DEVOTIONAL BY BILLY GRAHAM – HOPE FOR EACH DAY
The Promise Is Ours
I am with you always, even to the end of the age. – MATTHEW 28:20
When David Livingstone returned to his native Scotland after sixteen difficult years as a missionary and explorer in Africa, his body was emaciated by the ravages of some twenty-seven fevers that had coursed through his veins during the years of his service. His left arm hung useless at his side, the result of his being mangled by a lion.
Speaking to the students at Glasgow University, he said, “Shall I tell you what sustained me during the hardship and loneliness of my exile? It was Christ’s promise, ‘Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”’
That promise is ours as well. No matter what trials we face, Christ never leaves us. He is with us every step of the way! Keep that promise before you today—and always.
DEVOTIONAL BY CHARLES STANLEY – ON HOLY GROUND
God’s Answer to Sin
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” – John 3:3
God’s only answer to the problem of sin is Jesus Christ. No one can save himself; no person is “good” enough to get into heaven. One day each of us will stand before God and give an account of why He should allow us to enter His kingdom. What will your answer be?
Reasons such as being good and trying not to hurt anyone won’t work. Jesus told Nicodemus, a man known for his extreme knowledge of the Jewish law and his sensitivity to spiritual matters, that he had to be born again to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:3). This “born again” phrase often evokes cynicism from nonbelievers, but God does not apologize for His Word.
The new birth Jesus talked about in John 3 is not physical but spiritual in nature. W. E. Vines explained, “Born again is used metaphorically in the writings of the Apostle John, of the gracious act of God in conferring upon those who believe the nature and disposition of ‘children,’ imparting to them spiritual life.”
Only God’s saving grace through a personal experience with Jesus Christ is the answer to mankind’s sin. God does not want anyone to miss heaven’s wonder and perfect love. His greatest desire is that you would experience the love and forgiveness of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for eternity. Have you placed your trust in Him?
DEVOTIONAL FROM POSTCARDS FROM HEAVEN – CLAIRE CLONINGER
Look At My Son, Then Turn To Me
In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus. Christ himself was like God in everything. But he did not think that being equal with God was something to be used for his own benefit. But he gave up his place with God and made himself nothing. He was born to be a man and became like a servant. And when he was living as a man, he humbled himself and was fully obedient to God, even when that caused his death – death on a cross. – Philippians 2:5-8
Jesus answered, “I have been with you a long time now. Do you still not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. So why do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” – John 14:9
Dear one,
What do you know of a love like mine? A love that stoops to conquer? A love that reaches to redeem? Look at the life of my Son, and you will see my heart. I am the center and the soul of who he is, for he and I are one.
Look at him, the One who was willing to leave crowns and thrones and angels’ praises to become a baby laid on straw. Look at him, the One who bowed to be baptized though he had never sinned. Look at him, the One who faced his own accusers, wordlessly accepting their sentence on his life. The One who bore abuse and torture, who bled and finally died so you could live to laugh and love and be reconciled to me.
All that you need to know of me, you will find in him. Look at him. Look at my Son, your Savior. Now, turn to me.
His Father and Yours, God
Mark 11:1-11
The Triumphal Entry
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”
4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
“Hosanna![a]”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[b]
10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest!”
11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
Psalm 46
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields[b] with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
DEVOTIONAL BY OSWALD CHAMBERS – MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST
The Supremacy of Jesus Christ
He will glorify Me . . . —John 16:14
The holiness movements of today have none of the rugged reality of the New Testament about them. There is nothing about them that needs the death of Jesus Christ. All that is required is a pious atmosphere, prayer, and devotion. This type of experience is not supernatural nor miraculous. It did not cost the sufferings of God, nor is it stained with “the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11). It is not marked or sealed by the Holy Spirit as being genuine, and it has no visual sign that causes people to exclaim with awe and wonder, “That is the work of God Almighty!” Yet the New Testament is about the work of God and nothing else.
The New Testament example of the Christian experience is that of a personal, passionate devotion to the Person of Jesus Christ. Every other kind of so-called Christian experience is detached from the Person of Jesus. There is no regeneration— no being born again into the kingdom in which Christ lives and reigns supreme. There is only the idea that He is our pattern. In the New Testament Jesus Christ is the Savior long before He is the pattern. Today He is being portrayed as the figurehead of a religion— a mere example. He is that, but He is infinitely more. He is salvation itself; He is the gospel of God!
Jesus said, “. . . when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, . . . He will glorify Me . . .” (John 16:13-14). When I commit myself to the revealed truth of the New Testament, I receive from God the gift of the Holy Spirit, who then begins interpreting to me what Jesus did. The Spirit of God does in me internally all that Jesus Christ did for me externally.
All The Glory Ministry 