Daily Bible Reading and Thoughts Shared
Options
Replies
-
Bible Reading
2 Timothy chapter 1
Key Verse is: Verse 6
Commentary
A little boy named Adam wanted to be like his friend Bobby. Adam loved the way Bobby walked and talked. Bobby, however, wanted to be like Charlie. Something about Charlie’s stride and accent intrigued him. Charlie, on the other hand, was impressed with Danny. Charlie wanted to look and sound like Danny. Danny, of all things, had a hero as well: Adam. He wanted to be just like Adam.
So Adam was imitating Bobby, who was imitating Charlie, who was imitating Danny, who was imitating Adam.
Turns out, all Adam had to do was be himself.
Stay in your own lane. Run your own race. Nothing good happens when you compare and compete. God does not judge you according to the talents of others. He judges you according to yours. His yardstick for measuring faithfulness is how faithful you are with your own gifts. You are not responsible for the nature of your gift. But you are responsible for how you use it.0 -
Bible Reading with Commentary:
Theme: Your Assisment
You be you. Don’t be your parents or grandparents. You can admire them, appreciate them, and learn from them. But you cannot be them. You aren’t them. “Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life” (Galatians 6:4–5 msg).
Jesus was insistent on this. After the resurrection he appeared to some of his followers. He gave Peter a specific pastoral assignment that included great sacrifice. The apostle responded by pointing at John and saying, “‘Lord, what about him?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I want him to live until I come back, that is not your business. You follow me’” (John 21:21–22 ncv).
In other words, don’t occupy yourself with another person’s assignment; stay focused on your own.0 -
Commentary with Scripture Texts Included:
God’s Goal for You
Envision the day you stand before Jesus and look back over your life. “God will give to each one whatever praise is due” (1 Corinthians 4:5 nlt). Your Savior will declare the final outcome of your life:
“With God’s help John Doe took on the enemies of his promised land and drove them out.
“Greed!
“Explosive temper!
“Envy!
“Abused as a child yet stable as an adult.
“Tempted with drugs yet sober and steady.
“Strayed off course yet returned with vigor.”
One by one the conquests will be read and celebrated.
Every witness will rejoice at the work God did. This is God’s goal for you. This is your inheritance: more victory than defeat, more joy than sadness, more hope than despair.
0 -
Bible Reading:
Micah 4:1-5
Commentary:
Theme: The Majesty of God’s Names; by Tony Evans
Like any healthy Christian, you want to know God. You want to really knowHim—not just know about Him. And in order to increase your intimacy with God, you've worked to encounter Him in several different ways. You've studied His Word. You've prayed. You've worshiped Him. You've made connections and built relationships with His children as a member of the church. All of these are good and helpful activities.
But let me ask you a simple question: do you know God's Name?
That's not a trick question. As modern Christians, we have many ways of addressing the divine Being we think of as God. We understand Him in terms of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We recognize Him as our Creator. We speak the name of Jesus, and we proclaim Him to be the Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Most of these are titles that certainly do belong to God. However, many Christians today have little knowledge of God's deeper Name—or I should say, His Names.
In Scripture, names often carry a sense of purpose, authority, makeup, and character. In fact, names were often used in the Bible almost as an equivalent to a person or a thing. The name of a thing carried almost as much weight as the thing itself. That's why when Jesus said He had made God's "name known to them, and will make it known" (John 17:26), He was talking about more than just sounds put together in a word. Jesus, having come to earth in the flesh, unveiled God's heart, mind, will, character, and being—all through the revelation of His Name.
Because of God's depth of character, He has a name to reflect His different attributes and capacities for relating to humanity. He has many names and here are just a few:
· Elohim
· Jehova
· El Elyon
· El Shaddai
· Adonai
· Immanuel
· And many more.
What I want you to understand is that God has a name for any and every situation you can find yourself in. I encourage you to get to know the names of God, because it is in knowing His character and His capacity that you will learn to rest and discover peace and power in His covenantal care.
In other words, learn God's Names so that you can truly know Him.0 -
Bible Reading:
Psalms chapter 8
Key Verses: :
Verses1-4
Commentary:
The beginning of Psalm 8 is one of the most popular and most frequently quoted verses in all Scripture about the splendor of God’s name:
O LORD, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
Psalm 8:1
The names of God reflect the majesty and glory that intrinsically rest within Him. His name is nothing short of pure majesty. Discovering and experiencing the manifestation of His names in your life will usher you directly into the presence of our majestic God.
My wife Lois and I recently took a trip to Alaska with several hundred partners and ministry supporters of our radio ministry, The Urban Alternative. Alaska is one of our favorite places to visit, simply because of its relaxing nature and inspiring beauty. Yet something special happened on this trip. Our cruise guide, who had hosted well over 90 cruises in the same area, told us he’d never seen the weather so perfect. Each day the skies were clear and beautiful, giving us multiple opportunities to marvel at the splendor of God’s creation.
In fact, things were so perfect that our guide named that trip the atheist cruise. He said, “If someone was an atheist when they got on this cruise, they couldn’t be by the time it was over.”
This is the kind of majesty David wrote about in Psalm 8. Like my wife and me, David had been awed by the splendor of God’s creation. He responded by recognizing his own smallness and insignificance in comparison to the majesty of God’s name expressed through creation:
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
Psalm 8:3-4
Keep in mind, you won’t experience the power of His names in your life if you’ve got an inflated sense of your own worth.
The majesty of God is reserved for those who know enough to know they don’t know much of anything at all. In other words, you can’t know the splendor of God’s names until you come to grips with the smallness of your own.0 -
Commentary With Scripture Verses Included.
Jesus’ words at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer also address the majesty of God’s name:
Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Matthew 6:9
The term hallowed comes from the Greek word we typically translate as holy. It means to be set apart or sanctified.
In other words, God’s names are unique. They’re not for us to mix up with anyone else’s name or to treat lightly.
God’s names are hallowed. They’re to be honored, respected, and treated with the reverence they deserve.
For example, if the president of the United States walked into the room, you wouldn’t speak to him or her in an informal way. You wouldn’t say, “What’s up, Dude?”
The position of president demands a certain degree of recognition and respect.
Obviously, God’s names are to be treated with even higher respect than what we’d give to any person on earth. We’re commanded to hallow His names—not only the verbalization of His names but also the way we think about and reflect on them.
To hallow God’s names means to treat them as if they carry weight—as if they’re significant. It means we recognize that God isn’t an ordinary Being and that His names aren’t ordinary names.
We’re not flippant about them. Certainly we shouldn’t take His names in vain.
But we can also hallow God’s names simply by choosing to use them only in a way that communicates reverence, respect, worship, and even fear.
To know God’s names is to experience His nature, and that level of intimacy is reserved for those who are humbly dependent on Him.
Because God will not share His glory with another (see Isa. 42:8), we must humble ourselves if we really want to know Him.
We must recognize our own insignificance before we can experience the significance that comes only through Him.
God’s name is majestic. It’s unique and set apart—something worthy of being hallowed through our actions and attitudes. Only when we hallow God’s name can we hope to truly experience its power.0 -
Bible Reading and Thoughts Shared!
Matthew 5
Key Verse: Verse 16
A Prayer . . . to Shine
Heavenly Father, work in my life in such a way that people will see you shining forth. Help me to break free from the selfishness and sin that prevent me from being conformed to your image and expressing your holiness. In Jesus’ name, amen.0 -
Bible Reading
Philippians 2:14-16
Thoughts Shared: by Max Lucado
Live a Stirring Life
Each of us should lead a life stirring enough to start a movement. We should yearn to change the world. We should love unquenchably, dream unfalteringly, and work unceasingly.
We should close our ears to the manifold voices of compromise and perch ourselves on the branch of truth. We should champion the value of people, proclaim the forgiveness of God, and claim the promise of heaven.
And we should lead a life stirring enough to cause a movement. A movement comes of age when one life harvests the seeds planted by countless lives in previous generations. A movement occurs when one person, no greater or lesser than those who have gone before, lives a forceful life in the fullness of time.
Let’s live lives stirring and forceful enough to cause a movement. A true mark of the visionary is his willingness to lay down his life for those whom he’ll never see.
Will the movement come in our generation? I hope so. But even if it doesn’t, even if we never see it, it will occur. And we’ll be part of it.0 -
Bible Reading
Psalm 96:1-4
Psalm 40:3
John 13:10
A New Song
God places a song in the hearts of his children. A song of hope and life. “He has put a new song in my mouth” (Psalm 40:3).
Some saints sing this song loud and long every single day of their lives. In other cases the song falls silent. Life’s hurts and happenings mute the music within. Long seasons pass in which God’s song is not sung.
I want to be careful here. Truth is, we do not always know if someone has trusted God’s grace.
A person may have feigned belief but not meant it.
Judas is an example of one who seemed to have been saved but in truth was not. For three years he followed Christ. While the others were becoming apostles, he was becoming a tool of Satan.
When Jesus said, “You are clean, though not every one of you” (John 13:10 niv), he was referring to Judas, who possessed a fake faith.
Whether or not someone’s faith is real isn’t ours to know. But we know this: where there is genuine conversion, there is eternal salvation.
Our task is to trust God’s ability to call his children home.
We join God as he walks among his wayward and wounded children, singing.
Eventually his own will hear his voice, and something within them will awaken. And when it does, they will begin to sing again.0 -
Bible Reading
Genesis 15:2-8
Genesis 12:1-3
Ceding ownership of our lives to Adonai means trusting Him with our future.
In Genesis 15, Abram began to doubt God’s promise that he would be the father of a great nation (Genesis 12:2). After all, Abram and his wife were getting older, and his only male heir was his servant, Eliezer. Yet, in the midst of his doubt, Abram called out to God as his Adonai (Genesis 15:2-8).
In response, Adonai revealed both the expansiveness of His creative power (“Look to the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.”) and his covenant-keeping faithfulness (“On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, ‘To your descendants I have given this land.’”).
Abram’s trust that God was Adonai meant trusting that God was in control of his future, even when he had not received the promised son. In the text, this unyielding trust in Adonai is identified as faith:
“He believed in the Lord, and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
Our fear in ceding ownership to Adonai is often fear of the unknown future and a sense that we will not be in control of how that future will evolve.
Faith, however, means knowing the power and covenant faithfulness of our God and trusting that our future is always safer in the strong hands of Adonai.0 -
Bible Reading:
Exodus 2:11-15
Exodus 4:10-13
2 Corinthians 4;7
Ceding ownership of our lives to Adonai means allowing Him to use us in any way He chooses.
In Exodus 4, Moses had been summoned by God to the mission of leading His chosen people out of bondage in Egypt—a mission that Moses felt thoroughly inadequate to complete. Moses, an adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, was now a disgraced, former leader (because of his murder of an Egyptian in Exodus 2:11-15) who had spent many years in exile in the desert as a shepherd.
On top of this, God had ordered him to be His mouthpiece to Pharaoh, commanding him to free God’s people, and yet, as Moses confessed,
“I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
Still, Moses clearly knew who he was arguing with, addressing God respectfully as “Adonai” (Exodus 4:10, 13).
Combined with this acknowledgment of God as Adonai was the realization that, as Creator and Master, He owned all things and could use them in the way He saw fit. As such, Adonai took up this ownership and replied to Moses,
“Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say” (Exodus 4:11-12).
When I was a young man, I had my own serious speech impediment that required extensive speech therapy to overcome. No one who knew me as a stuttering youth could have envisioned that my vocation and calling would be to preach God’s Word.
We may be uncomfortable with what Adonai is calling us to do or feel inadequate for the task at hand; however, we must remember that when we cede ownership into His hands, we find that Adonai is a Master who in surprising, paradoxical ways uses “earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Corinthians 4:7).0 -
Bible Reading
Ephesians 2:8-10
James 2:18
Thoughts Shared by Tony Evans
Sometimes we mix up the roles of salvation and faith, so I want to set the record straight. When you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior by placing your faith in Him alone for the forgiveness of your sins, you are given eternal life. But while you trust Christ through faith, you are now supposed to live your life by faith. These are two very different things. Trusting Christ for salvation is akin to receiving a gift. Living by faith is doing a work.
That’s why James says faith without works is dead (James 2:26). He isn’t talking about getting to heaven; he’s talking about getting heaven down into you. Accepting Christ as your Savior takes you to heaven; living by faith brings heaven’s power and God’s experiential presence and authority to you on earth. It allows you to see God enter history by showing up in your circumstances.
When you live by faith, God brings the supernatural to bear in the midst of the natural situations of your existence on earth.0
