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Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2024 21:01:01 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
· From Reformed Baptist Fellowship
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Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help! Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!” Psalm 35:1-3
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Sovereign absolute uncompromising control! (Anonymous)
Psalm 115:3, "Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases!"
Psalm 135:5-6, "I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The LORD does whatever pleases Him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths!"
Isaiah 46:10, "My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please."
Ephesians 1:11, "In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will!"
Scripture clearly teaches that the Almighty Creator maintains sovereign, absolute, uncompromising control over every aspect of His vast universe.
Not a single molecule or particle in all of existence operates outside of God's sovereign dominion.
The same divine hand that sets the stars in their courses, also directs the smallest details of our individual lives.
Whether triumph or tragedy; whether success or suffering--nothing occurs without first passing through the filter of God's all-wise and sovereign will, and His eternal plan.
The notions of chance or luck or accident--are merely heathen philosophies.
Every event, every circumstance, and every outcome is meticulously orchestrated by the sovereign Lord who reigns supremely over all.
As Christians, we should find unwavering confidence, comfort and security in the truth that the same God who governs His universe, also intimately directs and wisely orders every detail of our lives.
"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose!" Romans 8:28
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For the Love of God August 01, 2024, | Don Carson
Acts 19
One of the strangest accounts in the book of Acts concerns the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:11-20). Paul’s ministry in Ephesus lasted some considerable time, perhaps two and a half years, and during that time “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul” (Acts 19:11). The result is that various “competitors” tried to keep up with him. By itself, this was not surprising. It has always been so. When God especially empowered Moses to perform miracles before Pharaoh, the magicians of Egypt could reproduce most (though not all) of what he did.
So in Paul’s day some Jews steeped in syncretism traveled around, engaging in some kind of deliverance ministry. They had little idea what they were engaged in. When they saw what Paul was doing in the name of Jesus, they started to refer to that name too, as if it were nothing more than some magic talisman: “They would say, ‘In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out’” (Acts 19:13).
The seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish priest, were particularly engaged in this operation. One day the evil spirit they were trying to exercise talked back to them: “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” (Acts 19:15). Then the man possessed by this spirit leaped on them and beat up all seven of them.
Note:
First, the result of this encounter was entirely beneficial. When the story circulated, many were seized with a healthy fear and an enlarged respect for the name of the Lord Jesus. This was a name so powerful that it could not be treated as a magic formula. This name could not be domesticated. The result was that infatuation with occult practices was curbed. Many confessed their evil deeds, and others brought their occult books and burned them, totaling an enormous value (Acts 19:17-19). “In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power” (Acts 19:20).
Second, the really striking element is the utterance of the evil spirit: “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” One can understand why Jesus would be known among demonic powers. There is no surprise there. But Paul is known too! His ministry had been assaulting the powers of darkness. He was known to be protected and defended by the living Christ — there is no way the demon could have used the possessed man to beat him up. These other characters were another matter; as far as the demon was concerned, they were a bit of a joke, easily ignored, easily subdued and shamed. But Paul was known!
Christians engaging the Enemy will be known not only in the courts of heaven but in the courts of hell.
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August 1 Our Weakness Reveals His Worth
Devotional by John Piper
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
God’s design for suffering is that it should magnify Christ’s worth and power. This is grace, because the greatest joy of Christians is to experience Christ magnified in our lives.
When Paul was told by the Lord Jesus that his “thorn in the flesh” would not be taken away, he supported Paul’s faith by explaining why. The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God ordains that Paul be weak so that Christ might be seen as strong on Paul’s behalf.
If we feel and look self-sufficient, we will get the glory, not Christ. So, Christ chooses the weak things of the world “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:29). And sometimes he makes seemingly strong people weaker so that the divine power will be the more evident.
We know that Paul experienced this as grace because he rejoiced in it: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).
Living by faith in God’s grace means being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus. Therefore, faith will not shrink back from what reveals and magnifies all that God is for us in Jesus. That is what our own weakness and suffering are meant to do.
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Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2024 21:02:27 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. Psalm 34:21-22
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His abiding presence and inexhaustible resources! (Anonymous)
In the book of Isaiah, the Lord gives a powerful and comforting message to His redeemed people: "Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand!" Isaiah 41:10
This profound declaration speaks directly to the hearts of all Christians who are facing trials, afflictions, and times of uncertainty. No matter what challenges we may be confronting, we need not succumb to fear or discouragement, for our Almighty God is steadfastly by our side. He is our strength and our help, ready and willing to lift us up and sustain us through the darkest of circumstances.
The imagery of God's "victorious right hand" reaching down to support us, is a beautiful visual of His sovereign power and unwavering commitment to His people. In a world that so often leaves us feeling small, helpless, and overwhelmed, this promise from our God stands as a beacon of hope--a reminder that He will provide the needed grace to sustain us in every struggle that we will ever encounter!
By trusting in His abiding presence and inexhaustible resources, we can walk forward in courage, confidence, and an unshakable peace, for our Heavenly Father has declared that He will be…our strength, our shield, our refuge, and our ever-present help in times of trouble!
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For the Love of God July 31, 2024, | Don Carson
Devotional: Judges 14
Some of us have wondered why God has occasionally used in powerful ministry people blatantly flawed. This is not to say that God should only use perfect people, for that would mean he would be using no people. Nor am I referring to the fact that we all have weaknesses and faults of various kinds. George Whitefield, for instance, despite his enormous stature as a preacher and evangelist, did not fare very well on the marriage front, or in his (misguided) conviction that his son would be healed of his mortal illness. Virtually any Christian leader, whether from biblical times or more recent history, could not stand up under the onslaught of that sort of criticism. No, what I have in mind is the flaw that is so public and awful that one ponders two questions: (a) If this person is so powerful and godly, why the ugly fault? (b) If this person is so filled with the Spirit, why doesn’t that same Spirit enable him to clean up his act?
There are no easy answers. Sometimes it is simply a matter of time. Judas Iscariot, after all, engaged in public ministry with the other eleven apostles — even miraculous ministry — yet with time proved apostate. The passage of time would show him up. But sometimes the flaws are there from the beginning to the end.
That is true, it appears, in the life of Samson. The Spirit of God came upon him mightily; the Lord used him to curb the Philistines. But what is he doing marrying a Philistine woman, when the Law strictly forbade marriage to anyone outside the covenant community (Judg. 14:2)? When his parents warn him of the consequences, he simply overrides them, and they acquiesce (Judg. 14:3). True, they did not know that “this was from the LORD” (Judg. 14:4), in the same way that the selling of Joseph into slavery in Egypt was of the Lord; but that did not make the human actions right.
Samson’s risky bet (Judg. 14:12-13) is more cocksure and greedy than it is wise and honorable. Of course, the Philistines are really cruel in the matter (Judg. 14:15-18, 20), but Samson’s murder of thirty men to fulfill the terms of the wager is motivated less by a desire to cleanse the land and restore the covenant people to strength than it is by personal vengeance. Similar things must be said about his tactics in the next chapter, and about his steamy living in the chapter after that.
It appears, then, that Spirit-given power in one dimension of life does not by itself guarantee Spirit-impelled discipline and maturity in every dimension of life. It follows that the presence of spiritual gifts is never an excuse for personal sin.
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July 31 Suffering That Crushes Faith Devotional by John Piper
“They have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.” (Mark 4:17)
The faith of some is broken instead of built by suffering. Jesus knew this and described it here in the parable of the four soils. Some people who hear the word receive it at first with gladness, but then suffering makes them fall away.
So, affliction does not always make faith stronger. Sometimes it crushes faith. And then come true the paradoxical words of Jesus, “The one who has not, even what he has will be taken” (Mark 4:25).
This is a call for us to endure suffering with firm faith in future grace, so that our faith might grow stronger and not be proved vain (1 Corinthians 15:2). “To the one who has, more will be given” (Mark 4:25). Knowing God’s design in suffering is one of the main means of growing through suffering.
If you think your suffering is pointless, or that God is not in control, or that he is whimsical or cruel, then your suffering will drive you from God, instead of driving you from everything but God — as it should. So, it is crucial that faith in God’s grace includes the faith that he gives grace through suffering.
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Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2024 21:05:04 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. Psalm 34:19-20
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In the Father's eternal dwelling! (Anonymous)
John 14:1-3, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places . . . I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me, that you may be where I am!"
In these comforting words from Jesus, the Christian finds a profound reassurance for his troubled heart.
The Savior acknowledges the very real anxieties and fears that can weigh us down, but He responds with a call to unwavering faith. "You believe in God," He says, "believe also in Me!" This is an invitation to place our trust in the Son of God who has come to redeem His people from their sins. For in the Father's eternal home, Jesus declares, there are many dwelling places.
This is a promise of the glorious eternity that awaits all who follow Him. This is no mere earthly abode, but a heavenly home where the redeemed will dwell with their Lord forever.
And though Jesus has gone to prepare this glorious home for us, He assures us that He will return to receive us unto Himself.
What a profound and life-changing hope--that where Christ is, there we shall be forever!
In the midst of our troubled hearts, these words of Jesus offer the peace that surpasses all understanding. They remind us that our eternal destiny is secure in Him, and that the difficulties of this world are but temporary, for an eternity of joy with our Savior awaits.
Let us cling to these promises with unwavering faith, finding comfort in the knowledge that our heavenly home is being prepared, and that one day soon, we shall be united with our beloved Jesus forevermore!
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For the Love of God July 30, 2024, | Don Carson
Devotional: Acts 17
Most of Paul’s evangelizing of Gentiles began with the synagogue. His regular procedure when he arrived in a new town was to visit the synagogue and (since it was not uncommon to ask visitors to speak) avail himself of the opportunity to preach the Gospel. This meant that his hearers were a mix of Jews, proselytes (i.e., Gentile converts to Judaism), and God-fearers (i.e., Gentiles who were sympathetic to Jews and Jewish monotheism, but who had not formally converted).
The book of Acts shows that in several instances (e.g., Acts 13:13-48; 17:1-9), the synagogue authorities soon tired of Paul and banned him. At this point many of the proselytes and God-fearers went with him, so that although he was now preaching to a largely Gentile crowd, the core of that crowd had received some exposure to the Old Testament Scriptures. In other words, in such cases Paul was able to preach to people who largely shared with him the vocabulary, facts, and movements of the Old Testament storyline.
But what would Paul do if he were preaching to biblical illiterates — that is, to people who had never heard of Moses, never read the Old Testament, never learned a single item of the Old Testament plotline? Such people would not only have to be informed, but would have to unlearn a lot of notions they had absorbed from some other cultural and religious heritage. We have a glimpse of such an encounter in Acts 14:8-20, when the citizens of Lystra excitedly conclude that Paul and Barnabas are incarnations of Greek gods. The brief report of Paul’s address (Acts 14:15-17) provides a glimpse of the apostolic response.
But it is the account of Paul’s visit to Athens (Acts 17:16-31) that is most revealing. Here, too, Paul began in the synagogue (Acts 17:17), but he also set about evangelizing in the marketplace with whoever happened to be there (Acts 17:17), and this precipitates the invitation to speak at the meeting of the Areopagus. And there, one clearly perceives how the apostle Paul has thought this matter through. In a world of finite gods (often supported by one pantheistic deity), cyclical views of history, sub-biblical understandings of sin, multiplied idolatry, dualism that declares all that is material to be bad and all that is spiritual to be good, tribal deities, and not a little superstition, Paul paints a worldview of the true God, a linear view of history, the nature of sin and idolatry, impending judgment, the unity of the human race and the oneness of God — all as the necessary framework without which his proclamation of Jesus makes no sense. What does that mean for evangelism today?
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July 30 Suffering That Strengthens Faith Devotional by John Piper
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (James 1:2–3)
Strange as it may seem, one of the primary purposes of being shaken by suffering is to make our faith more unshakable.
Faith is like muscle tissue: if you stress it to the limit, it gets stronger, not weaker. That’s what James means here. When your faith is threatened and tested and stretched to the breaking point, the result is greater capacity to endure. He calls it steadfastness.
God loves faith so much that he will test it to the breaking point so as to keep it pure and strong. For example, he did this to Paul according to 2 Corinthians 1:8–9,
We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
The words “but that was to” show that there was a purpose in this extreme suffering: it was in order that — for the purpose that — Paul would not rely on himself and his resources, but on God — specifically the promised grace of God in raising the dead.
God so values our wholehearted faith that he will, graciously, if necessary, take away everything else in the world that we might be tempted to rely on — even life itself. His aim is that we grow deeper and stronger in our confidence that he himself will be all we need.
He wants us to be able to say with the psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25–26).
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Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2024 21:07:35 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:17-18
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Religious delirium - Spiritual chloroform - Religious inebriation
(Horatius Bonar, "Human Remedies")
"And whenever the tormenting spirit from God troubled Saul, David would play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting spirit would go away." 1 Samuel 16:23
Here is music, religious music--the music of the harp, the harp of David. This is soothing, but it does not reach the seat of the disease.
It is…something human, something external, something materialistic, something earthly, something that man can originate and apply.
It is effectual to a certain extent. It drives away the tormenting spirit, and restores temporary tranquility; thus possibly deceiving its victim.
In like manner we find the human spirit afflicted in every age, sometimes more and sometimes less.
And in all such cases man steps in with his human and external contrivances. I do not refer to the grosser forms of dispelling gloom--drunkenness and profligacy, in which men seek to drown their sense of need, and make up for the absence of God.
I refer to the refined remedies; those of art, science, music, gaiety--by which men try to minister to a diseased mind.
What is Romanism and Ritualism, but a repetition of Saul's minstrelsy?
The soul needs soothing. It is vexed and fretted with the world. Its conscience is not at ease. It is troubled and weary.
It betakes itself to religious forms, something for the eye and ear; to chants, and vestments, and postures, and performances, sweet sounds and fair sights, sentimental and pictorial religion--all of which is but a refined form of worldliness.
By these the natural man is soothed, and the spirit is tranquilized. The man is brought to believe that a cure has been wrought, because his gloom has been alleviated by these religious spectacles, these exhibitions which suit the unregenerate soul so well.
They but drug the soul, filling it with a sort of religious delirium.
They are human sedatives, not divine medicines!
They result in a partial and temporary cure.
It is said that the evil spirit departed, but not that the Holy Spirit returned. Saul's trouble was alleviated, but not removed. The disease was still there! The results of David's harp were only superficial.
So is it with the sinner still.
There are many external remedies, which act like spiritual chloroform upon the soul. They soothe, and calm, and please--but that is all. They do not reach below the surface, nor touch the deep seated malady within.
Men try rites, sacraments, pictures, music, dresses, and the varied attractions of ecclesiastical ornament; but these leave the spirit unfilled, and its wounds unhealed. They cannot regenerate, or quicken, or heal, or fill with the Holy Spirit.
They may keep up the self-satisfaction and self-delusion of the soul, but that is all. They do not fill, they merely hide our emptiness.
Our age is full of such contrivances, literary and religious-- all got up for the purpose of soothing the troubled spirits of man…excitement, gaiety, balls, theaters, operas, concerts, ecclesiastical music, dresses, performances.
What are all these, but man's remedies for casting out the evil spirit and healing the soul's hurt without having recourse to God's one remedy!
These pleasant sights and sounds may soothe the imprisoned soul, but what of that? They do not bring it nearer to God. They do not work repentance, or produce faith, or fix the eye on the true Cross. They leave the soul still without God, and without salvation.
The religion thus produced is…hollow, fitful, superficial, sentimental.
It will neither save nor sanctify.
It may produce a sort of religious inebriation--but not that which God calls godliness; not that which apostles pointed out as a holy life, a walk with God.
"And whenever the tormenting spirit from God troubled Saul, David would play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting spirit would go away." 1 Samuel 16:23
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For the Love of God July 29, 2024, | Don Carson
Acts 16
Three observations on these steps in the ministry of Paul and Silas (Acts 16):
(1) To understand Paul’s “Macedonian call” (Acts 16:6-10), one must follow his movements on a map. After traveling through the central part of what is now Turkey, the Spirit forbids Paul and Silas from going into Asia (Acts 16:6), i.e., Asia Minor, the Western part of modern Turkey. So they travel north. Now they try to enter Bithynia (Acts 16:7). Had they been enabled to do so, they would have been on the major east/west road that joined the Roman Empire with India — and heading east. But the “Spirit of Jesus” forbids them from taking that step (Acts 16:7), and so they go in the only direction still open to them along the roads of the day: they head toward the port city of Troas. From there, there is only one obvious place to go: across the water to Europe.
During the night Paul has a vision of a man in Macedonia, the nearest landfall of Europe, begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9). This confirms Paul and Silas in their movements; it does not redirect them. The result is ministry on the continent of Europe, and ultimately a path to Rome.
(2) Paul’s first convert in Europe was a woman, an intercontinental business traveler from Thyatira. Note the description of her conversion, and then the description of the Philippian jailer’s: “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message” (Acts 16:14); “The jailer….had come to believe in God — he and his whole family” (Acts 16:34). Let’s use both locutions today.
(3) Worth pondering are the occasions when Paul stands on his Roman citizenship, and when he does not. Sometimes he is beaten without a word of protest. In Philippi, Paul and Silas are “severely flogged” (Acts 16:23-24), apparently without protesting. Roman citizens were exempt from flogging until they had been found guilty of the crime for which they were charged. Yet when the jailer is told to release the prisoners, Paul protests that he and Silas, both citizens, have been flogged without a trial, and insists that the city’s leaders come and escort them out of jail as a kind of public apology (Acts 16:37-39). Why not simply suffer in silence, not least since that is what they sometimes do?
It is difficult to prove, but many have argued, believably, that Paul stands on his rights when by doing so he thinks he can establish legal precedents that may help other Christians. Every case on the books where Christians have been shown not to be guilty of public disorder or a threat to the Roman Empire can only be a useful legal precedent. If this is right, it is a mark of strategic thinking — for the sake of others.
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July 29 God’s Plan for Martyrs Devotional by John Piper
They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6:11)
For almost three hundred years, Christianity grew in soil that was wet with the blood of the martyrs.
Until the Emperor Trajan (about AD 98), persecution was permitted but not legal. From Trajan to Decius (about AD 250), persecution was legal. From Decius, who hated the Christians and feared their impact on his reforms, until the first edict of toleration in 311, the persecution was not only legal but widespread and general.
One writer described the situation in this third period:
Horror spread everywhere through the congregations; and the number of lapsi [the ones who renounced their faith when threatened] . . . was enormous. There was no lack, however, of such as remained firm, and suffered martyrdom rather than yielding; and, as the persecution grew wider and more intense, the enthusiasm of the Christians and their power of resistance grew stronger and stronger.
So, for three hundred years, to be a Christian was an act of immense risk to your life and possessions and family. It was a test of what you loved more. And at the extremity of that test was martyrdom.
And above that martyrdom was a sovereign God who said there is an appointed number of martyrs. They have a special role to play in planting and empowering the church. They have a special role to play in shutting the mouth of Satan, who constantly says that the people of God serve him only because life goes better. That’s the point of Job 1:9–11.
Martyrdom is not something accidental. It is not taking God off guard. It is not unexpected. And it is emphatically not a strategic defeat for the cause of Christ.
It may look like defeat. But it is part of a plan in heaven that no human strategist would ever conceive or could ever design. And this plan will triumph for all those who endure to the end by faith in God’s all-sufficient grace.
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Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2024 21:11:40 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
Top contributor
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David A. Mapes
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Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Psalm 34:13-14
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A horrible and shocking thing is done! (J.C. Ryle, "Calvary")
I know no greater proof of man's depravity, than the fact that thousands of so-called professing Christians see nothing lovely in the cross.
Well may our hearts be called stony, well may the eyes of our mind be called blind, well may our whole nature be called diseased, well may we all be called dead in sin--when the cross of Christ is heard of, and yet neglected!
Surely we may take up the words of the prophet, and say, "Hear, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth: A horrible and shocking thing is done!" Christ was crucified for sinners, and yet many professing Christians live as if He was never crucified at all!
Would I know how exceedingly sinful and abominable sin is in the sight of God? Shall I turn to the history of the flood, and read how sin drowned the world? Shall I ponder what sin brought on Sodom and Gomorrah?
No! I can find a clearer proof still--I look at what happened on Calvary! There I see that sin is so black and damnable, that nothing but the blood of God's own Son can wash it away! There I see that sin has so separated me from my holy Maker, that all the angels in Heaven could never have made peace between us. Nothing could reconcile us, short of the death of Christ.
Ah, if I listened to the wretched talk of proud men, I might sometimes imagine sin was not so very sinful; but I cannot think little of sin when I look at Calvary.
I find no balm for a sore conscience and a troubled heart, like the sight of Jesus dying for me on the accursed tree! There I see that a full payment has been made for all my enormous debts.
When I look at the cross, I feel sure that there is a way to Heaven for the very vilest of men.
Would I find strong reasons for being a holy man? I will look at Calvary and the crucifixion.
There I see that Jesus gave Himself for me, not only to redeem me from iniquity--but also to purify me. He bore my sins in His own body on the tree, that I being dead unto sin, should live unto righteousness.
Ah, reader, there is nothing so sanctifying as a clear view of the cross of Christ! It crucifies the world unto us, and us unto the world.
How can we love sin when we remember that because of our sins, Jesus died for our sin?
Would I learn how to be contented and cheerful under all the cares and anxieties of life? What school shall I go to? How shall I attain this state of mind most easily? Shall I look at: the sovereignty of God, the wisdom of God, the providence of God, the love of God? It is well to do so. But I have a better argument still. I will look at Calvary and the crucifixion!
I feel that He who did not spare His only begotten Son, but delivered Him up to die for me--will surely with Him, give me all things that I really need.
He that endured that pain for my soul, will surely not withhold from me anything that is really good. He that has done the greater things for me, will doubtless do the lesser things also. He that gave His own blood to procure an eternal home for me, will unquestionably supply me with all that is really profitable for me along the way.
Ah, reader, there is no school for learning contentment that can be compared with Calvary and the foot of the cross!
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For the Love of God July 27, 2024, | Don Carson
Acts 14
Paul had been evangelizing for fifteen years or more, probably largely around the Tarsus area, before this “first” trip is recorded. Doubtless he built up extraordinary experience evangelizing Jews and Gentiles alike, so that by the time he emerges on the scene as a church-planting apostle he is not a young man finding his way, but a mature, seasoned worker.
(1) It has often been said that everywhere Paul went he started either a revival or a riot, and sometimes both. That’s not quite true, of course. Moreover, a riot is not necessarily a mark of authenticity: as much depends on the context and the hearers as on the preacher and his message and style. But there is at least some truth to the observation, and it is tied to the apostle’s sheer boldness.
(2) In the early years of the church, the persecution Christians suffered was almost entirely sponsored by Jews. Later, of course, far worse persecution was generated by the Roman Empire, until at the beginning of the fourth century the Emperor Constantine switched sides. But in the beginning it was not so. It is hard to bring this up in our historical context, living as we do this side of the Holocaust. But facts are persistent things.
One can understand why it was this way. At the beginning, all of the Christians were Jews; for quite awhile, the majority were Jews. In both cases, synagogue discipline was possible within reasonably closed communities. Moreover, in at least some cities influential Jews were well-placed to influence pagan authorities to exert pressure on people that many Jews saw as debasing the Jewish heritage and culture.
(3) In Lystra (Acts 14:8-20) there is a spectacular example of the fickleness of a mob. At first the pagans try to honor Paul and Barnabas as, respectively, Hermes (the god of communication) and Zeus (head of the Greek pantheon), owing to the healing they had performed in Jesus’ name. Only with great effort could Paul and Barnabas restrain the crowd — which then shortly turns on them when they are stirred up by Jewish opponents who are beginning to dog their steps. The apostolic response was stunning both ways: they do everything they can to turn aside the acclaim (Acts 14:14, 18), and they accept the persecution as something only to be expected by those who enter the kingdom (Acts 14:22).
(4) On the swing leg home, not more than a few months later, Paul and Barnabas return through the cities where they have already planted churches and appoint elders in each of them (Acts 14:23). Clearly, what is meant by a “mature” elder is entirely relative to the age and maturity of the congregation.
Reflect on the relevance of these points in your own context.
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July 27 If You Don’t Fight Lust Devotional by John Piper
Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. (1 Peter 2:11)
When I confronted a man about the adultery he was living in, I tried to understand his situation, and I pled with him to return to his wife. Then I said, “You know, Jesus says that if you don’t fight this sin with the kind of seriousness that is willing to gouge out your own eye, you will go to hell and suffer there forever.”
As a professing Christian, he looked at me in utter disbelief, as though he had never heard anything like this in his life, and said, “You mean you think a person can lose his salvation?”
So, I have learned again and again from firsthand experience that there are many professing Christians who have a view of salvation that disconnects it from real life, and that nullifies the threats of the Bible, and that puts the sinning person who claims to be a Christian beyond the reach of biblical warnings. I believe this view of the Christian life is comforting thousands who are on the broad way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).
Jesus said, if you don’t fight lust, you won’t go to heaven. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29). The point is not that true Christians always succeed in every battle. The issue is that we resolve to fight, not that we succeed flawlessly. We don’t make peace with sin. We make war.
The stakes are much higher than whether the world is blown up by a thousand long-range missiles, or terrorists bomb your city, or global warming melts the ice caps, or AIDS sweeps the nations. All these calamities can kill only the body. But if we don’t fight lust, we lose our souls. Forever.
Peter says the passions of the flesh wage war against our souls (1 Peter 2:11). The stakes in this war are infinitely higher than in any threat of world war or terrorism. The apostle Paul listed “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,” then said it is “on account of these the wrath of God is coming” (Colossians 3:5–6). And the wrath of God is immeasurably more fearful than the wrath of all the nations of the world put together.
May God give us grace to take our souls and others’ souls seriously and keep up the fight.
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Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2024 21:13:01 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? (Psalm 34:11-12)
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The Benefits of Meditation George Muller
Many years ago, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost — though now, more than forty years have since passed away.
The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul enjoying the presence and favor of God. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord — but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.
Before this time my practice had been at least for ten years previously, as a habitual thing, to give myself to prayer after having dressed in the morning. Now I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, while meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.
I began, therefore, to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord's blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching, as it were, into every verse to get blessing out of it — not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably this: that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, thanksgiving, intercession, or supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer but to meditation — yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus I have been for a while making confession, intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks — I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation.
The result of this is that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation — and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart.
Thus also the Lord is pleased to give unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.
The difference then between my former practice and my present one is this: Formerly, when I rose I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time until breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events, I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the Word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for a revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer.
But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really to pray.
I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being flourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!) about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.
It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private communication with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as everyone must allow.
Now what is the food for the inner man? — not prayer but the Word of God; and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe — but considering and meditating on what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.
When we pray, we speak to God. Now prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire. And the season, therefore, when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed, is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, comfort us, instruct us, humble us, reprove us. We may therefore profitably meditate on Scripture with God's blessing, though we are ever so weak spiritually. Nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man. There is thus far less to be feared from wandering of mind, than if we give ourselves to prayer without having had previously time for meditation.
I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God, I ascribe to this mode, the help and strength that I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials, than I had ever had before. And after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it.
How different when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one!
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For the Love of God July 26, 2024, | Don Carson
Acts 13
Today I want to draw attention to a couple of points drawn from opposite ends of Acts 13.
(1) The church leadership in Antioch must have been extraordinarily diverse (Acts13:1). Barnabas’s real name was Joseph. He was a Levite from Cyprus (Acts 4:36-37). At a time when the church in Jerusalem was growing so quickly it must have been impossible for the apostles to remember everyone’s name, this Joseph was noticed for his remarkable gift of encouragement; as a result he was rewarded with a nickname that reflected his character: Barnabas — Son of Encouragement. Then there was Simeon “called Niger” — an expression that almost certainly means “Simeon the Black.”
In the ancient world, unlike the British and American experience, slavery was tied to the economic system (people who went bankrupt might sell themselves into slavery) and to military might; it was not restricted to a particular race. (Thus there could be African slaves, English slaves, Jewish slaves, and so forth.) So there was nothing anomalous about having “Simeon the Black” as one of the leaders. About Lucius of Cyrene we know almost nothing. Apparently, he, like Barnabas, was from a Mediterranean island, and the form of his name shows he belongs to the Hellenistic world. Manean had enough connections with minor nobility that he had been reared with Herod the tetrarch.
Then there was Saul himself, by this time a veteran evangelist, church planter, and Bible teacher of fifteen years’ experience, with many scars to prove it. In the wake of this call, he progressively moved in Gentile circles, and used the name connected with his Roman citizenship, Paul (Acts 13:9). (Roman citizens had three names. We do not know the other two in the case of “Mr. Paul” — for Paul was certainly the family name. Saul was an additional name preserved for the sake of his Jewish heritage.) He, too, was from out of town — from Tarsus. What glorious and cosmopolitan diversity there is in this church in Antioch.
(2) After the detailed account of Paul’s sermon in Pisidian Antioch, we are told that many Gentiles “honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). An excellent exercise is to discover all the ways Acts, or even the entire New Testament, speaks of conversion and of converts — and then to use all of those locutions in our own speech. For our ways of talking about such matters both reflect and shape the way we think of such matters. There is no biblical passage that speaks of “accepting Jesus as your personal Savior” (though the notion itself is not entirely wrong). So why do many adopt this expression, and never speak in the terms of verse 48?
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July 26 What It Means to Love Money Devotional by John Piper
The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. (1 Timothy 6:10)
What did Paul mean when he wrote this? He couldn’t have meant that money is always on your mind when you sin. A lot of sin happens when we are not thinking about money.
My suggestion is this: He meant that all the evils in the world come from a certain kind of heart, namely, the kind of heart that loves money.
So what does it mean to love money? It doesn’t mean to admire the green paper or the copper coins or the silver shekels. To know what it means to love money, you have to ask, What is money? I would answer that question like this: Money is simply a symbol that stands for human resources. Money stands for what you can get from man — other human beings — instead of God.
God deals in the currency of grace, not money: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!” (Isaiah 55:1). Money is the currency of human resources. So, the heart that loves money is a heart that pins its hopes, and pursues its pleasures, and puts its trust in what human resources can offer.
So, the love of money is virtually the same as faith in money — belief (trust, confidence, assurance) that money will meet your needs and make you happy.
Love of money is the alternative to faith in God’s future grace. It is faith in future human resources — the kind of thing you can obtain or secure with money. Therefore the love of money, or trust in money, is the underside of unbelief in the promises of God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. . . . You cannot serve God and money.”
You can’t trust in God and in money at the same time. Belief in one is unbelief in the other. A heart that loves money — that banks on money for happiness — is not banking on all that God is for us in Jesus as the satisfaction of our souls.
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Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2024 21:20:25 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. (Psalm 34:10)
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Drinking deeply from the well of God's holy Word (Anonymous)
Psalm 1:1-2 "Blessed is the man who does not: walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Word of the LORD, and on His Word he meditates day and night."
Blessed indeed, is the man who chooses to distance himself from the corrupting influences of this sin-cursed world. He does not heed the sinful advice and philosophies of those who reject God. Nor does he associate with, or emulate the lifestyles, of those who wallow in their wicked desires. He refuses to align himself with those who mock and scorn the holy ways of God, as found in His Word.
He finds his greatest joy and satisfaction in meditating upon the sacred Scriptures, drinking deeply from the well of God's holy Word day and night. He does not treat the divine teachings as a mere intellectual exercise, but allows the truths of Scripture: to guide his thinking, to penetrate his heart, and transform his life.
He understands that true blessedness is not found in the fleeting pleasures of this vain world—but in a vibrant, intimate relationship with Almighty God! By immersing himself in God's Word and striving to guide his steps by Scripture, he experiences the profound blessing of walking in the light of the Lord's presence, shielded from the darkness that ensnares those who reject Him.
He alone is truly wise and truly blessed, for he has chosen the narrow path that leads to eternal life!
"You have made known to me the path of life, You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand!" Psalm 16:11
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For the Love of God July 25, 2024, | Don Carson
Judges 8
In many ways, Gideon was a great man. Cautious when the Lord first called him, he took the first steps of obedience at night (Judg. 6). Then, filled with the Spirit of God (Judg. 6:34), and convinced by two extraordinary signs that God was with him (Judg. 6:36-40), he led his divinely reduced band of three hundred men in an extraordinary victory over the Midianites (Judg. 7).
Yet for all his greatness, Gideon represents something of what is going wrong with the nation. Deep flaws of character and inconsistency multiply and fester, so that by the end of the book the entire nation is in a very bad way.
In the first incident of Judges 8, Gideon comes off well, the Ephraimites pretty badly. No one was willing to fight the Midianites before God raised up Gideon. Now that victory under Gideon has already been so stunning, the Ephraimites abuse him for not inviting them into the fray earlier. He responds diplomatically, praising their efforts in the latter part of the operation, and they are appeased (Judg. 8: 1-3). At the towns of Succoth and Peniel, neither the towns nor Gideon appear in a very good light (Judg. 8:4-9, 13-17). The townspeople are cowardly, unprincipled, and willing to sit on the fence until they see which way the winds are blowing.
For all the justice of Gideon’s response, however, he seems more than a little vindictive. When it comes to the execution of the Midianite kings Zebah and Zalmunna (Judg. 8:18-21), his decision is based less on principles of public justice or on the Lord’s commands regarding the cleansing of the land than on personal vengeance: his own brothers had been killed in the war.
On the one hand, Gideon does not seem to be power hungry. He turns down the popular acclamation that would have made him king on the grounds that the Lord alone is to rule over this covenant nation (Judg. 8:22-23). But then he stumbles badly. He makes his request for gold earrings, and ends up with such a hoard that he constructs an elaborate ephod, an outer vestment adorned with more than forty pounds of gold. The state of religion in Israel is so deplorable that soon this ephod has become an idolatrous object of worship, not only for the nation but even for Gideon’s family (Judg. 8:27). The covenantal allegiance he maintains in the nation is partial.
There is worse trouble brewing. He takes not two or three wives, but many and has seventy sons. Upon his death, the nation returns to unrestrained paganism and displays ugly ingratitude toward Gideon’s family (Judg. 8:33-35). And one of his sons, Abimelech, turns out to be a cruel, power-hungry butcher (Judg. 9).
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July 25 Satan’s Strategy and Your Defense
Devotional by John Piper
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith. (1 Peter 5:8–9)
The two great enemies of our souls are sin and Satan. And sin is the worst enemy, because the only way that Satan can destroy us is by getting us to sin, and keeping us from repenting. The only thing that damns us is unforgiven sin. Not Satan.
God may give him leash enough to rough us up, the way he did Job, or even to kill us, the way he did the saints in Smyrna (Revelation 2:10); but Satan cannot condemn us or rob us of eternal life. The only way he can do us ultimate harm is by influencing us to sin, and keep us from repentance. Which is exactly what he aims to do.
So, Satan’s main business is to advocate, promote, assist, titillate, and confirm our bent to sinning. And to keep us from faith and repentance.
We see this in Ephesians 2:1–2: “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked . . . according to the prince of the power of the air” (NASB). Sinning “accords” with Satan’s power in the world. When he brings about moral evil, it is through sin. When we sin, we move in his sphere. We come into accord with him. When we sin, we give place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27).
The only thing that will condemn us at the judgment day is unforgiven sin — not sickness or afflictions or persecutions or intimidations or apparitions or nightmares. Satan knows this. Therefore, his great focus is not primarily on how to scare Christians with weird phenomena (though there’s plenty of that), but on how to corrupt Christians with worthless fads and evil thoughts.
Satan wants to catch us at a time when our faith is not firm, when it is vulnerable. It makes sense that the very thing Satan wants to destroy would also be the means of our resisting his efforts. That’s why Peter says, “Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:9). It is also why Paul says that the “shield of faith” can “extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16).
The way to thwart the devil is to strengthen the very thing he is trying most to destroy — your faith.
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Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2024 21:25:31 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! (Psalm 34:9)
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This truth should fill us with a profound sense of awe and reverence! (Anonymous)
In the book of Isaiah, the prophet delivers a powerful message from the Lord, that speaks to His sovereignty and authority of God over all things in His creation!
In Isaiah 45:7, we read these profound words: "I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things."
This verse reminds us of the absolute supremacy of our Almighty God, who is in complete control of everything that transpires in His universe. He is the source of both light and darkness, of peace and calamity. Nothing escapes His divine oversight and purpose.
As believers, this truth should fill us with a profound sense of awe and reverence for the Creator and Governor of our world. It means that even in the midst of life's most difficult trials and tribulations, we can find solace in knowing that our sovereign God is orchestrating all things according to His perfect will.
The light may give way to darkness, and peace may give way to calamity--but through it all, we can trust that the Lord is working out His eternal plan.
This verse calls us to humbly submit to God's authority, and to find our refuge in Him alone; for He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End--the One who holds all things in the palm of His hand! As we cling to this truth, it will strengthen our faith, even in the darkest of circumstances.
"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose!" Romans 8:28
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For the Love of God July 24, 2024, | Don Carson
Acts 11
What is striking about Acts 11:1-18 is the amount of space devoted to retelling the narrative already laid out in some detail in Acts 10, often in the very same words. Isn’t this a rather extravagant use of the space on a scroll?
But Luke sees this as a turning point. Peter is called on the carpet by the churches in Judea for going into the house of an uncircumcised person and eating with him (Acts 11:3). Peter retells his experience. The vision of the sheet with the unclean animals, its repetition three times, the instruction from the Spirit to go with the Gentile messengers, the fact that six of the (Jewish) brothers accompanied him and therefore could corroborate his story, the descent of the Spirit in the manner that tied this even to Pentecost, the linking of this with the words of the Lord Jesus — all lead to Peter’s careful conclusion: “So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?” (Acts 11:17).
Now some observations:
(1) Although Peter’s argument proves convincing (Acts 11:18), this does not mean that all of the theological implications have been worked out. This might be well and good for the Gentiles, and a matter for rejoicing. But many questions have not yet been thought through: Will the Gentiles have to be circumcised? Will they come under the kosher food laws after believing in Jesus? If not, are Jews permitted to abandon such laws, or was Peter a one-time exception? Should there be two quite different churches, one Jewish and one Gentile? What should the Gentiles obey? What is the relationship between this new covenant and the old one? Many of these questions are precipitated in the following chapters.
(2) The primary significance of this baptism in the Spirit is a little different than in Acts 2. Here, the dramatic expressions serve to authenticate this group of new converts to the mother church in Jerusalem — an irrelevant function at Pentecost.
(3) Next we hear of widespread, if unplanned, promulgation of the Gospel among Jews and Gentiles alike (Acts 11:19ff.), generating a further crisis. Now the Jerusalem leaders must deal not with an individual or a household that is Gentile, but with an entire church that is predominantly Gentile. They show great wisdom. The envoy they send, Barnabas, displays no evidence of having great theological acuity. But he can see that this is the work of the Spirit, and promptly encourages the new converts to pursue God faithfully — and soon sends off for the best Bible teacher he knows for a mixed race church like this one (Acts 11:25-26). That is how Saul of Tarsus comes to be associated with this great church.
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July 24 Jesus Keeps His Sheep Devotional by John Piper
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31–32)
Though Peter, in fact, failed miserably, by denying Jesus three times, the prayer of Jesus preserved him from utter ruin. He was brought to bitter weeping and restored to the joy and boldness that showed itself in Peter’s message at Pentecost. Jesus is interceding for us today in the same way that our faith might not fail. Paul says this in Romans 8:34.
Jesus promised that his sheep would be preserved and never perish. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27–28).
The reason for this is that God works to preserve the faith of the sheep. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
We are not left to ourselves to fight the fight of faith. “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
You have the assurance of God’s word that, if you are his child, he will “equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ” (Hebrews 13:21).
Our endurance in faith and joy is finally and decisively in the hands of God. Yes, we must fight. But this very fight is what God works in us. And he most certainly will do it, for, as it says in Romans 8:30, “Those whom he justified he also glorified.” The glorification of God’s justified children is as good as done.
He will lose none of those he has brought to faith and justified.
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Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2024 21:29:38 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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David A. Mapes
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The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Psalm 34:7
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This baffles all comprehension! (John MacDuff, 1874)
John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us!"
Philippians 2:7-8, "He emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross!"
What a stoop for that Infinite Being who proclaimed Himself as the Alpha and the Omega! What a transition for "the Ancient of days" to assume the nature and take the form of a helpless infant, sleeping on a virgin mother's bosom!
We have no plumb line to sound the depths of His humiliation. We have no arithmetic with which it can be calculated.
If we can entertain for a moment the shocking supposition of the loftiest angel in Heaven laying aside his angel nature, and becoming an insect or a worm--we can, in some feeble degree, estimate the humiliation involved in that angel's abasement.
But, for the Infinite and eternal God Himself, to become incarnate; for the Creator, to take the nature of a creature; for Deity, to be linked with dust--this baffles all comprehension!
We can only fall down in adoring reverence, and exclaim with the apostle, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!" Romans 11:33
"Wonder, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth!"
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For the Love of God July 22, 2024, | Don Carson
Acts 9
What was Paul’s perspective before he was converted (Acts 9)? Elsewhere (Acts 22:2; Acts 23:6; Phil. 3:4-6) he tells us that he was a strict Pharisee, brought up (apparently) in Jerusalem, taught by one of the most renowned rabbis of the day. For him, the notion of a crucified Messiah was a contradiction in terms. Messiahs rule, they triumph, they win. The LAW insists that those who hang on a tree are cursed by God. Surely, therefore, the insistence that Jesus is the Messiah is not only stupid, but verges on the blasphemous. It might lead to political insurrection: the fledgling church was growing, and might become a dangerous block. It had to be stopped; indeed, what was needed was a man of courage like Saul, a man like Phinehas who averted the wrath of God by his decisive action against the perverters of truth and probity (Num. 25), someone who really understood the implications of these wretched delusions and who saw there they would lead.
But now on the Damascus Road Saul meets the resurrected, glorified Jesus. Whether he had seen him before we cannot be sure; that he sees him now, Saul cannot doubt. And a great deal of his theology, worked out and displayed in his letters, stems from that brute fact.
If Jesus were alive and glorified, then somehow his death on the cross did not prove he was damned. Far from it: the claim of believers that God had raised him from the dead, and that they had seen him, must be true — and that could only mean that God had vindicated Jesus. Then what on earth did his death mean?
From that vantage point, everything looked different. If Jesus was under the curse of God when he died, yet was vindicated by God himself, he must have died for others. Somehow his death absorbed the righteous curse of God that was due others and canceled it out. In that light, the entire history of the Hebrew Scriptures looked different.
Was it not written that a Suffering Servant (see yesterday’s meditation) would be wounded for our transgressions and chastised for our iniquities? Does the death of countless lambs and bulls really take away human sin? Or do we need, as it were, a human “lamb of God,” a human “Passover Lamb”? If the tabernacle and temple rituals are read as pointing to the final solution, what does scriptural texts that promise a new covenant, a great outpouring of the Spirit in the last days (Acts 2:17-21; see Joel 2:28-32)? What place does the promise to Abraham have in the scheme of things, that in Abraham’s offspring all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3)?
Grant that Jesus is alive and vindicated, and everything changes.
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JULY 22 Preach to Yourself Devotional by John Piper
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:11)
We must learn to fight despondency — the downcast spirit. The fight is a fight of faith in future grace. It is fought by preaching truth to ourselves about God and his promised future.
This is what the psalmist does in Psalm 42. The psalmist preaches to his troubled soul. He scolds himself and argues with himself. And his main argument is future grace: “Hope in God! Trust in what God will be for you in the future. A day of praise is coming. The presence of the Lord will be all the help you need. And he has promised to be with us forever.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones believes this issue of preaching truth to ourselves about God’s future grace is all-important in overcoming spiritual depression. In his helpful book, Spiritual Depression, he writes,
Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. . . . Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, “Self, listen for a moment. I will speak to you.” (20–21)
The battle against despondency is a battle to believe the promises of God. And that belief in God’s future grace comes by hearing the word. And so preaching to ourselves the word of God is at the heart of the battle.
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Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2024 21:31:03 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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Lord’s Day DAYSTAR-TERS:
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Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. Psalm 34:5-6
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The real reason why unbelievers hate God's Word!
(Charles Simeon)
John 3:19-20, "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed!"
The real reason why unbelievers hate God's Word, is because they will not part with those sins which His Word condemns! Nor will they practice those holy duties which the Word commands!
If they were willing to renounce their sins, they would find the Word of God to be precious and delightful to them, as an inexhaustible ocean of encouragement!
But unbelievers hate to hear of: the wickedness of their hearts, the insufficiency of their best works to bring them to God, the impossibility of being saved without an entire dependence on the sin-atoning merits of Christ, the necessity an unreserved surrender to His will as seen in Scripture.
Their pride and self-sufficiency are insurmountable obstacles to the proper reception of Scriptural instruction. They hate to be told that they are spiritually wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked before a holy God!
They abhor to walk in the path of the righteous. They simply will not forsake the path of sin, which infallibly leads to destruction!
It is in vain that the Scripture shows them the only genuine way to Heaven. They will never forsake that broad road of sin which inevitably leads to damnation!
Between God and the unbeliever who perishes in his sins, there is a great gulf fixed--a gulf that never can be passed. Once entered into the eternal world, the unbeliever has his state fixed forever! The man who dies unbelieving and impenitent, will bewail his folly in irremediable and everlasting misery!
"For they are a rebellious people, unwilling to hear the instruction of the Lord. They say to the seers, "Do not see!" And to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us what is right. Speak to us smooth things. Prophesy illusions. Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel!" Isaiah 30:9-11 (condensed)
"They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness!" 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12
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Feel free to forward these gems to others who may be encouraged or profited by them!
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For the Love of God July 21, 2024, | Don Carson
Devotional: Acts 8
The conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40) marks an important extension of the Gospel across several barriers.
We need to understand who he was. He was “an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians” (Acts 8:27). Candace was a family name that had become a title, quite like Caesar in Rome. In certain matriarchal governments, it was not uncommon for the highest officials, who would have had ready access to Candace, to be eunuchs (whether they were born that way or castrated), for the obvious protection of the queen.
This man was equivalent to U. S. Secretary of the Treasury or the like. But although he was an honored and powerful political figure at home, he would have faced limitations in Jerusalem. Since he had gone up to Jerusalem to worship (Acts 8:27), we must assume that he had come across Judaism, had been attracted to it, and had gone up to Jerusalem for one of the feasts. But he could not have become a proper proselyte, since from the Jewish perspective he was mutilated. The Word of God had seized this man, and he had traveled for several weeks to see Jerusalem and its temple.
In the sheer providence of God, the passage the eunuch was reading, apparently out loud (Acts 8:30 –a not uncommon practice in those days) was Isaiah 53. He asks the obvious question (Acts 8:34): Who is the Suffering Servant of whom Isaiah speaks? “Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35).
Thus the Gospel reaches outward in the book of Acts. All the first converts were Jews, whether reared in the Promised Land or gathered from the dispersion. But the beginning of Acts 8 witnesses the conversion of Samaritans — a certain people of mixed race, only partly Jewish, joined to the mother church in Jerusalem by the hands of the apostles Peter and John. The next conversion is that of the eunuch — an African, not at all Jewish — sufficiently devoted to Judaism to take the pilgrimage to Jerusalem even though he could never be a full-fledged proselyte; a man steeped in the Jewish Scriptures even when he could not understand them.
Small wonder that the next major event in this book is the conversion of the man who would become the apostle to the Gentiles.
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JULY 21 Models for Combating Discouragement
Devotional by John Piper
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26)
Literally the verb is simply fail, not “may fail.” This God-besotted psalmist, Asaph, says, “My flesh and my heart fail!” I am despondent! I am discouraged! But then immediately he fires a broadside against his despondency: “But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
The psalmist does not yield to discouragement. He battles unbelief with counterattack.
In essence, he says, “In myself I feel very weak and helpless and unable to cope. My body is shot, and my heart is almost dead. But whatever the reason for this despondency, I will not yield. I will trust God and not myself. He is my strength and my portion.”
The Bible is replete with instances of saints struggling with sunken spirits. Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” This is a clear admission that the soul of the saint sometimes needs to be revived. And if it needs to be revived, in a sense it was “dead.” That’s the way it felt.
David says the same thing in Psalm 23:2–3, “He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” The soul of the “man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14) needs to be restored. It was dying of thirst and ready to fall exhausted, but God led the soul to water and gave it life again.
God has put these testimonies in the Bible so that we might use them to fight the unbelief of despondency. And we fight with the blast of faith in God’s promises: “God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” We preach that to ourselves. And we thrust it into Satan’s face. And we believe it.
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Post by Admin on Aug 4, 2024 22:57:27 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD, exulting in his salvation. All my bones shall say, “O LORD, who is like you, delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him, the poor and needy from him who robs him?” Psalm 35:9-10
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We can be assured that our efforts will bear eternal fruit that will last! -- (Anonymous)
In the apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church, he offers a profound and inspiring message that speaks directly to the heart of the Christian life. In 1 Corinthians 15:58, Paul exhorts his beloved brothers and sisters to be "steadfast" and "immovable" in their faith and service to the Lord. This is a powerful call to unwavering commitment, to stand firm in the face of any trial or temptation that may come our way.
But Paul goes even further, urging us to be "always abounding in the work of the Lord." This is a reminder that our faith is not meant to be passive or stagnant, but rather an active, vibrant expression of our love and devotion to Christ. We are to be constantly engaged in the work of the kingdom, using our God-given gifts and talents to advance His purposes in the world.
And undergirding it all is the assurance that our "toil is not in vain in the Lord." No matter the challenges we face, no matter the setbacks or disappointments we endure, we can be confident that our labor for Christ will not be wasted. Our faithful endurance and cheerful service will be rewarded by the One who sees all and knows all!
This promise should fill our hearts with hope, courage, and an unshakable determination to keep pressing on, to keep fighting the good fight of faith. For when we are steadfast, immovable, and abounding in the Lord's work, we can be assured that our efforts will bear eternal fruit that will last!
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Feel free to forward these gems to others who may be encouraged or profited by them!
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For the Love of God August 04, 2024, | Don Carson
Devotional: Judges 18
Perhaps an innocent reader might have hoped that yesterday’s reading (Judg. 17) reflected a minor aberration among the people of God. Today’s (Judg. 18) makes that hope less sanguine: one entire tribe of Israel is off the rails, and doubtless others as well.
The historical setting is still early enough that not all the tribes have captured all the land that is to be theirs. That is certainly true of Dan (Judg. 18:1). So the Danites send out five soldiers to spy out the terrain, and eventually stumble across the house of Micah. There they find the young Levite, and either recognize him from some previous encounter, or else recognize him for what he is, perhaps by over-hearing his praying or study (which was often done out loud). They inquire of him whether their trip will be successful. Perhaps the “ephod” Micah has made (Judg. 17:5) includes something like the Urim and Thummim for discerning, ostensibly, the will of the Lord. In any case, he reassures them and they go on their way.
The soldiers spy out the town of Laish, which was not part of the land that had been assigned to them. But it looks like a soft and attractive target, and they report accordingly. When six hundred armed Danites return, they interrupt their military raid to walk off with all of Micah’s household gods, not to mention the young Levite priest and the ephod, for clearly they think of this as a way of bringing “luck”or at least direction to their enterprise, The Levite himself is delighted: to him, this feels like a promotion (Judg. 18:20). But can “bought” clergy ever exercise a prophetic witness?
When he and his men catch up with this warrior band, Micah frankly sounds pathetic: “You took the gods I made, and my priest, and went away. What else do I have? How can you ask, ‘What’s the matter with you?’” (Judg.18:24). He detects no irony in his own utterance, the sheer futility of attaching so much to gods you have made.
The Danites threaten to annihilate Micah and his household, and that settles the matter. Might, not justice or integrity, rules the land. The Danites capture Laish, attacking “a peaceful and unsuspecting people” (Judg. 18:27), and rename the place Dan. There they set up their idols, and the young Levite, now identified as a direct descendant of Moses (Judg.18:30), functions as their tribal priest, and passes on this legacy to his sons, even while the tabernacle still remains in its rightful place in Shiloh (Judg. 18:30-31).
The levels of covenantal faithlessness in the religious realm are multiplied by increased violence, tribal selfishness, personal aspirations of power, ingratitude, crude threats, and massive superstition. It is not uncommon for these sins to grow together.
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August 4 As Secure as God Is Faithful Devotional by John Piper
Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)
Between eternity past in God’s predestination, and eternity future in God’s glorification, none is lost.
No one who is predestined for sonship fails to be called. And no one who is called fails to be justified. And no one who is justified fails to be glorified. This is an unbreakable steel chain of divine covenant faithfulness.
And so Paul says,
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)
[He] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:8–9)
These are the promises of our God who cannot lie. Those who are born again are as secure as God is faithful
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Post by Admin on Aug 5, 2024 13:20:07 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know. They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft. But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning. Psalm 35:11-14
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The deadliness of worldliness! (Charles Simeon)
James 4:4, "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God!"
One diseased man may spread his infection to many others; but ten healthy men cannot impart all their health to another. In the same way, it is quite easy to contract defilement from the ungodly.
It is common for Christians to associate with the world, under an idea of doing good unto them. They forget how much more likely they themselves are to contract evil from them, than to impart to them any substantial benefit.
The apostle Paul cautions us that, "Bad company corrupts good character!" 1 Corinthians 15:33. Experience proves the truth of Paul's warning; for there is scarcely a Christian who needlessly
associates much with the world, but he imbibes something of their sentiments; and in heart, declines from God.
I do not mean to say, that all connection with ungodly men should be avoided; for "then we would have to go out of the world." Our duties in civil and social life require some measure of interaction with them.
Yet we should ever be aware of the danger of contagion from the ungodly. We should mix with them as a Physician mixes with his diseased patients; having in our minds a desire to do good to them, and exerting our influence for that end; and then withdrawing when we have fulfilled our duty--happy to breathe a purer atmosphere, and to associate with god-fearing men.
This is the teaching prescribed for us in the Scriptures:
"We are not to be conformed to this sinful world!" Romans 12:2
We are "not to be of this sinful world, any more than Jesus Christ was of it!" John 17:14-16
Nor are we to "love any of the world's ensnaring vanities!" 1 John 2:15-16
Our affections must rather be "set on things above!" Colossians 3:2
We must realize that "our citizenship is in Heaven!" Philippians 3:20
We must be ever on our guard to keep our garments clean! Revelation 3:4
We must recognize that it is almost impossible to come into companionship with the ungodly, without contracting some defilement from them!
"Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the LORD. Don't touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty!" 2 Corinthians 6:17-18
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Feel free to forward these gems to others who may be encouraged or profited by them!
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For the Love of God August 05, 2024, | Don Carson
Devotional: Judges 19
By the time we reach Judges 19, the law of the jungle has triumphed in the fledging nation of Israel.
The Levite introduced to us at this point takes on a concubine. (Levites were supposed to marry only virgins; see Lev. 21:7, 13-15.) She sleeps around and moves out, returning to her father’s home. In due course the Levite wants her back, so he travels to Bethlehem and finds her. Owing to a late start on the return trip, they can’t make the journey home in one day. Owing to a late start on the return trip, they can’t make the journey home in one day. Preferring not to stop in one of the Canaanite towns, they press on to Gibeah, a Benjamite settlement. A local homeowner warns the Levite and his concubine not to stay in the town square overnight — it is far too dangerous. And he takes them in.
During the night, a mob of lusty hooligans want the homeowner to send out the Levite so they can sodomize him. That is stunning. In the first place, by the social standards of the ancient Near East, it was unthinkable not to show hospitality — and they want to gang rape a visitor. And as the account progresses, it is very clear that they will happily rape males or females — they don’t really care.
But perhaps the ugliest moment in the narrative occurs when the homeowner, remembering the rules of hospitality and doubtless frightened for himself as well, offers them his daughter and the Levite’s concubine. The account is crisp and brief, but it does not take much imagination to conjure up their terror — two women not defended by their men but abandoned and betrayed by them and offered to a howling mob insists that even that isn’t enough, so the Levite shoves his concubine out the door, alone. So began her last night on earth in a small town belonging to the people of God.
The morning dawns to find the Levite ordering this woman to get up; it’s time to go. Only then does he discover she is dead. He hauls her corpse back home, cuts her up into twelve pieces, and sends one piece to each part of Israel, saying, in effect: When does the violence stop? At what point do we put our collective foot down and reverse these horrible trends?
“In those days Israel had no king” (Judg. 19:1).
Yet what about his own profound complicity and cowardice? The sheer horror of the dismembered body parts was bound to stir up a reaction, but by this time it could not be the righteous reaction of biblically thoughtful and restrained people. Only the naive could imagine that the outcome would be anything other than a descent into a maelstrom of evil and violence.
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August 5 10 Things “Yahweh” Means Devotional by John Piper
God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.” (Exodus 3:15)
God’s name is almost always translated LORD (all caps) in the English Bible. But the Hebrew would be pronounced something like “Yahweh,” and is built on the word for “I am.”
So every time we hear the word Yahweh, or every time you see LORD in the English Bible, you should think: this is a proper name (like Peter or John) built out of the word for “I am” and reminding us each time that God absolutely is.
There are at least 10 things the name Yahweh, “I AM,” says about God:
1. He never had a beginning. Every child asks, “Who made God?” And every wise parent says, “Nobody made God. God simply is. And always was. No beginning.”
2. God will never end. If he did not come into being he cannot go out of being, because he is being.
3. God is absolute reality. There is no reality before him. There is no reality outside of him unless he wills it and makes it. He is all that was eternally. No space, no universe, no emptiness. Only God.
4. God is utterly independent. He depends on nothing to bring him into being or support him or counsel him or make him what he is.
5. Everything that is not God depends totally on God. The entire universe is utterly secondary. It came into being by God and stays in being moment by moment on God’s decision to keep it in being.
6. All the universe is by comparison to God as nothing. Contingent, dependent reality is to absolute, independent reality as a shadow to substance. As an echo to a thunderclap. All that we are amazed by in the world and in the galaxies is, compared to God, as nothing.
7. God is constant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He cannot be improved. He is not becoming anything. He is who he is.
8. God is the absolute standard of truth and goodness and beauty. There is no law-book to which he looks to know what is right. No almanac to establish facts. No guild to determine what is excellent or beautiful. He himself is the standard of what is right, what is true, what is beautiful.
9. God does whatever he pleases and it is always right and always beautiful and always in accord with truth. All reality that is outside of him he created and designed and governs as the absolute reality. So he is utterly free from any constraints that don’t originate from the counsel of his own will.
10. God is the most important and most valuable reality and person in the universe. He is more worthy of interest and attention and admiration and enjoyment than all other realities, including the entire universe.
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Post by Admin on Aug 7, 2024 15:03:56 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions! I will thank you in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise you. Psalm 35:17-18
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I am with you always! (J.C. Ryle, "The Gospel of Matthew" 1856)
"Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:20
It is impossible to conceive words…more comforting, more strengthening, more cheering, and more sanctifying than these.
Though left alone, like orphan children in a cold, unkind world--the disciples were not to think they were deserted. Their Master would be ever "with them." Though commissioned to do a work as hard as that of Moses when sent to Pharaoh, they were not to be discouraged. Their Master would certainly be "with them."
No words could be imagined more consolatory to believers in every age of the world. Let all true Christians lay hold on these words and keep them in mind.
Christ is "with us" always.
Christ is "with us," wherever we go.
He came to be "Emmanuel, God with us," when He first came into the world. He declares that He is ever "Emmanuel, God with us," when He comes to the end of His earthly ministry and is about to leave the world. He is…with us daily, to pardon and forgive; with us daily, to sanctify and strengthen; with us daily, to defend and keep; with us daily, to lead and to guide; with us in sorrow, and with us in joy; with us in sickness, and with us in health; with us in life, and with us in death; with us in time, and with us in eternity.
What stronger consolation could believers desire than this? Whatever happens, they are never completely friendless and alone. Christ is ever with them. They may look into the grave, and say with David, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for You are with me." They may look forward beyond the grave, and say with Paul, "we shall be with the Lord forever!"
We could ask nothing more. None have…such a King, such a Priest, such a constant Companion, and such an unfailing Friend, as the true servants of Christ.
He has said it, and He will stand to it, "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you!" Hebrews 13:5
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Feel free to forward these gems to others who may be encouraged or profited by them!
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For the Love of God August 07, 2024, | Don Carson
Devotional: Judges 21
The last wretched step in the violence precipitated by the rape and murder of the Levite’s concubine now plays out (Judg. 21). In a fury of vengeance, the Israelites have swept through the tribal territory of Benjamin, annihilating men, women, children, and cattle (Judg. 20:48). The only Benjamites left are 600 armed men who have holed up in a stronghold at Rimmon (Judg. 20:47). But now the rest of the nation is entertaining second thoughts. As part of their sanctions against Benjamin, they had vowed not to give any of their daughters to a Benjamine. If they keep their vow, Benjamites will die off: only male Benjamites are left.
Their solution is as nauseating, cruel, and barbaric as anything they have done. They discover that one large town in Israel, Jabesh Gilead, never responded to the initial call to arm. Partly as punishment, partly as a way of finding Israelite women, the Israelite forces destroy Jabesh Gilead, killing all the men and all the women who are not virgins (Judg. 21:10-14). This tactic provides 400 wives for the 600 surviving Benjamites. The ruse for finding a further 200 is scarcely less evil.
The remaining 200 Benjamites are given sanction to kidnap suitable women at a festival time in Shiloh, their fathers and brothers being warned off (Judg. 20:20-23). So the tribe of Benjamin, greatly reduced in numbers, survives. One can scarcely imagine the multiplied levels of bitterness, grief, fear, resentment, loneliness, retaliation, furious rage, and billowing bereavement that attended these “solutions.”
By now it is clear that the Israelites face two kinds of problems in the book of Judges. The presenting problem, as often as not, is enslavement or repression from one or other of the Canaanite tribes that share much of the land or that live not far away. When the people cry to him, God repeatedly raises up a hero to rescue them. But the other problem is far deeper. It is the rebellion itself, the chronic and persistent abandonment of the God who rescued them from Egypt and who entered into a solemn covenant with them. This issues not only in more cycles of oppression from without, but in spiraling decadence and disorientation within.
For the fifth and final time, the writer of Judges offers his analysis. “In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as he saw fit” (Judg. 21:25). How this nation needs a king — to order it, stabilize it, defend it, maintain justice, lead it, pull it together. But will he be a king who solves the problems, or whose dynasty becomes part of the problem? Thus a new chapter in Israel’s history opens. A new, royal institution soon becomes no less problematic — until he comes who is King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16).
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August 7 The Point of Creation Devotional by John Piper
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)
God made humans in his image so that the world would be filled with reflectors of God. Images of God. Seven billion statues of God. So that nobody would miss the point of creation.
Nobody (unless they are stone blind) could miss the point of humanity, namely, God — knowing, loving, showing God. The angels cry in Isaiah 6:3, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” It is full of billions of human image-bearers. Glorious ruins.
But not only humans. Also nature! Why such a breathtaking world for us to live in? Why such a vast universe?
I once read that there are more stars in the universe than there are words and sounds that all humans of all time have ever spoken. Why are there so many? So large? So bright? At such unimaginable distances? The Bible is crystal clear about this: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1).
If someone asks, “If earth is the only inhabited planet and man the only rational inhabitant among the stars, why such a large and empty universe?” The answer is: It’s not about us. It’s about God. And it’s an understatement. He is more glorious. Greater in power. Greater in scope. Greater brightness. Than all the galaxies combined. One wise man said, the universe is like a peanut that God carries around in his pocket.
God created us to know him and love him and show him. And then he gave us a hint of what he is like: the universe.
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Post by Admin on Aug 9, 2024 10:47:14 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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You have seen, O LORD; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me! Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord! Vindicate me, O LORD, my God, according to your righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me! Let them not say in their hearts, “Aha, our heart’s desire!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.” Psalm 35:22-25
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Dying grace and strength (Maria Sandberg, 1880)
Many, including genuine Christians, suffer much due to the fear of death. But let us meditate on this assurance of our Savior, and see if faith in His blessed words will not chase away some portion, at least, of that fear of death which is so natural to man: "I am the living one. I died, but look--I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave!" Revelation 1:18
Jesus your Savior has the keys of of death and the grave--that is, of the unseen world. Oh! believer, you have trusted your Savior often, and will you not trust Him yet again? You have trusted in Him, and have not feared coming trials--and will you not trust in Him for dying grace and strength?
He died to take away sin--the sting of death. He lives, yes, He is alive for evermore, to be with His people in their last hour, and to give them the victory over their last enemy, death!
How often does He give a visible triumph to His servants in a dying hour: Fears are taken away, joy abounds, and Jesus is present to conduct them over the river of death. Fear not, then, O timid soul. Do not be anxious about dying. Jesus will give dying grace, to His dying people.
Jesus, your Savior, has the keys of death and the grave. Trust in Him who died for you, but is alive forever and ever!
"The last enemy to be destroyed is death!" 1 Corinthians 15:26
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin…
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" 1 Corinthians 15:55-57
"He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign LORD will wipe away all tears!" Isaiah 25:8
" . . . our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." 2 Timothy 1:10
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!" Revelation 14:13
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Feel free to forward these gems to others who may be encouraged or profited by them!
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For the Love of God August 09, 2024, | Don Carson
Ruth 2
The narrator has already told us that when Naomi and Ruth arrive back in Bethlehem it was the time of barley harvest (Ruth 1:22). Now (Ruth 2) the significance of that bit of information is played out.
It was long-standing tradition, stemming from Mosaic Law, that landowners would not be too scrupulous about picking up every bit of produce from their land. That left something for the poor to forage (cf. Deut. 24:19-22; see meditation for June 19). So Ruth goes out and works behind the proper reapers in a field not too far from Jerusalem. She could not know that this field belonged to a wealthy landowner called Boaz — a distant relative of Naomi’s and Ruth’s future husband.
The story is touching, with decent people acting decently on all fronts. On the one hand, Ruth proves to be a hard worker, barely stopping for rest (Ruth 2:7). She is painfully aware of her alien status (Ruth 2:10), but treats the locals with respect and courtesy. When she brings her hoard back to Naomi and relates all that has happened, another small aside reminds us that for a single woman to engage in such work at this point in Israel’s history was almost to invite molestation (Ruth 2:22) — which attests her courage and stamina.
Naomi sees the hand of God. From a merely pragmatic perspective of gaining enough to eat, she is grateful, but when she hears the name of the man who owns the field, she not only recognizes the safety that this will provide for Ruth, but she realizes that Boaz is one of their “kinsman-redeemers” (Ruth 2:20) — that is, one of those who under so-called levirate law could marry Ruth, with the result that their first son would carry on the legitimate rights and property entitlements of her original husband.
But it is Boaz who is, perhaps, seen in the best light. Without a trace of romance at this stage, he shows himself to be not only concerned for the poor, but a man who is touched by the calamities of others, and who quietly wants to help. He has heard of Naomi’s return and of the persistent faithfulness of this young Moabitess. He instructs his own workers to provide for her needs, to ensure her safety, and even leave behind some extra bits of grain so that Ruth’s labor will be well rewarded.
Above all, he is a man of faith as well as of integrity, a point we hear in his first conversation with the woman who would one day be his bride: “May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (Ruth 2:12). Well said — for the Lord is no one’s debtor.
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August 9 The End of the Gospel Devotional by John Piper
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:9–11)
What do we need to be saved from? Verse 9 states it clearly: the wrath of God. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” But is that the highest, best, fullest, most satisfying prize of the gospel?
No. Verse 10 says “much more . . . shall we be saved by his life.” Then verse 11 takes it all the way up to the ultimate end and goal of the gospel: “more than that, we also rejoice in God.”
That is the final and highest good of the good news. There is not another “more than that” after that. There is only Paul’s saying how we got there, “through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
The end of the gospel is “we rejoice in God.” The highest, fullest, deepest, sweetest good of the gospel is God himself, enjoyed by his redeemed people.
God in Christ became the price (Romans 5:6–8), and God in Christ became the prize (Romans 5:11).
The gospel is the good news that God bought for us the everlasting enjoyment of God.
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Post by Admin on Aug 9, 2024 12:27:06 GMT -5
David A. Mapes
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Thurs-DAYSTAR-ters:
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Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause. For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they devise words of deceit. They open wide their mouths against me; they say, “Aha, Aha! Our eyes have seen it!” Psalm 35:19-21
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A religious man
(Horatius Bonar, "The Doom of the Double Hearted")
Then Balaam uttered this oracle: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!" Numbers 23:7, 10
"They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness!" 2 Peter 2:15
Balaam is a specimen of multitudes in these last days. An educated and intelligent man, shrewd and quick seeing, of respectable character, high in favor with the rich and great--a religious man too, after a fashion.
But he is fond of the world, fond of money, fond of preferment. He is one who would not let his religion stand in the way of his advancement. He could pocket all scruples, if only he could pocket a little gold along with them. He is hollow of heart, but with an acceptable outside.
His worldly interests are the main thing to him. He would rather not risk offending God, but yet he would not like to lose Balak's rewards and honors. He would rather not take up his cross, nor deny himself, nor forsake all for God.
So is it with multitudes among us! They want as much religion as they imagine will save them from Hell--and not an atom more!
The world is their real God. Gold is their idol. It is in mammon's temple that they worship.
Love God with all their heart? They don't so much as understand the meaning of such a thing.
Sacrifice riches, place, honor, friends to Christ? They scoff at the thing as madness.
Don't trifle with religion. Don't mock God. Do not love the world. Be pious in your inmost soul. Don't mistake sentimentalism for genuine piety; or a good character for the New Birth.
This world OR the world to come--that is the alternative; not this world AND the world to come. Christ must be all--or nothing! No middle ground; no half discipleship; no compromise. The friendship of the world is enmity with God. Come out and be separate. The New Birth, or no religion at all.
Then Balaam uttered this oracle: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!" Numbers 23:7, 10
"They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness!" 2 Peter 2:15
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Feel free to forward these gems to others who may be encouraged or profited by them!
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For the Love of God August 08, 2024, | Don Carson
Devotional: Ruth 1
There is scarcely a more attractive figure in all of Scripture than Ruth.
She is a Moabitess (Ruth 1:4). She lives in troubled times, and faces her own terrible grief. She and another Moabitess, Orpah, marry two recent immigrants called Mahlon and Kilion. These two men and their parents had arrived in Moabite territory to escape famine back home in Bethlehem. Some years pass, and the men’s father — Elimelech — dies. Then both Mahlon and Kilion die. That leaves the three women: the Moabitesses’ mother-in-law Naomi, and the two Moabitesses themselves, Orpah and Ruth.
When Naomi hears that the famine back home is over, which was the original reason for their migration to Moab, she decides to go home. Families often worked in extended clan relationships. She would be looked after, and the pain of her loneliness would be mitigated. Wisely, she encourages her two daughters-in-law to stay in their own land, with their own people, language, and culture. Who knows? In time they might even find new mates. Certainly they cannot reasonably expect Naomi to produce them!
So Orpah accepts the counsel, stays home in Moab, and nothing more is heard of her again. But Ruth clings to Naomi: “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried” (Ruth 1:16-17). She even puts herself under the threat of a curse. “May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me” (Ruth 1:17).
Ruth does not mean this to sound heroic. She is simply speaking out of her heart. Had she come to a genuine and consistent faith in the Lord God during her ten-year marriage? What kind of solid and subtle links had been forged between Ruth and the Israelite members of this extended family, and in particular between Ruth and Naomi?
Our culture makes all kinds of snide remarks about mothers-in-law. But many a mother-in-law is remarkably unselfish, and establishes relationships with her daughters-in-law that are as godly and as deep as the best of those between mothers and daughters. So, apparently, here. Ruth is prepared to abandon her own people, culture, land, and even religion, provided she can stay with Naomi and help her.
She could not have known that in making that choice she would soon find herself married again. She could not have known that that marriage would make her an ancestor not only of the imposing Davidic dynasty, but of the supreme King who centuries later would spring from it.
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August 8 Ruler of All Nature Devotional by John Piper
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. (Proverbs 16:33)
In modern language we would say, “The dice are rolled on the table, and every play is decided by God.”
In other words, there are no events so small that he does not rule them for his purposes. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?” Jesus said. “And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:29–30).
Every roll of the dice in Las Vegas, every tiny bird that falls dead in a thousand forests — all of this is God’s command.
In the book of Jonah, God commands a fish to swallow a man (1:17), he commands a plant to grow for shade (4:6), and he commands a worm to kill it (4:7).
And far above the life of fish and worms, the stars take their place and hold their place at God’s command.
Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. (Isaiah 40:26)
How much more, then, the natural events of this world — from weather to disasters to disease to disability to death.
His law he enforces; the stars in their courses and sun in its orbit obediently shine; the hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains, the deeps of the ocean proclaim him divine. (“Let All Things Now Living,” Katherine Davis)
Let us therefore stand in awe and be at peace, knowing that no natural event is outside of God’s wise and good purposes, and perfect control.
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