Astounding God

From: Our Daily Journey

Read:

Psalm 36:5-12
Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths (Psalm 36:5-6).

My son and I constructed a model of the solar system in which each planet is aligned near the next. Looking at this contraption, one might think that real planets aren’t very far from each other. But that’s not the case: if the Sun was the size of a basketball, the bb-sized Earth would be located 31 yards away, and the small planetoid Pluto would be 1,232 yards away! The distances between planets are vast, almost beyond our ability to comprehend.
In Psalm 36, David wrote, “Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths” (Psalm 36:5-6). But the full impact of these descriptions can be lost on modern-day people, because astronauts have soared into the skies and beyond, climbers have scaled the highest mountains, and oceanographers have plumbed the depths of the oceans. So hearing God’s attributes described in this way might not immediately communicate to us the wonder of who He is.
But in David’s age, all of these locations were completely unknown—no one of his time knew what was truly in the heavens and beyond or what lay in the great ocean depths. David was stating that God’s love is incomprehensibly big, like the vast uncharted regions of space. As the apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 3, it’s a love that surpasses knowledge. What an astounding thought—as vast as human knowledge and intellect are, they’re incapable of fully grasping God’s faithfulness, righteousness, justice, and love.
What’s even more astounding is that this infinite God is on our side—and if such an incomprehensibly wonderful God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

Under God's Protection

From: Our Daily Bread



Imagine the mother goose representing God and the little goose representing you. The shelter of the mother goose is like how God protects and covers us.

Read: Psalm 91 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 91–93; Romans 15:1–13

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge. Psalm 91:4

When I think of protection, I don’t automatically think of a bird’s feathers. Though a bird’s feathers might seem like a flimsy form of protection, there is more to them than meets the eye.

Bird feathers are an amazing example of God’s design. Feathers have a smooth part and a fluffy part. The smooth part of the feather has stiff barbs with tiny hooks that lock together like the prongs of a zipper. The fluffy part keeps a bird warm. Together both parts of the feather protect the bird from wind and rain. But many baby birds are covered in a fluffy down and their feathers haven’t fully developed. So a mother bird has to cover them in the nest with her own feathers to protect them from wind and rain.

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge. Psalm 91:4

The image of God “[covering] us with his feathers” in Psalm 91:4 and in other Bible passages (see Ps. 17:8) is one of comfort and protection. The image that comes to mind is a mother bird covering her little ones with her feathers. Like a parent whose arms are a safe place to retreat from a scary storm or a hurt, God’s comforting presence provides safety and protection from life’s emotional storms.

Though we go through trouble and heartache, we can face them without fear as long as our faces are turned toward God. He is our “refuge” (91:2, 4, 9).

Father God, help me trust that You are bigger than any fear I have.

Our Daily Bread welcomes writer Linda Washington! Meet Linda and all our authors at odb.org/all-authors

When fear causes hope to fade, flee to God, the refuge you can reach on your knees.

From: Get More Strength
    Picture of Michael the Archangel the great protector of Israel and Christians. Read Daniel Chapter 10.

God helps us to get through things that we could not get through under normal circumstances.
God helps us get through by providing protection and provisions to succeed.

Getting Through

[Written by Joe Stowell for Our Daily Bread.]

Aug

14

2017

I will hear what God the LORD will speak, for He will speak peace to His people and to His saints. —Psalm 85:8

Gone are the days when a real person greets you on the other end of a phone call. It seems as though whenever we try to “reach out and touch someone,” we are greeted with a computerized voice.

I’m glad this isn’t true of our Father in heaven. He is always there. No voice-mail boxes, no “press 2 for more grace” and no “call waiting” interruptions. Thankfully, “Call to Me, and I will answer you” (Jeremiah 33:3) has not been replaced by, “All lines are now busy. Your call is important to Me. Please stay on the line.”

Yet I wonder what kind of access He has to us?

Communication with God is a two-way street. He speaks to us through His Word when we come attentively before Him in prayer and through the clear voice of the indwelling Spirit. He paid a great price to keep the lines open so that we can experience the joy of being still long enough to know that He is God (Ps. 46:10). As my grandmother’s favorite hymn “In the Garden” says:

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known. —Miles
© Renewal 1940 The Rodeheaver Co.

The joy of hearing His voice is a call you don’t want to miss!

Is God getting through to you?

Don't Eat That Stuff

From: Get More Strength

Aug

13

2017

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

Recently, when my wife Martie and I wanted to meet our sons and their families for a quick bite to eat, we decided that, with everyone’s busy schedules, it would be easiest to meet at a nearby fast-food joint. When I called my son Joe to suggest the plan, his response was, “Well, I can meet you there, but I can’t eat that stuff. I’m training for a marathon.”

Joe’s comment lodged in my brain, particularly because at the time I happened to be preparing a sermon regarding spiritual food, and his offhand remark illustrated a great spiritual principle. Let me explain.

Joe had a goal in mind—the successful completion of the marathon. He knew that reaching the goal was going to require months of disciplined choices, like waking up early to run longer and longer distances. And it meant that he would need to carefully guard and consider everything that he took into his body. Each meal—in fact, each snack—became an opportunity to choose to nourish and energize his body toward a successful marathon run.

Spiritually speaking, we have a goal in mind. Paul expresses it clearly in 1 Corinthians 9:27 when, using an illustration of running a race he states, “I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” In Philippians 3:10-11, he clarifies that the prize at the end of the race is the goal of knowing Christ “and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

I don’t know about you, but that’s a goal I want to strive toward. I can’t imagine any other objective more rewarding than finishing well and living for intimacy with and empowerment by the indwelling Jesus. But the reality is that many of us are not very committed to the training process that gets us to the goal.

A key part of the training is learning how to guard what we “eat” spiritually. Just as those training for a marathon need to guard and carefully consider all that they take in, those of us in training toward the goal of knowing Christ more fully need to guard and consider all that we take in. Paul gives us a phenomenal nutritional guide in Philippians 4:8, using words like true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy to describe the spiritual health food for followers of Jesus.

Which should lead all of us to evaluate what we’ve been feeding our hearts and our minds. How well does our TV viewing fit the criteria of true, noble, or right? What about the conversations we have at work? Do they fall in the categories of pure or lovely? Is there anything admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy about the movies we watch or the music we listen to?

Imagine how nutritionally strong we would be—when faced with a situation that we know would hinder our goal of finishing our race well and knowing Jesus more intimately—if we were to say, “I can’t. I’m in training.” That kind of spiritual dieting and discipline would groom our lives to run our race far more successfully.

We could all stand to take a lesson from Joe—no junk food! As they say, “You are what you eat!”

Be Thankful

From: Our Daily Bread

Read: Deuteronomy 8:6–18 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 84-86; Romans 12

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Deuteronomy 8:10

In Australia, it can take hours to drive between towns and fatigue can lead to accidents. So at busy holiday times rest stops are set up on major highways with volunteers offering free coffee. My wife, Merryn, and I grew to enjoy these stops during our long drives there.

On one trip, we pulled in and walked over to order our coffee. An attendant handed the two cups over, and then asked me for two dollars. I asked why. She pointed to the small print on the sign. At this stop, only the driver got free coffee; you had to pay for passengers. Annoyed, I told her this was false advertising, paid the two dollars, and walked off. Back at the car, Merryn pointed out my error: I had turned a gift into an entitlement and become ungrateful for what I received. She was right.

Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.

When the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, Moses urged them to be a grateful people (Deut. 8:10). Thanks to the blessings of God, the land was abundant, but they could easily treat this prosperity as something they deserved (vv. 17–18). From this, the Jews developed a practice of giving thanks for every meal, no matter how small. For them, it was all a gift.

I went back to the woman and apologized. A free cup of coffee was a gift I didn’t deserve—and something for which to be thankful.

Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth. A Jewish thanksgiving prayer for meals

Be grateful to God for even the smallest gift.

If Only.....

From: Our Daily Bread

Read: John 11:21–35 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 81–83; Romans 11:19–36

Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. John 11:32

As we exited the parking lot, my husband slowed the car to wait for a young woman riding her bike. When Tom nodded to indicate she could go first, she smiled, waved, and rode on. Moments later, the driver from a parked SUV threw his door open, knocking the young bicyclist to the pavement. Her legs bleeding, she cried as she examined her bent-up bike.

Later, we reflected on the accident: If only we had made her wait . . . If only the driver had looked before opening his door. If only . . . Difficulties catch us up in a cycle of second-guessing ourselves. If only I had known my child was with teens who were drinking . . . If only we had found the cancer earlier . . .

When unexpected trouble comes, we sometimes question the goodness of God. We may even feel the despair that Martha and Mary experienced when their brother died. Oh, if Jesus had only come when He first found out that Lazarus was sick! (John 11:21, 32).

Like Martha and Mary, we don’t always understand why hard things happen to us. But we can rest in the knowledge that God is working out His purposes for a greater good. In every circumstance, we can trust the wisdom of our faithful and loving God.

Father, You have carried me through hard circumstances before. Thank You for teaching me to trust Your heart of love even when I don’t understand what You are doing in my life.

For encouragement read, Why? Seeing God in Our Pain at discoveryseries.org/cb151.

To trust God in the light is nothing, but to trust Him in the dark—that is faith. Charles Haddon Spurgeon

True Truth

From: Get More Faith

Aug

10

2017

“Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:21

Remember the days of the multivolume encyclopedia? Not long ago nearly every home had a set gathering dust on the bookcase.

Not anymore! Research materials are now easily found on the Internet. The unprecedented growth of the web gives us a staggering amount of information, literally at our fingertips.

One of the most interesting variants is “Wikipedia”—a completely online, free encyclopedia compiled by contributions from its users. It can be a helpful, fascinating source of information, but somehow the idea of everyone contributing their “two cents” to an article makes me a little uneasy about using that information as a primary source of authority and reliability.

Hopefully you are not among them, but some skeptics view the Bible as if it were compiled like a Wikipedia article. With more than 40 contributing authors spanning several centuries, they say, it cannot be completely accurate. But Scripture sets the record straight. There is only one author. Peter wrote, “Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man” (2 Peter 1:21). In other words, we are not reading the mere thoughts of Moses, David, Isaiah, Paul, or Peter. Rather, the words of the Bible come directly from God, put to paper by men “as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Which means that we find incredible unity, clarity, and commonality flowing through the Old and New Testaments. The truths expressed in Daniel’s writing from the palace courts of Babylon are mirrored in John’s words from the isle of Patmos, hundreds of years later. The themes of God’s character, of man’s rebellion, and of God’s glorious plan of redemption wind their way through each page. Further additions, revisions, or retractions are unthinkable and unnecessary because God’s Word is confidently complete.

If what you need is a quick glance at the history of jazz music, the opinions and perspectives offered in Wikipedia might be helpful. But, if you’re looking for meaning and purpose and the answers to life’s deepest questions, a multiplicity of conflicting opinions won’t help.

Thank God that He has given us what we need for every challenge and crossroad of life as His clear and trustworthy voice speaks to us through His Word!