IS THERE A FATHER IN THE HOUSE?

23 February 2017

Morning

EVERYWHERE I GO:

Psalm 144:12 NASB

[12] Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants, And our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace;

IS THERE A FATHER IN THE HOUSE?

Fatherhood is a relationship - so a man who is uninvolved in the lives of his children and unaware of their struggles, dreams, and desires, is not really a father. Unfortunately, our society tends to applaud the successful man more than the family man, but the truth is, if you are genuinely a family man, you are a successful man.

Frederick Flick was a West German industrialist worth more than $1.5 billion. Prior to his death he controlled some 300 companies and interests. A profile of this powerful businessman in a national magazine said that he had made all the right moves when it came to accumulating wealth. But every one of his children was a failure.

Peter Drucker might have called Flick a success, but according to biblical standards, he was a dismal failure. Why? Because he neglected to give his children what they needed from a father: love and leadership. When Flick's wife died, he buried her at 3:00 p.m., went back to the office at 5:00, and never broke stride.

As a pastor, I talk with so many parents who want the church to instill values in their children, and to educate them concerning life. The church can certainly help in these areas, but no church, school, or summer camp can be expected to rear children and successfully guide them through the maze of childhood and adolescence. There is absolutely no substitute for a parent's time and touch in the life of a child.

16Feb2017~Evening Time With God

i found these to be quite interesting. answers r there if we seek out the One who can lead us to the answer.

each of the following individual devotions build on the one b4.

finding the right opportunities comes after seeking God's kingdom. His compassion towards us gives us the opportunity to explore the open doors. before entering the chosen open door, we need to seek God's kingdom so the opportunity does not become trouble.

PRAISE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD:

Matthew 19:26 NASB

[26] And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

God-Given Opportunities 

Opportunity is never a matter of pressure with God. 

When God opens a door it stays open long enough for us to enter decisively and wisely. His Spirit brings peace to every action, movement, choice, or change that is ordered by Him. The way we abide under the government of His given opportunities is by giving time to prayer. 

Bring every opportunity to God, ask His will, wait on Him, and be honest in acknowledging any inner disturbance that may signal His Spirit’s cautioning. His doors of opportunity always stay open to His will. 

Taking Hold of Tomorrow

FACE TO FAITH

Luke 12:31 NASB

[31] But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

I want you to think right now of the top five characteristics you want in your close friends. I’ll give you a second to think. 

Alright, got them? I can almost guarantee that somewhere on that list is faithfulness. 

Maybe you said it differently—loyalty, dependability, steadfastness, trustworthiness, or integrity—but we all want to surround ourselves with people who are faithful. 

So faithfulness is a big deal, right? And if we want to be around faithful people, how much more does our God, who is perfect in faithfulness, desire for us to be faithful? Let me spell out for us today five things that often get in the way of us being faithful. Ready? 

First, being superficial gets in the way of being faithful. Here’s the deal, the root of faithfulness is faith, but how deep do the roots of your faith go? Is your faith in Jesus superficial, only skin deep? Or has it gone deeper than that, changing who you are deep inside so there is no longer a question of who is your God and for whom you live your life? 

Second, fearing the wrong thing can damage our faithfulness. A lot of people are afraid about things in this world. “Will I make enough money? Can I afford the house I want? What if I lose my job? What if I’m rejected when I stand up for Christ?” Jesus says not to fear for those things because God will meet those needs. Instead, fear God, because He has authority to cast you into Hell if you aren’t right with Him. 

Third, being stubborn kills faithfulness. Listen—sinning isn’t what sends you to Hell. We’ve all sinned. You say, “What sends people to Hell then?” Being stubborn and not accepting the salvation and forgiveness that Christ has provided for our sins is what will land us there. 

Fourth, covetousness robs us of faithfulness. Here’s why: Because when all you can think about is the stuff others have that you don’t have, then your heart belongs to the stuff and not to God. 

Fifth, greediness crowds out faithfulness by turning our commitment into something that’s for sale. Suddenly our faithfulness can be bought by whatever opportunity comes up for the next promotion, raise, or increase. “Yeah, I know church and family are important, but I’ve got to work Sundays if I’m going to get that raise.” Maybe you need to ask what you need more—that raise or Jesus. 

Everyone wants faithful people around them, especially God. Commit to Him today and become someone He can count on. 

Prayer 

Father God, 

Thank You for never changing! I always know what I’m going to get when I come to You. Please help me to be faithful, so that You always know what You’re going to get when You come to me. 

Amen

WORDLIVE-YEAR ONE:

Jonah 4 NASB

[11] Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"

Prepare: Don’t edit your emotions. The psalmists show us that total honesty with God is the best policy. Be honest with God now. 

First step: prayer 

Even after the most successful mission in history, Jonah is not satisfied because he still hasn’t resolved his underlying issues with God. At least this time he communicates his problem rather than ignoring God (v 2). 

Whatever our issue with God – doubt, anger, disappointment – prayer is the first step towards resolving it. 

Challenging expectations 

Jonah is uncomfortable with the God he serves (v 2). He wants a God of fixed boundaries, who punishes evil, who has favourites, who fits his expectations. 

God is too good to allow this, so he uses Jonah’s circumstances and even physical discomfort (vs 7,8) to challenge Jonah’s attitude (vs 4,9,11) and help Jonah grow in his understanding of and appreciation for God’s love and grace (v 11). Notice how patient and compassionate God is with Jonah (v 6), even when Jonah sulks (vs 3,5,8,9)! 

God won’t give up 

We don’t know whether Jonah remained self-absorbed (vs 3,8) or whether he began to see life from God’s perspective (v 11). We can be sure that the God who pursued Jonah to the ocean floor, who put up with Jonah’s anger, is a God who wants a relationship with us and will not give up on it. 

Respond: Romans 8:28 reminds us that God works through all situations for our good, so that we become more like Jesus. Consider your own trying circumstances. What is God saying to you through them? 

http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-02-16

some good stuff tonight

Evening

FACE TO FAITH:

1 Corinthians 13:4-5 NASB

[4] Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, [5] does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,

I have good news and bad news. 

The good news is that you are the best thing that could possibly happen to your marriage. The bad news is that you could also be the worst thing that could possibly happen to your marriage. 

How can both of these be true? Well, it comes down to whether you will die to yourself for the sake of your spouse, or whether you will be selfish, insisting on taking care of yourself first. 

Hands down, selfishness is the number one problem in marriage, the biggest reason for divorce. Selfish expectations, wanting things the way you want them, are marriage killers. 

God designed us so that the blessings come when we die to ourselves, and this is espe- cially true in our marriages. Yet for some reason, it’s easier to be unselfish with our children, friends, or even sometimes with strangers than with the one person who is our first responsi- bility. Somehow it suddenly becomes about the way we want things, expect things, or about what we need and want. 

Selfishness is a black hole whose desires are never fulfilled. Selfishness is never happy, never satisfied, and never whole. It never stops making demands. The result of this is that, at best, one unselfish spouse works their tail off to satisfy their partner, but it’s impossible and they become increasingly frustrated as their efforts to love are met with ingratitude and an even longer list of entitlement-minded demands. At worst, two selfish people make continual demands of each other and become repeatedly offended with one another as these demands regularly go unmet. 

Finally, the selfish person’s desires cannot be met and they decide to look for someone else to meet their “needs.” Since marriage was about them to begin with, of course, this is no great sacrifice to walk all over their spouse’s and children’s hearts, needs, or lives. 

Love, on the other hand, does not seek its own. It seeks to benefit others. And when we actually embrace love in a marriage then not only are all our needs met, but trust and true intimacy are built over time that makes our marriage and our family a rock-solid pillar of love in our communities. 

Doing family right is the ultimate witness for Christ, and it starts when we reject selfish- ness and choose love. 

Prayer 

Father God, 

Thank You for not being selfish with me! Please help me to be loving and unselfish like You are so that my family will not only survive, but so that it will become even better than I have ever imagined that it could be! 

Amen

WORDLIVE: YEAR ONE:

Joshua 5:13-15 NASB

[13] Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" [14] He said, "No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, "What has my lord to say to his servant?" [15] The captain of the LORD'S host said to Joshua, "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

Prepare: Can you recall moments when you have felt a particular closeness and intimacy with God; times when he has made his presence known in a particularly significant way? Reflect on what those times have meant to you. 

Holy encounter 

This seems like a strange interlude in the story. It reminds us of other moments of holy encounter – face-to-face meetings with the Lord or his messenger – in the Old Testament: Abraham at the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18), Jacob at the Jabbok (Genesis 32) and Isaiah in the Temple (Isaiah 6). 

What is the purpose of such encounters? They are moments when God establishes beyond any doubt who is in control. He sets the agenda. 

Let God be God 

That is so here too as Joshua meets the commander of the army of the Lord (v 14). His question (v 13) is entirely reasonable: whose side are you on? But the reply he gets must have stunned Joshua: ‘neither’. He is on God’s side, and God’s alone. 

Joshua doesn’t get much of an answer to his second question either (v 14): no instruction for the next stage of the campaign, only a simple command to take off his shoes as he’s already fallen face down on the ground. This is a simple but profound call to holiness and commitment, and to let God be God, and to give him the first place that is his due. 

Respond: We mustn’t try to recruit God to our causes, but dedicate ourselves to his. Take time now to commit yourself afresh to the cause of his kingdom. 

http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-02-08 

enquiring

09 February 2017

Morning

MORNING & EVENING:

2 Samuel 5:23 NASB

[23] When David inquired of the LORD, He said, "You shall not go directly up; circle around behind them and come at them in front of the balsam trees.

Morning - Day 40 

"And David enquired of the Lord." 

When David made this enquiry he had just fought the Philistines, and gained a signal victory. The Philistines came up in great hosts, but, by the help of God, David had easily put them to flight. Note, however, that when they came a second time, David did not go up to fight them without enquiring of the Lord. Once he had been victorious, and he might have said, as many have in other cases, "I shall be victorious again; I may rest quite sure that if I have conquered once I shall triumph yet again. Wherefore should I tarry to seek at the Lord's hands?" Not so, David. He had gained one battle by the strength of the Lord; he would not venture upon another until he had ensured the same. He enquired, "Shall I go up against them?" He waited until God's sign was given. Learn from David to take no step without God. Christian, if you know the path of duty, take God for your compass; if you would steer your ship through the dark billows, put the tiller into the hand of the Almighty. Many a rock might be escaped, if we would let our Father take the helm; many a shoal or quicksand we might well avoid, if we would leave to his sovereign will to choose and to command. The Puritan said, "As sure as ever a Christian carves for himself, he'll cut his own fingers;" this is a great truth. Said another old divine, "He that goes before the cloud of God's providence goes on a fool's errand;" and so he does. We must mark God's providence leading us; and if providence tarries, tarry till providence comes. He who goes before providence, will be very glad to run back again. "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go," is God's promise to his people. Let us, then, take all our perplexities to him, and say, "Lord, what will you have me to do?" Leave not your chamber this morning without enquiring of the Lord

"what is your life about today?"

from my 05 February 2017 evening devotion. right after is 06 Feb 2017 evening devotion. when u read these, ask God to open ur heart up. honestly look at u and let God remove what to be removed and place what He needs u to have. love is more than what the world sees it as. pure love comes from only one source and u must be willing to open up honestly so God can fill u up with His love.

FACE TO FAITH:

1 Corinthians 13:13 NASB

[13] But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

If you could boil your life down to one thing, what would it be? What is the repeated, prolonged echo that fills your life? 

My hope for you today, because this is the will of God, is that this one thing in your life is love. Strip everything else away, all other motivations, all other callings, all other attitudes, and I hope that we would find love in each one of us today. 

You might wonder why love is so important. Well, it’s because everything we do, no matter how wonderful or good, is worthless if it doesn’t come from love in our hearts. 

That’s quite a challenge for us as we approach the topic of marriage, isn’t it? I mean, look at an average day and tell me, is everything you do for even one day toward your spouse motivated by love? 

“Well, what does that look like, Bob?” I can tell you, because 1 Corinthians 13 tells us. I encourage you to read it in full, but let me boil it down by saying this—the opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is selfishness. 

Love is a choice we make to pursue another person, to seek their benefit above our own. This choice requires us to shape our actions and guard our heart with our spouse in mind, considering them to be of more consequence than ourselves. 

Chances are good, however, that this has not always been our experience, either with our spouses or with other people in our lives. All of us come into our marriages as damaged goods, so to speak, to one degree or another. This is why it is vital for us to remember one of love’s most important keys—forgiveness. 

Forgiveness doesn’t mean that what’s happened in the past was right or that those who have hurt us are off the hook, but it does mean it’s out of your heart. It releases us from the past so that we can freely enter a good future.

What future is that, you ask? Isaiah 60:1,7 tells us, “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you...and I will glorify the house of My glory.” 

Your future and the future of your marriage is that God wants to glorify you and make you the example marriage on your block, so that everyone will wonder what you have figured out that they need. 

All this will happen, but only when we make our lives about love. What is your life about today? 

Prayer 

Lord Jesus, 

You are the God of love and I am Your child. I choose to forgive those who have hurt me and ask that You would heal my heart so that I can freely love as You created me to do. 

Amen

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this is taken from 06 February 2017. it ties into the one above.

06 February 2017

Evening

FACE TO FAITH:

Ruth 4:13-14 NASB

[13] So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. [14] Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed is the LORD who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel.

Life is better when God is King. I mean, it just makes sense, because if God is King then He’s in charge, so He looks out for us because we belong to Him. 

The story of Ruth is a great story to help us understand how powerful it is when we make God the King over our lives. In a nutshell, Ruth marries into a family that did not make God King. Without God as King, they had to look out for themselves and it didn’t work out well. In fact, all the men—three husbands total, including Ruth’s—died. 

Well, if you want a different result then you have to try a different way, and Naomi and Ruth do just that. They made God King over their hearts, following Him wholeheartedly. They made Him King over their plans and futures. They made Him King over their needs, following Him to the right fields for gleaning and the right man to marry. 

Now, with Ruth having followed God as King in all of these things, Boaz (the right guy) also makes God King. He follows the right procedures God had set up in order to marry Ruth and the two are married. In all this, they make God King over their home and marriage. 

God’s got a thing about marriage and absolutely wants it to be honored in us within this culture and society as much as He honors it in His Word. And marriage is honored in His Word. A marriage bed is to be honored and not defiled. And here, they take that example of allowing God’s way to become King over their home, over their marriage, over their plans, over all that He has now led them to accept and believe by faith. 

And guess what happens. As soon as they get married, Ruth conceives and bears a son. Can I just remind you of the miracle of that verse? She’s been married before. In fact, she was married for ten years and never got pregnant—she has been barren her whole life. And all of a sudden, she meets Boaz and, upon this marital conception, is now with child and seeing the blessing of this covenant in allowing God to be King over this relationship. 

I hope today that you are allowing God to be King over your relationships. Because if you are, there are blessings to receive, my friends, just as God blessed Ruth. 

Prayer 

Lord God, 

Thank You for giving me the story of Ruth to encourage me about the blessings of letting You be King! Please come today and be my King forever; lead me and give me the courage to follow You in all things! 

Amen

under obligation

03 February 2017

Morning

MORNING & EVENING

Romans 8:12 NASB

[12] So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-

Morning - Day 34

"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors."

As God's creatures, we are all debtors to him: to obey him with all our body, and soul, and strength. Having broken his commandments, as we all have, we are debtors to his justice, and we owe to him a vast amount which we are not able to pay. But of the Christian it can be said that he does not owe God's justice anything, for Christ has paid the debt his people owed; for this reason the believer owes the more to love. I am a debtor to God's grace and forgiving mercy; but I am no debtor to his justice, for he will never accuse me of a debt already paid. Christ said, "It is finished!" and by that he meant, that whatever his people owed was wiped away forever from the book of remembrance. Christ, to the uttermost, has satisfied divine justice; the account is settled; the handwriting is nailed to the cross; the receipt is given, and we are debtors to God's justice no longer. But then, because we are not debtors to our Lord in that sense, we become ten times more debtors to God than we should have been otherwise. Christian, pause and ponder for a moment. What a debtor you are to divine sovereignty! How much you owe to his disinterested love, for he gave his own Son that he might die for you. Consider how much you owe to his forgiving grace, that after ten thousand affronts he loves you as infinitely as ever. Consider what you owe to his power; how he has raised you from your death in sin; how he has preserved your spiritual life; how he has kept you from falling; and how, though a thousand enemies have beset your path, you have been able to hold on your way. Consider what you owe to his immutability. Though you have changed a thousand times, he has not changed once. You are as deep in debt as you can be to every attribute of God. To God you owe yourself, and all you have--yield yourself as a living sacrifice, it is but your reasonable service