This father’s day I think of my twin brother who, though he already had two sons following in their dad’s footsteps, later married a lady with three children and raised them all with as much love and care. To them all, he was their gentle giant called Dad.
The scripture for today, June 16 (6/16), is Jeremiah 6:16 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”
We need history, not only for an appreciation of what our forefathers did for us but also to learn which mistakes not to make all over again. This is true with religion also. There are hundreds of denominations and religions out there. This divisiveness hurts us. It seems the more denominations and religions we have, the fewer people are interested in spiritual things. They call it “organized religion”.
Within Christianity, think about creeds for a moment. If a creed is less than the Bible, it isn’t enough. If it is more than the Bible, it is too much. If it is the same as the Bible, why have it? Let us change our loyalties away from denominationalism and toward the Bible. All this confusion is exhausting!
Human nature has always been the same, and the Bible written long ago applies just as much to human nature today as it did then. Proverbs! The life and speeches of Jesus! The many mistakes made by people in the Old Testament! The advice to Christians in the New Testament!
It’s not confusing. And maybe then, we will find rest for our souls.
TITUS: THE ARISTOCRAT was raised in the elite city of Antioch (according to tradition). When he was converted to Christianity, Paul sent him everywhere to arbitrate problems between Christians and problems in churches. He was a “smooth operator” and knew how to make both sides feel they won while staying true to the one path of truth. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this: https://amzn.to/2MRwnmn
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The scripture for today, June 15 (6/15), is 1st Timothy 6:15 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“…which God will bring about in his own time ~ God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords!”
But it’s hard to know just when God’s time is. You may think it is when an opportunity arises, but something happens and it doesn’t turn out. So later another opportunity arises, but something happens there too and it still doesn’t turn out.
This verse can carry you from hope to hope from discouragement to discouragement. That is because you cannot see what God sees.
Your life is like a line drawn across a piece of paper, and you have to stay on that line. But God looks down and can see the entire line at once, and he can also see everything going on around you. Those other events may not be good for you to become involved in. There may never be a time when events around you will be good for you.
Rather than give up on God and decide he doesn’t really love you as he claims, amidst your tears of disappointment, stretch your spirit and praise him anyway. Acknowledge him. Then rest until his own time, whether it be soon or in eternity.
A CHILD’S BIBLE HEROES: God put JOSEPH IN EGYPT just in time to save his people and Egypt from starvation. Joseph didn’t think like that when he was in prison. God put MOSES IN EGYPT just in time to save his people from slavery. He didn’t think like that when he was exiled from his people. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this for JOSEPH: https://amzn.to/2WM5W5R and this for MOSES: https://amzn.to/2WICjCy
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The scripture for today, June 14 (6/14), is Numbers 6:14 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“There he is to present his offerings to the Lord…a year-old ewe lamb without defect for a sin offering…. “
A lot of people don’t understand what Jesus dying on a cross has to do with going to heaven. Romans 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.” ~ both physical and soul death. It is Satan who pays us our wages. In Old Testament times, God intervened and arranged for people to kill a perfect animal in their place whenever they sinned to satisfy Satan’s bloodthirst. But it was only a temporary fix because it is impossible for us to be sinless ~ without defect.
Finally, God the Word came to earth as a human, and John the Baptist called him the Lamb of God (John 1:29). Jesus was perfect and without defect; that is, he never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). Then he took the wages of sin from Satan and died as the perfect Lamb of God in our place ~ both physically (separation from people on earth) and spiritually (separation from God the Father). After Satan released his hold on mankind, Jesus even went a step further and miraculously came back to life!
Then God said, “If you’ll believe and imitate Jesus, I will consider your debt paid in full and consider you perfect too (Romans 6). Then I’ll bring you back to life in heaven.” How amazing!
And, by the way, since he came back to life on Sunday, that’s what makes Sunday so special. It’s an I’m-sorry-you-had-to-die-for-my-sins Day. It’s the “Do-this-in-remembrance-of-me” Lord’s Supper Day. It’s the Gratitude Day.
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The scripture for today, June 13 (6/13), is Judges 6:13f as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
” ‘But sir,’ Gideon replied, ‘if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about? .But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us in the hand of Midian [enemies].’ The Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have.’ “
How dynamic! When you feel trapped, God says, “Go.” When you feel paralyzed, God says, “Go.” When you feel hopeless, God says, “Go.”
Sometimes you spend your time concentrating on your problem rather than a possible solution. Or you try to find someone else to solve your problem for you. Or you feel so helpless, you sit huddled in a dark corner and ask God to take care of your problem for you. When Captain Gideon did this, God replied, “You’ve still got strengths. Use them.”
Yes, you have to wait for God’s final solution, but he does not expect you to sit idly by while he does all the work. “But how?” you ask. You are not a rock or tree or grain of sand. You are not an elephant or tiger or worm. You are a human being made in God’s image. God breathed life into you and gave you special gifts and talents.
Don’t sit idly by while bad things happen around you. Everyone has God-given strengths. Look deep within your heart. It’s there. Then go forth in the strength you have.
MEFIBOSET: CRIPPLED PRINCE. Preachers and teachers portray him as “poor little boy.” But he was NOT. He got out in the world, met people, got married, had children and grandchildren. Though the grandson of a king and heir apparent to the throne he was denied, he went out in the strength he had. GREAT READING FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE HANDICAPPED and for FATHER’S DAY. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this: https://amzn.to/2HVKRNs
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The scripture for today, June 12 (6/12), is Luke 6:12 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“One of those days Jesus went out to a mountain side to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”
How in the world did Jesus think of enough things to say that he could pray all night? Most of us on a good day only manage a 5-minute prayer. The next verse says that the next morning he selected his twelve apostles. Aha! He had a list. He had probably spent at least half an hour each praying about them by name, as well as about others he was considering. Jesus knew what his apostles would be facing someday. Which ones would be loyal enough, stubborn enough, strong-willed enough to someday in the future endure persecution, torture, and martyrdom for him?
Who do you pray for by name? Do you have a prayer list? How about opening the newspaper and praying for all those people in the news ~ perpetrators, victims, causes, governments, situations? Or everyone you work with? Or everyone your children go to school with? Or all their teachers and administrators? Or the clerks in the stores you go to regularly? Or members of an organization you belong to? Or every member of your congregation? What about countries where people become Christians at risk of their freedom and even their lives?
There are always people in need of prayer. And one of the joys of such a prayer life is now and then telling people whom you know that they are in your prayers; or writing a note to someone who is a stranger to you telling them that you pray for them.
Some people have never heard their names in prayer. Some people have never even been told that someone prays for them.
God loves to answer prayer. Do you love prayer?
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The scripture for today, June 11 (6/11), is Job 6:11 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects that I should be patient?”
Many people use the expression, “patience of Job.” But he had on-and-off patience, for he was very sick. By descriptions he gave of himself ~ sores, rancid breath, low voice, partial blindness, skin turned hard and black, bloating, nightmares, extreme pain, unrecognized by his closest friends ~ some believe he had a grotesque form of elephantiasis leprosy.
What did he need from his friends? He surely didn’t get it, for they spent their time trying to prove that he had sinned and God was right to be punishing him. His reply? “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all! Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing?” (Job 16:2f).
So how do you comfort someone who feels utterly hopeless? You certainly do not put the blame on them, nor do you tell them it’s “all in your head’ or to “snap out of it”. You can share times when we felt hopeless. You can weep with them. You can hold their hand. You can sit with them in silence. You can pray aloud for them. (Some people have never heard their name mentioned in a prayer.)
And you need to let them talk. Sometimes they will say things they don’t mean in the long run, but at that brief moment, they do. Or sometimes they need to talk through things they are unsure about. They may even say contradictory things.
At one time Job said, “Surely, O God, you have worn me out; you have devastated my entire household….God assails me and tears me in his anger and gnashes his teeth at me” (16:7f). But another time he said, “I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end, he will stand upon the earth….I myself will see him with my own eyes ~ I and not another. How my heart yearns within me” (19:25f).
Do you have a very sick friend? Let your heart yearn with them.
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The scripture for today, June 9 (6/9), is Job 6:9-8 found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant what I hope for, that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose his hand and cut me off!”
Job was suffering terribly. The Bible says he had sores all over his body. There were other symptoms listed elsewhere in Job that indicate he had a form of leprosy. Now he just wanted to die.
When you get into a life problem that seems hopeless, do you just give up and say, “God, I can’t go on like this. Just take my life right now. It’s too hard. I can’t do it anymore”?
God knows what you are going through. God knows that Satan is attacking you. When things are desperately low, your job is just to hang on. It often takes God time to shift around a lot of other people’s lives in order to alleviate your pain.
Remember, God hurts just as much when you suffer as when he watched his own Son suffer on the cross. His Son’s suffering accomplished something wonderful for others. So too, someday your suffering will somehow in some way accomplish something good. And ultimately, just by surviving, Satan loses and God wins.
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The scripture for today, June 8 (6/8), is Romans 6:8 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
We all want to live with Christ, but how do we die with him? Earlier in this same chapter, God inspired the writer to say this: “We died to sin….don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead…we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:2-4).
So, just as Christ did a physical action to die for you, you do a physical action to die with him. And just as Christ’s physical death overcame spiritual death, so your physical action overcomes your spiritual death. Then you are born again, or as this verse says, you “live a new life”
Some say this is water salvation. But it is no more water salvation than the cross was wood salvation. You live in a physical world and God has us sometimes do physical things in order to obtain a spiritual outcome. Your singing praise songs is a physical thing, but it is no less spiritual in its outcome. Your eating the Lord’s Supper is a physical thing, but it is no less spiritual in its outcome.
Have you died with Christ?
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The scripture for today, June 7 (6/7), is Ephesians 6:7 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Serve whole-heartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.”
God had just previously said that you were to obey your earthly master (boss). But, as hard as you try, sometimes what you may be told to do is very hard to do, especially if your boss is rude, or someone was promoted ahead of you, or you feel like s/he is being a “slave driver.”
At times like those, do what is asked of you anyway, knowing you are really doing it for God. The next verse says, “because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”
What you do as an employee in a difficult situation does not go unnoticed. God sees and God will reward you.
Thank you, God enthroned above the earth. You have given me the privilege of showing to the world the superiority of your way in breaking down barriers and building up lives. Your way enters the curious minds of even the most hardened hearts and makes them wonder if you are right after all. Your way rises up from my heart and soars to hills, the mountains, the moon, the stars, the very cosmos. May the hardened see you in me.
LUKE: SLAVE AND PHYSICIAN is treated like a son by Theopholis, Tribune in Caesar’s army. When Luke is grown, Theopholis sends him on missions far away, but he always returned “home”. A bond of love is formed between them and Theopholis adopts Luke. Then, when Paul converts Luke and later his master, Theopholis set Luke free. And that is when he writes two of the most dynamic parts of the Bible. A unique FATHER’S DAY GIFT. To BUY NOW, click a book cover or paste this: https://amzn.to/2IrYT8z
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