It;s All His (and other devotionals)

It's All His

Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

—1 Corinthians 6:19–20

You belong to God. I belong to God. We belong to God. The Bible says, "You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). Your career belongs to God. Your family belongs to God. Your home belongs to God. So does your car, your health, the beat of your heart, and the breath you draw in your lungs. It is all a gift from God to you.

Often we will forget and neglect God, but is it too much to dedicate some time every day to pray and read the Word of God? God gave you everything that you have. You can give thanks. Is it that big of a deal to say, before you start eating, "Lord, thank You for this food"? It doesn't have to be a long prayer. You don't have to pray for every missionary around the world. But it is important to give thanks to the Lord for all that you have, acknowledging that you have received it from Him.

Is it asking too much to take a percentage of your income and give it to God's work? That is called tithing. The Bible talks about tithes and offerings. Tithe means "a tenth." In fact, Jesus commended the Pharisees for their tithing, while at the same time saying they were simply missing the point (see Matthew 23:23). Every Christian should tithe and bring offerings (see Malachi3:10).

What if all the church was just like you? No individual Christian can sin without affecting the whole body of Christ. No child of God can grow cold in the spiritual life without lowering the spiritual temperature of everyone else around him or her. You affect others, and others affect you.

~Greg Laurie~

_______________________________

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day (Genesis 32:24).

God is wrestling with Jacob more than Jacob is wrestling with God. It was the Son of man, the Angel of the Covenant. It was God in human form pressing down and pressing out the old Jacob life; and ere the morning broke, God had prevailed and Jacob fell with his thigh dislocated. But as he fell, he fell into the arms of God, and there he clung and wrestled, too, until the blessing came; and the new life was born and he arose from the earthly to the heavenly, the human to the divine, the natural to the supernatural. And as he went forth that morning he was a weak and broken man, but God was there instead; and the heavenly voice proclaimed, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed."

Beloved, this must ever be a typical scene in every transformed life. There comes a crisis-hour to each of us, if God has called us to the highest and best, when all resources fail; when we face either ruin or something higher than we ever dreamed; when we must have infinite help from God and yet, ere we can have it, we must let something go; we must surrender completely; we must cease from our own wisdom. strength, and righteousness, and become crucified with Christ and alive in Him. God knows how to lead us up to this crisis, and He knows how to lead us through.

Is He leading you thus? Is this the meaning of your deep trial, or your difficult surroundings, or that impossible situation. or that trying place through which you cannot go without Him, and yet you have not enough of Him to give you the victory?

Oh, turn to Jacob's God! Cast yourself helplessly at His feet. Die to your strength and wisdom in His loving arms and rise, like Jacob, into His strength and all-sufficiency. There is no way out of your hard and narrow place but at the top. You must get deliverance by rising higher and coming into a new experience with God. Oh, may it bring you into all that is meant by the revelation of the Mighty One of Jacob! There is no way out but God.

At Thy feet I fall,
Yield Thee Up My ALL,
To suffer LIVE, OR DIE
For my Lord crucified.

~L. B. Cowman~

________________________

Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. (John 15:4 NIV)

He has chosen us from the foundation of the world in Christ. He has selected One in whom we shall find Him, and in whom alone we shall find Him. All the forces of hell will be at work, in the first place, to keep us out of Christ. They rage to prevent people coming into Christ, and when once they have come in, these forces are unceasing and relentless in their efforts to get them off the ground of Christ, on to things possibly, or on to any other ground. There is an immense meaning in Christ's word: "Abide in Me... except ye abide in Me..." (John 15:4). It is a warning, governing word. Where and how shall we find the Lord? Only on the line of Christ, where Christ's interests are the object of our being here, where it is true "For me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). You find the Lord there. Get off that ground, be driven off, be allured off, and you lose the Lord. It is there, on that ground, that the explanation of the Christian life is found. It is on that line that the very purpose for which we are created will have its out-working. It is on that line that we shall find Divine guidance.

This Divine law of God's way has many practical applications in the life of the Christian. How many spiritual tragedies we have known brought about by human selectiveness apart from the first and supreme interest of Christ. It might be the choice of residence, location, for instance, for reasons of convenience, pleasure, escape, or seeming necessity, as in the case of Abraham to which we have referred. No less a question than having the Lord with us is bound up with such choices and decisions. We cannot move off the Lord's ground without the consequence of spiritual disaster. How costly it was in the case of Elimelech! If Christ is the Way, the Directive; then He is the Example. How meticulously careful He was not to move, or be moved by any consideration but the directive of the Father! Many motives were put to Him for action and movement, but He abided in the Father, and, often at great cost, refused other considerations.

By T. Austin-Sparks

________________________

Hellish sin! Stupendous wickedness! Monstrous impiety!

(Thomas Doolittle, "Motives to Love Jesus!")

What! Not love the Lord? Hellish sin!
What! Not love Jesus? Stupendous wickedness!
What! Not love Christ? Monstrous impiety!
What name shall we call such a person by--a man or beast?
One that does not love the Lord Jesus Christ--is he a man or a devil?

Can you love sin--and not Jesus?
Can you love the world--and not Jesus?
What cursed wickedness!
This is . . .
  the amazement of the earth,
  the astonishment of angels, 
  and the joy of devils!

The earth groans to bear such as do not love Jesus.
The sun is grieved to give them light.
The air laments its vapors to be sucked into such filthy bodies, wherein are more filthy souls!

"If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed!" 1 Corinthians 16:22

_____________________________

God's Call to Repentance

Luke 15:11-24

In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the younger brother asked to receive his inheritance early so he might live as he chose. Once the father gave him his share, he made many unwise choices that led to hunger and destitution. What happened next illustrates the principles of godly repentance.

After squandering all his money, the young man found work feeding pigs, a bottom-of-the-barrel kind of job. One day he came to his senses and recognized his terrible plight. His repentance began with an awareness of his wrong choices and the fact that his bad situation was due to them.

Knowing that his difficulties came from his sinful behavior, the prodigal grieved over his mistakes and acknowledged that he had sinned against the Lord (v. 18). He declared he was no longer worthy to be his father's son. Godly sorrow and confession led the young man to leave that place and go home. His repentance was made complete when he turned away from his old ways and returned to his father. The Lord likewise calls us to repent and return to Him.

What a welcome the prodigal son received. Upon seeing him, the father was filled with compassion and ran to embrace him. Forgiveness and acceptance were extended to the son. Both are blessings that God freely offers to whoever asks Him.

The prodigal son did not clean himself up before returning home. He simply left his old life, turned toward home, and trusted in his father's mercy. The heavenly Father calls us to repent and offers us forgiveness when we turn away from our self-centered ways and move toward godliness (1 John 1:9).

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~