Zondervan Inspire

As the Opportunity Arises

From the Editor: Two excellent examples to follow. I pray we all learn to walk as Jesus did.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

Jesus could only physically be with one person or group of persons as he walked this earth in his human body. How did he love? He simply loved people as the opportunity arose during the normal traffic patterns of his life. If he was in Jerusalem, he loved the people on the streets of Jerusalem. If he was traveling from Judea to Galilee, he loved the people he met along the way. When he was with his disciples, he showed love to them.

My wife, Chaundel, practices this command to love our neighbors better than anyone I know. She finds out that one of our neighbors is in the hospital, and she's immediately there to visit them. She drops what she's doing to go next door and help a neighbor with a practical need. She commits to facing difficult and frightening circumstances with someone on our block. She goes for a walk in the neighborhood and meets a new neighbor also out walking — and the new neighbor is at a Bible study in our home the next week.

From The Relationship Principles of Jesus

by Tom Holladay

God Chooses All of Us

From the Editor: The authors are talking about God choosing everyone in the sense of God wanting everyone to be on His team. Have you ever been the person last to be chosen in gym class to be on a team? I have. No fun. Thankfully God specializes in choosing people that others would leave behind.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

The Old Testament tells of God's "chosen" people, the Jews. It is full of stories of who God chose to do this or that. He chose Abraham to lead his chosen people. He chose David to be his greatest king. He chose prophets like Isaiah to deliver his message.

Jesus, however, tells us that now God chooses all of us. "Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). We've always liked the stories in the New Testament of who Jesus chooses to talk to. It often is not the "choosable" people. In John 4, for example, Jesus talks to a woman who has three strikes against her: she is a woman, she is a Samaritan, and she is an adulterer. She could have been stoned for her sin, and yet this is who Jesus talks to about salvation.

From The Seven Desires of Every Heart

by Mark & Debra Laaser

The Source of All Strength

From the Editor: When things are going well, it’s so easy to forget that God is our refuge and strength. Perhaps that’s why the Scriptures encourage fasting in conjunction with prayer. Both expose our weakness and need, and point us to the source of all strength. Any other thoughts on this subject?

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

The Hebrew Scriptures make it clear that God is the source of all strength. His power is so great that no power in heaven or on earth can compete with it. Moreover, his love impels him to use his power on behalf of his people, to save those who hope in him.

Ultimately, Jesus is presented as the strongest of all men, the One who through his death and resurrection has overpowered Satan, ultimately freeing us from the devastating consequences of sin.

Remember that God's Word is powerful, living and active, able to accomplish far more than we can even ask or imagine. Let it transform your understanding of how God wants to reveal his strength in you and for you.

From The Tender Words of God

by Ann Spangler

The Greatest Example

From the Editor: No, this is not a picture of the garden of Gethsemane. I’m sure most of you have figured that out already. But it’s a beautiful garden with a path that shows the way. Kind of like how Jesus shows us the way.

Wishing you blessings today,

Keith 

One moment stands above all others in history as the greatest example of loving God with all one's soul. It took place on the night before Jesus died, as he talked to his Father in the garden of Gethsemane. Knowing that the next day he would face the physical, emotional, and spiritual torture of the cross, Jesus prayed, "Not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42). Jesus set aside anything he may have desired and determined to do only what the Father directed.

How do you set your soul to make such a radical decision? Jesus shows the way. You set the direction of your soul by talking to God. The power to follow Jesus' example is found in being able to pray the prayer that Jesus prayed: "Not my will, Lord, but yours be done."

From The Relationship Principles of Jesus

by Tom Holladay

Our Condition Is Not Hopeless

So when Jesus spoke of the poor in spirit, who was he referring to? Who is this misfortunate bunch in such desperate need? Everyone.

All of us have places that are filled not with the spirit of God but with the void of sin. Everyone has broken and disgusting spots in their lives that just won't heal right. Everyone fails. Everyone hurts those they love most. Everyone lacks the kindness, the courage, and the wisdom they ought to possess. No one is solid inside; everyone is deficient.

Jesus alone shows us that our condition is not hopeless. Just as Socrates knew that the only ones who are wise are those who know they are fools, so too Jesus shows us that the only ones who are complete are those who know they are falling apart. Heaven is occupied not by those who think they have it all together. Heaven is the refuge of the infirm and the mending.

From Seven: The Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes

by Jeff Cook

Any comments or testimonies today?

Your Inheritance Forever

Jesus Christ is Himself the sum total of the covenant, and, as one of its gifts, He is the possession of every believer. Dear Christian, are you able to fathom what you have received in Him, "for in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Colossians 2:9)?

Consider the word God in all its infinite greatness, and then meditate on the beauty of "becom[ing] mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). Remember, as God and man, all that Christ ever had or has is yours purely because of His favor. It has been freely bestowed on you and will be your inheritance forever.

From Look Unto Me: The Devotions of Charles Spurgeon

by Jim Reimann

Any comments or testimonies today?

Acting on Renewed Priorities

What Jesus teaches takes just two sentences to say but a lifetime to put into practice: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. That's it! Jesus teaches that we must replace our old set of values with a new set — and we must then begin to act on this new set of values. First we renew our priorities, and then we act on those renewed priorities. When Jesus taught that love for God and love for our neighbor are to come first, he showed us which values are to have first priority in our lives. Then he described how to live out the priority of loving God in the words "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" and the priority of loving others in the words "as yourself."

From The Relationship Principles of Jesus

by Tom Holladay

Any comments or testimonies today?

It Will Never Lose Its Power

Only the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross two thousand years ago, shields us from the awful judgment of God for sin. We are not justified because of our good intentions. We are not protected because of our tearful appeals. We can, in fact, do nothing to merit God's favor. Only the blood puts us in right standing with him. In the words of the Andraé Crouch song that we often sing in our church, the blood of Jesus "reaches to the highest mountain" and "flows to the lowest valley." That is why "it will never lose its power."

From You Were Made for More: The Life You Have, the Life God Wants You to Have

by Jim Cymbala

Any comments or testimonies today?

When the Almighty Speaks, Other Voices Fall Silent

I believe Jesus Christ alone is the answer for the ills of the whole world. Communism is not the answer, but neither is democracy. It is God's will that must rule, and His kingdom that must reign on earth as it is heaven. Democracy may be good in many ways, but it is a concept not supported in Scripture. If democracy was the rule of law in God's kingdom, then Moses would never have led Israel out of Egypt, for the majority of Israelites grumbled against Moses and even wanted him put to death. If they had listened to the voice of democracy, Caleb and Joshua would have been overruled, for those two men went against the advice of all the other spies who returned from the Promised Land. When God commanded me to stand up and walk out of prison in 1997, there was no need to hold a meeting to discuss it with the other believers. When the Almighty speaks, all other voices fall silent.

From Living Water

by Brother Yun

Any comments or testimonies today?

The New Covenant Promise

The foundational promise God made through the prophets and recorded in the Old Testament is the promise of a new covenant, or new testament (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36-37). Central to this covenant would be a decisive activity on God's part to deal with the problem of human sinfulness. This happened in the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross. In the horror and suffering on the cross, Jesus absorbed God's wrath against sin in his own body and in our place.

Much of the New Testament describes the passion of Christ and reflects on its significance for us. When Jesus of Nazareth began his three-year public ministry, he announced that he had come in fulfillment of this new covenant promise. During the last supper as he distributed the bread and wine to his disciples, he remarked, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" (Luke 22:20). Jesus was truly "the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). The 27 books of the New Testament provide testimony of God's work in and through Jesus to fulfill this new covenant promise.

From How We Got
the Bible

by Clinton E. Arnold

Any comments or testimonies today?