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 2 Peter 1:4 Partakers of the divine nature.To be a partaker of the divine nature is not, of course, to become God. That cannot be. The essence of Deity is not to be participated in by the creature. Between the creature and the Creator there must ever be a gulf fixed in respect of essence; but as the first man Adam was made in the image of God, so we, by the renewal of the Holy Spirit, are in a yet diviner sense made in the image of the Most High, and are partakers of the divine nature. We are, by grace, made like God. "God is love;" we become love--"He that loveth is born of God." God is truth; we become true, and we love that which is true: God is good, and he makes us good by his grace, so that we become the pure in heart who shall see God. Moreover, we become partakers of the divine nature in even a higher sense than this--in fact, in as lofty a sense as can be conceived, short of our being absolutely divine. Do we not become members of the body of the divine person of Christ? Yes, the same blood which flows in the head flows in the hand: and the same life which quickens Christ quickens his people, for "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Nay, as if this were not enough, we are married unto Christ. He hath betrothed us unto himself in righteousness and in faithfulness, and he who is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Oh! marvellous mystery! we look into it, but who shall understand it? One with Jesus--so one with him that the branch is not more one with the vine than we are a part of the Lord, our Saviour, and our Redeemer! While we rejoice in this, let us remember that those who are made partakers of the divine nature will manifest their high and holy relationship in their intercourse with others, and make it evident by their daily walk and conversation that they have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. O for more divine holiness of life! Daily Light on the Daily Path Proverbs 21:2 Every man's way is right in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the hearts.Psalm 1:6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish. Numbers 16:5 and he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, "Tomorrow morning the LORD will show who is His, and who is holy, and will bring him near to Himself; even the one whom He will choose, He will bring near to Himself. Matthew 6:4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Psalm 139:23,24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; • And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way. 1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. Psalm 38:9 Lord, all my desire is before You; And my sighing is not hidden from You. Psalm 142:3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path. In the way where I walk They have hidden a trap for me. Romans 8:27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 2 Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, "The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness." 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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