A Proliferation of Christian Devotionals and Sermons

A Proliferation of Christian Devotionals and Sermons

Friday, September 11, 2015

Blinded by Emotion (and other devotionals)

Today's reading: 2 Samuel 3:26-39

When someone wrongs us or hurts us badly, we want justice. But sometimes wanting justice takes on a life of its own and turns into a blinding desire for revenge. That's what we see in 2 Samuel 3. Joab and Abishai want Abner's blood for killing their brother. So much so that even though king David joins forces with Abner to solidify his rule over all of Israel, they take matters into their own hands to ambush and kill Abner. What a vivid picture of the negative and harmful things that can happen when we don't keep our anger, grief and emotions in check.

After reading this passage, what did God impress on your heart about grudges, revenge, anger, hatred, etc.? How do we guard against giving in to this powerful temptation? 

~Tami~

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We Are What We Love 
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God… Whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:7, 21 

As a teenager I loved hunting and fishing. I saved money from mowing lawns and bought a new Zebco reel. My uncle gave me permission to fish in his pond and offered me advice on what bait to use and the best time of day to “wet a hook”. I became a student of fishing because I loved to fish. My simple hobby kept me out of trouble, but it also competed with other activities like chores, friendships, sports and school. I became most like what I most loved.

Scripture teaches us to love God supremely above any other affections. Jesus knows if we love Him the most, we will love others the best. So how do we love Christ above ourselves and all other desires? First we go to the author of love—God—to be fully loved by Him. Our love input determines our love output. The more we receive from above the more we can give below. We obey Christ’s commands and we love others like God loves them—unconditionally and sacrificially.

“But if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

Who or what captures your wholehearted love and devotion? If your love of work trumps all other loves you will be defined solely by occupational fulfillment. When your vocational lover deserts you, you will spiral into insecurity and insignificance. If however, you do your work as unto the Lord—God is your job motivation. You seek to give, not take. You aspire to excellent work—not excessive income. To love God is your vocation and your job its tangible expression.

Therefore, we love well when we seek to praise God over seeking the praise of people. Our affections are properly ordered as we submit to the Lord’s orders over man’s disordered desires. Our soul is secure when we love the light of Christ over the dark deeds of sin. Our mind is enlightened by the Spirit’s illumination from our love of truth over the illusion of Satan’s lies. We are what we love, so wisdom loves what God loves. Lovers of God’s loves become like Him.

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way love is made complete” (1 John 4:16-17).

What affections of mine need to be reordered toward God? Who needs my sacrificial love? 

~Wisdom Hunters Devotional~


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Was the Crucifixion Necessary?

by J.C. Ryle

What was a crucifixion? Let us try to realize it and understand its misery. The person crucified was laid on his back on a piece of timber with a cross-piece nailed to it near one end - or on the trunk of a tree with branching arms, which served the same purpose. His hands were spread out on the cross-piece and nails driven through each of them, fastening them to the wood. His feet in like manner were nailed to the upright part of the cross. And then, the body having been securely fastened, the cross was raised up and fixed firmly in the ground. And there hung the unhappy sufferer until pain and exhaustion brought him to his end - not dying suddenly, for no vital part of him was injured - but enduring the most excruciating agony from his hands and feet and unable to move. Such was the death of the cross. Such was the death that Jesus died for us! For six long hours He hung there before a gazing crowd, naked, and bleeding from head to foot - His head pierced with thorns, His back lacerated with scourging, His hands and feet torn with nails, and mocked and reviled by His cruel enemies to the very last.
Let us remember that all our Lord Jesus Christ's sufferings were vicarious. He did not suffer for His own sins, but for ours. He was eminently our substitute in all His passion.

Let us leave the story of our Lord's passion with feelings of deep thankfulness. Our sins are many and great. But a great atonement has been made for them. There was an infinite merit in all Christ's sufferings. They were the sufferings of One who was God as well as man. Surely it is our duty to praise God daily because Christ has died.This is a truth of the deepest importance. Without it the story of our Lord's sufferings, with all its minute details, must always seem mysterious and inexplicable. It is a truth, however, of which the Scriptures speak frequently, and that too with no uncertainty. We are told that Christ "bore our sins in His own body on the tree," that He "suffered for sin, the just for the unjust," that "He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him," that "He was made a curse for us," that "He was offered to bear the sins of many," that "He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities," and that "the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (1 Peter 2:221 Peter 3:182 Corinthians 5:21Galatians 3:13Hebrews 9:28Isaiah 53:5-6). May we all remember these texts well. They are among the foundation stones of the Gospel.

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Ephesians 1:11
Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.
Our belief in God's wisdom supposes and necessitates that He has a settled purpose and plan in the work of salvation. What would creation have been without His design? Is there a fish in the sea, or a fowl in the air, which was left to chance for its formation? Nay, in every bone, joint, and muscle, sinew, gland, and blood-vessel, you mark the presence of a God working everything according to the design of infinite wisdom. And shall God be present in creation, ruling over all, and not in grace? Shall the new creation have the fickle genius of free will to preside over it when divine counsel rules the old creation? Look at Providence! Who knoweth not that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father? Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. God weighs the mountains of our grief in scales, and the hills of our tribulation in balances. And shall there be a God in providence and not in grace? Shall the shell be ordained by wisdom and the kernel be left to blind chance. No; He knows the end from the beginning. He sees in its appointed place, not merely the corner-stone which He has laid in fair colors, in the blood of His dear Son, but He beholds in their ordained position each of the chosen stones taken out of the quarry of nature, and polished by His grace; He sees the whole from corner to cornice, from base to roof, from foundation to pinnacle. He hath in His mind a clear knowledge of every stone which shall be laid in its prepared space, and how vast the edifice shall be, and when the top-stone shall be brought forth with shoutings of "Grace! Grace! unto it." At the last it shall be clearly seen that in every chosen vessel of mercy, Jehovah did as He willed with His own; and that in every part of the work of grace He accomplished His purpose, and glorified His own name.

~Charles Spurgeon~

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