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Post by Parker on May 27, 2023 6:42:23 GMT -8
MAY 27
THE SPIRIT’S PRESENCE
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Paul said to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” Why was he telling them that? Because the Corinthians were doing things with their bodies that were an embarrassment to the Holy Spirit. They were living lives divorced from the awareness of His holy presence within them.
Perhaps you’ve found yourselves at certain crossroads recently where you didn’t know whether you should go to a certain place or participate in a certain activity because you are a Christian. The fact is, where you go, the Holy Spirit goes with you. So before you go, you’d better ask Him if He wants to go. And whatever He tells you, you do it.
Many Christians don’t even think about that. They just drag the Holy Spirit everywhere into all kinds of things that are dishonoring to His first name, which is Holy.
The Holy Spirit permanently indwells you. If you grasp that concept, it could have a life-changing impact on you. He is there. He is in you. He will never leave you.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on May 28, 2023 6:01:02 GMT -8
MAY 28
ABUNDANTLY GOOD
Psalm 145:3
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.
When the Bible writers call God good, they are thinking of all those things about His character which we admire: His perfection, His compassion, His mercy, His grace, and perhaps most of all, His generosity.
Whatever God is, He is abundantly! God is good in a generous way. That means God loves to lavish upon His children that which blesses them. God is blessed in His life when He brings joy and blessing to those who depend upon Him for sustaining grace. Just as we have a real sense of joy in our hearts when we are able to do something good for another person, God has an intense joy in His heart as He expresses His goodness to all of us.
Have you ever heard a sermon about the prodigal son where the father is described as prodigal? Prodigal means lavish, unrestrained, and unlimited. If you want to see the prodigal in that story, examine the heart of the father who never stopped loving his wayward son. Who waited every day to see him come home. And who, when his wayward son walked back into the family home, put on a feast to welcome him back. There was nothing that father would not do for his son. That’s the way God is. He lavishes Himself upon His people.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on May 29, 2023 4:16:19 GMT -8
MAY 29
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
Genesis 45:7–8
God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God.
I’ve noticed, as I’ve studied the life of Joseph, that God is just as intimate to him as breath. God is so much a part of Joseph’s life that he sees the Lord in every circumstance, and he trusts the Lord through every difficulty. “God meant it for good,” he tells his brothers, “in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” Everything that happened to him, both bad and good, was viewed through the lens of God’s will.
When Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he said that it was God who gave him the meaning. When Joseph presented his sons to Jacob, he introduced them by saying, “These are the two sons God has given me.” Even when Joseph was dying, he was able to encourage those around him that “God will surely visit you.”
At the center of Joseph’s life was the sovereignty of God. Everything that happened was for His purposes and part of His program. Even the darkest threads in the weave help to provide the overall beauty of the tapestry.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on May 30, 2023 5:30:34 GMT -8
MAY 30
SINGLE PEACE
1 Corinthians 7:32
He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord.
People are single for four kinds of reasons: physical, medical, spiritual, or they just want to be single—not everybody wants to be married and apparently that is a part of God’s plan. Some of the greatest people who ever served God were single. Rejoice in all the gifts God has given you, including your singleness.
Seeking marriage is not wrong, but don’t let that search dominate your life. We must not make finding a marriage partner the supreme goal of our lives by putting all our energies into searching for a mate. We must learn to be in God’s will. A very wise person said, “There is something far worse than single loneliness, and that is marital misery.” Learn contentment, for it is great gain.
If God has a mate for you, He knows how to bring the two of you together. Don’t take things into your own hands.
Wherever you are, whatever your situation, use the time to grow both mentally and spiritually.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on May 31, 2023 4:36:48 GMT -8
MAY 31
DON’T ASK, DO
Genesis 6:22
According to all that God commanded [Noah], so he did.
Noah did “according to all that God commanded him, so he did” (Genesis 6:22). Therein lies the key and secret to Noah’s faith. When God told him to do something, he did it. He was a man who took God at His word. We have no record of Noah disagreeing with God or debating His instructions. He believed his salvation depended on God’s wisdom and good plan, and he chose to receive it and implement it just as God explained it.
For us to be saved and move ahead as men and women of faith, we have to do the same thing. God needs to know that we are not going to debate or disagree with Him. His Word to us becomes our command. You and I will likely never be in Noah’s position—the only person on earth who will obey God. But we need to live like it anyway. If we do, God will remember us the same way He remembered His friend Noah (Genesis 8:1).
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on Jun 1, 2023 4:29:01 GMT -8
JUNE 1
COME TO KNOW HIM
2 Timothy 2:12
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day.
We worship whom we trust, and we trust whom we know. We come to this level of faith because we build trust, and we build trust because we spend time with God. Do you remember the experience of getting to know your best friend—perhaps the person you married? You didn’t fully unburden your deepest thoughts because you didn’t know whether you could trust your new friend. Alas, there are lesser relationships with people who fall by the wayside because they betray our trust in some way. But your best friend was that person who redeemed your trust, and you confirmed it only through the time and tears of relationship.
The same principle holds true with God. You must come to know Him before you can really, truly, deeply trust Him. Then and only then will you be able to worship in spirit and in trust. Then and only then will you be able to say, in a twenty-first-century paraphrase of Habakkuk, “I may lose my work, my loved ones, and all that I own. Still I will love God all the more. Still I will praise Him with the loudest voice I can muster. And He will lift me up, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able.”
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on Jun 2, 2023 7:26:29 GMT -8
JUNE 2
THE POWER OF LIVING WATER
John 7:38–39
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit.
The greatest danger to any ancient city during a time of siege was not the enemy without; it was the lack of resources within. More often than not, when an army like the Assyrians attacked a walled city like Jerusalem, they would simply surround the city and wait for it to run out of food and water. Then, when the people were weak and desperate, the city could be taken almost without a fight. But Hezekiah made sure that would not happen to Jerusalem. He rerouted a spring of water outside the city walls so it flowed inside the walls of the city.
Interestingly, Jesus referred often to the Holy Spirit as the living water given by God to the believer which constitutes a secret, powerful resource in times of trouble. When you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, you possess a resource that can give you abundant life through the longest siege of the enemy. The enemy can camp at your doorstep for an indefinite period of time and it won’t matter to you. The Holy Spirit is your indwelling source of life.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on Jun 3, 2023 9:06:56 GMT -8
JUNE 3
PUT GOD FIRST
Psalm 88:13
To You I have cried out, O LORD, and in the morning my prayer comes before you.
I remember reading about a great prayer warrior, Andrew Murray, who said that sometimes he had so much to do, he had to add an extra hour to his prayers. As a flawed human being, I have often rushed through my day trying to accomplish my work without taking time to pray. Those are the times I get to the end of the day fatigued, frustrated, and with a sense of failure.
But if, by the discipline of my heart, I push my work aside and refuse to tackle it until I have met with God and hallowed His name, my work is energized. I don’t know how it happens, but it does. More things happen in less time. Better things happen that would not happen otherwise. I’m not a mystic, nor am I trying to read something into this that isn’t there. I’m just saying that when you put God first, God takes care of you. He takes care of the things you need.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on Jun 4, 2023 4:21:29 GMT -8
JUNE 4
NEVER TIRED
Isaiah 40:28
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary.
Everything that you and I do takes energy from us and causes our energy level to reduce. While there are some people who seem to have unlimited energy, nobody really does.
The older we get, the more we realize we can’t do some of the things we did when we were younger. But the power of God is never diminished. When He exercises His great power on behalf of anyone or anything, all of His power is still at the same level. He is never tired.
Isaiah said, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary” (Isaiah 40:28). You don’t need to wait and give God a chance to rest up. You can go to God at any time and know that all of His power is available to you.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on Jun 5, 2023 4:30:15 GMT -8
JUNE 5
GOD WORKS ALL THINGS FOR GOOD
Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
When President Roosevelt was in office a madman once took a shot at him, wounding the president in the arm. A steel glasses case, which the president kept in his breast pocket, deflected the bullet and saved his life. The funny thing is, President Roosevelt hated that glasses case. It was heavy and burdensome, and he had often complained about it. But in the process of God’s providence, the thing he hated saved his life.
Joseph’s is a similar story. Though at times Joseph may have hated his situation and wondered about God’s purposes, eventually his life was an example of the rule of God’s providence. God took the darkest events and used them as stepping stones to move Joseph into position. Even when Joseph couldn’t understand what God was doing, the Lord was still at work. God had been arranging the situation, even when it seemed like He was far away. In the end, Joseph realized God had worked all things out for good.
Joseph had it all in perspective. He saw that God was using even the evil things of this world to illustrate His providential work in the lives of men.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God (Nashville, TN: Integrity Publishers, 2002), 164.
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Post by Parker on Jun 6, 2023 4:46:50 GMT -8
JUNE 6
MEMORIALS OF GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
Exodus 3:15
This is My name forever; and this is My memorial to all generations.
God wants us to have memorials so we won’t forget. He preserved Noah and his family through the flood and then gave them the memorial of the rainbow. From that day on, we can look into the sky at a rainbow and remember how God delivered Noah and has promised never again to destroy the earth by water.
God gave the Israelites the ark of the covenant that they carried with them. Inside the ark were the Law that God had given to Moses on Mt. Sinai, the stone tablets to remember when God had given His people a code of conduct by which to live, and a little jar. The Bible says that inside that jar was some of the manna God had fed the people during their forty years of wandering. Why manna? It was another memorial to the fact that God can feed people right there in the desert where there were no restaurants.
The Lord was wise. He instituted memorials. Why? Because we have a tendency to forget. We need to remember that we have a God who has worked in the past, and because He has worked in the past, He is willing to work in the present.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on Jun 7, 2023 7:55:10 GMT -8
JUNE 7
GOD’S BEAUTY TREATMENT
Proverbs 31:30
Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
Americans spend billions of dollars every year on cosmetics, but the best beauty treatment isn’t found in a bottle, but in a book—the Bible. First Peter 3:3–5 says, “Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves.”
Little is said of the physical qualities of the woman in Proverbs 31, though we assume she had a pleasant appearance. It is her character that’s emphasized—her trustworthiness (v. 11), her hard work (v. 13), her business instincts (v. 16), her generosity (v. 20), her creativity (v. 22), her initiative (v. 24), and her strength (v. 25).
It’s not the makeup on her face but the make-up of her heart that makes her beautiful. We can’t all be fashion models, but we can all be fashioned by grace as models of our Lord Jesus Christ.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on Jun 8, 2023 5:19:13 GMT -8
JUNE 8
THE DANGER OF PROCRASTINATION
Luke 12:37
Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching.
Jesus tells a story of two slaves who work for an absentee master. One slave is good and faithful, and the other is
evil and faithless. The good slave represents believers who will be on the earth before the Lord’s return, while the evil servant represents unbelievers. Every person in the world holds his life, his possessions, and his abilities in trust from God, and they will all be held accountable to the Lord for what they have done with that trust. In the case of this evil servant, the dominant attitude is one of calloused procrastination. He doesn’t believe the master is going to come back anytime soon, so he has no motivation to cease doing evil. Christ’s words warn him to be careful because he doesn’t know the schedule.
A man told me not long ago that he wanted to become a Christian, but it wasn’t convenient for him right now. Well, because it wasn’t convenient for that man to accept Christ, it won’t be convenient for him to get into heaven.
There is going to be a day when that decision has to be made or it will no longer be available. If you haven’t trusted Him yet, why don’t you do it today? Receive Him as your Savior and your Lord.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on Jun 9, 2023 4:54:22 GMT -8
JUNE 9
A PARENT’S IMPACT
Luke 15:20
And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.
One writer I read said that the way parents treat their children in daily living has more impact on their children’s spiritual development than the family’s religious practices, including having a family altar, reading the Bible together, and attending church services regularly.
Parenting is a difficult job. But we need to remember that when the rebellious son in Luke 15 came to himself, he found a loving father waiting for him at home. That father had probably made mistakes in his parenting, but he did not stop loving either of his two sons—and the younger son, at least, knew it.
Sometimes the stress of parenting makes us want to stop loving and leave. But if we remain, and continue to love, we do more to negate the chances of rebellion in our children than anything we could ever do. May God help us to love our children as He loves us.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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Post by Parker on Jun 10, 2023 5:07:50 GMT -8
JUNE 10
LIKE RIDING A BIKE
Psalm2:12
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
Do you remember learning to ride a bicycle? It was a trust issue—nothing more, nothing less. There came a time when you had to take the training wheels off, place your feet on the pedals, and allow that bike to take flight down the street.
No textbook, no parental word of advice would accomplish the mission. But once you made the leap of faith—you never again lost the aptitude for bike riding. Why? Trust.
To experience the fullness of worship, we must trust the One we worship. And to trust Him, we must know Him. Have you ever felt as if you knew all the facts about God, but your prayers never passed the ceiling? Have you ever sung a hymn without being able to bring the words to life? Have you ever realized that your morning devotions have become a dry Bible study rather than a warm visit with your heavenly Father?
We need truth, and we need sound theology. The right information is essential. But above all else, we need relationship. Once we’ve come into His powerful and loving presence, we’ll never struggle to trust Him again—any more than we’ll have to take a refresher course in bike riding.
David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
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