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Tapping Into God’s Power

August 14, 2013

“Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)

Do you see it? Jesus made a direct connection between knowing the Bible and leading a powerful life. Lukewarm men are in error because they “don’t know the Scriptures” and therefore “don’t know the power of God.” Their capabilities don’t equal their intentions. Without the right training, their soil remains bare, stony, and full of weeds. And as you’ll soon see, by “know the Scriptures,” Jesus was talking about a lot more than mere head knowledge.

On the other hand, transformed men “truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest.” Digging into the Word of God is easily the number one factor that differentiates men who have tapped into God’s power.”

Excerpted from Man Alive by Patrick Morley

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El Roi: The God Who Sees Me

August 13, 2013

The first person to call God by the name El Roi was Hagar. A woman used. Abused. Tossed away. Driven away. Running away. She was all that and more…

Hagar was a slave who had been sexually used and verbally abused. Hagar was a woman amazed that God heard her cries and saw her misery, that He took note of her condition and actually spoke to her.

Falling on her face, Hager gave God the name El Roi, the God Who Sees. “I have now seen the One who sees me,” she cried (verse 13). She had heard God. She had seen God. More important, God had seen Hagar. God had heard Hagar…

Today, remember. Remember who God is and that He will do what He said He will do. He is El Roi, the God who sees me. He [ … ]

The Greatest Story Ever Told

August 12, 2013

“Great stories need excellent beginnings and endings to give meaning to their middles. The first three chapters of God’s story brilliantly set up the unfolding drama of redemption. The last three chapters show how God will judge evil, reward good, and live with his children forever on the New Earth.

God’s story is the greatest story ever told and the prototype of all redemptive stories.”

Excerpted from If God is Good: Why Do We Hurt? by Randy Alcorn

Daily Reflection: How can you live with optimism in the “middle” now, knowing the beginning and end of God’s redemptive story?

Pleasing God in Heaven

August 7, 2013

“The Christians living in Philippi had given gifts of money, which Paul described as ‘a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God’ (Philippians 4:18). Another translation gives us this perspective on the gifts: ‘[They are the] fragrant odor of an offering and sacrifice which God welcomes and in which He delights’ (amp).

Our gifts today can do a lot of good. They can feed the hungry, heal the sick, encourage the brokenhearted, and spread the good news. But most importantly, they can please God in heaven, connecting His children to Him.
Think about that.”

Excerpted from Plastic Donuts by Jeff Anderson

Daily Reflection: Are you giving to simply do good or do you give to offer a pleasing sacrifice to God as well?

The Promise of Suffering

August 6, 2013

There are many promises for the believer given by God in the scriptures, but there’s one promise we’re often hesitant to claim, or even acknowledge as part and parcel of our fellowship with Jesus Christ. It’s the promise of suffering.

Which of us, left to ourselves, would choose suffering over joy? And yet when suffering comes, haven’t we experienced God’s grace in its midst?

For there is also a promise in suffering. The loss of a dream, a loved one, a job, good health or independence, all these temporal experiences for the believer bring about eternal gain—in a realization of the need for Christ’s sustaining strength, for His peace that is deeper than our understanding, and for the sweetness of intimacy in our trust in and fellowship with Him, tested through the fires of disappointment, setback, or grief.

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