September 24

The “Go” of Preparation

Daily Devotion

“If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23–24).

It is easy for us to imagine that we will suddenly come to a point in our lives where we are fully prepared, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished. In fact, it is a process that must be steadily maintained. It is dangerous to become settled and complacent in our present level of experience. The Christian life requires preparation and more preparation.

The sense of sacrifice in the Christian life is readily appealing to a new Christian. From a human standpoint, the one thing that attracts us to Jesus Christ is our sense of the heroic, and a close examination of us by our Lord’s words suddenly puts this tide of enthusiasm to the test. “… go your way. First be reconciled to your brother… .” The “go” of preparation is to allow the Word of God to examine you closely. Your sense of heroic sacrifice is not good enough. The thing the Holy Spirit will detect in you is your nature that can never work in His service. And no one but God can detect that nature in you. Do you have anything to hide from God? If you do, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin in your life, don’t just admit it—confess it. Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master, whatever the humiliation to your right to yourself may be?

Never disregard a conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to you. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to bring it to your mind, it is the very thing He is detecting in you. You were looking for some big thing to give up, while God is telling you of some tiny thing that must go. But behind that tiny thing lies the stronghold of obstinacy, and you say, “I will not give up my right to myself”—the very thing that God intends you to give up if you are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ

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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September 21

The Missionary’s Predestined Purpose

“Now the Lord says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant …” (Isaiah 49:5).

The first thing that happens after we recognize our election by God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our preconceived ideas, our narrow-minded thinking, and all of our other allegiances—we are turned solely into servants of God’s own purpose. The entire human race was created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Sin has diverted the human race onto another course, but it has not altered God’s purpose to the slightest degree. And when we are born again we are brought into the realization of God’s great purpose for the human race, namely, that He created us for Himself. This realization of our election by God is the most joyful on earth, and we must learn to rely on this tremendous creative purpose of God. The first thing God will do is force the interests of the whole world through the channel of our hearts. The love of God, and even His very nature, is introduced into us. And we see the nature of Almighty God purely focused in John 3:16—“For God so loved the world … .”

We must continually keep our soul open to the fact of God’s creative purpose, and never confuse or cloud it with our own intentions. If we do, God will have to force our intentions aside no matter how much it may hurt. A missionary is created for the purpose of being God’s servant, one in whom God is glorified. Once we realize that it is through the salvation of Jesus Christ that we are made perfectly fit for the purpose of God, we will understand why Jesus Christ is so strict and relentless in His demands. He demands absolute righteousness from His servants, because He has put into them the very nature of God.

Beware lest you forget God’s purpose for your life.

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.

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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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.

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).

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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

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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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