Sunday 10/13 ~ Satan, you lose.

The Scripture for today, October 13 (10/13), is 1st Corinthians 10:13 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

10-Daniel-KindleThumnailNo temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

What are you tempted to do or not do on a regular basis in your everyday life?  Take a long hard look at them and remind yourself of the source.

Romans 6:16 explains, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey ~ whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?”

Physically, if you lift heavy things, you will grow more muscles. If you run beyond your endurance, you build stamina.  God allows some temptation in your life in order to build your spiritual muscles and spiritual stamina.  What Satan intends to break you down can instead build you up if you resist.

So, with courage in your soul and boldness in your heart, stand up and say, “No more! I am not your slave, Satan. I will win over you. God and I are stronger than you. Satan, get used to it: You lose.

 

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Friday 10/4 ~ New and wonderful

The scripture for today, October 4 (10/4), is Romans 10:4 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Supper-Front Cover-Thumbnail“Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.”

When Jesus nailed the Old Law of Moses to the cross (Colossians 2:14) it came to an end. Thank God. There were over 600 commandments in the Law of Moses, not just the “ten commandments.” Those 600 were tedious. Try reading Leviticus and see if you can keep every commandment in it.

Jesus was the only one who ever kept the Old Law perfectly (Hebrews 4:15). Once that occurred, he could be the Perfect Lamb of God without blemish (John 1:29), and he could be sacrificed on the altar of the world (the cross) in our place ~ take the blame for every bad act and thought, then take the punishment for them.

And with his death came the introduction of a New Law covered in the New Testament. (The book of Hebrews explains it all.). Read the New Testament in its entirety. It is not tedious. It is beautiful.

Why would anyone want to dip back into the Old Law and bring back showy worship practices done back then and tithing and special clergy? He put it to death and gave you a new and wonderful and simple law of grace.  How he loves you!

 

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Thursday 10/3 ~ The Beautiful Gate

The scripture for today, October 3 (10/3), is John 10:3ff as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BK 8-ComeFlyWithMe-Cover-Thumbnail-New“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, do you use the term saved/salvation so loosely, you tend to think you’ve been saved to heaven? No one is saved to something; you are saved from something.  Do you tend to forget what you are being saved from? You are being saved from hell! This is not a minuscule matter.

Second, how do you avoid hell? Through Jesus, the only one ever strong enough to meet Satan face to face and defeat him. He is the only way.

Have you ever been to a funeral where the deceased was preached into heaven? Do you perhaps believe you are “good enough” or “not too bad” and so God would be horrible to not let you into heaven.? Are you trying to climb into heaven through windows, so to speak, like the “thieves and robbers” Jesus referred to?

But heaven is God’s home, not yours. He has a gate into it, just like you have a door into your home. You are not obligated to open the gate or door into your home to just anyone and God is not obligated to open his gate to just anyone. Your door and God’s gate are there for a reason.

Why not enter heaven through the gate ~ Jesus? Then, the angels will shout with joy and God will open his arms, smile and say, “Welcome home.”

 

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Wednesday 10/2 ~ Strength to angels?

The scripture for today, October 2 (10/2), is Daniel 10:2ff as found in the Old Testament of the Bible:

Silver Cover-KINDLE-thumbnail“At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks…On the twenty-fourth day of the first month…I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude….Then he continued, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia.’ “

The description of the speaker indicates he may have been angel Gabriel. Michael is another known angel. In Daniel 12:1 he is called “Michael, the great prince who protects your people.” Jude 9 refers to Michael as an archangel who disputed with Satan over the body of Moses.

Revelation 12:7-9 says, “And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down ~ that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him.”

Now, let us look back at Daniel 10. Daniel prayed for 21 days. The un-named angel (Gabriel?) appeared to him on the 24th day and said Daniel’s prayers had been heard the first day, but God’s angel could not break away to help because of fighting Satan’s angels.

Now look at Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Does our persistence in prayer give strength to the angels?  Something to think about….

 

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Saturday 9/28 ~ Just keep walking and walking and…

The scripture for today, September 28 (9/28), is Hebrews 9:28 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-BK 8-ComeFlyWithMe-Cover-Medium-New“So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

Waiting is hard to do. We wait for relatives to arrive at our house for a visit. We wait for our next promotion. We wait for babies to be born. We wait for enough money to buy new clothes.

But what about waiting for something that we have never seen? Waiting for something we believe in by faith? Waiting an entire lifetime?

All the more reason to keep your eyes on the Word, your activities in good works, and your heart on your Creator and Savior.

It’s a long spiritual walk. But just keep walking, and keep walking, and keep walking until someday in the distant future you walk right through the gates of heaven.

Then, when you look back from eternity, you will say, “The wait wasn’t so long after all.”

 

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Thursday 9/26 ~ How amazing God’s plan for us

The scripture for today, September 26 (9/26), is Hebrews 9:26f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

07-SHADOW-ChildsCartoonThmbnail“Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face the judgment.”

According to the Old Law of Moses, sacrifices of perfect lambs had to be made to temporarily pay the ransom of death for people’s sins. But it wasn’t enough because what Satan really wanted was the death of God so he could take over.

Finally, Jesus became the perfect Lamb of God and gave Satan what he wanted (Matthew 20:28). In a sense, he laid down on the altar of the world. He paid the ransom Satan demanded to release our sinful souls from his clutches.

Then Jesus fooled Satan.  Satan thought he got what he wanted ~ God in the body of Jesus had died.  The ransom was paid and our souls released in one fell swoop. Then three days later he played a trick on Satan: He came back to life!

And so, just as Jesus died once, we too die once. Then our judgment. No second chances. No reincarnations. No going back and trying to be perfect again and failing again.  No trying for yet another 1000 years because supposedly Jesus didn’t get it right the first time.  

Jesus released us from all of our failures at being perfect. Thank God, he was perfect for us. And now, after dying once, when he returns, he will not set foot on earth.  Instead, his followers will meet him in the air among the clouds (I Thessalonians 4:17). The rest will face judgment.

How amazing God’s plan for us!

 

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Tuesday 9/24 ~Mull over it. Absorb it. Be amazed

The scripture for today, September 24 (9/24), is Luke 9:24 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

0-REV-Cover-No Logo-KINDLE-lg-thumbnail“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”

Romans 6 explains this phenomenon best. We are to put our old self to death ~ to crucify that part of us that sins and doesn’t care, that part of us that puts ourselves first (verse 7) ~ in imitation of Jesus dying. Once we decide to put that part of ourselves to death, we are buried, just like Jesus was buried (verse 3 & 4a).

And then, just as he was raised from the dead as the savior, we rise from the dead as the saved. Why? “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (verse 5). Having been “brought from death to life” (verse 13) through baptism, we have been born again!

This is a spiritual death, of course. There is another spiritual death called the second death in Revelation 21:8. If we go through the first spiritual death at baptism, we will not have to go through the second spiritual death in hell. We will have lost our life of sin and in the process saved our souls.

It’s all there. Study it. Mull over it. Absorb it. Be amazed.

 

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Saturday 9/21 ~ God’s blood

The scripture for today, September 21 (9/21), is Hebrews 9:21f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

Was Jesus God-COVER-kindle-thumbnail“In the same way, he [Moses] sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”

Long ago in the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve, the day they sinned they would die.  And it happened. The day they sinned their souls died. Death means separation. In a physical sense, we are separated from people living on earth. In a spiritual sense, we are separated from God in heaven. God is life, and cannot dwell with death. It is not in his nature. Neither can he dwell with sin. That, too, is not in his nature.

Death is Satan’s nature, so the souls of mankind began to dwell with Satan. He lured us into his trap and we gave in to his temptations. He held us ransom.  It was a blood ransom. God was able to temporarily appease Satan by commanding people to spill the blood of animals.  But animal blood was not enough for Satan. He demanded God’s blood. 

God loves us so very, very much, he sent his Words to earth, taking on flesh and blood (John 1:1,14). Then he bought us from Satan with his own blood (Acts 20:28).

What a God we have! What incomprehensible love! Let us fall at his feet in the awe of silence and worship.

 

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Thursday 9/19 ~ And God will make it great

The scripture for today, September 19 (9/19), is Acts 9:19f as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

00-PAUL COVER-Thumbnail-“He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food he regained his strength.”

This is the story of Saul, as he was known to the Jews and to us as Paul, who became an apostle. Notice the order he did this: He was hungry, but that wasn’t important. He had to do what was important first. He was baptized.

Why was Paul baptized? In Acts 22:16 Paul recalls that day when he was told, “Get up: be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”

Further, notice who baptized him. Was he part of the clergy, someone with an ordained title in the church? Acts 9:10 says, “In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him…Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul.” What title did Ananias have? None. He was just another disciple. Disciple simply meaning follower.

Little did this otherwise unknown disciple realize that day, that the person he baptized would end up writing much of the New Testament.

Do you feel ordinary like you are an “unknown disciple” to followers of Jesus around you? Find something to do, and God will make it great.

 

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Monday 9/16 ~ I cannot hold it in

The scripture for today, September 16 (9/16), is 1st Corinthians 9:16 as found in the New Testament of the Bible:

00-PAUL COVER-Thumbnail-“Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”

The Apostle Paul said this. An Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, said almost the same thing in 20:9: “If I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in! Indeed, I cannot!”

Are you so full of the Word of God that you have to share it? Do you work it into your daily conversations? Do you write to people about it? Do you call people about it? Do you journal about it?

I knew a lady once who took several church bulletins home with her every Sunday. Then during the week, if she heard a conversation at a bus stop, she’d interrupt them and say, “I couldn’t help but hear what you were saying. Perhaps God in your life would help.” Then she’d hand them a bulletin. She’d do the same thing at fast-food places or in the waiting room of a doctor. She could not hold it in. She had to share, even if it was with strangers.

There is a man in Afghanistan who is a partially secret Christian. When he thinks he can trust someone, he tells them the gospel. He knows he could be arrested and imprisoned or killed, but I cannot hold it in. He has run for his life three times in the last eight years. He tells me, “I will not stop until they kill me.”

What about you? Is the Word of God overflowing in you so much you cannot keep it in? Tell someone today that God loves them. Watch them smile with a gleam in their eye that says, “I’d like to know more”.

 

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