DAILY DEVOTIONALS: 5.27.23

 TheGospel of Peace “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace;that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” (Isaiah52:7) Surprisingly, there are more verses containing the word “peace” in the Old Testament book of Isaiah (King James Version) than in any other book of the Bible. The central occurrence (15 before, 15 after) is in our text, speaking of those whose feet travel withthe beautiful gospel (that is, “good tidings,” mentioned twice in this verse) of peace. The one proclaiming this gospel is said to be publishing salvation, announcing the imminent reign of God the Savior over all the earth. The first mention of “peace” in Isaiah speaks of the coming King and His reign, and so does the final occurrence. First, “the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called...The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah9:6). Then, in Isaiah’s last chapter we read, “For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to [Zion] like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream” (Isaiah66:12). This wonderful gospel of peace is specifically mentioned just twice in the New Testament. The first is a direct quotation from our text. “And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospelof peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans10:15). The second is in connection with the Christian’s spiritual armor. The “beautiful feet” that are to carry the good tidings are, most appropriately, to be “shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Ephesians6:15). It is our high privilege to be among those whose feet travel upon the mountains, and across the plains, and over the seas with the beautiful gospel of peace and salvation. HMM ------------------------ TheOpened Heavens “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True,and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” (Revelation19:11) This is the final climactic reference in the Bible to God’s opened heavens. Sometimes, as in this verse, heaven is opened in judgment; sometimes in blessing. Sometimes it is the atmospheric heaven that is open; sometimes the heaven of heavens where stands thethrone of God. The first such mention refers to the world-destroying Flood of Noah’s day when “the windows of heaven were opened” (Genesis7:11). The second mention, however, speaks of blessing. God had “opened the doors of heaven, And had rained down manna upon them to eat” (Psalm78:23-24). The windows of heaven rained down the waters of death, while the doors of heaven rained down the bread of life! Ezekiel also saw the heavens opened in judgment (Ezekiel1:1), but God told Malachi, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse...and prove me now...if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi3:10). At the baptism of Jesus, the heavens were opened and men heard the great testimony of the Father concerning His beloved Son (Matthew3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21). Jesus promised Nathanael, “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open” (John1:51), and Stephen and Peter actually saw the heavens open (Acts7:56; 10:11). Finally, the apostle John reported that “a door was opened in heaven” (Revelation4:1), and he saw the Lord on His throne—12 specific references (four in the Old Testament, eight in the New) to the opened heavens. HMM ----------------------- God'sSovereignty “And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing,or the blind? have not I the LORD?” (Exodus4:11) This divine rebuke to Moses was occasioned when Moses complained of his inability to speak eloquently for God before Pharaoh. It is also a rebuke to each of us who would dare question God’s wisdom in making us as we are—even with all our innate defects andhandicaps. With our very limited knowledge of God’s purposes and our very short-range view of eternal priorities, we are ill-equipped to prejudge His ways with us. To those who questioned why a man should be born blind, for example, Jesus answered: “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John9:3). As another example, when certain believers complained about the lethal illness of a loved one, Jesus replied: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby” (John11:4). The steadfastness of Stephen’s faith as he was stoned to death led to Paul’s conversion, though at the time it must have seemed difficult for his Christian brethren to understand and accept. In another context, but stating a principle highly relevant to suchquestions, Jesus reminds us, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter” (John 13:7). God is not capricious, but He is sovereign. Whatever He does is right, by definition, and whatever He allows is for a holy purpose. “Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” (Romans9:20). It should be enough for now to know that He knows, and that when suffering comes for His sake, it is “for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness” (Hebrews12:10). HMM ----------------- WiseMen Lessons “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise menfrom the east to Jerusalem.” (Matthew2:1) We don’t know who these wise men were who came to worship Christ except that they saw “his star in the east” (Matthew2:2). Some have speculated that they may have been Chaldeans who had some Scripture knowledge from Israel’s Babylonian captivity. Nevertheless, we can learn a few things from this verse. First, it’s not always those who come from a religious background who give Christ great honor. Like the angelic notice to the shepherds at Christ’s birth, these men were from outside Israel. They were not of the scribes or Pharisees but came from a far country.Many of the strongest Christians are redeemed from the most unlikely and utterly lost backgrounds; “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans5:20). Second, the incredible journey these men undertook points to their determination and diligence. They had no access to modern high-speed transportation but took upon themselves a long, slow, costly, dangerous journey to get to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. And finally, these men provide a striking example of faith. They believed in a Christ whom they had never seen, and when they arrived, they worshiped a King who was still a child and had not yet performed a single miracle to convince them or given a singleteaching to persuade them. Nevertheless, they “fell down, and worshiped him” (Matthew2:11). The apostle Peter, who actually witnessed Christ’s miracles and teachings, exhorts us to a similar faith. “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1Peter 1:8). JPT --------------------- WhatPrayer Is . . . and What It Is Not - by Greg Laurie � www.harvest.org Never stop praying. �1 Thessalonians 5:17 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/what-prayer-is-and-what-it-is-not/- Listen One of the most important practices of the Christian life is prayer. It�s as essential to knowing God and growing spiritually as breathing is to living. Prayer isn�t something that we offer to some force out there. Nor is it some type of energy that can heal us in and of itself. Rather, prayer is the means of communicationwhereby we hear from and speak to God Almighty. That�s why it�s important to understand what prayer is and what it is not. Some would assert, even within the church, that we can speak things into existence through prayer. For instance, teachers of the Faith Movement advocate that you can prayand speak things into existence because they claim you are a little god. They say you can speak and it will happen, but you must speak by faith. And if you don�t, it won�t happen. It is wrong to believe that we can order God around as though He were a celestial butler. It is also wrong to think that we cannot bring a specific request before God becauseHe is merely a force. Prayer is communicating with and hearing from God. True prayer is aligning our wills with the will of God and praying accordingly. We want to keep the lines open to Heavento both speak to God and hear from Him. Yet many of us are reluctant to pray. We don�t really know how to pray, and we�re embarrassed about praying. However, prayer is something that we all need to be doing. In fact, it�s something the Bible commands us to do. First Thessalonians 5:17 tells us, �Never stop praying� (NLT). Prayer is not an option in the Christian�s life. It�s both a privilege and an adventure. And it�s something that we need to keep learning about for the rest of our lives. ----------------------------- Under All Circumstances - by Greg Laurie � www.harvest.org In my desperation I prayed, and the LORD listened; he saved me from all my troubles. � Psalm 34:6 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/under-all-circumstances/- Listen A fisherman who was a backslidden Christian went out in a boat with some of his buddies. Suddenly a storm came, and it was getting worse and worse. It was so bad, in fact,they thought they were going to drown. So, the men turned to their Christian friend and said, �You�ve got to talk to God right now! Pray and get us out of this mess!� He said, �Guys, I haven�t prayed in years. I haven�t been to church in a long time. I don�t want to pray.� They kept pressing him, and eventually he agreed to do it. Reluctantly he prayed, �Oh Lord, I haven�t asked anything of You for fifteen years. But if You will help us nowand bring us safely to land, I promise that I won�t bother You for another fifteen.� At least he was honest. But we should never be hesitant to pray. We should see it for the privilege that it really is. Writing to the Christians in Ephesus, the apostle Paul said, �Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believerseverywhere� (Ephesians 6:18 NLT). Notice Paul�s use of the words �all,� �every,� and �everywhere.� He told us important things about prayer, but he didn�t address the things people tend to focus on, like thebest posture for prayer or whether to pray with our eyes open or closed. The point is that we should pray when we are young, when we are old, when we are in trouble, and when things are going well. We should pray in any posture, in any place, atany time, and under all circumstances. Someone has described prayer as the breath of the newborn soul. Prayer is good and needed in the life of a Christian. ------------------------- TheWhole Law �Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am theLORD.� (Leviticus18:58) The absolute holiness of God is emphasized throughout the book of Leviticus, and this is the standard for all those created in His image. This is made clear, beyond question, when today�s verse is quoted in the New Testament: �But that no man is justified bythe law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but, the man that doeth them shall live in them� (Galatians3:11-12). It is not enough that a man keep most of God�s laws. �For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all� (James2:10). �Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them� (Galatians3:10). It is obvious, therefore, that while �the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good� (Romans7:12), no human being (except Jesus Christ) has ever been able to keep God�s perfect law, and all are therefore under God�s condemnation. �Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledgeof sin� (Romans3:20). The widespread delusion that a person can be saved by good works is dangerous, and many are on the road to hell smug in their supposed goodness. To keep the law, however, the Creator Himself had to become man, and He did fulfill the law as our representative before God. Then, when He died, Christ �redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us� (Galatians3:13). �Now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested...by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe� (Romans3:21-22). HMM ----------------------- Memoryand the Holy Spirit �But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you allthings, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.� (John14:26) John wrote his detailed discourses of Jesus (almost half of the verses in John�s gospel consist of His words) approximately 50 years after Christ spoke them, yet John was able to report them verbatim because of the supernatural memory of them brought back bythe Holy Spirit. The same must have been true for the other biblical writers as they recalled words and events of years before. In a real, though different, sense, the Holy Spirit also can �bring to our remembrance� the words of Scriptures just when they are especially needed in witnessing or for personal guidance or some other need. This will only be operational, of course, if theyhave first been stored in our memory, either by direct memorization or by such frequent reading and studying of the Bible as to make it a part of our subconscious memory. Recall how the unlearned fisherman Peter was able to quote long passages of Scripture when he needed them (see, for example, Acts 2:16-21, 25-28, 34-35). He had apparently spent much time in studying and even memorizing key portions of the Old Testament. Jesus, of course, frequently quoted Scripture in His conversations, and Paul quoted Scripture abundantly in his epistles. Should we not do the same? Scripture memorization has been a great blessing to many Christians over the years but seems to have become almost a lost art in this day and age. Nevertheless, Christ has promised answered prayer �if ye abide in me, and my words abide in you� (John15:7). So, as Paul urged, �Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly� (Colossians3:16). HMM ----------------------- PreparingYour Heart for Prayer - by Greg Laurie � www.harvest.org O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens. �Psalm 8:1 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/preparing-your-heart-for-prayer/- Listen So often in the psalms of David, he began with an acknowledgement of the greatness of God. It�s important for us to look at the attributes of God. It�s important for us toconsider His unlimited power, His unlimited knowledge, and the fact that He is present everywhere. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, He said, �Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy� (Matthew 6:9 NLT). We should begin our prayers with adoration.We should consider the love, justice, and holiness of God and get our thoughts in order. Thus, we start by recognizing who it is we are speaking to. God is our Father in Heaven, not our servant in Heaven, our butler in Heaven, or our vending machine in Heaven. We are speaking to the almighty God, the Creator of the universe.That puts things into perspective. This, by the way, is the reason we have a time of worship at the beginning of our church services. It prepares our hearts and helps us set aside the things that are distractingus and troubling us. It puts us into a frame of mind in which we can be refreshed, taught, strengthened, and, if necessary, corrected. Before we offer a word of petition in prayer, we are to worship the Lord and recognize who He is. As we do, we�ll begin to reexamine things, and we may not pray for what weoriginally intended to pray for. For instance, you may have wanted to pray that God would change your spouse or judge someone who has wronged you. But after spending time in the presence of God, you insteadpray, �Lord, change me. Forgive me for the wrongs I�ve done. Change my heart.� Things will change in your petitions because you�re aligning yourself with God�s will. And that is the objective of effective prayer. ----------------------------------- Inexplicable Peace - by Greg Laurie � www.harvest.org Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you �1 Peter 5:7 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/inexplicable-peace/- Listen I don�t consider myself a worrywart, but there are times when I can work myself into a little frenzy. I think, �What if this happens? If this happens, then that will happen,and this can happen.� The Bible tells us what to do when we worry: �Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you� (1 Peter 5:7 NLT). We bring Him our troubles, our problems, andour anxieties. This is God�s antidote to worry. In Philippians 4 we read, �Don�t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done� (verse 6 NLT). Nothing istoo big to pray about. And nothing is too small. We don�t have to feel any shame about bringing our needs before the Lord. And when we do, here�s the promise: �Then you will experience God�s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you livein Christ Jesus� (verse 7 NLT). The word �guard� is a military term that can be translated �to mount a garrison.� In other words, the peace of God will mount a garrison around our hearts and minds. Or, toput it a simpler way, the peace of God will guard us. This doesn�t mean that God will make all our problems disappear and meet every single need immediately. But it does mean that He will give us peace in the midst of our problems. Maybe you�ve experienced times in your life when things were going horribly. You prayed and committed it to God, but things were still going horribly. Then suddenly, you werereassured with the wonderful peace the Bible so accurately describes as exceeding �anything we can understand� (Philippians 4:7 NLT). ---------------------------- WhatIs Sin �Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.� (1John 3:4) The Bible warns that �the wages of sin is death� (Romans6:23), and �the soul that sinneth, it shall die� (Ezekiel18:20). These are strange days, however, and there are many �that call evil good, and good evil� (Isaiah5:20). Who is to say what is right and wrong, when even our U.S. Supreme Court implies that there are no absolutes? God is the one who defines sin because it is He who will judge sin. The definition is multifaceted, for sin takes many forms. Most basically, as our text says, sin is the transgression of the law�not just certain laws but all of God�s law. �For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all� (James2:10). But there must be more than just formal obedience to God�s commands, for �all unrighteousness is sin� (1John 5:17). Furthermore, there are sins of omission as well as sins of commission. �To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin� (James4:17). When there is no specific law or command to guide our actions in a particular situation, the principle to follow is that of faith�that is, the confident inward assurance that we are doing that which honors the Lord, for �whatsoever is not of faith is sin� (Romans14:23). There is much more that could be noted, but it is clear that no one could ever measure up even to these demands, �for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God� (Romans3:23). All of us deserve the wages of sin, �but God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us� (Romans5:8). Now �the righteousness of God without the law is manifested....Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ� (Romans3:21-22). HMM ----------------------------- ItAll Comes from Him - by Greg Laurie � www.harvest.org What are people, that you should make so much of us, that you should think of us so often? �Job 7:17 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/it-all-comes-from-him/- Listen When I first moved out of my house as an eighteen-year-old, I was doing graphic arts. I lived with two other artists, and we were very, very poor. We ate some interesting things, including our own invention, Bachelor Goulash, which consisted of spaghetti sauce and anything that was in the refrigerator. We had some fascinatingmeals, but we never went to bed hungry. God always took care of us. In what we often call the Lord�s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, �Give us today the food we need� (Matthew 6:11 NLT). It�s amazing to consider that the all-knowing, all-powerfulGod who created the universe would have any interest in us personally. Why would God concern Himself with our petitions? Why would God condescend to us in such a way? It reminds me of the question Job asked: �What are people, that you should make so much of us, that you should think of us so often?� (Job 7:17 NLT). I don�t know if I have the answer to that question, but I do know this: God loves us. And He has pledged Himself to us�the followers of Jesus Christ. He has promised to meetour needs. So, when we pray, �Give us today the food we need,� it is a request for God�s provision. Now, there may be a time in your life when this prayer really resonates with you,because you don�t know where your next meal is coming from. You�re asking God to provide for your immediate needs. Then again, you might be doing quite well in life, and your needs are basically met. For you, this prayer may be more of an affirmation than a request as you acknowledge yourdependence on God. Everything we have comes from God. It�s all a gift from Him. We need to remember that and never take it for granted.