Devotions for Dieters

Jonah 3:10
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Kent was devastated. The police review board had said he would be relieved of active duty if he didn't take off twenty pounds. He was a good cop. How could a few pounds make that much difference? Being a policeman was the most important thing in his life. If losing weight was what was required, then that's what he would do; no two ways about it. God wants us to do whatever it takes to take care of ourselves. When we do what is right, we escape the bad consequences that come along. Kent knew what he had to do, and he did it. We know what we need to do, and with God's help we, too, will succeed.

Today's thought: It's always a good idea to do what is pleasing to God!

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Bible Study

Why can't people of all religious faiths accept that one faith may have as much validity as another? That's an insurmountable difficulty for Christians. Why? Because only Christians claim that the founder of their faith, Jesus of Nazareth, while fully human, is also fully God.

And this belief, that Jesus is God, sets Christianity apart from all religions and philosophies and contradicts their teachings. That Jesus is God is one of the most taught and affirmed truths in the Bible

What Does God Say?

The Bible teaches clearly that Jesus is God. Read the following verses and answer the questions:

Colossians 1:15-17

John 1:1-4

John 1:14,17

How does it help you to see Christ as a "visible image of the invisible God"?

What kind of things does the Bible say God the Father created through Christ?

Who holds all creation together?

Who is referred to as "the Word" in John 1:1-4?

What does it mean to you that "His life brought light to everyone"?

How was the Law given to us?

Through whom did we receive God's unfailing love and faithfulness?

The Bible teaches clearly that Jesus proclaimed Himself God. Look at:

John 10:30

John 8:42

John 14:9-11

Now, answer these questions:

What is the relationship between Jesus and the Father?

Who sent Jesus into the world?

Jesus said you would love Him if what?

Jesus doesn't speak on His own initiative but whose?

The Bible teaches clearly that the followers of Jesus said He is God.

Matthew 14:33 and Matthew 16:16-17 are the verses that tell us that. Read them and answer these questions:

How did Jesus' disciples reveal their belief that Jesus was God's Son?

What caused the people to believe that Jesus was "the Prophet we have been expecting" (NLT)?

How did the disciples' description of who Jesus is differ from the description the people gave?

Who revealed to Peter that Jesus is the Son of God?

The Bible teaches clearly that the enemies of Jesus believed that Jesus said He is God.

You'll find that recorded in John 10:31-33; John 8:42 and John 8:58-59. Read those verses and answer these questions:

What question did Jesus ask the Jews who were preparing to stone Him?

Why were they going to stone Him?

Where did Jesus say He had come from?

Why did Jesus hide Himself?

My Thoughts

What do you think? Do you believe that Jesus is God? Would you say that to be a Christian, you must believe what Jesus said about His identity? If you do believe it, the Bible assures you:

"All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God" (1 John 4:15, NLT).

My Part

If you do not confess that Jesus is God, you exclude yourself from God's family. It is God's truth that Jesus, His Son, is God. And it pleases God when we believe that truth--and it is the only way to salvation.

"For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ's blood on the cross" (Colossians 1:19-20, NASB).

If Jesus is God, and He is, then He was telling the truth when He said He had the power to forgive sins and when He said that He is the only way to God and heaven.

Bible Study from Back to the Bible Copyright © 1996-2008 The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.bibleminute.org/

Against the Odds

Ezekiel 24-26, 1 Peter 2
Key Verse: Ezekiel 26:3

Lottery tickets are sold in grocery stores, convenient food marts and gas stations. People buy the tickets even though the chances of them winning are infinitesimally small. The odds are against them, just as with all forms of organized gambling. If the odds were not in favor of the "house," the casinos and lotteries would all go out of business. Still, with just a slight possibility of winning, people will gamble away their money.

Consider these odds: 1 in 400 million. Doesn't sound very favorable, does it? Yet in Ezekiel 26 there is a situation that would occur against similar odds. In verses 3-6 there are seven prophecies: many nations will come against the city of Tyre; its walls will be destroyed, and its towers pulled down; the rubble will be scraped away, leaving a bare rock; the place will be used to spread fishnets; it will become plunder for the nations; and the settlements on the mainland will be ravaged by the sword. Someone has calculated that the possibility of all of that happening as prophesied was 1 in 400 million.

The betting person would not like those odds, but this is not about gambling. Instead, this prophecy draws our attention to the certainty of the Word of God. God's prophets could say something that looked impossible but in reality was more than possible. It was a sure thing because God said it.

Ezekiel 26 is just one of many examples of fulfilled prophecy. The complete accuracy of the Bible in regard to the prophecies it contains as well as its accuracy regarding events of the ancient world are added evidence to the truthfulness of God's Word.

Actually, the odds were not 1 in 400 million. Since God said it, the odds were 1 in 1. What God says is a sure thing. Never doubt the Word of God.

2 Samuel 19:7-8

Going On

A page from John Wesley's diary reads as follows: "Sunday a.m., May 19, preached at St. somebody else’s, deacons called special meeting and said I couldn't return. Sunday p.m., May 19, preached on the street, kicked off the street. Sunday a.m., May 26, preached in meadow, chased out of meadow as a bull was turned loose during the services. Sunday a.m., June 2, preached out at the edge of town, kicked off the highway. Sunday p.m., June 2, afternoon service, preached in a pasture, 10,000 people came to hear me."

David had been hit with many heartbreaking experiences as well. His son had rebelled against him. His people had failed to support him. His trusted advisor, Ahithophel, had joined the enemy. His general and nephew, Joab, had disobeyed him and killed Absalom. In fact, life was probably at its lowest ebb for David. But he had a responsibility. He was king and he did not have the luxury to wallow in his sorrow. Life went on and so did David.

When you're battered by continual disappointments and heartaches, it's tempting to simply give up. But as Christians we don't have that luxury. God gives us responsibilities, and until He calls us home we need to fulfill them. There is no promise in God's Word that life will be easy, only that God will be faithful.

If you are tempted to give up, recognize your responsibilities. Until God gives the signal to pack up and leave, you must go on. In the meantime, rely on God's strength. He will never fail you.

The Next Best Thing

What is the consuming ambition of your life? What is the dream that fills your mind and heart? King David's dream was to build a temple for the Lord. He tells us about it in this psalm. I wish more people had this same wonderful ambition--to be builders, not destroyers.

During much of his life, David was a soldier. He defended Israel from her enemies and brought about peace in the land. But then he wanted to turn from battling to building. He wanted to exchange the sword for a trowel. He said, "I am not going to have any sleep until I find a place for God to dwell."

But God did not allow David to fulfill this high and holy ambition. Solomon, his son, built the temple instead. David was disappointed at first but then said, "If this is the will of God, I'll accept it." Then he did the most wonderful thing: he helped the next generation build the temple. David provided the plans and millions of dollars in gold, silver, precious stones, bronze and iron.

We may not fulfill all of our plans and ambitions, but we can do the next best thing. If God doesn't let us accomplish our goals, let's help somebody else meet his goals. Let's pay the bill. Let's give our wisdom. Let's encourage. We can't do everything, but we can do something.

* * *

If your dreams are not fulfilled in the will of God, help fulfill someone else's dreams by sharing your talents and resources. When you're concerned more with God's glory and not with who gets the credit, He can use you in more ways to accomplish His purposes. Let God use you in the ways He sees best.

Life, Light, Love

1 John 1:1-4

There are three key words in the epistle of 1 John. They are "life," "light" and "love." These words are used many times in this epistle.

That God has given us eternal life is clearly stated in 1 John 5:11-13, which are key verses to the study of this epistle. God has given us eternal life, and that life is in His Son. If we have the Son, we have eternal life; if we do not have the Son, we do not have eternal life.

Eternal life is a special quality of life that makes it possible for us to fellowship with God. More than eternal duration of life is meant.

The other two words, "light" and "love," provide the test whereby we may know whether or not that life is within us.

We are told that God, as to His nature, is light and that there is no darkness in Him. And if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with the other.

Light reveals righteousness, and it also reveals sin. By virtue of the light, we can know whether or not we have eternal life.

The love spoken of is a God-given love, and it becomes both the outward expression of the inward life and another test whereby we may know that we have such life.

The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5) so that the man who is born of God loves others. This is the very essence of Christianity.

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Cor. 2:9).

Rewardable Service

For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.

Jesus' favorite method of teaching was by parable. A parable is an account of something that may or may not have actually happened but nonetheless is designed to teach a truth. One of our Lord's most difficult parables is the parable of the kingdom that is likened to a householder.

In summary, the parable is this: Early in the morning one day a householder went out to hire laborers for a vineyard (Matthew 20:1). He agreed to pay the laborers a penny for the day, which were evidently the regular wages for the ordinary laborer. About the third hour the man returned to town and hired others to work in his vineyard, promising to pay them what was fair. At the sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours he returned to find others standing idle and likewise hired them with the same promise of payment.

At the end of the day the householder called his laborers together and had the steward of the house pay them, beginning with the last hired. Each was paid the same, but when those who were hired early in the morning received just a penny, they murmured that it was unfair to pay them a penny when those who had worked only an hour were also paid a penny. The householder replied that he had been just with the day-long workers, as he had been with the hour-long workers, and that whatever funds he had were his; he could do with them as he chose.

What would the Lord have us learn about Him from this parable? There are three things.

First, the Lord Jesus seeks laborers for His vineyard. There is much work to be done if we are going to win the world for Christ and train those who have been won to reproduce themselves and bear fruit in abundance. We are not saved to sit, soak, and sour; we are saved to serve the Lord. The most frustrated person in the world, I believe, is not the unsaved person; he has little understanding of what really awaits him. The most frustrated person in the world is the one who is saved and does not know why God has left him on the earth. Ephesians 2:10 claims, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." The Lord saved us to be laborers in His field.

Secondly, the Lord Jesus hires laborers at various hours and various stages in life. The Church did not begin fully equipped. Throughout history others have been added to the New Testament Church, as we have been added during these last decades. Those who were apostles in the New Testament Church will not receive a greater wage for their labors simply because they entered early into Christ's vineyard. God is interested in rewardable labor, not the hour in which we became laborers. If you have come to know the Lord as Saviour later in life and have not had the opportunities to serve Him as those who have been saved many years, do not despair. God is absolutely just in meting out rewards.

Thirdly, the Lord Jesus rewards generously as well as justly. This final lesson that this parable teaches us is perhaps the greatest of all. Each of these laborers was rewarded in an unexpected manner. Each one received a penny, a day's wage; and no one could complain that he was paid less than fair wages. Beyond acting justly to those who had been hired first, the householder acted generously to the others. When people see generosity to others and not to themselves, they are hurt and accuse the generous person of being unfair. But this is not the case. Having rewarded justly, the Lord Jesus was then free to reward generously.

A kind storekeeper once said to a little girl who was eagerly eyeing a jar of candy, "Take some; take a whole handful!" The little girl hesitated for a moment and then replied, "Will you please give it to me? Your hand is bigger than mine!" When we begin to compare our lives with others and compute our anticipated rewards, we will be dissatisfied. We must let the hand of God reward us as He deems just and fair. Remember, His hand is always bigger than ours. Let us live for Him today; let Him reward us tomorrow

MORNING HYMN
Praise the Saviour, ye who know Him!
Who can tell how much we owe Him?
Gladly let us render to Him
All we are and have.