Video Bible Lesson - Responding to Accusation by unknown Luke 12:11-12

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

6/18/2020

Responding to Accusation

Luke 12:11-12

When conflict occurs, the natural reaction is to blame someone else and defend yourself. But believers must respond differently. Once, I was publicly chastised for a wrong I had not committed. Thankfully, the Lord enabled me to remain calm rather than react angrily. Praying first is always the best response in a crisis. When we do, God supernaturally provides that which we can't muster up ourselves.Spiritual discernment. The Lord, who perfectly understands the source of every problem, can give us insight beyond our limited perspective. Perhaps there's been a communication breakdown, a feeling of jealousy on the other person's part, or a mistake we unknowingly made. The Holy Spirit can show us how to approach our accuser and see beyond hurtful words or actions.A quiet spirit. Our human nature wants to react quickly so that we can defend ourselves. That's why we must first deliberately focus our attention on the Lord and experience the inward peace He alone makes available to us (John 14:27).Wisdom. Jesus told His disciples the Holy Spirit would give them wise words to say when they faced hostile authorities. He'll do the same for you. Ask Him to put a seal on your lips until He shows you what to say and when (Ps. 141:3).We don't have to react to criticism with anger and self-protection the way the world does. Instead, we are called to represent Christ in every situation by depending on Him. In responding as He directs, we bring Him glory and cause unbelievers to want to know the source of our strength.

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

Tired Faith 

Streams in the Desert

Therefore, strengthen your listless hands and your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but be healed. (Heb 12:12-13)

This is God’s word of encouragement to us to lift up the hands of faith, and confirm the knees of prayer. Often our faith grows tired, languid, and relaxed, and our prayers lose their force and effectiveness.

The figure used here is a very striking one. The idea seems to be that we become discouraged and so timid that a little obstacle depresses and frightens us, and we are tempted to walk around it, and not face it: to take the easier way.

Perhaps it is some physical trouble that God is ready to heal, but the exertion is hard, or it is easier to secure some human help, or walk around in some other way.

There are many ways of walking around emergencies instead of going straight through them. How often we come up against something that appalls us, and we want to evade the issue with the excuse:

“I am not quite ready for that now.” Some sacrifice is to be made, some obedience demanded, some Jericho to be taken, some soul that we have not the courage to claim and carry through, some prayer that is hanging fire, or perhaps some physical trouble that is half healed and we are walking around it.

God says, “Lift up the hands that hang down.” March straight through the flood, and lo, the waters will divide, the Red Sea will open, the Jordan will part, and the Lord will lead you through to victory.

Don’t let your feet “be turned out of the way,” but let your body “be healed,” your faith strengthened. Go right ahead and leave no Jericho behind you unconquered and no place where Satan can say that he was too much for you. This is a profitable lesson and an intensely practical one. How often have we been in that place. Perhaps you are there today. "
—A. B. Simpson

Pay as little attention to discouragement as possible. Plough ahead as a steamer does, rough or smooth—rain or shine. To carry your cargo and make your port is the point.
—Maltbie D. Babcock

The Call to Serve.....Dr. Charles Stanley

The Call to Serve

Dr. Charles Stanley

Galatians 5:13

Jesus commanded that we serve one another, but obeying this mandate in humility is not natural for us. Sure, there are times we like to help others. But service that involves self-sacrifice--especially for someone we deem undeserving--much more difficult to do.

What does it mean to serve? Consider Christ's example. He gave up everything in heaven to live among us, subjecting Himself to dishonor and human frailty. And He loved even those who rejected Him. Think about how He humbled Himself and washedthe disciples' feet at Passover. This was a disgusting, lowly task that a slave might be assigned--far from anything a king should do. He even knew these men were about to abandon Him but served them anyway.

Ultimately, Christ gave His life for us. And He did so while we were still sinners (Rom. 5:8). Serving others was His lifestyle--part of who He was and what He did. As His followers, we should strive to be like Him.

Therefore, service involves first dying to our selfish attitudes and motives. Only then can we live to glorify Christ. Jesus said that the greatest commandments are to love God wholeheartedly and to love others (Matt. 22:37-39). Ironically, it is only when we humbly serve others that we experience God's fullness in our own lives.

Many try to achieve happiness by striving after their own desires. The result? Tired, unsatisfied people. True contentment happens only when we walk closely with Jesus. He shows where we can humble ourselves and take care of others. These actions, done through His strength, will be blessed.

When You Can't Catch a Break... and You Want to Know Why

When You Can't Catch a Break... and You Want to Know Why
by Meghan Kleppinger

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
 James 1:2-4

When it rains it pours; it is feast or famine; everything bad comes in threes; it always go from bad to worst; I can't seem to catch a break...

I don't have to ask if you've ever felt like a walking version of one of these clichés - if you're human, you have.

Just the other day, I had an unfortunate run-in with a Papasan Chair - I went to sit down and the top wasn't situated on the base correctly, so I sort of slid off with the top part, fell on my face, and twisted my ankle.

Normally, even I would have laughed at the ridiculousness of this scene, but it came at the end of a very bad day. Like any mature adult, I called my mother to complain about life in general... and that stupid chair. She said, "Well, isn't that the third thing to happen today?" It was - and I called her each time an unfortunate event had occurred that day. She finished with, "Remember things happen in threes, so you should be good now!"

That's not exactly how life works, but naming some rhyme or reason seems to help. The truth is that we can't always explain the "why," and thank goodness, our job isn't to solve the mystery behind our pain. If we embrace the reality of suffering in our lives, however, we can learn about ourselves, God, and how to mature in the Christian walk.

Now back to the Papasan Chair - I don't know why it attacked me, but I've learned and grown from the experience. I will never, ever, sit on that thing again! In life, with "real" suffering, we have a choice: to come out of bad circumstances the same as we were before, or to allow God to teach and mature through it.

Intersecting Faith & Life: Take a few moments to reflect on the various trials God has brought you through and what He's taught you through them.

Further Reading

Psalms 119:50

How to Live Fear Free in a Fearful World

How to Live Fear Free in a Fearful World
by Lynette Kittle

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care.” - Matthew 10:29

If you’re feeling anxious, fearful, or distraught over current headlines, you’re not alone. An unstable and volatile world is causing people to feel vulnerable at home, in school, at work, in travel, and as they go about their daily activities.

Still Scripture encourages you to not be afraid of those who kill the body (Matthew 10:28). God doesn’t want you to live a fearful life and urges you to “Have no fear of sudden disaster” (Proverbs 3:25).

So how is it possible to live fear-free in a fearful world?

Since God has not given you a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7), it’s up to you to choose to trust Him no matter what you’re facing, to walk around assured He is with you, and to believe His promise that, “Never will I leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

In life-threatening situations, you can be assured God is with you. Scripture describes what Stephen experienced when he came under attack, how  “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to Heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55).

God was with Stephen in the darkest of circumstances and when he died, he passed into new life. Like him, your life in Christ is eternal as explained: “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (1 Corinthians 15:54).

You belong to God and your life is safe and secure in Him. As Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die.”

The Apostle Paul understood God’s eternal provision for life when he stated, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Even if threats of death increase in the world, you don’t have to live a fearful life because nothing, not even death, can separate you from His care. Romans 8:38, 39 states, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Whatever situations life may bring, resist the urge to be afraid. As Stephen did, look to God, being assured He is with you knowing, “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart” (Psalm 91:4).

A Prayer for When Life Doesn’t Turn Out the Way You Expect

A Prayer for When Life Doesn’t Turn Out the Way You ExpectBy Wendy van Eyck

Stop pushing me away, insisting that I stop following you!
Wherever you go, I will go.
Wherever you live, I will live.

Your people will be my people.
Your God will be my God.
Wherever you die, I will also die and be buried there near you.
May the Eternal One punish me—and even more so—if anything besides death comes between us. (Ruth 1:16-17 MSG)

My life hasn't turned out the way I expected. I wouldn’t change my life, but I’m not living the life I imagined when I was younger. I wonder how many of you feel the same way?

By 34, I expected I'd have a career and that I’d be a mom to a bunch of kids. Instead, I've just started a new job. I’m still trying to figure out what I love to do. And my husband and I don't know if we even want to have children.

There are things I never expected to have lived through by now, too. I never thought I would hold my husbands’ hand through 18 sessions of chemo or have spent a month leaving him in the isolation ward in a hospital and wondering if he’d be alive the next morning. In the darkest times, there were moments when I never thought he’d call himself a cancer survivor.

Then there are silly things I expected to have figured out. I thought I’d be able to clean an oven without Googling it or know how to roast potatoes without calling my mother for instructions.

What did you expect from life? Did you think you’d go to college, or buy a house, or did you dream of traveling? Did you expect to be healthy, to bounce babies in your arms, and call your mother for advice? Did you expect to be married by now? Or, did you think you’d never settle down and now you have a husband, two kids, and a dog?

A Bible story with an unexpected ending

There is a story in the Bible about a woman called Ruth whose life didn't turn out the way she expected. There is an entire book of the Bible dedicated to her. It’s a quick read with only four chapters.

Ruth married an immigrant, and he died soon after, along with his brother- and father-in-law. After these tragedies, her mother-in-law, Naomi, decided to return to her land of birth with her daughter-in-laws, Ruth and Orpah and so the three women collected their belongings together and began walking towards Bethlehem.

A few hours into the journey, Naomi tells Ruth and Orpah, to go back to their families. Orpah kisses her mother-in-law and heads back. Grateful to return to her people and the only life she has known.Ruth had to make a choice. At that moment, her life wasn’t what she expected.

The Bible tells us so little of Ruth’s past. I’ve wondered if she had a home worth running back to or if an unknown future was better than the past she would leave behind.

Naomi urges her to leave again but Ruth responds:

Stop pushing me away, insisting that I stop following you!
Wherever you go, I will go.
Wherever you live, I will live.
Your people will be my people.
Your God will be my God.
Wherever you die, I will also die and be buried there near you.
May the Eternal One punish me—and even more so—if anything besides death comes between us. (Ruth 1:16-17 MSG)

Naomi’s life hadn’t turned out the way she expected. Now her attempt to send her daughter-in-law home hadn’t either. I imagine Naomi crying when she heard Ruth's words, the two women embracing on the side of a dusty road. I imagine Naomi tired, and full of questions for God, but grateful for Ruth's companionship. Together, they journey on and arrive in Naomi's hometown. Things were tough for the two widows. So tough Naomi tells her childhood friends, "Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.”

Ruth spent her days following behind harvesters picking up stalks of fallen grains. Boaz, one of Naomi's relatives, recognized Ruth and allowed her to pick up scraps in his fields. To make a long story short suffice to say Ruth and Boaz marry and they have a child, who has a child, who has a child, called David who becomes king of Israel.

The thing that encourages me is Ruth could never have expected she would one day be the great grandmother to a King.

We know how things worked out because we’ve read the end of the story. Ruth couldn’t see the ending.When she died, she could not have known the role she played in changing the world. She would only have looked back and thought, "Well, my life didn't go the way I expected!"

I think most of us will never know how the twists and turns in our lives have an impact on eternity. However, God does.

Maybe you’re like me; maybe life hasn’t turned out the way you expected. If today, you’re sitting with many unmet expectations I invite you to pray this:

A Prayer for When Life Doesn't Turn Out Like You Expect:

God, our lives haven’t turned out the way we expected. At times we’re equally grateful, tired, and full of questions.

Teach us, Father, how to be our strength in our weakness.

Show us, how to not be afraid of tomorrow; to believe you are in control.

Remind us, your grace is enough.

Meet us in our expectations. Fill us with joy, fill us with peace, and let our lives brim over with hope.

Provide us with what we need, when we need it, to make it through this. Give us the eyes we need to see how you are working everything out for our good.

God, help us to be brave and not give up. Keep us looking to you when we feel like we can’t anymore. May our eyes and heart always be expecting you to get here soon, to revive us.

May your strength be our song and salvation, we pray. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.