One day, all 8 billion people on earth will know the Bible is true.
❤9🥰2
Many Christians today feel spiritually weak.
Not because the Gospel has lost its power.
But because we have quietly replaced spiritual disciplines with constant distraction.
Not because the Gospel has lost its power.
But because we have quietly replaced spiritual disciplines with constant distraction.
❤4
May 1: Who Will Fight for Us?
#Devotional
Judges 1:1–2:10; Philippians 1:1–11; Psalm 61:1–62:12
“Who will go up first for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?” (Judg 1:1).
I’ve felt this way before—wondering who will be my advocate in my time of need. It’s ironic that we are surrounded by people, and we have constant access to communication, and yet we can still feel alone. In a world of ambient noise, we’re often left feeling that no one is there to come to our aid. Most of us do have people to help us; it’s just that we’re not willing to ask for help. At all times, we have someone who will be our guide in times of distress.
Paul tells us that it is Christ
“who began a good work in you [and He] will finish it until the day [He returns]” (Phil 1:6).
In essence, the story of Paul and the Philippian believers’ struggles is really the same story told in the book of Judges. God’s people are at war against powers seen and unseen (Phil 3:1–4; compare Col 1:16). They feel lonely and wounded, but when they search their hearts, they see that God really is rising up to defend them. In Judges, He sends His people great advocates who go out before them in battle. In Philippians, we see Paul telling his story to a church in need of a leader so they can look to his example (e.g., Phil 1:12–25; 3:1–21). We also see Paul, time and time again, point to the greatest example: Christ (e.g., Phil 1:9–11).
In the humility of his situation, Paul sees God at work (Phil 2). When God’s people found themselves in dire circumstances, being opposed by outside forces, they saw God come to their aid (e.g., Judg 4). Christ is our advocate before God the Father, and He is our guide in this life, which can often be confusing and disheartening. God’s faithfulness in guiding and loving His people remains the same today as yesterday, but now we see an even greater manifestation of that love in Jesus.
What humbling situation are you going through? How can you hand it over to God and trust in His providence?
#Devotional
Judges 1:1–2:10; Philippians 1:1–11; Psalm 61:1–62:12
“Who will go up first for us against the Canaanites to fight against them?” (Judg 1:1).
I’ve felt this way before—wondering who will be my advocate in my time of need. It’s ironic that we are surrounded by people, and we have constant access to communication, and yet we can still feel alone. In a world of ambient noise, we’re often left feeling that no one is there to come to our aid. Most of us do have people to help us; it’s just that we’re not willing to ask for help. At all times, we have someone who will be our guide in times of distress.
Paul tells us that it is Christ
“who began a good work in you [and He] will finish it until the day [He returns]” (Phil 1:6).
In essence, the story of Paul and the Philippian believers’ struggles is really the same story told in the book of Judges. God’s people are at war against powers seen and unseen (Phil 3:1–4; compare Col 1:16). They feel lonely and wounded, but when they search their hearts, they see that God really is rising up to defend them. In Judges, He sends His people great advocates who go out before them in battle. In Philippians, we see Paul telling his story to a church in need of a leader so they can look to his example (e.g., Phil 1:12–25; 3:1–21). We also see Paul, time and time again, point to the greatest example: Christ (e.g., Phil 1:9–11).
In the humility of his situation, Paul sees God at work (Phil 2). When God’s people found themselves in dire circumstances, being opposed by outside forces, they saw God come to their aid (e.g., Judg 4). Christ is our advocate before God the Father, and He is our guide in this life, which can often be confusing and disheartening. God’s faithfulness in guiding and loving His people remains the same today as yesterday, but now we see an even greater manifestation of that love in Jesus.
What humbling situation are you going through? How can you hand it over to God and trust in His providence?
❤1🙏1
May 1 - Jesus on God’s Love: For Persecutors
#LifeOfChrist
“‘Pray for those who persecute you’” (Matthew 5:44).
Throughout the centuries the worst kinds of persecutions against Jesus’ followers have come from religious people. Persecution has been so strong against believers because they uphold God’s standards, which indict the sin and corruption of false religion. God’s Word unmasks hypocrisy in a most crucial area—humanity’s propensity for self-justification.
Knowing that persecution would be the world’s response to the Father’s truth, Christ assures us that we will be persecuted, just as He was (John 15:20). Thus His command that we pray for our persecutors is one every faithful believer will have some opportunity to obey, not just those who live in countries where Christianity is illegal or severely restricted.
The best way to have agape- love for those who persecute us is to pray for them. We might sense their sinfulness and intense hatred and ridicule of us. Those traits make it impossible to love the persecutors for what they are, but we must love them for who they are—sinners in need of God’s forgiveness and His saving grace. So we need to pray for them that they will repent and turn to Him for salvation, as we have already done.
Bear in mind, though, that persecutors will not always and only be unbelievers. Those professing to be fellow believers can give saints real grief and difficulty, too, but—as in every case—the first step in making right those situations is prayer. Jesus knew that prayer for persecutors can begin to knit our hearts with God’s in the matter of loving our enemies.
Ask Yourself
Which has been the hardest for you to deal with—persecution from without or from within the family of God? Why is prayer such a powerful tool in combating the hard feelings this dredges up in you?
#LifeOfChrist
“‘Pray for those who persecute you’” (Matthew 5:44).
Throughout the centuries the worst kinds of persecutions against Jesus’ followers have come from religious people. Persecution has been so strong against believers because they uphold God’s standards, which indict the sin and corruption of false religion. God’s Word unmasks hypocrisy in a most crucial area—humanity’s propensity for self-justification.
Knowing that persecution would be the world’s response to the Father’s truth, Christ assures us that we will be persecuted, just as He was (John 15:20). Thus His command that we pray for our persecutors is one every faithful believer will have some opportunity to obey, not just those who live in countries where Christianity is illegal or severely restricted.
The best way to have agape- love for those who persecute us is to pray for them. We might sense their sinfulness and intense hatred and ridicule of us. Those traits make it impossible to love the persecutors for what they are, but we must love them for who they are—sinners in need of God’s forgiveness and His saving grace. So we need to pray for them that they will repent and turn to Him for salvation, as we have already done.
Bear in mind, though, that persecutors will not always and only be unbelievers. Those professing to be fellow believers can give saints real grief and difficulty, too, but—as in every case—the first step in making right those situations is prayer. Jesus knew that prayer for persecutors can begin to knit our hearts with God’s in the matter of loving our enemies.
Ask Yourself
Which has been the hardest for you to deal with—persecution from without or from within the family of God? Why is prayer such a powerful tool in combating the hard feelings this dredges up in you?
❤1🔥1
DAY 1: Contrast the pagan god of the Philistines and the living God.
https://telegra.ph/DAILY-BIBLE-05-01
https://telegra.ph/DAILY-BIBLE-05-01
Telegraph
DAILY BIBLE
Reading for Today: 1 Samuel 4:1–5:12 Psalm 54:1-7 Proverbs 15:12-13 Luke 21:1-19 Notes: 1 Samuel 4:4 dwells between the cherubim. A repeated phrase used to describe the Lord (see 2 Sam. 6:2; 2 Kin. 19:15; 1 Chr. 13:6; Ps. 80:1; 99:1; Is. 37:16). It spoke…
“Fill their faces with shame,
that they may seek your name, O Lord.” Psalm 83:16
There is a holy, hopeful kind of shame.
that they may seek your name, O Lord.” Psalm 83:16
There is a holy, hopeful kind of shame.
Give yourself to prayer, to reading and meditation on divine truths: strive to penetrate to the bottom of them and never be content with a superficial knowledge.
David Brainerd
David Brainerd
🙏4
“‘Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ And the Lord said to Gideon, ‘But I will be with you.’” Judges 6:15–16
“…they are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me,
Yes, Jesus loves me…
The Bible tells me so.”
“…they are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me,
Yes, Jesus loves me…
The Bible tells me so.”
🙏3
So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. - 1 Thessalonians 5:11 NLT #verseoftheday
🙏3
“‘It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.’ That’s what it means to be a Christian.” —John Piper
❤4
Forever, O Lord, Your Word is established.
Psalm 119:84
Truth is immutable, reliable, unchanging, transcending, contemporary, authoritative, and demanding.
Psalm 119:84
Truth is immutable, reliable, unchanging, transcending, contemporary, authoritative, and demanding.
🔥5
My times are in Your hands, deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me.
Psalm 31:15
'My times are in Your hands'
Psalm 31:15
'My times are in Your hands'
🙏2
What is the ultimate problem the world has? Sin.
What is the only answer for it? Jesus.
What is the only answer for it? Jesus.
The Bible says there will come a time when evil will be called good, and good will be called evil.
That time is now.
That time is now.
👍2
A father is either the conduit by which evil enters the home, or the shield upon which it crashes.
May 2: Don’t Focus on Overcoming
#Devotional
Judges 2:11–3:31; Philippians 1:12–18; Psalm 63–64
When I go through difficult circumstances, I want the end. I’m so focused on escape and overcoming that I barely think about what God might be teaching me through that experience. And I’m certainly not thinking about how He might be using me to witness to others.
Paul was on a completely different wavelength. In his letter to the church at Philippi, he sets his Roman imprisonment in context:
“Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have happened instead for the progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in Christ has become known in the whole praetorium and to all the rest” (Phil 1:12–13).
Paul wasn’t just enduring or anticipating the end of his imprisonment. He was using his experience to be a witness for Christ. His captors must have wondered: what makes a person willing to suffer like this? What makes his message worth imprisonment?
Paul’s circumstances didn’t merely create waves with those he was testifying to. Other believers were emboldened by Paul’s endurance and preached the gospel without fear (Phil 1:14).
It’s not natural to be filled with joy in the midst of difficult times. It’s not normal to have a sense of purpose when everything appears to be going wrong. We don’t expect much from ourselves or others during these times, but God wants to refine us and use us. He’s giving us a chance to display the “peace of God that surpasses all understanding”—as a testimony to Christ’s redemptive work (Phil 4:7). Are you responding?
How can you use your difficult circumstances to point others toward Christ?
#Devotional
Judges 2:11–3:31; Philippians 1:12–18; Psalm 63–64
When I go through difficult circumstances, I want the end. I’m so focused on escape and overcoming that I barely think about what God might be teaching me through that experience. And I’m certainly not thinking about how He might be using me to witness to others.
Paul was on a completely different wavelength. In his letter to the church at Philippi, he sets his Roman imprisonment in context:
“Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have happened instead for the progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in Christ has become known in the whole praetorium and to all the rest” (Phil 1:12–13).
Paul wasn’t just enduring or anticipating the end of his imprisonment. He was using his experience to be a witness for Christ. His captors must have wondered: what makes a person willing to suffer like this? What makes his message worth imprisonment?
Paul’s circumstances didn’t merely create waves with those he was testifying to. Other believers were emboldened by Paul’s endurance and preached the gospel without fear (Phil 1:14).
It’s not natural to be filled with joy in the midst of difficult times. It’s not normal to have a sense of purpose when everything appears to be going wrong. We don’t expect much from ourselves or others during these times, but God wants to refine us and use us. He’s giving us a chance to display the “peace of God that surpasses all understanding”—as a testimony to Christ’s redemptive work (Phil 4:7). Are you responding?
How can you use your difficult circumstances to point others toward Christ?
May 2 - Jesus on God’s Love: To Show Our Sonship
#LifeOfChrist
“‘. . . so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous’” (Matthew 5:45).
God Himself is love, and the best evidence that we are His children through faith in Jesus Christ is our love for other believers.
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35; cf.
1 John 4:20).
Our divine sonship is further evidenced when love leads us to pray for our opponents.
Even though the world often has a faulty understanding of what the gospel is, it knows enough about Christ and His teachings to see that believers do not obey all His commands or live consistently as He lived. People in the world who are the furthest from saving faith nevertheless often sense the divine power that underlies the loving and caring Christian life—simply because such a life that goes far enough to love enemies is so uncharacteristic of human nature.
In this way we show our family likeness, an increasing resemblance to our heavenly Father. For example, God provides His general blessings on everyone, with no respect for merit or deserving; otherwise no one could receive them. The psalmist writes,
“The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Ps. 145:15–16).
If God is so generous, we who claim to know Him ought to show similar love and impartial concern for everyone, even those who don’t like us.
Ask Yourself
Though God does possess qualities we can never attain as mortals, He has given us—by virtue of our adoption into His family—the privilege of looking more like Him in our attitudes and behaviors. Why is pursuing this so important?
#LifeOfChrist
“‘. . . so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous’” (Matthew 5:45).
God Himself is love, and the best evidence that we are His children through faith in Jesus Christ is our love for other believers.
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35; cf.
1 John 4:20).
Our divine sonship is further evidenced when love leads us to pray for our opponents.
Even though the world often has a faulty understanding of what the gospel is, it knows enough about Christ and His teachings to see that believers do not obey all His commands or live consistently as He lived. People in the world who are the furthest from saving faith nevertheless often sense the divine power that underlies the loving and caring Christian life—simply because such a life that goes far enough to love enemies is so uncharacteristic of human nature.
In this way we show our family likeness, an increasing resemblance to our heavenly Father. For example, God provides His general blessings on everyone, with no respect for merit or deserving; otherwise no one could receive them. The psalmist writes,
“The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Ps. 145:15–16).
If God is so generous, we who claim to know Him ought to show similar love and impartial concern for everyone, even those who don’t like us.
Ask Yourself
Though God does possess qualities we can never attain as mortals, He has given us—by virtue of our adoption into His family—the privilege of looking more like Him in our attitudes and behaviors. Why is pursuing this so important?