Monthly Archives: March 2014

The Devil’s Future

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“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”1

A friend shared with me her way of handling the deceiver-tempter: “When Satan comes to remind me about my past, I remind him about his future.”

One thing Satan does is continually accuse us before God.2 Knowing that he does this, we can remind him not only about his future in hell but also that Christ shed his blood on the cross and gave his life to pay for our sins and has washed them all away. So what’s there to accuse us of if we have confessed our sins to Christ and asked for and accepted his forgiveness?

Furthermore, because Christ died for us and cleansed us from our sins, we can, in Jesus’ name resist the devil and, as James said, he will flee from us. Satan hates the name of Jesus. Be sure to mention it when he comes to tempt you.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that You forgive all who confess their sins and ask for Your forgiveness. Help me always to resist the devil in Jesus’ name, knowing that he will flee from me and has no power over me. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. James 4:7.
2. Rev. 12:10.

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The Race

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“The race is not to the swift.”1

Some time ago Our Daily Bread asked the question, “Do you remember the tortoise and the hare in Aesop’s Fables? The hare boasted that he was the swiftest animal in the forest. When he challenged the others to a race, only the tortoise dared to try. To the hare, it seemed an unfair contest, since he would win easily.

“But off they started, with the tortoise soon trailing far behind. On the way, the hare decided there was time for a nap, but the tortoise kept plodding along. When the hare awoke, he couldn’t see the tortoise anywhere, so he laughed and said, ‘He still hasn’t caught up with me!’ But as he ran toward the finish line, he saw the tortoise crossing it. Slowly and steadily, the tortoise had won!”

In the Christian life it can be easy to start well or to “keep the faith” when all is going well. But to keep hanging in through the bad times as well as the good, and be there or the long haul takes a genuine commitment that is based on a deep belief that, no matter what happens, Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, and that my life is in his hands. As Job so aptly expressed his feelings in the midst of his despair, “Though he [God] slay me, yet will I trust him.”2

“The race is not to the swift but to those who keep on running!”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to be like the persistent ‘tortoise’ in my faith and give me the courage, like Paul, to ‘strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us.’3 Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Ecclesiastes 9:11.

2. Job 13:15.

3. Philippians 3:14 (TLB).

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Quarreling and Strife

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“Then Abram said to Lot, ‘Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herders and my herders; for we are kindred.’”1

There is a legend from Greek mythology that the god Hercules was once walking along a narrow road when a strange-looking creature appeared threateningly in front of him. Hercules struck this creature with his club and passed on, but soon afterwards was surprised to be confronted by this same creature, only now three times as large. Hercules struck it again and again and each time it grew in size until finally it completely blocked the road. Then the goddess Pallas Athena appeared to Hercules and told him to stop. “The monster is called Strife,” she said. “Let it alone, and it will soon become as small as it was at first.”

All quarreling and strife will certainly return to manageable proportions and ultimately cease if one of the quarrelers lets it alone. One is either a peacemaker or one is a “stirrer”—determined to keep the argument going for the sake of personal gain or satisfaction.

Take Abraham. His herdsmen quarreled, and he and Lot might have quarreled too, had not Abraham taken the wise course and ended it. “Lot,” he said, “this won’t do. Let there be no strife between you and me or between my herdsmen and yours, for we are all brothers.” And then he became the generous mediator and told Lot that he could have the best land in the east, if that was what he wanted. It was wise to separate the two groups and it was generous of Abraham to give Lot first choice. As an elder he could have dictated the terms but he was above meanness and was blessed as a result.

Abraham was above personal gain, he did not seek after flocks and herds, silver and gold, servants or the best land. God was sought first; other things were added. Lot, on the other hand, couldn’t keep his eyes off the fertile plain of Sodom. He wanted it; then he wanted more; he got it; then lost it all.

NOTE: Today’s devotional was written by Pastor Ron Clark of Tasmania, Australia.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me not to be greedy for personal gain and material possessions but always seek to put You first and be a peacemaker rather than a strife-maker. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Genesis 13:8 (RSV).

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God’s Guardian Angels

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“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”1

As told by Pastor Gunderson of First Baptist Church of Pomona, California: A missionary who was serving in a remote area of Africa made a monthly journey to a city two days bike ride away to pick up supplies and medicine.

On one of his many journeys he came across two men who were fighting, one of whom was severely injured. The missionary stopped to help the injured man. After treating him, he continued on his way.

Sometime later in the village a man came to him and said, “You probably don’t remember me but I was one of the men who was fighting when you stopped to help.

The missionary said he remembered the incident and the man told him. “We were going to rob you on one of your trips. We knew you always carried cash and medicine and were unarmed. When we came to rob you, I had three friends with me. We saw where you camped and put your bike down, but you had 26 armed guard all around you so we weren’t able to robe you.

The missionary said, “That’s impossible. I always travel alone and have no armed guards of any kind.” The man said, “Oh yes, my friends and I each counted 26 men, heavily armed standing around you while you slept.”

When the missionary visited his home church back in Michigan, he related this story to the church family. A man in the congregation stood up and asked, “What time and what day did this happen?” The missionary told him the date and that it was a Saturday night.

The man said, “It was night there but it was Saturday morning here. I was loading my golf clubs in my car. I was on my way to the golf course and the Holy Spirit impressed on me so heavily that I needed to pray for you that I took my clubs out of my car and called men from church and we came together and earnestly prayed for you. He then said, “I would like to ask each one of these men who prayed with me that Saturday morning to stand up. As they stood, each one in the church counted 26 men standing!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You that angels are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation—those who are true followers of Jesus. May I always be mindful of and extremely thankful for this God-given ministry and blessing. And thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

Hebrews 1:14 (NIV).

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The Affliction to Give Advice

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“Yet we hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business.”1

In much younger and far less experienced days, I recall how a psychologist friend described some people as being “cursed with the affliction to give advice.” At that time I had no idea what he meant.

Today, however, perhaps a “nicer” way to describe these people is that they can be very officious. According to Google, being officious basically means to be intrusive in a meddling or offensive way, marked by excessive eagerness in offering unwanted [or unsolicited] services or advice to others. It means generally … sticking your nose in places where it’s not wanted.”

The Australians have an interesting saying for people who stick their nose into other people’s business and that is, they are being “sticky beaks!”

Certainly the Bible doesn’t use slang terms, but it does make it clear that we are not to meddle in other people’s business. This doesn’t mean that we are not to give help where help is needed and requested, but it does mean we are not to give unsolicited advice or help when such is not wanted. Actually, for me to give you unsolicited and unwanted advice is basically a “put down” in that I am implying that I know more about your situation than you know, and that I know better about what you need to do than you know. This is rather presumptuous to put it mildly.

Furthermore, it is important that we don’t do for others what they are quite capable of and need to for themselves. Doing this for others keeps them over-dependent on us and both of us immature. Be assured too, that neither will God do for us what he has already equipped us to do for ourselves.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me not to be a ‘sticky-beak’ by meddling in other peoples’ business but just to be available if my help is requested and genuinely needed. In all such situations, please help me to be ‘as Jesus’ to the person in need. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. 2 Thessalonians 3:11 (NLT).

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In the Broken Places

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“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me [Jesus], because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”1

I believe it was Ernest Hemingway who coined the phrase “growing strong in the broken places.” When a bone is broken, for example, the calcium buildup that “welds” the bone together makes that the strongest part of the bone.

When our life is committed to God and we bring our broken parts to him for healing, we, too, become strong in the broken places.

Another aspect on being broken is in the words of Vance Havner who said, “God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume . . . it is Peter, weeping bitterly [after his failure of denying Jesus], who returns to greater power than ever.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me the courage to face every ‘broken part’ in my life and bring these to You for Your healing and lead me to the help I need for full recovery. Grant that I, too, will grow strong in the broken places and be used by You to be a blessing and encouragement to others. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Jesus (Luke 4:18).

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Little Foxes

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“Catch the foxes for us, The little foxes that are ruining the vineyards, While our vineyards are in blossom.”1

Today in the Word shared how “researchers who had made repeated dives to the wreckage of the Titanic challenged the accepted theory that an iceberg tore a 300-foot gash in the side of the ship. The ship’s bow is mired in mud, but the team ‘looked’ at the hull using sound waves. They concluded that the damage is ‘astonishingly small,’ just six small gashes along the starboard hull. Unfortunately, the openings were made at the worst possible place, along six watertight holds.”

Little things can do great damage: a little lie here, a little cheating there, a little stealing, a little gossip, and/or a little unresolved conflict—like a little gash in a mighty ship—can open a floodgate of damage somewhere down the track.

Any holes in your life? Any in mine? Let’s not neglect them. Let’s get smart and, with God’s help, take care of them today—before they sink us.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to see the ‘little’ things in my life that, if I fail to resolve them now, they may ‘burn out of control’ farther down the line. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Song of Solomon 2:15 (NASB).

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Miracles Not Magic

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“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”1

A few years ago I snapped my right Achilles tendon and was in a cast and on crutches for six weeks. After the cast was off I was anxious to get active again. Soon afterwards, when riding my bicycle, I got off my bike to safely walk across a busy street on the green light. When I stepped off the pavement, suddenly a car swung around the corner from my left without stopping. I got a fright and jumped out of the way—and snapped the same tendon again. Not fun.

True, it was unfortunate that this happened, but the fact is I really hadn’t given myself quite enough time to heal properly before getting out on my bicycle.

Sometimes, when we pray for healing of a sickness, we want God to heal us without taking into account our responsibility in the matter. When we do this, we are looking more for magic than a miracle. As David Seamands put it, “I believe in miracles but not magic.”

Furthermore, often we skip one of the fundamental requirements for healing. Many ills—physical, emotional, relational and/or spiritual—are caused or greatly aggravated by unresolved super-charged repressed negative emotions such as anger, resentment, bitterness, anxiety, stress, unconfessed sin, guilt, grief, fears, a failure to forgive and so on. These issues can and do cause many ills and, if unresolved, block healing.

Whenever I get sick, I always ask God to show me if there is anything in my life that may either be causing or making my sickness worse.

I was talking to a man yesterday who has major physical ills. It was quite apparent that he was a very angry man. It sure made me wonder. As Henry Cloud and John Townsend like to say, “God is merciful. When we have unresolved problems, he gives us symptoms.”

If we want to be healed, it pays to do it God’s way. Confession is a major key for considerable healing and greatly improved health.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me always to be honest with myself and with You, see all of my unresolved problems, admit when I have sinned, and confess these both to You and to a trusted pastor, priest, counselor or friend—and thereby receive forgiveness and healing. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. James 5:15 (NIV).

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Consequences

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“But if you fail to do this [commands God gave to the ancient Israelites when he commissioned them to conquer the Promised Land], you will be sinning against the Lord; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.”1

I read some time ago in A Slice of Bread about “some Boeing employees on the field who decided to steal a life raft from one of the 747s. They were successful in getting it out of the plane and home. They forgot about one thing—the raft comes with an emergency locator that is automatically activated when the raft is inflated. So, when they took the raft out for a float on the Stillaguamish River, they were quite surprised by a Coast Guard helicopter homing in on the emergency locator that was activated the moment they inflated the raft.

“They are no longer Boeing employees.”

In a very real way when we sin we too are eventually found out, and it isn’t God who punishes us. Like the Boeing employees we bring the punishment on ourselves. God has given us a moral law for our protection. When we break it, we end up breaking ourselves. God’s moral law is just as universal as is the law of gravity—another law given for our protection. If it weren’t for this law, the universe would not hang together and you and I would be flung out into outer space. If we try to defy this law, it’s not God or gravity that breaks us—we break ourselves by trying to defy it.

It’s the same with God’s moral law. Breaking this law separates us from a holy God. Its ultimate end is spiritual death—which is not the cessation of life but eternal separation from God, the author of all love and life. Whatever hell is, it will be hell! It’s not that God sends us there. If we fail to accept his free pardon for our breaking the moral law, in reality, we send ourselves there.

Fortunately, because God loves us so much, he has provided a way of escape. It was through the death of his Son, Jesus Christ, who paid the ransom price for our sins. So whatever you do, don’t fail to accept God’s total pardon for all your sins and his gift of eternal life. This is your Passport for Heaven. Don’t leave earth without it!

For help, click on http://tinyurl.com/dm472.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You for giving Your Son, Jesus, and thank You, Jesus, for dying on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins. Please come into my heart and life as my personal Lord and Savior. Please help me to live for You and love others as You do. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

Again, for further help be sure to click on the link above the prayer.

1. Numbers 32:23 (NIV).

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Fly With the Eagles

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“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”1

A friend of mine has trouble with Japanese bonsai trees because she sees tiny trees with great potential inhibited because they have been root-bound by man. Others have trouble seeing animals and birds trapped in cages for the same reason. For example, how do eagles feel in cages in zoos? These magnificent birds, designed to soar to the heights of mountaintops, do they get frustrated? Are they fulfilled?

Too many of us, who were also designed to reach our total God-given human and spiritual potential, are trapped in a cage of our own or of another’s making. We fail to resolve the problems in our life that hold us back. True, we may have been wounded in the past, but God wants us to be healed, to be made whole, to be free to fly, and to soar like the eagles.

We have a choice: we can “scratch in the dirt with the turkeys” or we can wait (seek after and hope in) the Lord God and rise up to fly with the eagles to the heights that God envisioned for us to reach.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to wait on You to renew my strength so that, with Your help, I will see my God-given life purpose and ‘fly’ to reach the full potential You have planned for me to achieve. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Isaiah 40:31 (TLB).

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