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July 26 - August 7, 2020
Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls— Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (PS. 103:1–5)
every time we look at a piece of matter, what we see is stuff that is not self-sufficient. Every piece of matter you can put your hand on, or that you can even think about, came from something else, and it is eventually going to become something else. That is what matter is.
Faith, born out of experience, is the means by which the mind contacts reality. If I hope to have light in a dark room, my faith in the light switch leads me over to the light switch, which I then flip up, and I have what I hoped for: light fills the room.
days and not die. This is something you only learn by experience, and he wanted us to fast with that expectation. The availability of this energy is the absolute source of absolute sufficiency.
your primary contact with God is through your mind, and what you do with your mind is the most important choice you have to make.
when Jesus came he essentially said to people, “Forget everything you think you know about God, and I’m going to tell you what he is really like.”*
One of the hardest things for us to do—and this is true even for Christians—is to keep this preciousness and wonder in our minds as we approach every human being we deal with.
The potential of men and women to give up their lives for the glory of God and for the good that God has created is precisely what makes human life great.
Phillips Brooks, in his book Best Methods of Promoting Spiritual Life, acknowledges the role of special religious practices, activities, and experiences. But he goes on to emphasize that to limit our spirituality to these is to omit most of our normal life from spiritual living.
Our challenge is to fill our hours, minutes, and actions from day to day with the appropriate amount of love for God’s creation and creating, and then work to produce more of the good he has put in this world. This is every person’s calling.
the real challenge to every person’s faith is that we do everything to the glory of God, even in the smallest actions of our days.
Here is a truth you must never forget: God is more interested in your life than he is in any of the other things listed above. He’s more interested in the person you are becoming than in your work, or your ministry, or your job. And the surest way to realize the full potential of your God-designed self is to live in eternity while you are in time, conscious of the loving gaze of your all-sufficient Shepherd, in whose care nothing of the good you do is lost. It is stored up in your own self and in the lives of others you have touched.
Please note that submission is not assigning our responsibility to others, abandoning our own judgment, or allowing others to simply dictate to us. It is setting aside our own ideas as supreme and our own will as ultimate, freeing us from the burden of having our own way and of being all-wise in our own eyes.*
It is of fundamental importance to understand that, while he has plenty of helpers, there is one principal agent of evil in the universe, Satan, and his intent is to thwart God’s purposes by manipulating the minds of human beings.
The real danger lies not with other people; they are not the enemy.
Temptation always comes in those three forms. Satan’s way of dealing with people is to catch them up in these three patterns and then make them think they are doing what they want to do. He causes them to obsess over the immediate things they want, and he assures them that all will be well. There’s no need to be concerned about the consequences.
When God looks at human wickedness, he is not looking exclusively at our actions, but at our minds and hearts, our thoughts and intentions.* God looks on the heart for two reasons: (1) our heart is the source of our actions and life,** but more important here, (2) our thoughts are where Satan plies his trade.*** He governs through images, through ideas, through feelings and fears. From this complex arena of our minds and hearts come most of our actions, so this is the arena where Satan focuses his work.
the primary means Satan uses to keep the evil pot boiling are the ideas that govern society’s individuals.
most Americans think that they ought to be able to do what they want to do whenever they want to do it. This understanding of freedom is often identified with the American way of life. That is as crude and straightforward a statement of Satan as you will ever find. If there is anything you ought not to do, it is to do what you want to do whenever you want to do it.
Why do good churches go bad?3 It happens because someone in control of ideas is pursuing this result. And it happens—surprise, surprise!—primarily through the desire to look good and the desire to be wise. After all, it is important that our preachers are known to be wise and look good. So we send them off to schools where they get wise and come back looking good.
A society can lose the truth it once possessed simply by no longer desiring truth above reputation, pleasure, and power.
“How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?” (John 5:44).
when we have faith, we act in relationship with God to bring what we hope for into reality.
faith is reliance (trust/confidence) revealed in attitude and action.
He didn’t say, “Don’t have treasures.” He didn’t say, “Don’t own things,” or, “Don’t eat steak.” He didn’t say any of that. He said, “Don’t make this your god.”
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 NLT Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
The person who has the most power over your life is the person you have not forgiven.
forgiveness does not require reconciliation with your enemy.
forgiveness does not require you to forget what happened.
forgiveness does not mean you stop hurting.
Accept every humiliation, look upon every fellow-man who tries or vexes you, as a means of grace to humble you.
