Clarity Versus Trust -Daily New Life

Daily New Life

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. - Isaiah 50:10

When the philosopher and professor of ethics, John Kavanaugh, went to work for three months at the “house of the dying” in Calcutta, he was seeking an answer about how to spend the rest of his life. His first morning there he met Mother Teresa. She asked, “And what can I do for you?” Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him. “What do you want me to pray for?” she inquired.

He voiced his pressing burden: “Pray that I have clarity.” Mother Teresa firmly refused!  When the bewildered Kavanaugh asked why, she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.”

When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”

Are things in your life so clear that there’s no room to trust God?

“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. ” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Offerings -Parenting by Design

Parenting by Design

We may look at the things we do for God—going to church, tithing, Bible study—as favors to Him and expect Him to appreciate our sacrifices of time and money. A sense of entitlement may even develop as we expect Him to reward us. However, God doesn't need our sacrifices—He owns them already!

True worship recognizes that all things belong to God, including our time and our children. Every heartbeat is His gift. This perspective encourages us to make our offerings as true worship because we realize we have no claim on the things of this earth. It is only because of grace that we are able to have fellowship with Him and offer those gifts in the first place.

Don't be resentful for being called to give back to God; see it as a privilege and opportunity to express your love and faith.

What Is the Rapture? -Greg Laurie Daily Devotions

Greg Laurie Daily Devotions

One day, perhaps sooner than we expected, every person will enter into eternity. However, heaven is not the default destination of the nonbeliever; it is the hope of the person who has put his or her faith in Jesus Christ.

If you are a Christian, you will go to heaven and will get there in one of two ways: death or the Rapture.

Whenever the subject of the Rapture comes up, there are a lot of questions. Some critics like to point out that you won’t find the word “rapture” in the Bible. But that depends on what kind of Bible you have. If you have a Latin translation, then you have the word rapturous, from which our word “rapture” is derived. And the word rapturous comes from the Greek word harpazō, which is mentioned 13 times in the New Testament.

The most well-known verse that refers to the event we call the Rapture is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

That term, “caught up” is translated from that Greek word harpazō, which means to take forcibly, to snatch, or to catch up. And that is what the Rapture will be.

Imagine this: you will be going about your business one day when suddenly, in a moment that is so rapid it can’t even be measured in human time, you will be caught up into God’s presence, and you will be reunited with your loved ones. Best of all, you will be face-to-face with Jesus Himself.

Summary sentence: Are you ready for the Rapture?

Genuine Repentance - In Touch Daily Devotional

www.intouch.org

2 Corinthians 7:8-10

Because we desire to be more like Jesus, we make resolutions, ask Him to help us, and try to behave differently. Yet despite our best efforts to do things God's way, we slide back into old habits. Frustrated, we may ask Him, "Why can't I change?" The reason is, overcoming sinful attitudes and behaviors starts with genuine repentance, which has three aspects.

Conviction. The Holy Spirit will reveal the areas in which we've sinned and convict us of wrongdoing. Through Scripture, the Spirit shows us God's standard and what needs to change. Repentance begins with understanding where we have gone astray.

Contrition. The next step--grieving over our iniquity--is followed by confession to the Lord. Genuine sorrow arises from the knowledge that we've sinned against Him. In contrast, human unhappiness often comes from being caught misbehaving. Other times we are miserable because of where our choices led us, or feel shame that people know about our sin. True contrition is followed by humble confession.

Commitment to act.  Real repentance is complete when we wholeheartedly pledge to turn from our old behavior and move toward righteous ways. God knows we won't live perfectly, but He looks for a surrendered heart that diligently seeks to obey Him.

Paul used strong language when telling us to turn from iniquity: "Put to death... whatever belongs to your earthly nature" (Col. 3:5 niv). What sin are you struggling to overcome? Have you genuinely repented, committing to turn from it permanently? Let the Holy Spirit empower you to change.

The Destiny of the Wicked and of the Good

Psalm 37

Good News Translation (GNT)

37 Don't be worried on account of the wicked;
    don't be jealous of those who do wrong.
² They will soon disappear like grass that dries up;
    they will die like plants that wither.

³ Trust in the Lord and do good;
    live in the land and be safe.
⁴ Seek your happiness in the Lord,
    and he will give you your heart's desire.

⁵ Give yourself to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will help you;
⁶ he will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun.

⁷ Be patient and wait for the Lord to act;
    don't be worried about those who prosper
    or those who succeed in their evil plans.

⁸ Don't give in to worry or anger;
    it only leads to trouble.
⁹ Those who trust in the Lord will possess the land,
    but the wicked will be driven out.

¹⁰ Soon the wicked will disappear;
    you may look for them, but you won't find them;
¹¹ but the humble will possess the land
    and enjoy prosperity and peace.

¹² The wicked plot against good people
    and glare at them with hate.
¹³ But the Lord laughs at wicked people,
    because he knows they will soon be destroyed.

¹⁴ The wicked draw their swords and bend their bows
    to kill the poor and needy,
    to slaughter those who do what is right;
¹⁵ but they will be killed by their own swords,
    and their bows will be smashed.

¹⁶ The little that a good person owns
    is worth more than the wealth of all the wicked,
¹⁷ because the Lord will take away the strength of the wicked,
    but protect those who are good.

¹⁸ The Lord takes care of those who obey him,
    and the land will be theirs forever.
¹⁹ They will not suffer when times are bad;
    they will have enough in time of famine.
²⁰ But the wicked will die;
    the enemies of the Lord will vanish like wild flowers;
    they will disappear like smoke.

²¹ The wicked borrow and never pay back,
    but good people are generous with their gifts.
²² Those who are blessed by the Lord will possess the land,
    but those who are cursed by him will be driven out.

²³ The Lord guides us in the way we should go
    and protects those who please him.
²⁴ If they fall, they will not stay down,
    because the Lord will help them up.

²⁵ I am old now; I have lived a long time,
    but I have never seen good people abandoned by the Lord
    or their children begging for food.
²⁶ At all times they give freely and lend to others,
    and their children are a blessing.

²⁷ Turn away from evil and do good,
    and your descendants will always live in the land;
²⁸ for the Lord loves what is right
    and does not abandon his faithful people.
He protects them forever,
    but the descendants of the wicked will be driven out.
²⁹ The righteous will possess the land
    and live in it forever.

³⁰ The words of good people are wise,
    and they are always fair.
³¹ They keep the law of their God in their hearts
    and never depart from it.

³² Wicked people watch good people
    and try to kill them;
³³ but the Lord will not abandon them to their enemy's power
    or let them be condemned when they are on trial.

³⁴ Put your hope in the Lord and obey his commands;
    he will honor you by giving you the land,
    and you will see the wicked driven out.

³⁵ I once knew someone wicked who was a tyrant;
    he towered over everyone like a cedar of Lebanon;
³⁶ but later I passed by, and he wasn't there;
    I looked for him, but couldn't find him.

³⁷ Notice good people, observe the righteous;
    peaceful people have descendants,
³⁸ but sinners are completely destroyed,
    and their descendants are wiped out.

³⁹ The Lord saves the righteous
    and protects them in times of trouble.
⁴⁰ He helps them and rescues them;
    he saves them from the wicked,
    because they go to him for protection.

The Strangeness of God -Daily New Life

Daily New Life


The Strangeness of God

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” - Isaiah 55:8-9

Disruptive peace; majestic meekness; unsettling comfort – these phrases don’t seem to make sense.  But anyone who’s had a personal encounter with God understands that these apparent paradoxes come together in Him.

The Dean of the Chapel of Calvin College, wrote, “The faithful evangelical preacher of God ought to say not only that God is great and God is good, but also that God is elusive and God is strange…because spiritual health depends upon it.”

It’s dangerous to think we know God’s mind, God’s will, or God’s intentions. In fact, to fear God is, in part, to recognize that His ways are not our ways.  For certain, He’s revealed Himself to us in Jesus, and He revealed Himself in how He moved and worked through the lives and stories recorded in the Bible.  But He hasn’t revealed Himself exhaustively.  He hasn’t ceased to work in mysterious ways.  And that’s why we surrender to Him.  He’s greater than we can think or imagine and will work in strange ways—ways we can’t even think of or imagine.

”I have felt His hand upon me in great trials and submitted to His guidance, and I trust that as He shall further open the way, I will be ready to walk therein, relying on His help and trusting in His goodness and wisdom. ” -       Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

The Wise and Foolish Men- Time with God by John North

Matthew 7:24-27
Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.

 God’s word is the solid rock on which to build your life! Substitute your own name for “everyone” in Jesus’ words above and re-read today’s passage. Do you see God’s message to you today? Satan wants to get your attention away from God’s word. He wants to distract you with busyness, to consume you with fear over the future, to overwhelm you with the stress of your circumstances. But through all those things come the simple clear words of Scripture, reminding us of God’s great life principles and setting our course through the storm. Build your life on those principles and you will move peacefully through every storm, confident of God’s involvement in your life, confident to stand on His promises, confident that He is your mighty Rock.