Daily Devotional 10-5-20

Between Heaven and Hell

In some ways, our materialistic age is down on life after death. In other ways, those caught up in the consumerism of our secular society are tantalized by the supernatural. In either case, people look at the Bible as folklore, or myth. They play down realities of heaven and hell. That wasn’t the case for Jesus Christ. He talked a lot about both heaven and hell. When Jesus was on the cross, he was hanged between heaven and hell.

In one direction was the temple, a picture of God’s throne room in heaven. When Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). Christ opened the way into heaven. In another direction was that awful valley called Gehenne. It was a picture of hell. All the city’s garbage was dumped in that place. Fires burned there perpetually. You may remember Judas Iscariot killed himself after he betrayed Jesus and after he gave the thirty pieces of silver back to the chief priest. The chief priest bought a burial plot for Judas with that silver in Gehenne. Jesus said Judas was a reprobate – hell was his home.

In the meantime, on the cross, Jesus crying out with a loud voice said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). While the body of Jesus was placed in the ground, his human spirit went to heaven. On the cross, Jesus was literally between heaven and hell. At death, he passed into heaven while Judas slipped into hell. These are real places. Although we may joke about them in the coffee shop, we must also realize they are real destinations.

Listen to today’s podcast urging you not to waver “Between Heaven and Hell.”

From: http://dennyprutow.com/daily-devotions/

Heath Pucel is preaching at the Green Bay Packers Game Monday: 10/5 Pray about evangelizing with Heath. Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1070707003367248/

Daily Devotional 10-2-20

Our Identity

Child of God, do you hesitate to appropriate this title? Has your unbelief made you forget that you are also greatly loved? Surely you must have been greatly loved, to have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot? When God crushed His only Son for you, what was this but being greatly loved? You lived in sin and rioted in it; surely you were greatly loved for God to have been so patient with you. You were called by grace and led to a Savior and made a child of God and an heir of heaven. Doesn’t this all prove a very great and superabounding love?

Since that time, whether your path has been rough with troubles or smooth with mercies, it has been full of proofs that you are greatly loved. If the Lord has chastened you, it was not in anger; if He has made you poor, still in grace you have been rich. The more unworthy you feel yourself to be, the more evidence you have that nothing but unspeakable love could have led the Lord Jesus to save a soul like yours. The more disapproval you feel, the clearer is the display of God’s abounding love in choosing you and calling you and making you an heir of heaven.

Now, if such love exists between God and us, let us live in the influence and sweetness of it and use the privilege of our position. We should not approach our Lord as though we were strangers or as though He were unwilling to hear us—for we are greatly loved by our loving Father. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”1 Come boldly, believer, for despite the whispers of Satan and the doubts of your own heart, you are greatly loved. Meditate on the exceeding greatness and faithfulness of divine love this evening, and then go to your bed in peace.

From: https://www.truthforlife.org/resources/daily-devotionals/latest/?gclid=CjwKCAjwnK36BRBVEiwAsMT8WCR8UteIwaWlAyP4o9ZIuAWio8l7qmAM1nDcB3pFiYr-jOUNkgMsShoC68IQAvD_BwE

David Doerman & Mark Seward are preaching at Nippert Stadium, Saturday: 10/3

University of Cincinnati vs. USF Bulls

Join David Doerman, Mark Seward and their team in heralding the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ at the University of Cincinnati home football games this 2020 season. Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/643676089857995/

Click the links to see Jamie and the team’s ministry at the USC vs. UT game Saturday 9/26/20 in Columbia, SC

Here is a wonderful report from Jamie Clark who evangelizes at the South Carolina games:

Good afternoon saints- this is a compilation from our outreach here in Columbia last Saturday between South Carolina and Tennessee. We had eight believers taking part, representing four different local churches. When this ministry began, I was alone, pulling a wagon of equipment, Bibles, tracts for a 3/4 mile walk before and after the outreach. After my first two seasons, the Lord added 3 other men last year. We had eight this past Saturday for the season opener. A lot of prayers have been answered. Decreased crowds due to Covid restrictions, but many heard the Gospel. SDG.

South Carolina vs Tennessee Outreach

Williams-Brice Stadium

Columbia, SC

Sept 25, 2020

J316 Ministries

#SFOI1000

#southcarolinagamecocks

#TennesseeVolunteers

#secfootball If you want to see pictures from the day visit: UT. vs. USC .

Daily Devotional 10-1-20

Slavery, Freedom, and Bondage

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:17-18)

Ask any American what slavery is associated with – freedom or bondage? Most would agree, its bondage. Conversely, considering our history, most would associate freedom with the idea of liberty or self-rule. At the beginnings of our nation, our forefathers linked the idea of freedom with the idea of liberty, that is, self-government or autonomous self-rule. Our Declaration of Independence declared that we would be a free people, determined to govern ourselves, independent from the British Crown. Later in our history, we fought a bitter Civil War to preserve the Union, where all slaves formerly in bondage would be regarded as free citizens. Slavery is to bondage as freedom is to liberty or self-rule.

Ask the Apostle Paul what slavery is associated with – freedom or bondage? He would answer, Yes! In Romans 6, he relates these terms where everyone is a slave who is simultaneously bound yet free. However, he contrasts the nature of these conditions before and after our baptism. The back and forth nature of his discourse about these realities in Romans 6 can be a challenge to follow, so let’s begin by summarizing them briefly. We will then be better positioned to explore his reasoning and the “so what” about them in the life of the Christian.

First, it must be noted that the Apostle is not discussing the civil dimension of life but instead what Luther called things above us. These are the spiritual matters of the human condition where the Scriptures know nothing of human autonomy. Concerning things below us, the affairs of ordinary temporal living, there is much we can decide, do, and accomplish according to our own will and work. When it comes to the civil dimensions of life, freedom, and autonomy go together. In spiritual matters, however, the Scriptures (including Romans 6) teach us that freedom is tied to slavery and bondage. One is either bound to Christ or bound to sin. Before our baptism, we were slaves to sin (Rom 6:6, Rom 6:17) marked by impurity and lawlessness (Rom 6:19), and free from righteousness (Rom 6:20). Then, baptism united us to the crucified, dead, and buried Christ (Rom 6:3-6). Our union with Christ has set us free from the slavery of sin (Rom 6:6-7, 22) and made us slaves of righteousness and God (Rom 6:18-19, 22). The freedom of the Christian is the result of being bound to Christ, where, as slaves of righteousness, we do as we are. One is either ruled by the powers and principalities of evil or ruled by our Lord and his righteousness. In our baptism, these saving realities flow from our Lord’s will and work, not from deliberated decisions on our part. Concerning things above us, before our baptism and after, there is no such thing as human autonomy.

The freedom here is first to be as God has designed us to be, and then to do as we are. It has nothing to do with self-determination or voluntary commitments.

The sense of bondage in Romans 6 involves an important connection between being and doing. When it comes to spiritual things, we do as we are. Slaves of righteousness are righteous, and therefore, they render righteous service. In the Kingdom of God, only laborers who are already righteous work in the Lord’s vineyard. They labor because they are righteous, not in order to become so, much to the surprise of some (Matt 20: 1-16). The Scriptures often use a botanical model to help us understand this connection. Good fruit only comes from a good tree and bad fruit only from a bad tree (Matt 7:18). Moreover, grapevines yield grapes because that is how God has made them. Using this imagery, Jesus declared that he is the vine and we the branches. Abiding in him, we can produce some pretty good vintage (John 15: 4-5). What we produce flows from what we are. It is God who has so connected our being and doing. The freedom here is first to be as God has designed us to be, and then to do as we are. It has nothing to do with self-determination or voluntary commitments.

In spiritual matters, freedom is tied to God’s purposes in creation and redemption, not individual whims or religious proclivities. Notice how Paul explained this connection: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10).” We carry out righteous labor in God’s vineyard, only because we first arrived there as righteous laborers. From the righteousness of being, we engage in righteous works of doing. As righteous slaves bound to the righteousness of Christ in our baptism, our obedience of faith is active in righteous works that serve our Lord and Master in the needs of our neighbor. Slavery, freedom, and bondage; they all go together in the Kingdom of God. So says the Apostle Paul.

Is this the end of the matter for Paul about the Christian concerning things above us? Has the Apostle covered it all about the spiritual matters of baptized Christians? Has the Apostle come to his bottom line in Romans 6 about the baptized informing us 1) that we are united to the crucified and buried Christ but now also alive in him; 2) that we are no longer slaves of sin; but, 3) that we have now become slaves of righteousness and God? Is this all that he has to say about the slavery, freedom, and bondage of the Christian in this life? No, it is not. He moves on to the rest of the story in Chapter 7.

In Romans 7:14-20, Paul applies to himself everything he said about our slavery and bondage to sin before we were baptized. Is he, in effect, contradicting all we have summarized about the baptized, including himself in Romans 6? No, he is not. In Roman’s 7, he describes what he (and all the baptized) continue to be in this life apart from Christ – a fleshly self in which nothing good dwells, sold as a slave to sin (Rom 7:14, 18). Romans 6 describes the Christian in Christ, while Romans 7 describes the Christian apart from Christ. The baptized Christian is both; what Luther called simultaneously a sinner and a saint. The Romans 7 sinner in all of us will endure throughout this life, but the Romans 6 saint, bound to Christ, free to be a slave of righteousness, will endure forever.

From: https://www.1517.org/articles/slavery-freedom-and-bondage

David is the founder of ” So That All May Know Him “

  Click here to see David’ s video about his ministry: David’s video . You can also see pictures and read posts from his ministry FB page: FB So That All May Know Him .

Daily Devotional 9-30-20

Meekness in a Troubled World

We don’t normally like to think of ourselves as being meek. These days meekness is usually associated with someone who is weak and submissive. Someone who is timid and easily pushed around. Yet in the third Beatitude in his Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”.

The Beatitudes lay the foundation for Jesus’ Sermon recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7. An interesting feature about these eight beatitudes is that the first and last make the same promise. The first reads: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. And number eight says: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

To begin and end a series of statements with the same theme is called ‘an inclusion’. This means that everything between the first and last statements is included in the one theme – in this case, the kingdom of heaven. We are to think of Jesus’ Beatitudes as the standards of God’s kingdom. They’re not just descriptions of the attributes of different sets of people who are members of the kingdom – some are meek while others are merciful. Rather they capture features that the Lord expects of all his people.

Jesus expects his people to grasp the reality of their spiritual impoverishment: they are poor in spirit. His people mourn over their own broken relationship with God and mourn that humanity is tragically lost because it has rejected its Maker. And now thirdly, Jesus is describing another quality of his people – meekness.

So what does it mean to be meek?

Jesus’ words in Matthew chapter 11:28-30 help us. There he says: Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle – literally meek – and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

As the Gospel of Matthew unfolds we learn that Jesus, the eternal Son of God, came amongst us, not with the trappings of royalty and privilege, but with self-deprecation and lowliness. He came, not to exercise unbridled or terrorizing power, but to honor God by serving men and women in their greatest need. He set aside his glory to rescue us.

Here we begin to learn the rich meaning of meekness – gentleness and humility in serving the best interests of others. Someone who is meek does not insist upon their rights. They think of others before themselves.

Consider for a moment the scene around Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus was naked, exposed to the idle curiosity of the crowd and the vulgar frivolity of the soldiers who were making a party of it. “If you are the king of the Jews,” they taunted, “save yourself.”

And yet the extraordinary thing is this. There’s no spirit of revenge. Jesus didn’t curse his tormentors. Instead, as Luke tells us, we hear a prayer: “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.”

Now it’s also important to notice that the kind of meekness that Jesus is speaking about in the Beatitude is not that of the person who is a pushover. Meekness is not to be confused with being nice and easy-going. Meek and lowly as he was, Jesus could take a whip to greedy money-changers in the Temple. We mustn’t confuse meekness with weakness.

“Blessed are the meek,” Jesus says.

Is it not true that many of us who claim to be God’s people have forgotten this? We have stalled on the first two letters of the word meek – the letters, me, Me! At the personal level we are so often more concerned with justifying ourselves than building one another up in our relationship with the Lord Jesus. And is it not true that we are often more committed to giving our opinion about church or ministry matters than we are at reaching others with the good news of the gospel?

Back in 9th century England, King Alfred, a professing Christian, was not only a capable military strategist but also a wise and visionary ruler. It seems that because he knew the Christ who had taught the Beatitudes, he worked for peaceful solutions even with the most ruthless of his enemies. As Arthur Bryant in The Story of England: Makers of the Realm comments: Alfred had the wisdom to realize that the sword, though powerful to defend, could settle nothing permanently, and that only the conquest of the heart could endure.

Following his defeat of the marauding Danes, Alfred made a peace treaty with Guthrum, the Viking King – a treaty which identified land in East Anglia for the Danish Vikings. Alfred’s meekness led to the Christian baptism of Guthrum and peace in the land.

“The meek shall inherit the earth” Jesus promises. He was quoting from Psalm 37. He was saying that only the truly meek will learn contentment. Their ego is not so inflated that they insist they deserve more. Indeed, because as God’s people they are learning from him, the meek understand that they are co-heirs in the inheritance with Jesus (Romans 8:16f).

Furthermore, Jesus is saying that the day will come when the meek will inherit the new heaven and the new earth. It will be a time when this Beatitude will literally be fulfilled. Throughout eternity God’s people will continually rejoice that this Beatitude is literally true. Indeed, they will be grateful that by the grace of God they learned to be meek during their life now.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” What is your response? Do you really want to be one of Jesus’ disciples, exemplifying in your life those qualities that were so evident in his — meekness and humility in serving the best interests of others? From: https://anglicanconnection.com/meekness-in-a-troubled-world/

Daily Devotional 9-29-20

Reflecting His Image

What can be said of Christ’s being the “express image of His person”? Are not we all created in the image of God and does not this reference merely speak of Jesus as the perfect man, the one in whom the image of God has not been besmirched or corrupted? I think the text means more than that.

Philip Hughes says this: “The Greek word translated ‘the very stamp bearer’ means an engraved character or the impress made by a die or a seal, as for example, on a coin; and the Greek word translated ‘nature’ denotes the very essence of God. The principal idea intended is that of exact correspondence. This correspondence involves not only an identity of the essence of the Son with that of the Father but more particularly a true and trustworthy revelation or representation of the Father by the Son.”

We remember the request made to Jesus by Philip when he said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us” (John 14:8). We need to meditate upon the response of Jesus in John 14:9–11. He who would taste the fullness of the sweetness of Christ and perceive the total measure of His excellence must be willing to make the pursuit of the knowledge of Him the main and chief business of life. Such pursuits must not be hindered by sentimentality or reason. 

Coram Deo

Pray this prayer: “Dear God, reveal to me the depth and riches of the nature of Your Son, Jesus.”

Passages for Further Study

John 14:9–11

From: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/reflecting-his-image/

Daily Devotional 9-28-20

By My Spirit

We’re all looking for strength – strength to live in a competitive, challenging, fast-paced world. We are told that to find real power for living we should look within. We are told we have all the resources we need within us. If we can only muster that inner strength, we will make it across the hurdles of life. I don’t know about you, but I’ve come to the end of my rope more than once. I’ve been to the place of mental fatigue, physical exhaustion, and emotional collapse. At such times, if someone said to me, “Look within for the strength you need.” My response would have been, “I did, and it’s all gone.”

At such times, my strength did not come from within, it came from without. Strength came from the spirit of God. The Bible makes it clear, “’Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). Our problem is that we don’t look to God for the strength to live day by day. We are so self-sufficient and independent; we think it a show of weakness to pray or to depend upon God.

If there is one thing we need to learn in this life, it is that we are mortal; we are limited in strength. We don’t have all the inner power we are lead to believe. When people discover this, they give up on life. Many young people, for example, take their own lives. It is all so needless because there is an unlimited source of power for living. It is found within the living God, the creator of all things. “’Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

Today’s podcast is also called, “By My Spirit.”

From: http://dennyprutow.com/daily-devotions/