Grow in God's Love Each Morning!

Word Of God:

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” - James 4:10

Daily Devotion:

Throne & Chairs!

"Pray for kings and all in authority, so that we can live in peace and quietness, in godliness and dignity" (1 Tim 2:2)

Praying for those in authority is a solemn obligation of each Christian. It is God on the Throne who has seated leaders on chairs (Rom 13:1). Prayer moves the arm that moves the world! What should we pray when we seek God's face for leaders? We must pray—

a) That they may lead a clean life and their hands be free from corruption. The mother of King Lemuel taught him, "Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings. It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes, intoxicating drink" (Prov 31:3,4). How can we point our finger at the unrighteousness of a leader before lifting our hands to God for him?

b) That they may depend on God who is the Source of all authority, rather than on popularity from men. King David emphasizes this truth in Psalm 21. "The king shall have joy in Your strength, O Lord; and in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!... For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved" (vv 1,7). King Nebuchadnezzar learnt this lesson the hard way (Dan 4:28-37).

c) That they may be given good counselors and that they may have a listening ear. The wisest king ever lived rightly said, "Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who will be admonished no more"(Eccl 4:13). The kingdom was irrepairably divided when king Rehoboam "rejected the counsel which the elders gave him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him who stood before him" (1 Ki 12:8,16).

d) That they may judge with righteousness. First the poor. "The king who judges the poor with truth, his throne will be established forever" (Prov 29:14). Then the wicked. "A wise king sifts out the wicked, and brings the threshing wheel over them" (Prov 20:26). In these days when might is right, we need to be blessed with kind leaders who will uphold the cause of the poor and bold leaders who will not spare the wicked.

e) That they may be protected. Satan has flooded the nations with a spirit of murder. We must rebuke these blood-thirsty spirits in the Name of Jesus and release angelic spirits of protection over our leaders. Tight security arrangements and personal body-guards are useless "unless the Lord guards the city" (Psa 127:1).

Prayer:

Love Is...

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Grow in God's Love Each Morning!

Word Of God:

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” - Matthew 7:12

Daily Devotion:

Methods or Men?

"You must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking" (Eph 4:17)

The writings of prayer warrior E. M. Bounds (1835-1913) on prayer are unequalled. No author who writes about this holy exercise fails to borrow from Bounds. He penned, "The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men!" It is necessary that we change our methods in ministry according to culture and context. But this we must do within the boundaries of Biblical principles. Otherwise we will lose the message. John Blanchard (1729-1785) warns, "Never put yourself in the position where you have to evacuate the message in order to accommodate the method."

Skills can be sanctified by the Holy Spirit (Ex 31:1-5). But He is grieved if we depend on them. Zerubbabel was a remarkably skillful worker. Yet the word of the Lord to him was, "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit" (Zech 4:6). Uncommonly talented preachers must be extra-cautious, otherwise they will no more be God's spokesmen but simply great speakers. A conscious acknowledgement of our total dependence on the Lord to speak through us must be made before stepping on the pulpit. Leonard Ravenhill (1907-1994) wrote, "The pulpit can be a shopwindow to display our talents; the closet speaks death to display."

I am ashamed to watch theatrical performances on the pulpit. I can understand singers holding microphones in their hands close to their mouths. But as a preacher if both my hands are not free, how can I turn the pages of the Bible to read out the references and expound the passages? We don't preach to excite people but to edify them. We must dress smartly but not showily. Addressing those who had listened to John the Baptist, Jesus asked, "What did you expect when you went out to see him in the wild? A sheik in silk pyjamas? Not in the wilderness! What then? A prophet? That's right, a prophet!" (Mt 11:8,9 The Message). Photo and video consciousness also tampers with the message.

Computerisation of Bible study materials has opened before us a world of Biblical references. With just a touch of a button hundreds of sermon outlines can be browsed. Because of such facilities we become strangers to the painstaking study methods of our forefathers. When we spend more time sitting in front of a computer screen than kneeling before God, our sermon outlines will be nothing more than lifeless skeletons. "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor 3:6b).

There was a "man" sent from God; his name was John!

Prayer:

Prayer of Thanks

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food,For love and friends,For everything Thy goodness sends. Father in heaven, We thank thee. Amen.

Grow in God's Love Each Morning!

Word Of God:

"We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God." 2 Corinthians 5:20

Daily Devotion:

In & Out!

"First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean" (Mt 23:26)

Hypocrisy means contradiction. That is, the difference between thoughts and words— keeping something in mind and saying something else. It is also a contradiction between words and deeds (Mt 23:2,3); a difference between life inside home and outside. There are some who behave themselves excellently outside, but their behaviour at home will be awful. They will be like angels on Sundays and the devil during weekdays.

How does hypocrisy arise? Many think that it is alright to be hypocritical. They find fault with others and justify themselves (Mt 7:4,5). One reason is that they simply `act' desiring public applause (Mt 23:27,28). Another reason is that they give undue emphasis to the external things rather than the inward life (Mt 23:25,26). Covetousness (Ezek 33:31) and emphasizing minor things rather than the fundamentals are also the other reasons (Mt 23:24). Jesus did not say, "Woe unto you, adulterers…thieves…murderers...," but He repeatedly pronounced, "Woe unto you, hypocrites." Hypocrisy is that grave a sin.

Hypocrisy is mostly seen in spiritual matters. Some praise and worship God with their mouths, but their hearts are not one with Him (Mt 15:7-9). They will be eager to listen to His Word but they do not do what it says (Ezek 33:31,32). Some will be preaching to others only (Rom 2:21-23; Psa 50:16). These people will be active in even religious exercises such as almsgiving, praying in a flowery language and fasting (Mt 6:2,5,16). These hypocrites will act as though they are nice to others but in their hearts they will set traps for them.

The Bible teaches that the hope and happiness of hypocrites will not last long but will perish soon (Job 8:13-15). If God says "Woe" to the hypocrites, we can guess their future. The first sin judged in the infant Church was hypocrisy (Acts 5:1-11).

Hypocrisy retards spiritual growth (1 Pet 2:1-3). God's children should never give place to hypocrisy. God knows every one of our thoughts, actions and whereabouts (Psa 139). The fear that we would have to stand in front of God's judgment seat should never leave us (2 Cor 5:10-12).

All light is no light;
for noblemen the light of truth is the true light!
- (Thiruvalluvar, an ancient Tamil poet)

Prayer:

Prayer for Peace

Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one creator; to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Grow in God's Love Each Morning!

Word Of God:

“Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” - Isaiah 1:16-17

Daily Devotion:

His Dictate my Delight!

"He who has called you is faithful; He will also do it" (1 Thess 5:24)

Making excuses is basic to human nature. We have inherited it from our first parents. When God confronted them after their fall, they invented excuses to cover up their failure. We looked at two of the commonest excuses yesterday. We shall look at another two today—

Holiness is optional!

Holiness is not optional but a basic obligation expected from us by our Creator. Micah the prophet cried to the backslidden people of Israel, "God has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord REQUIRE of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" (Mic 6:8)? Because the Church has canonized only a select few with sainthood—like St.Paul and St.Augustine—the average Christian has developed an unconscious conviction that only a special category of people is empowered or expected to live holy. But the Bible explicitly teaches that "no one" will see the Lord without holiness (Heb 12:14).

God desires that "all" of His children grow "to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:13). Holiness is a command from God and not a nice suggestion. Each of us is special to God — "chosen... precious... royal"—and there are no deluxe editions among His people (1 Pet 2:4,5,9). Let holiness be our watchword.

Holiness is all by God!

Calvinistic theology and Armenian theology are the two main streams in the world of Christian thinking. The former stresses the sovereignty of God and the latter the responsibility of man. To me the Bible seems to hold both these views in proper tension. Without God, we cannot; and without us, God will not! Both the Testaments teach this truth. We are to "sow" for ourselves righteousness, and the Lord will "shower" righteousness on us (Hos 10:12). As "we" awake from sleep and arise from the dead, "Christ" will give us light (Eph 5:14). When we forget our responsibility we become careless. If we forget what God is doing in us we become joyless.

More holiness give me, more strivings within;
More patience in suffering, more sorrow for sin;
More purity give me, more strength to o'ercome;
More freedom from earth-stains, more longings for Home!(Philip P. Bliss, 1838-1876)

Prayer:

Prayer of Hope

O Lord, in Whom is our hope, remove far from us, we pray Thee, empty hopes and presumptuous confidence. Make our hearts so right with Thy most holy and loving heart, that hoping in Thee we may do good; until that day when faith and hope shall be abolished by sight and possession, and love shall be all in all.Amen.

Grow in God's Love Each Morning!

Word Of God:

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” - Micah 6:8

Daily Devotion:

Holy Excuses

"God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness" (1 Thess 4:7)

For every sin we commit Satan is ready to provide us with an excuse. But excuse is the most unprofitable item ever manufactured, especially in Christian life. Unless we stop making lame excuses we will only be walking with crutches. There are ten commonest excuses we give when we fail to walk holy before God. We will look at them today and the next four days.

Holiness is impossible!

This excuse paints God as a merciless dictator instead of a loving father. Which father will give impossible orders to his children or make impossible demands? The Bible and Church history abound with stories of men and women who did walk holy in their lifetime. A few examples: "Noah was a just man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God" (Gen 6:9). God Himself testified about Job, "There is none like My servant Job on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil" (Job 1:8). Concerning Zacharias and Elizabeth, Luke has recorded, "They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless" (Lk 1:6). Watching the lives of saintly men and women instead of the failures inspires in us a confidence that we too can make it.

Holiness is abnormal!

We not only think that holiness is for a special group of people but also that holiness is an above-average condition. We have become so subnormal that normal appears abnormal! The Epistle to the Corinthians was not written to a mature group of Christians but to a Church which had all the strife and sensuality as any Church in the world today. But in his very greeting the apostle Paul reminds the recipients of the Epistle that they had been "set apart in Christ Jesus, called to be saints" (1 Cor 1:2). This explains growth in holiness as a march from "positional" sanctity in Christ to "practical" sanctification in life. "He who is holy, let him be holy still" (Rev 22:11). Christian life means climbing God's holy hill (Psa 24:3). The moment we look behind instead of pressing forward we will begin to slide down (Phil 3:12-14). We must resist the temptation to settle down in mediocrity but stay sensitive to "the upward call of God in Christ Jesus!" Pastors should "strive" towards this end of making every member of their congregation "perfect" in Christ Jesus (Col 1:28,29).

No one is saintly enough to enter Heaven without Jesus;
No one is too sinful to be made holy by Him!

Prayer:

Prayer of Repentance

Merciful God, we have sinned in what we have thought and said,in the wrong we have done and in the good we have not done.We have sinned in ignorance:we have sinned in weakness:we have sinned through our own deliberate fault.We are truly sorry.We repent and turn to you.Forgive us,fsor our Saviour Christ's sake,and renew our lives to the glory of your name.Amen.