GUEST DEVOTIONS

JR MILLER

How dear we are to Christ!

(J.R. Miller, "Daily Bible Readings in the Life of Christ" 1890)

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home!" Luke 15:4-6

He does not drive the poor weary sheep home. This is not the way of the gentle shepherd. He stoops down and lifts it up, and lays it on his own shoulder and carries it back. There is a wonderful lesson in this little touch in the picture — let us be sure that we understand just what the words say.

We all know that Christ carried our sin when He went to the cross. We know, too, that we may cast our burdens upon Him. But here we learn that Christ wants to carry, not our sins only, not our burdens and cares only — but we ourselves! The shepherd took up the sheep itself and laid it upon his shoulders!

Jesus does this "joyfully". Can this be true? Has Jesus really interest enough in any human being on this earth — to be concerned by his wandering, and joyful by his recovery? The thought overwhelms me!

We can understand a shepherd's rejoicing when he bears home a sheep that has been lost. We can understand a mother's joy when her lost child is brought to her door. But that the heart of Jesus rejoiced when He finds us, and joyfully puts us on His shoulders — seems too amazing to be true! Yet here the word stands!

Then listen to Zephaniah: "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing!" (Zephaniah 3:17)

How dear we are to Christ!

SHERRY COOK

A CLEAR CONSCIENCE

Job 27:6 NKJV
6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go;
My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live.

REPROACH in the Strong's means: to reproach, taunt, blaspheme, defy, jeopardise, rail, upbraid
In WEBSTER'S it means: an expression of disapproval
None of us wants our conscience picking on us and hollering at us and making us feel guilty. The best way to avoid that is to always do the right thing and if one slips up and does the WRONG thing and that pesky conscience starts nagging...fix the problem. Undo the wrong. A wise minister once told me, “If something is a war in your mind, get rid of it.” In other words, correct the thing that is wrong. It could be a thing as simple as something one is reading or watching on TV, or it could be any other bad behavior. I've heard young people in particular ask, “Is it all right for a Christian to go into a bar and drink?” Well, Christians aren't under law, however I've noticed that when Christians I was acquainted with DID go into a bar...problems seem to happen. Sometimes a fight...one young lady several years ago drove after drinking and ended up in a wreck that nearly took her life and left her life forever changed. Instead of testing the limits...why not just pay attention to the CONSCIENCE that is trying to convict you of wrong doing and choose the path that isn't QUESTIONABLE? It's UNQUESTIONABLY righteous to stay out of the bar and NOT drink, isn't it? If we go THAT route, our conscience won't reproach us.

Acts 24:16 (NKJV)

16 This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.
Sometimes a person can offend YOU and not offend GOD at the same time. Here's a for instance. Let's say your child breaks an object in your home without really meaning to do so. YOU might freak out at him and give him a tongue lashing, but GOD may not have been offended at all if the child didn't mean to break the object. Don't upbraid someone who hasn't offended God in what they've done. WE on the other hand, must do our best not only not to offend GOD, but also not to offend MAN.

Romans 13 (NKJV)

13 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.
4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.
5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake.

When we do the right thing, we'll have very very little to do with law enforcement. Police and courtrooms and judges won't be much in one's life when they are always doing the right thing. You don't have to be AFRAID of the law if you're not breaking it. Police and the law are God's MINISTER to you for GOOD. They are there to protect you. Don't be a bad boy or a bad girl and the police won't come for you! More than that, your conscience won't bug you, either.

2 Timothy 2:22 (KJV)

22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
There's a lot in the Word about peace, but the very best way to have it is to live righteously and have the ability to call upon the Lord out of a pure heart, with no conviction of wrong doing from your conscience.

PASTOR CECIL

“OWNERSHIP!”
Romans 14:7-8
“For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

A man decided to fence in his back yard so his dogs would have a place to run and play without being on a leash. As he was digging the holes for the posts, his neighbor came storming out and demanded an explanation; he claimed that the posts would be on his property.

It turned out, after the expense of a survey, that the posts would have encroached one inch onto the neighbor's property. It was a petty squabble that damaged the relationship between the two neighbor's who had once been friends.

Determining ownership of property is a small thing compared to determining the ownership of our lives. To whom do we belong? Who holds the title deed to our life? Paul sums it up for us very well when he says, “…whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”

If we are the Lord’s, it is time we start living like it. That means letting go of the things that are temporary and grasping the things of eternal value.

May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
- - - Pastor Cecil

JERRY MILLER

There are at least 169 verses in the Bible that refer to the ways God provides for us. Philippians 4:19 puts it simply: “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” While prosperity seekers might have always be looking for money or possessions to miraculously arrive, we should take a closer look at what God desires to provide for us.

Like any good parent, God would never give us what He knows would harm us. His intent is to help us develop Christlikeness so that we become salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13–14). God does not want us to see Him as a heavenly source of mere material possessions. Acquiring things is not the fundamental goal of this life (Luke 12:15).

God differentiates between our needs and our wants because He knows that where our treasure is our heart is also (Matthew 6:21). He wants us to know that this world is not our home and that part of what we need is to shift our focus to the eternal life while still living this one.

God is concerned with every part of our being: spirit, soul, and body. As the facets of His character are infinite, so the ways God provides for us are beyond anything we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). We can trust His goodness, guidance, and shepherding care to do more for us than we could ever achieve on our own. God provides a way for us to develop an intimate, conversational, obedient relationship with Him so that we can lead ourselves and others into a “Psalm chapter 23” quality of life. Those whose shepherd is the Lord can say, “I lack nothing” (Psalm 23:1).

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches His disciples to ask for provision, and our dependence on God is affirmed each time we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). In Matthew 6:24–25, Jesus tells His disciples not to worry about food or clothing. The Father knows our needs. He desires covenant relationship with us, and that involves trusting Him to meet our daily requirements and seeking first His kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33).

Psalm 84:11 states, “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” This verse carries a reminder that there is a part we play in God’s provision coming to fruition in our lives. We must walk uprightly.

James 4:3 is an answer to our questions about why prayers sometimes go unanswered: “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” God sees the heart, and our prayers’ motivations are important to Him.

Many passages about God’s provision relate to our need for food and clothing and the daily, physical needs of life. Others refer to the needs of our soul and spirit, our inner man. He provides us with peace (John 14:27), comfort (2 Corinthians 1:4), and “power, love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). In fact, He “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). In whatever physical state we find ourselves, we can be content in the Lord (Philippians 4:12).

Passages such as Galatians 1:15 and Jeremiah 1:5 give us an assurance that God’s love and direction began even before conception. What a gift to know that God has been involved in our lives from the very start! His love for us is encompassed in His desire for our highest good. He is truly Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord-Who-Provides.

God’s provision extends to His ongoing relationship to all of His creation, which is deeply dependent on Him (Psalm 104:21). Often, we take for granted the rain that falls, the sun that comes up every morning, the refreshing winds that blow, and the tides that cleanse our shores and invigorate the life in our vast oceans. But all these things are watched over by our loving God in His provision for us.