The scripture for today, October 9, is Job 10:9 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
“Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?”
Job was sick, his so-called friends came to him to say God was punishing him, and Job was frustrated. He could not reason with his friends, so he tried to reason with God. It was a lovers’ quarrel.
By verse 18, he was so upset with God that he said, “Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me.” Job’s body was broken, and even more, his spirit was broken. Satan was doing everything he could to get Job to deny God. But, even though Job argued with God and perhaps came close to denying him, he always acknowledged the good God did along with the bad. He just didn’t understand the bad.
We don’t understand the bad in our lives. But remember, it is Satan that causes the bad to happen. God may step back and let Satan give it a try, but we are not their toys. We are soldiers in the army of God. When Satan throws darts at us, we hold up the shield of faith.
Sometimes, the bad happening in our life is God’s assignment for us. We are part of the war between God and Satan. As good and loyal soldiers, we take our assignments and stand firm. We may complain, but we still stand firm. We may trip sometimes, but still, we stand firm. Being a soldier in the army of God is not easy. But the battle will be won. Some day. So stand firm!
#bad, #problems, #Satan, #faith
The scripture for today, October 8, is Romans 10:8f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
The word is in our mouth through confession of our faith in Jesus, and in our heart for truly believing it and not just saying it.
Some say we are not saved by works, and it is true in the sense that we cannot go around doing so many good works that God will feel obligated to take us to his home. We can never be good enough because we sin and those sins need to be washed away.
In the sense that we do not have to do anything to be saved, it is not true. After all, Jesus himself said faith is a work: “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: To believe in the one he has sent’ ” (John 6:29).
To many faithful Christians, there are times in their life that faith is indeed hard work. They are beset with so many problems that they begin to wonder, “Does Jesus really care, like he claimed?”
Let us continue to work at our faith. You will have your ups and our downs. Sometimes your faith will be strong and sometimes weak. But remember, even when you doubt God, God never doubts you.
The scripture for today, October 6, is Jeremiah 10:6 as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:
No one is like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.”
The word “name” here is from the Hebrew word for “renown” ~ shem. This same word is sometimes translated fame. Sometimes we say someone “has made a name for himself” to indicate s/he has become successful and possibly even powerful.
The Lord is known to this prophet (Jeremiah) as being more mighty and powerful than any being in existence.
Do you see the Lord this way? Not in a general sense, but a personal sense? Think back over your life. In what way has the Lord used his power to cause certain “coincidental” things to occur in your life just at the right time? How did it make you feel toward him?
#power, #fame, #God
The scripture for today, October 3, is John 10:3ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out….I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”
First of all, we use the term saved/salvation so loosely, we tend to forget what we are being saved from. We are being saved from hell! This is not a minuscule matter.
Second, how do we avoid hell? Through Jesus! This is the only way.
How many of us have been to funerals where the deceased was preached into heaven? So many people believe they are “good enough” or “not too bad” and so God would be horrible to not let them into heaven. Such people will climb in through windows so to speak into heaven as the “thieves and robbers” Jesus referred to.
But heaven is God’s home, not ours. He has a gate into it, just like we have doors on our house. Just like we are not obligated to open the gate or door into our home to just anyone, God is not obligated to open his gate to just anyone.
Our door and God’s gate are there for a reason. Let us enter heaven through the gate ~ Jesus. Then God will smile and say, “Welcome home.”
#DoorToHeaven #GateToHeaven
The scripture for today, October 1, is Romans 10:1f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for ______ is that they may be saved. For I can testify bout them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.”
Being “religious” isn’t enough. There are lots of religions. Feeling “spiritual” isn’t enough. There are lots of differing religions that induce a “spiritual” feeling. Confidence of salvation isn’t enough. There are lots of differing religions that create questionable confidence of salvation. Dedication to prayer isn’t enough. There are lots of differing religions that require much prayer.
Sincere Christian leaders today may want us to rely on feelings and inducements and confidence and dedication, but they can be sincerely wrong. If we base our salvation on feelings and inducements and confidence and dedication only, we have zeal, but our zeal is not based on knowledge. Some may defensively call “knowledge” legalism.
God gave us his Word ~ the Bible ~ for a reason. He wanted us to reason. Hebrews 11:1 says faith is accepting the evidence ~ not wishful thinking. Romans 10:17 says faith comes from hearing/reading the Word of God for ourselves ~ not someone’s sermon. Let us search the scriptures daily for ourselves. And, let us not be afraid to approach our religious leaders and try teaching the teachers.
Then their zeal, as well as ours, can be based on knowledge.
#zeal, #knowledge, #salvation
The scripture for today, September 30, is Luke 9:30f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.”
Hebrews 5:7 says something very startling to most people. “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death.”
Jesus did not look forward to going to the cross, even though many thousands of others had died that way. Why was it different for him? Because he had to take on all our sins as though he had committed them himself ~ every lie we’ve told, every gain from cheating, every insult, every slander campaign against another, every adultery, every murder ~ everything ~ all our sins! How could he bear it?
Not only that, but he had to experience both physical and spiritual death. Spiritual death means being separated from, being forsaken by God. What a terror to experience!
And so, a few weeks before his crucifixion, as he prayed on the mountain, Moses and Elijah appeared to him and they spoke about his death. They surely gave him courage to do what had to be done to save you and me who deserve hell.
The crowning glory of this conversation with Moses and Elijah is that God reassured him by announcing, “THIS IS MY SON! WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN! LISTEN TO HIM!”
Jesus was to nail the Old Law of Moses to the cross (Colossians 2:14). He had promised people, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets: I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).
Indeed, by the time Jesus returned to heaven, he had lived the Old Law introduced by Moses perfectly ~ something no man had ever been able to do. And by the time he returned to heaven, he had fulfilled every prophecy about his birth, life, and death, the first such prophet being represented by Elijah.
Oh the things Jesus went through for us. We fall at his feet and worship him.
#Law, #crucifixion, #hell, #death, #prophecies
The scripture for today, September 29, is Matthew 9:29 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:
“Then he touched their eyes and said, ‘According to your faith will it be done to you.’ “
Sometimes when we pray for healing during sickness, a well-meaning friend will say, “Well, you haven’t been healed because you didn’t have enough faith.” But Jesus did not heal everyone according to their faith.
The boy in Nain he brought back to life (Luke 7:14-15) did not have any faith at all. The girl in Capernaum he brought back to life (Luke 8:51-56) did not have any faith at all. When Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana (John 2:1-9) the hosts did not have any faith at all.
This is encouraging because often we pray for the healing of non-religious friends. It would be futile to ask God to bring them back to health if it depended on their faith all the time. But he is not a God of futility. He is a God of hope.
#Faith, #Hope
