Video Bible Lesson - Serving Christ by Dr. Charles Stanley

1/2 Hour of God’s Power with Scott Ralls

3/27/2020

Serving Christ
Dr. Charles Stanley

Matthew 25:34-40
Stop for a moment and consider the purpose of your life. Are you living to pursue your own interests or success? Does your energy revolve around your family members? Perhaps your ambition is to change the world for the better.
All of these aims—even the last one, which sounds so selfless—are futile. The only goal of lasting value and fulfillment is serving Christ. As His followers, we should model our life after His. And Mark 10:45 tells us that "even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.” We honor Him by doing likewise.
Yet, sometimes we can feel overwhelmed when we consider the amazing ways that other believers are serving the Lord. With God on His side, King David led great armies into war. Today, there are evangelists who speak to tens of thousands, and many lives are saved. How could anything we do compare to accomplishments like these? And while comparisons may discourage us, Christians use other excuses for not trying—such as a lack of experience or having the wrong personality for the task. But God’s call for each person is unique. He will provide the words, ability, and circumstances so that you can achieve what He wants done. Remember, our Father is the one who makes the difference. We are merely tools, and we’re blessed to be used by Him.
EL: Are you demonstrating your love for the Lord by serving others? Live in such a way that each evening you can tell Him, “Lord, as best I know how, I have attempted to serve Your purpose today.”

#Jesus, #Christian, #Bible, #Salvation, #Heaven, #God, #HolySpirit

Streams in the Desert

Streams in the Desert

I do not count the sufferings of our present life worthy of mention when compared with the glory that is to be revealed and bestowed upon us" (Rom. 8:18, 20th Century Trans.).

A remarkable incident occurred recently at a wedding in England. A young man of large wealth and high social position, who had been blinded by an accident when he was ten years old, and who won University honors in spite of his blindness, had won a beautiful bride, though he had never looked upon her face. A little while before his marriage, he submitted to a course of treatment by experts, and the climax came on the day of his wedding.

The day came, and the presents, and guests. There were present cabinet ministers and generals arid bishops and learned men and women. The bridegroom, dressed for the wedding, his eyes still shrouded in linen, drove to the church with his father, and the famous oculist met them in the vestry.

The bride entered the church on the arm of her white-haired father. So moved was she that she could hardly speak. Was her lover at last to see her face that others admired, but which he knew only through his delicate finger tips?

As she neared the altar, while the soft strains of the wedding march floated through the church, her eyes fell on a strange group. The father stood there with his son. Before the latter was the great oculist in the act of cutting away the last bandage.

The bridegroom took a step forward, with the spasmodic uncertainty of one who cannot believe that he is awake. A beam of rose-colored light from a pane in the chancel window fell across his face, but he did not seem to see it.

Did he see anything? Yes! Recovering in an instant his steadiness of mien, and with a dignity and joy never before seen in his face, he went forward to meet his bride. They looked into each other's eyes, and one would have thought that his eyes would never wander from her face.

"At last!" she said. "At last!" he echoed solemnly, bowing his head. That was a: scene of great dramatic power, and no doubt of great joy, and is but a mere suggestion of what will actually take place in Heaven when the Christian who has been walking through this world of trial and sorrow, shall see Him face to face.
--Selected

Just a-wearying for you,
Jesus, Lord, beloved and true;
Wishing for you, wondering when
You'll be coming back again,
Under all I say and do,
Just a-wearying for you.
Some glad day, all watching past,
You will come for me at last;
Then I'll see you, hear your voice,
Be with you, with you rejoice;
How the sweet hope thrills me through,
Sets me wearying for you.

A Man Worthy of Our Praise.....Dr. Charles Stanley

A Man Worthy of Our Praise

Dr. Charles Stanley

Matthew 8:23-27

The men traveling with Jesus on a stormy Galilean night said something that ought to make us sit up and take notice. “What kind of a man is this . . . ?” If we ask ourselves that same question, we will start to see the big picture of who Jesus is instead of concentrating on the “slivers” of personality revealed by individual stories.

When the wind, which has been funneled through a narrow gorge, pushes out over the Sea of Galilee, the water becomes turbulent. Jesus and His disciples were caught in just such a dangerous storm while making their way to Gadara. Waves crashed over the deck of the wooden boat. The experienced seamen onboard were certain that death was imminent.

But Jesus was sleeping. He was resting quietly during a storm so frightening that the Greek word used to describe it is seismos—from the same root that gives us the phrase “seismic activity” for earthquakes. What kind of man is this who can sleep while the boat heaves and pitches? The answer is: the One who createdthe seas and knows how a storm brews and what energy causes a wave to stay in motion. That’s the kind of man: a divine Being cloaked in humanity, who rebuked the winds and sea so that they became perfectly calm.

Scripture indicates that both the air and the water were instantly stilled. Such is the power of Jesus, the Creator and Lord over the universe. Taken together, all the Bible stories about Jesus reveal the “big picture” that He is the only man worthy of glory, honor, and praise (Dan. 7:13-14).

Stepping Out of God’s Way

Stepping Out of God’s Way
SHARON JAYNES

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” James 1:2-4 (NLT)

He ironed. I watched.

Standing in the door frame of my guest room, I watched my nephew, Jonathan, iron the wrinkles out of his crumpled shirt. He’d stopped by for a visit on his way to a wedding in my hometown, and his clothes were a mess. He ironed and talked. I watched and listened.

Life hasn’t been easy for Jonathan. While he has an adoring, godly mother and two amazing siblings, the absence of a father left a lingering ache that’s been hard to heal. Their dad’s abandonment affected each of the kids differently, but Jonathan, the youngest, has struggled the most.

I’ve always known God has a special plan for Jonathan. The shaping and molding by God has been fierce, intentional and deliberate.

As Jonathan moved the iron back and forth across the wrinkled fabric, he ironed out much more than a shirt. He ironed out the wrinkles in his heart, pressed out the pain of life without a dad, smoothed out the hurt of abandonment, and steamed out the stubborn creases of years of questions. Why did Dad leave? Why wasn’t I worth sticking around for? Why wasn’t I worth the effort? Why was I more affected by the abandonment than my siblings?

He pressed and talked.
I listened and prayed.

When we see someone going through a struggle, especially our children, the natural instinct is to jump and try to fix it. But what if that struggle is the very thing God is using to grow them, to strengthen them, to build their character? If that’s the case, then our interference may stunt their spiritual growth.

James wrote: “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing” (James 1:2-4, emphasis added).

So let it grow. We must let it grow in other people too, not just ourselves. Perhaps we have stepped in where we should have stepped out. We were never meant to fiddle with what only God can fix. Our role is to pray for God to do what only God can do.

Twenty minutes later, Jonathan finished ironing. One shirt. One heart.

“God has done so much for me and in me,” he explained. “It has taken a long time, but He is healing me. He is mending my heart. I’m ready to move on now. More than my dad coming home to me, I pray he will come home to Jesus. That’s what I want more than anything.”

You know, I could have said, “Hey, let me just iron that shirt for you.” I could have finished the job in two minutes or less. But this was not about ironing a shirt. This was about pressing out the rumpled creases in a young man’s heart. I couldn’t do that. Only God could. Jonathan needed to hold the iron of God’s love and move it back and forth, back and forth, until the rumpled mess was smoothed. My job was to watch. To listen. To pray.

How about you? Is there someone in your life who has a wrinkled, wounded heart? Have you yanked the healing tool of God’s love out of His hand and tried to iron out their problems yourself? Did you ever consider you might be standing in the way of what God is trying to do? I say this only because I have … many times.

Jonathan wears his mending heart well. That doesn’t mean it won’t need a touch-up pressing when daily life roughs up the fabric of his heart from time to time. But I have every confidence that God, who began a good work in him, will complete it.

And the shirt? It looked pretty good.

Dear Lord, forgive me for trying to fix other people’s problems when they’re not mine to fix. Today, I’m committing to watch, to listen, to pray and to love. Help me not to get in the way of what You are doing in someone else’s life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

TRUTH FOR TODAY:
Philippians 1:6, “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” (NLT)

A Prayer for Triumph

A Prayer for TriumphBy Mary Southerland

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. - Romans 8:28, NIV

There are no accidents with God, nor is He surprised by anything or anyone in the life of His child. God uses even the most horrendous circumstances for our good.

Every circumstance comes to us for a purpose, bound by God’s love and plan and faithfully delivered with His permission. While we cannot go back and change our past, we can change the way we respond to our past and determine how much power it has in our lives today.

Only God can take the broken pieces of your life and make something beautiful out of each one. He is waiting for you to let go of your pain and trust Him.

And you really can trust Him.

No one loves you like He does.

You may not always understand or even like His process, but you can always trust His heart of love for you.

Let’s Pray

Father, I choose to believe You are faithful and will do what You promise to do in Your Word. I believe when I lay the pain and hurt of my past at Your feet, You not only can but also will transform it all into something beautiful. I choose to believe You will turn the broken places of my life into living illustrations of Your sufficiency and healing power. I trust You, Lord.

In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.

What treasures have you discovered in the dark times of your life? What tragedy has God transformed into a triumph that has changed your life? Praise Him right now for doing so.

God Can Use Your Day Job to Bring Purpose

God Can Use Your Day Job to Bring Purpose
From Bible Study Magazines

“Now I was cupbearer to the king...” -  Nehemiah 1:11

Imagine a job where having a bad attitude doesn’t just get you reprimanded—it gets you executed.

Fifth century BC: Many of the Jews are still in exile in Persia. The Jerusalem wall has been destroyed, which means the Jews who have returned to Jerusalem are unprotected. They are being persecuted and murdered. They desperately need help from the Persian monarchy. They need an insider.

Nehemiah opens his account of the events by saying, “Now I was cupbearer to the king” (Neh 1:11 NRSV). This simple description reveals that God was already working to change the fate of the Hebrew exiles.

The New Bible Dictionary (NBD) entry on this term traces the history of cupbearers. In Egypt, cupbearers were often called “pure of hands” and, in one instance, “the one who tastes the wine.” Cupbearers protected the life of the Pharaoh. Their job was to detect poison. A cupbearer was a glorified guinea pig for any beverage served to the king. For this reason, cupbearers were often among the king’s most trusted servants.

Harper’s Bible Dictionary (HBD) points out that the Nehemiah story had a literary forerunner: the story of Joseph. The cupbearer to Pharaoh played a critical, providential role in Joseph’s rise. Here we find a biblical theme: God rescues His people by placing an insider in the court of foreign kings.

The king was so familiar with Nehemiah that he immediately read his cupbearer’s expression: “So the king said to me, ‘Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This can only be sadness of the heart.’ Then I was very much afraid” (Neh 2:2 NRSV). Nehemiah was usually in “good spirits,” even though he was a foreign slave tasked with a lethal duty every night. Was Nehemiah’s joy wine inflicted—an occupational hazard? And why was he afraid? John Peter Lange, in his Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, tells us that in Persian monarchs “everybody was expected to reflect the sunlight of the king’s majesty” (pg. 10). H.G.M. Williamson, in his Word Biblical Commentary, adds that a gloomy face could have been interpreted as plotting against the king (pg. 178). Nehemiah could have been executed. When Nehemiah told the king what was troubling him, and of his desire to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city wall, the king responded with grace. He trusted Nehemiah and his judgment.

Empowered by the king, Nehemiah the slave became Nehemiah the famed rebuilder of the Jerusalem wall. His job title hints at his humility, perseverance and courage. Nehemiah reminds us that no job position is unimportant and no duty is small—everything has a purpose.

Show Me The Money

Show Me The Money
by Ryan Duncan

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. - Malachi 3:10

Like many younger Christians, I have never been very good at tithing. Sure, I try to be generous, but I am never very consistent in my giving. Once in a while I’ll write a check for a good cause, support the occasional mission trip, but when it comes to the genuine, 10-percent of my labors tithes; I usually just give whatever happens to be in my wallet. There are a lot of excuses for my miserly behavior, but in all honesty, I think the real reason I didn’t tithe was because I just didn’t believe it was that important. Then I learned about Todd Stiefel.

Todd Stiefel is one of the major forces behind the modern atheist movement. His organization, the Stiefel Freethought Foundation, is behind the majority of atheist campaigns like flashy billboards, high-profile rallies, and other news-making efforts. According to CNN, Stiefel has poured over 3.5 million dollars of his own fortune into these projects. When asked why he would give so much to help fund these endeavors, Stiefel responded,

“I wanted to try to help the world. I wanted to give back and this seemed like the most productive way to help humanity.”

I can remember feeling very cold when I read that. Here was a man who did not believe in God. Here was a man who believed, fervently, that best way to help humanity was through the erosion of my faith. Worst of all, here was a man better at freely giving to what he believed in than I had ever been in all my years as a Christian. God had commanded me to give cheerfully, and my generosity was being upstaged by an atheist.

All dramatics aside, I think it’s important for us Christians to understand that tithing is a vital part of our faith. It teaches us not to put our faith in financial gain, it helps the Church support its leaders, and I think the act of giving helps us remain humble before God. He did not instruct tithing to rob us of our wealth; he commanded it so that the Church could provide for one another in times of need. Remember the words of Proverbs 11:24,

“One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.”

Intersecting Faith and Life: Take a moment to review your spending habits. Are you giving the Lord what is already his?

Further Reading

Acts 20:35

New Blood, New Covenant

New Blood, New Covenant
By Skip Heitzig

Several years ago, I got a birthday card that had a little speaker attached to it, and when I opened it, it chirped out a song. It was sweet, but I eventually threw it away. Get this, though: when I did that, I threw away more computer power than what existed on earth before the year 1950. Isn't that amazing? Technology is great, but it moves so quickly. You're never quite there.

If you look at the Scriptures of the Old Testament, you have an incomplete system. Yes, God could be accessed through the shedding of blood, but it was never quite enough, because sin was just covered over temporarily. It was like old spiritual technology. In Jeremiah 31, God said, "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…. I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts" (vv. 31, 33). He anticipated that the old covenant would pass away and something new would come, because it was needed.

With this being the period leading up to Easter, I want to take a look at the days, hours, and moments before the crucifixion of Christ—specifically, the Passover. The Jews already saw this night as a special night, but this time, the lamb that the Old Testament anticipated would be a Lamb that would once for all take away the sins of the world, and that would be Christ.

Jesus and His disciples gathered together for the Passover supper, and Matthew 26 tells us, "As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body.' Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins'" (vv. 26-28).

In the Passover supper, also known as the seder, there is an order to the service of the meal. It basically revolves around four glasses of wine that are raised for commemoration purposes, all speaking of the Jews' history.

The first is the cup of blessing: the host welcomes his guests and offers the blessing in Hebrew: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe who gives us the fruit of the vine." Then the cup is taken among all of them.

Second is the cup of judgment. The host tells the history of the exodus and the judgment of God upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Then the host breaks bread and dips it in bitter herbs, speaking of the bitter bondage of the past, and in a paste that speaks of the mortar made by the slaves. Then the second cup is taken.

After the meal is eaten, the cup of redemption is raised. And it was this third cup that Jesus raised and said, "This is the cup of My blood, a new covenant that I'm making." At the very end of the meal is the fourth cup, the cup of praise, and a hymn is sung (see v. 30). The Jewish people have done this all throughout their history, at every Passover meal around the world, for thousands of years.

But now Jesus Christ was transforming an ancient meal to have a different meaning. No longer did the Passover speak of the temporary, physical bondage of Egypt being broken, but the permanent spiritual deliverance from sin through Jesus Christ's blood and broken body.

This Easter, I want you to remember that you and I were once marked for death. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). But because of the blood of Christ, because of the cross, God has passed over your life, over the execution of judgment, because all that judgment was taken by Jesus Himself. What a marvelous, marvelous truth! Rejoice in that today.