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Post by Obadiah on May 22, 2023 7:54:29 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 22ND
Power In Prayer
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.
1 John 3:21-22
Part of the reason so many are finding Christianity to be boring is because they are not experiencing the kind of Christian living described in this passage. They have not entered into this kind of relationship, where each day they experience the glorious adventure of seeing a living God at work, answering prayer, and giving to them things that they ask. But in this passage we have a beautiful picture of the normal life of a Christian. It is all centered in prayer, because prayer is the most fundamental relational activity that a Christian can experience. Prayer is the expression of dependence on a loving God, and the whole Christian life is to be characterized by a continuous attitude and spirit of prayer.
Look at the earmarks of true prayer that John brings out in this passage. First, there is the spirit of prayer. We have confidence before God (and the word is, literally, boldness); we have boldness before God. If you have boldness before someone, it implies that you are in a close relationship with that person, that you have a clear right to come before him or her. There is no fear of rebuke but a good understanding between you. Thus, to have confidence or boldness before God implies that you have a clear understanding of your right to come before Him.
Prayer is to grow out of such an understanding of the truth God has declared in His Word, that we have no questions about our right to come. We do not come on our own merit or position before Him, for we know that we have no such ground. We come on Christ's merit. We come in His name, and thus we can have boldness.
Notice also the purpose of prayer. We have confidence before God and receive from him... That is what prayer is for. It is that you and I might be on the receiving end of God's grace. God is a giving God; He delights to give. He has all the resources of a superabundant universe from which to pour out to us. You know the figures that Scripture adopts in order to make clear to us how full God's riches are. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). This is God's purpose, to make us rich. Not in material things always, for that is not where true riches lie. Many millionaires would give every cent of their money if they could have a little peace of heart or joy of spirit.
But God loves to pour out true riches into human life. The riches of abundant life—that is what Christ came to give. There is nothing more exciting than to see an invisible God do in your life, visible things that only He can do; meeting your needs, satisfying your heart, doing what you could never do. If we are poverty-stricken it is only our own fault, for God has designed a wonderful process by which we might receive from Him. That is the purpose of prayer.
Thank you, Father, for the wonderful provision waiting for me to step into each day through prayer. May I have the simple faith to approach You boldly in prayer, knowing that You love to give to Your children.
Life Application
Nothing is quite so boring as Christianity without Christ. An intimate relationship is immersed in communication. Is our daily prayer free & flowing or merely formulated?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by civic on May 23, 2023 8:49:24 GMT -8
Thanks for this interesting information! Welcome to our forum, how did you hear about us ? Thank you ! |
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Post by Obadiah on May 24, 2023 9:17:26 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 24TH
God Is Greater
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:4
What is important in this verse is to note the ground of the overcomers' victory. How was it that they overcame? If there is any way that you and I can escape the extreme pressures of theological error today, it will be by this same way. We understand this way of overcoming not so much by observing what John says as what he does not say. These dear children who are from God did not overcome the false teachers with all their subtle, pernicious error so beautifully and attractively presented because they had a superior intelligence. There is none of this. John says, You overcame them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. In other words, it was not anything these Christians had that delivered them; it was the one who dwelt within them. It was the greatness of God that kept them straight. This is what will keep us straight today.
When you look around at the success of evil in history, and especially in our day, you can see that the enemy has great power. Think of our world and all that it is going through in terms of agony, struggle, evil, violence, and heartache, with confusion abounding on every side. When we think of the violence, the passion, the tears, and the death with which our world is characterized, we can see something of the greatness of the power of the enemy. No wonder someone has said:
Our race had a hopeful beginning,
But man spoiled his chances by sinning,
We hope that the story will end in God's glory,
But at present the other side's winning.
It does look that way, doesn't it? But it isn't—despite all the appearances. God is greater than the power of the enemy. In fact, it is almost ludicrous to put it that way. God is so incomparably greater that there is no contest whatsoever. This is where the eye of faith must always turn in hours of darkness, discomfort, or despair; turn to what the Scriptures reveal as the truth about God and how incomparably greater He is than anything that is present among or behind humans.
In writing his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul considered Corinth, that beautiful city of culture and refinement with its love of wisdom and the great thinkers of the golden age of Greece, and he forswore every approach on the basis of human wisdom and said, For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). The reason he gave was that the weakness of God is stronger than humans, and the foolishness of God is wiser than humans. That is the greatness of God.
Father, how grateful I am that You have given Your Word to me. May I value it, read it search it, and seek its wisdom in every relationship of life.
Life Application
Theological debates can be enlightening sources of learning, yet also wellsprings of pride. Have we first drunk deeply of the life of Christ in us?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on May 25, 2023 7:02:19 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 25TH
God Is Love
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8
Here we come face to face with that tremendous declaration of the Scriptures: God is love. It means that at the root all God does is love. No matter how difficult it may appear to us, the fountain from which all God's activity stems is this kind of self-giving love. Even His judgments, His condemnations, arrive from love. Judgment is not something separate from love. If you convince me that a holy, loving God cannot judge a sinful person, then you will also convince me that He cannot love a sinful person. Inherent in the quality of love is an antagonism toward anything that opposes the object of love. Also, inherent in it is the quality of judgment.
God is a purifying fire, consuming and burning away the dross in order that He might preserve the gold. That, incidentally, is how the book of Hebrews describes Him. Our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). Love is not always easy to live with because of that very quality, yet it is the most wonderful thing in the world because of its warmth and its all-embracing inclusiveness that takes in all kinds and all conditions, without looking for merit on the part of the object loved. That is the love of God.
Dr. H. A. Ironside used to tell of a woman who came to him and said, I don't have any use for the Bible and for all this Christian superstition. It's enough for me to know that God is love.
He said to her, Well, do you know that?
She said, Of course I know that, I've known it all my life.
Well, he said, do you think that everyone knows that?
Oh, yes, she said, everyone knows God is love.
Well, he said, do you think that woman over in India, who is persuaded by her religion to take her little child and throw it into the river as an offering to the crocodiles, has any concept or idea that God is love?
She said, Well, no, but that's mere superstition.
Do you think that the person in Africa, bowing down to his idols of wood and stone, trembling with fear lest they should strike back at him and destroy his crops and take away his children and even injure his own person, do you think he has any idea that God is love? he asked.
She said, No, but in every civilized country we know that God is love.
Well, he said, how do we know that? How do we know that God is love? Do the ancients teach this? Do the other religions of earth teach and show that God is love? Do you know that the only reason we know that God is love is because He sent His Son and manifested Himself as love? The book that tells about the Lord Jesus Christ is the only book in the world that contains the idea that the God behind all created matter is a God of love. Creation reveals His power, His greatness, and His might, but there is nothing in nature that says, 'God is love.' The only way we know this is that God manifested His love in the giving of His Son,
Father, You alone are the source of this love, the only kind that meets the claimant hunger of the heart. I pray that I may recognize myself as called to this great task of being a demonstration of this kind of love.
Life Application
God showed His love by sending His Son that we might live through Him. Have we learned to recognize the true nature of Love as evidenced in all of God's actions?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on May 26, 2023 5:20:45 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 26TH
The Debt Of Love
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:11
This is the answer to every lame excuse on our part that says, Oh, I just can't love that person. You don't know what she's like. If you had to live with her as I have to, you wouldn't be able to love her, either. No, Dear friends, since God so loved us... If you have experienced this kind of love, if you have been to the cross and felt the overwhelming cleansing of God's love for you, despite the antagonism and hatefulness you have shown Him and despite your loving your own way and wanting to do what you like; if you have felt the cleansing grace of God wiping that all out without any recriminations or calling up of the past, forgetting and forgiving it all, then, as John says, you not only can love someone else but you ought to—you owe it. That is where the word ought comes from. You owe it to love one another.
This is why Paul could say in Romans 1, I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks [everyone] (Romans 1:14). I owe something to everybody. And he himself said later on in that very epistle, Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another (Romans 13:8). We owe it because we have within us the fountain of love in the life of God. If you do not have the life of God, you cannot love one another like this. Do not try. Above all, do not come up with the shabby, shoddy, sleazy imitation of love that treats others kindly to their faces and cuts them to death behind their back. That is not love. Or merely to tolerate another for a time. That is not love. Unless you have the life of God, you cannot love. But if you have the life of God—that is the whole point—you can love like this, and you ought to do it. God, in you, can love through you and will love through you. All He is waiting for is the acquiescence of your will; then He will do the loving.
Verse 12 declares a great and daring concept: It recognizes that God is invisible, and no person has ever seen God. Even in Old Testament days, though there appeared manifestations of God in human form, these were but God in human disguise. These manifestations were not God made visible. Where is He made visible? John says, If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is made complete; that is, His love reaches its final end in us. That is where people see God's love, and it is the only place it can be seen. The fact of an indwelling God becomes visible only when we manifest love one to another. As long as we are nice only to our friends or to those who are nice to us, no one has any idea that God is around. But when we start being nice to those who are nasty to us, when we start returning good for evil, when we start being patient, tender, thoughtful, and considerate of those who are stubborn, obstinate, and selfish, then people get the sense that God is close at hand, that He is in the situation. Then God's dwelling in us becomes visible to them.
Father, may these words burn themselves into my heart, that I may recognize myself as called preeminently, above all else, to this great task of being an abundant demonstration of this kind of love.
Life Application
Unless we have the life of God, we cannot love one another. Have we grasped and exercised the power of His Presence so as not to find this a surprising truth?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on May 27, 2023 8:37:45 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 27TH
Confidence At The Judgment
In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 1 John 4:17
I doubt if there is a single person who does not realize, deep in his or her heart, that at the end of life there is an accounting. We must stand before the Lord our Maker. It does not make any difference whether we are Christians or non-Christians. Regardless of the type of relationship we have with Him, we must all come face to face with the Lord Himself. He stands at the end of every path we may be taking today, and we must come at last to a day of accounting.
We cannot help but ask ourselves how we will do in that day. Can I pass that unconscious test that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 25, when He stands to judge the nations and divides the sheep on His right hand, the goats on His left? He will say to the people on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world(Matthew 25:34). Why? For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me (Matthew 25:36). Do you remember their reaction? Lord, when did this happen? We weren't aware of it. We don't remember seeing You; we don't remember doing these things.
Then He says to those on his left, Depart into everlasting judgment. Why? Because when you saw Me weak and sick and in prison, you did nothing about it. You passed on your way, you showed no concern, you displayed no compassion, you did nothing. Again, remember that they say with surprise, Why, Lord, when did this happen? We don't have any memory of it. If we had seen you, we'd have done something, but we don't even remember seeing you (cf. Matthew 25:41-44). The searching revelation of that passage is that this is now happening all about us. Christ is in all these situations of need, and when we are confronted with someone who has a need, it is Jesus who is asking our help. Our reaction to that person is our reaction to Him.
Therefore, is there not a question in each heart now: When I stand before Him like that, will I pass the test? Am I recognizing these situations now? John says it is love perfected that gives us confidence in the day of judgment. Love that is perfected is love that is made visible in deeds. Therefore, note what John is saying: If you want to have confidence in the day of judgment, then let love express itself, let it be perfected, because it is when love is perfected with us that we have confidence for the day of judgment.
Now you can see what confidence this gives in the day of judgment. If He is going to look at my life and see the activity of Himself in me, then He will not deny Himself at the day of judgment. I know that what I am doing, if it stems from this source, is wholly acceptable to Him.
Father, don't let me take these words lightly. The problem is not others, but rather my own unwillingness to show love to those who do not do the things I like and do not act the way I think they ought to act. Forgive me, and teach me to love.
Life Application
What happens when we die? Where do we find the knowledge to confidently answer this question? Are we making ourselves available to Him who loves through us?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on May 28, 2023 6:18:17 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 28TH
We Shall Overcome
For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
1 John 5:4
Consider what is involved in this phrase the world. Think of the moral pressures that we face in the world today, the outlook and standards of the godless society that is surrounding us, constantly intruding upon our consciousness with tremendous pressure to make us conform to these attitudes and standards of life. Think of the temptation to cheat and lie; to get ahead at all costs; to be dishonest, not only in filling out our income tax but in every aspect of business.
Another common pressure that comes upon us from the world is to be sexually immoral, which is especially evident among the young and the unmarried. We are encouraged to feed the fire and satisfy the urge, though it may be wrong and deadly. The pressures around us are tremendous these days, seemingly overpowering at times. There is the pressure to harbor wrong ideas, to react against others the way the world reacts, to strike back and give as good as you get, to be resentful and jealous, to be ambitious and cruel. Don't you feel all this? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—all this is of the world.
How do you overcome the world? How can you go on, moment by moment, day after day, year after year, living a life that is absolutely contrary to that, based on totally different standards, totally different objectives, totally different evaluations? And to endure not only for ten years, but for decades, against that kind of moral pressure? How do you keep unmoved in the midst of this and not only remain unmoved yourself, but reach out and win others to your side? John says it is by faith; that is all. Not by the faith that you once exercised twenty years ago when you first became a Christian, but by faith in the life of Jesus present in you now. By faith in Him at work in you, in the midst of the pressure, countering it with the pressure of His own life.
I once heard of a captain of a ship who was describing what it was like to go through a storm. He described the ship in the midst of the waves mounting on every side, with the wind blowing hard and the pitiless rain coming down. The ship seemed a helpless victim of the storm, caught up in the power of these mighty elements that were raging on every side. Its doom seemed sure. But he said, I stood there on the bridge of the ship and I grasped the railing. I felt the throbbing of the engines deep down inside the hull. The storm, the wind, and the waves seemed to be saying to the ship, 'You cannot come, you cannot come.' But I heard the answering throb of the engines saying, 'Yes, we shall; yes, we shall; yes, we shall.' And so we do. That is the way we overcome the world.
If we give in, if we reflect the same attitudes and actions as the world, we have succumbed to the world and to the wiles of the devil. We have lost our testimony and all power to witness. But if our dependence is on the life of the Son of God, His life is in us, and then, This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Father, I sense the call to battle against the subtle and devious forces of a worldly age. Grant that I might have renewed faith in Your power and move out to meet the world in a venture of faith that makes every day a thrilling adventure.
Life Application
How are we handling the pressures of life? Are we white-knuckling it, trying to overcome our difficulties, or are we with growing faith resting in Christ at work in us?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Admin on May 28, 2023 13:16:45 GMT -8
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Post by Obadiah on May 29, 2023 4:30:47 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 29TH
Does God Lie?
Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 1 John 5:10
One of the most common experiences of life is to act upon the word or testimony of another person. We will do the most amazing things in response to the simple declaration of a person we have never met before. I had the privilege of leading a group of pilgrims to the Holy Land. We were innocents abroad. Most of us had never been there before, and we did not know what we would run into. But we had been given assurance, by means of a letter from a person in New York, that someone would meet us at every place we landed and would help us to get through all the intricacies of entering a foreign land. On the strength of that letter, some twenty-five of us committed ourselves to the tender mercies of a stranger and discovered that it all proved true. The word of that letter proved true, and on the basis of it, we committed ourselves to a considerably risky venture.
Is not God more dependable than people? If you will take the word of a stranger and act on it, can you not believe the Word of God, especially when He has caused the testimony to be written down by the eyewitnesses of these events? In addition, when faith is exercised on the basis of that objective testimony, a confirmation of the Spirit is given within that makes it wholly believable. Can you not exercise faith on that basis? John says, If you refuse to do that, then you are treating God as though He were a liar.
Dr. H. A. Ironside used to tell of a man who had doubts about whether he was a Christian. He got down on his knees and said, Now, Father, I want to settle this question. Show me whether I have eternal life or not. And opening his Bible, his eyes fell on this verse from 1 John 5. He said in his prayer, Father, I don't want to make You a liar, and it says here that if I don't believe the testimony that You give about the Son, I'm making you a liar. I don't want to do that. What is the testimony? And he read the next part, And this is the testimony, and he stopped right there. He was so overwrought that he put his thumb over the rest of the verse and said, Lord, it says here that if I don't believe the testimony that you gave concerning your Son, I'm making you a liar, and I don't want to make you a liar. I believe that I have what that testimony is right under my thumb here, and I'm going to take my thumb off and read it, and Lord, help me to believe it, because I don't want to make you a liar. With great trepidation he raised his thumb and read, God has given us eternal life, and this life is in the Son (1 John 5:11). All of a sudden it came home to him. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:12). No matter what else he may have, no matter how religious he may be, if he has not received the Son, he does not have life. He entered into peace and became a preacher of this great truth.
Thank You, Father, for this powerful reminder that my salvation is secure because You cannot lie. Grant to me the faith to take Your promise at face value.
Life Application
Do we find it easy to believe a trusted friend, or even a stranger or the daily media, but doubt what God says in His Word? Are we making God out to be a liar?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on May 30, 2023 6:47:31 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 30TH
Praying Boldly
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
1 John 5:14
When I was a boy in Montana, about the only reading matter we had in the long winter months was a Sears and Roebuck catalog. It had its limits as reading material, but what a tremendous number of things were included! It took us weeks to go through only one section of it. We could order anything we had the money to pay for, but it would have been utterly futile to have sent in an order for something that was not in the catalog. And so it is with prayer. Within the will of God there are tremendous things, vast numbers of gifts, that He has provided for His own. The will of God includes all that we need. All that we really want is available to us and to our loved ones and friends within the will of God. There is nothing we need to pray for outside of it. Outside are only things that harm, injure, and destroy us.
Perhaps we do not know exactly whether a request is the will of God for us, and the examples of Scripture make clear that it is not wrong to ask even for these things. But we must then always add, as Jesus Himself added in the Garden of Gethsemane, yet not my will, but yours be done (Luke 22:42), for prayer is designed only to obtain that which is within the will of God. Thus, John says, when you know that what you are asking for is within the will of God because you have found a promise of God in Scripture or because as you have sought the mind of God you have experienced a deep and settled conviction in your heart from the Holy Spirit, you know that He hears. God always hears every prayer that is voiced within the boundaries of His will.
Jesus could say, I thank you that you have heard me (John 11:41), because everything He did lay within the boundaries of the will of God. That brings us then to the certainty of prayer, the certainty of having: If we know that He hears us, John says, then we know that we have obtained the request that we made of Him. Think of that! If we know it is according to His will, then we know it is heard, and if we know it is heard, we know that we have it. God has already granted the request. In other words, God never says no, except to that which lies outside His will. Do you dare to believe that?
God plays no favorites. He has intimates, but anyone who moves along the program He has outlined and desires to be His intimate, can be. Anyone can who will, but the secret of prayer is to believe that God has granted everything we ask within His will. The secret is to take. You have it, John says. We know that we have obtained the request made of Him. He is not trying to kid himself or to pretend that God has given him something. What he is saying is that when we pray, and the request is made in the will of God, then the answer is absolutely sure, and it is only a question of God's timing as to when it appears. We can take from Him and thank Him for that which has been given, expecting it to appear in God's time.
Father, thank You for Your Word. Grant that I may be obedient to it and obey it not only in praying for others but also for myself
Life Application
Prayer is designed only to obtain that which is within the will of God. After we pray, are we left in the worry that perhaps prompted us or do we have confidence? Why?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on May 31, 2023 4:44:23 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 31ST
Guard Yourself
Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
1 John 5:21
He closes with this final warning. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. Do not go off to something else. Do not give your attention to your interests, your time, your energy, or your money so that those things become what you live for, what you get excited about, what enthuses you. That is your god. What is it with you? Is it Jesus Christ, or is it something else?
In our travels, my family and I were privileged to be in various parts of the ancient world, where we visited many temples dedicated to idols. Though these temples had fallen into ruins, in every place a certain god such as Apollo, Venus, Bacchus, or Zeus had been enthroned and worshiped there. It suddenly struck me, after returning home, that though these temples have been abandoned, the worship of the god has not ceased. We have changed the names, but the gods, the idols, are exactly the same.
There is the worship of Narcissus, the god who fell in love with himself. Is this not perhaps the supreme god of humanity: the worship of self, the exaltation of humans? The idea that we constantly hear set forth is that humans are so tremendous, so smart, so brilliant, so clever; they can do so many things. Yet we deny the continual evidence of our senses that the world is crumbling to pieces around us. Isn't it amazing how we worship humanity? The manifestations of it find expression in the worship of race or country. We have the worship of Bacchus, the god of pleasure, wine, women, and song; the worship of Venus, the goddess of love, enthroned in Hollywood and all that Hollywood stands for; Apollo, the god of physical beauty; Minerva, the goddess of science. Everywhere we have enthroned science.
John writes and says that these things will destroy you, they will rob you of what God has for you. Little children, watch that you do not drift off into the worship that the world around you is constantly engaged in. Do not let these things become important in your life, for God has set you free that you might live as God intended people to live. No wonder His word comes Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. What makes you enthusiastic? To what do you give your money? For what are you saving up now? What is it that you regard as supremely important? It is with this question that John closes this book.
Father, help me to identify the many gods of this age that appear to be so attractive but really have nothing to offer me but death. Thank You for the truth that is in Christ and that in Him I have all that I could ever need or want.
Life Application
Many think idols are religious things of the past. But today in the present, what is it that makes us enthusiastic? What is it that we regard as supremely important?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Jun 1, 2023 4:39:13 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JUNE 1ST
The Command
The LORD had said to Abram, Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. Genesis 12:1
Abraham is first introduced to us in the closing verses of Genesis 11 and the opening verses of Genesis 12. His name was originally Abram, and it was not until years later that it was changed to Abraham. The reason for this change was highly significant, and we shall examine it in due course, but for the present let us get acquainted with young Abram. The Spirit of God passes over his early life in Ur of the Chaldees with but the briefest notice and begins the sacred record with his encounter with God. This is where life truly begins!
In this meeting, Abram came face to face with a command. Abram was commanded to do three things: leave his country, his people, and his father's household. This is exactly the command that comes to every person who hears the call of the gospel today. We are called to leave our country—the place where we have been living, our residence since birth. This does not mean, of course, our physical residence, but rather the old life with all its ambitions, its loyalties, its worship of money and fame and power, and its imagined independence—which is really slavery—all that we have been by nature since birth. This is clearly a picture of the world-organized society with its satanic philosophies and value systems.
Abram was also told to leave his relatives. In the spiritual sense, these are the moral forces that shape our lives. Just as blood relatives affect us greatly on the physical level, so these moral forces at work today change our lives constantly and color all that we think and do. Others' opinions, human traditions, pressures from family and friends, the attitudes of our employers and others around us—these are the kindred we must be willing to forsake when we hear the call of God. We are to renounce this concern about what others think and be preeminently concerned about what God thinks.
The third thing Abram was to leave was his father's house—that is, the ties with the old man. In this sense, Adam is the father of us all. What theologians call our Adamic nature, is the father's house in which we all live. We are called to leave this, to no longer put any dependence upon our looks, talents, or any of our normal resources, but to begin to walk in dependence upon another to do through us what we cannot do ourselves.
Perhaps you have heard the living God of glory say to you, You must no longer depend upon what you have been depending on—the opinions, the attitudes, the philosophy in which you have been reared. These are wrong. They are based upon the lies of Satan, and you must not live on this basis any longer. You must learn to accept the truth reflected in the Word of God, though it cuts right across the philosophy of this world. You must, above all, leave your father's house, which is dependence upon yourself.
It is a simple but vital decision—you cannot stay in Ur and go to the land at the same time.
Lord, grant me the grace to follow You, regardless of what I must leave behind.
Life Application
Abraham's story is clearly a pattern for our walk of faith. What are the three aspects of his encounter with God that are parallel to God's call upon our lives?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Jun 2, 2023 7:36:14 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JUNE 2ND
The Lay Of The Land
Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Genesis 12:6
This is more than just a record of what happened to Abram when he first entered the land. It is also a very accurate picture of the conditions of a Spirit-filled life. The first thing we are told is that Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. These names are most revealing. Shechem means shoulder. and to the Hebrew, the shoulder is a symbol of strength. We think of the shoulder of a mountain in the same way. The name Moreh means instruction, and when we combine these two words, we get our first glimpse of what it is like in the land. Only as we are taught the Word of God by the Spirit of God do we find strength to live.
The second picture we have here is that life in the land is to be a life of constant conflict. These Canaanites were the pagan tribes that afflicted Israel all through their history. They are, thus, an accurate picture for us of those manifestations of evil we live with and continually wrestle against. They are named for us in the New Testament in many places: lust, envy, jealousy, impatience, intemperance, irritability, and touchiness. They are our enemies—these manifestations of self that make our existence a life of continual conflict.
Third, it is also a life of continual cleansing, for we next read, So he built an altar there to the Lord. We think of an altar as a symbol of worship, which it is, but that is not the essence of its meaning. An altar is first a place of cleansing, which provides the basis for worship. The reason for a daily altar is the urgent need for cleansing in the pilgrim life. All pilgrims need the cleansing of blood, the cross of Christ, to which they can come and judge themselves throughout their lives. Therefore, a life of the Spirit's fullness must be continually cleansed by the cross of Christ.
The fourth point is that this is a life of unending choice. Abram pitched his tent between Bethel and Ai. Bethel means the house of God; Ai means ruin. This is just where we must live the Christian life, ever looking either to the things of God or to the ruin of the flesh. We can choose to go to Bethel or to Ai, to Christ or self—it can never be both.
The tent represents the last characteristic. He lived in a tent because he was a pilgrim in the land. All through the New Testament, the Christian pilgrim is exhorted to walk in the Spirit. Walk, walk, walk! You have not ended your walk when you have learned a lesson from God. Tomorrow there is another step to be taken, and another the day after that, and another the day following. How the flesh resents this. We are always delighted when the Spirit of God drives us to the place where we achieve some victory, overcome some habit, take some needed step. And then we want to settle down there. We say to the Lord, You go on for awhile and leave me here. I want to enjoy this for a bit. But He will not let us stop. Life in the land is a life of continual progress, a never-ending journey.
Father, use these lessons from Abram's life to lead me out, that I may rise up to go into the land of the fullness of blessing in Christ.
Life Application
We see God disallowing any possibility for boredom in the biblical record of the life of Abraham. Have we settled for the status quo, or are we boldly adventuring with God?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Jun 3, 2023 9:17:27 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JUNE 3RD
Escape To Egypt
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for awhile because the famine was severe.
Genesis 12:10
There is not a word here about asking God's permission to go down to Egypt. Abram took counsel, not from God, but from his fears alone. To use a contemporary expression, he pushed the panic button, and down to Egypt he went. It was fear that drove him.
If the land is a symbol for us of the life of fellowship with a living Christ, then a famine in the land is any circumstance that threatens our dependence upon Him. It is any circumstance that makes faith difficult to maintain. Have you ever experienced such a famine? Have you been living in the full joy of fellowship with Christ, and the strength of God is your portion, and suddenly some circumstance beyond your control makes it difficult to maintain that fellowship? It may be a new boss who turns out to be an ogre; it may be neighbors who throw their garbage over the back fence; or a tiger of a mother-in-law who comes to live with you. It is always some difficult circumstance of life that makes it hard to maintain fellowship with Christ. Perhaps it is hard and demanding labor that leaves you little time for cultivating the spirit. It may be a bitter disappointment that crushes you, and your heart aches so that you can hardly find strength for prayer and fellowship. It may be depressing surroundings that are hard to rise above. It may be misunderstood motives—you meant to do good and someone took it wrong, and you have been cut to the quick. In short, it is any temptation that seems more than you can bear, which threatens to cut off your very strength, your fellowship with Christ.
When this occurs, the temptation is to flee rather than to stick it out. We do not enjoy trials like this, and we try to get away physically, if we can. We move to another neighborhood, change jobs, take a trip, or go home to mother. If we simply cannot flee physically, we try to run away mentally. We escape the unpleasant reality by a flight into fantasy. There is so much of this being done today—some retreat into a mental Egypt where life seems much more pleasant than it is in reality. Whenever we attempt to satisfy the spirit by the same resources that worldlings have at their command, we have gone down to Egypt.
Father, how many times must I confess to You I have been down in Egypt. Help me to see that only in You, the living God, is there an abundance of supply, and You wait to reveal that supply to any heart that will give up its wanderings and searchings and cast itself upon You and rest there.
Life Application
As we walk through life we always come to tough or difficult situations. Do we try to physically retreat or mentally escape, or do we trust our Lord to carry us thru them?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Jun 4, 2023 4:28:19 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR JUNE 4TH
The High Cost Of Letting Down
From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier...
Genesis 13:3
As soon as Abram is back in the land, there is the tent and the altar again. There is no tent or altar in Egypt. That is, there is no pilgrim character, no place of worship or cleansing, and no fellowship in Egypt. But even back in the land, Abram must return to the place where he made an altar at the first, and there Abram calls upon the name of the Lord. In other words, time spent in Egypt is wasted time! There was no growth in grace in that land. He had to come right back to where he was when he went down to Egypt. He had material gain to show for the time in Egypt, but nothing but barrenness and weakness spiritually.
Have you discovered how true this is? When you forsake the pathway of faith, when you refuse to walk in fellowship with God, when you depend upon the resources of the world to satisfy the empty hunger of the heart, these are wasted years! They may literally be years. I know of those who have lived almost all their Christian lives in Egypt, and all they have to show for it is a barren, wasted, empty, boring existence.
When Abram at last returned, what did he find? There is no mention of famine when he returns, but I think the famine is still going on. Remember, Abram was driven out of Egypt. He was not yet ready to leave it of his own choice, and this would indicate the famine was still raging in Canaan. Also, the quarrel that soon developed with Lot's herdsmen over the pastureland suggests there was still a severe shortage of feed. But though the famine still continues, Abram is no longer troubled about it. Why not? Because, when he reached the land, the first thing he did was to call on the name of the Lord! This is what he should and could have done when the famine first struck.
The name of the Lord stands for all the resources of God. When we cash a check, we are calling on the name of the person who signed the check. When Abram calls on the name of the Lord, he is discovering the resources of God. He discovers that God is able to meet his needs despite the famine, the trial, or the circumstances. Just as Paul proclaims, My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
May I, like Abram, learn that in Egypt there is nothing but heartache and sorrow and danger for me and my loved ones, but in You is all I need to meet my deepest cry.
Life Application
In times of testing and trial it can be difficult to hang onto God. Have we discovered that calling on Him is far better than paying the high cost of other kinds of relief?
Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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