Thursday, November 29, 2018
God First
Verse of the day: 1 Samuel 4:1, And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek.
This chapter takes us into the journey of Israel’s defeat at the hand of the Philistines. However, before we go there, note that the first part of this verse seems out of place. Samuel is mentioned, but then no mention of him is made until later chapters. The first part of the verse seems to actually be part of the previous chapter, where we read in 3:21, “Then the LORD appeared again in Shiloh. For the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.” What stands out in all of this is that God established Samuel as His prophet, and it is known throughout Israel, yet, we see that Israel goes out against the Philistines without first going to God, by way of His prophet, to seek whether or not they should fight this war. One of the most dangerous steps we can take in life, as born again Christians, is to make plans, regardless of how big or small, without going to God first and seeking whether our plans are part of His will and plan for our lives. Far too often we allow our own personal desires, and wants, drive our direction. We spiritualize it by quoting Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” The problem with that is that this verse is one of the verses that is most often taken out of context to fit our own plans, and give ourselves permission to do what we want to do. What we fail to consider, or see, is that when we do this, we set ourselves up for failure and often discourage others who fail in their plans, because we foolishly gave them that advice. As Christians, when other believers come to us seeking approval for the plans they share with us, our first question should be, “Have you prayed about this and sought God’s direction in this?” If they have not, then we should offer to pray with them and seek God’s direction with them through His Word. If Israel had taken the time to seek the Lord, they would have realized that there was a greater problem in their lives than the Philistines…their sin against the Lord. This would have taken them in a completely different direction and God may have even interceded on their behalf, fought for them, and given them victory over those who were seeking to oppress them. Proverbs 3:5-7, clearly instructs, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil.” Sadly, many Christians have a tendency to seek guidance by ungodly means. I have said this before, and I will say it again, a Christian has no business seeking advice or guidance from ungodly and demonic methods, such as palm readers, fortune tellers, and the like. King Saul’s death was in part because he sought a medium for guidance. 1 Chronicles 10:13 tells us, “So Saul died for his unfaithfulness which he had committed against the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD, and also because he consulted a medium for guidance.” In Christ, we have access to God 24/7. There is absolutely no reason why we cannot seek God’s guidance in the decisions we make. Psalm 1 clearly instructs us to stay away from the advice and fellowship of the ungodly. In John 16:13, Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. When we set out to do something and do not first turn to God, and then fail, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Israel failed to seek God; then blamed God for their defeat, instead of looking at themselves and realizing that it was their sin and their failure to stay close to the Lord that led to their defeat. We must take care not to be defeated by our own selfish desires, and our own failure to seek God’s direction in our lives. What we think is a good idea and a good plan, may seem like it, and there may not be anything sinful about what we set out to do, but we must first consider whether what we set out to do is part of God’s will and plan for our lives. Seek God first.
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Be Discerning
Verse of the day: 1 Samuel 3:19-21, So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the LORD. 21 Then the LORD appeared again in Shiloh. For the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
How do we know that what we hear from a preacher or teacher is God’s truth? I hear too many people today claiming to be God’s messenger, but their message is not lining up with God’s Word. Sadly, I also see far too many Christians following these false teachers and false prophets like dumb, ignorant, sheep. In the days of the prophets, the only way to truly know if the prophet was of God was to wait and see if the prophecy came to pass. God would do something to verify that the man and the message were sent by Him. Here, we clearly see that God Himself established Samuel as a prophet of the Lord. How did He do it? By not allowing any of his words to fail. Man, in his quest to elevate himself, will claim to hear some special revelation from God Himself, when we all have the ability to know what God’s will and plan is for our lives. How, you ask? We can know by simply reading and studying God’s Word. Yes, God’s Word, that is accessible to all of us. With the abundance of Bible study tools available to us today, there will be no excuse when we stand before God for living ignorant of God’s will. He has given us His complete revelation within the covers of our Bibles. All we need to know about Him and life is in the pages of His Word. However, if we take the lazy approach to God’s Word, we will be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Ephesians 4:14 put it this way, “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting”. How many of us have honestly gone back to our Bibles and verified that what we heard the preacher preach was true to the Word of God? God commended the Bereans for being the type of people who checked out the Apostle Paul’s messages. Acts 17:11 says this about them, “These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.” If we are diligent to study the Word of God, as we are told to in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”, we will find that God will reveal Himself to us. That was one of the greatest rewards Samuel could have received while serving the Lord, as it reads in verse 21, “For the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel”. The bottom line is that we must be diligent to study God’s Word for ourselves, and always be ready to verify what we have heard taught and preached. Be careful about those who claim to have some exclusive revelation from God that is not found in His Word. God has given us His complete revelation. Rather than looking for some new revelation, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate God’s Word so that we can know how to apply it to our lives for God’s glory. The Apostle Paul said this in his prayer for the church at Ephesus in Ephesians 1:17-18, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints”. He also said this about spiritual wisdom in 1 Corinthians 2:10-13, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” There are many preachers and teachers who are legitimate servants of God, preaching the truth of God’s Word. Nonetheless, this does not excuse any of us from reading, studying, and growing in our knowledge of Christ and His Word. Let us be students of God’s Word who recognize false teaching and who can apply God’s Word to our lives, with godly wisdom and by the leading of the Spirit.
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).
Monday, November 26, 2018
Speak Up
Verse of the day: 1 Samuel 3:15, 18, So Samuel lay down until morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD. And Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. 18 Then Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the LORD. Let Him do what seems good to Him.”
God’s first revelation to Samuel was one that was difficult to speak, especially since it concerned the tragedy that was to befall Eli’s family. As followers of Jesus, we will all come face to face with times when we will have to speak the truth, and it will not be easy. We will struggle with how the other person will feel, and we may hesitate because we know that our stance on certain matters and issues will likely bring us rejection and persecution. There were many times when Jesus was at odds with the religious people of His day because of the words He spoke. There were even times when people turned away from following Him because of what they heard. In John 6, when Jesus spoke, spiritually, of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, many were offended and walked with Him no more (John 6:66). The fact of the matter is that speaking the truth will offend people. 1 Corinthians 1:18 and 23 say, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”, verse 23 “but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness”. Outside of sharing Christ with others, there will be time when we will be challenged because what we believe, the things we stand for, and our perspective on what is wrong or right, in accordance with God’s Word, is considered not only offensive, but close-minded, narrow, and intolerant, by the world at large. There will be times when it is best to be silent, but in those time when we are called to speak up, we must do so without fear, trusting the Lord for the outcome. In saying this, I would like to stress something about how we share truth. There are many Christians who have offended others, not because they shared the truth, but because of their attitude in sharing the truth. There may be times when we have to be firm in our stance, but there is never an excuse for being mean-spirited, arrogant, or down right offensive, in our tone and speech when sharing God’s truth with others. In Ephesians 4:15, the Apostle Paul encourages the members of the church to speak the truth in love. We should be speaking the truth in a manner that encourages growth in the hearer. It means that we are willing to speak the truth to one another, because we love one another. Will it hurt us to hear the truth at times? Yes, it will. Proverbs 27:6 clearly says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” The bottom line is that there will be times, when regardless of how loving we say something, if it is God’s truth, the likelihood is that someone is going to be offended. However, when it comes to God’s truth, we are called to speak up. We have been called to carry a message to the world that will cause many to walk away, push back, and completely reject us. Nonetheless, it is really Jesus that they are rejecting. When we are rebuked, rejected, and persecuted, for sharing truth, remember what Jesus said in John 3:18-21, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” People who live in darkness do not like having their deeds brought into the light, but we are called to be light in this dark world (Matthew 5:14-16).
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).
Sunday, November 25, 2018
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