Good Words for Today
I used to listen to a preacher who liked to lean forward and say, "If you're going to be a Christian, be one!" We need that more than ever today. In a world where our brothers and sisters in Pakistan are being killed for their faith, we all need to decide which team we're on. If you're on the world's team, put on their jersey. If you're on Team Jesus, put on His jersey. In these difficult days, we need Christians who aren't ashamed of their faith. Let me assure you of this: Compromise will win you no friends. You'll be "too Christian" for the worldly crowd and "too worldly" for the Christian crowd. Might as well stand up and be counted. If you're going to be a Christian, be one!
If you’re a child of God, you’re in good hands. Your past is forgiven, your present is secure, and your future is guaranteed. For the child of God, the best is always yet to come.
"Predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29). If God’s #1 goal is to make me like Jesus Christ, then he has many lessons to teach me. Most of those lessons can only come through heartache and difficulty because most of us learn more through the hard times than we do through the good times. Little by little God chips away at your weak points and slowly develops the character of Jesus Christ within. We aren't there yet, but God isn't finished yet. Our prayer should be, "Father, do whatever it takes to make me more like Jesus today. Amen."
"If you would be trusted, first learn to be honest; if you would rule, first learn how to obey; if you would rise to a more important position, fill the place where you are to overflowing with yourself, and God will soon beckon you to a wider sphere." Thomas Kelly
True religion always begins with humility. The proud go to hell because they will not bend the knee to Jesus Christ. Only the humble can ever be saved.
How does one develop humility? C. S. Lewis says that the first step is to admit that you are a proud person. This is not easy to do because there is something in us that rebels at the thought of admitting that we are filled with pride. But if pride caused Lucifer to fall from heaven, should we be surprised that pride still lurks inside the human heart? Are you a proud person? The answer is yes. Am I? Same answer. Let’s admit it and then move on from there.
Heavenly Father, it is much easier to listen to a sermon than to put it into practice. We confess that our problem isn’t information. We already know what you want from us. You have already given us everything we need to obey. Help us to do it. Give us the mind of Christ that we might love as he loved, serve as he served, and give as he gave for others. In Jesus' name, Amen.
"Being one in spirit and of one mind" (Philippians 2:3). I like Peterson’s paraphrase: “Be deep-spirited friends.” This touches how we relate to each other. The Greek literally means “same-souled.” It has the idea of such a deep unity that your souls are “unanimous” in their love and respect for each other. A. T. Robertson says that when we have this kind of unity, we will be “like clocks that strike at the same moment.” We may say it very simply. A united church experiences God's power--and a divided church does not.
"The world is filled with men and women who have vainly sought everywhere for peace and light and help, but they found it not until they found it in Jesus. These men and women have tested Him, and in their deepest consciousness they know better than they know anything else that through Him their darkness has been dispelled, their burdens lifted, their victories won." George W. Truett
When will we discover that God’s laws cannot be broken? When you sin you don’t break God’s laws, you are broken by them. It’s like the man who jumps off a cliff and lands on the rocks below. He doesn’t break the rocks; the rocks break him. Likewise, when we experiment with sexual promiscuity, we are broken by the laws of God we chose to ignore.
"His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:2). When our roots are deep in the Word, we will be given whatever we need, whenever we need it. This sort of supernatural life happens as we continue to walk with the Lord and to delight in his Word.
No one is more miserable than the person who harbors secret hatred and wishes for revenge. No one is happier than the person who finally opens the door to the Holy Spirit and says, “Come in and do your work in me.” In the moment when you say that, healing begins on the inside. Instead of hatred there is love; instead of bitterness, kindness. Instead of revenge, forgiveness. If I am describing your life, then God’s word to you is: “Open the hidden door and let my Spirit come in.”
"Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). This is both a command and a promise. If we will submit to God, we may be sure that when we resist the devil, he will flee from us. We have no power in ourselves against the devil, but he has no power to use against us when we fight with God’s power. By ourselves we can’t win; with God’s help, we can’t lose.
Thanks be to God for the empty tomb. As much as I marvel at the Virgin Birth of Jesus, as much as I wonder at his sinless life, as much as I glory in the cross of Jesus, it is the resurrection of Jesus that makes Christianity unique among all of the world religions. Doubt if you will, but the tomb is still empty because he is not there. He is risen, just as he said.
"I learned his character at once from what he said about others." Charles Spurgeon
"I hear the Savior say, 'Thy strength indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me thine all in all.'" "Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow." From "Jesus Paid It All" by Elvina Hall, 1865.
I heard of one preacher who said that being saved is like the frog in a pail of milk. He kept kicking until he churned a pat of butter. He hopped on the butter and then jumped out of the pail. The moral was: Just keep on paddling and everything will turn out okay. Again, that may be good advice for everyday life but it’s terrible advice regarding how to go to heaven. God’s salvation is not a do-it-yourself kit. If you want to go to heaven, the first step is to stop trying to earn your way there. You have to “stop working” and “start trusting” if you want to be saved.
"The trouble is that I'm in a hurry but God isn't." Phillips Brooks
"Keep yourselvcs in the love of God" (Jude 1:21). Power may cause a man to be feared. Authority may earn respect. Money may bring popularity. Education may lead to eminence. Genius may be praised. But only love can change the world. Love binds one heart to another. Love comes from God and leads us back to God. When we love, we prove we are truly born of God.
If God were not omnipotent, Jesus would still be dead. But if God can raise the dead, he can do anything. Let that thought encourage your heart as you face the impossibilities of life.
"God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him" (Acts 2:24). Death will not have the last word for Jesus has conquered the grave. Because he rose, we too shall rise. The power that raised him will one day raise us. When our Lord came out of the tomb, all of his people came out with him. Because Christ rose on the third day, death is not the end of our story.
The burial of Jesus shows us the true end of our rebellion and lawlessness. Left to ourselves, we end up in the grave—which is where our Lord ended up after he had suffered for our sins.
Start anywhere in the Bible and the result is the same—all roads lead inexorably to the cross. The cross is God’s solution to man’s sin. And since sin is the ultimate problem of the human race, the cross is God’s ultimate answer.
"What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain; Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain. Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place; Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace." From "O Sacred Head Now Wounded," attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux, ca. 1150
"Don’t look at the world, don’t look at history, don’t look at the news the way unbelievers do. They don’t see a plan. Therefore, they don’t see reality for what it really is. Everything is moving according to plan. When Satan, with Adam and Eve, introduced sin into the world, if he thought he was wrecking the plan of God, he was a fool. Before the world existed, the plan was: a slain Lamb as the center-point of history with his foot on the bruised head of Satan. Satan didn’t wreck the plan; he set it up." John Piper
“If some of you plume yourselves with the notion that you are righteous, I pray God to pluck those fine feathers off you and make you see yourselves, for if you never see your own nothingness, you will never understand Christ’s all-sufficiency. Unless you are pulled down, Christ will never lift you up.” Charles Spurgeon
"If Satan cannot control all of your mind, he is quite content to take the part you will let him have. He knows he will get more later." Mark Bubeck
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) So far from being a cold, hard doctrine, the sovereignty of God fills the believer’s heart with comfort. In this world with so many questions, we know with certainty that his throne is in heaven, he rules over all, and he loves us so much that he gave his Son that we might have everlasting life. He who upholds the universe holds me in the palm of his hand. He who guides the stars guides my life too. He who knows all things from beginning to end knows me. And I entrust my life to him.
There is a world out there. Get in it. There is something going on out there. Don't sit on the sidelines. God gave you two hands. Use them. God gave you a voice. Speak up. God gave you two feet. Get moving. Do something with the life that God gave you. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.
We need a happy confidence in God. By this I mean a confidence that sees the hand of God in all the varied and changing circumstances of life. This sort of confidence sees God at work in good times and hard moments, leading you through some very dark valleys. This confidence looks at the present and says, “I am here by God’s appointment, therefore it is good for me to be here even though I might prefer to be elsewhere.” And it looks to the future with anticipation, knowing that God will lead you step by step so that you end up exactly where he wants you to be.
"Lord make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be." Robert Murray McCheyne
"Ask . . . Seek . .. . Knock" (Matthew 7:7). Anyone may pray to God about anything. And the emphasis falls not on our prayers but on the certainty of answers from God. Three times Jesus mentions our part. We are to ask, seek, and knock. But six times he tells us that we will receive, will find, and the door will be opened to us. It is as if God is pleading and begging with us to dare to come to him in prayer. I am reminded of Billy Graham’s remark that there are rooms in heaven filled with answers to prayer for which no one has thought to ask.
"I’ve found a Friend, who is all to me, His love is ever true; I love to tell how He lifted me And what His grace can do for you." "Saved by His power divine, Saved to new life sublime! Life now is sweet and my joy is complete, For I’m saved, saved, saved!" Jack Scholfield, 1911
"They will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green, to declare: “The Lord is just; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him" (Psalm 92:14-15). Here is a worthy goal for those who have lived to see the crowning years of life. Do not go silently into the night. Do not let these precious days go by quietly. Speak up for the Lord. The young need you more than you know. They need your testimony, your years of experience, and most of all, they need you to declare that the Lord is a Rock upon whom we can all rest. Show us the way and we will thank you by sharing with our children and grandchildren what you have told us.
O God of truth, I thank you for the Holy Scriptures for in them I discover the way to life. Fill my heart with your Word today. Amen.
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). Here is the Christian life in four words: "I can through Christ." I am not saying, "I can do all things." Those are the words of a boaster. I am not saying, "I can do some things." Those are the words of a doubter. But I am saying, "I can do all things through Christ." Those are the words of a believer.
To approach God apart from Jesus Christ is to guarantee that we will be turned away. You may pray in the name of Krishna, Buddha, Confucius, or you may claim that your faith in Mohammed somehow ensures that God will hear you. You may come to God in the name of any other religious leader you choose to follow. But it will do you no good. The only One who can bring you into God’s presence is the Lord Jesus Christ. “There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). If you do not come to God through him, you cannot come at all.
We pray not to be made rich, but to know our riches in Christ. We pray not for comfort, but to know more of your strength. We pray not for an easy road, but for grace to walk the Calvary road. We do not ask for the world’s applause, but for courage to walk pleasing in your sight. We do not ask for rest, but for more determination to do your work in the world.
“Grace and peace be yours in abundance” (1 Peter 1:2). Some translations say, “May grace and peace be multiplied to you.” His prayer is, “May you have more and more of God’s grace and God’s peace.” This is our compensation for being strangers in the world. There are no limits on God’s grace or God’s peace. We can never come to the end of either one.
"I heard about His healing, Of His cleansing pow'r revealing. How He made the lame to walk again And caused the blind to see; And then I cried, "Dear Jesus, Come and heal my broken spirit," And somehow Jesus came and bro't To me the victory." From "Victory in Jesus" by Eugene Bartlett, 1939.