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Streams in the Desert – April 17

The hand of the Lord hath wrought this (Job 12:9).

Several years ago there was found in an African mine the most magnificent diamond in the world’s history. It was presented to the King of England to blaze in his crown of state. The King sent it to Amsterdam to be cut. It was put into the hands of an expert lapidary. And what do you suppose he did with it?

He took the gem of priceless value, and cut a notch in it. Then he struck it a hard blow with his instrument, and lo! the superb jewel lay in his hand cleft in twain. What recklessness I what wastefulness! what criminal carelessness!

Not so. For days and weeks that blow had been studied and planned. Drawings and models had been made of the gem. Its quality, its defects, its lines of cleavage had all been studied with minutest care. The man to whom it was committed was one of the most skillful lapidaries in the world.

Do you say that blow was a mistake? Nay. It was the climax of the lapidary’s skill. When he struck that blow, he did the one thing which would bring that gem to its most perfect shapeliness, radiance, and jeweled splendor. That blow which seemed to ruin the superb precious stone was, in fact, its perfect redemption. For, from those two halves were wrought the two magnificent gems which the skilled eye of the lapidary saw hidden in the rough, uncut stone as it came from the mine.

So, sometimes, God lets a stinging blow fall upon your life. The blood spurts. The nerves wince. The soul cries out in agony. The blow seems to you an appalling mistake. But it is not, for you are the most priceless jewel in the world to God. And He is the most skilled lapidary in the universe.

Some day you are to blaze in the diadem of the King. As you lie in His hand now He knows just how to deal with you. Not a blow will be permitted to fall upon your shrinking soul but that the love of God permits it, and works out from its depths, blessing and spiritual enrichment unseen, and unthought of by you.
–J.H. McC.

In one of George MacDonald’s books occurs this fragment of conversation: “I wonder why God made me,” said Mrs. Faber bitterly. “I’m sure I don’t know what was the use of making me!”

“Perhaps not much yet,” said Dorothy, “but then He hasn’t done with you yet. He is making you now, and you are quarreling with the process.”

If men would but believe that they are in process of creation, and consent to be made–let the Maker handle them as the potter the clay, yielding themselves in resplendent motion and submissive, hopeful action with the turning of His wheel–they would ere long find themselves able to welcome every pressure of that hand on them, even when it was felt in pain; and sometimes not only to believe but to recognize the Divine end in view, the bringing of a son unto glory.

“Not a single shaft can hit,
Till the God of love sees fit.”

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Gods story

God’s Story… For My Life

Genesis 2:18-25

God makes a companion for Adam.

Two and One

Read

He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

“At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’”

This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
(Genesis 2:20-24)

Reflect

God’s creative work was not complete until he made woman. He could have made her from the dust of the ground, as he made man. God chose, however, to make her from the man’s flesh and bone. In so doing, he illustrated for us that in marriage man and woman become one flesh. This mystical union ties together the couple’s hearts and lives.

God gave marriage as a gift to Adam and Eve. They were created for each other. Marriage was not just for convenience, nor was it brought about by any culture. It was instituted by God and has three basic aspects: (1) The man leaves his parents and, in a public act, promises himself to his wife; (2) The man and woman are joined together by taking responsibility for each other’s welfare and by loving their spouse above all others; (3) The two become one flesh in the intimacy and commitment of sexual union that is reserved for marriage. Strong marriages include all three of these aspects.

Throughout the Bible, God treats this special partnership seriously. If you are married or planning to be, are you willing to keep the commitment that binds the two of you together as one? The goal in marriage should be more than friendship; it should be oneness.

Respond

Whether married or single, treat marriage as a holy union, ordained by God. Ask God to help you love, honor, respect, and cherish your spouse, even if you haven’t met them yet. Two people, committed to God and to each other, can truly be one in marriage.

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johnpiper

Mercy for Today

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

God’s mercies are new every morning because each day only has enough mercy in it for that day.

This is why we tend to despair when we think that we may have to bear tomorrow’s load on today’s resources. God wants us to know: We won’t. Today’s mercies are for today’s troubles. Tomorrow’s mercies are for tomorrow’s troubles.

Sometimes we wonder if we will have the mercy to stand in terrible testing. Yes, we will. Peter says, “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14). When the reviling comes the Spirit of glory comes. It happened for Stephen as he was being stoned. It will happen for you. When the Spirit and the glory are needed they will come.

The manna in the wilderness was given one day at a time. There was no storing up. That is the way we must depend on God’s mercy. You do not receive today the strength to bear tomorrow’s burdens. You are given mercies today for today’s troubles.

Tomorrow the mercies will be new. “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9).

For more about John Piper’s ministry and writing, see DesiringGod.org.

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365 devotional

God Exalts His Servants (Matthew 20:26–27)

The world has it all backwards. The world ascribes greatness to those who are excessively ambitious. The world applauds the proud who are willing to do almost anything to climb to the top of the heap. To the world’s way of thinking, such obsession for glory is the true measure of success.

Jesus has other ideas. He tells his followers that the way up is down. If we want to be great from heaven’s perspective, we must be willing to take the place of a lowly servant.

Today as you move out into a world that has embraced values that are diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus, remember that the arrogant and self-serving face eventual humiliation. Only the humble will be honored in the end, when the stakes are eternal.

God’s Promise to Me

  • I honor those who serve.

My Prayer to God

Lord, give me the grace to choose the way of servanthood. I want to imitate you. Help me to put others’ needs and desires before my own. Your Word teaches that true reward awaits those who humble themselves in loving service. Keep me from the tendency to be busy, to be driven, to step on others and to exalt myself.

Taken from Once a Day Bible Promises

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Gods story

God’s Story… For My Life

Genesis 2:4-17

On the sixth day of Creation, the Lord gives instructions to Adam.

Choices

The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
(Genesis 2:15-17)

Reflect
God placed Adam in a perfect environment, the Garden of Eden, and he gave Adam the responsibility to work the garden and to take care of it. His only rule: Adam could eat from any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Rather than physically preventing him from eating, God gave Adam a choice and thus the possibility of choosing to disobey.

Why would God place a tree in the garden and then forbid Adam to eat from it? God wanted Adam to obey, but he also gave Adam the freedom to choose. Without choice, Adam would have been like a prisoner, and his obedience would have been hollow. The two trees provided an exercise in choice, with rewards for choosing to obey and sad consequences for choosing to disobey.

God still gives us choices, and we, too, often make the wrong choice. These choices may cause us pain, but they can help us learn and grow and make better choices in the future. Living with the consequences of our choices teaches us to think and choose more carefully.

Every day we face numerous choices, many with moral and ethical considerations: what to do with gossip we’ve heard; how to respond to an irritating customer or coworker; whether or not to face the facts and tell the truth; financial pressures; sexual temptation . . . Often we know that God wants us to go one way, but we desire to go another. When you are faced with a choice, place your desire before God, and ask him to help you choose well.

Respond
In each choice today, ask, “What does God want me to do?” If you know the answer, do it. If you don’t know the answer, ask him to show you . . . then do it.

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johnpiper

Don’t Be Like the Mule

Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. (Psalm 32:9)

Picture God’s people as a farmyard of all sorts of animals. God cares for his animals, he shows them where they need to go, and supplies a barn for their protection.

But there is one beast on this animal farm that gives God an awful time, namely, the mule. He’s stupid and he’s stubborn and you can’t tell which comes first — stubbornness or stupidity.

Now the way God likes to get his animals into the barn for their food and shelter is by teaching them all a personal name and then calling them by name. “I will instruct you and teach you the way that you should go” (Psalm 32:8).

But the mule will not respond to that sort of direction. He is without understanding. So God gets in his pick-up truck and goes out in the field, puts the bit and bridle in the mule’s mouth, hitches it to the truck, and drags him stiff-legged and snorting all the way into the barn.

That is not the way God wants his animals to come to him for blessing.

One of these days it is going to be too late for that mule. He’s going to get clobbered with hail and struck by lightening and when he comes running the barn door is going to be shut.

Therefore, don’t be like the mule, but instead let everyone who is godly come to God in prayer at a time when he may be found (Psalm 32:6).

The way not to be a mule is to humble ourselves, to come to God in prayer, to confess our sins, and to accept, as needy little farmyard chicks, the direction of God into the barn of his protection.

For more about John Piper’s ministry and writing, see DesiringGod.org

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365 devotional

1 Chronicles 23:28–29

Who were these people, and how is it that they got recognized in the Bible? These individuals were the little people who attended to the daily worship operations of Israel. The fact that this and the next few chapters detail the responsibilities of such people is important for us today. This listing clearly indicates that God uses all kinds of people for his service. God not only honors the big names of this world, he also honors the millions who work quietly, day by day, doing what needs to be done to build his kingdom.

As you continue to seek God, try to discover which of your abilities can be used in his service. Are you a skilled carpenter? Perhaps you could work on a low-income housing project. Do you operate a business? Maybe you could help someone find the right job. Do you have a knack for taking care of children? Why not take some pressure off of that struggling single parent down the street? Whatever your talent, God wants to use it for his service.

Taken from NIV The Journey Bible

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Streams in the Desert – April 15

I trust in thy word” (Ps. 119:42).

Just in proportion in which we believe that God will do just what He has said, is our faith strong or weak. Faith has nothing to do with feelings, or with impressions, with improbabilities, or with outward appearances. If we desire to couple them with faith, then we are no longer resting on the Word of God because faith needs nothing of the kind. Faith rests on the naked Word of God. When we take Him at His Word, the heart is at peace.

God delights to exercise faith, first for blessing in our own souls, then for blessing in the Church at large, and also for those without. But this exercise we shrink from instead of welcoming. When trials come, we should say: “My Heavenly Father puts this cup of trial into my hands, that I may have something sweet afterwards.”

Trials are the food of faith. Oh, let us leave ourselves in the hands of our Heavenly Father! It is the joy of His heart to do good to all His children.

But trials and difficulties are not the only means by which faith is exercised and thereby increased. There is the reading of the Scriptures, that we may by them acquaint ourselves with God as He has revealed Himself in His Word.

Are you able to say, from the acquaintance you have made with God, that He is a lovely Being? If not, let me affectionately entreat you to ask God to bring you to this, that you may admire His gentleness and kindness, that you may be able to say how good He is, and what a delight it is to the heart of God to do good to His children.

Now the nearer we come to this in our inmost souls, the more ready we are to leave ourselves in His hands, satisfied with all His dealings with us. And when trial comes, we shall say:

“I will wait and see what good God will do to me by it, assured He will do it.” Thus we shall bear an honorable testimony before the world, and thus we shall strengthen the hands of others.
–George Mueller

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johnpiper

Pray for His Fame
“Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9)
Dozens of times Scripture says that God does things “for his name’s sake.” But if you ask what is really moving the heart of God in that statement (and many like it), the answer is that God delights in having his name known.

The first and most important prayer that can be prayed is, “Hallowed be thy name.” This is a request to God that he would work to cause people to hallow his name.

God loves to have more and more people “hallow” his name, and so his Son teaches Christians to put their prayers in line with this great passion of the Father.

“Lord, cause more and more people to hallow your name,” that is, esteem, admire, respect, cherish, honor, and praise his name. It is basically a missionary prayer.

 

For more about John Piper’s ministry and writing, see DesiringGod.org.

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Gods story

Genesis 1:1-2:3

In the very beginning, God creates all things.

In His Image

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
(Genesis 1:26-27)

Reflect
God chose to create human beings different from the other animals, in his image—both male and female—and he gave them authority over all other living creatures. This gives us great value and raises an important question: In what ways are we made in God’s image?

God obviously did not create us exactly like himself, because God has no physical body. Instead, we reflect God’s glory. Some believe that our reason, creativity, speech, or self-determination is the image of God. More likely, our entire self is what reflects the image of God. We will never be totally like God because he is our supreme creator. But we do have the ability to reflect his character in our love, patience, forgiveness, kindness, and faithfulness.

Knowing that we are made in God’s image and that we share many of his characteristics provides a solid basis for self-worth. Human worth is not based on possessions, achievements, physical attractiveness, or public acclaim; instead, it is based on being made in God’s image. Because we bear God’s image, we can feel confident in who we are. Criticizing ourselves is discounting what God has made and the abilities he has given us.

Knowing that you are a person of worth helps you love God, know him personally, and contribute meaningfully to the lives of those around you.

Respond
Stop and thank God for creating you in his image. You are his unique creation and he loves you. Thank him for your special gifts, talents, abilities, physical characteristics, emotional makeup, and personality. And ask him to help you respect others, even those you don’t get along with, because they are his image-bearers as well.

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