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Take your stand!
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. (Ephesians 6:11)
A German chemicals company reported that its managers have begun keeping their mobile phones in biscuit tins during meetings in order to guard against industrial spying.
"Experts have told us that mobile phones are being eavesdropped on more and more, even when they are switched off," said an official. Biscuit tins have a so-called Farraday cage effect, she said, blocking out electromagnetic radiation and therefore preventing people from hacking into mobile phones, not only for calls but also to get hold of emails.
The managers here were not going to be outwitted by rivals. They found a way to secure their cellphones from scheming spies. We should secure our spiritual lives too by putting on the full armor of God, as the Apostle Paul says in the above verse. He tells us of how to dress up for warfare against the evil one.
"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests....." (Ephesians 6:14-17)
Looks tough wearing all that and at all times, but it's possible if we take the help of the Holy Spirit, the Counselor. You have been wearing the full armor, haven't you? It's not optional. It's imperative if you have to overcome the wiles of the evil one and be acknowledged as overcomers by Jesus.
Tags: Jesus God Christian Bible Devotionals
Bear with each other!
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13)
The migration of diamondback terrapin turtles happens every year at New York's Kennedy airport, which is built on the edge of Jamaica Bay and a federally protected park. In late June or early July the animals heave themselves out of the bay and head toward a beach to lay their eggs. About 150 turtles crawled onto the tarmac at New York's Kennedy airport on a Wednesday in June 2011 in search of beaches to lay their eggs, delaying dozens of flights. Within three hours starting 6.45 am, there were so many turtles on Runway 4L and nearby taxiways that controllers were forced to move departing flights to another runway. Flight delays averaged about 30 minutes. Workers from the Port Authority scooped up the turtles and moved them across the airport.
Sometimes people, even believers, may seem like an unwanted intrusion in our lives. But it maybe because they are not as strong as we are spiritually or may be they are in need of help because of their weaknesses. Like the turtles that we read of, they may not realize that they are causing trouble to others. They would be going about their businesses, yet causing discomfort to others. The Apostle Paul exhorts believers in this manner,
"Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2)
Writing to the believers in Rome, Paul reminds them,
"We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves." (Romans 15:1)
We can pray to the Lord that he grants us more grace that we maybe able to fulfil these teachings, which if we do fulfil, would be pleasing to the Lord.
Tags: Jesus God Christian Bible Devotionals
Fearfully & Wonderfully Made!
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalm 139:14)
21-year old Taisia Sidorova, from Saint Petersburg, Russia, was involved in a terrible car accident that crushed her skull and bone fragments were wedged in her brain. Doctors were not sure whether she would survive, but even after she had the left hemisphere of her brain removed, she did not die. The family never gave up on her. The girl’s mother stayed by her bedside praying, massaging her limbs and talking to her. On New Year’s Eve, while she was crying on Taisia’s bedside, the girl moved her arm trying to wipe away her mother’s tears. It was a miracle and in two years’ time she regained her strength, started to speak and even learned to hold a pencil and paintbrush. Although she had shown no interest in drawing and painting, before the accident, Taisia began sketching to pass the time, and when her family saw some of her sketches, they decided to buy her some paints. Her art teacher remembers Taisia showed no artistic talent before her ordeal, but says she now has a natural talent for art and is at the top of her class. Doctors who treated her opine that her brain seems to have compensated for the missing section, and has activated a previously undiscovered talent for art.
The human body is a marvellous creation of God. Scientists are still discovering many new things regarding the human body. It's amazing that so many organs function in so many varied ways. As long as every organ functions smoothly, we hardly realize the significance of it. But when any one organ ceases to function or is decreased in its capability, how much it affects our lives. Another thing notable in the above story is that the mother never gave up. She did what she had to and they experienced a miracle. She hoped against hope and things happened for the good.
Some of the gifts that God has bestowed upon an individual lie latent and need to be discovered. Even natural inborn talents often go unnoticed and unless they are nurtured when noticed, they may not bloom to perfection.
The Psalmist praised God because he realized that God's creation of him was a wonderful piece of work. He sang,
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:13-16)
Best if we all lived with the kind of acknowledgement of the Creator as the Psalmist did.
Tags: Jesus God Christian Bible Devotionals
Dead flies!
As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. (Ecclesiastes 10:1)
In a car lot on the outskirts of Kabul, three saloon cars and a truck lay abandoned due a numerical curse that has swept Afghanistan. A strange phenomenon that equates the number "39" with prostitution has become a nightmare for the car industry, as buyers avoid car licence plates having the dreaded number for fear of being ostracised. The car yard's owner complained that it was no longer just a social issue; it was an economic issue. "It has been months and no-one is buying them," he said, pointing at the white, black and blue sedans. "39" got its bad reputation through an erstwhile pimp who was often identified by the number on his car plates as he drove around Herat, the western city. The man's shady image and illicit business meant that the number became associated with immorality. The tale spread to other Afghan cities and the curse was born. Now anyone seen travelling around in a vehicle with a "39" licence plate is in danger of being linked to the illicit sex industry.
The danger of a believer being involved in sexual immorality is that it will have lasting disastrous consequences. It would be like a curse, with unbelievers and other believer's always looking at that person with judgemental eyes and with suspicion even though the person repents.
The Bible speaks strongly against this sin and advices extreme restraint.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18)
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)
It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality. (1 Thessalonians 4:3)
Always best to heed what the Bible advises and advocate restraint, rather than be a fool.
Tags: Jesus God Christian Bible Devotionals
Blame Game
Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise.. (Ephesians 5:15)
A Massachusetts man facing a criminal complaint for failing to appear for jury duty apparently had a good excuse. He had been dead for five years. The late Georgetown resident was issued a notice to serve on jury duty five years ago in 2006 but at the time he was in hospice care and had cancer. He died a few months later but the commission continued to send letters about his failure to report. Wylie's family says they tried to tell authorities that he had died but officials say the family never sent a death certificate.
Difficult to know who was at fault there, but the blame game is common. Even in the lives of believers, this is not uncommon. Believers pitted against believers and ministers against ministers. Of course, everyone has their side of the story and it may be very convincing. But is that part of the real christian life that Jesus taught?
The Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Philippi,
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. (Philippians 2:2)
Likemindedness and being one in spirit was what Paul taught. He also wrote,
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:3, 4)
Considering others better than ourselves, however spiritual we be, can bring greater unity among the body of believers. Shall we strive for that then?
Tags: Jesus God Christian Bible Devotionals
Careful!
Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. (1 Corinthians 8:9)
A 80 year old South African man awoke to find himself in a morgue fridge 21 hours after his family thought he had died. This was after his family called in an undertaker who took him to the morgue after an asthma attack. The morgue owner said he sent his driver to collect the body after the family reported the death. "When he got there, the driver examined the body, checked his pulse, looked for a heartbeat, but there was nothing," the morgue owner told the press.
But a day after staff put the body into a locked fridge, morgue workers heard someone shouting for help. They thought it was a ghost. The morgue owner called the police.
When the police arrived, the group entered the morgue together. He said the man was pale when they pulled him out. "He asked, 'How did I get here?'" The man was then taken to a nearby hospital for observation and later discharged by doctors when they felt that he was stable. The man's family was informed that he was alive as they were making funeral arrangements. Funny as this may seem, here the family were careless not to call a doctor who was qualified to ascertain whether the man had really died.
The Apostle Paul urges the believers in Corinth to be careful in how they exercise their freedom so that they do not become a stumbling block to the weak. He was specifically dealing here about eating food sacrificed to idols. He said,
"For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. (1 Corinthians 8:10-12)
Believers who are new to the Christian faith closely watch the ones who have been believers for a long time and emulate them in several areas of their spiritual life. It thus becomes imperative that the latter do not become a stumbling block to the proper growth of the new ones, but guide them in the right path, not serving themselves but serving Christ wholeheartedly.
Tags: Jesus God Christian Bible Devotionals
Acknowledge God
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. (Psalm 14:1)
A billboard supporting atheism was taken down from a property owned by an Ohio church after the pastor complained. The ad put up in Columbus by a foundation that supports freedom from religion featured the happy face of a local nonbeliever and the man's message: "I can be good without God." The sign had upset Rev. Waymon Malone of Christ Cathedral Church. The church owns the land where the billboard went up so the pastor ordered the ad be removed. It was removed immediately but was back up at another site soon.
There will always be people who think that they can be good without God. But they forget that the very breath that they take is God given and they cannot argue in the least if he decides to take it back. So why the haughtiness?
The Bible exhorts us,
Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. (Deuteronomy 4:39)
Also, Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. (Proverbs 3:7)
The best course for every man or woman should be to acknowledge God who allowed his son Jesus to die on the cross for the redempion of mankind. The intent of the heart should be as we read below.
Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." (Hosea 6:3)
Tags: Jesus God Christian Bible Devotionals
Then and Now
Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. (1 Timothy 1:13)
An unusual video of a seagull stealing a digital camcorder and flying off with it had emerged online sometime back. In the video clip, the cheeky bird creeps up to the camera after a man puts it down somewhere in Cannes, France. Amazingly, the bird, undeterred by the man shooing it away, takes it and soars off into the night sky, filming some amateurish scences. The seagull then lands on the edge of a castle wall where the sound of the bird’s squawking can be heard as it unknowingly starts filming itself.
How the man retrieved the camera from the bird later on is a mystery, but whether it’s real or fake, the seagull’s flight looked convincing. It can truly be said that the seagull acted out of ignorance. No offence intended.
The Apostle Paul writing to Timothy speaks about what all he did in ignorance and unbelief. He was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, yet he was shown mercy by God because he did it out of ignorance having no relationship with God whatsoever though he was a scholar of God's laws. Paul repented and was a new creation after being born again.
The Apostle Peter exhorts us in this manner,
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." (1 Peter 1:14-16)
Can we take up this challenge?
Tags: Jesus God Christian Bible Devotionals
The God of Jabez is your God too
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.(1 Chronicles 4:9-10)
The first few chapters of 1 Chronicles are full of names. Yet we see God in his great wisdom including this small but significant prayer of Jabez in Chapter 4. His mother had named him Jabez because she had given birth to him in pain. Jabez means sorrow or trouble. But Jabez cried out to the God of Israel. He prayed three specific things in his prayer. One, that the Lord would bless him. Two, that the God would enlarge his territory. Three, that the hand of God would be with him and keep him from harm so that he would be free from pain. The Bible says that God granted his request.
All prayers that we pray are valuable, but prayers where we pray with specific details could be much more effective. Things start changing in our lives as we set aside prayers prayed for the sake of praying and start praying specifically and persistently. Even if you are or feel you are insignificant, uncared for by people, and called good for nothing, God is able to change your circumstances. He is able to lift you up. He is able to bless you, like he blessed Jabez.
The Bible says Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. He was more honorable because God brought about a blessed change in his life by answering his prayers. You and me, we too can pray like Jabez, with specific details of the problem or problems at hand. If God heard the prayer of Jabez, God will hear your prayer too. If God granted the request of Jabez, he will grant your request too. The God of Jabez loves you. He will bless you.
The Apostle Paul says in rhetoric,
......If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31, 32)
Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who answers our prayers.
Tags: Jesus God Christian Bible Devotionals
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