deepest sea and to utilize the animal creation for his own purposes. But also, the effect of the fall is seen in the amazing fact that man, who was placed in this world to govern it, is now on the verge of destroying everything.
Despite the fact that man has lost his ability to master, the desire to do so still remains as a kind of racial memory within us. And that desire in itself is a picture on the physical level of what redeemed man is called to be on the spiritual level. Here we come to the great purpose of this passage. It is here to illustrate to us that when we become redeemed, we are called to reign in life, to master life. Let me give that to you directly from the pen of the apostle Paul. In Romans 5:17 he says, If, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Reign in life--not in heaven--in life, now, at this present time. That means to control events, to govern the effects of life around us, through fulfilling the program of the Father and moving in the direction God determines. Redeemed man is never to be a helpless victim of circumstances. It was not meant for the world to make havoc of the church but for the church to make havoc of the world.
If you read the events of our Lord's last week in Jerusalem, you will see exactly what I mean. There He is, moving toward the goal that the Father has ordained, that He should die upon a cross. He sets His face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem and is constantly aiming at that moment He knows to be the Father's program for Him. But notice how He goes toward it in full control of every circumstance. He sends out the disciples to do the work that leads to His arrest. He dismisses Judas to go out into the night. When the soldiers come to take Him, He rebukes them, and they fall to the ground in fear. He could easily have turned and fled, but He waits quietly for them to take Him. The only untroubled person in all that troubled account is the person of the Lord Jesus as He walks in solitary majesty through all those tumultuous events. He was reigning in life. And that is what the Christian is called to do. The circumstances of our lives are sent by the Father--they are the program God has picked out for us--but our attitude in them is to master every event, not being taken by surprise.
Father, how often I live like one defeated and crippled by life's challenges. Teach me to reign in life through Jesus Christ.
Life Application
Being made in God's image makes us spiritual beings. Are we letting the Lord reign in and through our lives? Have we appropriated His righteousness by faith to do so?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 8, 2023 3:41:14 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 8TH
The Glory And The Misery Of Man
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27
What this world has forgotten and is vainly groping and seeking after, what every course in psychology is hoping to find, what every self-improvement program is attempting to realize, is this lost secret of how man was intended to operate. The likeness of God is lost. That is why humans can create, but everything they create has a twist toward evil. That is why they can communicate, but not only do they communicate truth and beauty but also lust and hate and filth and death. That is why, though they still know moral values, they deny them and rationalize them to exalt evil.
It is here where the gospel comes in. Paul shows us the plan of God to counteract the fall of humanity. In Colossians 3:9-10, he says to Christians, Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Colossians 3:9-10). There is the likeness of God being restored in humans. The image of God has never been lost, for humans still retain the capacity to be godlike, but they no longer have the ability—until Jesus Christ is restored to the human heart. When He enters there begins a process that, little by little, through trial and heartache, sorrow and disappointment, glory, blessing, and the thrilling experiences of grace, is changing us so as to reproduce in us the likeness of God. We not only have the capacity to be godlike, we are actually becoming godlike. Isn't that glorious?
Remember that verse in 2 Corinthians where Paul says. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory [that is, seeing the face of the Lord Jesus through the experiences of our life, in the nitty-gritty of life, through the humdrum routines of life, in the high points and the low spots], are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory [from stage to stage] which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). That is the process of restoring the likeness of God in humans.
There is a wonderful picture in the Old Testament book of Malachi. Malachi says that God sits as a refiner and purifier of silver (Malachi 3:2b-3). He puts the silver in the firing pot and builds a hot fire under it. As the silver melts, the dross begins to float to the surface. The silversmith sits and skims it off, throwing away the dross as it arises. From time to time he bends over and looks into the pot. What is he looking for? The reflection of his own image. When he can see his likeness in the silver, he knows that it is pure.
Does that not explain something about life to us? This is what God is doing with us. Why do we go through these crushing disappointments, these wrenching heartaches, these hard trials, these pressures, these tribulations, these temptations, these times of failure as well as times of joy, blessing, glory, and ecstasy in the Lord? What is He doing to us? He is refining the silver until He can see His likeness again.
Thank you, Father, that You are refining so that Your likeness can be seen in me. I yield not only to You but to the way You are doing that, though at times it is very painful.
Life Application
Without the gospel, we vainly grope for the lost secret of how man was intended to operate. What picture do we have of how we are being conformed to His image?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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