THE SECRET OF REAL LIVING

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee . . . —Psalm 63:1.

Some Christians have learned little of a daily devotional life. Some time ago a policeman asked me what the secret of victorious living was. I told him that there is no magic formula that can be pronounced. If any word could describe it, I would say surrender. The second word I would say would be devotion. Nothing can take the place of a daily devotional life with Christ. Your quiet time, your prayer time, the time you spend in the Word, is absolutely essential for a happy Christian life. You cannot possibly be a happy, dynamic, and powerful Christian apart from a daily walk with Christ. Christ is calling Christians today to cleansing, to dedication, to consecration, and to full surrender. It will make the difference between success and failure in your spiritual life. It will make the difference between being helped and helping others. It will make a difference in your habits, in your prayer life, in your Bible reading, in your giving, in your testimony, and in your church membership. This is the Christian hour of decision!

Prayer for the day

I long for a deeper devotional life, living Lord. May I consecrate myself completely to You.

Get in the Word

Despise God's Word and find yourself in trouble. Obey it and succeed. Proverbs 13:13 (TLB)

As Christians, we have the Spirit of God in us. But ours is the responsibility to keep sin out of our lives so that the Spirit can produce His fruit in us. Become grounded in the Bible. As Christians, we have only one authority, one compass: the Word of God. Abraham Lincoln in a letter to a friend said, “I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this Book upon reason that you can, and the balance upon faith. You will live and die a better man.” Begin the day with the Book; and as the day comes to a close, let the Word speak its wisdom to your soul. Let it be the firm foundation upon which your hope is built. Let it be the Staff of Life upon which your spirit is nourished. Let it be the Sword of the Spirit which cuts away the evil of your life and fashions you in His image and likeness.

Prayer for the day

Almighty God, Your Word nourishes my whole being and I praise Your holy name!

GOD IS GOOD!

Genesis 1:31 (NIV) ³¹God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning–the sixth day.

God made everything very good because He is good. The psalmist tells us, You are good, and what you do is good; Psalms 119:68a (NIV). Man was placed in a perfect environment with all that he could possibly need. Evil did come into the world and ruin this ideal setting. When we deliberately block the light, there is darkness. The darkness is not a thing in itself, but the absence of light. In our world man is all too ready to blame God for the darkness, for evil. But we see that, from the beginning, all God made was very good. If we recognize that good is from God and the evil (darkness in the world) is the result of turning from Him, we would not be so quick to blame God. How it would change our attitude toward our daily circumstances if we believed God's intentions and plans for us are good!

If we truly believe that, we would strive to be in the Light and walk in His plans for us. How is it that we are so easily led to think that we have a better idea or plan for our lives than God's? Are you avoiding some good thing God has for you? It is not always easy, but it is good, very good. Enjoy the good things of creation in moderation, and live in all the good that He has planned for you. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

Prayer: Help me to see Your goodness in everything You bring into my life.

BY THIER FRUITS...

Jude 1:3-4 (NIV) ³Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. ⁴For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Jude is a one-chapter letter of warning. Jesus had given the church the mission of spreading the Gospel to the world. As it began to do so, Satan counterattacked from several different angles. He brought about physical persecution. This only seemed to strengthen the conviction of believers. The deaths of martyrs inspired others to give their lives to Christ. The other attack came from within. Prominent men gained positions of authority in the church, but they did not continue teaching the apostles' doctrine. By flattery and deception they influenced some in the church to hear their deceptive schemes.

This attack continues to this day. It is not always easy to spot because of the subtlety of these men. There is nearly always some form of immorality or financial gain involved. Paul, Peter and John also warned the churches about these deceivers.

It is not that they deny who Jesus is, for that would be too obvious. They deny His lordship over their lives. The fruit of their life gives them away. They draw people to themselves and not the Lord Jesus Christ. If you were to hear them speak, you would come away thinking of the man and not Jesus Christ. Jude is telling us that we must contend for the faith. Stand up to these deceivers. Expose them. Point out where they err from Scripture. Do not fear them. Point people back to Jesus.

Consider: Credentials and positions are not a guarantee of the lordship of Christ in that leader. By their fruits you will know them.

GOD HEARS US.

1 John 5:14-15 (NIV) ¹⁴This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.

Jesus tells us to ask, and promises we will receive. He also said that if we asked anything in His name, He would do it. John captures the essence of asking in His name by saying that we must ask according to His will. To ask in His name is to ask with His authority. That which is in His will has His authority. The Spirit led person prays the will of God into the earth. His heart is united with the heart of the Father. His desires are one with the Father's. David said that if we delight ourselves in God, He gives us the desires of our heart. Because God is our delight, our desires come in line with His.

When we know our prayer is His will, we have perfect confidence that He will bring it to pass in His time. We pray with extraordinary faith. John is specifically referring to praying for a person who has stumbled. We pray for conviction first and then for their repentance and restoration.

From the emphasis of this letter, we might draw the conclusion that there was a great deal of strife within the church. People must have been at odds with one another. That is probably why he emphasized that we cannot hate a brother if we are in Christ. We must love, because God is love. Here is a key to changing our heart attitude. Pray for that person. Realize sin is the deceptive destroyer that is blinding their eyes. Let your animosity and blame be toward the sin and not the one caught in sin's trap. It will change your attitude and help you find God's heart. You will be praying according to God's will, and you can know your prayer will be answered.

Consider: How does God want me to pray for the person I'm upset with? What is God's heart for that person?

THE NEW COVENANT

Jeremiah 31:31-33 (NIV) ³¹"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. ³³"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

"This is the new covenant in my blood," Jesus said. (1 Corinthians 11:25) He has made the new covenant. It is not based on the blood of animals, but on the blood of the sinless Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. The first covenant is the one made on Mount Sinai. It depended on the obedience to the laws and rules of God. There was no way the people could keep it. God had to become a man and keep it for us. Jesus is the only one to keep the conditions of the old covenant.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature." 2 Corinthians 5:17a (KJV) When we are in Him, the law is in our minds and on our hearts, not the letter that kills, but the Spirit that gives life. We think of the new covenant as a ticket to heaven, but God looks at it as the transformation of our thoughts and desires. Taking on the mind of Christ and sharing in His obedient heart is salvation. It is salvation from sin in this life every moment we live in the Spirit, and it is salvation through eternity to come. Then we resemble the Father, so we are His children. He is indeed our God, the LORD of our lives. We are indeed His people, the sheep of His pasture. The husband relationship is restored, because we are the bride of Christ. We need never fear divorce, for the LORD is our Righteousness. I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine.

Consider: Are you living in the New Covenant with a new heart and mind today?

ARE YOU IN CHRIST?

1 John 2:5-6, 9 (NIV) ⁵But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. ⁹Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.

Are you in Christ? There are millions of people that claim to be Christians that love only themselves. John is giving us a chief indicator of Christian life. He tells us plainly that if anyone is obeying God's Word (since Jesus is the Word made flesh this means to be walking with and obeying Jesus), then God's love will truly be made complete in that person. The indicator is love.

If we don't have love, we are only fooling ourselves. We may have a form of religion. We may have a desire to be good or even to please God, but we are missing something vital. The presence of Jesus in us will manifest Himself as the love of God through us. John saw the love of God as one of the main characteristics of Jesus. If Jesus is living in us, that characteristic will be in our lives as well. To walk as Jesus walked is to demonstrate love for God and our fellow man in all we do and say.

We cannot hate our brother if we are in the light. Hatred is an expression of darkness. It demonstrates the condition of our heart. Hatred is antithetical to the presence of Jesus in us. If Christ is in communion with us, we will find it impossible to go on hating a person. His presence will change our perspective to understanding, sympathy, and love. The mind of Christ will reveal the causes of a person's offensive behavior. Then we will hate the sin, but love the person enslaved by it, even when they hurt us. They "know not what they do".

Consider: Is the love of God being truly made complete in me?