2020-06-25
1 Peter 2:2 NAS
Daily Bible study is essential to your spiritual growth. Professor Howard Hendricks writes: “When our kids were youngsters growing up, we set up a growth chart on the back of a closet door. As they grew, they begged us to measure how tall they’d gotten and record it on the chart. It didn’t matter how small the increments were, they bounced up and down with excitement to see their progress. One time after I measured one of my daughters, she asked me the sort of question you wish kids wouldn’t ask: ‘Daddy, why do big people stop growing?’ How could I explain that big people don’t stop growing – we just grow in a different direction? I don’t know what I told her, but to this day the Lord is still asking me, ‘Hendricks, are you growing old, or are you growing up?'” How about you? How long have you been a Christian? Nine months? Thirty-nine years? The real issue is how much have you grown up? Step up to God’s growth chart and measure your progress. That’s what the apostle Peter meant when he wrote, ‘Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.’ Just as a baby grabs for the bottle, you grab for the Bible. The baby has to have milk to sustain its life physically; and you have to have the Scriptures to sustain your life spiritually. So the first reason for studying the Scriptures is that it’s a means of spiritual growth. It is God’s primary tool to develop you as an individual.”
Soul food: Hosea 11-14; Luke 2:34-40; Ps 21; Prov 14:17-20
2020-06-24
Luke 19:8 NIV
Zacchaeus got rich by taking more taxes from people than his Roman masters demanded, and pocketing the difference. But after he met Jesus, he said, “If I have cheated people…I will give them back four times as much!” (NLT). Consequently, Jesus said, “Salvation has come to this home today” (v. 9 NLT). Integrity isn’t about regret, or seeking to minimize painful consequences, or attempting to do damage control. It’s about honest repentance, making amends, and living in a way that guarantees you’ll do things differently in the future. Writing about integrity, one pastor says: “People look around them at promiscuity, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, and mourn its passing. They see officials taking bribes, business leaders demanding kickbacks, investors parlaying inside information into untold wealth, and they lament the demise of integrity. They read about battered wives, jobless husbands, and abused children, and wonder what happened to caring.” The Bible says, “The integrity of the upright shall guide them” (Proverbs 11:3 KJV). Rebuilding your integrity means humbly acknowledging that sometimes your thoughts aren’t fit to print, or that you’ve hurt someone and need to make things right. It’s estimated that 50 percent of American Christians cheat on their tax returns; that’s roughly the same percentage as those who don’t claim to follow Christ! Integrity is who you are when nobody’s looking. Job said, “Does He not see my ways…If I have walked with falsehood, or if my foot has hastened to deceit, let me be weighed on honest scales, that God may know my integrity” (Job 31:4-6 NKJV). Starting today, rebuild your integrity.
Soul food: Hosea 6-10; Luke 2:21-33; Ps 17; Prov 14:13-16
2020-06-23
Proverbs 4:27 NLT
Many of us fail, not because we aren’t talented, determined, or passionate, but because we get “sidetracked.” God told the prophet Habakkuk, “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it “(Habakkuk 2:2 NKJV). Unless you have a clearly defined goal and keep it before you at all times, you won’t run in the direction you should. As motivational speaker and author Sam Horn said: “It’s hard to stay on purpose, if we don’t know what our purpose is.” In his book One Big Thing, Phil Cooke writes: “I’ve never been a fan of the person who invented the ‘open door policy.’ Sure, we want to be accessible to employees and coworkers, but at some point it’s time to shut the door and get to work. After your next interruption by a visitor, make a note of how long it takes to get back to your previous level of intensity and focus. You’ll be shocked at how much time that steals from your day…Too often other people’s needs come before our dream. Obviously we need to care for our children, honor our spouses, and deal with our primary responsibilities around our families or jobs. But the first step in achieving our dream is to take responsibility for it. That means scheduling it, and ‘unscheduling’ the lesser needs of coworkers and friends. These daily commitments chip away at our time, and before long our dream gets lost in the shuffle. Stop doing what other people think is urgent, and start focusing on what matters to you” [and to God!].
Soul food: Hosea 1-5; Luke 2:8-20; Ps 8; Prov 14:9-12
2020-06-22
Psalm 118:5 NKJV
At age twenty-six, Thomas started a publishing company and founded the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses in America. He worked with some of the greatest singers in the history of Gospel music, including Mahalia Jackson. But one night after singing to a Saint Louis audience, he was handed a telegram that said, “Your wife just died.” She had passed away in childbirth. Thomas hurried back home to Chicago, where his newborn son died the following day. He plunged into depression, avoided people, and grew angry with God. “I felt God had done me an injustice. I didn’t want to serve Him anymore or write Gospel songs.” Then a friend took him to a neighbourhood music school. That evening Thomas sat down at a piano and began to play…and pray. He poured out his heart to God, and what wonderful words they were: “Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, let me stand, I am tired, I am weak, I am worn; through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light: Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.” Thomas A. Dorsey testified that the Lord healed him that night as he sat at the piano. He went on to pen more than a thousand songs and become one of the most influential Christian songwriters of all time. All because he reached out to God for help. The psalmist did that too: “I called on the Lord in distress, and the Lord answered me.” So the word for you today is – turn to God; He will not disappoint you.
Soul food: 2 Kings 24-25; Luke 2:1-7; Ps 144:9-15; Prov 14:5-8
2020-06-21
1 John 5:14 NIV
Sometimes we pray “Just” prayers. We say, “Lord, we just ask you to protect us, or provide for us…If you’d just help us in this situation, we’d be so thankful.” It’s as if we are saying, “Lord, I hate to bother You with this, but…” It sounds humble, but in reality it demonstrates a lack of faith and confidence in approaching God. Plus it’s not scriptural. The Bible says, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16 NIV). “If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him” (1 John 3:21-22 NIV). “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15 NIV). “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory…forever and ever” (Ephesians 3:20-21 NKJV). “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 NIV). As a redeemed child of God, you can approach your loving heavenly Father with confidence, knowing that whatever you need, He will provide it – and much more!
Soul food: Acts 4:8-12; Acts 16:22-34; Matt 1:18-21
2020-06-20
Judges 16:22 NKJV
With regard to Samson, the Bible tells us, “The hair of his head began to grow again.” The process of renewal was starting. Samson repented, God gave him back his strength, and he ended his life with an inspiring act of heroism. Maybe you feel like you’ve messed up so badly that God will never love you and use you again – but remember Samson! God never gave up on him, and He hasn’t given up on you. He sees your potential and remembers why He made you: You were created for great things. It’s only as you move into the center of God’s will that you discover why you were made. When you do, things will begin to fall back into place. There is something very encouraging about Samson. He’s included in God’s hall of fame – the panorama of people of great faith detailed in Hebrews 11. Why? Because God can take a person who seems like a total failure and use them to accomplish great things. If He only used people who were perfect, nothing would ever get done. Instead, He uses ordinary people with weaknesses, who sometimes fail in big ways. So what should you do if you’re a Samson? Turn your life over to the Lord. Give Him all the pieces and let Him put them together. He can give you the power to break loose from the things that are tying you down and preventing Him from working in your life. Only God knows your potential, and you will never bring it out on your own. He must do it in His strength – so let Him start today!
Soul food: 2 Kings 21-23; Luke 1:67-80; Ps 144:1-8; Prov 14:1-4
