KNOWING WHAT “IS ALSO WRITTEN”
Jesus answered … «it is also written.” MATTHEW 4:7 NIV
After the blessing comes the battle! And Jesus was no exception. Following His baptism “the Spirit sent him out into the desert” (Mk 1:12 NIV), and after fasting forty days He was hungry. That’s when Satan showed up and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Mt 4:3 NIV).
You can count on the enemy to show up at your most vulnerable moments. And when he does you’d better know what the Word of God actually says-not just selected snippets and quotes you’ve heard second or third hand. “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching … in righteousness”
(2Ti 3:16 NIV). We pick the parts of Scripture that fit our lifestyle and bolster our theology, but when the enemy manipulates God’s Word and uses it against you, you need to be able to say, “It is also written.” You need to know what else God has to say. The Bible says Satan “will speak against the Most High … oppress his saints and try to change … times and …laws” (Dan 7:25 NIV). Satan knows the Word of God is “a double- edged sword” (Heb 4:12 NCV), but he’ll still try to engage you in a sword fight!
But “Jesus answered .. .’It is also written: Do not put … God to the test,” He knew what His Father had actually said, and refused to allow Satan to dictate His responses, including what He should eat. Whose menu are you eating from today? Are you like the prodigal, settling for pig-swill while your Father
has a feast prepared for you? TeU Satan, “Get thee behind me” (Mt 16:23), and stop letting him bamboozle you with lies and half-truths! Get into God’s Word and get it into you!
Taken from THE BEST OF THE WORD FOR YOU TODAY.
In front of the grocery store, a bubbly Girl Scout stood beside a table full of cookies.
“Please buy some cookies from me!” she begged.
“How much are they?” I asked
“They’re $5 a box, except these two kinds over here, They’re $6 a box.”
Figuring there must be a special about the two varieties, I asked why.
“Well, these are gluten-free,” the little girl replies.
“What about the others?”
She beamed. “Oh those are overpriced.”
WHAT ARE YOU CALLED TO DO? (3)
You are the salt of the earth. MATTHEW 5:13 NIV
Observe: (1) Your calling is often connected to what troubles deeply. For Moses it was the oppression of his people. So God used that, and caned Moses to lead his people to freedom. For William Wilberforce it was slavery. He devoted his entire life to seeing it eradicated in England, which it finally was shortly before his death. For Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. it was the injustice of a society that enslaved and oppressed African-Americans. So he dreamed and he preached and he marched and he organized and he boycotted, and the Civil Rights Movement was galvanized. If you want to discover your calling, begin praying about what troubles you deeply. Usually we try to avoid unpleasantness, but if you have a sense that your calling involves helping the poor, spend time around those in poverty. Allow your heart to be moved, carry within you the conviction that things must change, and keep praying, “Lord, make me a
change agent.”
(2) Your calling means God believes in you. When Jesus called His disciples they didn’t look like winners. Generally, in their day if someone was going to be the follower of a rabbi it happened much earlier, Plus, rabbis didn’t recruit, they took applications. But not Jesus. He picked a doctor, a tax collector and fishermen and said, “1 believe in you. What I know I will teach you.” He promised, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also” (In 14:12 NKJV). No wonder they left their nets! Jesus empowered His followers to go out to live as He lived. Today, that’s what He is calling you to do.
Taken from THE BEST OF THE WORD FOR YOU TODAY.
Baseball Season was supposed to have started by now. But . .
Why does everybody sing, “Take me out to the Ball Game” when they are already there?
You want proof that baseball players are smarter than football players? How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?
Yogi Berra – “Little League is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.”
WHAT ARE YOU CALLED TO DO? (2)
You are the salt of the earth. MATTHEW 5:13 NIV
When God called Moses, one of the questions He asked him was, “What is that in your hand?” (Ex 4:2 NIV). Moses held his shepherd’s staff. It represented his livelihood; it’s what he was good at, It represented his income; his flock was his wealth and his family’s security. God asked him to be willing to
lay it down. God still asks, “What is that in your hand?” What has been given to you? Your gifts, your money; your temperament, your experience, your relationships, your mind, your education. God has given you what Dr. Martin Seligman calls “signature strengths.” Seligman found that human abilities fall
into certain categories .. He defined them as: (a) Wisdom and knowledge (which includes abilities like curiosity, love of learning, sound judgment, and social intelligence). (b) Courage (perseverance and integrity). (c) Humanity (with capacities for kindness and the expression of mercy). (d) Justice (the ability to bring about fairness and leadership). (e) Temperance (qualities like self-control, prudence, humility). (f) Transcendence (the appreciation of beauty, the expression of gratitude, the ability of hope, the capacity for joy). We all have the capacity for each of these strengths, but a few resonate more deeply in you; they are your “signature strengths.” Identify these, and you begin to understand your calling.
Sometimes we think God couldn’t or wouldn’t use us because of om weaknesses. No, the opposite is true. No one can speak to those who grieve, better than those who’ve suffered loss. Chuck Colson was the chief White House lawyer, until Watergate. But it wasn’t until he was a convict that he was
prepared to begin prison fellowship. Today, if you let him, God will use you.
Taken from THE BEST OF THE WORD FOR YOU TODAY.
I ate dinner with a chess grandmaster last night. Problem was, we had a checkered tablecloth. It took him two hours to pass the salt.
A market researcher approached me and said, “Can I ask you ten questions?”
“Go on.” I said
“Question number one. Have you ever blacked out?”
“No”
“And finally, question number 10”
WHAT ARE YOU CALLED TO DO ? (1)
MARCH 31
You are the salt of the earth. MATTHEW 5:13 NIV
Sometimes what a person contributes doesn’t get noticed until they’re no longer around to do it. The story’s told of the husband who came home from work to find his house in a complete mess. The baby was crying, there were dishes piled up in the sink and dirty laundry on the Hoar. The TV was blaring, beds weren’t made, carpets weren’t vacuumed and dinner wasn’t ready. When he demanded to know what was up, his wife said, “You know how you always ask what I’ve been doing all day? Well, today I didn’t do it.” The Bible says, “Each one should retain the place in life … to which God has called him” (1 Cor. 7:17 NIV). This doesn’t mean that we should not aspire to greater things. It just means that if we can’t start where we are, we can’t start at all.
One day Jesus healed a demon-possessed man who’d spent years separated from his family. After being set free, the man wanted to travel with Jesus. But Jesus said, “No, go back home and tell them what the Lord has done for you” ( See Lk 8:39). In other words, start where you are, use what you’ve got, and do
what you can. The Bible says: “You are the salt of the earth.” Salt doesn’t exist for its own pleasure. It must be poured into something bigger than itself; only then does it fulfill its purpose.
But be careful, don’t be ego-driven. The quest for significance can be misleading. You can’t do it by yourself for yourself, you must do it with God and for His purposes-then God will bless you!
Taken from THE BEST OF THE WORD FOR YOU TODAY.
An elderly couple had just learned how to send text messages. He wife was a romantic and the husband was more of a no-nonsense guy.
One afternoon, the wife decided to send her husband a text.
She wrote, “I you are laughing, send me a smile. If you are crying, send me your tears. And if you are sleeping, send me your dreams. I love you.”
Her husband texted her back, “I’m on the toilet, please advise.”
SERVING GOD AND YOUR MATE
A married man … has to 1 CORINTHIANS 7:33 NLT
Paul writes: “An unmarried man can spend his time doing the Lord’s work and thinking how to please him. But a married man can’t do that so well. He has to think about … how to please his wife.” Gayle Urban tells of browsing in a bookstore and discovering a shelf with reduced-price items. Among the gifts was a little figurine with a man and woman, their heads lovingly tilted toward one another. “Happy Tenth Anniversary,” read the inscription. It appeared to be in perfect condition yet its tag indicated “damaged.” Examining it more closely, she found another tag underneath that read, “WIFE IS COMING UNGLUED!”
When you marry somebody, you marry everything they are and everything they have been through. It’s a package deal! And jf you ask God, He’ll give you the grace to minister to your mate. You may not see immediate change. It takes time for even a small cut to heal. But if you allow Him, God will give you the oil of compassion and the wine of love to pour into their wounds. Never become so spiritual that you become unavailable. Your first calling is to your mate and your family. Your priorities should start there, then spread to your career, your avocation and other pursuits. Paul says, in effect, “I release those
who are married from the level of consecration I expect from those who are single, so that they’ll be able to spend time working on their relationship.” You say, “But I need to spend time with the Lord.” That’s true, and the Bible doesn’t release you from your responsibility to God, it just sets some priorities.
You’re called to serve the Lord-and your mate!
What better time to do that today?
Taken from THE BEST OF THE WORD FOR YOU TODAY.
“Man of the Cloth”
As a church worker, I was sought out by many people for informal counseling. One single mother often stopped by to complain about all the silly things that men do.
After one particularly long tirade, she looked into my eyes and sweetly said, “Steve, I hope you know I don’t consider you a man.”
Splitting Hairs
I work with kids and I’d recently gotten my hair cut. A little boy named Jaiden asked, “Miss Joanne, did you get a haircut?”
Trying to be funny, I replied “I got ‘em ALL cut.”
He looked at me quizzically and asked, “What’s a MALL cut?”