Our Anchor
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Posted:Jun 16, 2015 3:49 am
Last Updated:Jun 17, 2015 2:21 am 33757 Views
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Read: Hebrews 6:13-20
Bible in a Year: Nehemiah 4.6; Acts 2:22-47
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. Hebrews 6:19
After Estella Pyfrom retired from teaching, she bought a bus, decked it out with computers and desks, and now drives the Brilliant Bus through Palm Beach County, Florida, providing a place for at-risk to do their homework and learn technology. Estella is providing stability and hope to who might be tempted to throw away their dream for a better tomorrow.
In the first century, an avalanche of suffering and discouragement threatened the Christian community. The author of Hebrews wrote to convince these followers of Christ not to throw away their confidence in their future hope (2:1). Their hope a faith in God for salvation and entrance into heaven was found in the person and sacrifice of Christ. When Jesus entered heaven after His resurrection, He secured their hope for the future (6.19-20). Like an anchor dropped at sea, preventing a ship from drifting away, Jesus death, resurrection, and return to heaven brought assurance and stability to the believers lives. This hope for the future cannot and will not be shaken loose.
Jesus anchors our souls, so that we will not drift away from our hope in God.
Jesus, in the face of all kinds of trouble and uncertainty, help me to have a confident expectation that is grounded in Your unfailing love for me.
Our hope is anchored in Jesus.
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LOOK UP!!!
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Posted:Jun 15, 2015 4:22 am
Last Updated:Jun 16, 2015 3:49 am 32320 Views
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Read: Psalm 121
Bible in a Year: Nehemiah 1.3; Acts 2:1-21
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121.2
In a park near our home there's a trail I enjoy walking on. Along one section there's a panoramic view of red sandstone rocks in the Garden of the Gods with the majestic 14,115-foot Pikes Peak behind them. From time to time, though, I find myself walking that section occupied with some problem and looking down at the wide, smooth trail. If no one is around, I may stop and say aloud, David, look up!
The psalms known as Songs of Ascents Ps. 120.134 were sung by the people of Israel as they walked the road up to Jerusalem to attend the three annual pilgrim festivals. Psalm 121 begins, âI will lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence comes my help? V. 1. The answer follows, My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth
v. 2. The Creator is not an aloof being, but a companion who is always with us, always awake to our circumstances vv. 3-7, guiding and guarding our journey through life from this time forth, and even forevermore v. 8.
Along life's path, how we need to keep our eyes fixed on God, our source of help. When we're feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, it's all right to say aloud, Look up!
I look up to You, Father, for You are the One who can help me. Thank You for the joys and trials in my life right now. Iâm grateful that I never walk alone.
Keep your eyes on God source of help.
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Don't Lose Heart
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Posted:Jun 12, 2015 1:46 am
Last Updated:Jun 13, 2015 9:38 am 31074 Views
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Read: Galatians 6.1-10
Bible in a Year: Ezra 3,5; John 20
In due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Galatians 6.9
Cooking can become tedious work when I do it three times a day, week after week. I get tired of peeling, cutting, slicing, mixing, and then waiting for food to bake, grill, or boil. But eating is never tedious! It's actually something we truly enjoy even though we do it day after day.
Paul used the illustration of sowing and reaping because he knew that doing good can be tiring (Gal. 6.7-10). He wrote, Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart (v.9). It's difficult to love our enemies, discipline our , or pray without ceasing. However, reaping the good we have sown isn't tedious! What a joy when we do get to see love conquering strife, or following God's ways, or answers to prayer.
While the cooking process can take hours, my family usually finishes a meal in 20 minutes or less. But the reaping that Paul talks about will be eternal. As we have the opportunity, let's do what is good and wait for the blessings in God's timing. Don't lose heart today as you go about following God's ways. Remember that joy is guaranteed for more than a lifetime.
Dear Lord, help me not to become weary of doing good today. I'm thankful that some day I will be with You for a joy-filled eternity!
Keep running the race with eternity in view.
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Strength in Stillness
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Posted:Jun 11, 2015 2:01 am
Last Updated:Jun 12, 2015 1:35 pm 31227 Views
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Read: Exodus 14:10-14
Bible in a Year: Ezra 1.2; John 19:23-42
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Isaiah 30.15
Early in my Christian life the demands of commitment made me wonder if I could make it past a year without returning to my old sinful ways. But this Scriptur verse helped me: The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still Exod. 14.14 . These are the words Moses spoke to the Israelites when they had just escaped from slavery in Egypt and were being pursued by Pharaoh. They were discouraged and afraid.
As a young believer, with temptations engulfing my world, this call to be still encouraged me. Now, some 37 years later, remaining still and calm while trusting Him in the midst of stress-laden situations has been a constant desire for my Christian living.
Be still, and know that I am God, the psalmist says Ps. 46.10. When we remain still, we get to know God, our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble v. 1. We see our weakness apart from God and recognize our need to surrender to Him. When I am weak, then I am strong,says the apostle Paul 2 Cor. 12.10.
Daily we grind through stress and other frustrating situations. But we can trust that He will be faithful to His promise to care for us. May we learn to be still.
Sometimes the hectic demands on your day can crowd out your time with God. Find out how you can develop a regular time of Bible reading and prayer. Read In His Presence
The Lord may calm your storm, but more often He'll calm you.
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The Unlikely
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Posted:Jun 10, 2015 4:12 am
Last Updated:Jun 11, 2015 2:01 am 30929 Views
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Read: 1 Corinthians 1.25-31
Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 34.36; John 19.1-22
God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. 1 Corinthians 1.27
Fanny Kemble was a British actress who moved to America in the early 1800s and married a southern plantation owner named Pierce Butler. Fanny enjoyed the life afforded by the wealth of the plantation, until she saw the cost of that luxury a cost paid by the slaves who worked her husband's plantations.
Having written a memoir of the cruel treatment slaves often suffered, Kemble was eventually divorced from her husband. Her writings were widely circulated among abolitionists and published in 1863 as Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838.1839. Because of her opposition to slavery, the former wife of a slave owner became known as The Unlikely Abolitionist.
In the body of Christ, God often wonderfully surprises us. He regularly uses the unlikely people and circumstances to accomplish His purposes. Paul wrote, But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen
1 Cor. 1.27-28.
This reminds us that God, in His grace, can use anyone. If we will allow His work to be done in us, we might be surprised at what He can do through us!
How will you let God use you today?
God desires willing hearts ready to be used.
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Deceptive Currents
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Posted:Jun 9, 2015 4:20 am
Last Updated:Jun 9, 2015 4:24 am 31017 Views
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Read: Deuteronomy 8.11-20
Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 32.33; John 18.19-40
When they had pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted. Hosea 13.6
In his book The Hidden Brain, science writer Shankar Vedantam describes the day he went for a leisurely swim. The water was calm and clear, and he felt strong and proud for covering a long distance so easily. He decided to swim out of the bay and into open water. But when he tried to return he couldn't make any progress. He had been deceived by the current. The ease of swimming had not been due to his strength but to the movement of the water.
In our relationship with God something similar can happen. Going with the flow can lead us to believe we're stronger than we are. When life is easy, our minds tell us that it's due to our own strength. We become proud and self-confident. But when trouble hits, we realize how little strength we have and how helpless we are.
This happened with the Israelites. God would bless them with military success, peace, and prosperity. But thinking they had achieved it on their own, they would then become proud and self-sufficient Deut. 8.11-12. Assuming that they no longer needed God, they would go their own way until an enemy attacked and they would realize how powerless they were without God's help.
When life is going well we too need to beware of self-deception. Pride will take us where we do not want to go. Only humility will keep us where we ought to be grateful to God and dependent on His strength.
Lord, we don't dare trust in our own strength to do our tasks today. You are the Giver of our talents and opportunities. Help us use them not for our own advancement, but to help others.
True humility credits God for every success.
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On A Hill Far Away
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Posted:Jun 8, 2015 1:55 am
Last Updated:Jun 9, 2015 4:05 am 31050 Views
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Read: Genesis 22.1-12
Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 30.31; John 18.1-18
Take now your , your only Isaac, whom you love. Genesis 22.2
I often find myself thinking back to the years when my were young. One particular fond memory is our morning wake-up routine. Every morning I'd go into their bedrooms, tenderly call them by name, and tell them that it was time to get up and get ready for the day.
When I read that Abraham got up early in the morning to obey God's command, I think of those times when I woke up my and wonder if part of Abraham's daily routine was going to Isaac's bed to waken him and how different it would have been on that particular morning. How heart-rending for Abraham to waken his that morning!
Abraham bound his and laid him on an altar, but then God provided an alternate sacrifice. Hundreds of years later, God would supply another sacrifice the final sacrifice His own . Think of how agonizing it must have been for God to sacrifice His , His only whom He loved! And He went through all of that because He loves you.
If you wonder whether you are loved by God, wonder no more.
Lord, I am amazed that You would love me so much that You would sacrifice Your for me. Teach me to live gratefully in the embrace of Your unfailing love.
God has already proven His love for you.
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What We Do
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Posted:Jun 5, 2015 1:38 am
Last Updated:Jun 5, 2015 1:39 am 31141 Views
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Read: Philippians 3.7-17
Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 23.24; John 15
One thing I do . . . I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3.13-14
When Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert died, a fellow journalist wrote of him: With all his notoriety, honors, and celebrity, all his exclusive interviews and star-dusted encounters with movie greats, Ebert never forgot the essence of what we do review movies. And he reviewed them with an infectious zeal and probing intellect
The apostle Paul never forgot the essence of what God wanted him to be and do. Focus and enthusiasm were at the heart of his relationship with Christ. Whether he was reasoning with philosophers in Athens, experiencing shipwreck in the Mediterranean, or being chained to a Roman soldier in prison, he focused on his calling to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings and to teach about Him Phil. 3.10.
While he was in prison, Paul wrote, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus 3.13-14. Whatever his circumstances, Paul continually pressed forward in his calling as a disciple of Christ.
May we always remember the essence, the heart, of who we are called to be and what we are called to do as followers of Jesus.
Father, may I be willing to do what I can with all that I have, wherever I am.
Paul was in earnest over one thing only, and that was his relationship to Jesus Christ. Oswald Chambers
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My Father Is With Me
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Posted:Jun 4, 2015 1:23 am
Last Updated:Jun 4, 2015 1:26 am 29760 Views
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Read: Mark 14.32-50
Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 21.22; John 14
You will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. John 16.32
A friend struggling with loneliness posted these words on her Facebook page: It's not that I feel alone because I have no friends. I have lots of friends. I know that I have people who can hold me and reassure me and talk to me and care for me and think of me. But they can't be with me all the time for all time.
Jesus understands that kind of loneliness. I imagine that during His earthly ministry He saw loneliness in the eyes of lepers and heard it in the voices of the blind. But above all, He must have experienced it when His close friends deserted Him Mark 14.50.
However, as He foretold the disciples desertion, He also confessed His unshaken confidence in His Father's presence. He said to His disciples: [You] will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me John 16.32. Shortly after Jesus said these words, He took up the cross for us. He made it possible for you and me to have a restored relationship with God and to be a member of His family.
Being humans, we will all experience times of loneliness. But Jesus helps us understand that we always have the presence of the Father with us. God is omnipresent and eternal. Only He can be with us all the time, for all time.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your promise that You will never leave me or forsake me. When I feel lonely, help me to remember You are always with me.
If you know Jesus, you'll never walk alone.
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Something New
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Posted:Jun 3, 2015 3:27 am
Last Updated:Jun 3, 2015 3:29 am 26570 Views
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Read: Ephesians 2.10-22
Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 19.20; John 13.21-38
We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2.10
It was only scrap wood, but Charles Hooper saw much more than that. Salvaging old timbers from a long-abandoned corncrib, he sketched some simple plans. Then he felled a few oak and poplar trees from his wooded property and painstakingly squared them with his grandfather's broadax. Piece by piece, he began to fit together the old lumber with the new.
Today you can see Charles and Shirley Hooper's postcard-perfect log cabin, tucked away in the trees on Tennessee Ridge. Part guesthouse, part museum for family heirlooms, the structure stands as an enduring tribute to Charles vision, skill, and patience.
Writing to a Gentile audience, Paul told the church at Ephesus how Jesus was creating something new by bringing together Jewish and non-Jewish believers as a single entity. You who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, Paul wrote Eph. 2.13. This new structure was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord
vv. 20-21.
The work continues today. God takes the brokenness of our lives, artfully fits us together with other broken and rescued people, and patiently chips away our rough edges. He loves His work, you know.
Lord, we can't thank You enough for Your passionate love for us. Help us to see that You bring us together in this beautiful body of believers known as Your church.
Our rough edges must be chipped away to bring out the image of Christ.
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