for March 5
IS HE REALLY MY LORD?
Acts 20:24
...so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus...
Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific purpose for which I was created and born again, not from successfully doing something of my own choosing. The joy our Lord experienced came from doing what the Father sent Him to do. And He says to us, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." John 20:21 Have you received a ministry from the Lord? If so, you must be faithful to it -- consider your life valuable only for the purpose of fulfilling that ministry. Knowing that you have done what Jesus sent you to do, think how satisfying it will be to hear Him say to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant" Matthew 25:21. We each have to find a niche in life, and spiritually we find it when we receive a ministry from the Lord. To do this we must have close fellowship with Jesus and must know Him as more than our personal Savior. And we must be willing to experience the full impact of Acts 9:16 -- "I will show him how many things he must suffer for MY NAME'S SAKE."
"Do you love Me" Then, "Feed My sheep" (John 21:17). He is not offering us a choice of how we can serve Him; He is asking for absolute loyalty to His commission, a faithfulness to what we discern when we are in the closest possible fellowship with God. If you have received a ministry from the Lord Jesus, you will know that the need is not the same as the call -- the need is the opportunity to exercise the call. The call is to be faithful to the ministry you received when you were in true fellowship with Him. This does not imply that there is a whole series of differing ministries marked out for you. It does mean that you must be sensitive to what God has called you to do, and this may sometimes require ignoring demands for service in other areas.
IS HE REALLY MY LORD? YES :dsunny:
Quote from: anna274 on March 06, 2014, 02:29:23 AM
for March 5
IS HE REALLY MY LORD?
Acts 20:24
...so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus...
Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific purpose for which I was created and born again, not from successfully doing something of my own choosing. The joy our Lord experienced came from doing what the Father sent Him to do. And He says to us, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." John 20:21 Have you received a ministry from the Lord? If so, you must be faithful to it -- consider your life valuable only for the purpose of fulfilling that ministry. Knowing that you have done what Jesus sent you to do, think how satisfying it will be to hear Him say to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant" Matthew 25:21. We each have to find a niche in life, and spiritually we find it when we receive a ministry from the Lord. To do this we must have close fellowship with Jesus and must know Him as more than our personal Savior. And we must be willing to experience the full impact of Acts 9:16 -- "I will show him how many things he must suffer for MY NAME'S SAKE."
"Do you love Me" Then, "Feed My sheep" (John 21:17). He is not offering us a choice of how we can serve Him; He is asking for absolute loyalty to His commission, a faithfulness to what we discern when we are in the closest possible fellowship with God. If you have received a ministry from the Lord Jesus, you will know that the need is not the same as the call -- the need is the opportunity to exercise the call. The call is to be faithful to the ministry you received when you were in true fellowship with Him. This does not imply that there is a whole series of differing ministries marked out for you. It does mean that you must be sensitive to what God has called you to do, and this may sometimes require ignoring demands for service in other areas.
Awesome! Amen :thumbsup:
for March 10
Preach the word! 2 Tim 4:2
We are not saved only to be instruments for God, but to be His sons and daughters. He does not turn us into spiritual agents but into spiritual messengers, and the message must be a part of us. THE SON OF GOD WAS HIS OWN MESSAGE --"The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" John 6:63.
As His disciples, our lives must be a holy example of the reality of our message. Even the natural heart of the unsaved will serve if called upon to do so, but it takes a heart broken by conviction of sin, quickened by the Holy Spirit, ...
There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. ...determined to use all his energy to proclaim God's truth. God takes us beyond our own aspirations and ideas for our lives, and molds and shaped us for His purpose, just as He worked in the disciples' lives after Pentecost. The purpose of Pentecost was not to teach the disciples something, but to make them the incarnation of what they preached so that they would literally become God's message in the flesh "...you shall be witnesses to Me..." Acts 1:8
Before God's message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real in you. Gather your material carefully, and then allow God to "set your words on fire" for His glory.
for April 1
HELPFUL OR HEARTLESS TOWARD OTHERS?
"It is Christ...who also makes intercession for us...the Spirit...makes intercession for the saints..." Romans 8:34, 27
Do we need any more encouragement than these to become intercessors-that Christ "always lives to make intercession" Heb 7:25, and that the Holy Spirit "makes intercession for the saints"? Are we living in such a relationship with others that we do the work of intercession as a result of being the children of God who are taught by His Spirit? We should take a look at our current circumstances. Do crises which affect us or others in our home, business, country, or elsewhere, seem to be crushing in on us? Are we being pushed out of the presence of God and left with no time for worship? If so, we must put a stop to such distractions and get into such a living relationship with God that our relationship with others is maintained through the work of intercession, where God works His miracles.
Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will. We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities, becoming so burdened with people and problems that we don't worship God**, and we fail to intercede. If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness toward God and despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people in whom we have no interest, and unless we are worshipping God the natural tendency is to be heartless toward them. We give them a quick verse of Scripture, like jabbing them with a spear, or leave them with a hurried, uncaring word of counsel before we go. ...
Are our lives in the proper place so that we may participate in the intercession of our Lord and the Holy Spirit?
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**
John 4:23
A time will come, indeed it is already here, when the true (genuine) worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (reality); for the Father is seeking just such people as these as His worshippers.
for May 2
THE PATIENCE TO WAIT FOR THE VISION
Though it tarries, wait for ... Hab 2:3
Patience is not the same as indifference; patience conveys the idea of someone who is tremendously strong and able to withstand all assaults. Having the vision of God is the source of patience because it gives us God's true and proper inspiration. Moses endured, not because of his devotion to his principles of what was right, nor because of his sense of duty to God, but because he had a vision of God. "...he endured as seeing Him who is invisible" Heb 11:27. A person who has the vision of God is not devoted to a cause or to any particular issue -- he is devoted to God Himself. You always know when the vision is of God because of the inspiration that comes with it. Things come to you with greatness and add vitality to your life because everything is energized by God. He may give you a time spiritually, with no word from Himself at all, just as His Son experienced during His time of temptation in the wilderness. When God does that, simply endure, and the power to endure will be there because you see God.
Though it tarries, wait for it... The proof that we have the vision is that we are reaching out for more than we have already grasped. It is a sad thing to be satisfied spiritually. The psalmist said, "What shall I render to the Lord...? I will take up the cup of salvation... Psalm 116:12-13. We are apt to look for satisfaction within ourselves and say, "Now I've got it! Now I am completely sanctified. Now I can endure." Instantly we are on the road to ruin. Our reach must exceed our grasp. Paul said, "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on ..." Phil 3:12. If we have only what we have experienced, we have nothing. But if we have the inspiration of the vision of God, we have more than we can experience. Beware of the danger of spiritual relaxation.
for May 23
Our Careful Unbelief
"...do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Matt 6:25
Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, "Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?" And He always presses to the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.
"... do not worry about your life..." Don't take the pressure of your provision upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is unbelief; worrying means we do not believe that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything but those details that worry us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the Word He puts in us? Is it the devil? No -- "the cares of this world" Matt 13:22. It is always our little worries. We say, "I will not trust when I cannot see" -- and that is where unbelief begins. The only cure for unbelief is obedience to the Spirit.
The greatest word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.
for June 3
The Secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him. Psalm 25:14
What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows: No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you. Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself - to get us in touch with His purposes. Are we so intimately united to Jesus Christ's idea of prayer -- Your will be done (Matt 6:10) that we catch the secrets of God.
...
Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. Psalm 25:12
... God instructs us in what we choose; that is, He actually guides our common sense. ....
http://utmost.org/the-secret-of-the-lord/