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Post by Obadiah on Apr 9, 2023 4:14:36 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 9TH
God's Provision
Then God said, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
Genesis 1:29
The point of this whole narrative is that God has made a marvelously complete provision for His creation. The world of nature is full of the most astonishing evidences of the care of God.
How is it that certain birds can fly with an unerring instinct halfway around the world and find a tiny pinpoint of land in the middle of the ocean, though this is the first time they have made the flight? How is it that bees can maintain the temperature of their hive within a variation of a few degrees, regardless of whether it is a hot summer's day or a cold winter's morning outside? How is it that certain varieties of spiders have learned how to capture bubbles of air and build nests under water, bringing those bubbles down from the surface and thus creating tiny diving bells in which they rear their young? Who taught them to do a strange thing like that? But look at people.
Look how apparently ill-equipped we are, with basically no instincts at all. We must be patiently taught everything all over again in each generation. If children are abandoned to the wilds, as sometimes through accidents they have been, their lives will be more beast-like than the beasts. They cannot even talk to one another. Isn't it humbling to realize that we could solve the problems of earth by removing one species: Homo sapiens? If something happened tomorrow to remove humans from the face of the earth, it would not be long until the skies would clear and the stars could be seen at night, the waters and rivers would run clear again, the forests would grow back on the denuded hillsides, and the earth would be restored to an orderly, balanced, beautiful kingdom.
What is the problem? Humanity is the problem. Why is this? The Lord Jesus put His finger right on the answer when He said, 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God' (Matthew 4:4). When God provided bread as people's basic food, bread made from the grains of earth, the seed-bearing plants and their fruits, He intended, as we have seen all through this account, that such physical bread would be a picture of the bread desperately needed at the spiritual level of people as well.
That bread of the spirit is the understanding of God's will. I am the bread of life, said Jesus. He who comes to me will never go hungry. . . that eats of me shall never hunger (John 6:35). He will never walk in darkness; will never be at a loss to know what is the next step to take to solve the problems with which he is confronted; will not be left like a naked, homeless orphan wandering blindly through a mysterious universe whose forces he does not understand, but he will know where he is going and what he is doing and how to do it. The Son of God has come, and He gives us understanding.
Lord, I hunger for the bread of the spirit. May that bread be my provision today as I seek to understand and do Your will.
Life Application
Isn't it humbling to realize that we could solve the problems of earth by removing one species: Homo sapiens? How does God's provision of His Son enlighten us?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by civic on Apr 10, 2023 4:11:29 GMT -8
Ray Stedman is the best. Thanks for posting His Devo. Welcome to our forum, how did you find it ? Thanks ! PS- when I lived in the Bay Area I went to his church in Palo Alto several times in the 80's. My sister and brother in law were members. |
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 10, 2023 7:46:55 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 10TH
True Sabbath Rest
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
Genesis 2:2
We must recognize that the weekly Sabbath is not the real Sabbath. It is a picture or a reminder of the real Sabbath. The true Sabbath is a rest; the Jewish Sabbath is a shadow, a picture of that rest. All the Old Testament shadows pointed to Christ. When the work of Jesus Christ was finished, the shadows were no longer needed.
Some years ago when I was serving in the military in Hawaii, I found myself engaged to a lovely girl who lived in Montana and whom I hadn't seen for three or four years. We were writing back and forth in those lonely days, and she sent me her picture. It was all I had to remind me of her, and it served moderately well for that purpose. But one wonderful day she arrived in Hawaii, and I saw her face to face. When the real thing came, there was no longer any need for the picture.
This is what happened with these Old Testament shadows, including the Sabbath. When the Lord came and His work was ended, the picture was no longer needed. The weekly Sabbath ended at the cross. In the letter to the Colossians, Paul confirms it to us. He says, Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ (Colossians 2:16-17).
The shadow-Sabbath ended at the cross. The next day was the day of resurrection, the day when the Lord Jesus came from the tomb. That was the beginning of a new day--the Lord's Day. Christians immediately began to observe the Lord's Day on the first day of the week. They ceased observing the Sabbath because it was ended by the fulfillment of its reality in the cross, and they began to observe the first day of the week.
Though this shadow-Sabbath ended at the cross, the true Sabbath, the rest of God, continues today. That Sabbath is defined for us in Hebrews 4, There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God [it is available to us now]; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:9-10)
That is what the true Sabbath is: to cease from your own efforts and your own works. Well, you say, if I did that I would be nothing but a blob. But the implication is that you cease from your own efforts and depend on the work of Another. This is why Paul cries, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20). This was also the secret of the life of Jesus, as we have seen. He Himself said, It is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work (John 14:10). This is the secret of the Christian who learns it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:13). So the secret of true Christian life is to cease from dependence on one's own activity and to rest in dependence upon the activity of another who dwells within. That is fulfilling the Sabbath.
Lord, teach me to enter into Your true Sabbath rest by ceasing my efforts to please You and serve You in my own strength.
Life Application
Jesus can do much more through us than we can ever do for Him. How do we cease from our own efforts and our own works? Have we found true Sabbath rest in Christ?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 11, 2023 5:08:19 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 11TH
What Is Man?
...the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7
Here is a wonderfully condensed account of some tremendously significant things. I do not think we need to quibble over just how God formed the body of man. Did He pile dirt together, wet it with water to make a kind of a mud statue, and then breathe life into it? No one knows. Certainly when we consider the miracle of conception and birth, we need not ask about the ability of God to make man in His own remarkable way. Perhaps the event occurred along the line of the development of birth. I do not think we need to be concerned over some of the questions that people in the past have beat each other over the head with. Whether Adam had a navel is of little significance. What we are told here is that there are three divisions of man.
God first made the body of man, and He made it of the dust of the earth. Certainly it is true that the same elements that are found in the dust of the ground are found also in the body of humans. It is shown to be a fact, because it is to dust that we return.
We may not fully understand all that is involved in these pregnant sentences about the formation of man's body, but it is important to notice that though the body of man was evidently formed first, the text does not say the body but rather God formed man from the dust of the ground (italics added). I think that has significance. Man is more than a body. He is not merely an animated piece of beef steak, a hunk of meat with a nervous system. He is more than body; he is soul as well as body. The functions of the soul are wonderfully linked to those of the body in ways that we have not even begun to fathom.
For instance, the functions of the soul (largely reason, emotion, and will), are also functions of our physical life. Reason is related to the brain, for it is only as the brain operates that reason occurs. Glands have great power over our emotional life. Thus, the functions of the soul are tied most remarkably to the body, and no one fully understands the mystery of it. In the forming of man, God made body and soul together, with the capacities for function of the soul lying dormant within the body of man.
Then, into this body with an inactive soul, He breathed a living spirit through the nostrils. The phrase breath of life in the Hebrew means a spirit of life. The word for breath and spirit are the same, so that this is more than simply a picture of God's breathing into man's nostrils. This is not face-to-face resuscitation; it is the impartation of a spirit into man. The spirit is our essential nature. It is this that distinguishes man so remarkably from the animal creation. Thus, as man comes into being, he comes full-orbed, as a threefold being, existing in body, soul, and spirit.
I praise you, Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made!
Life Application
Much like a light bulb requires electricity to function, so our threefold humanity is designed to use the living Spirit of Christ to function properly. How's our Light output?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 12, 2023 4:45:54 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 12TH
Purpose Of Marriage
The man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. For this reason man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
Genesis 2:23-25
This is a remarkable passage because it gathers up the great concepts of marriage that run throughout the Bible. After God finished making woman and Adam slept off the deep unconsciousness into which he had fallen, God brought the woman to Adam. What a scene that must have been! Here is the first of a long series of boy-meets-girl stories. Out of this account emerges four factors that are essential to marriage.
The first is that marriage is to involve a complete identity. The two are to be one. Adam's first reaction when he saw his wife was, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, or, She is one being with me. This is strengthened in the latter part of verse 24, which adds, and they will become one flesh. It is not without reason that this has become part of the marriage service, this recognition of unity. As someone has well said, the one word above all that makes marriage successful is ours. The second thing is the biblical principle of headship, which is developed at much greater length in the New Testament. She shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man.
Paul expands on this in his letter to Timothy to point out that man was not made for woman, but woman was made for man. It is the man who is ultimately responsible before God for the nature and character of the home. It is the man who must exercise leadership in determining the direction in which the home should go and must therefore answer for that leadership, or its lack, before God. The woman's responsibility is to acknowledge this leadership.
Then the third factor indicated here that characterizes true marriage is permanence. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. In the Hebrew text is the word dabag, which means to adhere firmly, as if with glue. A husband is to cleave to his wife. He forsakes all others and adheres to her. Whatever she may be like, he is to hold to her. He is to stay with her, and she with him, because marriage is a permanent thing.
Finally, the fourth factor is set forth in verse 25, The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. This speaks clearly of openness between man and wife. They have no secrets, nothing that they do not share with each other. It is the failure to achieve this kind of openness that lies behind so much breakdown in marriage today, the utter breakdown of communication, where two sit and look at one another and say nothing or talk about merely surface trivialities. Often this is why they are so judgmental with one another, each one trying to get the other to agree and not being willing to allow differences of viewpoint to exist. There is to be a freedom of communication, one with the other. Marriages shrivel, wither, and die when this is not true.
Thank you for the gift of marriage, Father and for revealing Your perfect plan for the functioning of husband and wife.
Life Application
Have we recognized and fully accepted God's perfect plan for marriage? What are four factors that are essential to marriage as God intended it to be?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 13, 2023 7:13:28 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 13TH
The Enticement Of Evil
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made
Genesis 3:1a
Let us move on to consider the strategy that the Tempter employs. This is most instructive because it is exactly the strategy he employs when he appears as an angel of light to us—not that we shall see visions of shining beings—but the personality that he exemplifies, the character in which he appears, is the same now as then. He is an angel of light. Scripture makes clear that the devil can also appear as a roaring lion, meaning he can strike in tragedy, in sickness, or in physical evil, as he struck Job or Paul, with his thorn in the flesh, which Paul called the messenger of Satan. When he appears as a lion, he can strike fear into our hearts. But his most effective strategy is to appear as someone good, someone attractive, something or someone who appeals to us as an angel of light.
If you learn how to recognize the strategy of the devil, you will find that he invariably employs the same tactics. There is a sense in which he is very limited, and he doesn't vary his tactics widely. Sometimes we feel as if we shall never learn how to anticipate the devil. But we can learn. Paul said that he was not ignorant of the devil's devices (2 Corinthians 2:11). If we learn how he works, we can easily learn to detect him in our lives.
James has described this strategy very plainly in one or two verses. He says, ...each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death (James 1:14-15).
There is the strategy of the devil. He always approaches us in the same three stages, and those steps are outlined clearly in this text. His first tactic is to arouse desire. James says that every man is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed (James 1:14). Each step the devil takes with us is always to arouse desire to do wrong, to create a hunger, a lure, or enticement toward evil.
The second is to permit intent to form an act to occur. James describes this: after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin (James 1:15). Notice that the symbol he employs is that of conception and birth. There is a gestation period in temptation, for once desire is aroused, there occurs a process within which sooner or later issues in sin, an act that is wrong.
The third stage is that the devil immediately acts upon the opportunity afforded by the evil act to move in and to produce results that Scripture describes as death—sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. This is the devil's ultimate aim. Jesus said that he was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). He delights in mangling, smashing, twisting, destroying, blighting, and blasting. We can see his activity present everywhere; it is going on around us, in our own lives and in the lives of others. These are the works of the devil, says the Scripture (1 John 3:8).
Lord, thank You for this reminder that I have an enemy, and I am in a battle. Teach me to see through the strategies of Satan and to stand firm against his attacks.
Life Application
The devil delights in the fallacies we have about him. Have we learned to recognize the strategies of Satan and the repetitive three stages he uses to approach us?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 14, 2023 3:58:03 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 14TH
The Package Deal
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Genesis 3:7
This account reveals three things that mark the beginning of death, and the proof that this story really occurred is found therein, because these three things are true for every person. When we yield to temptation we experience the pleasures of sin. But what this account forces us to face is that with the pleasure comes an undesirable accompaniment, a fall-out of sin, which we cannot escape. It is all a package deal. Here is spelled out for us the three things that mark the beginning of death.
The first one is this: they realized they were naked. They were naked all along, but they did not know they were naked until the fall. Why? Because they had never looked at themselves. Their awareness of their nakedness is a symbolic way of expressing the idea that they experienced the birth of what we call self-consciousness. They saw themselves, and the immediate effect was their feelings of shame and embarrassment.
So, like Adam and Eve, we find ourselves making clothes to cover our self-consciousness. This is true at the psychological level as well. This is what lies behind the universal practice of projecting an image of ourselves. That is a form of psychological clothing. It is a way of trying to get people to think of us differently from how we really are. This is why we all find ourselves struggling with the matter of being honest, of being open. We do not want people to see us or think of us as we are. We do not want to spend much time with any one person because we are afraid he or she will see us as we are.
The second thing this account shows us is found in verse 8. Hiding is an instinctive reaction to guilt. Here is the first description of a conscience beginning to function; that inner torment we are all familiar with that cannot be turned off, no matter how hard we try. In fact, often the harder we try to ignore it, the deeper it pierces and the more obdurate it becomes. Psychologists agree that guilt is a universal reaction to life, from which, without apparent reason or explanation, all of us suffer. This sense of guilt haunts us, follows us, makes us afraid. We are afraid of the unknown, of the future, of the unseen.
But there is still a third aspect of this death revealed here: The Lord said, What is this that you have done? Adam said, Well, the woman that you gave to me, she gave me the fruit, and I ate. It's her fault. The woman said, Well, it's not my fault; it's the serpent's fault. The serpent beguiled me, and I ate. This is the first human attempt to deal with the problem of guilt. This is where blame always comes. Ultimately it points the finger at God and says He is at fault. People are simply helpless victims of circumstance. This is what lies behind our urge to blame each other and pin the blame for our actions or attitudes upon some outward circumstance.
Lord, I confess I have seen the marks of death in my own life: self-consciousness, guilt, and blame. Thank You for Your grace, which seeks me out even as I try to hide.
Life Application
Why is it so easy to blame leaders, spouses, friends, enemies, and even ultimately God for our troublesome circumstances? What three things mark the birth of death?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 15, 2023 4:30:11 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 15TH
Where Are You?
But the Lord God called to the man, Where are you?
Genesis 3:9
It is most striking to me that all religions, apart from Christianity, begin on the note of man's seeking after God. Only the Bible starts with the view of God's seeking after man. That highlights an essential difference between our Christian faith and the other major religions of the world. Furthermore, this first question here in the Old Testament is matched by the first question asked in the New Testament. Here it is God asking man, Where are you? and in the New Testament, in Matthew, the first question that appears is that of certain wise men who come asking, Where is he? (cf. Matthew 2:2).
If we take this account in the garden literally (as I believe we must), then it is clear that God habitually appeared to Adam in some visible form, for now Adam and Eve in their guilt and awareness of nakedness hide from God when they hear the sound of His footsteps in the garden. This indicates a customary action on God's part. He came in the cool of the day, not because that was more pleasant for Him but because it was more pleasant for man, and He habitually held some form of communication with man. We know from the rest of Scripture that whenever God appears visibly in some manifestation, it is always the second person of the Godhead, the Son. If that is true, then we have here what is called a theophany, a visible manifestation of God before the incarnation. Thus, the one here who asks of Adam and Eve, Where are you? is the same one of whom later men would ask, Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? (Matthew 2:2).
Notice the importance of this question, Where are you? When people are lost, this is the most important question they can ask: Where am I? Suppose the telephone rang and you answered it to hear a voice say, I'd like to come to your church this morning. I thought I knew the way, but I find myself very confused. Can you help me? What is the first question you would ask? Where are you? That is always first. Where are you?
Today we are seeking to find a way out of a very confusing situation that prevails in our world. We will never do it until we start with this question, Where are you? Where am I? Perhaps the reason many are unable to be helped today is either because they cannot or will not answer that question. Ask it of yourself now. Where are you? In the course of your life, from birth to death, moving as you hope you are moving, to develop stability of character, trustworthiness, integrity of being, all these qualities that we admire in others and want in ourselves--where are you? How far have you come? Until you can answer that, in some sense at least, there is no possibility of helping you.
Perhaps many of you will have to say, I don't know where I am. I only know that I am not where I ought to be or where I want to be. That's all I can say. If that is all you can say, that is at least an honest answer, and therefore, it is the most helpful answer you can give. In that sense, it is the only right answer.
Lord, help me to examine myself with this question, Where am I? Thank You that it is out of Your grace and love that You question me.
Life Application
The Bible uniquely presents God as seeking after man. How do we respond when God asks, where are you? Can we respond honestly realizing a change is required?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 16, 2023 4:21:06 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 16TH
Repentance
Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? The man said, The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. Then the LORD God said to the woman, What is this you have done? Genesis 3:11b-13
There is something very interesting here. God asks essentially the same question to both the man and the woman. He is saying to each, Tell me, what is it that you did? Specifically, definitely, clearly what is it that you did? But there is an exquisite touch of delicacy and grace here that we ought not to miss. He does not put the question in the same form to Adam and Eve. To the man, He is forthright and blunt: Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? But to the woman He puts the question much more softly and gently.
It is comforting to me to realize how fully God understands women, so that He puts the question to her very gently. He says, Tell me in your own way, now, what is this that you have done? It is significant that in their answers, both Adam and Eve come out at the same place. Each blames someone else (we call this human nature, as it is such a widespread, universal response), but when they come to their final statement, they both use exactly the same words: and I ate.
That is where God wants to bring them. That is what the Bible calls repentance. It is a candid statement of the facts with no attempt now to evade them, color them, or clothe them in any other form. It is a simple, factual statement to which they are both reduced: and I ate.
Notice how these questions have followed a designed course. God has made them first admit, We're not where we ought to be—we know that. We ought not to be hidden in the garden. We ought not to be lost. We ought not to require a question like this: Where are you? God has made them see that something has happened within them. They have seen that they are where they are because of what they are, and all of this has happened because they disobeyed, because they ate the forbidden food, they sinned. God has led them graciously, and yet unerringly, to the place where each of them, in their own way, has said, Yes, Lord, I sinned; I ate.
That is as far as people can ever go in correcting evil. They can do no more than that. But that immediately provides the ground for God to act. This is where He constantly seeks to bring us, because it provides Him with the only ground upon which He can act. You can see this throughout the whole Bible, in the Old and New Testament alike. When God is dealing with people, He seeks to bring them to the place where they acknowledge what is wrong.
This is what God wants to do with us. He finds us in our failure, our estrangement, our guilt, our sense of nakedness and loss, and immediately He moves to bring us to repentance. We misunderstand His moving. We think He is dragging us before some tribunal in order to chastise us or punish us, but He is not. He is simply trying to get us to face the facts as they are. That is what He does here with Adam and Eve.
Thank you, Lord, for the way in which You bring me to this place of repentance. Help me not to hide, but to bring my sin to light that I might experience your grace and mercy.
Life Application
As God moves to bring us to repentance, do we see His actions motivated by His grace and mercy? Do we respond with evasiveness, or with honest confession?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 17, 2023 4:25:17 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 17TH
The Devil's Burden
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. Genesis 3:15
This is one of the most remarkable verses in the Bible. The early church fathers called it the Protevangelium, which means the first preaching of the gospel. It is the clearest promise of the coming of a Redeemer. There are several unusual features about this remarkable verse that reveal the divine hand.
First, it predicts an unending enmity to exist between two classes of humanity. Here is the beginning of the two divisions of humanity into which the Bible divides the race. Its first manifestation is that of enmity between Eve and the serpent. I will put enmity between you and the woman, says God. This is understandable. We can see why Eve would detest this one who had betrayed her by his lies, and as the effects of the fall would become more evident in her own life, she would feel a continuing abhorrence against this one who had so cleverly and ruthlessly led her astray. On the other hand, the enemy would surely hate her because she was now the object of God's love, and His hand of protection was around her. But also, it was not enmity merely between the woman and the devil but between his seed and her seed.
The only way this prophecy can be explained is that it finds fulfillment in the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus. This concept of the seed of the woman is unique. It is the seed of the man that is the line of descent, and all the genealogies of the Bible trace the line of descent through the male.
We continue this in most societies today. Even today families usually bear the man's name. When a couple gets married, it is usually the woman who drops her name and takes her husband's name. But here we are distinctly told that the one who is to bruise the serpent's head is the seed of the woman. Now in all of human history there is only one who can fulfill that condition: Jesus.
So the seed is Christ. Here is this most remarkable prophecy, which looks across the centuries to the day when Jesus would be born of Mary. This is confirmed in Genesis 3 by the masculine pronoun that follows the statement, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head. That masculine pronoun indicates that the fulfillment of this promise, the seed of the woman, would be a man, born of a woman.
The Old Testament receivers of this word could not see what was involved in this, but now we know it meant the humble birth at Bethlehem, the silent years in Nazareth, the darkness of Gethsemane, the opposition of Jerusalem, the hatred of Judas and Pilate and Caiaphas, the blood and death of a cross—all that was the bruising of the heel. Then there came the bruising of the head of the serpent in the glory of the resurrection. This whole promise is clearly fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Father, I see how You have been working out Your amazing plan of redemption from the beginning. Thank You that I know the One whose heel was bruised but who rose victoriously.
Life Application
How does the Bible explain the unending enmity between the two divisions of humanity? Has the Seed given to us taken root and grown within us bearing fruit?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 18, 2023 4:35:48 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 18TH
Cursed Be The Ground
Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it.
Genesis 3:17b
We must struggle so hard to make a living because the ground has been cursed. Man is reduced to unending toil and sorrow. Work is not the curse given to humans. It is toil that is the curse. If you do not have work to do, you are of all people most miserable. Work is a blessing from God; but hard, grinding, toiling work is the result of the fall. It is sweat, anxiety, and pressure coming constantly upon us to create the endless rat race of life.
The second factor that resulted from Adam's failure is death. God said, For dust you are and to dust you will return (Genesis 3:19). Isn't it this sense of death, lurking at the boundaries of life, that gives us a feeling of futility about life? Remember the rich man who built barns and filled them up and then said to himself, Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you... (Luke 12:19-20). Then he asked this question: Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? (Luke 12:20).
Yes, that is the question death forces us to face. You struggle to amass property, all the good things of life, and then what a sense of futility there is in having to pass them along to somebody else, someone who didn't turn a finger to gain them.
Naked we came into the world, and naked we shall leave it. We have nothing that we can take with us but must leave it all behind. We are dust, and to dust we shall return. There is the sentence of God—pain, subjection, toil, and death.
Is this the result of our folly for which we must grind our teeth and struggle with all our life, a curse for what Adam did? No, it is not. It only appears to be punishment when we refuse it and resist it or rebel against it. But these things were never intended to be any kind of punishment. They are instead intended to be helps to us, means by which we are reminded of truth, means intended to counteract the subtle pride that the enemy has planted in our race that keeps us imagining all kinds of illusory things—that we are the captain of our fate and the master of our soul; that we are capable of handling and solving all the problems of life—these arrogant pretensions we make.
But we are constantly being reminded that these things are not true. Death, pain, toil, and subjection are limits that we cannot escape. They are there constantly to cancel out our egocentric dreams and reduce us to seeing ourselves as we really are. We are dust. We are only human. We are limited, dependent. We cannot go it alone—we desperately need other people, and we desperately need God. The hour of greatest hope in our lives is when our eyes are opened to this basic fact and we say, Lord, I can't make it without you. I need you desperately.
Thank You, Lord, for those trials and limitations of life that keep me dependent on You.
Life Application
Work is meant by God to bless us. How has the fall of man infected everything we do to make all our efforts result in futility? What are we learning from life's problems?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 19, 2023 4:57:00 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 19TH
God At Work
The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Genesis 3:21
Here is the beginning of animal sacrifices: God sheds blood in order to make clothing for Adam and Eve. He made them from the skins of animals, and therefore those animal lives were sacrificed to clothe Adam and Eve. This is but a picture, as all animal sacrifices are but pictures—a kind of kindergarten of grace—in order to teach us the great truth that God eternally attempts to communicate to us as men and women.
Ultimately, it is God Himself who bears the pain, the hurt, and agony of our sins. As John the Baptist said, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away [who is continually taking away] the sin of the world! (John 1:29). Paul uses a wonderful phrase in Ephesians: accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6 KJV). When we have acknowledged our guilt, when we have acknowledged that what we have done is contrary to what God wants, and we stand there with nothing to defend ourselves and no attempt to do so, but simply in honest acknowledgment of our own doing, then we are accepted in the beloved.
In our area where I grew up in Montana, we had many sheep farms. Spring was the lambing season when the little lambs were born. But spring in Montana is not like it is in California. Sleet storms can come whirling down out of the north, and snow can still be three or four feet deep on the prairies. Often there are long, protracted seasons of bitter cold during lambing season. When the sheep must bear lambs in that kind of weather, many of the lambs and ewes die. As a result, sheep farmers have many mothers whose newborn lambs have died and many newborn lambs whose mothers have died. It would seem that a simple way to solve the problem would be to take the lambs without mothers and give them to the mothers without lambs, but it is not that simple. If you take a little orphan lamb and put it in with a mother ewe, she will immediately go to it and sniff it all over, and then she shakes her head as though to say, Well, that's not our family odor, and she butts it away and refuses to have anything to do with it. But the sheep farmers have devised a means of solving this. They take the mother's own little dead lamb and skin it and take the skin and tie it onto the other little orphan lamb. Then they put the orphan lamb with this ungainly skin flopping around—eight legs, two heads—in with the mother. She pays no attention at all to the way it looks, but she sniffs it all over again, and then she nods her head. The little lamb goes to work at the milk fountain, and all is well.
What has happened? The orphan lamb has been accepted in the beloved one. There came a time when God's Lamb lay dead on our behalf, and God took us orphans and clothed us in His righteousness, and thus we stand accepted in the beloved, received in His place. That is where repentance brings us. That is the way you begin the Christian life. But if you think that is where it ends, you are wrong. We must be continually repenting of those areas where we fail or fall back upon a way of living that God has said is not right. I must repent of my self-dependence—and so must you.
Teach me, Lord, to continually repent. Thank you for clothing me in the righteousness of Jesus, that I may be accepted in the beloved
Life Application
Repentance not only begins the Christian life, but is the daily basis upon which the whole Christian life is built. How are we at daily confessing our self-dependence?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 20, 2023 4:52:48 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 20TH
The Root Of Anger
The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Genesis 4:4b-5
The account says that Cain was angry at God's rejection of his offering, and his face was downcast. Obviously he came expecting God to accept his offering. Perhaps he was very pleased with himself. Perhaps he felt that his offering of fruit and grain was much more beautiful, much more aesthetically pleasant, than this bloody, dirty thing that Abel put on the altar. But when the smoke rose from Abel's offering and his own remained untouched, Cain's smile changed to a frown. He was angry and resentful.
How well we know this feeling! And for the same reason: jealousy. He was jealous because his brother was accepted and he was rejected. As the New Testament tells us, he was angry because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous (1 John 3:12), and so he was filled with jealousy.
Aren't the things that make us jealous amazing? We are jealous because our neighbors have a bigger car than we have. Our co-workers may have a desk that is nearer to the window than ours. Or perhaps they get a longer notice of commendation in the company newsletter than we do, or their picture is larger. We get angry if their name is in larger print or they have softer carpets on the floor or have two windows instead of one, as in our office. It is amazing how petty these matters are that cause us to be filled with jealousy and resentment and to rankle with a feeling of envy.
Behind it is exactly the same reason Cain was angry. He did not like the way God was acting; that is the whole point. He did not like what God had chosen to do for Abel. It was not a question of being upset because fruit was not as good as a lamb. Looking at it later we can see such implications, but that was not what was troubling Cain. What bothered him was simply that God did not conform to his idea of rightness. When God presumes to cut across the grain of our expectation, we are all offended, aren't we? We are quick with the question, How can God do a thing like this? Why does God permit this? It is all because we want our thoughts to be the program on which God operates. When He presumes to do anything else, how angry we get with Him!
But notice God's grace. He does not flare back at Cain with thunderbolts of judgment. He simply asks him a question, Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? That is the best question to ask a jealous, resentful individual. Why? Think it through, now, why are you so angry? Why are you filled with resentment against this person?
I have learned that when men and women ask me, as they sometimes do, Why does this have to happen to me? the only proper answer is, Why shouldn't it happen to you? These things happen to everyone and to anyone; why shouldn't it happen to you? Why should you escape? Why should you assume that you have special immunity to the normal problems, injustices, and trials of life?
How often I flare up with jealous anger Lord, when I feel I am being robbed of what I deserve. Forgive me, and continue to remind me that Your ways are, indeed, not my ways.
Life Application
When our expectations of God or others are not met, we are often quick to anger. Are we willing to recognize our resentment for what it is and turn back to trusting God?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 21, 2023 5:50:31 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 21ST
Am I My Brother's Keeper?
Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel? I don't know, he replied. Am I my brother's keeper?
Genesis 4:9
Cain's insolent and arrogant response to God's question is a sign of his inward, unacknowledged guilt. This is always the way of guilt—to disclaim responsibility. Cain replies, My brother? What have I to do with my brother? Am I my brother's keeper? Is it my responsibility to know where my brother is? The hypocrisy of that is most evident. Though Cain could disclaim responsibility for knowing where his brother was, he did not hesitate to assume the greater responsibility of taking his brother's life.
We have heard much of the same thing in modern times. When Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered in 1968, many were saying these same things. It's not our fault that Dr. King was killed. Why should we suffer for what some fanatic did? It's not our responsibility. Soon some were saying, He ought to have known this would happen. After all, if you stir up trouble, sooner or later you will pay the price for it. No one can deny the logic and truth of a statement like that. Yet it is very obviously incomplete. There is nothing in it of facing responsibility and no honest answering of the terrible question from Cain's lips, Am I my brother's keeper?
Two or three decades ago, Dr. Carl Henry wrote a book called The Uneasy Conscience of Fundamentalism, which bothered many people when it first came out. Dr. Henry pointed out that the isolationism that many Christians adopt, which removes us from contact with non-Christians, has also successfully removed us from grappling with some of the pressing social questions of our hour. We have often been quite content to sing about going to heaven but have shown very little concern for the sick and the poor, the lonely, the old, and the miserable of our world. Isaiah 58 is a ringing condemnation of such an attitude on the part of religious people. God is infinitely concerned in this area of life, and those who bear His name dare not neglect these areas. Let us be perfectly frank and admit that this is a manifestation of Christian love that we evangelicals have tended greatly to neglect.
The church was never intended to minister to only one segment of society but is to include all people, all classes, all colors, without distinction. These distinctions are to be ignored in the church. They must be; otherwise, we are not being faithful to the one who called us and who Himself was the friend of sinners of all kinds. We must be perfectly honest and admit that this has been the weak spot of evangelical life, this failure to move out in obedience to God's command to offer love, friendship, forgiveness, and grace to all people without regard to class, color, background, or heredity.
Father, open my eyes that I might see the people around me as people whom You created and whom You have placed in my path for a purpose. Teach me that I am my brother's keeper.
Life Application
The Church is to minister to all segments of society without distinction. Have we become complacent or too comfortable in our circle of influence and acquaintances?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Apr 22, 2023 6:57:17 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 22ND
Too Much Too Soon
Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, God has granted me another child in the place of Abel, since Cain killed him, Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.
Genesis 4:25-26
These names are most suggestive: Seth means appointed. Eve said, I will call him 'Appointed' because God has appointed another son to take the place of Abel. When the man of faith is taken out of the world, God's work does not end; He raises up another. I have been very impressed by the epitaph on the tomb of John Wesley in Westminster Abbey in London. God buries His workman, but He carries on His work. And here, too, the work of God is going forward. He appoints another son.
The name of Seth's son was Enosh, which means mortal. Here is suggested the idea that in the midst of this Cainite civilization, with its proud refusal to recognize the canker eating away at the heart of humanity and its desire to achieve falsely the luxuries and comforts that God designs, there were yet those who recognized their mortality, and, thus, their dependence upon God. There were those who took God's narrow way, and, as the account goes on to say, they began to call on the name of the LORD. They recognized that God must heal our hearts before we can have all the things that our urges cry out for, that the cancer within us must be dealt with before we can begin to live.
From the start, the Scriptures take pains to point out to us that there are only two ways to live. There is the broad way, which many are taking, which looks so logical but leads to destruction; and there is the narrow way, which begins at the point where an individual stands alone before God and must make a decision, the narrow way that leads unto life, as God intended life to be lived (Matthew 7:13-14). Which way are you taking?
Young people are facing the siren call of the world, with its appeal to luxury, comfort, ease, achievement, and acquisitiveness. It is not that Christians cannot use these things. Paul tells us we are to use, but not abuse, the things of the world (see 1 Corinthians 10:23ff.). But throughout the Scriptures we are warned, Do not love the world or anything in the world (1 John 2:15). Do not make anything in the world the center around which you build your life. If this is all-important to you, you are doomed. Jesus said that if you try to save your life on these terms, you will lose it, but if you lose your life for His sake, you will save it (Matthew 16:24-25).
Let God heal the sickness of the human heart with its hunger for self-centeredness and self-exaltation through the working of the gospel, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ; then you can begin to live. It is the way that leads to life—life as God intended it. It may be that this life will not include in it luxuries and comforts, but they are down the line somewhere. God has these in mind for all His people. All that the heart hungers after will ultimately be supplied in Jesus Christ.
Lord, I choose to take the narrow path—the one that may not be the easy way, but it is the way that leads to life.
Life Application
The broad career choices for young people seem more bewildering than ever. Are we teaching them to know and rest in the Life that abundantly provides all we need?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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