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Post by Obadiah on Oct 22, 2022 4:51:48 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 22ND
HeadshipBut I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 1 Corinthians 11:3When the apostle uses the word head here he is speaking figuratively of that which sits on top of the neck. Even in the ancient world, it was understood to be the control center of the body. That is what the head of our body does; it runs the body; it is in charge; it is the direction setter of the body. Used, figuratively, therefore, the word head means primarily leadership, and thus it is used in this passage. This is clear from the threefold use of it that the apostle makes here. The first one is, the head of every man is Christ. There is the declaration of Christ's right to lead the whole human race. He is the leader of the race in the mind and thinking of God, and ultimately, as Scripture tells us, there will come a day when all humanity, without exception, shall bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:11). So whether we know it or not, Christ is our head, and we are responsible to follow him. That is the whole objective of life for any person who wishes to fulfill his humanity. Move down to the third level of headship mentioned here, the head of Christ is God. Here we have a manifestation of headship demonstrated for us in history. Jesus, the Son of God, equal to the Father in his deity, nevertheless, when he assumes humanity, submits himself to the leadership of the Father. Everywhere Jesus went he stated that he always did those things which pleased his Father. He even said, My Father is greater than I, (John 14:28). That does not challenge the equality of the members of the Godhead, but when Christ became man he voluntarily consented to take a lower position than the Father. It is in that sense he says, My Father is greater than I. Those two headships help us to understand the meaning of the central one, the head of the woman is man. The RSV says, the head of the woman is her husband because the subsequent passage has in view a married woman. Headship is most visible in marriage where it manifests that role of support which a woman undertakes voluntarily when she marries a man. He is to be leader and she assumes a support role to help him fulfill the objectives of their life together as Christ, his head, makes clear. Now if she does not want to do that she is perfectly free not to undertake that role. No woman should get married if she does not want to. This is a role that she is perfectly free to forego if she chooses. If she wants to give herself to the pursuit of her own objectives, she has every right to do so. But then she ought not to get married, because marriage means that she is willing to recognize her husband as the leader of the two. In turn, the man is to discover the secrets God has put into his wife, and seek to encourage her, so that she will be all that she is capable of being. This is the argument of Ephesians 5. They are one and no man hates his own flesh. If he hurts his wife he hurts himself. There is no way that he can achieve the fullness of his manhood in marriage apart from encouraging his wife to utilize all the gifts God has put in her. This is the reciprocal relationship seen in Scripture on marriage. It is this that creates the beauty of every wedding. When a man and a woman stand together to be married, the marriage ceremony has for centuries recognized that she is giving herself to him, and he promises to treat that gift with kindness, tenderness and loving care. Lord, I pray that I would remember that my views of life are often shallow, superficial and inadequate, but whenever I conform to the divinely given order I find myself opening a door into joy and love and peace such as I never dreamed of; that your yoke is easy and your burden is light. Life Application Do we need to revisit the view of the role of headship as demeaning to a man's wife? Does our concept of 'submission' equate with our Lord Jesus' submission to the Father? Do we then value it as a privileged and holy calling? Deep Dive> What is Headship?Daily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Oct 23, 2022 4:15:28 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 23RD
The Lord's SupperFor I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me. 1 Corinthians 11:23-25Paul passes on to them and to us our Lord's emphasis upon two remarkable symbols, the bread and the cup. Deliberately, after the Passover feast, Jesus took the bread, and when he had broken it, to make it available to all the disciples, he said to them, This is my body. Unfortunately some have taken that to mean that he was teaching that the bread becomes his body, but as you look at the story of the Upper Room, it is clear that he meant it in a symbolic sense. If it was literal, then there were two bodies of Christ present in the Upper Room, one in which he lived and by which he held the bread, and the bread itself. But clearly our Lord means this as a symbol. This represents my body which is for you. Not broken for you, as some versions have it. That is not a very accurate rendering. It is not broken for us. The Scriptures tell us that not a bone of his body would be broken. Rather it is intended for us to live on; that is the symbolism. Thus when we gather and take the bread of the Lord's Table, break it and pass it among ourselves, we are reminding ourselves that Jesus is our life: He is the One by whom we live. As Paul says, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me, (Galatians 2:20 KJV). This is what the bread symbolizes — that he is to be our power by which we obey the demands of God, the Word of God, to love one another, to forgive one another, to be tender and merciful, kind and courteous to one another, to not return evil for evil but to pray for those who persecute us and mistrust us and misuse us. His life in us enables us to be what God asks us to be. We live by means of Christ. Following that, our Lord took the cup. The wine of the cup symbolizes his blood which he said is the blood of the New Covenant, the new arrangement for living that God has made, by which the old life is ended. That is what blood always means: Blood is the end of a life, and the old life in which we were dependent upon ourselves, and lived for ourselves, and wanted only to be the center of attention is over. That is what the cup means. We agree to that; we are no longer to live for ourselves. You do not have final rights to your life, and the price is the blood of Jesus. Therefore, when we take that cup and drink it, we are publicly proclaiming that we agree with that sentence of death upon our old life, and believe that the Christian life is a continual experience of life coming out of death. Power with God only comes when we die to the wisdom and the power of man. We give up one so that the other may be manifest within us. That is what the cup means. It is a beautiful picture of what Jesus said of himself, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone, (John 12:24 KJV). Nothing is more descriptive of the emptiness of life than that phrase abides alone — lonely, restless, bored, miserable, unhappy. That is the life that tries to live for itself and its own needs and its own rights, but the Christian life is one in which that is freely and voluntarily surrendered. If the corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it will bring forth much fruit, and by the participation in the cup this is what we are declaring. Lord Jesus, thank you for giving your life up that I might have new life in you. Life ApplicationWhen we partake of the symbols of bread and wine, do we honor the richly profound reality they represent? Does our gratitude for His indwelling Life find expression in sacrificial love, no longer living for self interest but for Him who gave Himself for us? Deep Dive> The Lord's SupperDaily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Oct 24, 2022 4:02:56 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 24TH
How the Body WorksJust as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body — whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 In this chapter, the apostle begins to use an analogy that will help us understand how the church is designed to function. He places before us a human body, and draws lessons from it all through the rest of the chapter, as to its parallel with the functioning of the Body of Christ. It is more than a mere figure of speech to say that the church is the Body of Christ. God really takes that seriously. It is so much so his body by which he works today that he has given us a visual aid, to live in, and walk around in, and examine, and think through what is the meaning of the church as the Body of Christ. That is where Paul begins. Just as the body is one and yet has many members, he says, so also it is with Christ. Notice it is not so also it is with the church, because it is the church and Christ that constitutes the Body of Christ. If you stand in front of a mirror and look at your body you should be struck by the fact that it is divided into two major sections, the head and the torso. The head is the control center of the body, while the torso is the biggest part of it, and the part to which the members, the arms, the legs, etc., are attached. This is especially designed to help us understand how the church is to function, for the whole body, plus the head, constitutes the Body of Christ. This is an amazing statement here that we are part of Christ. That is what Paul is saying. We constitute the means by which Christ functions within the world, and it is very important to hold that concept in your mind if you want to understand how the church works. It is a body with many members, and yet it is only one body. It is not many bodies, many denominations. They are all tied together by sharing the same life, and they are tied with the head so that they function as his means of expressing his life in this world. Paul answers the question, How did we get into that body? We were not born into it as infants; the Body of Christ does not consist of everybody in the world, only certain ones. His answer is clear, For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. That is the baptism with the Holy Spirit predicted by both John the Baptist and Jesus himself, fulfilled for the first time on the Day of Pentecost, and continually fulfilled ever since whenever anybody believes in Jesus. They are baptized then by the Spirit into the Body of Christ and made part of the living Christ as he has been working in the world through all these centuries since. The church is not just a group of religious people gathered together to enjoy certain mutually desired functions. It is a group of people who share the same life, who belong to the same Lord, who are filled with the same Spirit, who are given gifts by that same Spirit, and who are intended to function together to change the world by the life of God. That is the work of the church. Thank you, Father, that I am part of the Body of Christ. I have been baptized into one body and made to drink of one Spirit. I pray that on that basis I may fulfill my function in life to be an instrument of your working right where I live and work. Life ApplicationHave we given serious consideration to the Church as the Body of Christ on earth? How does this affect our mission and our Source of power and wisdom from Christ our Head? Deep Dive> How the Body WorksDaily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Oct 25, 2022 8:19:25 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 25TH
The Supreme PriorityIf I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3Analyzing those words is like taking a beautiful flower and tearing it apart. But some analysis is necessary to fully grasp what Paul is saying here. We should remember that this chapter on love fits beautifully with what the apostle has been talking about in the previous section. In Chapter 12 Paul talked about the gifts of the Spirit. Here in Chapter 13 we come to the fruit of the Spirit. Paul has introduced it with a hint already that the fruit of the Spirit is far more important than the gifts of the Spirit. That we become loving people is far more important than whether we are active, busy people. Both are necessary, but one is greater than the other. Paul has said so: I will show you a still more excellent way. That is the way of love. I call this the fruit of the Spirit because in the letter to the Galatians Paul details for us what the fruit of the Spirit is. It is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). All of those qualities really are manifestations of love. This chapter is setting forth that quality of love which is the work of the Spirit of God within us reproducing the character of Christ. Once you have love all these other qualities that are part of the fruit of the Spirit are possible to you. If we have the love of God in our hearts, then we can be patient; we can be peaceful; we can be good, loving, faithful, gentle and kind. The word love is not the Greek word eros. That word is used to describe erotic love. And the word here is not philia, which means affection or friendship. Paul is talking about agape, which is a commitment of the will to cherish and uphold another person. This is the word that is used to describe the love of God. It is a word addressed to the will. It is a decision that you make and a commitment that you have launched upon to treat another person with concern, with care, with thoughtfulness, and to work for his or her best interests. That is what love is, and this is what Paul is talking about. This kind of love is possible only to those who first love God. Any attempt to try to exercise love like this without having first loved God is to present a fleshly kind of love. There are two great commandments. The first is to love the Lord with all your heart. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). We try to turn that around. Many of us are trying to love our neighbor without having loved God, and it is impossible to do that. It is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as Paul puts it in Romans 5:5, that fulfills the definition that is given in this chapter. You cannot love other people until you first love God. Love for God is not difficult, because all you need to do is be aware of how he has loved you. Above all else he has loved you in having given his Son for you, having redeemed you and forgiven you. Your guilt is taken away. By these means God has called you to himself and given you a standing before him as a son. To remember all that is to be stirred with love for God. When you love God you awaken your capacity to love people. Love is a supernatural quality. God alone can give this kind of love. God alone can lead you to make a choice to love somebody who does not appeal to you. Yet that is what God's love is. That is what is so desperately needed and so beautifully described in this passage. It can only come as we love God and love is awakened within us by the Holy Spirit. Lord, I pray that the gift of love may be manifest in my life. Life ApplicationAre we long on good works, and good intentions -- but short on love? What does this infer about our intimacy with our God, who Is Love? Are we looking for something less than genuine love, in all the wrong places? Dive Deeper> Supreme PriorityDaily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Oct 26, 2022 4:43:49 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 26TH
The Value of ProphecyFollow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 1 Corinthians 14:1-3
That ties this back to the love chapter. Love is to be the basic, biblical reason for exercising a spiritual gift. Love is the hunger to reach out for someone else's benefit. That is to be the controlling theme throughout this whole chapter in the discussion of tongues and prophesying. Love is building up someone else. To that end, desire spiritual gifts, so that they may be a means of helping others and fulfilling love. Clearly the one spiritual gift that is most effective in that direction is prophesying. The gift of prophesying is not predicting the future. That may be an element occasionally in it, but it is the explanation of the present in the light of the revelation of God. The closest term we would call it by today is biblical preaching that unfolds the mind of God and applies it to the daily struggles of life. That is prophesying. That is the gift for a congregation to desire above all others. Beginning with Verse 2 and on through Verse 5, Paul compares the gifts of prophesy and tongues. Anyone who speaks in tongues is not understood in a congregation because he speaks mysteries in the Spirit. The reason for that was he was speaking in a language that they did not understand. At Corinth people would stand up and speak in these languages, perhaps recognizable as being languages used somewhere nearby (as on the Day of Pentecost), but the people there did not understand the language, and so they could not know what the speaker was saying. In contrast, Paul now describes the gift of prophesying, which Paul says has a threefold effect. First, it builds people up. The word is oikodomen in the Greek, oiko means house, and domen means to build. To build a house on a solid foundation is the idea; and the work of prophesying gives people a foundation. One of the major problems among Christians today is the struggle they have with the sense of their true identity. Many people are emotionally torn apart because they do not understand that they are new creatures in Christ; they are no longer what they once were. Because they still get feelings of being what they once were, they believe those feelings, and they react accordingly. There is an up-and-down experience that they can never get away from. Prophesying corrects that. It teaches us who we are in Christ. The second thing prophesying does is strengthen people. This is the word from which we get the word paraclete, one of the titles of the Holy Spirit. He is the strengthener of God's people. It means to support and encourage; it is one called alongside, that is the literal meaning of the term, to support you and steady you and strengthen you. The third ministry of prophesying is that of comforting. Still a third Greek word is used here, paramuthian, which means to empathize, to put yourself in the place of others, to understand the pressures they are under. It means to be able to feel with them and be able to encourage them with the fact that you know how they feel. That is what the word of prophesying is inclined to do. We have all had the experience of listening to a text of Scripture expounded, and it seemed to speak right to our basic problem. That is what prophesying does. You can see how useful and how important it is to have this exercised in a church. Thank you, Father, for the ministry of the Word of God in life. I pray for those who expound it that they might be your mouthpiece to a needy people. Life Application What is the primary aim in the exercise of spiritual gifts? In what ways does the gift of prophesying, as in exposition of the Word of God, fulfill this basic purpose? Deep Dive> Speaking of TonguesDaily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Oct 27, 2022 5:50:21 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 27TH
Of First ImportanceFor what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures... 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 There are three elements of the gospel. First, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Isn't it amazing that he does not mention a word about the whole life of Jesus? That is rather startling, but that is where the gospel begins. He does not even say, Christ died. Ask people today what the gospel is and this is often what they will say, Well, Jesus lived and died. No, that is not the gospel. Everyone believes that Jesus died. Go to any of the modern presentations of the life of Jesus and you will find they all end at the death of Jesus. But there is no good news in that. The good news is Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures . The scriptures tell us that his death accomplished something for us. It changed us, it delivered us, it set us free. That death had great significance in the mind and heart and eyes of God, and that is the good news. As Peter puts it in his words, He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, (1 Peter 2:24 RSV). Or, to use the words of Isaiah, He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed, (Isaiah 53:5 KJV). The second element of the gospel is that Jesus not only died for our sins according to the scriptures but he was also buried. Why does Paul include the burial of Jesus? Is it not enough that Jesus died and rose again? The reason for it is that when his disciples came and took the body of Jesus down from the cross, it marked their acceptance of the fact of his death. Did you ever realize how hard it was for them to accept the fact that he died? They did not want to believe it when he himself told them that was what he was going to do. When it happened they went away stunned and unbelieving. But somewhere along the line some realist among them faced up to it and said, We have got to go get his body, and bury him. Joseph of Arimathea came forward and offered a tomb, and with loving hands they took his body down from the tree. They wrapped it in grave clothes, bound it tightly. They embalmed him with spices, and then they placed him in a tomb where he lay for three days and three nights. There is no question that the disciples believed that he was dead. They could never have entertained any idea that he had merely fainted on the cross, or entered into a coma, for they themselves had performed the burial service. That is why Paul adds that here. It marked the acceptance of the disciples that Jesus was truly dead. But the third element is, he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Again, he fulfilled the predictions. It was anticipated that he would die; it was equally anticipated that he would rise again from the dead. On the third day, to the amazement of the disciples, he fulfilled all predictions. He was not merely resuscitated (that is, coming back to the life he had before), he was resurrected. That means he came back to a life he had never lived before, a real life, a glorified life, a different life, and yet in the amazing mystery of the resurrection, the same Jesus with the wounds in his body that they could touch and feel and see for themselves. That is the story of the gospel — three basic facts. These are not doctrines; these are not philosophies; these are not ideas that men have had about what God should be like. These are simple, hard-nosed facts that occurred in history that cannot be eliminated or evaded. There they are. These facts have changed the history of the world. Our faith does not rest upon mere philosophy but upon facts that have occurred and cannot be taken away from us. Heavenly Father, thank you for the marvel, the wonder of the gospel. Help me to understand that this is to be the center of my life, the most basic thing about me is my faith in this good news. Life ApplicationHave we grasped the importance of the three elements of the gospel which are essential to our faith? Do we see them as actual historic facts which give total authenticity to our life and our witness? Deep Dive> Of First ImportanceDaily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Oct 28, 2022 3:52:40 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 28TH
What If...?And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 1 Corinthians 15:14-19Paul considers the question, What if ...? What would the world be like if Jesus had not been raised? There are six history-changing facts that would have followed if Jesus had not risen. First, without the resurrection all preaching would have been a waste of time. All the messages you have ever heard or read, all the Christian books you have read, all radio and television broadcasts of the gospel you have listened to would have been a total waste of time had Jesus not risen from the dead. Second, without the resurrection, all Christian faith would be useless. What would be the point of coming to church every Sunday morning, or going to a Bible study, or reading the Scriptures even, or trying to believe that God is there to help you? All that would be worthless, useless. It would be only a kind of religious game. Life would be reduced to grim, stark realities, with no hope now or later. Third, if the resurrection is untrue, the apostles are the world's greatest liars. They deserve to be treated as arch deceivers rather than as honored men of integrity and truth. They are hypocrites, and worse than that they are deceivers who have led us into gross darkness and gross error. Now, after twenty centuries of the preaching of these things, they have undoubtedly won the title of the world's greatest liars. That is what Paul says. You cannot avoid that, if there is no resurrection, because the apostles staked their reputation on the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead. Then a fourth point, and even worse: If Christ is not raised, then all our sins of the past are still with us; we are still in our sins. This means that even granting that there is a God, then we must stand at last before him and give an account of all we have done. And there is no way of escaping the justice with which God would deal with sin. There is no hiding place, no hope for mercy, no loving Christ to say, I've paid the penalty for you; I've taken your place; I've loved you and given myself for you. The fifth thing, Paul says, is, those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. All those loved ones who have gone on to be with the Lord, we thought, whom we hoped to meet again, we will never see again. Our children, our parents, our friends, those who have been taken suddenly, those to whom we bid a weeping farewell with the hope that one day we would meet them again in glory, we will never see again. A terrible silence has fallen; they are gone forever. Finally, the sixth fact: If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. Even the present is changed. We have to give up our beautiful dream and go back to coldness, selfishness, drabness, grimness, and darkness. It is all made worse by the fact that we once thought we had escaped; we once thought we had a hold of something so marvelous that it gave us great joy and peace and glory and blessing. But if there is no resurrection all this crumbles and is taken away from us; our darkness is all the darker for that. Thank you, Lord, for the hope and purpose that the resurrection of Jesus gives me. Life ApplicationThe Resurrection of Jesus Christ is totally crucial to the Christian faith, which in turn has changed the course of world history. Consider at least six major life-altering effects which would result if Christ had not risen from the dead, and be awed by this vast, historic reality! Deep Dive> What if...?Daily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Oct 29, 2022 4:49:02 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 29TH
Then Comes The EndThen the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 1 Corinthians 15:24-26Notice that the reign of Christ does not begin after he subdues his enemies, although we often think of it that way. The Biblical truth is he does reign, and he shall continue to reign until his enemies are made his footstool. I do not know anything that has more power to steady us in times of pressure, and undergird us in times of discouragement, defeat, and oppression than the realization that Jesus now reigns. He is in control now. When we run up against oppressive governments and severe limitations to our freedom and outright, violent persecution of Christian faith, we are to remember that all this takes place under the overall authority of Jesus Christ who said, when he rose from the dead, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, (Matthew 28:18 KJV). He permits this kind of thing to happen to accomplish his purposes, just as, in the Old Testament, God raised up the Babylonians and the Assyrians and brought them against Israel. He allowed Jerusalem to be taken; he allowed the Israelites to be taken into captivity, not because that was the way he wanted things to happen on earth, but because that was necessary to teach his people the lessons they needed to know. God brings these things to pass for our sake, and it is part of the authority of Christ that allows them to happen. Now the apostle says, The last enemy to be destroyed is death. This can be seen to be true in both an individual and a universal sense. Universally, death is never going to disappear from this earth until we come to that moment, described in the book of Revelation, when a new heaven and a new earth come into existence. But there is a sense in which this is individually true of us right now. What is going on in your life and mine now? Well, we are experiencing a continual reciprocation of death, out of which comes life. We are all fighting battles, struggles in which at times we fail, falter, and are overcome. We give way to worry, we give way to impatience, anger, malice, and lust. Sometimes we struggle against these things with great effort; other times we give in quickly. But we are all engaged in a great battle in which we are assaulted continually with temptations to yield and to fall into death. Yet, even out of those times of failure, by the grace of God's forgiveness we are restored. Life is handed back to us, in a sense, and we go on to walk for a longer time without failure, until gradually we gain victory over evil habits and evil attitudes. Life, therefore, is a continual experience of life coming out of death, of pain leading to joy, and that will never end as long as we are in this present life. But there is coming a time when this body will die, and death then is destroyed for us. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Once we pass through the experience of death into resurrection, like our Lord himself, we shall never die again. Christ having once died, Paul says in Romans, never dies again, and we share his existence. He is the first fruits of the great harvest of which we are a part. Thank you, Lord, that the day will come when there will be no more death, no more mourning and no more pain.
Life ApplicationAre we daily claiming the privilege of the Lord Jesus' sovereign reign, both personal and worldwide? Are we living in the power and wisdom of Christ's indwelling Presence, trusting Him to resolve the tension between death and life in daily experience? Deep Dive> Then Comes the EndDaily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Oct 30, 2022 4:38:53 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 30TH
The First day of the WeekNow about the collection for the Lord's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me. 1 Corinthians 16:2-4Paul is talking about the collection that was being made in many churches to send to the troubled church in Jerusalem. Paul is anxious that these Gentile churches should have a part in helping the afflicted saints in Jerusalem. This is a beautiful picture of the way the church is one all over the earth. What happens to our brothers and sisters in other corners of the earth ought to be of immediate concern to us as well. So Paul exhorts these churches here in Corinth and other places to meet that need. In the process of doing this, he gives us some wonderful principles to govern our giving. First, giving is a universal practice. This was not just something that the Corinthians had to do. Everywhere Paul went, wherever he founded a church, he taught them to give, because giving is an essential part of Christianity. It is not an option; it is something every Christian must do. The second principle is that it is to be done every week: This is one of the first indications we have that the Christians had begun to gather regularly to worship and pray and give on the first day of the week, Sunday. The Jewish day of worship, of course, is Saturday. Even now these Christians have forsaken that and have begun to worship on the first day of the week. Third, giving is a personal act. He says, ...each one of you... He does not leave anybody out. Even children ought to be taught to give. It may be only a few pennies, a nickel or a dime, but on every Sunday there ought to be a gift from every Christian. It is not the amount that is important at all, it is the regularity of it, the fact that there is a continual reminder that you have freely received, therefore, freely give. So each one is to do this. It is, in that sense, not an option. Fourth, they are to save it up. He is referring to the fact that, in that culture, people got paid every day. They were to go home and put aside each day a certain amount of money so that on Sunday they would have a larger amount to bring to the services, and contribute to the needs of others. Then a fifth principle is, ...in keeping with your income. That means you give according to the way God has given to you. Has he poured out abundantly? Then give abundantly. Are you having a hard time and barely making it? Well, then your gift can be reduced proportionately. It ought to be something, but it can be very little because God is really not interested in the total amount at all. He is only interested in the motive of the heart in giving. The sixth principle is very important. Paul says do this, ...so that when I come no contributions need to be made. Paul knew that he, when he was personally present, had a tremendous effect on people. He did not want their giving to come because they were moved by his preaching, or in any other way be pressured into giving. The seventh principle is seen in Verses 3-4, ...when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me. Giving should be carried out responsibly. Paul is careful that he does not have this responsibility himself. What a contrast this is with people today who exhort you to give, and then take the money themselves, and never give an accounting for it. Thank you, Father, for the practicality of this section. I pray that I might apply these principles and may be generous with all that you have given me. Life Application What are seven basic, practical principles for the practice of giving? Are we learning that as Jesus said 'It is more blessed to give than to receive?' Joy results from spontaneous compassion and simple obedience. Deep Dive> Giving and LivingDaily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Oct 31, 2022 5:06:07 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 31ST
The Care and Feeding of Fellow-WorkersNow about our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers. He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity. 1 Corinthians 16:12That is a most remarkable verse, especially in view of the attitude many today have that the apostles were, in a sense, generals in the army of the Lord, sending out people, ordering them here or there, and commanding these younger Christians to go at their beck and call. But you do not find that here. This verse indicates that Paul does not command Apollos at all; he has no authority over him. He urges him, rather. In several places in the New Testament we are reminded by the apostle that he was not lord over anybody else. Lording it over the brethren is one of the great curses of the church today. Some men assume, for instance, that the office of pastor gives them an authority over other people. But notice that Paul respects the personal freedom of Apollos to be directed of the Lord, even as he himself is. He does not tell Apollos what he has to do, but he says it was not his will to come, and Paul accepts that. Apollos, too, was operating under the direct control of God. This is not only true of leaders, such as Paul and Apollos, it is true of all Christians. Perhaps the clearest word on this was spoken by the Lord himself when he said, For you have one teacher and you are all brothers, (Matthew 23:8). The church must return to that restoration of the sense of being brothers with one another, not in position over one another, but working together. I find Christians everywhere under the authority of men who seem to be dictators — much like Diotrephes, whom John mentions in one of his letters, who loved to have the pre-eminence among them (3 John 1:9). Believers must understand that no pastor has the right to tell them what they can do with their spiritual gifts and no pastor has the right to tell them that you cannot have a meeting in their home and teach the Word of God to whoever will come and listen. Now they should listen to him as a wise brother who understands the nature of truth, perhaps, and can give them helpful suggestions. But no pastor ever, anywhere, has the right to tell another that they cannot follow the leading of the Lord as to the ministry that they have. Paul makes that clear in this passage. Observe how he supports Apollos in this. Apollos will come, he says, when he has opportunity. Paul and Apollos and Peter were three men around whom factions were gathering in this church. Perhaps Paul wanted Apollos to go because he thought it might improve that situation. But that may be the very reason Apollos did not want to go. As he might have seen it, and evaluated it, and understood it, his visiting Corinth might even have aggravated the tendency of the Corinthians to cluster around an individual. So he did not choose to go, and the apostle supports him. This is a very helpful glance into New Testament life. Lord, thank you for your Word. Teach me to listen to you and pray for those around me who are called to shepherd the flock of God. Life ApplicationDoes command-control leadership have biblical authorization? Are we honoring the Holy Spirit's prerogative in our fellow believers with prayerful support? Deep Dive> The Care and Feeding of Fellow-WorkersDaily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Nov 1, 2022 7:40:29 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR NOVEMBER 1ST
Jacob I have LovedJust as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. Romans 9:13Many have struggled over those words. But all the apostle is saying is that it is clear from this story that: First, ancestry does not make any difference (these boys had the same father), and second, what they will do in their lives — including the choices they will make — ultimately will not make any difference. Before they were able to make choices — either good or bad — God had said to their mother, The elder shall serve the younger. By that he implied, not only that there would be a difference in the nations that followed (the descendants of these two men) and that one would be in the place of honor and the other wouldn't, but, also, that the personal destinies of these two men were involved as well. That is clear from the record of history. Jacob forevermore stands for all the things in men that God honors and wants them to have. Jacob was a scheming, rather weak character — not very lovable. Esau, on the other hand, was a rugged individualist — much more admirable when he was growing up than was his brother Jacob. But through the course of their lives, Jacob was the one who was brought to faith, and Esau was not. God uses this as a symbol of how he works. I remember hearing of a man who said to a noted Bible teacher, I'm having trouble with this verse, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. How could God ever say, Esau have I hated? The Bible teacher said, I have trouble with that verse, too, but my problem is not quite the same. I have no trouble in understanding the words Esau have I hated. What bothers me is how God could ever say, Jacob have I loved! Read the life of Jacob and you will see why. I admit that we must not read this word hated as though God actually disliked Esau and would have nothing to do with him and treated him with contempt. That is what we often mean when we say we hate someone. Jesus used this same word when he said, Except a man hate his father and mother and brother and sister and wife and children and houses and land, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple, (Luke 14:26). Clearly he is not saying that we have to treat our mothers and fathers and wives and children and our own lives with contempt and disrespect. He clearly means that he is to have pre-eminence. Hatred, in that sense, means to love less. We are to love these less than we love him. God didn't hate Esau, in the sense we usually employ that word. In fact, he blessed him. He made of him a great nation. He gave him promises which he fulfilled to the letter. What these verses imply is that God set his heart on Jacob, to bring him to redemption, and all Jacob's followers would reflect the possibilities of that. As Paul has argued already, those followers were not all necessarily saved by that, by any means, but Jacob would forever stand for what God wants men to be, and Esau would forever stand as a symbol of what he does not like. What Paul is teaching us here is that God has a sovereign, elective principle that he carries out, on his terms. Here are those terms: Salvation is never based on natural advantages. What you are by nature does not enter into the picture of whether you are going to be redeemed or not. Second, salvation is always based on a promise that God gives. This is why we are exhorted in the Scriptures to believe the promises of God. It includes, in some mysterious way, our necessity to be confronted with those promises, and to give a willing and voluntary submission to them. The third principle is that salvation never takes any notice of whether we are good or bad. Never! That is what was established here. These children were neither good nor bad, yet God chose Jacob and passed over Esau. Father, again I must admit I don't understand very much. I am a finite creature, and I cannot fully understand how you act. But I believe you are faithful. Help me to be open and teachable in spirit, that I might recognize the marvelous grace that has reached out and found me. Life Application What are three sovereign elective principles in God's plan of redemption? Does our finite understanding serve us sufficiently to question God's sovereign choices? Deep Dive> Has God Failed?Daily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Nov 3, 2022 4:39:04 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR NOVEMBER 3RD
Why People StumbleWhat then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written: See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame. Romans 9:30-33God says there is a way you can tell whether you are being drawn by the Spirit unto salvation or whether you are being permitted by God to remain where you already were, lost and condemned: The way you can tell is by what you do with Jesus. God has planted a stone in the midst of society. When you walk down a path and come to a big flat rock in the middle of the path, there are two things you can do. You can stumble over it, or you can stand on it, one or the other. That is what Jesus is — a stone planted by God. The Jews, who determined to work out their salvation on the basis of their own behavior, their own good works before God, stumbled over the stone. That is why the Jews rejected Jesus, and why they reject him to this day. They don't want to admit that they need a Savior, that they are not able to save themselves. No man is able to do this. But for those who see that they need a Savior, these people have already been drawn by the Spirit of God, and awakened by his grace, and made to understand what is going on in their lives. Therefore, their very desire to be saved, the very expression of their need for a Savior causes them to accept Jesus. They stand upon that stone. Anyone who comes to God on that basis will never be put to shame. God says that is the testing point. The crisis of humanity is Jesus: You can be very religious, you can spend hours and days or an entire lifetime of following religious pursuits and apparently honoring God, but the test will always come: What will you do with Jesus? God put him in the midst of human society to reveal those who he has called, and those who he has not. Jesus taught this very plainly: No man can come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him, (John 6:44); and all that my Father has given me shall come to me. Him that comes to me I will never, never cast out, (John 6:37 KJV). So what is left for us? To respond to Jesus, that is all. And to thank God that, in doing so, we are not only doing what our own hearts and consciences urge us to do, but we are responding in obedience to the drawing of the elective Spirit of God, who, in mercy, has chosen to bring us out of a lost humanity. Father, how this makes me realize afresh how desperately dependent I am upon your saving grace. I did not save myself — I could not. I did not even initiate the desire to be saved — that comes from you. But I thank you that you have called me and redeemed me and brought me to yourself, at infinite cost to yourself, and thus, Lord, I give myself afresh to you today. Life ApplicationAre we investing our lives in short-term approval from performance? The Person and saving grace of the Lord Jesus is our personal crisis. Have we consented to His reign, the redeeming power of His Presence? Daily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Nov 4, 2022 5:39:11 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR NOVEMBER 4TH
The Need to be SavedBrothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. Romans 10:1In (Romans 10:1)-4 Paul expresses his intense passion that many within the nation Israel would be saved. I do not think there is any word in the Christian vocabulary that makes people feel more uncomfortable than the word saved. People cringe when they hear it. Perhaps it conjures up visions of hot-eyed, zealous buttonholers — usually with bad breath — who walk up and grab you and say, Brother, are you saved? Or perhaps it raises visions of a tiny band of Christians at a street meeting in front of some saloon singing, Give the winds a mighty voice, Jesus saves! Jesus saves! Whatever the reason, I do know that people become bothered at this word. I will never forget the startled look on the face of a man who came up to me in a movie theater. The seat beside me was vacant, and he said, Is this seat saved? I said, No, but I am. He found a seat across the aisle. Somehow this word threatens all our religious complacency and angers the self-confident and the self-righteous alike. And yet, when you turn to the Scriptures you find that this is an absolutely unavoidable word. Christians have to talk about men and women being saved because the fact is that men and women are lost. There is no escaping the fact that the Bible clearly teaches that the human race into which we are born is already a lost race. This is why the good news of John 3:16 is that, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish — not perish — but have everlasting life, (John 3:16 KJV). We can never deal realistically with life until we face up to this fundamental fact: People are not waiting until they die to be lost — they are already lost. It is the grace of God that reaches down and calls us out of that lostness and gives us an opportunity to come to Christ and be saved. Therefore saved is a perfectly legitimate word to use. It makes us uncomfortable only when we refuse to face the fact that men and women are lost. They are born into a perishing race in which their humanity is being put to improper uses and is gradually deteriorating and falling apart, and they are facing an eternity of separation from God. These are the facts as the Scriptures put it. Lord, thank you for the simple but marvelous miracle of salvation. Life ApplicationWhy are many offended by the word 'saved'? Since it is the realistic assessment of everyone who has not entered by faith into God's saving grace in Jesus, is it our heart's desire and prayer that the lost be saved? Deep Dive> How to be SavedDaily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Nov 5, 2022 5:16:23 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR NOVEMBER 5TH
How To Be SavedIf you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame. Romans 10:10-11That is the clearest statement in the Word of God on how to be saved. Paul makes it very simple. He says that it begins with the confession of the mouth: Jesus is Lord. Don't twist those words to mean that you have to stand up in public somewhere and announce that you believe Jesus is Lord before you are saved. Paul does not mean it that way, although it does not exclude that. He means that the mouth is the symbol of the conscious acknowledgment to ourselves of what we believe. It means that we have come to the place where we recognize that Jesus has the right to lordship in our lives. Prior to this point we have been lord of our lives, and we have run our own affairs. We have decided we have the right to make our own decisions according to what we want. But there comes a time, as God's Spirit works in us, that we see the reality of life as God has made it to be, and we realize Jesus is Lord. He is Lord of our past, to forgive us of our sins; He is Lord of our present, to dwell within us, and to guide and direct and control every area of our life; He is Lord of our future, to lead us into glory at last; He is Lord of life, Lord of death, he is Lord over all things. He is in control of history. He is running all human events. He stands at the end of every path on which men go, and he is the ultimate one we all must reckon with. That is why Peter says in Acts 4:12: Salvation is found in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. You cannot read the book of Acts without recognizing that the basic creed of the early Christians was: Jesus is Lord. These are days when you hear a lot about mantras, words that you are supposed to repeat when you meditate. I suggest you adopt this as a mantra: Jesus is Lord. Say it repeatedly, wherever you are, to remind yourself of this great truth. When Peter stood up to speak on the day of Pentecost, this was his theme, Jesus is Lord. Paul tells us here that Jesus is Lord, and when God has led you to the place where you are ready to say to yourself, Jesus is my Lord, He then acts conclusively. Through that confession God does something. No man can do it, but God can. He immediately brings about all that is wrapped up in this word, saved. Your sins are forgiven. God imparts to you a standing of righteous worth in his sight. He gives you the Holy Spirit to live within you. He makes you a child in his family. He gives you an inheritance for eternity. You are joined to the body of Christ as members of the family of God. You are given Jesus himself to live within you, and you will live a life entirely different than you lived before. That is what happens when you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Father, I am grateful for these clear words from Paul. Today I reaffirm by confession that, Jesus is Lord. Life ApplicationIs our verbal confession congruent with our acceptance of Jesus as Lord? Do we need to review the radical implications of our inheritance as Christ's disciples? Is Jesus in reality Lord of our body, soul and spirit? Deep Dive> How to be SavedDaily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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Post by Obadiah on Nov 6, 2022 4:57:54 GMT -8
A DAILY DEVOTION FOR NOVEMBER 6TH
Kindness and SternnessConsider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. Romans 11:22Paul speaks of the kindness and the sternness of God. If you come to God needy and repentant and acknowledging that you need help, you will always find him to be loving, gracious, open-armed, ready to help you, ready to forgive you, ready to give you all that you need. But if you come to God complaining, excusing yourself, justifying what you've been doing and trying to make it look good in his sight, you will always find that God is as hard as iron, and as merciless as fire, as stern as a judge. God will always turn that face toward those who come in self-pride and justification in their own strength. This is the secret of the mystery of Israel and its blindness today. As long as the Jews come to God in that manner, they will always find a hard, iron-willed, stern God. But when they come in repentance, and, as Zechariah the prophet describes, when Jesus appears and they look at him whom they had pierced and they ask him Where did you get these wounds in your hands? he will say, These are those which I received in the house of my friends, (Zechariah 13:6). Then they will mourn for him as one mourns for any only child, and the mourning of Israel that day will be like the mourning for King Joash in the battle of Jezreal. The whole nation will mourn. Then God will take that nation, and they will replenish the earth. This is what Paul looks forward to. This is a reminder to our own hearts of the faithfulness of God. His promises will not fail. God's purposes will never be shortchanged. God is going to accomplish all that he says he will do. Though it may be a long way around, and though it may lead through many trials and temptations and hurts and heartaches, what God has said he will do, he will carry through. On that basis we can enter each day with a deep awareness of the faithfulness of our God. Thank you, Holy Father, for your faithfulness. Thank you that you are the God of glory and the God of mercy. I do stand amazed at both the kindness and the sternness of God. Lord, teach me that you are not someone I can manipulate. Help me to bow before you in humble adoration at the grace that reaches out to me when I am ready to admit my need and come before you trembling and contrite. Life ApplicationKindness and sternness are both integral qualities of God's character, each necessary to the full expression of His love. What are the appropriate responses to His kindness, and to His needed sternness? Deep Dive> There's Hope AheadDaily Devotion © 2014, 2022 by Ray Stedman Ministries.
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