Morning Devotionals # 1

The Blame Game
by Charles R. Swindoll

1 John 1

Remember comedian Flip Wilson's old line, "The devil made me do it"? Here was this character who had obviously done something bad. But instead of taking the blame, he pointed an accusing finger at "the devil." Why did we laugh? We weren't just laughing at his hilarious routines; we were laughing at ourselves---at one of our favorite indoor games: The Blame Game. And since he is altogether wicked and invisible and unable to challenge our accusation in audible tones, there's no better scapegoat than old Lucifer himself.

But when this practice becomes a daily habit, it stops being funny and starts being phony. It's when we become escape artists, dodging the responsibility of our own disobedience, that we carry the thing too far. Not just blaming Satan for every evil action, but finding him in every nook and cranny . . . thinking he is the subtle force behind all wicked events and encounters. It's the age-old conspiracy mentality.

There are those, for example, who see and hear the devil in certain types of music. They tell us to play the tapes backwards and we can hear the subliminal satanic message . . . which seems a lot like reading a book in a mirror to detect its evil connotation. Strange. They warn us against Proctor and Gamble because the beard of a face in the tiny logo includes 666. Don't laugh. So many believed this that the company was forced to spend a fortune trying to combat fears of a satanic connection.

You and I know there is a devil and a host of demons. There is an authentic "prince of the power of the air," whose sole goal is to infect and influence with evil. He is on the prowl (1 Pet. 5:8), diabolical in nature and deceptive in method (2 Cor. 11:3). He is responsible for much wickedness, but not all of it---there's also the world and the flesh, remember (1 John 2:15-16). If he cannot get us entrapped in one extreme, where he's an imaginary prankster with horns, pitchfork, and red long johns . . . then it's the other, where he's everywhere, in everything, embodying everyone, and we start listening to music backwards and sniffing out signs of 666 in labels, license plates, and leaders.

C'mon, Christian, let's wise up. We look foolish enough in the eyes of the lost without giving them fuel for the fire. Leave the funny stuff for the comedians and the phony stuff for fanatics. We've got our hands full maintaining a sensible balance on the tightrope of truth. For if there's one thing the devil can't stand, it's the truth.

Some people spend so much time looking for what isn't there that they fail to see what is.

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Look forward to your sinless and perfect home!

(William Nicholson, "Death, the Believer's Gain!")

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain!" Philippians 1:21

At death, the Christian gains holiness without sin. In Heaven, the very existence of sin will be destroyed, "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life!" Revelation 21:27

Here on earth, sin is the ruin of man--the ruin of his immortal soul. It has blighted and blasted the world, and filled it with impurity, misery, and death!

The Christian has here to struggle and wrestle . . .
  with sin in his members,
  with his depraved heart,
  with sin in his family,
  with sin in his neighbors,
  with sin in his business transactions,
  with sin in society at large.
He feels its evil operations, and laments its corrupting effects.

But in Heaven the Christian shall gain purity without sin! All the remains of sin, and the dregs of corruption are left forever behind!
No condemning conscience is found there.
No unhallowed appetites are found there.
No disordered affections exist there.
No appearance or vestige of evil is found there.
Every child of God is as pure as Christ is pure--as perfect as his Father in Heaven is perfect.

Child of mortality, heir of corruption! Look forward to your sinless and perfect home, and learn that to die will be gain indeed!

"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away!" Revelation 21:3-4


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High on Sentiment, Low on Sacrifice

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” 2 Timothy 2:3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Many of us talk a good religion. We’re like the young man who called his girlfriend and said, “Sweetheart, you are so precious to me. I love you so much I’d fight wild beasts to be by your side. I’d tread on broken glass to hold your hand….And if it doesn’t rain, I’m going to come over and see you tomorrow night.”

Many believers are high on sentiment and low on sacrifice. We don’t know what it is to fight for the Lord Jesus Christ. If you’re looking for an easy way to serve the Lord, you can forget it.

ACTION POINT:
We’re called upon to endure hardness as a good soldier of the cross. How much hardness would you endure?

~Adrian Rogers~

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B.B. Warfield – Holy Scripture, Our Only Highest Appeal 1851-1921. Reformed Theologian in America and Principle of Princeton Seminary in the line of Charles Hodge. Before all else, Protestantism is, in its very essence, an appeal from all other authority to the divine authority of Holy Scripture... Thus, in every way possible, the church has borne her testimony from the beginning, and still in our day, to her faith in the divine trustworthiness of her Scriptures, in all their affirmations of whatever kind... The church has always believed her Scriptures to be the book of God, of which God was in such a sense the author that every one of its affirmations of whatever kind is to be esteemed as the utterance of God, of infallible truth and authority. ~B.B. Warfield