Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time being shaped by the Word is 2 Timothy 2.
Lord,
Make me faithful to take what You teach me and teach it to others who will teach others (2:2). Give me the courage to risk getting hurt fighting for You. Keep me focussed on the fight that actually matters (2:3-4). Thank You that Your good news cannot be stopped (2:9). Help me to understand and share Your Word correctly (2:15). Turn me from unrighteousness today (2:19). Purify my life so I will be useful to You (2:21). Help me run from my own desires and chase what You desire (2:22). Give the lost the ability to change their minds about Your truth (2:25).

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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's truth is in 2 Timothy 1.
God, give me spiritual children to raise until they can produces spiritual children (1:2). Don't let the gift You gave me grow cold from lack of use due to fear (1:6). Make me willing to suffer for the good news by depending on Your power (1:8). Thank You for guarding my salvation (1:12). Enable me to endure in truth, faith, and love (1:13).

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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's attitude-altering text is 1 Timothy 6.
My only Ruler (6:15),
Teach me how to serve others (6:1-3). Let what I tell others be true, point to Jesus, and make the listener more like You (6:3-4). Make me content today with just enough to eat and wear (6:6-7). Save me from the pains that come from wanting more and more money (6:10). Instead, make me want to be more and more righteous, God-exalting, trusting, loving, steadfast, and gentle (6:11). My hope for satisfaction is in You alone (6:17). Give me real life that is rich with doing Your work (6:19).

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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's mind-transforming truth is in 1 Timothy 5.
Lord,
Give me wisdom and boldness to encourage my church family honorably, even those older than me (5:1-2). Help me to care for those today who have no one to care for them (5:3-4). Don't allow me to live for my own pleasure (5:6). Help me keep my promises/commitments that I make to You (5:12). Rule my mouth today (5:13). Give me wisdom to evaluate my pastors based on how hard they work at preaching and teaching Your Word (5:17). Let me do works for You, instead of sin, so that all will see Your great power to make me like You (5:24-25).

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Monday, March 26, 2012

Love as Evidence of Salvation — 1 John 4:7-4:21

The next test that John offers by which a believer evaluates his salvation
is the quality of his love. John’s logic is simple. If God is love, and if we
claim to know Him, then we must love. If God is love and we claim to be His offspring but we do not love, we don’t really know Him.

Love is not discoverable on our own. It is something that God has revealed to us by sending his only Son to die so we could live. If this is how God shows love, this should be how we show love. If we say “I love you,” we must be willing to sacrifice and even die so that others can live with God? If not, do we understand how to display His love?

John then defines this real love that God revealed. Real love is not encompassed by our best effort to love, but by God’s love toward us. Specifically, love is a gracious sacrifice that covers others’ sins. We were God’s enemies. He graciously declared us His friends by faith. Love bends the forgiveness that we have received from God toward our enemies. If we don’t consider our enemies sins to be covered by Christ and if we do not humbly extend mercy to them, do we really know God’s love?

Finally, love that perseveres is evidence that we remain in God and God in us. It gives us confidence on the day Christ comes to judge because it assures us that we are His. It removes all fear of that day since the only thing to fear in judgment is punishment. If we love like Jesus loves, dying so others might live and forgiving the undeserving just as we have been forgiven, then we prove to be God’s children.

Help your spiritual children evaluate their faith based on their love, and show them what real love is, how to display it, and how it drives out all fear.

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Daily Truth

Today's mind-shaping truth is in 1 Timothy 4.
Lord,
Protect me from false teachings (4:1-3). Help me point out wrong beliefs or priorities that arise in my fellowship (4:6). Feed my mind with Your truth (4:6). Help me put training in godliness over training for worldly achievement (4:8). Do I really "labor and strive" to be trained to be like You (4:10)? My hope is in You alone (4:10). Make me an example to my christian friends today in what I say, do, love, trust in, and in purity (4:12). Help me prioritize reading Your Word with others today (4:13). Make my spiritual growth clear to all by what I do and am committed to (4:15).

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Saturday, March 24, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's life truth is 1 Timothy 3.
Lord,
I pray that all the pastors you have called would oversee well Your church around the world (3:1-7). Help them live up to Your standards. I pray for those You called to serve Your body as deacons that they will serve well and acquire great boldness in the faith (3:8-13). Help all others in Your household act like You. Make Your church the pillar and foundation of truth in this world (3:15). Thank You for Jesus (3:16).

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's mind-transforming truth is in 1 Timothy 2.
God my Savior (2:3),
Help me pray as I should for all in authority (2:2). Lead me to live the drama-free life that pleases You (2:2). Lead my heart to want everyone to be saved as much as You do (2:4). Thank You for Jesus, the only One who can bring me to You by paying the price to buy me back from sin (2:6). Make me a godly man who leads my girls to accessorize and adorn themselves with works that display Your beauty instead of with fashion and glamour (2:8-10).

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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's mind-altering truth is in 1 Timothy 1.
My eternal King, give me a "true child in the faith" to raise (1:2). Help me give my attention to stuff that actually matters (1:3-4). Make me love without wrong motives, live blamelessly, and rely wholly on You (1:5). Help me submit to being corrected by Your law when I am living out of bounds (8-11). Thank You for saving a sinner like me (1:15-16). May I always honor You over all else and live to display Your greatness (1:17). Enlist me to engage in battle (1:18) and protect me from suffering a shipwrecked faith (1:19).

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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's mind-transforming truth is in 2 Thessalonians 3. Lord of peace,
Spread Your gospel through me lots and may many respond (3:1). Protect me from the enemy (3:3). I can't trust my fallen heart, so please direct it to love what You love most without stopping (3:5). Let me not follow bad examples, but make me an example to follow as I follow You (3:6-9). And help me to help someone today follow Your Word better tomorrow than he is today (3:14-15).

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Monday, March 19, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time being shaped by the Word is in 2 Thessalonians 2.
God of All Truth,
Thank You that I will not miss Your coming (2:2). Let me never allow anything to be my God but You (2:4). You will blow the man of lawlessness away and destroy him with Your brightness (2:8). Let my life display Your power to defeat lawlessness in my life. I rely exclusively on Your loving truth to be saved (2:10). Use me to call many to believe the truth and receive Your holiness (2:14). Make me stand firm in Your Word (2:15). Your eternal encouragement and good hope sustain me (2:16). Make me work and speak strongly for You (2:17).

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Friday, March 16, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time in the Word is 2 Thessalonians 1.
Lord,
Shift my priorities so that I am most thankful when I see others' faith flourising and their love for each other growing (1:3). Make my church boast-worthy based on its endurance and reliance on You (1:4). Let my life be evidence that God was right in His decision to choose me to be a part of His kingdom (1:5). Thank You for the promise of rest (1:7). Teach me what "obedience to the good news" and "works of faith" mean to Your glory (1:8, 11, 12). Don't let me forget that my lost family and friends have flaming fire, everlasting destruction, and separation from You and Your strength as their future if they don't rely on Your gift of righteousness in Christ (1:7).

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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Daily Truth

Today, allow 1 Thessalonians 5:14-28 conform your thoughts to Christ's.
God of my peace,
Make me a hard worker, a comforter, a helper, and patient, returning good for evil. Then help me warn believers who fail in these ways (5:14-15). Help me have: more joy in You (5:16), more time with You (5:17), more thanks to You (5:18), more sensitivity to Your Spirit (5:19), more love for Your Word (5:20), more caution about what I think about (5:21), and Your holiness completed in me (5:22-23). Thank You that I can trust You to accomplish all this in me (5:24).

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Daily Truth

Today, submit yourself to the Truth of 1 Thessalonians 5:1-13. God, I am waiting for You, the holy God, to come get me. Let the world be able to tell that I am a son of light, not darkness (5:5). Let faith and love protect my heart, and let the hope of salvation protect my thoughts (5:8). Thank You for those people that You have put in my life to grow me spiritually. Make me one of those people to somebody today (5:12-13).

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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time getting Truth to give away is in 1 Thess. 4. My coming King, don't allow my intimacy with You, my holiness, or my love for others ever plateau (4:1, 10). Thank You for making Your will for me clear: that I be made holy and pure today (4:3). Don't let me ignore Your Spirit that You gave me (4:8). Don't let me be a source of drama, judgmental, or a user of others so the lost will have no reason not to want Christ (4:10-12). Thank You for the assurance that death will not separate me from You (4:17).

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Monday, March 12, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's mind-transforming truth is in 1 Thessalonians 3. Lord, prepare me to strengthen and encourage someone's faith today (3:2). Cause me to stand firm when attacked for my faith (3:3). Increase my desire to be with Your body (3:6). Help me truly agree that to live well is to see those I have discipled stand firm (3:8). Make me feel like something is missing if I have not sought to help someone grow up spiritually (3:10). Leave no sin uncorrected in me as You prepare me to meet You, Father (3:13).

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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time in the Word is in 1 Thessalonians 2. Lord, make me bold to speak the gospel in spite of opposition (2:2). May it be You, not people, that I aim to please (2:4). Help me be an intentional spiritual parent, raising those You give to me by helping them walk like You, becoming spiritual parents to others (2:12). Cause Your Word to work effectively in me (2:13). If I help anyone grow in making disciples, it will be my greatest accomplishment and joy (2:19).

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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Daily Truth

Today, we move to 1 Thessalonians 1 as the Truth that transforms us. Lord, help me live so that people remember most that: the faith You gave me worked hard, the love You poured into me labored, the hope You secured for me lasted, and that Your election of me was obvious (1:3-4). Don't let me just know Your Word, powerfully change me by it (1:5). Let me know the Spirit's joy despite pain (1:6). Make Your message ring out from me (1:8). Destroy my idols that control me or wrongly receive my affection instead of You (1:9). Thank You for Your promise to save me from Your wrath by grace through faith (1:10).

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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Daily Truth

James 5 is the Word for today. Lord, let me not live to accumulate stuff that does not last or to find my happiness in luxury and self-indulgence (5:1-6). Lead me to make choices knowing you are coming back soon (5:8). Don't let me give up telling others all that You have shown me about You (5:10-11). Through prayer, powerfully heal me of my worldly way of thinking (5:16). Use me today to help others endure in the Truth about what You view as good (5:19-20).

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Monday, March 5, 2012

A Love That’s Hated. . .a Spiritual Paternity Test—Part 2 - 1 John 3:10-18

In verse 10, John contrasts those who are children of the devil with those who are children of God. Having offered righteous living as one criteria for determining who one’s spiritual father is, John narrows his focus, now identifying the way we love as a particularly conspicuous expression of this righteous life.

The command to love is nothing new. John refers to Cain and Abel as early examples of one who loved and one who hated. With this ancient illustration, John affirms that the world will hate those who love. Being hated by the world is yet another evidence of being God’s child. So believers should not be surprised that they are hated by the world on account of their love. Instead, they must love in action, not just in words, those who hate them, recognizing that this hatred is good evidence that they are God’s child.

This passage clearly presents love and being hated for it as markers of salvation. John uses the phrases “of God,” (v. 10), “passed from death to life” (v. 14), “have eternal life” (v. 15), “come to know love” (v. 16), “love reside in Him” (v. 17), and “belong to the truth” (v. 19) to refer to salvation. It is easy to say “I am a Christian," but can we say “God’s love is in me?”

So what is this love? We know what love is because we have see it in Jesus. He laid His life down for us and we are to do the same for others. Consistent refusal to
love like Jesus loves us and to be hated as He has been hated are indicators of who
our spiritual father might be.

First, ask yourself how well you lay your life down for others. Does the world see so clearly that you are God's child that it angers them? Do they envy your contentment in Christ, your unconditional joy and peace, your future hope, and your holy life? Second, help your teen understand that following Christ means loving so radically that God's enemies may hate him or her for it. Help your teen seriously evaluate who his or her spiritual daddy is in light of how they love.

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Daily Truth

Today's time getting our minds in line with God's way of thinking is in James 4. Lord, kill off my cravings to have what the world values. Don't allow the desire for my own pleasure to motivate my praying or consume my day (4:1-3). My King, by Your kindness You consider me Your friend. Don't allow me to betray Your kindness today, making Your Spirit jealous of my love for the world or jealous of my attention, time, and resources I give to the world instead of to You(4:4-5). I submit and draw near to You today (4:7-8). Give me a mind that is exclusively focused on You (4:8). Break me over my sinfulness (4:9-10). Lord, i don't know enough to plan my life (4:14). Help my plans to be destroyed if not in Your will (4:13-16). Help me do what I know is good in Christ (4:17).

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Friday, March 2, 2012

Daily Truth

James 3 is the life-altering truth to share with someone today. When I teach others, keep me mindful of the stricter judgement I will face as a teacher (3:1). Help me evaluate my maturity in light of what comes out of my mouth (3:2). If I boast, let it be about Your greatness (3:5). Don't let my mouth set any fires kindled in hell (3:6), but make it a source of blessing, revealing that my mouth is Yours (3:10). Kill off any selfish ambition in me (3:14-16). Measure my wisdom by my: gentleness, purity, love of peace, not being demanding, mercy, good fruit, fair treatment of others, and integrity (3:13, 17).

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Thursday, March 1, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time in the only completely reliable source of truth (the Bible) is in James 2. Lord, help me see people as you see them, as equally having a bent and rebellious nature, as equally needing the righteousness of Christ, and if believers, as standing equal as co-heirs of Christ (2:1-13). Remind me that my faith is useless if it produces no works for which You saved me (2:20). Thank you for graciously seeing me no longer as Your enemy (2:23). Let my works prove that You live in me.

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