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, June 29, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time being conformed to Christ's likeness is in Revelation 3:7-13.
Lord,
Thank You that when I have no strength, you have all strength. You hold the key (7-8). Help me be strong enough to keep Your Word and be loyal to You (8). Thank You that You will vindicate me before any who oppose my loyalty to You and my obedience to Your Word (9). Help me endure as You have commanded (10). Help me know Your greatness so I will want You to come quickly (11). Don't let me fall (11). Mark me as Yours (12-13).

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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time soaking in God's truth is in Revelation 3:1-6.
Lord,
Give my life integrity. Don't let me have a reputation for being spiritually mature and effective if I am not (1). Don't let my works for You be left unfinished (2). Be my strength to finish well (2). Don't allow me to forget Your grace or Your truth (3). Make me one of the few, the remnant who walks worthy of Your sacrifice (4). Thank You for never erasing my name from the book of life (5).

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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's truth that transforms our minds is in Revelation 2:18-29.
Lord,
You know everything I do 23). Make my love, faithfulness, service, and endurance increase, not decrease (19). Help me be Your slave, not the slave of deceptive teachings (20). Help me want to believe that obedience to You is much more satisfying than sin (21). Rule me until You come so I will be prepared to rule with You then (25). Thank You that I cannot out-give You (28). Let me hear You with my heart and mind today (29).

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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time chipping off what does not look like Christ is enabled by Revelation 2:12-17.
My righteous Judge(12),
Help me hold onto You even when everyone around me is bowing to the leading of Satan (13). Make me loyal to You until death, like Antipas (13). Keep me pure from all idolatry and impurity (14). Help me live to be satisfied by spiritual food (Your Word and Yourself) rather than by my worldly appetites and desires (17). Help me live in light of my new, pure identity in Christ rather than my old identity of being ruled by sin and self (17).

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Monday, June 25, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time being shaped like Christ is in Revelation 2:8-11.
Lord,
Thank You for dying and living again to triumph over death for me (8). Remind me always of how you have made me rich, even when I am poor and suffering (9). Let me not fear when I suffer, and make me ready to endure any tribulation (10). Keep me faithful until I die. Let me live for the crown of life, not the crowns that the world offers (10) Help me hear You today and obey. Thank You for the promise of never being separated from You by death (11).

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Friday, June 22, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time being equipped with truth to share with others is in revelation 2:1-7.
Lord,
Honor Yourself by enabling us to do Your work without stopping. Give us the ability to test what others claim to be true and identify lies (2). Don't let our love for You fade and let what we do today reveal that love. If it has faded, help us know it (repent) and align out works with what what you show us (4). If we refuse to love You most, we realize you will remove our church's position of influence (5). Cause us to hate what You hate (6). Help us not ignore what Your Spirit says (7). Thank You for the promise of future life in paradise (7).

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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time being changed by Truth is in Revelation 1.
My Alpha and my Omega (my source and my goal)(8),
Make my life a picture of Your Word and Your Son (2-3). Rule me today and forever as my liberator and king (5-6). Convince my heart to live based on what is certain, Christ's coming (7). Make me willing to be a partner in suffering for the Word and for Jesus (9). Help me be sensitive to and aware of the Spirit's leading on Sunday, and let every day be like Sunday (10). Let me see you and hear you so I can tell of your greatness and purpose (12-20).

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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time living by every Word that comes from God's mouth is in Jude.
Father,
Lead me to do what is needed today, not just what I want (3). Let me have You as my only master today (4). Don't let me be a frustrated complainer, a chaser of my own desires, a flatterer of others just to get my way, or a source of divisions due to worldly thinking (16-17). Instead, grow me up and keep me steady in the faith (20-21). Help me help others do the same (22-23). Today, help me walk in a way that will not bring me shame or reduce my joy when I stand before You in judgement (24-25). Cause me to stand firm today.

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time being transformed by God's truth is in 3 John.
Lord,
Help me be in good health, but even more, let me be spiritually healthy in that each of my steps is guided by Your truth (2-3). Teach me to hunger for the joy of seeing those i have discipled walking according to Your truth (4). Give me spiritual children to disciple. Cause me to live to reveal Your greatness, not mine (9). Help me imitate what is good, and not put up with what is evil (11).

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The New View of Sinning and Suffering

Once a man sees the message of the cross, he has an entirely new view of everything.  He is not just trying to live a good life now; not just trying not to do harm; not trying to live just on the edge of the law—not wanting to be prosecuted, but going as far as he safely can.  That is all finished.  He is a new man.  He has been bought with a price, he is a son of God.  He is being prepared for him.  He has a new motive.  To sin now means that he is wounding love, he is not breaking a law.  He is wounding the love of the one who gave himself for him.  He says, I cannot do it.  I have been bought with a price.  I have no right to do it, I am not my own.  I belong to him.  I am a slave of Christ as I used to be the slave of the devil and of sin.  I have no right to, and I cannot do it.  He has a new conception of sin, he has new motives for living a holy life, and thank God, over and above all, he has got new power whereby to do it.

For the Christ of God died not only that we might be forgiven, but that we might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and his power.  He teaches us how to live, and he also teaches us how to suffer.  Because we live in a world of suffering and we need to be taught how to suffer, he teaches us how to suffer.  The cross teaches us how to suffer, not only how to live morally and ethically, but how to suffer, “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”.  They come to us all: misunderstanding, people misunderstanding us, injustices done to us, the failure of trusted friends, people in whom we reposed every confidence letting us down, disappointments, loneliness, physical pain.  How do you stand up to those things?  These are the things that come to all of us, how do we meet them, how do we live?  This is the way:

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:18–25)

There is the only way, the cross—misunderstanding, injustice, treachery of friends, the loneliness, even his disciples forsaking him and fleeing from him….

And so it is, that no experience can ever fall to your lot but that he has gone through it.  The treachery, the misunderstanding, the abuse, the injustice, the loneliness, the agony, the sweat:

In every pang that rends the heart,
The Man of Sorrows had a part.

Yes, in the light of the fact that he has been made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin”, he is able to succor us.

--D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Cross

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Monday, June 18, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time relying on the Lord's truth is in 2 John.
Lord,
Thank You for those in Your body who are living in light of Your Truth (4). Help me do the most loving things I can today, which are to walk in obedience to Your commands (6). Help me not lose the spiritual perspective to which You have brought me by Your Word (8). Thank You that Jesus came as a true human to save my fallen, dead humanity (7). Use me to share that truth today and don't let me fall for the lies of false teachings (10).

Sent from my iPhone

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Friday, June 15, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time being shaped by God's truth is 1 John 5.
Lord,
I love others best by loving You, and I love you best by obeying You (2-3). Give me the faith to defeat the worldliness in and around me (4). Make Your Word my confidence that I have eternal life in Christ (13). Help me learn to pray in light of the way that You see things (14-15). Help my church family be holy (16-17). Don't let the devil touch or influence me (18-19). Jesus, You are true God, so kill-off my idols (21).

Sent from my iPhone

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Thursday, June 14, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's much needed truth from God is in 1 John 4.
Lord,
Make me able to recognize and submit to the leading and teaching of Your Spirit and to be aware of and resist the influence of worldly ways of thinking that ignore Christ's coming in real humanity to take my sin so I could know You (1-3). You were victorious over worldly ways of thinking and You are in me. Cause me to listen to Your Word and make me like You today (4). Enable me to discern when the teaching of Your Word has been tainted with worldly ways of thinking and wanting (5-6). And help me trust Your love enough to display it to all today (7-21).

Sent from my iPhone

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's truth that encourages us to holiness is 1 John 3.
Father,
Thank You for being a God of love toward me (1). Give me an unquenchable hope to be like You which drives me to purify myself since You are sinless (3-5). If I really am Your child, I will not live in sin (6). Destroy powerfully the influence of the devil in my thinking, wanting, and doing (8). Help me trust only in the power of Jesus to save me, transform me, and to love my brothers and sisters in my actions, not just words (11-18). Thank You for the presence of Your Spirit in me to accomplish all this (24).

Sent from my iPhone

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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's time being changed by the Word is in 1 John 2.
Father, thank You that You gave Your blameless Son to defend me before Your righteous judgement bench, covering my sin with His own perfections (1-2). Make me sure of my salvation, not because I walked an aisle, but because I am obeying You and "walking" like" Jesus daily (3-6). Don't let me be blinded by hatred, but fill me with Your love for the unloving (9-11). Give me victory by causing Your Word to remain in me (14). Help me not love what I can touch, look at, or become. Instead, help me love what You love (15-17). Help me hear and follow You all day long today (24-26).

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Forgiveness and Bitterness

Forgiveness and bitterness.  Without the first, you’ll limp through life with the second.  Misunderstanding can breed deep-seated bitterness, which doesn’t easily go away.  Forgiveness must occur if you ever hope to be free of your painful past.  It does not mean you agree.  It doesn’t necessarily mean you now have a close relationship with your offender.  But it does mean you let it go… forever.  And yes, to forgive does mean to forget.  Bitterness deposits dangerous germs in our memory banks.  It can cause disease that lingers and robs us of joy and peace as the years stack up.  So you must forgive and forget.  Bitterness replaces forgiveness, or forgiveness erases bitterness.  They cannot coexist.

If you’re reading these words and realize you’re consumed with bitterness, I urge you to come to terms with it and let it go.  You cannot change the past, but your bitterness can change you.  You must deliberately pursue forgiveness.  There will be other collision courses with misunderstanding….  They will burst upon you again and again, and your bitterness will only intensify, until you come to the place of full forgiveness.  And you will find, when you collide again with a misunderstanding person, you can handle it—you can let it go.
—Charles R. Swindoll, Getting through the Tough Stuff

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Monday, June 11, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's life-changing truth is in 1 John 1.
Father,
Thank You that the way to have real life in You is the same as it has been from the beginning (1). Make me faithful and bold to tell others all I know about You (2) so they will become partners in living to make You know (3). Thank You for the joy that comes from telling others how great You are (4). Make my life line-up with my testimony that a holy God lives in me and is powerful enough to make me holy (6). I realize that i won't have true fellowship with other believers if I don't walk Your walk (7). So help me know my sin so I can repent from it and walk after You.

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Friday, June 8, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's truth from God is in 2 Peter 3.
Lord,
Let my speech today remind others of what Your Word says (2). Give me Your desire that "all come to repentance" and use me today for that purpose (9). Since this earth is going to be destroyed, let me focus on doing holy and godly things that will last (10-11). As I endure the effects of sin in this world, thank You for the promise of a new heaven and earth full of righteousness (13). Let my biggest effort today be to live Christ's righteousness given to me by grace so that the lost will see an accurate picture of You (14). You have created today as the opportunity for someone to come to You 15). Take me out of this world before I twist Scripture for my own gain (16). Grow me in knowing Your Son (18).

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Thursday, June 7, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's needed Word is 2 Peter 2.
Master,
Do not allow me to deny You today (1). Please keep me from following my evil desires (2). Thank You for knowing how to rescue me from trials (9). Destroy my self-exalting and self-justifying self-righteousness (10). Don't let me follow instinct like an animal, but help me be truly human by following You (12). Make me a slave to You, not sin (19). Today, help me not return to the vomit and mud of my sinful nature before it was restrained by You (21-22).

Sent from my iPhone

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's reminder of Truth is in 2 Peter 1:12-21.
Lord,
As long as I live in this body, help me spend my days reminding Your children to reflect You. Help the reminder be unforgettable (12-15). Make me an eyewitness of Your power today (16). Confirm by my walk with You today that Jesus is the One and only Savior of the world (17). Don't let me ignore Your Word, drawing me to focus on it singularly and submitting to it radically because it really is from You (19-21).

Sent from my iPhone

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Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Daily truth

Today, let's read and live-out 2 Peter 1:1-11.
My God and Savior (1),
I am Your slave to be sent out because of the righteousness of Christ given to me (1). Powerfully make my life point to You. For this You have called me (3). Help my speech, actions, and choices today prove that I share in Your divine nature which has no corruption (4-7). Produce much fruit through me today as I submit to what You want (8). Don't let me forget all You have forgiven me for so that my growth in holiness will not be blocked by thinking I am so righteousness (9). Let my life today be evidence that I am called by You and elect (10).

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A User Friendly God

I believe people are leaving churches in such large numbers today because we have failed to hold up before them a high view of God—a vision so awesome and transcendent that it captures their hearts and changes their lives.

Because our modern-day teaching and preaching so often present a low view of God, worshipers tend to become fixated on pastors, musicians, recording artists, and other human personalities.  Instead of focusing on Him, our attention is riveted on mere men.  Discontented people are leaving churches in droves.  Although they often point to the failure of the church of the minister to meet their needs, the real reason is because the god presented to them falls miserably short of the God set forth in the Bible.  No wonder their hearts are restless, bored, and frustrated!

If our churches are to return to being the houses of worship God wants them to be, we must renew a dominant vision of God who is high and lifted up, towering in the heavens, majestic in the beauty of His holiness.  We need a vision of God who is different from us, someone who is truly worthy to be worshipped and adored.  In short, we are in need of a fresh dose of the majesty of God.  Only as we return to our principal calling, that of displaying the true greatness of God, will people eagerly return to Him—and to church.

Such a fresh vision of God will transform us from the inside out and empower us to fulfill His calling upon our lives.  That is what is missing in this day of trendy, low-commitment, user-friendly Christianity.  And until we recover the true picture of God, we will languish in spiritual impotence.

—Steven Lawson, Made in Our Image: What Shall We Do with a “User-Friendly” God?

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Monday, June 4, 2012

Daily Truth

Today's life-changing text is 1 Peter 5.
Chief Shepherd,
Enable the pastors that You have called to watch over Your flock to lead eagerly and by example. Let them be satisfied by the unfading crown You will give them when You come back (1-4). Give me humility (5). Please take my concerns. Thank You for caring for me (7). Give me discernment to recognize the enemy's attacks by consistently trusting and following You (8-9). Thank You that suffering is temporary, and that I can trust You to "restore, establish, strengthen, and support" me to make me endure hard times (10). Let Your true grace be the thing for which I take a stand today (12).

Sent from my iPhone

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Friday, June 1, 2012

The Myth of Methodology

I have a gadget on my computer desktop that continually scrolls through my Twitter feed.  For a person who is as easily distracted as I am, that’s probably not a good idea. During one of my more recent ADD moments, I found myself distracted by a link to an article titled something like, “Ten Ways to Increase Your Blog Traffic.” I think the number one way was to post articles about increasing your blog traffic. That one worked—it got me to click it.  The second way was to post how-to lists.  Why?  Because we love lists.  We love having a simple list of five or ten things we can check off to somehow make our lives better.

Unfortunately, we have allowed the same mindset to creep into our ideas about accomplishing the Great Commission.  Whether in the areas of church growth, church planting, discipleship or evangelism, we have largely become a people who are looking for a quick and easy list of how to do it.  We are obsessed with methodology.  When God blesses a ministry with fruitfulness, the immediate reaction is to write a book on how it was done. Sure, we get spiritual in our titles—“How God Grew Our Church Plant from 3 to 3000 in 3 Weeks”—but the implication is, read our book to find out how you can make it happen for you too.

The more I read the Bible, the more I realize God doesn’t honor methodology.  In fact, God purposely chooses to accomplish His purposes through different methodologies.  Take Moses for example.  Had Moses lived today, I can imagine publishers lining up at his tent with book proposals. “Four Easy Steps to Stop Your People from Complaining” would be a best seller.  Two sections—first, tell the story of how the people were griping and complaining about water.  Second section—four chapters to tell what he did about it (and of course how we can do the same).  Talk to God. Take the Rod. Find a Rock. Hit It and Get It.  There you have it—a four part methodology.  The book would sell millions of copies to those around the world who are looking for water.  The implication is unmistakable—all you have to do is follow those four steps and you’ll have water too. 

The only problem is, it wasn’t about the methodology. Forty years later, God taught Moses that lesson.  The people were griping about being thirsty, so Moses pulled out the trusty “How-to” book he wrote years before. Let’s see… Talk to God… check. Take the Rod… check. Find a Rock… check.  Hit It (twice for good measure) and Get It… check.  The water came out and the people temporarily quit complaining, so the methodology worked, right?  Wrong.

God doesn’t operate from how-to lists, formulae or methodologies.  He desires that we develop plans and methods, but at the same time, He calls us to trust Him—not our plans.  Horses and chariots, battle plans and training are great.  But as David wrote in Psalm 20:7, “Some take pride in a chariot and others in horses, but we take pride in the name of the Lord our God.”

The temptation is to trust our lists and plans.  We desire for our church to grow or our church plant to flourish, so we seek out the plans and methods of others.  Sometimes the Lord will use those.  Sometimes water will flow for a season.  But when we trust in our plans and our methods (or those of others) we fail to do what we are above all else called to do.  We are called to trust God and show His holiness to all people (Numbers 20:12).  We can only do that by trusting Him above all else—including our cherished methodologies and how-to lists.

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