Devotional:October 14, 2013

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Pride

Bible Reading: Romans 12:14-16

Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Romans 12:16, NIV

TWO HITCHHIKERS MET on the on-ramp to a major expressway.

“Where ya headed?” the first hitchhiker asked.

“Chicago,” the second answered.

“Whaddya know? That’s where I’m headed, too.”

“Well, isn’t that fine!” said his companion. “Which way is it?”

The first hitchhiker pointed to a green-and-white highway sign that loomed over their heads. “That there sign says Chicago’s that-a-way.” He pointed toward the northbound lanes of the expressway.

The second hitchhiker looked at the sign and nodded. “It sure does,” he said. He studied the other hitchhiker’s face. “But I’m still wondering. Maybe it’s that way,” he said, pointing to the southbound lanes of the expressway.

The two watched the traffic flowing south for a few moments. Then the second hitchhiker shrugged and hitched his baggy pants a little higher on his hips. “Some­times it’s just hard to know for sure, ain’t it?” And he and his companion sauntered down the ramp toward the traffic that was heading south . . . away from Chicago.

That’s pretty dumb, isn’t it? They stood right under a sign showing them the right way, and they still acted as if they didn’t know which way was right.

Of course, people do that all the time, especially when it comes to right and wrong. For example, God has made it perfectly clear in his Word that it’s wrong to be conceited and prideful; yet people still act as if they’re better than other people.

But we don’t have to wonder whether pride is right or wrong. In Romans 12:16, God says [through the apostle Paul], “Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.” And then, just in case you didn’t get the message the first time, he repeats it in slightly different words: “Do not be conceited.” That’s pretty clear-as clear as a road sign.

REFLECT: What do you think it means to be conceited? (If you don’t know, try looking up the word conceit in a dictionary.) What does it mean to be humble? Do you have to decide whether being conceited and proud is right or wrong? Why or why not?

PRAY: “Dear heavenly Father, I don’t want to be like those two hitchhikers in today’s reading. Help me to remember and obey your command not to be proud or conceited or to think that I’m better than someone else.”

Devotional: October 11, 2013

Practice Makes Perfect

 

Bible Reading: Hebrews 11:24-27

Moses kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible. Hebrews 11:27

WHEN YOUR PARENTS started school, they might have learned to read by reading the Dick and Jane series of books. They read gripping tales about Dick, Jane, and Spot (the dog) like, “See Dick run. See Jane run. See Spot run.” Pretty exciting, huh?

Well, your grandparents (or great-grandparents) might have learned to read by using a famous set of books commonly called “McGuffey’s Readers.” These simple books, published between 1836 and 1857, were used to teach several generations of American schoolchildren to read.

McGuffey’s Readers not only taught reading; they taught other important lessons as well. For example, the Readers taught children that perseverance was a good thing:

The fisher who draws in his net too soon

Won’t have any fish to sell;

The child who shuts up his book too soon

Won’t learn any lesson well.

If you would have your learning stay,

Be patient-don’t go too fast;

The man who travels a mile each day

May get round the world at last.

That simple rhyme teaches the truth that perseverance (in fishing, in learning, or in walking) produces success. A person who knows how to stick to a task will usually succeed-maybe sooner, maybe later. If you keep practicing the piano, you’ll get better and better. If you keep doing your homework, you’ll learn more and more. If you keep exercising, you’ll get stronger and stronger.

Perseverance in making right choices produces success, too. If you keep trusting Christ and let him help you make right choices, you’ll get better and better at doing so. After all, whether you’re practicing the piano or trying to make right choices, practice makes perfect.


REFLECT: Have you ever finished a job that was really hard or that took a long time? If so, how did it feel when you finally finished? Can you name something you’ve succeeded at because you kept trying or practicing for a long time (like reading, for example, or playing the piano)? Does that success encourage you to persevere at making right choices? Why or why not?

PRAY: “Father, it feels really good to succeed, especially when it was really hard or took a long time. Help me to understand and experience the benefits of perseverance.”

Devotional: October 10, 2013

 

A Life Worth Watching

Bible Reading: 1 Peter 1:13-19

He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 1 Peter 1:19

QUIZ TIME: Who is the most right-living person you know, the person who is a great example of obedience to God?

a. One or both of your parents?

b. A grandparent or another relative?

c. Your pastor or youth leader?

d. A well-known Christian figure?

e. A friend?

When it comes to knowing and doing right, there is no substitute for a living, breathing, right-under-your-nose example. You can’t beat having someone you know modeling a pattern of godliness in front of you.

But Jesus Christ does one better. No, you can’t see him in person. But through the Bible you can spot him in action and witness his awesome acts as the ultimate example of doing right. His life and ministry on earth made all the moral precepts in the Old Testament up close and personal. Jesus not only taught the moral law of God, but unlike any other human being in your life, he also lived it to perfection.

The life of Jesus shouts God’s love for his human creation. Like John observed, “God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him” (1 John 4:9). Christ was God’s love gift to us wrapped in human flesh. His coming in the flesh-his “incarnation” -was the expres­sion of God’s love in human life.

The Bible leaves no doubt about the perfection of Christ’s life. Peter said, “He never sinned, and he never deceived anyone” (1 Peter 2:22). He was “the sinless, spotless Lamb of God” (1 :19). He “faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4: 15).

John’s first letter lays out several references to Christ’s sinlessness: “There is no darkness in him at all” (1 John 1:5); “Jesus Christ, the one who pleases God com­pletely” (2:1); “Christ is pure” (3:3); and “There is no sin in him” (3:5). Even Pilate said, “I find nothing wrong with this man!” (Luke 23:4).

Even the best human examples of obedience and purity fail at times. Say thanks to God for the good examples you have in your family members, church leaders, and friends. But keep your main focus on the perfect example by filling your mind with the words and deeds of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.





REFLECT: How is Jesus the best example you could ever follow?

PRAY: Tell Jesus you’re glad he blazes a trail for you.

Devotional: October 9,2013

Details, Details, Details

Bible Reading: 2 Peter 1: 16-21

It was the Holy Spirit who moved the prophets to speak from God. 2 Peter 1:21

NATHAN BURST through the door of his youth pastor’s office. “Caleb, you’ve gotta see this book I got from Todd. It’s a bunch of predictions by some old guy named Nostradamus. He predicted lots of things before they happened, like Hitler and World War II and Kennedy’s assassination.”

“Did you see the so-called prophecies he made?” Caleb probed. “Yeah. Well, Todd pointed them out to me.”

“Didn’t they seem kind of vague? Like they might apply to any number of situa­tions or interpretations?”

Nathan thought, then shrugged. “I guess.”

“It’s amazing to me that people get so wrapped up in Nostradamus’s doubtful prophecies-but they completely ignore the prophecies of Scripture. Those are prophecies you can see are divinely inspired and clearly fulfilled.”

Nathan was interested. He put the Nostradamus book down. “Like what?”

“Like Jesus being born in Bethlehem. Micah predicted that. And Zechariah pre­dicted that the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.”

“Oh yeah,” Nathan said, “and that he would be betrayed too, right?”

“Right. Betrayed by a friend, for thirty pieces of silver; that his hands and feet would be pierced; that his bones would not be broken-details, not vague generaliza­tions or lucky guesses, but dozens of specific predictions that came true with 100 percent accuracy. And that’s just the prophecies about the Messiah. The same is true of prophecies about cities and nations all through the Bible.”

Nathan’s youth pastor is right. Biblical prophecy reveals with startling force the unique character and reliability of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. Awareness of the prophecies about the Messiah can convince all but the most biased reader of the truth of the Bible.

Some imaginative critics think that the fulfillment of biblical prophecy is due to coincidence. But could you find the forty-eight major prophecies that concern the Messiah fulfilled in anyone man? The chances of that happening by coincidence, says Peter Stoner in Science Speaks, are 1 in 10 to the power of 157, or the number 10 followed by 157 zeroes!

God didn’t want there to be any doubt in your mind that his Word is true and re­liable. He made the proof undeniable, and the many detailed and fulfilled prophecies of Scripture are just one way he removes any shadow of doubt.

REFLECT: How does the reliability of Bible prophecies compare to those by folks like Nostradamus? Explain.

PRAY: Praise God for giving you his reliable Word.

Devotional: October 8,2013

Fully Fact or Fanciful Fiction?

Bible Reading: John 19:35

This report. .. is presented so that you also can believe. John 19:35

ANNA GOT slammed when she mentioned in class that she believed the Bible was true. “You can’t be serious!” someone said. “The Bible?” Another responded, “You can’t tell me that you believe in that Jonah-in-the-whale stuff? And walking on wa­ter? Come on, get real!”
“Let’s be reasonable,” came another response. “The Bible may have its place in religion, but that’s where it belongs. Don’t ask me to take it seriously.”
In the past few years some people-even some Bible scholars-have decided the Bible is best understood as a compilation of religious folklore and legends.
Admittedly, there’s no missing the fact that the Bible does tell some pretty ex­traordinary stories. But no matter how incredible some Bible stories may seem, the people who reported these things clearly meant their accounts to be understood not as myth or legend but as fact.
Not only that, but the New Testament writers knew that relating such astonish­ing facts might cost them their lives. How many people do you know who would gladly go to prison or die for a lie?
The New Testament writers certainly knew that telling stories about a rabbi rais­ing himself from the dead or feeding five thousand people from five loaves of bread and two fish was a sure ticket to the funny farm-unless there were other witnesses. Contrary to the myths, legends, and mystery religions of the ancient world, the events recorded in the Bible “were not done in a corner” (Acts 26:26). A whole bunch of people saw them as they happened. Reliable people testified-in writing-to the authenticity of those events and signed their testimony in blood. And those writings, far from being effectively refuted and discredited, stood the test of time and were recognized as authoritative.
Peter himself answered the myths and legends myth when he wrote, “We were not making up clever stories when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming again. We have seen his majestic splendor with our own eyes” (2 Peter 1:16).
Read John 19:35. Who is the writer? Was he an eyewitness to the things he wrote about? Do you think he intended what he wrote to be understood as fact -or as fiction?

REFLECT: Say it in your own words: How do we know the Bible isn’t a pack of myths?

PRAY: Pray that the Bible would accomplish its goal in the life of your friends that they would come to believe.

Devotional: October 7, 2013

 

Is the Holy Bible Holey?

Bible Reading: Matthew 4:1-11

 

People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every word of God. Matthew 4:4

 

“THE BIBLE is like Swiss cheese,” Brianna argued. “It’s tasty in some spots, but it’s got a lot of holes in it too.”

Some people praise the Bible for its help and inspiration. “I especially like Psalm 23,” they might say. “It’s so beautiful.” But if you press them far enough, they even­tually admit they don’t think much of the Bible at all. “Of course, there are problems in the Bible,” they say. “I mean mistakes and all. But that doesn’t bother me. After all, it wasn’t written to be a history textbook. It’s accurate where it needs to be, like in matters of faith and doctrine.”

The holey Bible theory is a myth. Much of the time people who make that claim have only vague ideas what “mistakes” they’re talking about. The Bible isn’t full of holes. It’s the inspired Word of God, written over a period of about sixteen hundred years by about forty different authors. It has been remarkably preserved from the original manuscripts by painstaking copyists and careful scholars. The Old and New Testaments are the most accurately preserved and widely attested documents of the ancient world.

The followers of Jesus can’t ignore the fact that the Lord himself believed in the accuracy of the Scriptures. He said, “The Scriptures cannot be altered” (John 10:35). He related the experience of Jonah as fact, not fiction. He quoted Scripture in his desert battle with Satan. He regarded the teachings, historical details, and events of the Old Testament as accurate.

The New Testament writers likewise confirmed the reliability of Scripture. The apostle Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right” (2 Timothy 3: 16). And Paul also acknowledged the in­spiration of the New Testament writings with statements like, “What I am saying is a command from the Lord himself” (1 Corinthians 14:37).

In the Bible you can find different perspectives of the same event-different em­phases in retelling incidents, in other words-and other apparent discrepancies. Still, when you open the Bible, you are reading the inspired, preserved, reliable Word of God. It’s reliable because the loving, powerful God who gave it to you is reliable.

REFLECT: How would you answer a non-Christian friend who thinks the Bible is full of holes?

PRAY: Pray for your friends who think the way Brianna thinks.

Josh McDowell

www.josh.org

Devotional: Octber 4, 2013

 

 

       After God Made You, He Broke the Mold

 

Bible Reading: Psalm 139:13-18 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Psalm 139:14

      GOD IS into wild variety. Have you ever thought about God’s creativity? Every spe­cies of plants and animals is unique. Among the countless varieties of fish, for exam­ple, he designed some with spectacular coloring, some huge, others tiny. Marlin and manta ray, swordfish, shark, eel, and anglerfish all contribute to God’s rich, colorful world of water life.
     People love a world filled with variety too. Nikki paints striking watercolors, constantly searching for new subjects. Not satisfied with the garden in her backyard, she drives into the city for urban scenes or to a state park for forest images. Neal can sing every syllable of every song the classic Christian group Petra has ever recorded.  But he also enjoys new groups.
     Jesus, too, showed he liked a mix of people. He chose twelve disciples to live with him for three years, and they were radically different from each other. Some of them couldn’t scrub away the smell of the fish they handled for a living. Matthew, on the other hand, probably reeked of expensive perfume when Jesus called him. One disciple probably had family connections in the high priest’s administration. John seemed tenderhearted. Peter was often hard-nosed.
     If God finds variety and contrast appealing, and if we crave variety ourselves, then there’s no way we should expect that God would make all of us alike. And all those stereotypes we create of who is “beautiful” or who is “better” they’re a lie!
     You are unique. Of the six billion people alive right now on this planet, there’s no one just like you. If there’s only one you-out of all those billions and billions of people-why would you want to be like someone else? Multitudes go through life en­vying the build, hair, talents, or abilities of other people. So start fixing your thoughts on the fact that God made you one of a kind and, as one child put it, “God don’t make no junk.”
     Maybe you’re a jock and wish you were brainy. Or maybe you’re quiet and intro­spective and would prefer to be the life of the party. Every quality has something valuable about it, and you’re more likely to be at peace with yourself when you gen­uinely value the special personality qualities and skills God has given you-things that make you you! And when you appreciate those traits, you can work to develop them to the full.

REFLECT: Why did God make you the way you are?

PRAY: Lord, thank you for making me just the way I am. Help me to appreciate the unique things about me.