Author: rste104343

Daily Devotion

rste104343 September 20, 2017 No Comments

September 20

The Divine Commandment of Life

“… be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

Our Lord’s exhortation to us in verses 38–48 is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections—some people we like and others we don’t like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7), even those toward whom we have no affection.

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Daily Devotion

rste104343 September 19, 2017 No Comments

September 19

Are You Going on With Jesus?

“You are those who have continued with Me in My trials” (Luke 22:28).

It is true that Jesus Christ is with us through our temptations, but are we going on with Him through His temptations? Many of us turn back from going on with Jesus from the very moment we have an experience of what He can do. Watch when God changes your circumstances to see whether you are going on with Jesus, or siding with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We wear His name, but are we going on with Him? “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more” (John 6:66).

The temptations of Jesus continued throughout His earthly life, and they will continue throughout the life of the Son of God in us. Are we going on with Jesus in the life we are living right now?

We have the idea that we ought to shield ourselves from some of the things God brings around us. May it never be! It is God who engineers our circumstances, and whatever they may be we must see that we face them while continually abiding with Him in His temptations. They are His temptations, not temptations to us, but temptations to the life of the Son of God in us. Jesus Christ’s honor is at stake in our bodily lives. Are we remaining faithful to the Son of God in everything that attacks His life in us?

Are you going on with Jesus? The way goes through Gethsemane, through the city gate, and on “outside the camp” (Hebrews 13:13). The way is lonely and goes on until there is no longer even a trace of a footprint to follow—but only the voice saying, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19).

My Utmost for His Highest

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition copyright © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All Rights reserved.

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

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Daily Devotion

rste104343 September 18, 2017 No Comments

September 18

His Temptation and Ours

“We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/?p=1943&preview=true

Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” But through regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to us as unbelievers because they were not at home in our human nature. Our Lord’s temptations and ours are in different realms until we are born again and become His brothers. The temptations of Jesus are not those of a mere man, but the temptations of God as Man. Through regeneration, the Son of God is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19), and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us just to make us do wrong things—he tempts us to make us lose what God has put into us through regeneration, namely, the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come to us on the premise of tempting us to sin, but on the premise of shifting our point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.

Temptation means a test of the possessions held within the inner, spiritual part of our being by a power outside us and foreign to us. This makes the temptation of our Lord explainable. After Jesus’ baptism, having accepted His mission of being the One “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) He “was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness” (Matthew 4:1) and into the testing devices of the devil. Yet He did not become weary or exhausted. He went through the temptation “without sin,” and He retained all the possessions of His spiritual nature completely intact.

My Utmost for His Highest

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

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Mercy Is Not Goodness

rste104343 September 17, 2017 No Comments

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Mercy Is Not Goodness September 10, 2017

I will trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.”—Psalm 52:8.

Brothers and Sister and friends Grace and peace to you in the name of God our Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. I thank God for this time that He has given to me to share with you concerning mercy. Lord please direct my thoughts as I reason with my brothers and sisters concerning the topic of mercy. Lord I pray that you open the hearts and minds of those who are reading this message help them that don’t know Jesus understand what it mean to receive God’s mercy, In Jesus name I pray Amen.

My friends lets take a moment and reason with each other. Mercy is not Goodness, these are two attributes that are opposed to each other. It is a mistake to think that mercy is related to goodness. Mercy and Goodness are both attributes of God. Mercy and goodness is both related to justice. Justice is a development of goodness. Goodness in most cases demands justice. Mercy doesn’t demand the exercise of Justice, however it ask that justice be set aside. As you can probably see goodness and mercy stand in very different relationship to justice. Goodness, and mercy, and justice are three of God’s many attributes. In all of His attributes God is infinite, there is no end to any of them in God. He is rich in mercy, Goodness and Justice.

Let us look closer, Goodness demands Justice, Justice is opposed to mercy. Justice gives to everyone one what he or she rightfully deserves. While mercy ask for a pardon from the penalty of the law concerning the crime that was committed. Mercy treats the criminal much different from the way he or she deserves to be treated. While justice operates on issuing out exactly what is deserved. Mercy always presuppose guilt, If a person is not guilty or think he or she is not guilty there can be no mercy. One must believe that he is guilty, and the penalty of the law must come to bear, or there can be no measure for mercy.

Mercy can only be extended as far as the penalty deserves and no further. If great punishment is required then great mercy is given, If everlasting punishment is due then the scope of the mercy must be given to the same proportion. The psalmist say” I will trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.”—(Psalm 52:8.) Trust in mercy implies that you have no hope in Justice. If you had any hope in justice you would not ask for mercy. As human beings we are not proud to throw ourselves on mercy, if we thought that we had a legitimate claim to justice. Trust in God’s mercy implies that you believe God to be merciful. Trust in God’s mercy forever implies that you are convicted of guilt and the punishment is just, one that will last forever. Trusting in God’s mercy means giving up and stopping all excuses and admitting guilt and having faith in God’s mercy.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God said that you will have everlasting life if you believe in His Son. Do you think that your sin is so great that you deserve eternal condemnation and that you can’t be saved? God know your condition and He is willing to extend to you His mercy and with hold from you what you really deserve, and give you grace something that you truly do not deserve, All you have to do is trust God will do what He promise, and believe that Jesus died for your sin? If you do God will fulfill His promise to you . If you don’t know what to do contact me, allow me to help you. If you have come to belief let me know blog my post. Brothers and sisters I hope that this message has encouraged you to reach out for the lost souls so that they may receive the mercy of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, Thank you Lord God in Jesus name I pray Amen.
From Time To Eternity

God Bless You

Rev. Reginald Stevens

Daily Devotion

rste104343 September 17, 2017 No Comments

September 17

Is There Good in Temptation?

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man …” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The word temptation has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer, simply because we have refused to allow God to lift us to a higher level where we would face temptations of another kind.

A person’s inner nature, what he possesses in the inner, spiritual part of his being, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the true nature of the person being tempted and reveals the possibilities of his nature. Every person actually determines or sets the level of his own temptation, because temptation will come to him in accordance with the level of his controlling, inner nature.

Temptation comes to me, suggesting a possible shortcut to the realization of my highest goal—it does not direct me toward what I understand to be evil, but toward what I understand to be good. Temptation is something that confuses me for a while, and I don’t know whether something is right or wrong. When I yield to it, I have made lust a god, and the temptation itself becomes the proof that it was only my own fear that prevented me from falling into the sin earlier.

Temptation is not something we can escape; in fact, it is essential to the well-rounded life of a person. Beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else—what you go through is the common inheritance of the human race, not something that no one has ever before endured. God does not save us from temptations—He sustains us in the midst of them (see Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15–16).

My Utmost for His Highest

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512

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Daily Devotion

rste104343 September 16, 2017 No Comments

September 16

Praying to God in Secret

“When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place …” (Matthew 6:6).

The primary thought in the area of religion is—keep your eyes on God, not on people. Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.

“When you pray, do not use vain repetitions …” (6:7). God does not hear us because we pray earnestly—He hears us solely on the basis of redemption. God is never impressed by our earnestness. Prayer is not simply getting things from God—that is only the most elementary kind of prayer. Prayer is coming into perfect fellowship and oneness with God. If the Son of God has been formed in us through regeneration (see Galatians 4:19), then He will continue to press on beyond our common sense and will change our attitude about the things for which we pray.

“Everyone who asks receives …” (Matthew 7:8). We pray religious nonsense without even involving our will, and then we say that God did not answer—but in reality we have never asked for anything. Jesus said, “… you will ask what you desire …” (John 15:7). Asking means that our will must be involved. Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, He spoke with wonderful childlike simplicity. Then we respond with our critical attitude, saying, “Yes, but even Jesus said that we must ask.” But remember that we have to ask things of God that are in keeping with the God whom Jesus Christ revealed.

My Utmost for His Highest

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

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Daily Devotion

rste104343 September 15, 2017 No Comments

September 15

What To Renounce

“We have renounced the hidden things of shame …” (2 Corinthians 4:2).

Have you “renounced the hidden things of shame” in your life—the things that your sense of honor or pride will not allow to come into the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone that you would not like to be brought into the light? Then renounce it as soon as it comes to mind—renounce everything in its entirety until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you at all. Envy, jealousy, and strife don’t necessarily arise from your old nature of sin, but from the flesh which was used for these kinds of things in the past (see Romans 6:19 and 1 Peter 4:1–3). You must maintain continual watchfulness so that nothing arises in your life that would cause you shame.

“… not walking in craftiness …” (2 Corinthians 4:2). This means not resorting to something simply to make your own point. This is a terrible trap. You know that God will allow you to work in only one way—the way of truth. Then be careful never to catch people through the other way—the way of deceit. If you act deceitfully, God’s blight and ruin will be upon you. What may be craftiness for you, may not be for others—God has called you to a higher standard. Never dull your sense of being your utmost for His highest—your best for His glory. For you, doing certain things would mean craftiness coming into your life for a purpose other than what is the highest and best, and it would dull the motivation that God has given you. Many people have turned back because they are afraid to look at things from God’s perspective. The greatest spiritual crisis comes when a person has to move a little farther on in his faith than the beliefs he has already accepted.

My Utmost for His Highest

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

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Daily Devotion

rste104343 September 14, 2017 No Comments

September 14

Arguments or Obedience?

“… the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/?p=1921&preview=true

Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your “arguments and … every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you (2 Corinthians 10:5). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing (see Matthew 11:25).

Even the very smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will still never make it clear. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment. This is humiliating, because when we are confused we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind. But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.

My Utmost for His Highest

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

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You Can’t Know Yourself Apart From Knowing God

rste104343 September 14, 2017 No Comments

September 13, 2017

You Can’t Know Yourself Apart From Knowing God

Brothers and Sisters grace and peace to you in the name of God our Father and His Son and the Holy Spirit. May God lavish you with His goodness, and kindness out of His vast treasures of wealth and supply all that you need, and delight your heart with what you really want. God is Good and He does wonderful things for those that love Him, and those that He love. Lord thank you for this time and opportunity to share with your people in which I am one. Bless them with the knowledge of the importance of knowing who they are to you. Lord lead me and guide me , in Jesus name Amen.

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/?p=1927&preview=true

Just about every human being at one time or another in our life ask the questions. Who am I ? Where did I come from ? Was I somehow here before? Somehow you knew that there was something obscured from our vision, from our mind’s eye. We had a strong sense of something, a point in our minds that we cannot seem to penetrate. and the answers we seek is yet beyond this continuum. So once we convince ourselves that we can’t solve the mystery. We come back to the questions at the age of adolescence when we began to become more independent and when we become a young adult we become active in seeking the answer. That when the idea surface I have to find out who I am. You can’t know yourself apart from God.

The first thing we need to know about God is that He created the Heavens and the Earth. In this statement located in Genesis 1:1 it is revealed that God is powerful and that He is a creator. If creating the earth is not powerful enough for us to see that God is awesome, then look up into the heavens, or in other words the universe. God created all that you see and can’t see. If you read the creation account you will see that God created the day and the night, and the plants and the animals and the days of the week, the sun and the moon and the last of His Creation is Man, the crown of God’s creation. If you want to know who you are, whose better to ask then your creator. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; ( Gen 1: 26a). In this verse of scripture, God revealed two very important things for us to pay attention to. The first thing for us to see is that God is talking to someone else. First Only God can create so the other persons that He is talking to are not angels because angels can.t create. He is not talking to Himself as though He is some kind of schizophrenic. God was speaking to the Son and the Holy Spirit. All three persons in the Godhead participated in the creation.

God said let us make man in our own image. If we look at each other neither of us look like. God is Spirit so we can’t see God with our eyes. But the image that God is speaking of is, Intellect, Emotion, and will. God created us to be the same kind of being that He is. God has a intellect and He gave us one, we have the ability to think independent of God and each other and most importantly we are able to communicate with God. God created man to worship Him. God Has a emotion and He gave us one. God has the ability to love to get angry, to be sad, to be sorry, in fact God is Love. God has a will and is able to do whatever He wills to do. God gave us a will and asked us to do his will and a choice to choose between His will or our will . This is where the problem comes in, in the exercise of free will man sinned. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—(Ro. 5:12)

v¹⁵But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many( Ro. 5:15). God gave Adam warning that the cost of his disobedience is death Gen 2:16’17. God created us from the dirt of the ground. Our bodies are made of the same ingredients that are found in the earth. When we die our bodies are going to return to the elements of which we were made. But that’s not all, its not over. We still have to be concerned about our soul. Where will it go? If you read the Gospel of Luke 16:19-23, you will see that the rich man died and went to Hell immediately to endure an eternity of suffering.

God’s word said,¹⁶For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. ( Rom 10:9,10). God cares about you and who you are, He knew you in eternity past before you were born. Before He created the earth. God knows you better than you know your self, and He loves you more then you love your self. God says that all you have to do is believe in His Son and you will be saved. Amen Thank you for my brothers and Sisters and friends, I hope this is a blessing to you and If you don’t know Jesus and you now believe, let me know to blog my post, if not blog my post. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus name Amen.

God Bless You

Rev. Reginald Stevens

From Time To Eternity

Devotional, Evangelism, Missionary

Daily Devotion

rste104343 September 13, 2017 No Comments

September 13

After Surrender—Then What?

“I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4).

True surrender is not simply surrender of our external life but surrender of our will—and once that is done, surrender is complete. The greatest crisis we ever face is the surrender of our will. Yet God never forces a person’s will into surrender, and He never begs. He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. And once that battle has been fought, it never needs to be fought again.

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/?p=1916&preview=true

Surrender for Deliverance. “Come to Me … and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). It is only after we have begun to experience what salvation really means that we surrender our will to Jesus for rest. Whatever is causing us a sense of uncertainty is actually a call to our will—“Come to Me.” And it is a voluntary coming.

Surrender for Devotion. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself …” (Matthew 16:24). The surrender here is of my self to Jesus, with His rest at the heart of my being. He says, “If you want to be My disciple, you must give up your right to yourself to Me.” And once this is done, the remainder of your life will exhibit nothing but the evidence of this surrender, and you never need to be concerned again with what the future may hold for you. Whatever your circumstances may be, Jesus is totally sufficient (see 2 Corinthians 12:9 and Philippians 4:19).

Surrender for Death. “… another will gird you …” (John 21:18; also see verse 19). Have you learned what it means to be girded for death? Beware of some surrender that you make to God in an ecstatic moment in your life, because you are apt to take it back again. True surrender is a matter of being “united together [with Jesus] in the likeness of His death” (Romans 6:5) until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.

And after you surrender—then what? Your entire life should be characterized by an eagerness to maintain unbroken fellowship and oneness with God.

My Utmost for His Highest

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

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