HABITUAL FAITH

“Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.”  (Romans 13:14 NIV)

Faith is a habit. Confidence comes from habitual -- or daily-disciplined -- faith… Christians gain confidence and motivation by “putting on the mind of Christ” -- breaking through their own egos to see themselves from God’s point of view -- habitually. In other words, the confident, mature Christian views life by the light of faith -- not by the light of their own self-gratification. 

-- Adapted from David Yount

#5548

PLOWED UP AND RE-SOWN

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  (2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV)

The almost impossibly hard thing is to hand over your whole self to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is remain what we call “ourselves” -- our personal happiness centered on money or pleasure or ambition -- and hoping, despite this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you cannot do. If I am a grass field -- all the cutting will keep the grass less but won’t produce wheat. If I want wheat… I must be plowed up and re-sown. 

-- C.S. Lewis, from an essay entitled “Is Christianity Hard or Easy?”

#5547

THE RESPONSE TO GRACE

“From then on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.’”  (Matthew 4:17 NLT)

The more deeply one enters into the experience of the sacred the more one is aware of one’s own personal sin and the destructive forces in society. The fact that one is alive to what is possible for humankind sharpens one’s sense that we are fallen people. The awareness of sin is the inevitable consequence of having met grace... This grace-judgment dynamic reveals that the center of Christian life is repentance. This does not mean that the distinguishing mark of the Christian is breast-beating. Feeling sorry, acknowledging guilt, and prolonging regret may be components of the human condition, but they are not what Jesus means by repentance. Repentance is the response to grace that overcomes the past and opens out to a new future. Repentance distinguishes Christian life as one of struggle and conversion and pervades it, not with remorse, but with hope. The message of Jesus is not “Repent,” but “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” 

-- Adapted from John Shea in “A Star at Its Rising”

#5546

TURNING FROM OUR OWN WAY

“Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ He said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’”  (Mark 1:14b-15 NIV)

Repentance is turning from our own way to God's way.  The evidences that we are going our own way are manifested in religious, moral, material, or social spheres.  We must repent specifically of these sins, for until repentance gets down to the specifics, it is not repentance.  But our basic sin is that we choose our own way rather than God's.  When we repent we say to God that we hand over to Him the reins of our lives.  We do what He wants us to do, not what we want to do. 

-- Ajith Fernando in “The Christian's Attitude Toward World Religions” 

#5545

LENT BEGINS

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23 NIV)  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 NIV)

The Season of Lent is like a roller coaster ride with emotions that are down and up again and again as the story of our salvation makes plain our sinful ways and the cost of redemption. We begin with Ash Wednesday where we roughly bump up against our own mortality. Here we know that sin and death are real, and they are real not just for someone else. Sin and death are real for us. This is where we begin the Lenten Season, with our face pressed hard against the reality of our sin and our death. If we did not know how the story ends, this would be a dark and depressing journey. But we do know how the story ends and therefore in the midst of austerity and fasting we remember our faithful Savior and the Easter declaration that life is always victorious over death, always! 

-- Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job in “A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God”

#5544

JUST LIKE US

"The crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: ‘Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.’"  (Acts 14:13b-15 NIV)

I tend to put other people on a pedestal -- people who appear to experience God and exercise their faith at a level that seems beyond my reach, people for whom God appears to be present, active, and available in ways that apparently don't apply to the rest of us. But we get ourselves (and others) into so much needless trouble when we insist on building these pedestals for people who, underneath it all, are just like us. We must resist our tendency to venerate heroes of the faith, then and now. None of these heroes were intended to be an exception; they are all meant to be an example to us of what happens when an ordinary life intersects with an extraordinary God.  

-- Priscilla Shirer in “Elijah Bible Study: Faith and Fire”

#5543

REVIVAL COMES

EDITOR’S NOTE: As many of our SOUND BITES Ministry subscribers have heard, an “awakening” or “revival” has been taking place over the last week and a half at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. One subscriber sent the following that just “happened” to be the devotional for yesterday, February 19, in “Our Daily Bread.”

REVIVAL COMES

Aurukun is a small town in northern Australia – its Aboriginal population drawn from seven clans. While the Gospel came to Aurukun a century ago, eye-for-eye retribution sometimes remained. In 2015, clan tensions grew, and when a murder happened, payback required someone from the offender’s family to die in return.

But something remarkable happened in early 2016. The people of Aurukun started seeking God in prayer. Repentance followed, then mass baptisms, as revival began sweeping the town. People were so joyful they danced in the streets, and instead of enacting a payback, the family of the murdered man forgave the offending clan. Soon 1,000 people were in church each Sunday – in a town of just 1,300!

We see revivals like this in Scripture, as in Hezekiah’s day when crowds joyfully returned to God (2 Chronicles 30), and on the day of Pentecost when thousands repented (Acts 2:38-47). While revival is God’s work, done in His time, history shows prayer preceded it. “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways,” God told Solomon, “I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

As the people of Aurukun found, revival brings joy and reconciliation to a town. How our own cities need such transformation! Father, bring revival to us, too.  

-- Sheridan Voysey in “Our Daily Bread,” February 19, 2023

#5542

A REVIVAL OF PRAISE

"Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Sing His praises in the assembly of the faithful…
Praise Him for His mighty works;
Praise Him for His unequaled greatness!...
Praise Him with the tambourine and dancing;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
Praise Him with a clash of cymbals;
Praise Him with loud clanging cymbals.
Let everything that lives sing praises to the Lord!
Praise the Lord!" (Excerpts from Psalm 149-150, NLT)
 

"Praise should be proportionate to its object," counsels Charles Spurgeon; "therefore let it be infinite when rendered unto the Lord. We cannot praise Him too much, too often, too zealously, too carefully, too joyfully." The Psalms do teach us to praise God much, often, zealously, and joyfully. When our praise seems so inadequate, how encouraging to turn to the Psalms and find the freedom and joy of these hymns to God. It is exciting to begin to exalt God by awakening the dawn with… songs of praises to His Holy Name!

-- Cynthia Heald in “Intimacy with God”

#5541

REVIVAL IN OUR TIME

“If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  (2 Chronicles 7:14)

The faith that [John] Wesley lived engaged head, heart, and hands. It held together both the evangelical gospel, calling us to trust in Christ as Savior and Lord, and the social gospel, calling us to be God's instruments for healing in a broken world. It was characterized by a "reasonable enthusiasm" -- guided by strong minds engaged in theological reflection and study, and at the same time marked by strangely warmed hearts and a deep spiritual passion. It combined a belief in the wideness of God's mercy with a call to holiness of heart and life. I believe that Wesley's faith -- grace-filled, authentic, passionate, personal, practical, intellectual; shared in small groups, celebrated in worship, lived out in the world -- is a faith with the power to captivate the hearts of a whole new generation of people and to bring revival in our time.

-- Adam Hamilton in “Revival: Faith as Wesley Lived It”

#5540

TAKING UP THE CROSS DAILY

Then Jesus said to them all: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.”  (Luke 9:23 NIV)

Whoever determines to live no longer to the desires of people, but to the will of God, will soon find that he or she cannot stick to that purpose without self-denial, without taking up the cross daily. That person will, every day, desire something of the world instead of the cross. But one must deny self or deny the faith. He or she will daily meet with some means of drawing nearer to God that are unpleasing to flesh and blood. In this, therefore, one must either take up the cross or renounce the Master. 

-- John Wesley in "A Collection of Forms of Prayer for Every Day of the Week," 1733

#5539

A NEW HEART

In his book “A Man After His Own Heart,” Charles Siebert shares a scientific yet poetic depiction of a heart transplant he observed at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.  Not long after, Siebert attended an annual banquet for transplant recipients, and he was deeply moved by their profound appreciation for life.  They spoke in reverent tones about the second chance at life they had been given.  They humbly acknowledged their responsibility to honor the donors.  And many of them talked about new desires that accompanied their new hearts.

Siebert concluded -- and his research is backed up by numerous medical studies -- that transplant recipients don’t just receive a new heart.  Along with that new heart, they receive whole new sensory responses, cravings, and habits. Siebert called this group of heart recipients “the tribe of the transplanted.”

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)

A life may be filled with lots of amazing moments, but nothing even begins to compare with that miraculous moment when you give your heart to Christ.  That single decision sets off a spiritual chain reaction with infinite implications.  A new child is adopted into the family of God.  A new name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  And an old heart is exchanged for a new heart.

When you give your heart to Christ, Christ gives His heart to you.  And you become a part of the tribe of the transplanted.  That new heart gives you a new appreciation for life.  You humbly acknowledge your responsibility to honor the donor.  And the cellular memories that come with that transplanted heart give you whole new sensory responses, cravings, and habits.  You literally feel different.  Why?  Because you feel what Christ feels.  And chief among those sanctified emotions is compassion.  Your heart begins to break for the things that break the heart of God.  And that is the heart of what it means to love God with all your heart. 

-- Mark Batterson in “PRIMAL: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity”

#5538

THE ROAD TO LASTING JOY

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”  (Romans 15:13 NLT)

This verse touches upon three important facets of the Christian life that should give you great joy:

1. You Have a New Identity. When you accept Jesus Christ into your life, God gives you a new identity. You discover that you are not merely some product of random chance. You are not a speck in the universe. You are a child of God. And as God's child you can rest assured that you will be loved and cared for by your heavenly Father.

2. You Have Power to Face Life. With that new identity and hope in Christ, you also have the promise of the Holy Spirit's presence and power in your life. The Holy Spirit works constantly in your heart, helping you to understand God's Word and to transform your attitudes and behavior. An expanded translation of Romans 15:13 says that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole life and outlook will be "radiant with hope." God has not left you to face life on your own. He has promised to guide and strengthen you with His Spirit.

3. You Have Hope for the Future. As a Christian, you have the hope and knowledge that there is lite beyond the grave. Your last breath on earth will be followed by your first breath in heaven. We know this is true, because God has promised it in His Word. This verse asserts that your belief in Jesus and His promises to us as His followers will fill you with joy and peace.

The world offers many roads to happiness: sex, money, power, personal success. But they are all cheap and worthless substitutes in comparison to knowing that you are God's child and that you have the hope of heaven. This is the only road to lasting -- indeed, eternal -- joy. 

-- From “New Believer’s Bible:  First Steps for New Christians,” Greg Laurie, General Editor

#5537

FLOURISHING IN COMMUNITY

“The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”  (Luke 8:14-15 NIV)

The Christian life flourishes in community. Corporate worship, study, fellowship, and action are the soil in which authentic faith takes root and grows toward maturity…

Worship is one of the most profound experiences of life for humankind. For Christians, gathering around the Lord's Table, the baptismal font, and the Scriptures are essential elements of an authentic life of worship. The congregation where Scripture, liturgy, music, persons in quest of communion with God, and spirit-filled leadership come together will provide nurture and sustenance to all who experience its life. 

-- Rueben P. Job in “Spiritual Life in the Congregation”

#5536

THE INVISIBLE IN THE VISIBLE

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities -- His eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”  (Romans 1:20 NIV)

In every wind that blows, in every night and day of the year, in every sign of the sky, in every blossoming and in every withering of the earth, there is a real coming of God to us if we will simply use our starved imagination to realize it. 

-- Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost for His Highest”

#5535

THE HEART OF JESUS – Part 3 of 3

The crowning attribute of Christ was this: His heart was spiritual. His thoughts reflected His intimate relationship with the Father. "I am in the Father and the Father is in Me," He stated (John 14:11). His first recorded sermon begins with the words, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me" (Luke 4:18 NASB). He was "led by the Spirit" (Matthew 4:1 NIV) and "full of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 4:1 NIV). He returned from the desert "in the power of the Spirit" (Luke 4:14 NIV).

Jesus took His instructions from God. It was His habit to go to worship (Luke 4:16). It was His practice to memorize Scripture (Luke 4:4). Luke says Jesus "often slipped away to be alone so He could pray" (Luke 5:16). His times of prayer guided Him. He once returned from prayer and announced it was time to move to another city (Mark 1:38). Another time of prayer resulted in the selection of the disciples (Luke 6:12-13). Jesus was led by an unseen hand. "The Son does whatever the Father does" (John 5:19). In the same chapter He stated, "I can do nothing alone. I judge only the way I am told" (John 5:30).

The heart of Jesus was spiritual. 

-- Max Lucado in “A Heart Like Jesus”

#5534

THE HEART OF JESUS – Part 2 of 3

Jesus refused to be guided by anything other than His high call. His heart was purposeful. Most lives aim at nothing in particular and achieve it. Jesus aimed at one goal – to save humanity from its sin. He could summarize His life with one sentence: "The Son of man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10 RSV). Jesus was so focused on His task that He knew when to say "My time has not yet come" (John 2:4) and when to say, "It is finished" (John 19:30). But He was not so focused on His goal that He was unpleasant.

Quite the contrary. How pleasant were His thoughts! Children couldn't resist Jesus. He could find beauty in lilies, joy in worship, and possibilities in problems. He would spend days with multitudes of sick people and still feel sorry for them. He spent over three decades wading through the muck and mire of our sin, yet still saw enough beauty in us to die for our mistakes. 

-- Max Lucado in “A Heart Like Jesus”

#5533

THE HEART OF JESUS – Part 1 of 3

The heart of Jesus was pure. The Savior was adored by thousands, yet content to live a simple life. He was cared for by women (Luke 8:1-3), yet never accused of lustful thoughts; scorned by His own creation, but willing to forgive them before they even requested His mercy. Peter, who traveled with Jesus for three and a half years, described Him as a "lamb, unblemished and spotless" (1 Peter 1:19 NASB). After spending the same amount of time with Jesus, John concluded, "And in Him is no sin" (1 John 3:5 NIV).

Jesus' heart was peaceful. The disciples fretted over the need to feed the thousands, but not Jesus. He thanked God for the problem. The disciples shouted for fear in the storm, but not Jesus. He slept through it. Peter drew his sword to fight the soldiers, but not Jesus. He lifted His hand to heal. His heart was at peace. When His disciples abandoned Him, did He pout and go home? When Peter denied Him, did Jesus lose His temper? When the soldiers spit in His face, did He breathe fire in theirs? Far from it. He was at peace. He forgave them. He refused to be guided by vengeance. 

-- Max Lucado in “A Heart Like Jesus”

#5532

THE WORST ENEMY

A friend once shared with me the following quote by the late Elie Wiesel, an author and Holocaust survivor: "I think the greatest source of danger in this world is indifference. I have always believed that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. The opposite of life is not death, but indifference. The opposite of peace is not war, but indifference to peace and indifference to war. The opposite of culture, the opposite of beauty, the opposite of generosity is indifference. Indifference is the enemy."

It reminded me of what Jesus says to the church in Laodicea in the Book of Revelation: "I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of My mouth." (Revelation 3:15-16 NRSV) The mineral springs of Laodicea produced hot water for therapy, cold water for refreshment, and lukewarm water that would make one sick.

Could it be that the worst enemy of Christ and His church today is not some external negative force, but the lukewarm indifference within?  Lukewarm to worship, lukewarm to prayer, lukewarm to Bible study, lukewarm to fellowship, lukewarm to evangelism, lukewarm to service, lukewarm to Christ.

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson, SOUND BITES Ministry

#5531

PLACE YOUR LIFE BEFORE GOD

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life -- your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life -- and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you….

If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. 

-- Excerpted from Romans 12:1-2, 6-13, “The Message” by Eugene Peterson

#5530

YOUR CHURCH NEEDS YOU – Part 3 of 3

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ… Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”  (Galatians 6:2,10 NIV)

On any given Sunday, there are numerous people in my congregation who are hurting and who long for assurance that God knows and cares about what they’re going through. It has been my joy to enter church on Sunday with a prayer to God that I am available for the Sprit to lead me to the one who needs encouragement that day. How exciting this has made Sundays for me! I never know what God might ask me to do as I not only worship Him but serve Him among His people….

Too many Christians have developed a self-centered attitude toward their church. They look upon church as something that exists to meet their needs and to deliver entertaining services each week. However, Jesus said we must deny ourselves (see Matthew 16:24). Our desire should not be that we are always ministered to but that we follow Jesus wherever He leads us. Rather than focusing on what our church is doing for us, we ought to be asking what God is seeking to do in our church through us. 

-- Excerpted from “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God” by Henry and Richard Blackaby and Claude King

#5529