The man of integrity walks securely. Proverbs 10;9 NIV Brooks become crooked From taking the path of least resistance. So do people. Kohn. September 30, 2014 Add Bookmark A Fresh Start By David C. McCasland Read: Luke 5:17-26 Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. —Luke 5:31 Bible in a Year: Isaiah 9-10; Ephesians 3 In many countries, health laws prohibit reselling or reusing old mattresses. Only landfills will take them. Tim Keenan tackled the problem and today his business employs a dozen people to extract the individual components of metal, fabric, and foam in old mattresses for recycling. But that’s only part of the story. Journalist Bill Vogrin wrote, “Of all the items Keenan recycles . . . it’s the people that may be his biggest success” (The Gazette, Colorado Springs). Keenan hires men from halfway houses and homeless shelters, giving them a job and a second chance. He says, “We take guys nobody else wants.” Luke 5:17-26 tells how Jesus healed the body and the soul of a paralyzed man. Following that miraculous event, Levi answered Jesus’ call to follow Him and then invited his fellow tax collectors and friends to a banquet in honor of the Lord (vv.27-29). When some people accused Jesus of associating with undesirables (v.30), He reminded them that healthy people don’t need a doctor—adding, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (v.32). To everyone who feels like a “throwaway” headed for the landfill of life, Jesus opens His arms of love and offers a fresh beginning. That’s why He came! The power of God can turn a heart From evil and the power of sin; The love of God can change a life And make it new and cleansed within. —Fasick Salvation is receiving a new life. Insight The religious leaders accused Jesus of blasphemy for claiming divine attributes for Himself (Luke 5:21). Blasphemy is showing contempt or a lack of reverence for God or something sacred (v.20). A violation of the third commandment, it was punishable by death (Lev. 24:15-16). Bob Hoekstra :: Day By Day By Grace :: September 30th Humility and the Fear of the Lord By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches and honor and life…with the humble is wisdom…The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. (Proverbs 22:4; 11:2; and 9:10) Many of our previous meditations have clearly demonstrated that walking in humility is the pathway for living by the grace of God. God…gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). In our present verses, we see that humility and the fear of the Lord are related. Humility and the fear of the Lord result in the same blessings. By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches and honor and life. The closing trio (riches and honor and life) are an Old Testament description of a life that is fully blessed by God. The New Testament counterpart would be fullness of spiritual life. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (John 10:10). Humility and the fear of the Lord also result in wisdom. With the humble is wisdom… The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Humility is the candid acknowledgment of our absolute need for the Lord to work thoroughly in our lives day by day. The fear of the Lord is respect and reverence toward our great God. It is not a fear involving terror or apprehension. Rather, it is based upon profound admiration and dependent devotion. Those who humbly fear the Lord (by placing their admiration and devotion in Him) also embrace His perspectives and values. They develop a hatred for the things that He hates. The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate (Proverbs 8:13). Correspondingly, those who have respect and reverence for the Lord develop a love for all that He loves. The Lord loves for His people to walk in righteousness and justice. The LORD loves the righteous…the LORD loves justice (Psalm 146:8 and 37:28). The Lord loves Israel, His chosen nation. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples (Deuteronomy 7:7). The Lord loves His church, the children of God. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1). The Lord loves the world, those who need to know Him. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Lord God Almighty, I humbly bow before You, acknowledging my absolute need for You to work thoroughly in my life day by day. I want to walk in the fear of the Lord, placing my admiration and devotion in You. I want to hate all that You hate and love all that You love, in Jesus name, Amen. ________________________________________ The Assigning of the Call September 30, 2014 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church . . . —Colossians 1:24 We take our own spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him He brushes all this aside. Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something that we never even dreamed could be His call for us. And for one radiant, flashing moment we see His purpose, and we say, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, “If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way, then I wouldn’t object!” But when He uses someone we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, to crush us, then we object. Yet we must never try to choose the place of our own martyrdom. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed. I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped? If you are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter. To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service. We have to be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. Stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 03:54:14 +0000
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