Glimpses of God’s Image

“Everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by his power, and everything for his glory.”
Romans 11:36 TLB

The breath you just took? God gave that. The blood that just pulsed through your heart? Credit God. The light by which you read and the brain with which you process? He gave both.

Everything comes from him…and exists for him. We exist to exhibit God, to display his glory. We serve as canvases for his brush stroke, papers for his pen, soil for his needs, glimpses of his image.


From: Max Lucado

Humbling Ourselves

[Christ Jesus] emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death.
-Philippians 2:7-8 (NRSV)

WE were on our way to church when we saw the brand new ambulance in the distance. Two neatly dressed paramedics stepped out of the ambulance with a stretcher. As we got closer to the scene, we observed the paramedics placing a disheveled, very dirty, drunk man on the clean stretcher.

My immediate comment was, "What a waste! All that medical training and experience, and for what - to give aid to such a disgraceful character!"

No sooner had the words left my mouth than I heard inwardly: And who are you? Do you believe you are better than this poor soul, even as you come before the One who descended from heaven to rescue you from your wicked ways?

Deep shame and hurt filled my soul, and I asked forgiveness for my insensitivity and haughtiness. When I arrived at church, it did not come as much of a surprise for me to learn that the sermon was based on the scripture found in Philippians 2. That day, every word in the passage took on profound, new meaning for me.


Prayer
Merciful God, forgive us when we look down on others. Thank you for opening our eyes to see our brothers and sisters and ourselves as you do. Amen.


From: UpperRoom Devotionals - Virtudes T. de Tosoni

Unveiling the Hidden

READ | Jeremiah 33:1-3

Every decade, it seems as though there’s a fresh crop of books on the topic of communication. We can walk down the aisle of any bookstore and take our pick from the many volumes dedicated to public speaking, preaching, verbal delivery, and even interpersonal communication. Learning how to speak is definitely a big industry these days.

What tends to be lacking, however, is good teaching on how to communicate with the Lord. Too often, we take what we learn about mass communication and try to apply it to prayer. We carefully craft each word of our petitions, laboring over every phrase and peppering in some fancy “biblical” words like “thou,” “thee,” and “shalt.” Sometimes, we seem to believe that it’s possible to unlock the mysteries of heaven if we just learn how to phrase our prayers.

Friend, this is a misguided approach. We should never come before God’s throne with the presumption that we just have to find the right combination of words in order to get Him to speak. The power is not in what we say, but in what He says.

Our role in prayer is not to impress the Lord with our fine phrasing and fancy vocabulary. Rather, it is to cry out to Him, to express our needs, and then to listen. Sadly, we often miss out on what God wants to say because we’re too busy doing all the talking!

This week, take a different approach to prayer. Practice solitude and quiet meditation in your time with God, and open yourself up to what He may be telling you.



From: InTouch - Early Light Devotionals

The Authority of Truth

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you —James 4:8

It is essential that you give people the opportunity to act on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual—you cannot act for him. It must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical message should always lead him to action. Refusing to act leaves a person paralyzed, exactly where he was previously. But once he acts, he is never the same. It is the apparent folly of the truth that stands in the way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Once I press myself into action, I immediately begin to live. Anything less is merely existing. The moments I truly live are the moments when I act with my entire will.

When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will, not necessarily externally in your physical life. Record it with ink and with blood—work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God’s almighty power is available on his behalf. We come up to the truth of God, confess we are wrong, but go back again. Then we approach it again and turn back, until we finally learn we have no business going back. When we are confronted with such a word of truth from our redeeming Lord, we must move directly to transact business with Him. "Come to Me . . ." ( Matthew 11:28 ). His word come means "to act." Yet the last thing we want to do is come. But everyone who does come knows that, at that very moment, the supernatural power of the life of God invades him. The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil is now paralyzed; not by your act, but because your act has joined you to God and tapped you in to His redemptive power.


From: RBC - Utmost For His Highest

THE DELIGHT OF SACRIFICE

"I will very gladly spend and be spent for you." 2 Corinthians 12:15

When the Spirit of God first awakens us, draws us unto Christ, and His love begins to penetrate our lives, we begin to identify with Jesus Christ. The more we surrender to His lordship and His authority, the more we begin to know the "mind of Christ." Paul said, "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus." He emphasized that we should be "like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose, doing nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves" (Philippians 2:2-3). Now, that's easier said than done. We struggle with that as we seek "to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29).

How does that relate to our daily walk? If we say with Paul, "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you," it means, we will be willing to give of ourselves in whatever measure, at whatever cost, to come alongside of others and show them the love of God. This may mean the sacrifice of our time in order to be used of the Lord in someone's life. It may mean sharing hospitality in an unexpected way to our neighbor. It may mean giving of our talents or gifts to improve the life or ability of someone. "To be spent" has no bounds.

Paul's attitude exemplifies what this verse means, and the demand it will put on us if we are to be so committed to the Lord. Paul said, "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means win some" (1 Corinthians 9:22). There was no restraint with Paul in the "giving of himself" to others. Our spiritual need is to put to death our disposition to sin...our claim of our rights to ourselves. When we act on this moral decision, then all that Christ did "for" us on the Cross is done "in" us by the Holy Spirit. It gives the Holy Spirit complete freedom and access to the whole of our life, and imparts to us the holiness of Jesus Christ.

Our lives start the spiritual journey of "becoming" like Christ. Our vision is enlarged, no longer confined to "our" interests and "our" concerns, but HIS. We no longer "strive" to live a victorious life, HE begins to live HIS LIFE through us. "To spend and be spent" is not a burden, but a glorious opportunity of seeing the Holy Spirit accomplish through us things beyond our capability that glorify our Lord. Thus, the "supernatural life of Christ within" responds "naturally" to His leading and working through us. The striving now becomes a "resting in Him"...the fruit is the result of HIS doing, not ours.

It all starts with OBEDIENCE. It then takes on PRESENTATION. Behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God. Paul said, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to PRESENT your bodies as living sacrifices, holy, and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will" (Romans 12:1-2).

With surrendered heart and life, God impacts others through you. This is the "delight of sacrifice"...HIS LIFE living freely and fully in and through you! What a blessing and a joy!


From: Literature International Ministry - Ed Powell

The Black Hole

2 Corinthians 12:9
..."My grace is sufficient for you..."

If you are older than 35, you may recall the early days of the space program. I remember the early spacecraft launch with John Glenn. One of the most exciting and tense moments of his return to earth was his reentry to the earth's atmosphere. I recall the diagram on television of the heat shield on the capsule that had to withstand incredible temperatures to avoid complete destruction. There was a blackout period for several minutes in which mission control had no radio contact. He was in the "black hole." It was a tense time. Either he would make it through, or the spacecraft would burn up in the atmosphere. There were several minutes of silence that seemed like an eternity. Then, mission control shouted with joy when they reestablished contact with the spacecraft. It was a time of rejoicing.

Have you ever had a time when you were in a spiritual black hole in your life? I have. The pressure was unbearable. No sense of God's presence. No sense of anything going on around me. God was about as far away as the man in the moon-at least from my perspective. I think every Christian who is called to make a significant difference in his world experiences times like these. These are the times when we question the reality of God, the love of God, the personal care of God. And He demonstrates to us that He was there all the time. These are "faith experiences" that God does in every person who is called to a higher level of relationship with Him. These times are needful in order to know that we have the "heat shield" that can withstand the incredible heat that comes when we follow Him with a whole heart-a heart that is radical in a commitment to fully follow His ways. Elisha had that spirit. He slaughtered his 12 oxen and burned his plowing equipment so that he would not have the opportunity to return to anything if God didn't come through (see 1 Kings 19:21).

The apostle Paul asked God to remove the heat from his own life one time. God's answer was not what he wanted to hear.

But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me! (2 Corinthians 12:9 AMP)

How's your heat shield today? Can it withstand the heat that would want to burn up everything in your life not based in Him? Christ said, "My grace is sufficient." Is that really true in your life? Let His grace be your shield today.



From: CrossWalk Devotionals