Dinner with your Creator.. Craig Denison Ministries

 Dinner with your Creator

Craig Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview:

This week we’ll spend time simply stirring up our affections for God. God has designed us to see him, to know his character and to let the truth of his goodness lead us into deeper relationship with him. Augustine wrote, “Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.” In seeing God for who he is, our hearts are naturally stirred to find rest in his goodness. May your heart be stirred at the revelation of God’s wonderful character.

Scripture:“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

Devotional:

Revelation 3:20 reveals amazing insight into the relationship God desires with us, his crown of creation. In it Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Do you know that God wants to be friends with you? Just as a friend would ask you out to a meal, God longs to spend time with you. Every day God is knocking on the door of your heart. If you are willing to open your heart to him and listen, you can spend time with God in ways more boundless and satisfying than you could with any other friend.

Where in your life do you need God’s friendship today? John 15:15 says, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” The story of the gospel is God losing relationship with the crown of his creation, you and me, and through the death of Jesus gaining restored relationship with us. He has been working tirelessly from the very first sin just to be able to call you and me friends again. What you desire from friends around you is completely available to you in God and to even greater depths!

If you need a friend to talk to, God is standing at the door of your heart asking to come in and listen—“Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” If you need advice, the Holy Spirit who authored Scripture is waiting to reveal to you the wisdom of God—“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13). If you need to laugh, God longs to bring you unfathomable joy—“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad” (Psalm 126:1-3).

You have a best friend in God. He is not distant. What was true for the psalmist in Psalm 73:23-26 is true for us, “I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Spend time in God’s presence today. Listen to him knocking on the door of your heart and invite him to come in and meet with you. Let his friendship heal the broken places of your heart that need his love. He offers himself freely to you today. He’s gone to unimaginable lengths to be able to simply spend time with you. Lay the table of your heart bare before him, and let his smile restore to you the joy of your salvation.

Guided Prayer:

1. Spend some time meditating on God’s desire for friendship with you.

“No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15

2. Open your heart to God and receive his presence. Receive the peace and joy that comes from being in the presence of your heavenly Father.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

3. Spend time simply enjoying your friendship with God. Talk to him about anything you desire. Receive his joy over you.           

“I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:23-26

Friendships aren’t built in a day, but over lifetimes. You have all of eternity to spend getting to know God. After spending consistent time with him, he truly will become your best friend. He will be the person you run to when you have a problem. He will be the source of your joy, peace, and life. Every day, you have the choice to do life with God or on your own. And you have an enemy working to lead you to choose the latter. The more consistently you spend time with God, the easier that decision will become. Once you know the goodness and reality of God there is no going back. Enjoy God today. Walk in the abundant life of restored relationship with him. Answer his call whenever he knocks on the door of your heart. There is no better way you could choose to spend your days and no better friend than God.

Extended Reading: John 15

How Can I Really Live a Life That Pleases God?..LYSA TERKEURST

 How Can I Really Live a Life That Pleases God?

LYSA TERKEURST 

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence …” 2 Peter 1:3 (ESV)

When my kids were growing up, we spent a week each summer at a camp tucked in the Adirondack Mountains. It was an amazing getaway.

Nature erupts with untarnished beauty in those mountains and begs to be explored. So one year, when my exercise-loving friends, with whom we vacationed, suggested we join them for a moderate hike, we agreed.

It didn't take long for me to discover that their definition of the word “moderate” and mine didn't come from the same dictionary. I pictured a path with a gentle, winding, upward slope. What we actually hiked involved a full-on upward scaling of rocks and roots.

I pushed. I pulled. I strained. I huffed and puffed. And I might have even spent a few minutes pouting.

Going up against the pull of gravity was hard. Really, really hard. But coming down was a completely different experience. We navigated the same rocks and roots without feeling nearly as stressed. I actually even enjoyed the journey as I noticed more of the beautiful surroundings.

Though we took the exact same path both directions, going with the flow of gravity made the journey so much better. And about halfway down the trail, it occurred to me how similar this hike was to the Christian walk. We can either walk in the flow of God's power or out of it.

Scripture leaves no doubt that our God is a God of great power. This fact is made clear throughout the New Testament in passages like Luke 1:35, where we read that God's power overshadowed the young virgin Mary and allowed her to carry Jesus. Mark 14:62 proclaims that the resurrected Jesus now sits “at the right hand of Power” (ESV). And Romans 1:20 declares that creation itself makes God's power undeniable.

How incredible it is, then, to read in 2 Peter 1:3 that “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence …”

God’s divine power is available to us. To you and me. Right now, through the knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that we find everything we need to live a godly life.

Of course, I realize godliness in the midst of a world overflowing with sin, pain and corruption may feel like a daunting and impossible feat. That's why I'm so thankful Peter lets us know that godliness in the midst of great darkness is possible. Because of Jesus, we can escape “the corruption that is in the world” (2 Peter 1:4, ESV). Jesus is our source of life and godliness.

We don't have to fight an uphill battle on our own to live good and pure lives. We don't have to exhaust ourselves as we try to muster up as much goodness as we possibly can. The Christian life has never been about what we can do in our own power. It's about fully stepping into the grace-filled flow of His power. This, friends, is what it really looks like to cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

Do you feel exhausted from trying to be good enough? Does living a life that is pleasing to God feel impossibly hard?

Well, I have good news for you today. Jesus never once says, “Perform for Me to save yourself.” Instead, He tenderly whispers, “Draw near to Me.” (James 4:8) He wants us to learn from Him. He wants us to discover who He is and all that we have in Him. He wants us to cling to the precious promises He has given us and receive from Him all we need to live for Him today.

Dear Lord, help me to operate in the flow of Your power today. I believe You have given me everything I need to live for You. And I'm asking You to keep changing me, Lord, to look and think and love more and more like You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Wounded Parents Wounded Children..Dr. Charles Stanley

 Wounded Parents Wounded Children

Dr. Charles Stanley

Jeremiah 32:17-19

So often when we deal with difficult people, it's easy to form judgments about them based on their behavior or attitudes. But have you ever stopped to wonder what has made that person so disagreeable or foolish? When the Bible says God "repays the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their children" (v. 18), it is speaking about generational cycles of sin. Unless someone in the family line makes a deliberate choice to change, sinful and dysfunctional behavior will be passed from parent to child for many generations.

This is really just a confirmation of the principle of sowing and reaping. We pass down standards for conduct and character traits that we received from our parents. If we are unwilling to change our sinful habits and attitudes, they will very likely find their way into our children's lives.

What is true for sin is also true for wounding. When a child is emotionally bruised in the home, his behavior and character may be negatively affected. With this in mind, think about a difficult person that you know. What hurts do you think shaped his or her life? A heart of compassion originates from a willingness to empathize with those who have been wounded. This doesn't excuse someone's sin, but it does aid in opening our hearts toward the individual.

What about you? Have childhood wounds contributed to who you are today? How have they affected your life? If you haven't dealt with them, you'll probably pass similar hurts down to your children. But with God's help, you can break this cycle and begin a new one that will benefit future generations.

Dealing With This All-Too-Common sin..Clarence L. Haynes Jr.

 Dealing With This All-Too-Common sin

By Clarence L. Haynes Jr. 

“Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice.” – Proverbs 24:17

We don’t often think of people in terms of enemies and foes, and so when we come to verses like these it may be hard to relate. For this reason, let me bring it down to a level you may understand. Are there people in your life who you just don’t like or really can’t get along with? Does that hit a more realistic nerve for you? 

While you may not call someone an enemy, I can be certain you can name some people in your life you don’t have warm, fuzzy feelings for. In all walks of life, you are going to encounter people that are hard to like and hard to root for. I usually get along with everyone yet there was this one person who really got under my skin to the point I just did not want to be around him. I will spare you the details of why this person impacted me in this fashion. Recently I discovered that life did not work out so well for this person, and when I heard what happened, my first reaction was, I’m not surprised. I didn’t realize it at the moment but what I was doing was gloating. One definition of gloating is when you find pleasure in someone else’s misfortune, and I didn’t want to admit it at the time, but that is what I was doing. 

The hypocritical nature of gloating is sometimes we wrap our gloating and mix it with praise, even thanking God for the calamity or trouble of the person we don’t like because they deserved it. After all, they messed with me, and I am a child of the king. Yet when we lay our hearts before Scripture and come to verses like these in Proverbs, we realize that is not the way God desires us to respond. When we do behave in this manner our response could have the opposite effect.

“Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice, 
 for the Lord will see and disapprove
 and turn his wrath away from them.” – Proverbs 24:17-18

To say this as plainly as possible, God is not pleased when we gloat over our enemies.

How should you respond to those you don’t like?

Thankfully the Bible lays out a framework for how to address those we don’t like or who are our enemies.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” – Matthew 5:43-44

“But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” – Colossians 3:8

Jesus commands you to love and pray for those who persecute you. Paul instructs us to get rid of all malice, and one of the definitions of malice is to gloat over someone else’s misfortune. When we lay the cards on the table, gloating is sinful. The interesting thing about this type of sin is no one around you would ever know unless you opened your mouth and told them. Gloating and malice are things we keep in our hearts; while we can hide them from others, God sees what lives there.

Intersecting Faith and Life:

Let’s deal with this issue by doing something practical. Think about anyone in your life you either don’t really like or that you would consider an enemy. Write their name down and spend the next week praying for that person or people if there is more than one. I know what you may be thinking, but you don’t know how they are, you don’t know what they have done, or you don’t know what it is like to deal with them. You are probably right about that, but God’s Word puts no qualifier on this. We are to love them, pray for them, and hold no malice in our hearts toward them. Here is why this is important for you. It is your own heart that is at stake. When you harbor malice and gloat over that person’s misfortune, you allow that person to keep control over you, and you give room for bitterness to take root in your heart. However, when you pray for them and love them, they no longer have influence over your life. 

Who is that enemy of yours? Do they work at your job? Do they live in your neighborhood? Do they go to your church? Are they in your family? Wherever they are, love them and pray for them. I can’t guarantee this will change them, but one thing it will do is it will change you, and maybe that is what God was after all along.

Gloating often goes unnoticed because, many times, it is a sin that only God sees.

Further Reading:

• Obadiah 1:12-18
• 2 Kings 14:1-22
• 2 Chronicles 25

How to Hang onto God..Anne Peterson

 How to Hang onto God (John 15:5)

By: Anne Peterson

Today's Bible Verse: I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. - John 15:5

So often in life when things get tough, we hear the words, “Just hang in there.” Words meant to reassure you, but they fall short. I believe we need to hold onto the truth of God’s Word. And when things get difficult, we are to meditate on what we know to be true, no matter how things feel. We cannot trust our feelings. They are fickle. Feelings change and if we trusted how we felt, well, we’d be all over the place. Believe me, I used to do that. I was a double-minded person (James 1:8).

The moment we accept Jesus as our Savior we are born into God’s family. Sometimes we forget this truth and we think we need to keep doing things to be one of God’s children. Yet, we are told that just as we received Jesus, we are to walk in him (Colossians 2:6).

When we made the decision to accept Jesus, we were kept by God’s power. My Bible teacher illustrated this vividly. “If I were to put a fork into a power outlet,” she said, “I would have made the contact, but it would be the power source that kept me there.” When we accepted Jesus, we were in Christ, kept by God.

There have been times in my life the circumstances consumed me. Maybe it was hearing my sister disappeared. Day in and day out, I prayed. I didn’t have the strength to hold onto anything, and God knew that. I knew God’s Word was true and that God is sovereign. He is Almighty. There’s nothing that God doesn’t know. He doesn’t guess. So, I saturated myself in God’s Word.

I read the verses over and over till I had them in my mind and tucked away in my heart. I sang hymns and prayed. And all the while, God held onto me when I had no strength.

When we discovered my sister was dead, the same God who sustained me kept sustaining me. I felt powerless but knew that wasn’t true about God. God continually gave me strength when I had none. Every time I have needed God, he has been there.

I’m so glad God is immutable. That means God doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6). We can count on this truth no matter how dire our circumstances. And when we feel shaky, we can call on God who is always available (Job 27:10). God promises us that he will rescue us in the day of trouble (Psalm 50:15).

When we feel afraid, we can let God’s Spirit remind us of what God says in his Word. Believe the truth. God is not a man that he should lie (Numbers 23:19). Hold onto God’s truth. And when you feel as if you can’t hold on any longer. Remember that God is holding onto you. And his hands are strong and mighty.

A Prayer for Witnessing..Chris Eyte

 A Prayer for Witnessing

By Chris Eyte

“There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.” (John 1: 6-9)

What is the difference between true light and false light? I found myself considering this question today. I was standing at the mouth of a small, tranquil river, and I enjoyed the gentle sunlight freckled upon the surface of the slow-paced rapids. Yet the Lord lovingly reminded me that the light on those brown waters was merely an illusion. It was a reflection - not really there.

How do we understand the meaning of ‘true light’ then? We can’t do so by compiling a list of related adjectives. The answer seems undefinable but I think the truth is simply summarized in two words: Know Him. Knowing Jesus means knowing life in all its fullness. Our deep bond with the Lord, made possible because of Calvary, changes everything. His love transforms us and radically alters what we do with our lives.

Many years ago, I went on a short mission trip to help street children in Brazil. It was an eye-opening experience seeing these youngsters in dire situations. One night, some of us accompanied two men on a night journey to locate boys and girls in vulnerable situations and check on their welfare. I have never forgotten the determination of those men to save the children. They had night finder goggles and used them to observe groups of boys and girls at a distance, huddled together around fires lit on the pavement to keep warm. Solvent abuse was evident, and the stench of glue coming from the children was overwhelming, when a few emerged from the shadows to greet us.

It took a lot of bravery to go into those dark neighborhoods on gang territory. But the men had this incredible sense of calm. They were inflexible in their quest to rescue young people. I found it very challenging. The motivation for their mission was simply Jesus. That’s what happens when we understand that he is the ‘true’ light. ‘There was a man/woman sent from God whose name was’ - put your own name in there. We are called to witness to Christ, just as John was. And just as those two Brazilian men were.

I am so glad that the calling in my own life isn’t to do with witnessing about myself. I fail. But I am called instead to witness about Jesus. His love is all-encompassing, durable and never fails. As we enjoy the light of his presence, let’s make room for others to enjoy him too.

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation,” Jesus once told his disciples. That was a command, not a suggestion.

Let’s pray.

God - my Father, my Savior, and Holy Spirit with me, You are the true light, as the Bible proclaims. I am so glad to know you, and it is a privilege to be given the task of making you known to others. Refresh me today as I thank you for the cross and resurrection and for the gift of yourself, which saved me.

Your light thrills me, and I love to dwell with you. When I awake and when I am asleep. When I am busy and when I am quiet. When I am with others and when I am alone. The world is hurting, as you know, dear Lord. Forgive me for being distracted by things that aren’t so important. I say to myself this day - take any opportunity to reach others with Christ’s love. I commit myself again right now to witness about you: the True Light.
Amen.