Riverside, California, United States - Harvest Ministry with Greg Laurie Daily Devotion for MOnday, 2 June 2014 "The Nut Has Gone"

Riverside, California, United States - Harvest Ministry with Greg Laurie Daily Devotion for MOnday, 2 June 2014 "The Nut Has Gone"
Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.(1 Corinthians 15:20)
A minister who was conducting a funeral service wanted to speak of some of the wonderful things about the deceased. But this poor guy said the wrong thing. He boldly proclaimed, "What we have here is only the shell," gesturing toward the coffin. Then he added, "But the nut has gone." He didn't want it to come out that way. But that is a pretty accurate statement of what happens when we die.
God will give us new bodies one day — resurrection bodies. And we will need these new bodies because we will be in a new place called heaven. Of course, we wouldn't think of sending astronauts into space dressed like they are going to the beach. They must have special suits that are designed to allow them to breathe and function in their new environment. Our earthly bodies suit us fine for life on earth. But in heaven, we will need new bodies.
We will need new bodies for our new environment because, to begin with, if we were to see God in the bodies were are living in right now, we would disintegrate on the spot. Why? Because we aren't perfect people. Our bodies are limited by the effects of sin. The very fact that we age, can get sick, and will one day die (if the Lord does come back for us first) means that we have bodies that are tainted by sin. We need new bodies, made into the image of Jesus.
You will leave the shell, but the "nut," the real you, will go into the presence of the Lord.[Today's devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013]
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This minister may have said the wrong thing at a funeral service, but it was a pretty accurate statement of what happens when we die.
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Today's Bible Reading:
Proverbs 22:1 A good name is more desirable than great riches,
    and loving favor is better than silver and gold.
2 The rich and the poor have this in common:
    Yahweh is the maker of them all.
3 A prudent man sees danger, and hides himself;
    but the simple pass on, and suffer for it.
4 The result of humility and the fear of Yahweh
    is wealth, honor, and life.
5 Thorns and snares are in the path of the wicked:
    whoever guards his soul stays from them.
6 Train up a child in the way he should go,
    and when he is old he will not depart from it.
7 The rich rule over the poor.
    The borrower is servant to the lender.
8 He who sows wickedness reaps trouble,
    and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
9 He who has a generous eye will be blessed;
    for he shares his food with the poor.
10 Drive out the mocker, and strife will go out;
    yes, quarrels and insults will stop.
11 He who loves purity of heart and speaks gracefully
    is the king’s friend.
12 Yahweh’s eyes watch over knowledge;
    but he frustrates the words of the unfaithful.
13 The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!
    I will be killed in the streets!”
14 The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit:
    he who is under Yahweh’s wrath will fall into it.
15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child:
    the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
16 Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich,
    both come to poverty.
17 Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise.
    Apply your heart to my teaching.
18 For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you,
    if all of them are ready on your lips.
19 That your trust may be in Yahweh,
    I teach you today, even you.
20 Haven’t I written to you thirty excellent things
    of counsel and knowledge,
21 To teach you truth, reliable words,
    to give sound answers to the ones who sent you?
22 Don’t exploit the poor, because he is poor;
    and don’t crush the needy in court;
23 for Yahweh will plead their case,
    and plunder the life of those who plunder them.
24 Don’t befriend a hot-tempered man,
    and don’t associate with one who harbors anger:
25 lest you learn his ways,
    and ensnare your soul.
26 Don’t you be one of those who strike hands,
    of those who are collateral for debts.
27 If you don’t have means to pay,
    why should he take away your bed from under you?
28 Don’t move the ancient boundary stone,
    which your fathers have set up.
29 Do you see a man skilled in his work?
    He will serve kings.
    He won’t serve obscure men.
23:1 When you sit to eat with a ruler,
    consider diligently what is before you;
2 put a knife to your throat,
    if you are a man given to appetite.
3 Don’t be desirous of his dainties,
    since they are deceitful food.
4 Don’t weary yourself to be rich.
    In your wisdom, show restraint.
5 Why do you set your eyes on that which is not?
    For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.
6 Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye,
    and don’t crave his delicacies:
7     for as he thinks about the cost, so he is.
    “Eat and drink!” he says to you,
    but his heart is not with you.
8 The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up,
    and lose your good words.
9 Don’t speak in the ears of a fool,
    for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
10 Don’t move the ancient boundary stone.
    Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless:
11 for their Defender is strong.
    He will plead their case against you.
12 Apply your heart to instruction,
    and your ears to the words of knowledge.
13 Don’t withhold correction from a child.
    If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
14 Punish him with the rod,
    and save his soul from Sheol.[a]
15 My son, if your heart is wise,
    then my heart will be glad, even mine:
16 yes, my heart will rejoice,
    when your lips speak what is right.
17 Don’t let your heart envy sinners;
    but rather fear Yahweh all the day long.
18 Indeed surely there is a future hope,
    and your hope will not be cut off.
19 Listen, my son, and be wise,
    and keep your heart on the right path!
20 Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine,
    or those who gorge themselves on meat:
21 for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor;
    and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
22 Listen to your father who gave you life,
    and don’t despise your mother when she is old.
23 Buy the truth, and don’t sell it.
    Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.
24 The father of the righteous has great joy.
    Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.
25 Let your father and your mother be glad!
    Let her who bore you rejoice!
26 My son, give me your heart;
    and let your eyes keep in my ways.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit;
    and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
28 Yes, she lies in wait like a robber,
    and increases the unfaithful among men.
29 Who has woe?
    Who has sorrow?
    Who has strife?
    Who has complaints?
    Who has needless bruises?
    Who has bloodshot eyes?
30 Those who stay long at the wine;
    those who go to seek out mixed wine.
31 Don’t look at the wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles in the cup,
    when it goes down smoothly.
32 In the end, it bites like a snake,
    and poisons like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,
    and your mind will imagine confusing things.
34 Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea,
    or as he who lies on top of the rigging:
35 “They hit me, and I was not hurt!
    They beat me, and I don’t feel it!
    When will I wake up? I can do it again.
    I can find another.”
24:1 Don’t be envious of evil men;
    neither desire to be with them:
2 for their hearts plot violence,
    and their lips talk about mischief.
3 Through wisdom a house is built;
    by understanding it is established;
4 by knowledge the rooms are filled
    with all rare and beautiful treasure.
5 A wise man has great power;
    and a knowledgeable man increases strength;
6 for by wise guidance you wage your war;
    and victory is in many advisors.
7 Wisdom is too high for a fool:
    he doesn’t open his mouth in the gate.
8 One who plots to do evil
    will be called a schemer.
9 The schemes of folly are sin.
    The mocker is detested by men.
10 If you falter in the time of trouble,
    your strength is small.
11 Rescue those who are being led away to death!
    Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter!
12 If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this”;
    doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it?
He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it?
    Shall he not render to every man according to his work?
13 My son, eat honey, for it is good;
    the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste:
14 so you shall know wisdom to be to your soul;
    if you have found it, then there will be a reward,
    your hope will not be cut off.
15 Don’t lay in wait, wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous.
    Don’t destroy his resting place:
16 for a righteous man falls seven times, and rises up again;
    but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.
17 Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls.
    Don’t let your heart be glad when he is overthrown;
18 lest Yahweh see it, and it displease him,
    and he turn away his wrath from him.
19 Don’t fret yourself because of evildoers;
    neither be envious of the wicked:
20 for there will be no reward to the evil man;
    and the lamp of the wicked shall be snuffed out.
21 My son, fear Yahweh and the king.
    Don’t join those who are rebellious:
22 for their calamity will rise suddenly;
    the destruction from them both—who knows?
23 These also are sayings of the wise.
To show partiality in judgment is not good.
24 He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous”;
    peoples shall curse him, and nations shall abhor him—
25 but it will go well with those who convict the guilty,
    and a rich blessing will come on them.
26 An honest answer
    is like a kiss on the lips.
27 Prepare your work outside,
    and get your fields ready.
    Afterwards, build your house.
28 Don’t be a witness against your neighbor without cause.
    Don’t deceive with your lips.
29 Don’t say, “I will do to him as he has done to me;
    I will render to the man according to his work.”
30 I went by the field of the sluggard,
    by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;
31 Behold, it was all grown over with thorns.
    Its surface was covered with nettles,
    and its stone wall was broken down.
32 Then I saw, and considered well.
    I saw, and received instruction:
33 a little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to sleep;
34 so your poverty will come as a robber,
    and your want as an armed man.
Footnotes:
a. Proverbs 23:14 Sheol is the place of the dead.
Romans 14:1 Now accept one who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions. 2 One man has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. 4 Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand.
5 One man esteems one day as more important. Another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. He who doesn’t eat, to the Lord he doesn’t eat, and gives God thanks. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11 For it is written,
“‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘to me every knee will bow.
    Every tongue will confess to God.’”[a]
12 So then each one of us will give account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let’s not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling. 14 I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 15 Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. 16 Then don’t let your good be slandered, 17 for God’s Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then, let us follow after things which make for peace, and things by which we may build one another up. 20 Don’t overthrow God’s work for food’s sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating. 21 It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak.
22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn’t judge himself in that which he approves. 23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.
24 Now to him who is able to establish you according to my Good News and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret through long ages, 25 but now is revealed, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known for obedience of faith to all the nations; 26 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.[b]
Footnotes:
a. Romans 14:11 Isaiah 45:23
b. Romans 14:26 TR places verses 24-26 after Romans 16:24 as verses 25-27.
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Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie 
P.O. Box 4000
Riverside, CA 92514-4000 United States
Phone: 1(800)821-3300
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