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TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY


Your Quiet Time with God (2)
‘And for thy pleasure they…were created.’

Revelation 4:11
The UCB Word for Today - 6 Nov 2015

Did you know: 1) God created you so that He could have a relationship with you? He made you in order to enjoy your company every day. ‘And for thy pleasure they…were created.’ Your attitude towards your quiet time with God will be transformed when you realise that He wants to spend time with you, waits for you, and welcomes you into His presence. 2) The cross is what made this relationship possible?

When Adam sinned, God drove him from the Garden of Paradise and placed angels with swords at its entrance so that mankind could never re-enter.


Then God did something truly amazing; He took on human form, lived among us, died in our place, and was cut down by the sword of divine judgment at the cross, providing us with a way back into His presence. Wonderful, isn’t it?



In the Old Testament only one man, the high priest, could go into the Holy of Holies. And he could only do it one day a year. A thick veil separated God from the people.


They stood outside wondering what God’s voice sounded like, what His presence felt like, and what His glory looked like. Only the high priest knew.


But when Jesus cried, ‘It is finished!’. (John 19:30 NKJV), the Bible says, ‘The veil of the temple was torn in two from top [where God was] to bottom [where we were]’ (Mark 15:38 NKJV). Now, as ‘priests unto God’ we can come into His presence at any time and meet with Him (Revelation 1:6).



What a privilege! Grace makes it possible. And gratitude should be the magnet that draws you there each day.
Ezek 11-13, Heb 9

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TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY



Your Quiet Time with God (3)
‘He went out into the mountains to pray, and prayed all night.’

Luke 6:12
The UCB Word for Today - 7 Nov 2015



Why do you need a quiet time with God each day? Because Jesus did, and He’s your example: ‘He was up long before daybreak and went…to pray’ (Mark 1:35 TLB).


The truth is, we make time for what we value most, for the people we love most, for our highest priorities, and what we find most rewarding. Notice, Jesus seldom prayed for anybody in public. Why?



Because He’d already done His praying before He got there! He made deposits each morning so that He could make withdrawals all day long. And the busier He got, the more He prayed. Did He know something we don’t? Jesus had no difficulty choosing between the crowd’s agenda and His Father’s will. ‘I can do nothing on my own.



I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me’ (John 5:30 NLT). Why do spiritual leaders sometimes fall? Because they get caught up in the work of the Lord and neglect their relationship with Him.




Throughout history, anyone who has been greatly used by God was a person of prayer. Martin Luther said, ‘I have so much to do that I must spend the first three hours each day in prayer.’ Ceaseless activity will drain you and leave you vulnerable to Satan’s attack.



The sign on a church bulletin board says it all: ‘Seven prayerless days make one weak Christian.’ So the busier you become, the more time you need to spend with God. Simply stated: if you’re too busy to have a quiet time with God, you’re too busy!


Ezek 14-15, Heb 10

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TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY



Your Quiet Time with God (4)
‘I have…treasured his words more than daily food.’

Job 23:12
The UCB Word for Today - 8 Nov 2015



Your quiet time with God is more than just a good idea, it’s vital to your spiritual survival. It’s also essential to your spiritual growth and maturity.




You say, ‘But I go to church every week.’ Can you imagine what would happen if you ate only once a week? The patriarch Job said, ‘I have…treasured his words more than daily food.’ Peter described the Scriptures as nourishing milk (1 Peter 2:2), and the writer to the Hebrews called the Word of God solid food (Hebrews 5:14).



Your quiet time is also like a spiritual bath. Jesus said, ‘Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you’ (John 15:3 KJV). You shower every day to stay clean and avoid body odours.




It’s not easy to be around someone who smells badly, and you run the risk of offending them by telling them so. But if you love them you’ll do it. Jesus told Peter, ‘Thou art an offence [odious] unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men’ (Matthew 16:23 KJV).



Here’s the bottom line. Unless you protect your quiet time with God: 1) you’ll be cut off from your source of strength, guidance, and wisdom; 2) your usefulness to God will be limited; 3) you’ll be inconsistent in your Christian life.



You say, ‘But I don’t have time!’ You have the same 168 hours each week that everybody else has! And how you spend them is determined by what you think is most important. So if you think being in fellowship with God is important, begin to make time for it.



Luke 21:20-38, Ps 116-118

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TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY



Be Gentle
‘Blessed are the gentle.’

Matthew 5:5
The UCB Word for Today - 9 Nov 2015



Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth’.

We’d all be a lot better off if gentle people ran the world, because those who aren’t gentle are making a real mess of things! St Francis de Sales said, ‘Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing so gentle as real strength.’ Just as you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, people respond more readily to gentleness than aggressiveness.


The famous football coach, John Wooden, told the following story: ‘My dad, Joshua Wooden, was a strong man in one sense, but a gentle man.


He could lift heavy things men half his age couldn’t, but he would also read poetry to us each night after a day working in the fields raising corn, hay, wheat, tomatoes, and watermelons.


We had a team of mules named Jack and Kate on our farm.



Kate would often get stubborn and lie down on me when I was ploughing. I couldn’t get her up no matter how roughly I treated her. Dad would see my predicament and walk across the field until he got close enough to say, “Kate.” Then she would get up and start working again. He never touched her in anger.



It took me a long time to understand that even a stubborn mule responds to gentleness.’ When the Bible speaks of meekness, it’s not speaking of weakness. Meekness means ‘power under control’. An unbroken horse is useless; an overdose of medicine kills rather than cures; wind out of control destroys everything in its path. Jesus was powerful but He was gentle. And you are called to follow in His footsteps (1 Peter 2:21).


Ezek 16-17, Heb 11

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TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY


Through Christ, You Can Conquer Your Habit
‘Think carefully about…Jesus.’

Hebrews 3:1
The UCB Word for Today - 10 Nov 2015


Let’s say you’re trying to lose weight, but you love doughnuts.

How can you overcome temptation? By repeating, ‘I must not eat doughnuts, I must not eat doughnuts, I must not eat doughnuts’?

No, the more you think about doughnuts, the more you’re going to want them.

Instead you must focus on something else (or someone else – Jesus!) who can help you overcome the temptation.

Your problem is not in the doughnut shop, it’s in your mind. That’s where victory is won or lost.


Paul writes: ‘Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.


Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect’ (Romans 12:1-2 NLT). You can lock yourself up in a room and still think about doughnuts.


On the other hand, you can get your mind on Jesus, draw strength from Him, and drive victoriously past every doughnut shop in town.

The same principle applies to any habit you want to break and any sin you want to conquer.



Does victory come easily, or overnight? No, Satan tempted Jesus repeatedly in the wilderness, and he’ll keep tempting you until he realises his strategies no longer work. ‘Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him’ (Matthew 4:11 NKJV). Through Christ, you can conquer your habit.


Ezek 18-19, Heb 12

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TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY


You Won’t Talk About It
‘You meant evil…but God meant it for good.’

Genesis 50:20
The UCB Word for Today - 11 Nov 2015


Twenty-two years after selling Joseph into slavery, his brothers now stand before him as prime minister of Egypt.


They don’t recognise him, and he holds their fate in his hands. If you’d been in his shoes, what would you have done? Gotten even? Reminded them of their past offences? For the next few days, let’s look at what Joseph did: He didn’t talk about it. ‘There was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers’ (Genesis 45:1 NIV 2011 Edition).

Joseph made sure no one in Egypt would ever know what they’d done to him. And isn’t that how God treats us?


The fact is He has enough on each of us to bury us, yet He refuses to resurrect our past sins. So why do we? To punish! ‘Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment’ (1 John 4:18 NIV 2011 Edition).


What are we afraid of? That they’ll get away with it. We want them punished, so we tell everybody what happened. And when we do: 1)


We play God! God says, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay’ (Romans 12:19 KJV). He alone knows the weakness in your offenders that caused them to hurt you, and whether they’ve repented and changed. 2)



We set the standard by which we ourselves will be judged. ‘You will be judged in the same way that you judge others’ (Matthew 7:2 NCV). If that’s a truth you’re not comfortable with: ‘Get rid of all bitterness…Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God…has forgiven you’ (Ephesians 4:31-32 NLT). When you’ve been wronged, ‘forgive and forget’ is the right response!


Ezra 20-21, Heb 13

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TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY


You Won’t Try to Intimidate Them
‘You did not receive a spirit…to fear, but…of sonship.’

Romans 8:15
The UCB Word for Today - 12 Nov 2015


Joseph’s brothers ‘were…stunned with surprise. “Come over here,” he said. So they came closer.



And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother whom you sold into Egypt! But don’t be angry with yourselves that you did this to me, for God did it!”’ (Genesis 45:3-5 TLB). You’ll notice that Joseph didn’t react the way we so often do when someone hurts us.



He didn’t: 1) distance his brothers; 2) enjoy watching them squirm; 3) practise one-upmanship; 4) gloat and say ‘gotcha!’; 5) remind them of how they’d put him down and despised his dreams; 6) demand they acknowledge that he was right and they were wrong; 7) say, ‘I told you so!’ No, Joseph wanted to be loved, not feared. He wanted restoration, not revenge.



He knew that the long-term benefits of healing a relationship far outweighed any short-term satisfaction you get from retaliation.

He understood that it’s only by releasing your offender that you set yourself free.




The Bible says, ‘You did not receive a spirit…to fear, but…the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”’ The word ‘Abba’ is a term of endearment which means ‘Daddy’.


God doesn’t bring up your past, or keep you at arm’s length because of your failures. He wants you to know you can come to Him at any time, know that you’re accepted, feel secure in His presence, and call Him ‘Daddy’.


And that’s the kind of love He wants you to show to others – a love that doesn’t want them to feel afraid in your presence.


Ezek 22-23, James 1

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TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY


You Won’t Lay a Guilt Trip on Them
‘Don’t be angry with yourselves.’

Genesis 45:5
The UCB Word for Today - 13 Nov 2015


Joseph told his brothers, ‘Don’t be angry with yourselves that you did this to me…God has sent me here to keep you and your families alive, so that you will become a great nation’ (vv. 5, 7 TLB). When are we most likely to lay a guilt trip on others? When we’ve forgotten the grace we ourselves received from God.

Often, it’s your forgiveness that makes it possible for others to forgive themselves! Self-forgiveness is a high hurdle for most of us. Paul wrote, ‘I…wasted [the Church]’ (Galatians 1:13 KJV). He uses a mafia term for killing people.


Now he goes back to those same towns and preaches, and who’s in the audience? The widows and orphans! If Paul hadn’t learned to receive God’s grace he could never have fulfilled God’s will. Some ancient societies punished murderers by strapping the victim to their back.


Paul may have had this in mind when he wrote, ‘Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ (Romans 7:24 NKJV). Nothing is heavier than guilt. It will: 1) Drag you down. 2) Cause you to leave a bad taste wherever you go.

Even your friends will become exhausted and say, ‘Get over it.’ 3) Destroy your relationships.


Who wants to be around someone who’s obsessed with a corpse? You’d only be using the new relationship to numb the pain of the old one. 4) Destroy your health, because you aren’t built to carry resentment.


Cut it loose! Somebody said, ‘Everyone should have a special cemetery lot in which to bury the faults of friends and loved ones.’ Grieve if you need to – then bury it and move on!


Ezek 24-26, James 2

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TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY



You’ll Preserve Their Dignity and Self-Worth

‘Be full of love for others.’

Ephesians 5:2



The UCB Word for Today - 14 Nov 2015







Imagine how Joseph’s brothers felt when he said, ‘It was not you who sent me here, but God’ (Genesis 45:8 NKVJ). Is he serious? God did it? This is a new level of forgiveness! Preserving the dignity and self-worth of others – that’s what God does with us! With full knowledge of our sinful past, He covers us with the garment of grace.




And He expects us to do the same for others. As you read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter one, you might think the sin of adultery between David and Bathsheba was part of the divine strategy all along.


No, sin never is, and David paid a high price. Yet the Bible records these events as though they were supposed to have happened in just that way.





The Bible says, ‘Be full of love for others, following the example of Christ who loved you and gave himself to God as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased.’ When you truly forgive, there’s no place for self-righteousness.



You’re able to forgive because: 1) you remember what you yourself have been forgiven of; 2) you acknowledge what you’re capable of; 3) you see God’s hand at work in the bigger picture. Joseph wasn’t being condescending or patronising, nor was he thinking, ‘I’ll be admired for being so gracious.’




No, during his years in prison God had moved on his heart and changed his attitude. So when Joseph said, ‘You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good’ (Genesis 50:20 NKJV), he really meant it! That kind of response takes forgiveness to a whole new level!




Ezek 27-29, James 3

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TODAY'S WORD FOR TODAY



You'll Protect Them
You shall be near to me... and... I will provide for you'

Genesis 45:10-11
The UCB Word for Today - 15 Nov 2015




Not only did Joseph forgive his brothers, he protected them from their worst nightmare – having to go back and tell their ageing father what they’d done twenty-two years earlier.



Joseph is a step ahead of them; he tells them what to say and what not to say: ‘Go up to my father, and say to him, “Thus says your son Joseph: ‘God has made me lord of all Egypt; come…You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me, you and your children…I will provide for you’”’ (vv. 9-11 NKJV). You say, ‘I think they should have been forced to confess what they’d done.’ No, that would have given their father, Jacob, an even greater burden to bear – struggling with regret over his lost years with Joseph, not to mention having to fight bitterness towards his other sons. Joseph was wise. And it made his brothers respect him all the more.



There’s a big difference between confessing and ‘dumping’. Irreparable damage can be done when you try to get relief by dumping the details of your guilt on somebody who can’t handle them.


Sometimes confessing is the proper route, but only after talking with an experienced counsellor.







After David sinned with Bathsheba he wrote, ‘Against You [God], You only, have I sinned’ (Psalm 51:4 NKJV). When you consider that God knows all about your sin yet promises to keep it a closely guarded secret, it should: 1) increase your sense of humility and gratitude; 2) cause you to keep your mouth shut; 3) make you refuse to hold anybody else’s sins and shortcomings over their head.



Luke 22:1-30, Psalm 119:1-88