DAILY, WEEKEND, AND HOLIDAY INTERNET EVANGELIZE TO THE WORLD MINISTRY

Holy War and the Bible

August 23: God the Innovator Isaiah 45:14–47:15 Innovators often say they learn more from their failures than their successes. The successes come as a result of repeated failures, whether in business or in life. We must learn from our mistakes if we are to expect a different, brighter future. God expects us to learn from our failures—the depths of which we can best understand in comparison to the glory of His successes. God speaks about Himself not only to remind people of His abilities, but also to explain where His authority begins and theirs ends. In Isaiah 45:1–2 , God gave Cyrus a lesson in these boundaries—both by what He said and by what He did not say. Like other kings of the time, Cyrus would have thought himself godlike, but God’s detailed description of what He was about to do left Cyrus with no doubt about who was in charge: “And I will give you the treasures of darkness and treasures of secret places so that you may know that I am Yahweh, the one who calls yo...

August 23 Staying Young Since the days of Ponce de Leon, people have been searching for the illusive fountain of youth. With all the advancements of medical science, we still haven’t found the magic elixir—the best we can do is give a person a more youthful appearance by promoting a healthy lifestyle or by using cosmetics or cosmetic surgery. No matter what we do, we all get a day older every twenty-four hours. Though no one has figured out how to stop the aging process, scientists do know what causes it. According to Amy Ellis Nutt, “We age not because our cells die but because they stop dividing.” ( Reader’s Digest , November 2003, p. 74 ) Nothing can stay the same, either it is growing (giving of itself by dividing) or it is deteriorating. What is true of our cells is true of our faith. The minute we shift into a self-preservation mode and are only concerned about our needs, and ourselves we begin to deteriorate spiritually. That’s why it is so important to serve the Lor...

August 23 SITTING AT THE FEET OF JESUS Source of words and music unknown   Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. ( Luke 10:42 ) The story of Martha the worker and Mary the worshiper ( Luke 10:38–42 ) illustrates an important spiritual principle: We please our Lord most when we learn to sit at His feet in adoration and worship before trying to serve Him in our own strength. Sitting implies our humble dependence upon Him and a sense of quietness of soul that indicates our willingness to hear. We can become so busy with life’s pursuits, even worthy Christ ian activities, that we do not hear the still small voice of God . Or sometimes we pursue God in spiritual spectaculars. But like the story of Elijah on Mount Horeb ( 1 Kings 19:11 , 12 ), the Lord does not always reveal Himself in the wind, fire, or earthquake, but sometimes in the stillness of the small voice.   Speak, Lord , in the stillness while I wait on Thee ;   Hush...

August 22: Complaints Job 10:1–10 Complaining can be automatic. We complain about the weather, our children, our jobs. And we might do it for any number of reasons—even something as trivial as to keep a conversation going. Although we might complain lightly, we still betray something about our hearts. We assume that we are owed something—that we are entitled. We might readily admit this. We might freely say that this should not be our posture before people or before God . But Job challenges our stereotype of the complainer. What can we learn from his complaints? In his outcries, we find someone struggling to understand his situation before God . He prays, “My inner self loathes my life; I want to give vent to my complaint; I want to speak out of the bitterness of my inner self. I will say to God, ‘You should not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me’ ” ( Job 10:1–2 ). He repeats and recasts his elevated and prolonged complaints in surprising similes: “Did you not ...

Human Nature & The Three Faiths of Jerusalem, Part IV - Day of Discovery

August 22 The Bronze Serpent Numbers 21:4–9 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea , to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. [ 5 ] And the people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.” [ 6 ] And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. [ 7 ] So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord , that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. [ 8 ] Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live.” [ 9 ] A nd Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serp...