The return of Christ is an absolute certainty, and another day closer.

6 Practical solutions for anxiousness:

1. Open your Bible.
2. Take a screen break.
3, Unsubscribe from rage-baiting
podcasts.
4. Get outside and touch grass.
5. Go for a walk or hit the gym.
6. Take the focus off yourself
& serve someone else.

Don't let your pursuit of worldly success distract you from eternity.

According to the Bible, everything you see here will eventually burn up. Invest in heavenly treasure that lasts forever.

May 27: Math: Maybe Not a Mystic Language After All

#Devotional

1 Chronicles 21:1–22:19; 2 Timothy 2:14–26; Psalm 86:1–87:7

In a world of metrics, it’s easy to become obsessed with statistics and start to quantify every aspect of our lives. Stats can even become a type of scorekeeping between churches or pastors:
“We have more members than you do.”
We may never say those words out loud, but we think them; more than one person has made the mistake of measuring a ministry based on attendance. But God has His own method for measuring success.

Prompted by an adversary (“Satan” is often better translated as “adversary” or “accuser” in the Old Testament), David decides to seek metrics—to count the people of Israel. This account illustrates the harm of seeking gratification or understanding in numbers. In 1 Chronicles 21, major problems emerge from this: including placing an adversary’s will above God’s and predicting God’s will rather than seeking it regularly.

Rather than counting our successes, we should be counting on God for success. We should also be tallying how often He is faithful rather than how many we are in number. We’re more likely to see God’s faithfulness when we’re looking for it rather than looking for probabilities. David succeeded as a warrior and king not because he deserved it, but because God chose for him to do so. In 1 Chronicles 21, David forgets God’s role, even though his (often wrong and bloodthirsty) general reminds him otherwise. In fact, God’s use of Joab as His messenger demonstrates that God’s providential will can come from the least likely places.

Keeping a tally isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and we shouldn’t avoid metrics and stats. But we need to keep information in perspective. It’s not about baptizing 200 people on a Sunday—although that’s a blessed thing. It’s about lives being transformed and people being blessed so that they can experience transformation.

How can you count on what God is doing instead of counting what you deem success?

May 27 - The Problem of Spiritual Debt

#LifeOfChrist

“‘“And forgive us our debts”’” (Matthew 6:12).

Sin dominates the hearts and minds of lost men and women, separates them from God, and is therefore their greatest enemy and problem. It is the common denominator for every crime, immorality, pain, and sorrow—and there is no natural cure: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jer. 13:23). The natural individual does not even want his or her sin cured (John 3:19).

If sin is our greatest problem, our greatest need is the forgiveness God provides. Though forgiven from sin’s ultimate penalty (cf. Rom. 8:1), believers need God’s constant forgiveness for sins they still commit. The apostle John cautions us, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8–9).

Jesus’ act of washing the apostles’ feet (John 13:5–11) is more than a picture of humility; it also portrays God’s repeated, cleansing forgiveness to His disciples. The forgiveness that secures our saving position in Christ at regeneration does not need repeating; but we need God’s practical forgiveness every day to cleanse us from sin’s contamination as we live in this world. Out of God’s vast heart of forgiveness He is ever willing to continually pardon His children (cf. Neh. 9:17; Rom. 5:20).

Ask Yourself

There are probably a small number of things in your life that are clearly in violation of what you know to be right—things that are top-of-mind as you consider again the depths of our sin and our need for God’s forgiveness. Deal with these in prayer today as you repent before the Father and receive His promised mercy.

DAY 27: How did the simple logic of the healed man outwit the religious authorities?

https://telegra.ph/DAILY-BIBLE-05-27

Pornography is a heart problem, not a marriage problem. You can't fix it with more sex or a better wife. You fix it by hating your sin and loving Jesus more than your immorality. The gospel is the only power that truly breaks the chains.

The Christian life is all about the simple things:

• Study the Bible
• Pray without ceasing
• Fight your sin
• Be active in your local church
• Love your neighbor

Good morning, brothers and sisters. Stand firm in Christ today.

The world is loud, dark, hostile, confused, and constantly shifting, but the Word of God has not changed. Christ is still on His throne. The Gospel is still true. The Spirit of God still strengthens weak men and women for obedience.

So be strong and courageous today. Speak the truth without fear. Love holiness more than comfort. Refuse compromise. Kill sin. Open your Bible and feast on spiritual nourishment. Pray like eternity matters. And do not grow weary in doing good, because your labor in the Lord is never in vain.

"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong."
- 1 Corinthians 16:13

Better is one day in Your courts, than a thousand elsewhere.

Psalm 84:10

May is for building lasting memories together! 📸❤️ Create moments of connection, adventure, and worship — these become the stories you’ll tell for years!

Eccl 4:9–10 💞 What new memory will you make this week? #StrongMarriage #May

Christ is always worth it.

Being a good person won't get you into Heaven. Every one of us has broken God's commandments and deserves his just wrath.

Only the blood of Jesus can wash away your sins.

The holiness of God is not simply the best and noblest we know infinitely improved. It is something altogether different.

- A. W. Tozer

He restores my soul.

Psalm 23:3

Progressive Christianity: We must affirm & celebrate all expressions of sexuality.

Bible Christians: Show me one verse in the Bible that affirms or celebrates any expression of sex outside of one husband & one wife marriage. Show me just one verse.

Progressive Christianity: 🦗

When a pastor is disqualified, 9/10 times it's because of sexual immorality.

It's the only sin that has two chapters of the Bible entirely dedicated to it (Prov. 5 and 7).

May we all heed the Bible's strong words: "Flee sexual immorality!" (1 Corinthians 6:18).

May 28: Through Despair

#Devotional

1 Chronicles 23:1–23:32; 2 Timothy 3:1–9; Psalm 88

Sometimes we go through dark periods in our lives where the misery feels never-ending. Trial hits, pain hits, and just when we think life might get “back to normal,” we are hit by yet another difficulty. At times like these, we may feel forgotten by God.

In Psalm 88, we find one of the most utter prolonged cries of despair: “O Yahweh, God of my salvation, I cry out by day and through the night before you,” the psalmist begins (Psa 88:1). This psalm never climaxes or hints of hope, and it ends even more desperately than it begins. The psalmist, feeling abandoned by God, has his loved ones taken from him. He is left to navigate the darkness alone (Psa 88:18).

How do we deal with our own misery when confronted by a tragic psalm like this? How should we respond to God?

We can start with what the psalmist, despite his prolonged suffering, acknowledges about God. Although his troubles are still present, he also recognizes God as his deliverer (Psa 88:6–9). He appeals to God’s reputation as a God of wonders, deserving of praise: “Do you work wonders from the dead? Or do the departed spirits rise up to praise you?” (Psa 88:10). He appeals to God’s loyal love, faithfulness, and righteousness: “Is your loyal love told in the grave, or your faithfulness in the underworld? Are your wonders known in the darkness or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” (Psa 88:11).

The psalmist never comes to a place where he expresses even a glimmer of hope. But through cries, questions, and torment, he holds on to what he knows to be true about God. In his very cry, the psalmist acknowledges that God will be present in his situation. While the questions in this psalm remain unanswered, we see that the psalmist lives in the awareness that God cares and will eventually act. In the meantime, he places himself in God’s faithfulness.

We see a parallel situation in Paul’s letter to Timothy; Paul addresses the difficult days that will come. He says they will be difficult for one reason: disobedience. In those days, “people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, hardhearted, irreconcilable, slanderous, without self-control, savage, with no interest for what is good” (2 Tim 3:2–3). The list goes on further, describes all types of disobedience against God—something that is absent from the psalmist’s cries. What’s most fascinating about the parallel is that it hints at the root of what the psalmist is experiencing: disobedience may not be acknowledged in his cry (he is innocent), but the world is a disobedient place. It is full of sin and oppression. Ultimately, it’s the sins of humanity that brought pain to the world.

In this life, we’ll go through dark times and struggles that may never end. We may even feel forgotten. But despite what we think or feel, we can’t abandon what we know to be true of God. Even when our state or our emotions are contrary to the desire to worship Him, we are called to trust in Him and in His love.

If He was willing to abandon His only son on a cross to redeem you, then He is certainly trustworthy. If you trust in Him, He will not forsake you.

How are you trusting God through dark times? How are you reaching out to someone who is struggling?

May 28 - The Plea for Forgiveness

#LifeOfChrist

“‘“And forgive us our debts”’” (Matthew 6:12).

God will not forgive our sins if we do not confess them. John makes that condition clear when he declares, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confession simply means we agree with God that our sins are evil and defiling and we do not want them to taint our walk with Christ.

Our sinful pride makes it difficult to confess sin, but it is the only way to the free and joyful Christian life (cf. Prov. 28:13). John Stott said, “One of the surest antidotes to the process of moral hardening is the disciplined practice of uncovering our sins of thought and outlook as well as word and deed and the repentant forsaking of the same.”

We must never take God’s promise of forgiveness as a license for sin or as an excuse to presume on His grace. Instead we must view forgiveness as an aid to our sanctification and be constantly thankful to the Lord for His loving forgiveness.

Your prayer ought to coincide with the Puritan one: “Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, and the exceeding wonder of grace. I am guilty but pardoned. I am lost but saved. I am wandering but found. I am sinning but cleansed. Give me perpetual broken-heartedness. Keep me always clinging to Thy cross.”

Ask Yourself

How can one walk in an awareness of his own wretchedness while also living in the confidence of Christ’s righteousness and salvation? Actually, it is only by realizing our great need for Him that we can enjoy the grace that overwhelms our sin. Seek this biblical balance in your own life.

DAY 28: What does it mean to have Jesus as the “Good Shepherd”?

https://telegra.ph/DAILY-BIBLE-05-28