Bible League: Living His Word I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.— Psalm 138:2 NKJV At one point in my life, I was facing incarceration for felony charges. I remember waiting a long four months while locked-up in waiting for my trial to begin. During that time, a lovely group of women came to the jail in which I was being held to do ministry. They gave me what I wasn't asking for: a Bible, filled with the Living Word of God. One of the women would gently prod me with "Jenny, it's Jesus you're truly seeking," when I'd confess overwhelming feelings about my impending fate. Every week in jail, I was soothed by her visit as well as her exhortation to read the living Words in her absence. Up until that point, it was one of the most straightforward witnesses to God that I'd experienced in my life as a nominal Christian. Sometimes as believers, when it comes to evangelizing those in our spheres of influence, we can develop a "Savior Complex." We think that we have to wield the right words during the right circumstances in order to ensure that someone gets saved under our watch. However, our verse for today suggests that the Living Word Himself exalts His Word even above His name. We must simply point others to Jesus and His Word. Five years after, my record was expunged and I was cleared of that crime, and that woman's ministry to point me to Jesus and His Word led me to surrender to Christ. It's easy for those wrapped up in nominal Christianity to latch onto relationships that prohibit them from a full, radical surrender to the Lord. These "nominal believers" don't really understand that Jesus is a person in Holy Spirit form. They can viscerally touch, hug, and love the people who are physically in front of them, which is why it may not register as sinful to idolize another human being. Still, Proverbs 11:7 says, "Hope placed in mortals dies with them, all the promise of their power comes to nothing" (NIV). The person that's being idolized by a nominal believer takes their "I love you" to the grave. In other words, the relationship inevitably ends at death, and so the person of Christ is the only One who can live with the believer eternally - to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). People on this earth are wonderful "fringe benefits" to our relationship with the Lord, yet they can also distract one from a literal relationship with the person of Jesus for an eternity. When you feel overwhelmed with how to witness to a seemingly stubborn nominal Christian in your sphere, point them directly to Jesus by sharing from Proverbs 11:7 and Matthew 28:20 that Christ is personal. By doing so, God may quite literally free a prisoner, not only from incarceration, but also from eternal damnation, because He exalts His Word even above His name. By Jenny Laux, Bible League International contributor, Wisconsin USA Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingProverbs 30, 31 Proverbs 30 -- The words of Agur the son of Jakeh NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Proverbs 31 -- King Lemuel: Who can find a worthy woman? For her price is far above rubies. NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading 2 Corinthians 8 2 Corinthians 8 -- Great Generosity; Titus Sent to Corinth NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.Insight When Paul uses the term “instrument of evil,” he uses a word that can refer to a tool or weapon. Our skills, capabilities, and bodies can serve many purposes, good and bad. In sin, every part of our bodies is vulnerable. In Christ, every part can be an instrument for service. It is the one to whom we offer our service that makes the difference. We are like lasers that can burn destructive holes in steel places or do delicate cataract surgery. Challenge Will you give yourself completely to God, asking him to put you to good use for his glory? Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Job 7:12 Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?This was a strange question for Job to ask of the Lord. He felt himself to be too insignificant to be so strictly watched and chastened, and he hoped that he was not so unruly as to need to be so restrained. The enquiry was natural from one surrounded with such insupportable miseries, but after all, it is capable of a very humbling answer. It is true man is not the sea, but he is even more troublesome and unruly. The sea obediently respects its boundary, and though it be but a belt of sand, it does not overleap the limit. Mighty as it is, it hears the divine hitherto, and when most raging with tempest it respects the word; but self-willed man defies heaven and oppresses earth, neither is there any end to this rebellious rage. The sea, obedient to the moon, ebbs and flows with ceaseless regularity, and thus renders an active as well as a passive obedience; but man, restless beyond his sphere, sleeps within the lines of duty, indolent where he should be active. He will neither come nor go at the divine command, but sullenly prefers to do what he should not, and to leave undone that which is required of him. Every drop in the ocean, every beaded bubble, and every yeasty foam-flake, every shell and pebble, feel the power of law, and yield or move at once. O that our nature were but one thousandth part as much conformed to the will of God! We call the sea fickle and false, but how constant it is! Since our fathers' days, and the old time before them, the sea is where it was, beating on the same cliffs to the same tune; we know where to find it, it forsakes not its bed, and changes not in its ceaseless boom; but where is man-vain, fickle man? Can the wise man guess by what folly he will next be seduced from his obedience? We need more watching than the billowy sea, and are far more rebellious. Lord, rule us for thine own glory. Amen. Daily Light on the Daily Path Psalm 30:5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.1 Thessalonians 3:3,4 so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. • For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction; and so it came to pass, as you know. John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." Psalm 17:15 As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake. Romans 13:12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 2 Samuel 23:4 Is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, When the tender grass springs out of the earth, Through sunshine after rain.' Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken. Revelation 21:4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." 1 Thessalonians 4:17,18 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. • Therefore comfort one another with these words. 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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