The Game of Recovery (Proverbs 3:6)

The game of bridge has unusual terms exclusive to it. A round takes two games (legs) to win. A successful low bid adds a leg on the score sheet, a partial game. If the opponent wins a game before you complete your second leg, a line is drawn on the score sheet, and the partial game is forfeited. That’s called “cutting off your leg.”

Beginning bridge player Glenna often heard the strange expression, “We cut off your leg.” When she kept score and drew the line below a completed game, she saw a part score forfeited.

“Now I get it. It just clicked.”

Divorce recovery is like bridge. Expressions repeatedly heard in recovery books and classes finally click. “This too shall pass.” “Seek supportive friends.” “Live better, not bitter.”

These and other good expressions, tools of truth, are often repeated. Coping statements help us out of despair into a better life. There has been too much loss and pain—too much to face. The need to quit feeling awful is strong, so we grab tools because life was hard, then it got harder.

Christian living for singles has a similar pattern. Planting simple truths in our minds trains us to become comfortable with who we are. “Give thanks for all things.” “Jesus loves and comforts.” “Fear not, I am with you.”

With a new life of recovery from divorce, Christian living emerges and hope takes root. We go from victim to victorious acceptance.

In the game of life, as in the game of bridge, we need two legs—ours and God’s—to complete the game and win. As we join with Jesus and become one body, we win. Click. No opponent can ever cut off our leg again.

Anita Brock

Taken from Fulfilled

Faith for the Future

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

If “all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus],” then to trust him now in the present is to believe that his promises will come true.

Those are not two separate faiths — trusting him, and believing in his promises. Believing in Jesus means believing that he keeps his word. Being satisfied in the crucified and risen Jesus now includes the belief that at every future moment, to all eternity, nothing will separate us from his love, or keep him from working all things together for good.

Putting it all together, I would say that the spiritual beauty we need to embrace is the beauty of God that will be there for us in the future, certified for us by the glorious grace of the past.

We need to taste now the spiritual beauty of God in all his past achievements — especially the death and resurrection of Christ for our sins — and in all his promises. Our confidence and trust must be in all that God himself will be for us in the next moment, and in the next month, and in the endless ages of eternity — “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

It is he and he alone who will satisfy the soul in the future. And it is the future that has to be secured and satisfied with spiritual riches of glory, if we are to live the radical Christian lives that Christ calls us to live here and now.

If our present enjoyment of Christ now — our present faith — does not have in it the Yes to all God’s promises, it will not embrace the power for radical service in the strength that God (in every future moment) will supply (1 Peter 4:11).

My prayer is that reflecting like this on the essence of faith will help us avoid superficial, oversimplified statements about believing the promises of God. It is a deep and wonderful thing.

Remarriage (Matthew 19:4–6)

An Awesome Challenge

The question of remarriage is closely related to the matter of divorce. The Scripture lifts up permanent, monogamous union as the plan of the Creator (Mt 19:4–6). To understand the strong language of Scripture concerning this matter, look at the whole of Scripture to see how God regards marriage. The marriage bond between husband and wife is the same kinship bond that exists between parents and children and between God and his creation (Ge 2:24; Mt 19:6).

Some argue that remarriage is never permissible (Mk 10:11–12). Others note that the divorce teaching of Jesus includes an exception (Mt 5:32; 19:9) and conclude that this implies permission to remarry. Still others suggest that the understood meaning of “divorce” in ancient law included freedom to remarry, suggesting that remarriage is forbidden only after an invalid divorce. Finally, there are those who deny that Jesus gives a justification for divorce in the modern sense, although they allow that remarriage is permissible if reconciliation with a divorced spouse is rendered impossible because of death or remarriage of the divorced spouse to another partner (1Co 7:10–11), or if the divorced spouse is a nonbeliever opposed to reconciliation (1Co 7:15).

Despite these differences of Biblical interpretation, some important conclusions can be drawn:

(1) Once remarriage follows divorce, there is no turning back (Dt 24:1–4), and the tearing apart of a marriage is painful, leaving its scars on all who are touched by the tragedy.

(2) God sees the one-flesh relationship as permanent and binding because it is the picture he has chosen to portray his relationship to his children, and thus he guards the home with great zeal (Mal 2:16).

(3) Jesus gives no divine directive nor even acceptable excuses for breaking this holy covenant but rather observes that the hardness of the human heart makes such tragedy a reality in this sinful world (Mt 19:8).

(4) The role of the church and of believers must always be redemptive. With God, forgiveness is as if it never happened. No sin or tragedy is beyond God’s forgiveness.

After seeking and receiving God’s forgiveness, a woman who remarries has a new understanding of God’s incredible grace. She must then seek anew an understanding of God’s plan for marriage (Ge 2:24), commit herself wholeheartedly to pursuing his plan and consider her vows of marriage binding before the Lord (Mt 19:5–6).

Taken from The Woman’s Study Bible

When Reason Serves Rebellion

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be slain in the streets!” (Proverbs 22:13)

This is not what I expected the proverb to say. I would have expected it to say “The coward says, ‘There is a lion outside! I shall be slain in the streets!’” But it says, “sluggard,” not “coward.” So the controlling emotion here is laziness, not fear.

But what does laziness have to do with the danger of a lion in the street? We don’t say, “This man is too lazy to go do his work because there is a lion outside.”

The point is that the sluggard creates imaginary circumstances to justify not doing his work, and thus shifts the focus from the vice of his laziness to the danger of lions. No one will approve his staying in the house all day just because he is lazy.

One profound biblical insight we need to know is that our heart exploits our mind to justify what the heart wants. That is, our deepest desires precede the rational functioning of our minds and incline the mind to perceive and think in a way that will make the desires look right.

This is what the sluggard is doing. He deeply desires to stay at home and not work. There is no good reason to stay at home. So what does he do? Does he overcome his bad desire? No, he uses his mind to create unreal circumstances to justify his desire.

Doing the evil we love makes us hostile to the light of truth. In this condition the mind becomes a factory of half-truths, equivocations, sophistries, evasions and lies — anything to protect the evil desires of the heart from exposure and destruction.

Consider and be wise.

Genesis 18:13–15

This unusual meeting between Abraham and three men is actually a divine encounter in which God takes on human form. On rare occasions in the Old Testament, God appears in some physical way to get his point across. (This kind of communication culminated 2,000 years later when Jesus of Nazareth was born; one of his titles was Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”)

Perhaps you’re thinking that you’d have no problem believing in God if he were to appear to you miraculously. But neither Abraham nor Sarah viewed this encounter as a summit meeting with God. As a matter of fact, Sarah was quick with a doubter’s laugh (as Abraham had been; see Genesis 17:17) and even lied right to God’s face.

Be cautious of the unusual or bizarre in the spiritual realm. Faith that is built primarily on such infrequent happenings doesn’t have a solid foundation. God can and sometimes will do unexpected things that will affect you personally. As you seek out God’s direction in your life, you’ll discover him at work in the everyday occurrences. And it’s the perception of God’s hand in everything you do that provides the firmest foundation for building your faith.

Taken from NIV The Journey Bible

Prayer Is for Sinners

“Lord, teach us to pray.” (Luke 11:1)

God answers the prayers of sinners, not perfect people. And you can become perfectly paralyzed in your praying if you do not focus on the cross and realize this.

I could show it from numerous Old Testament texts where God hears the cry of his sinful people, whose very sins had gotten them into the trouble from which they are crying for deliverance (for example, Psalm 38:4, 15; 40:12–13; 107:11–13). But let me show it from Luke 11 — in two ways:

In this version of the Lord’s Prayer (verses 2–4) Jesus says, “When you pray say” . . . and then in verse 4 he includes this petition, “and forgive us our sins.” So, if you connect the beginning of the prayer with the middle, what he says is, “Whenever you pray say . . . forgive us our sins.”

I take this to mean that this should be as much a part of all our praying as “Hallowed be thy name.” Which means that Jesus assumes that we need to seek forgiveness virtually every time we pray.

In other words, we are always sinners. Nothing we do is perfect. As Martin Luther said, on his deathbed, “We are beggars, this is true.” It doesn’t matter how obedient we have been before we pray. We always come to the Lord as sinners — all of us. And God does not turn away the prayers of sinners when they pray like this.

The second place I see this taught here is in verse 13: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Jesus calls his disciples “evil.” Pretty strong language. And he did not mean that they were out of fellowship with him. He did not mean that their prayers could not be answered.

He meant that as long as this fallen age lasts, even his own disciples will have an evil bent that pollutes everything they do, but doesn’t keep them from doing much good.

We are simultaneously evil and redeemed. We are gradually overcoming our evil by the power of the Holy Spirit. But our native corruption is not obliterated by conversion.

We are sinners and we are beggars. And if we recognize this sin, fight it, and cling to the cross of Christ as our hope, then God will hear us and answer our prayers.

The Leading of God (Numbers 9:15–23)

The cloud of the glory of God came on the tabernacle to lead it. When it settled, the Israelites camped; when it lifted, they broke camp and followed it. God guides his people!

Taken from NIV Fast Facts Bible

Glorify God in Your Body

You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:20)

“Worship” is the term we use to cover all the acts of the heart and mind and body that intentionally express the infinite worth of God. This is what we were created for.

Don’t think worship services when you think worship. That is a huge limitation which is not in the Bible. All of life is supposed to be worship.

Take breakfast, for example, or midmorning snacks. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Now eating and drinking are about as basic as you get. What could be more real and human?

Or take sex, for example. Paul says the alternative to fornication is worship.

Flee fornication. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

Or take death for a final example. This we will do in our body. In fact, it will be the last act of the body on this earth. The body bids farewell. How shall we worship in that last act of the body? We see the answer in Philippians 1:20-21. Paul says that his hope is that Christ would be exalted in his body by death. Then he adds, “For to me to die is gain.” We express the infinite worth of Christ in dying by counting death as gain.

You have a body. But it is not yours. “You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

You are always in a temple. Always worship.

Job 34:1-37

Elihu continues to rebuke Job, implying that Job’s words amount to accusing God of sin.

Insufficient Explanations

Read

“Listen to me, you who have understanding. Everyone knows that God doesn’t sin! The Almighty can do no wrong. He repays people according to their deeds. He treats people as they deserve. Truly, God will not do wrong. The Almighty will not twist justice. Did someone else put the world in his care? Who set the whole world in place? If God were to take back his spirit and withdraw his breath, all life would cease, and humanity would turn again to dust.”
(Job 34:10-15)

Reflect

God doesn’t sin and is never unjust, Elihu argued. Throughout this book, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu all have elements of truth in their speeches. In fact, it’s hard to find things to disagree with in what they say. Yet, later God rebukes Job’s friends in anger: “You have not spoken accurately about me” (Job 42:7).

This should cause us to stop and reflect.

Although we might have a wealth of Bible knowledge and life experiences, we cannot always rightly understand the whole situation. We cannot understand everything about God. We can’t even fully explain the complexities in our own world.

But we do not need to despair. “God has given us everything we need for living a godly life” (2 Peter 1:3). By his Word and his Spirit, we are fully equipped to do the good work God has given for us to do (2 Timothy 3:17).

Respond

It’s important to correct and encourage fellow believers toward greater faithfulness, but we must constantly temper our knowledge with love (1 Corinthians 8:1-3)

Streams in the Desert – June 9

Trust in the Lord and do what is right! Settle in the land and maintain your integrity! (Ps 37:3)

I once met a poor colored woman, who earned a precarious living by hard daily labor; but who was a joyous triumphant Christian. “Ah, Nancy,” said a gloomy Christian lady to her one day, “it is well enough to be happy now; but I should think the thoughts of your future would sober you.

“Only suppose, for instance, you should have a spell of sickness, and be unable to work; or suppose your present employers should move away, and no one else should give you anything to do; or suppose—”

“Stop!” cried Nancy, “I never supposes. De Lord is my Shepherd, and I knows I shall not want. And, Honey,” she added, to her gloomy friend, “it’s all dem supposes as is makin’ you so mis’able. You’d better give dem all up, and just trust de Lord.”

There is one text that will take all the “supposes” out of a believer’s life, if it be received and acted on in childlike faith; it is Hebrews 13:5, 6: “Be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”
—H. W. S.

“There’s a stream of trouble across my path;
It is black and deep and wide.
Bitter the hour the future hath
When I cross its swelling tide.
But I smile and sing and say:
’I will hope and trust alway;
I’ll bear the sorrow that comes tomorrow,
But I’ll borrow none today.’

“Tomorrow’s bridge is a dangerous thing;
I dare not cross it now.
I can see its timbers sway and swing,
And its arches reel and bow.
O heart, you must hope alway;
You must sing and trust and say:
’I’ll bear the sorrow that comes tomorrow,
But I’ll borrow none today.”’

The eagle that soars in the upper air does not worry itself as to how it is to cross rivers.
—Selected

Taking Your Advice (Matthew 27:17–26)

Advice for every aspect of life abounds. Not all of it is good or even makes sense. For example, baseball legend Yogi Berra once said, “When you get to a fork in the road, take it.” Huh?

In 1998, Marriage Partnership magazine offered some practical advice for married couples:

• Don’t hog the blanket.
• Husbands, think twice before complimenting your wife’s best friend on her new hairstyle.
• Wives, decide not to describe, in excruciating detail, every plot twist in your day.
• Stop fiddling with the thermostat.
• If you get up first, don’t sing in the shower.
• Don’t leave nail clippings anyplace but in the wastebasket.

The problem with good advice is that sometimes we don’t take it. That was the case with Pontius Pilate, Judea’s Roman governor, as Jesus stood before him, waiting for judgment. Pilate had the authority to set Jesus free, and he knew the charges against the Jewish rabbi were bogus. However, the crowd clamored for blood, and Pilate feared their reaction if his judgment went against their desires. If anyone needed advice, it was Pilate.

Enter Mrs. Pilate. While Pilate sat on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him a message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him” (Matthew 27:19).

But Pilate didn’t heed his wife’s advice. In a display of supreme indecision, Pilate let the crowd decide Jesus’ fate. When people clamored for Jesus’ death, Pilate washed his hands, symbolizing his own innocence in the matter.

The Bible doesn’t say much about Mrs. Pilate, her dream, or the reason why Pilate disregarded her advice and let the crowd decide Jesus’ fate. Even so, God used Pilate’s cowardice as part of his plan to bring about Christ’s death on the cross, which provided the only means of our salvation.

Giving and taking advice has its merits and dangers. In marriage, it’s wise to listen to a partner’s advice but wiser still to test it against Scripture. Is there a Biblical principle for or against what’s being proposed? Are there examples from Scripture that are helpful?

Besides holding advice up to Scripture, praying through a matter can give spiritual insight to a decision. If we bring our decisions to God in prayer—as a couple and as individuals—we can be sure God will guide us and provide us with the tools we need to make good decisions.

—Nancy Kennedy

Taken from NIV Couples’ Devotional Bible

All Hostile to God

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. (Colossians 1:21-22)

The best news in all the world is that our alienation from God is ended and we are reconciled to the Judge of the universe. God is no longer against us but for us. Having omnipotent Love on our side mightily steels the soul. Life becomes utterly free and daring when the strongest Being is for you.

But Paul’s whole message of salvation is not good news to those who reject the diagnosis in Colossians 1:21. He says, “You were formerly alienated and hostile in mind.”

How many people do you know who say, “I am hostile to God in my mind”? People seldom say, “I hate God.” So what does Paul mean that people were “hostile in mind” to God before they were reconciled by the blood of Christ?

I think he means that the hostility is really there toward the true God, but people do not allow themselves to think about the true God. They imagine God to be the way they would like him to be, which seldom includes any possibility that they might be in really serious trouble with him.

But concerning the God who really is — a God who is sovereign over all things, including sickness and calamity — we were all hostile to him, Paul says. Deep down, we hated his absolute power and authority.

That any of us is saved is owing to the wonderful truth that the death of Christ obtained the grace by which God conquered our hearts and caused us to love the One we once hated.

Many are still learning not to be hostile to God. It is a good thing that he is gloriously patient.

What Is My Purpose in Life, and How Can I Be Certain of It? (1 Corinthians 10:31)

”Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10). This is the essence of our purpose. We are to honor God and advance his kingdom through who we are and in everything we do.

Through our cooperation with God’s Spirit who is at work within us, we can grow to the point that what we want aligns with what God wants—our passions and purposes are his passions and purposes; we think, speak, act and relate in a Christlike way. We will never be perfect or without struggle in this life, but we can be inwardly connected to Jesus (see Jn 15:1–8). We listen for the Spirit’s guidance. We cultivate our gifts. We live our lives pursuing God’s kingdom interests (see 1Co 10:31—11:1).

But often this isn’t enough for us. We want to know our specific, individual purpose with certainty. We want the mystery solved. We want to find a unique purpose that focuses our energies and convinces us that our life counts.

Perhaps our feverish search for the specific is misguided. Maybe our need for certainty reflects our addiction to control and what Eugene Peterson calls “insiders’ pride.” God wants us to trust him, and sometimes knowing too much leads to trusting too little. Maybe letting go of the pressure to find our purpose—and instead following hard after God each new day—will center us squarely in the target.

Taken from NIV Essentials Study Bible

Dependable in the Mundane

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

One of the most powerful testimonies to the all-sufficiency of future grace is the “faith principle” that has governed the lives of so many missionaries, notably those of Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF).

Without condemning those who follow a different pattern, it has been the practice of those who follow in the steps of Hudson Taylor to move the hearts of people to give by talking to God and not people.

James H. Taylor, the great-grandson of the founder, explains how this faith in future grace, rooted in demonstrations of bygone grace, honors God.

We . . . begin from a position of faith. We believe God does exist. We have become convinced of this in a variety of ways, but all of us have experienced the grace of God in bringing us to know Himself through Jesus Christ and through rebirth by His Spirit. We believe we have good grounds of believing in Him through the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: we believe that someone who said He would die and rise again, and did it, is credible in every other way. Therefore we are prepared to trust Him, not only for the eternal salvation of our souls, but also for the practical provision of our daily bread and financial support. OMF publishes testimonies of God’s amazing faithfulness to demonstrate the glory of his all-supplying future grace. “We want to demonstrate that God can be trusted to do all that He says He will do, by sharing how He has provided for such mundane needs as plane tickets, meals, medical expenses, and the regular support of a whole group of Christian people for well over a hundred years.”

What OMF is devoted to is glorifying the dependability of God — in their message and in their method. Hudson Taylor put it this way: “There is a living God. He has spoken in the Bible. He means what He says and will do all that He has promised.”

Lives of faith are the great mirror of the dependability of God.

Life in the Fast Lane (Numbers 9:15–23)

Joanie could scarcely believe her eyes. The woman speeding along the Los Angeles freeway next to her balanced a cup of coffee and a cigarette in one hand and ignored her three children bouncing around in the back seat. At that moment, Joanie longed to quit her job and move to the mountains. She prayed, “Lord, I’m tired of this fast-paced life. Can I get off this merry-go-round?”

Maybe life in the fast lane doesn’t appeal to you anymore either. You’re tired. You need a break. Maybe you’re thinking of buying a nice little cabin with a fireplace, a cat and a rocking chair. Anywhere but here, Lord, you think. But what does God think?

Following her release from Ravensbruck concentration camp, Corrie ten Boom purchased a house called Schapendunien and turned it into a home for disabled people and ex-prisoners. She thought that was where God wanted her to settle down. But in late 1945, she began to sense that God wanted her to travel to the United States to tell her story. So she crossed the Atlantic and became what she described as a “tramp for the Lord.” It wasn’t until 1977, when she suffered a stroke, that she finally retired to a home in Orange, California. Choosing to follow God’s leading rather than her own comfort level, Corrie ten Boom maintained an itinerant lifestyle of travel for Christ.

You may be facing unbearable pressures in your daily life, pressures you think will get better if you settle down in a peaceful location of your choice. But God showed the Israelites that he chooses our paths. He gave them a visible reminder of his presence to guide them: a cloud by day and a fire by night. When the cloud lifted, they set out; when it stopped, they camped. God’s sign in the sky marked their course and set the pace. By looking up, the Israelites discovered that the Lord ordained the movements of his people; God saying “no” was just as important as God saying “go.” God alone knew the reasons for the journey, the unseen dangers ahead and the ultimate purpose beyond each move.

God ordered the lives of the Israelites. And he’ll order yours if you will let him. If you need to know which way to turn, look up.

Taken from NIV Women’s Devotional Bible

What Makes God Proud

But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Hebrews 11:16)

I want very much for God to say to me what he said about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: “I am not ashamed to be called your God.”

As risky as it sounds, does this not really mean that God might actually be “proud” to be called my God? Fortunately this wonderful possibility is surrounded (in Hebrews 11:16) by reasons: one before and one after.

Take the one after, first: “God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared for them a city.”

The first reason he gives why he is not ashamed to be called their God is that he has done something for them. He made them a city — the heavenly city “whose architect and builder is God” (verse 10). So the first reason he is not ashamed to be called their God is that he has worked for them. Not the other way around.

Now consider the reason he gives in the front. It goes like this: “They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.”

“Therefore” signals that a reason has just been given for why he is not ashamed. The reason is their desire. They desire a better country — that is, a better country than the earthly one they live in, namely a heavenly one.

When we desire this city more than we desire all that this world can give, God is not ashamed to be called our God. When we make much of all he promises to be for us, he is proud to be our God. This is good news.

So open your eyes to the better country and the city of God, and let yourself desire it with all your heart. God will not be ashamed to be called your God.