Bible League: Living His Word ... Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.— Romans 4:17 NLT Abraham was a believer. He was a believer in God and His promise to him. The promise was made when God said, "... you will be the father of many nations" (Genesis 17:5). It took a good measure of faith to believe the promise, because Abraham and his wife Sarah were childless and they were old. Abraham himself was about 100 years old at the time. Nevertheless, he kept believing the promise. He kept believing that God could bring the dead back to life and create new things out of nothing. He kept believing that God could give him a son in his old age. That's the God I believe in too. That's the God I need. I believe in the God who can bring the dead back to life. I believe in the God who has done it in the past, is doing it in the present, and will do it in the future. In fact, a day is coming when He will bring all the dead who believed in Him back to life everlasting. I believe in Him because I want the promised life to come. I don't want my life to end in everlasting death and destruction. As important as my eternal destination is, I believe in Him for more than that. I believe in Him for the here and now. The Bible says that sinners are dead in sin, but Jesus' sacrifice made a way and brought my dead heart back to life. I have loved ones who are still dead in sin, but I have faith that God will resurrect them too in His time. I believe God's power to save. Further, I believe in the God who can create new things out of nothing. He can create love in a marriage when it wasn't there before; He can put motivation in a child that was formerly self-absorbed; He can create self-control where formerly there was addiction. I believe in Him to create those things by His power and through the Spirit. The world might call me crazy, but I don't care. Like father Abraham, I'm a believer in the God who can do such things. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingPsalm 34, 35 Psalm 34 -- David's Psalm Before Ahimelech (1Sa 21) NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Psalm 35 -- Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Acts 22 Acts 22 -- Paul's Defense to the Crowd NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion “No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house.“Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is bad, your body is filled with darkness. Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.” Insight The lamp is Christ; the eye represents spiritual understanding and insight. Evil desires make the eye less sensitive and blot out the light of Christ's presence. Challenge If you have a hard time seeing God at work in the world and in your life, check your vision. Are any sinful desires blinding you to Christ? Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Psalm 42:9 Why go I mourning?Canst thou answer this, believer? Canst thou find any reason why thou art so often mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told thee that the night would never end in day? Who told thee that the sea of circumstances would ebb out till there should be nothing left but long leagues of the mud of horrible poverty? Who told thee that the winter of thy discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow, and ice, and hail, to deeper snow, and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Knowest thou not that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter? Hope thou then! Hope thou ever! For God fails thee not. Dost thou not know that thy God loves thee in the midst of all this? Mountains, when in darkness hidden, are as real as in day, and God's love is as true to thee now as it was in thy brightest moments. No father chastens always: thy Lord hates the rod as much as thou dost; he only cares to use it for that reason which should make thee willing to receive it, namely, that it works thy lasting good. Thou shalt yet climb Jacob's ladder with the angels, and behold him who sits at the top of it--thy covenant God. Thou shalt yet, amidst the splendours of eternity, forget the trials of time, or only remember them to bless the God who led thee through them, and wrought thy lasting good by them. Come, sing in the midst of tribulation. Rejoice even while passing through the furnace. Make the wilderness to blossom like the rose! Cause the desert to ring with thine exulting joys, for these light afflictions will soon be over, and then "forever with the Lord," thy bliss shall never wane. "Faint not nor fear, his arms are near, He changeth not, and thou art dear; Only believe and thou shalt see, That Christ is all in all to thee." Daily Light on the Daily Path Matthew 27:51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.1 Corinthians 11:23,24 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; • and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." John 6:51 "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh." John 6:53,54,56,57,61-63 So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. • "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. • "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. • "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. • But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? • "What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? • "What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? Hebrews 10:20,22 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, • let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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