Selfishly Unworthy

SOAP {Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer}:

FOR TODAY'S FULL READING, CLICK THE TITLE LINK ABOVE | ABOUT SOAP

SCRIPTURE
1 After all this, God tested Abraham. God said, "Abraham!"

"Yes?" answered Abraham. "I'm listening."

2 He said, "Take your dear son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I'll point out to you." 3-5 Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants and his son Isaac. He had split wood for the burnt offering. He set out for the place God had directed him. On the third day he looked up and saw the place in the distance. Abraham told his two young servants, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we'll come back to you."

6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and gave it to Isaac his son to carry. He carried the flint and the knife. The two of them went off together.

7 Isaac said to Abraham his father, "Father?"

"Yes, my son."

"We have flint and wood, but where's the sheep for the burnt offering?"

8 Abraham said, "Son, God will see to it that there's a sheep for the burnt offering." And they kept on walking together.

9-10 They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son.

11 Just then an angel of God called to him out of Heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"

"Yes, I'm listening."

12 "Don't lay a hand on that boy! Don't touch him! Now I know how fearlessly you fear God; you didn't hesitate to place your son, your dear son, on the altar for me."

13 Abraham looked up. He saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

GENESIS 22:1-13 [MSG]

OBSERVATION

The Great Provider never fails us.

APPLICATION
How great it must have been for Abraham to have been held in such high favor with God. Even after deceiving Pharoah and Abimelech, Abraham was considered a man of God.

When God put the ultimate test to Abraham, he obeyed. I would lay down my own life in an instant for those I love. But I cannot imagine sacrificing my own son as Abraham was asked to do.

I consider myself a faithful follower of Christ. I try to live as God would want. But in comparison to the faith of Abraham, mine seems to come up wanting.

PRAYER
How, Father, does a person have such faith as Abraham did? He was willing to give his son for You, just as You have given Your Son for me. Thank You for Your grace in light of my unworthiness.

Your comments?

Joe

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Going Forth

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
FOR TODAY'S FULL READING, CLICK THE TITLE LINK ABOVE.

SCRIPTURE:

7-8 Jesus called the Twelve to him, and sent them out in pairs. He gave them authority and power to deal with the evil opposition. He sent them off with these instructions: 8-9 "Don't think you need a lot of extra equipment for this. You are the equipment. No special appeals for funds. Keep it simple. 10 "And no luxury inns. Get a modest place and be content there until you leave. 11 "If you're not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way." 12-13 Then they were on the road. They preached with joyful urgency that life can be radically different; right and left they sent the demons packing; they brought wellness to the sick, anointing their bodies, healing their spirits. Mark 6:7-13 [MSG]

OBSERVATION: Christ has called us to His service. What will our answer be?

APPLICATION:

Christ has called us all to serve, to go forth and spread the Good News throughout the world. Just as when He commissioned the Apostles to go out preaching and healing in His name, He has told us that it would not be easy. He has told us that we would not live in luxury doing His work. He has even told us not to press the issue where we aren't welcome. Only the willing can be saved, and only God can soften a hard heart. Only God can make the unwilling willing.

He may use us, He may not. He may use circumstances to get to the most stalwart resisters. It is not for us to know God's methods, just as the sculpture cannot understand the sculptor's vision. But just as the clay that forms the sculpture must subject itself to the molding of the potter, we, too, must allow the Master to shape us and mold us and use us for His purpose. To go where He sends us, to do as He asks us, all in His glorious name.

PRAYER:

Father, I know that I sometimes resist Your will. I don't always faithfully answer Your call, despite my best intentions. I want to be used by You, Lord. Help me to strip away the excuses and to submit to Your will.

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Joe

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Prodigal Son

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
FOR TODAY'S FULL READING, CLICK THE TITLE LINK ABOVE.

• S: Then he said, "There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, 'Father, I want right now what's coming to me.' "So the father divided the property between them. It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. "That brought him to his senses. He said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I'm going back to my father. I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.' He got right up and went home to his father. "When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: 'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.' But the father wasn't listening. He was calling to the servants, 'Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We're going to feast! We're going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!' And they began to have a wonderful time. "All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day's work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, 'Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.' "The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen. The son said, 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!' "His father said, 'Son, you don't understand. You're with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he's alive! He was lost, and he's found!'" Luke 15:11-32 [MSG]
  
• O: No matter how we wander or where we roam, the Father always welcomes us home with open arms.
  
• A: I was saved at the age of twelve. Just a young boy who felt the Spirit move in me during a youth retreat with the Baptist Church my family attended at the time. I had grown up going to church, and it was just a matter of time before I would accept Christ as my Savior, be Baptized, and start my walk with Christ. But as so often happens, I soon found myself headed down a path that surely Christ wasn't leading me down. I experimented in some things that no one should be messing with at that age, especially not someone so new in his faith. Minor things by today's standards, but things I would be embarrassed to have my children learn about. Things I surely don't want them experimenting in. I became very selfish, thinking always of me and my own desires, and rarely of what God wanted from me. As always, my selfish pursuits paid the rewards I was due -- embarrassment, inconvenience, struggle. Well into adulthood, I lived selfishly, pursuing my own desires, wondering why life was so unfair. Until one day, when airplanes struck down America's symbols of success, and I felt the call to return to my roots and visit a church. That was the start of my return to the fold. The Father greeted me warmly, held me, comforted me. He welcomed me home. I'm far from perfect, but have learned to put my God and my family before myself, and life has never been better.
  
• P: Thank You, Father, for welcoming me home and showing me what really matters most. Thank You for family.
  

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Joe

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All Bark, No Bite

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: You can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law and ignoring others. The same God who said, "Don't commit adultery," also said, "Don't murder." If you don't commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you're a murderer, period. ... Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department." Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands? Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend." Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works? The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse. James 2:10-11, 14-26 [MSG]
  
• O: Faith without works is dead.
  
• A: Good deeds don't earn us a place in Heaven. We are saved by faith. But what is faith? Defined as "belief in something without proof," faith requires us to accept as fact that which we cannot provide evidence of. But what of good deeds then? If good deeds don't earn us a place in Heaven, why bother? If it's just enough to believe, what does it matter what we do? ANSWER: Real faith changes you. How can you have faith in God -- believe in God -- and not believe in His Word, or not want to follow the example He set through His Son Jesus Christ? If you just don't care what God says, what kind of faith do you have? By the same token, if you do have the kind of all-encompassing faith that makes you want to please your Creator by following His examples and obeying His direction, how then can deeds not matter? If I truly love my wife and am devoted and committed to her, it stands to reason that I would want to please her. And if I want to please her, then, would I not please her by doing things that make her feel good and happy and loved? Does my love for her alone please her? No! To just say that I love her isn't enough. I have to show her my love by doing something. My deeds are the acts that validate my love for her. It is just so with God. Although he knows my heart, and doesn't need to see proof of my faith, others are not omniscient. It is my faith and love for God that make me want to share Him with others. If I share only His Word but don't live an example of it through my actions, what is my faith worth? It is by setting an example through living the kind of life that God would be pleased with -- by these acts or deeds -- that others can see His Glory. Without those deeds, it's just words. Words without action are meaningless.
  
• P: Father, I want to please You in all that I do. Use me as a tool however You see fit so that I might reflect Your Glory upon others.
  

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Joe

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God Provides Our Needs

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: Don't be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, "I'll never let you down, never walk off and leave you," we can boldly quote, God is there, ready to help; I'm fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me? Hebrews 13:5-6 [MSG]
  
• O: God will provide.
  
• A: It seems that there is always something I need. Scratch that -- something that I want. In fact, I can see it in my whole family. There are several books I want. My wife wants new furniture for our formal living room. My son wants just about everything he sees. And it sure would be nice to have a newer car (but without the car payment, of course). But we don't really need all of those things (my wife would argue that we do need new furniture for the living room). Everything we need, God has provided. Food, clothing, shelter, transportation, friends and loved ones, etc. Even after doubling our house payment and taking on the practice of tithing ten percent of our income, God still gives us more than we need. Sometimes, I think we just don't see the difference between want and need.
  
• P: Lord, Thank You for your constant provisions. Help us, Father, to see the difference between want and need, and to remain thankful and obedient.
  

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Joe

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God Make Us ... Dead

As part of the One Prayer series going on now in over 1400 churches across the world, the following video was submitted by my church and presented this past Sunday for the evening worship.

It was a highly impactful presentation, with two Baptisms and several people in the congregation in tears throughout the corporate worship period following the presentation.

It's not a short video, but it is well worth watching.


OnePrayer.com - "God, Make us dead." - exchangemcc.org from shawnw on Vimeo.

Direct video link

Joe

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"What Could I Do?" -- What Can YOU Do?

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: Acts 26:15-19 (MSG)
  
• O: "I said, 'Who are you, Master?'
  
  "The voice answered, 'I am Jesus, the One you're hunting down like an animal. But now, up on your feet—I have a job for you. I've handpicked you to be a servant and witness to what's happened today, and to what I am going to show you.
  
  "'I'm sending you off to open the eyes of the outsiders so they can see the difference between dark and light, and choose light, see the difference between Satan and God, and choose God. I'm sending you off to present my offer of sins forgiven, and a place in the family, inviting them into the company of those who begin real living by believing in me.'
  
  "What could I do, King Agrippa? I couldn't just walk away from a vision like that! I became an obedient believer on the spot.
  
  
• A: Why can't we be like this today? Paul, a tormentor of Christians, answered the calling of Christ and "became an obedient believer on the spot." He followed God's direction and spread the story of Salvation to non-Jews. He became persecuted for his beliefs, just as he once persecuted Christians for their beliefs. Today, we hear the church calling us to serve in one way or another, but many find it so hard to answer with a YES. Our lives have become so hectic, so busy, that we don't have time for the One Person we should be devoting all of our time to: God. Can't we be more like Paul?
  
• P: Father, I myself have found it easier at times to make excuses than to say YES. So many things cry for my attention that I fool myself into thinking that they are more urgent, that God will wait. But I know that You wait for no one. That You wait only until You decide the time is right. Lord, help me to get up and say YES. Move me, Lord.
  

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Selflessness

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: Acts 21:4, 11, 13
  
• O: Their message to Paul, from insight given by the Spirit, was "Don't go to Jerusalem." ... "This is what the Holy Spirit says: The Jews in Jerusalem are going to tie up the man who owns this belt just like this and hand him over to godless unbelievers." ... But Paul wouldn't budge: "Why all this hysteria? Why do you insist on making a scene and making it even harder for me? You're looking at this backward. The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience. Can't you see that?"
  
• A: It can be so easy, sometimes, to look at the world in terms of the impact it has on me personally. Most of us do it. It's always, "that car cut me off," or "I just can't afford the price of gas," or "did you drink the last soda?" It can be so much more, in fact, such as favoring abortion because you want to live the kind of life where you might need one some day. Or maybe you just don't stop to help a disabled motorist because you might be late for work. Or, and I'll bet I'm not the only one guilty of this one at times, hesitating to share the word of God with someone because they just might laugh at you. But what of Paul? He was lead by the Lord to go to Jerusalem. Clearly being told by others not to go to Jerusalem because he would be tortured, how did he reply? Did he fear for his own safety? Maybe. But did he let that fear dictate his actions? Absolutely not. Instead, he explained that what happened to him was not at all important -- that whatever God accomplished through Paul's obedience by going to Jerusalem was worth any price he might pay. Must we live a self-centered existence? Or might we reap greater rewards by letting the Lord use us to accomplish his will?
  
• P: Lord, use me.
  

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Keep God's Earth Beautiful

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: Isaiah 24:1-6
  
• O: See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants- it will be the same for priest as for people, for master as for servant, for mistress as for maid, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor. The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. [ISAIAH 24:1-6 NIV]
  
• A: We have not taken care of the Earth that God has given us. He gave it to us (through Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden) to be good stewards of, and we have caused pollution and broken the laws of nature. We have destroyed the forests and plowed the fields under to make way for progress. We have developed equipment and machinery to improve our lives while at the same time destroying the bounty that God has given us. God's green Earth has been wrapped in gray skies by the pollution we keep pumping into the air. I'm no "tree-hugger," and could not be labeled an environmentalist by any stretch of the imagination, but I do believe that man will one day pay the price for our poor stewardship of God's Earth.
  
• P: Lord, for what little that we might be able to do to become better stewards of your Earth, I and my family want to help. From cleaning up the trash around the pond, to turning off unused lights more, reducing driving by consolidating or eliminating errand trips, and trying to reuse and recycle to eliminate landfill waste, please help us to inspire others to be more conscious of how our actions affect the Earth and those around us.
  

Keep America Beautiful







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Epiphany

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it. Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it, I'm going to step in and shock them awake, astonish them, stand them on their ears. The wise ones who had it all figured out will be exposed as fools. The smart people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know nothing." [Isaiah 29:13-14 MSG]
  
• O: Today was a very stressful day. The past week, in fact, has led up to it with some unusual happenings at work. First, last week there was a meeting of several District Managers and above at our corporate headquarters. This week, I have a visit scheduled with some people from our corporate headquarters and from a liquidation company that is coming in to pick up several clearance items as part of a test that will likely be rolled out to the entire company if it is successful in my store. I also received word that My District Manager and Loss Prevention Manager will be in my store on Wednesday to look into some high merchandise shrink numbers. And, there is a Store Manager meeting tomorrow for the entire District. It's been a hectic week. My company closed nearly three dozen stores several months ago, and has been struggling financially for quite some time. With a new CEO and Executive Council, the company is trying to reinvent itself. Any time a company is in this situation, it can be difficult not to worry about what might happen next -- restructuring, job eliminations, store closures, etc. All of the unusual coincidences happening at the same time have had me wondering a bit. I say all of that to say this: WOW! Did I have an epiphany today. After stressing over much of this and calling my wife to let out the stress, I sat in my car during a very short lunch and spent some time reading through the Bible. I read several chapters, and shortly after starting what I had planned to be the last chapter, I read the passage quoted above. It felt amazingly like God was trying to speak to me.
  
• A: "These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it." I want my heart to be "in it," but clearly there are distractions and preoccupations in life that tend to steal attention away from God and family. "Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it,..." Of course I worship God. But, when I'm in church, and we're singing, do I feel it? Am I worshipping and praising -- or just singing? And what of the rest of the week? Where is the praise and worship then? "I'm going to step in and shock them awake, astonish them, stand them on their ears." The message is coming through loud and clear now. How easy it could be for my whole world to be turned on it's end by things such as lost jobs or store closures. "The wise ones who had it all figured out will be exposed as fools. The smart people who thought they knew everything will turn out to know nothing." Now I know. See, I felt as if God was trying to get through to me, to tell me that I'm not quite living the life that He would want me to live. Like He had stood me on my ears with all of the uncertainty at work. When my wife and I were looking for our new house, we made several commitments to each other -- and to God -- that we haven't been doing a very good job of living up to. In some cases, we have actually used the new house as one of the excuses for not living up to these commitments. Through this passage in Isaiah, I feel that God has opened up my eyes and made me realize that there are some things that I need to be doing for Him. Funny thing of it is, when I spoke with my wife about it afterward and told her of my epiphany, she said she had been thinking the very same thing last night.
• P: God, I hear You. I hear You and I understand. Thank You for bringing me to the realization that we haven't been honoring our commitments to You. Whatever Your Will might be regarding the situation at work, I put my faith in You to see us through it.
  

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Obedience

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: Psalm 119:65-80
• O: Sometimes God uses trial and hardship to bring us closer to Him.
  
• A: Not that it's a form of punishment, so much. Though the Bible is full of situations in which God punished people for sin, we have been given the ultimate forgiveness for sin. Whether you choose to accept that forgiveness is up to you, but God has eliminated the need to punish us for failing Him. Instead, I think, God sometimes withholds His blessings from those of us who may have strayed in one way or another. And the withholding of those blessings can be sufficient that our own sinful acts send us into a state of turmoil. It doesn't seem to take long to start reaping what you sow. If what you sow is evil and wrong, then quite quickly you might find that bad things start coming your way. Isn't it funny how we then forget about the sin we may have committed? But if what you sow is love, goodwill, and obedience to God, He will shower you with blessings. The best thing of all: is isn't too late to change.
  
• P: Lord, help me to be more obedient to Your will. Help me to reject the sinful ways of the world that can be so easy for people to fall victim to, and to live my life according to Your plan.
  

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