Night Light for Couples - Times of Plenty

“I have set the Lord always before me.” Psalm 16:8

Just as we’re tempted to think God has forgotten about us when hard times come, so we tend to forget God when times are easy. Think about the marriages you have seen slide into trouble just when the couples seemed to have everything going their way.

Jesus told a story about a rich farmer who had no need for God. The farmer had his life nicely laid out. One year he produced such a bumper crop that he couldn’t store it all. In a world of suffering and starvation, that was his biggest problem! Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.’ ” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” (Luke 12:18–20).

Are you in a time of relative plenty in your life together? If so, be careful about slipping into arrogance and self‐contentedness. The next thing you know you’ll be behaving like the fool in Jesus’ story—as if you don’t need God. An old‐time preacher once wrote, “Blessedness is the greatest of perils because it tends to dull our keen sense of dependence on God and make us prone to presumption.”

Take a moment tonight to thank and praise God for all the good you enjoy. And remember to fully depend on Him each day, even when everything is going wonderfully.

Just between us…

• Do we trust God in good times, or do we begin to feel self‐sufficient?
• Do we give God the credit and praise when life is good?
• How can we encourage each other to rely on the Lord at all times?

Lord, You have poured out Your goodness on our lives, and we are truly grateful. Forgive us when we let satisfaction dull our devotion to You. Amen.

From Night Light For Couples, by Dr. James & Shirley Dobson
Copyright © 2000 by James Dobson, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Daily Readings for August 25, 2016

Job 8:1-10, 8:20-22
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: "How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children sinned against him, he delivered them into the power of their transgression. If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore to you your rightful place. Though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great. "For inquire now of bygone generations, and consider what their ancestors have found; for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing, for our days on earth are but a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding? "See, God will not reject a blameless person, nor take the hand of evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more."

Acts 10:17-33
Now while Peter was greatly puzzled about what to make of the vision that he had seen, suddenly the men sent by Cornelius appeared. They were asking for Simon's house and were standing by the gate. They called out to ask whether Simon, who was called Peter, was staying there. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Look, three men are searching for you. Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them." So Peter went down to the men and said, "I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for your coming?" They answered, "Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say." So Peter invited them in and gave them lodging. The next day he got up and went with them, and some of the believers from Joppa accompanied him. The following day they came to Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. On Peter's arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshiped him. But Peter made him get up, saying, "Stand up; I am only a mortal." And as he talked with him, he went in and found that many had assembled; and he said to them, "You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection. Now may I ask why you sent for me?" Cornelius replied, "Four days ago at this very hour, at three o'clock, I was praying in my house when suddenly a man in dazzling clothes stood before me. He said, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God. Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter; he is staying in the home of Simon, a tanner, by the sea.' Therefore I sent for you immediately, and you have been kind enough to come. So now all of us are here in the presence of God to listen to all that the Lord has commanded you to say."

John 7:14-36
About the middle of the festival Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. The Jews were astonished at it, saying, "How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?" Then Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine but his who sent me. Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him. "Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you looking for an opportunity to kill me?" The crowd answered, "You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?" Jesus answered them, "I performed one work, and all of you are astonished. Moses gave you circumcision (it is, of course, not from Moses, but from the patriarchs), and you circumcise a man on the sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the sabbath in order that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I healed a man's whole body on the sabbath? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment." Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, "Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah? Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from." Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, "You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me." Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many in the crowd believed in him and were saying, "When the Messiah comes, will he do more signs than this man has done?" The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering such things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent temple police to arrest him. Jesus then said, "I will be with you a little while longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will search for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come." The Jews said to one another, "Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, 'You will search for me and you will not find me' and 'Where I am, you cannot come'?"

Morning Psalms

Psalm 18 Part I Diligam te, Domine.
1   I love you, O LORD my strength, O LORD my stronghold, my crag, and my haven.
2   My God, my rock in whom I put my trust, my shield, the horn of my salvation, and my refuge; you are worthy of praise.
3   I will call upon the LORD, and so shall I be saved from my enemies.
4   The breakers of death rolled over me, and the torrents of oblivion made me afraid.
5   The cords of hell entangled me, and the snares of death were set for me.
6   I called upon the LORD in my distress and cried out to my God for help.
7   He heard my voice from his heavenly dwelling; my cry of anguish came to his ears.
8   The earth reeled and rocked; the roots of the mountains shook; they reeled because of his anger.
9   Smoke rose from his nostrils and a consuming fire out of his mouth; hot burning coals blazed forth from him.
10   He parted the heavens and came down with a storm cloud under his feet.
11   He mounted on cherubim and flew; he swooped on the wings of the wind.
12   He wrapped darkness about him; he made dark waters and thick clouds his pavilion.
13   From the brightness of his presence, through the clouds, burst hailstones and coals of fire.
14   The LORD thundered out of heaven; the Most High uttered his voice.
15   He loosed his arrows and scattered them; he hurled thunderbolts and routed them.
16   The beds of the seas were uncovered, and the foundations of the world laid bare, at your battle cry, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
17   He reached down from on high and grasped me; he drew me out of great waters.
18   He delivered me from my strong enemies and from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.
19   They confronted me in the day of my disaster; but the LORD was my support.
20   He brought me out into an open place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

Evening Psalms

Psalm 18:Part II Et retribuet mihi
21   The LORD rewarded me because of my righteous dealing; because my hands were clean he rewarded me;
22   For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not offended against my God;
23   For all his judgments are before my eyes, and his decrees I have not put away from me;
24   For I have been blameless with him and have kept myself from iniquity;
25   Therefore the LORD rewarded me according to my righteous dealing, because of the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
26   With the faithful you show yourself faithful, O God; with the forthright you show yourself forthright.
27   With the pure you show yourself pure, but with the crooked you are wily.
28   You will save a lowly people, but you will humble the haughty eyes.
29   You, O LORD, are my lamp; my God, you make my darkness bright.
30   With you I will break down an enclosure; with the help of my God I will scale any wall.
31   As for God, his ways are perfect; the words of the LORD are tried in the fire; he is a shield to all who trust in him.
32   For who is God, but the LORD? who is the Rock, except our God?
33   It is God who girds me about with strength and makes my way secure.
34   He makes me sure-footed like a deer and lets me stand firm on the heights.
35   He trains my hands for battle and my arms for bending even a bow of bronze.
36   You have given me your shield of victory; your right hand also sustains me; your loving care makes me great.
37   You lengthen my stride beneath me, and my ankles do not give way.
38   I pursue my enemies and overtake them; I will not turn back till I have destroyed them.
39   I strike them down, and they cannot rise; they fall defeated at my feet.
40   You have girded me with strength for the battle; you have cast down my adversaries beneath me; you have put my enemies to flight.
41   I destroy those who hate me; they cry out, but there is none to help them; they cry to the LORD, but he does not answer.
42   I beat them small like dust before the wind; I trample them like mud in the streets.
43   You deliver me from the strife of the peoples; you put me at the head of the nations.
44   A people I have not known shall serve me; no sooner shall they hear than they shall obey me; strangers will cringe before me.
45   The foreign peoples will lose heart; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds.
46   The LORD lives! Blessed is my Rock! Exalted is the God of my salvation!
47   He is the God who gave me victory and cast down the peoples beneath me.
48   You rescued me from the fury of my enemies; you exalted me above those who rose against me; you saved me from my deadly foe.
49   Therefore will I extol you among the nations, O LORD, and sing praises to your Name.
50   He multiplies the victories of his king; he shows loving-kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants for ever.

The Forward Day by Day Meditation for August 25, 2016

From Forward Day By Day

John 7:24 (NRSV) Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

For years I played the role of the self-appointed “Captain of the World,” correcting everybody in order to “help” them be better. It was a lonely role but necessary if the world was ever going to be set aright—and someone had to do it. One year, I gave it up for Lent. Life has been a lot better since I resigned my captaincy.

In various seminars, I would caution supervisors and managers not to run around looking for and finding fault with everything, playing referee, throwing flags, calling strikes, putting people into penalty boxes. I tried to impart wisdom from The One-Minute Manager: “Instead of catching people doing things wrong, make it your job to catch people doing things right.” This mindset changes you and your work environment. This goes for family, friends, fellow congregants, and clergy too.

Judging with right judgment might also mean looking for things that are right in others as we dig below the surface to understand where they are coming from—sometimes it’s a place deserving of applause, not criticism.

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His Princess Every Day - Life

Devotionals for Women - Inspirational author and speaker Sheri Rose Shepherd imagines what a letter written from God to you would look like.

My Daughter,

Please don’t walk away from me when life hits and your heart is broken. I know sometimes you hurt so bad you want to blame me. I understand how hard it is for you to keep your heart committed to me, when you feel I have disappeared in the midst of your pain. I have been broken for you to have the strength to live. I am here--and I am working things out for you even when it seems as if nothing has changed. I have my hand on you and extended to you at all times. No one can hold you as close as I can. So don’t run, my love--unless it is into my arms of mercy.

Love,
Your Lord

Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever. - Psalm 23:6 (NLT)

This devotional is written by Sheri Rose Shepherd. All content copyright Sheri Rose Shepherd 2015. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Visit HisPrincess.com for devotionals, books, videos, and more from Sheri Rose Shepherd.

Girlfriends in God - Making God Smile

by Mary Southerland

Today’s Truth

For the Lord searches every heart, and understands every desire and every thought (1 Chronicles 28:9b).

Friend to Friend

I have several roles in life. I am a wife, a mother, an author, a speaker … the list is really quite impressive. But being Mimi to our six grandchildren hovers around the top of that list. So when the phone rang, and I heard the sweet voice of our grandson Justus ask, “Mimi, can you and Papa come to my school for Grandparent’s Day?” I did not even have to look at my calendar. Whatever appointments I might have had could be moved in a heartbeat. “We would love to, buddy!” I replied.

When Dan and I arrived, Justus’ teacher, Mrs. Fox, greeted us and told us to look around. Since I taught elementary school for several years while Dan attended seminary, I was especially interested in scoping out the classroom to make sure she was doing a good job. She was.

And then it was time for games! Mrs. Fox divided the children into three groups. Justus and his group were playing pin the skull on the skeleton. They had just completed a series of lessons on the skeletal system … and Justus is in Kindergarten! Yep! She was doing a great job.

As volunteer parents lined the children up, Mrs. Fox came to stand beside me. “Aren’t they going to blindfold the kids?” I asked. Mrs. Fox smiled and said, “No. Some of the children really don’t like that, so we just tell them to close their eyes. And I will tell you that Justus will be the only child in this room who will not peek."

Even though Justus is only six years old, he is a strong believer with a solid faith. Justus has a pure heart and loves Jesus with all of that heart. Still … he is a child with much to learn.

“Really? You think so?” I asked Mrs. Fox. She smiled and nodded. And we watched as each child was told to close his or her eyes. They were then spun in a circle three times, pointed toward the skeleton taped to the wall, and told to pin the head on the skeleton.

As child after child stumbled toward their goal, every single one of them opened their eyes at least once or did not even bother to close them all the way. And then it was Justus’ turn.

Mrs. Fox nudged me and whispered, “Now watch this!” The volunteer spun Justus in a circle three times, told him to close his eyes tightly, and sent him off in the direction of the waiting headless skeleton. I could tell Justus was dizzy as he began to veer away from the wall entirely. Shouts of direction from friends helped him get back on course.

When he was about two feet away from his goal, Justus suddenly stopped, and with a look of distress on his face said, “Mrs. Fox, I’m sorry! I really, really tried to keep my eyes closed, but they just came open once."

Wow! Just wow!

Mrs. Fox smiled at me and said, “Justus, because you were honest, you can have another turn.” The relief on our grandson’s face was beautiful! He got back in line and tried it again. This time he made it all the way to the wall where he proudly pinned the skull on the chalkboard … a good two feet away from the skeleton.

Integrity is a beautiful thing. And our six-year-old grandson had just schooled me on the subject.

I was undone because of the lack of integrity in my life. Oh, I can argue that there are some areas where I might pass the test of what the world calls integrity. But integrity is an all or nothing deal. It is a heart issue – a spiritual habit that decides beforehand to do the right thing.

Integrity matters to God.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8, NIV).

The word for “pure” means “ready for sacrifice.” In other words, the decisions and choices we make should be living sacrifices that are holy and acceptable to God as acts of worship.

To have integrity means to live an integrated life. That integration occurs when what we believe, what we think, what we say, and what we do are consistent. A life of integrity makes God smile.

When Justus opened his beautiful brown eyes and saw where he had pinned the skull, he did not care. He turned to me, his face beaming. Our eyes met … and we both knew he had just made God smile.

Let’s Pray

Father, please examine my heart and show me every impurity hidden there. Show me the disobedience that breaks your heart and hinders my walk with You. I want to please You, Lord.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.

Now It’s Your Turn

Memorize Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Make this verse the prayer of your heart. Continually ask yourself, “Will this choice make God smile?”

More from the Girlfriends

A word from Mary: I have a weekly Online Bible Study, Light for the Journey. I am very excited about a new study beginning September 5, Taking Down the Giants in Your Life. Do you struggle with fear, stress, jealousy, anger, and depression … the roadblocks to happiness and joy? Let’s tackle each one and see what God has to say. Join now and get all of 2016 lessons plus bonus studies in the summer.

Be sure to check out the FREE MP3s on Mary’s website and connect with Mary through email or on Facebook.

Seeking God? Click here to find out more about
how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Girlfriends in God
P.O. Box 1311
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NIV Devotions for Men - The Reality of Revelry

2 Samuel 22:1–7

Recommended Reading: Exodus 15:1–21; Psalm 18:1–50; Luke 1:46–55; Acts 16:16–40

“Music is an outburst of the soul.”

While this expression came from 19th-century English composer Frederick Delius, it could easily describe King David’s attitude toward worship.

The people around David probably grew accustomed to his musical outbursts. After all, it was King David—much to the chagrin of Saul’s daughter—who “[danced] before the LORD with all his might” (2 Samuel 6:14). Moreover, David wrote many of the psalms. We can imagine the shepherd-king in his bedchamber at night strumming his harp and composing another song to the Lord. Yet David was hardly a soloist in the family of God.

The whole Bible reverberates with the songs of people so enraptured by God’s work that their day-to-day lives gave way to melody. Moses and Miriam harmonized praise after God had led his people out of Egypt (see Exodus 15:1–21). Solomon crooned his way through Song of Songs, celebrating the marriage relationship between a husband and wife. Isaiah offered a prophetic song from the coming choir of the new Jerusalem (see Isaiah 26). Mary, when told that she would give birth to the Son of God, lifted a song to the child’s Father in heaven (see Luke 1:46–55). Paul and Silas shouted their praise, and God split the walls of their cellblock (see Acts 16:25–26). The Bible is full of the songs of God’s people.

What does this Biblical legacy of song say about us? We sing, as Moses, David and Mary sang, because God is worthy of song. When David opened his song (see 2 Samuel 22), the attributes of God came streaming out of the king’s mouth so quickly that he barely formed sentences—my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my shield, my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge.

Like David, may we be so overcome by the knowledge of God that our natural response is to burst forth in song. May we sing from a heart-knowledge of God—longing after him with our greatest affections and deepest desires.

To Take Away

• When in your life have you so keenly sensed God’s presence that you could have burst forth into song?
• How would you describe or rate your heart-knowledge of God?
• What steps can you take to deepen your delight in the character of God?

Daily Devotional by John Piper - When God’s Love Is Sweetest

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. (Ephesians 5:25–26)

If you only hope for unconditional love from God, your hope is great, but too small.

Unconditional love from God is not the sweetest experience of his love. The sweetest experience is when his love says: “I have made you so much like my Son that I delight to see you and be with you. You are a pleasure to me, because you are so radiant with my glory.”

This sweetest experience is conditional on our transformation into the kind of people whose emotions and choices and actions please God.

Unconditional love is the source and foundation of the human transformation that makes the sweetness of conditional love possible. If God did not love us unconditionally, he would not penetrate our unattractive lives, bring us to faith, unite us to Christ, give us his Spirit, and make us progressively like Jesus.

But when he unconditionally chooses us, and sends Christ to die for us, and regenerates us, he puts in motion an unstoppable process of transformation that makes us glorious. He gives us a splendor to match his favorite kind.

We see this in Ephesians 5:25–26. “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her [unconditional love], that he might sanctify her . . . and present the church to himself in splendor” — the condition in which he delights.

It is unspeakably wonderful that God would unconditionally set his favor on us while we are still unbelieving sinners. The ultimate reason this is wonderful is that this unconditional love brings us into the everlasting enjoyment of his glorious presence.

But the apex of that enjoyment is that we not only see his glory, but also reflect it. “The name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in him” (2 Thessalonians 1:12).

Standing Strong Through the Storm - NO TURNING BACK

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62

One of the blessings of teaching Standing Strong Through the Storm (SSTS) is the opportunity to meet special people in ministry who, though unassuming at first glance, have experienced deep riches in relationship with Jesus. Such a person I met in a jungle camp seminar in central Sri Lanka.

His English name was Samuel and he was a seasoned church planter. From Samuel I learned that church planting in a Buddhist country is no easier than anywhere else religious intolerance raises its head. I always thought Buddhism was a pacifist religion and philosophically it is. But try and plant a church in a dominant Buddhist community and you will see something different.

One day Samuel began to share with me about his ministry. He had been dedicated to the Buddhist temple as a young child by his mother just like his biblical namesake. As a young monk he was impressed by the witness of a Christian youth who led him to faith in Christ. He left temple life and felt called to be a Christian church planter. With his wife and two small children he moved to a new community and began to share Jesus. The villagers stoned his residence and when he would not desist, they burned it down.

He moved to another community and was attacked physically with severe wounds. In the next location the villagers schemed against him and his family. They cut the main posts of his home and worship center. At night they tied rope to the posts and pulled them out while the family was asleep. He knew God was with him. Two large structural beams fell down parallel to where the children were sleeping and neither of them was touched.

He continued on and I finally interrupted with the question, “How many times did this happen and you had to move on?”

Samuel smiled and answered, “Thirteen times!”

Of course, in my western way of thinking I asked, “How could you continue on and persevere through so many attacks?”

He replied, “It’s like the song we sang this morning at the SSTS seminar, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back!” And he quickly went on to say with a bigger smile, “Last month twenty-five people in my new community were baptized and I currently have another twenty-five in a baptismal preparation class.”
Jesus gives strength to carry on and not turn back. 

RESPONSE: Today I resolve to not allow petty challenges dampen my commitment to follow Jesus.

PRAYER: Thank You, Lord, for Samuel’s testimony of Your faithfulness. Help me never to turn back from following and serving You.

Un Dia a la Vez - El desorden y la suciedad (primera parte)

Vístanse de amor, que es el vínculo perfecto. Todos los caminos del hombre son limpios en su propia opinión; pero Jehová pesa los espíritus. Proverbios 16:2, RV-60 

El desorden y la suciedad son dos enemigos nuestros. ¡Qué importante es saber que el desorden y la suciedad son desagradables a la vista y a la vida y que también nos afecta en el campo espiritual! Nosotros podemos ser pobres o humildes, pero nada nos da derecho a ser desordenados y sucios.

El abandono personal y del hogar solo reflejan tu desinterés en la vida. En las Escrituras aprendemos que son los demonios los que viven en el desorden y la suciedad. Ese abandono te llevan a la depresión y te atan, de tal manera, que no puedes ver las bendiciones y las promesas que Dios tiene para ti.

Son muchas las promesas que tenemos, pero solo son para los valientes, para los que preparan su casa, ya sea que se trate de tu cuerpo o del techo bajo el que vives.

Dios es un Dios de orden y no puedes pedirle que reine de otra manera.

Limpia y ordena tu casa y tu vida, y verás la mano de Dios sobre ti.

Verse of the Day - August 25, 2016

Psalm 119:165 (NIV) Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.

Read all of Psalm 119