DEVOTION MON 8-09-2010

A DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR

MONDAY AUGUST 9TH, 2010

"RECOGNIZING OUR ENMITY”

BY

DR R.C. SPROUL

As children we played games drawn from the scenario of war. When a friend approached we pretended that we were sentries. The dialogue was simple: "Halt! Who goes there? Friend or foe?" Our categories left no room for indifferent neutrality. They were restricted to two options, friend or enemy. Those are the only options we have in our relationship with God. No one is neutral. We are either God's friends or God's enemies.

Jonathan Edwards once preached a sermon titled, "Man, Naturally God's Enemies." In this sermon Edwards declared: "Men, in general, will own that they are sinners. There are few, if any, whose consciences are so blinded as not to be sensible they have been guilty of sin . . . And yet few of them are sensible that they are God's enemies. They do not see how they can be truly so called; for they are not sensible that they wish God any hurt, or endeavor to do Him any."

Yet despite human protestations to the contrary, Scripture clearly describes natural fallen men as enemies of God. Paul, in speaking of our salvation, wrote, "While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Rom. 5:10). Again, "You . . . were alienated [from God] and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds" (Col. 1:21). Also, "The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God" (Rom. 8:7).

Coram Deo: Living in the Presence of God

Think of the characteristics and qualities of intimate friendship, then apply these to your spiritual relationship with the heavenly Father. Are you truly a friend of God?

For Further Study

Romans 8:7: "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot."

DEVOTION SAT 8-07-2010

A DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR

SATURDAY AUGUST 7TH, 2010

"BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW TO PRAY”

BY

JEFF SCHREVE

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things,

which you do not know.

Jeremiah 33:3

When I was a freshman in college, I was in a discipleship group consisting of six guys, five UT freshman students and our discipleship leader, a godly man in his late 40s. At the end of our weekly meetings, we would always close in prayer with each of us praying. I was nervous when it came time for me to pray. Know why? Because I didn't really know what to say. I was a fairly new Christian and this thing called prayer (especially public prayer) was not easy to do. I ran out of things to pray for after 60 seconds.

Have you ever struggled with prayer? Have you ever bowed your head, bowed your knees, and shot all your prayer bullets in less than a minute or two? Have you ever heard about people praying for hours and secretly wondered how in the world do they do that?

How can you go to the next level in prayer? How can you become a person of prayer who really connects with God and sees Him answer?

TAKE THE PRESSURE OFF

In those early days in that discipleship group, I never felt like my prayers were eloquent enough. I somehow got the erroneous idea that to "really" pray, I had to sound like William Shakespeare. It was so freeing to learn that God is not impressed with my eloquence or disappointed in my lack of eloquence. He simply wants to hear me pray humbly and reverently from the heart. He wants me to share openly and honestly with Him. He wants me to tell Him what is going on in my life, what I am struggling with, what I am afraid of, and where I need His help - "Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us" (Psalm 62:8).

Remember, God is not watching the clock when we pray. He is not saying, "You know, I would have answered that prayer if you had gone another 45 seconds." Don't get too hung up in the time issue. Talk to God like you would talk to a best friend. That is what He is, "a friend who sticks closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24).

PRAY THE WORD

God loves His Word. If you want to know the will of God, read His Word. The will of God is found in the Word of God. 1 John 5:14-15 tells us that we can be confident that God will answer prayers according to His will. So, if you will simply pray Scripture back to God, you can be assured that He will answer that type of prayer.

A good place to go for prayers in the Bible is Psalms. David was known as "a man after God's own heart." He has LOTS of honest, humble, heartfelt prayers in Psalms that you can claim for your own and pray them back to God.

BE ENCOURAGED

My friend, prayer is not given to us to be torturous and a source of guilt and condemnation. It is given by God to connect us to Him. The King over the universe longs to hear from little old you and me. WOW!

The Bible tells us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). The way you do that is to call on God as soon as you wake up in the morning and never hang up the phone. Talk to Him all throughout the day. Share your every trial and every triumph with Him. It makes all the difference in the world and will draw your heart close to the King.

DEVOTION FRI 8-6-10

A DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR

FRIDAY AUGUST 6TH, 2010

"TAKING THE GOSPEL TO THE WORLD”

BY

GREG LAURIE

“But He said to them, "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth."

—Mark 1:38

Jesus went and met the woman at the well in Samaria because she had an appointment with God. In Jesus' detour into enemy territory, we see two important concerns as we bring the message of the gospel today.

First, we have to go to where people are. Jesus did not say that the whole world should go to church; He said the church should go into the whole world. As Mark's Gospel tells us, "And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature'" (Mark 16:15).

When Harvest Ministries was doing an outreach in Disneyland a number of years ago, I was asked, "Why are you doing this in a place like Disneyland? Why would you come and hold an event in a place like this?"

I said, "Because Jesus said, ‘Go into all the world,' and He did not exempt Disneyland. There are people there. And we want to reach people." The glorious thing is that many people came into the kingdom through that outreach. We need to go to where people are.

Second, we need to care about the people we speak to. Jesus needed to go to Samaria because He cared about this woman (see John 4:4). When the apostle Paul was in Athens, he saw the city that was given over to idolatry, and his spirit was stirred within him (see Acts 17:16-17). He felt righteous indignation as he saw so many turning to false gods.

In the same way, any effective sharing of the gospel must always begin with a God-given burden. We have to care. Jesus cared. Do you? Do you want to reach out to perishing people?

We should go to where people are. We should care about them and reach out to them.

DEVOTION THUR 8-5-10

A DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR

THURSDAY AUGUST 5TH, 2010

"MUCH TO GIVE”

BY

CHARLES PUHTA

Today's Scripture

"[Growing in grace] they shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap [of spiritual vitality] and [rich in the] verdure [of trust, love, and contentment]." Psalm 92:14 AMP

Thoughts for Today

Retirement can be an especially traumatic transition for your aging parents. Imagine using skills and abilities on a daily basis and then suddenly stopping. Everyone wants to feel that they are needed and that their contributions are valuable.

People do not want to be treated differently because they are old or infirm. They want to be treated for who they are, not for the illness they have or the abilities they have lost. All people, regardless of age, have a basic wish to feel useful.

Consider this…

Encourage your parents to fill their time with purposeful activities. Volunteer work, hobbies or other activities can give them a reason to wake up in the morning. They still have so much to give to others—years of experience, lessons learned, wisdom developed. Even if their health is failing, they can pray for people and send them encouraging notes and cards.

This is a new season for your parents. Encourage them that it can be a productive time—God has more for them to do!

Prayer

Father, help my parents understand that you still have much for them to do. That they can still bring forth fruit. Show me ways to encourage them. In Jesus' name …

DEVOTION WED 8-04-10

A DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 4TH, 2010

"LESSONS FROM THE FIELD”

BY

ALISTAIR BEGG

Haggai 2:17

How destructive is the hail to the standing crops, beating out the precious grain upon the ground! How grateful we should be when the corn is spared so terrible a ruin! Let us offer to the Lord thanksgiving. Even more to be dreaded are those mysterious destroyers—fungus, rust, and mildew. They turn the ear into a mass of soot or render it putrid or dry up the grain, and all in a manner so beyond all human control that the farmer is compelled to cry, "This is the finger of God." Innumerable, minute fungi cause the mischief, and if it weren't for the goodness of God, the rider on the black horse would soon scatter famine over the land. Infinite mercy spares the food of men, but in view of the active agents that are ready to destroy the harvest, wisdom teaches us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." The curse is everywhere, and we are in constant need of the blessing. When blight and mildew come, they are chastisements from heaven, and men must learn to deal with them accordingly.

Spiritually, mildew is not an uncommon evil. When our work is most promising, this blight appears. We hoped for many conversions, and instead we find a general apathy, an abounding worldliness, or a cruel hardness of heart! There may be no blatant sin in those for whom we are working, but there is a deficiency of sincerity and decision that is sadly disappointing. We learn from this to depend upon the Lord and the necessity of prayer so that no blight will fall upon our work. Spiritual pride or laziness will soon bring upon us the dreadful evil, and only the Lord of the harvest can remove it. Mildew may even attack our own hearts and shrivel our prayers and dampen our zeal. May it please the great Gardener to avert so serious a calamity. Shine, blessed Sun of Righteousness, and drive the diseases away.

DEVOTION TUES 8-03-10

A DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR

TUESDAY AUGUST 3RD, 2010

"A PASSION FOR THE LOST”

BY

GREG LAURIE

“My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them." (Romans 9:2-3)

The apostle Paul had something essential for effective evangelism: a God-given burden for those who did not know Jesus Christ. In his case, the burden was for his own people, the Jews. He cared. It burned inside him.

General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, once said that his desire, had it been possible, would be to dangle his evangelism trainees over hell for 24 hours. That way, they could see the reality that awaits those who do not know Jesus Christ.

That wouldn't have been necessary for Paul, who spoke of his love and burning passion for unbelievers. I think it is there for us in Scripture so that we don't become so obsessed with our own struggles and spiritual growth that we forget about people who need to know Christ.

I think Paul makes an amazing statement in Romans 9 when he says, in essence, "If it were possible, I would give up my hope of eternal life so that others who do not know could come to faith." That's a pretty dramatic statement.

As believers, you and I have a responsibility to those outside the church—those outside the faith. If God's love is really working in our lives, it should motivate us to do something for Him.

Do you have a God-given burden for those who do not know Jesus Christ? If you don't, do you want one?

If you pray that God will give you this burden, then be careful. The results could be life-changing. You just may be surprised at how quickly He answers you.

DEVOTION MON 8-02-10

A DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR

MONDAY AUGUST 2ND, 2010

"CREATE A LEGACY OF FAITIH”

BY

JACK GRAHAM

Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?

--Proverbs 20:6

Our kids have many heroes these days. They look up to celebrities, entertainers, athletes, and members of the military.

But do you know who today's real heroes are? I'll tell you. The real heroes of our day are faithful men who are determined to leave a legacy of faith for their families.

Now I thank God for women who love Jesus. But I want to speak directly to men right now, especially in relationship to how you raise your children. It's not uncommon for men to focus their life mission on their careers or on earning income. Society trains us to pursue these kinds of goals. And, of course, you and I need to provide for our families.

But men, if you make your life mission to live a godly life for the sake of your children, then your influence will last long beyond the lives of your children to touch generations!

You see, our spiritual lives are much like a relay race in which one generation passes the baton of faith to the next generation, and so on.

Make it your purpose in life to be a man who passes on a legacy of faith and love to your children just as if you were anchoring a race for eternity, because you are!