Standing Strong Through the Storm - August 29, 2020

REJOICE IN THE LORD Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! Philippians 3:1a We've been learning personal lessons from prison from Pastor Okuk Ojulu in Ethiopia as he shared them with Jim Cunningham. He says, "The fourth lesson is to Rejoice in the Lord always in the prison. "Prison means cutting off almost all your freedoms from the previous life. The devil is more pressing in the prison than anywhere in life, preaching negatives things to us. The most powerful tool for victory in our Christian lives in the midst of negatives is to preach positives to defeat the devil of negatives. In other words, it is to develop a positive attitude in a hostile situation like in the prison. "In Philippians 3:1, it says, Rejoice in the Lord! Rejoicing in the Lord always enables us to approach the burning bush for a release from the prison. Let our prayer contain: "Yet not as I will, but as You will." "I hope this kind of prayer can discipline us, and help make us approach the Lord very closely in the burning bush—the very place where we can hear a distilled voice from Him for the deliverance of many in their misery. The burning bush does not burn us up, but it makes us remove our sandals when we approach it." Pastor Okok was released after three and a half years and God has rewarded his ministry, even his family. One of his daughters was chosen as Miss Ethiopia which paid for her education. He continues to minister in freedom but with new perspectives based on his prison life. Prison experiences are very personal and very impacting. I think that must be why I enjoy reading memoirs of Christians who have been in prison. They are so positive and uplifting compared to those of non-Christians. I especially remember the prayer of a Christian brother who was in prison for years in Romania during the difficult years of the cold war. He prayed: "Lord, I look forward to the great day I see you and your family in heaven. I look forward to seeing the great evangelists standing before you. I look forward to the day I see all the missionaries coming home rejoicing with their sheaves. I look forward to hearing all the great singers of the world praising you. I look forward to seeing the great preachers of the ages standing before you. "But Lord, I have one special request. When that day comes, allow me to be there in the clothing of a prisoner. I want to praise you throughout eternity in my prisoner's clothes to always remind me that I was a prisoner for you." RESPONSE: Today I will rejoice in the Lord in the face of all the negatives that Satan tries to throw at me. PRAYER: Lord, You are worthy of my praise and joyfulness no matter what circumstances I am in.

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Copyright Information Standing Strong Through The Storm (SSTS), a daily devotional message by SSTS author Paul Estabrooks. © 2011 Open Doors International. Used by permission.

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40 Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Day 20

Day 20 Only the obedient believe. A concrete commandment has to be obeyed in order to come to believe. A first step of obedience has to be taken, so that faith does not become pious self-deception, cheap grace. The first step is crucial. It is qualitatively different from all others that follow. The first step of obedience has to lead Peter away from his nets and out of the boat; it has to lead the young man away from his wealth. Faith is possible only in this new state of existence created by obedience. Biblical Wisdom As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea․for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. Mark 1:16-18 Questions to Ponder How do you understand the relationship between obedience and true faith? How might a "first step of obedience" change your relationship to Jesus? Why is the first step "qualitatively different from all others that follow"? Psalm Fragment O come, let us worship and bow down,    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God,    and we are the people of his pasture,    and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice! Psalm 95:6-7 Journal Reflections Is there a moment when you took a "first step of obedience"? If so, write about it. What was it like? How did it change your life? Do you need to take a "first step of obedience"? If so, any ideas or intuitions about what form that might take? Intercessions Pray that you, your family, and your spiritual friends would have the courage to be obedient to whatever God is calling you to. Prayer for Today Gracious God, grant me the wisdom to see what you need me to do and the courage to do it.

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Copyright Information 40-Day Journey with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Copyright © 2007 Augsburg Books, imprint of Augsburg Fortress. Subscription Information This email was sent to Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog by Bible Gateway, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA. This email is part of a devotional or newsletter that you signed up for on BibleGateway.com. For information regarding our privacy policy,click here. If you have questions or comments about this newsletter, please contact us. *Manage all Bible Gateway subscriptions — *Opt Out of all Bible Gateway communication *the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally

NIV Devotions for Couples- August 29, 2020

Finding Strength in Submission Philemon 1–25 Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. Philemon 8–9 During the Reformation, when Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli were exchanging strong words about Biblical interpretations and ecclesiastical practices, Zwingli spent a troubled morning walking the mountain trails of his beloved Switzerland. From a distance he observed two goats making their way toward each other on a path barely stitched to the side of a cliff. It was obvious that these nimble creatures could not pass one another. As the goats approached each other, each feinted a power move at the other in what looked like the beginning of a battle. In a surprise twist, however, one goat suddenly collapsed onto the narrow ledge so the other goat could walk over its back. Then each moved on. Zwingli was impressed. Here was strength defined by submission. It allowed two opponents to survive a crisis so both could get on with more important things. Zwingli applied the lesson to his next encounter with Luther. The same principle is evident in Paul's words to Philemon. Philemon's slave Onesimus had run away, met Paul in Rome and become a Christian. Now Paul was sending the slave back to his master, urging Philemon to receive Onesimus, not as mere property, but as a brother. Instead of butting heads with Philemon, Paul extended a hand of love. Was this a sign of weakness? Psychological manipulation? Both possibilities and a variety of others enter a marital relationship. Sometimes we badger one another. Sometimes, like goats poised for battle on a mountain trail, we come close to butting heads. Sometimes we spit and snarl and lash out. Sometimes we sit together and lovingly hash things out. What is helpful and healthy in good relationships is honesty. Not just truthfulness that blurts out every last thought, but self-awareness that is not deceptive. It is as important that I learn to be honest with myself as it is to be truthful with my partner. If Paul was in touch with his own thoughts and feelings when he wrote to Philemon, he could state his case without deploying manipulative or subversive tactics. He could focus on Philemon's well-being and circumstances while maintaining his own perspective. Too often we allow our emotions to derail relationships because we are blinded by excessive self-importance. The strength of our emotions, especially when we are at odds with each other, inflates our tendency for self-preservation and diminishes our sense of the other's importance in our lives. We need to keep relationships personal and issues impersonal as we build faithfulness with one another. Disagreements are inevitable in any relationship. But the ways in which we work through them can bind us more tightly together in love. Paul's kindness to Philemon offers a very good example to follow. Wayne Brouwer Let's Talk What do we tend to disagree about? What happens in our relationship whenever that topic comes up? How do our feelings get involved? When we disagree, does one of us generally dominate the other? What is dangerous about that? How could we change that pattern? How do we show our respect for one another when we disagree about something? If we videotaped one of our arguments and showed it to a friend or a marriage counselor, what would they say?

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Investigating Faith with Lee Strobel- August 29, 2020

The Miracle of All Miracles Candy heiress Helen Vorhees Brach flew into O’Hare International Airport on a crisp autumn afternoon, stepped into a crowd, and promptly disappeared without a trace. For more than twenty years the mystery of what happened to this red-haired, animal-loving philanthropist has baffled police and journalists alike. While investigators are convinced she was murdered, they haven’t been able to determine the specific circumstances, largely because they’ve never found her body. Police have floated some speculation, leaked tantalizing possibilities to the press, and even got a judge to declare that a con man was responsible for her disappearance. But absent a corpse, her murder officially remains unsolved. Nobody has ever been charged with her slaying. The Brach case is one of those frustrating enigmas that keep me awake from time to time as I mentally sift through the sparse evidence and try to piece together what happened. Ultimately it’s an unsatisfying exercise; I want to know what happened, and there just aren’t enough facts to chase away the conjecture. Occasionally bodies turn up missing in pulp fiction and real life, but rarely do you encounter an empty tomb. Unlike the case of Helen Brach, the issue with Jesus isn’t that he was nowhere to be seen. It’s that he was seen, alive; he was seen, dead; and he was seen, alive once more. If we believe the gospel accounts, this isn’t a matter of a missing body. No, it’s a matter of Jesus still being alive, even to this day, even after publicly succumbing to the horrors of crucifixion. The empty tomb, as an enduring symbol of the resurrection, is the ultimate representation of Jesus’ claim to being God. The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:17 that the resurrection is at the very core of the Christian faith: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” Theologian Gerald O’Collins put it this way: “In a profound sense, Christianity without the resurrection is not simply Christianity without its final chapter. It is not Christianity at all.” The resurrection is the supreme vindication of Jesus’ divine identity and his inspired teaching. It’s the proof of his triumph over sin and death. It’s the foreshadowing of the resurrection of his followers. It’s the basis of Christian hope. It’s the miracle of all miracles.

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Copyright Information Devotional content drawn from the writings of Lee Strobel. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

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