Daily Devotions With Greg Laurie ~ "Forgiveness Brings Courage” ~ Wednesday, 30 October 2013
"Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."~~John 8:36
Sometimes people have a hard time believing they have been forgiven by God. They walk around with guilt and feel almost as though they will be able to pay some kind of penance by continuing to beat themselves up over their sins. But they need to accept the forgiveness that Christ has given to them and start behaving like a forgiven person, realizing that "if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).
In Matthew 9 we find the story of a paralyzed man who was carried by his friends into the presence of Jesus. When Jesus saw the faith of his friends, he said to the man, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you" (verse 2). This is the first time we see Jesus' use of the phrase, "Be of good cheer," and He used it when he was assuring a man that his sins were forgiven.
Now, it doesn't seem like they brought him to Jesus to have his sins forgiven; it seems like they brought him to be healed. So Jesus went on to say, "For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins"—then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house" (verses 5–6). And the man did.
Jesus forgave this man of his sins, and in this case, God's forgiveness brought courage. God does His part, and then we must do ours. You see, God gives His forgiveness to us, and we must accept that forgiveness.
Are you living in God's forgiveness? Or, are you living in guilt because you are unwilling to accept it?
~~~~~~~
TODAY’S BIBLE READINGS:
Job 21:1 Then Job answered,
2 “Listen diligently to my speech.
Let this be your consolation.
3 Allow me, and I also will speak;
After I have spoken, mock on.
4 As for me, is my complaint to man?
Why shouldn’t I be impatient?
5 Look at me, and be astonished.
Lay your hand on your mouth.
6 When I remember, I am troubled.
Horror takes hold of my flesh.
7 “Why do the wicked live,
become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
8 Their child is established with them in their sight,
their offspring before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from fear,
neither is the rod of God upon them.
10 Their bulls breed without fail.
Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.
11 They send out their little ones like a flock.
Their children dance.
12 They sing to the tambourine and harp,
and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
13 They spend their days in prosperity.
In an instant they go down to Sheol.*
14 They tell God, ‘Depart from us,
for we don’t want to know about your ways.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
16 Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out,
that their calamity comes on them,
that God distributes sorrows in his anger?
18 How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind,
as chaff that the storm carries away?
19 You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’
Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.
20 Let his own eyes see his destruction.
Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what does he care for his house after him,
when the number of his months is cut off?
22 “Shall any teach God knowledge,
since he judges those who are high?
23 One dies in his full strength,
being wholly at ease and quiet.
24 His pails are full of milk.
The marrow of his bones is moistened.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul,
and never tastes of good.
26 They lie down alike in the dust.
The worm covers them.
27 “Behold, I know your thoughts,
the devices with which you would wrong me.
28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
29 Haven’t you asked wayfaring men?
Don’t you know their evidences,
30 that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity,
That they are led out to the day of wrath?
31 Who shall declare his way to his face?
Who shall repay him what he has done?
32 Yet he will be borne to the grave.
Men shall keep watch over the tomb.
33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him.
All men shall draw after him,
as there were innumerable before him.
34 So how can you comfort me with nonsense,
because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”(Messianic WEB)
Mark 5:1 They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. 2 When he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs. 3 He lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains, 4 because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him. 5 Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones. 6 When he saw Yeshua from afar, he ran and bowed down to him, 7 and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have I to do with you, Yeshua, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don’t torment me.” 8 For he said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
9 He asked him, “What is your name?”
He said to him, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11 Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding. 12 All the demons begged him, saying, “Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them.”
13 At once Yeshua gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea. 14 Those who fed them fled, and told it in the city and in the country.
The people came to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Yeshua, and saw him who had been possessed by demons sitting, clothed, and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid. 16 Those who saw it declared to them what happened to him who was possessed by demons, and about the pigs. 17 They began to beg him to depart from their region.
18 As he was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. 19 He didn’t allow him, but said to him, “Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you.”
20 He went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Yeshua had done great things for him, and everyone marveled.
21 When Yeshua had crossed back over in the boat to the other side, a great multitude was gathered to him; and he was by the sea. 22 Behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, came; and seeing him, he fell at his feet, 23 and begged him much, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Please come and lay your hands on her, that she may be made healthy, and live.”
24 He went with him, and a great multitude followed him, and they pressed upon him on all sides. 25 A certain woman, who had an issue of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things by many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse, 27 having heard the things concerning Yeshua, came up behind him in the crowd, and touched his clothes. 28 For she said, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be made well.” 29 Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
30 Immediately Yeshua, perceiving in himself that the power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd, and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
31 His disciples said to him, “You see the multitude pressing against you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’”
32 He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
34 He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be cured of your disease.”
35 While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue ruler’s house saying, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Rabbi any more?”
36 But Yeshua, when he heard the message spoken, immediately said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Don’t be afraid, only believe.” 37 He allowed no one to follow him, except Peter, Jacob, and Yochanan the brother of Jacob. 38 He came to the synagogue ruler’s house, and he saw an uproar, weeping, and great wailing. 39 When he had entered in, he said to them, “Why do you make an uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but is asleep.”
40 They ridiculed him. But he, having put them all out, took the father of the child, her mother, and those who were with him, and went in where the child was lying. 41 Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha cumi!” which means, being interpreted, “Girl, I tell you, get up!” 42 Immediately the girl rose up and walked, for she was twelve years old. They were amazed with great amazement. 43 He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and commanded that something should be given to her to eat.
6:1 He went out from there. He came into his own country, and his disciples followed him. 2 When the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things?” and, “What is the wisdom that is given to this man, that such mighty works come about by his hands? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Miriam, and brother of Jacob, Yosi, Judah, and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” They were offended at him.
4 Yeshua said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own relatives, and in his own house.” 5 He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people, and healed them. 6 He marveled because of their unbelief.
He went around the villages teaching. 7 He called to himself the twelve, and began to send them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a staff only: no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse, 9 but to wear sandals, and not put on two tunics. 10 He said to them, “Wherever you enter into a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 Whoever will not receive you nor hear you, as you depart from there, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony against them. Assuredly, I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”
12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They cast out many demons, and anointed many with oil who were sick, and healed them. 14 King Herod heard this, for his name had become known, and he said, “Yochanan the Immerser has risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” 15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” Others said, “He is a prophet, or like one of the prophets.” 16 But Herod, when he heard this, said, “This is Yochanan, whom I beheaded. He has risen from the dead.” 17 For Herod himself had sent out and arrested Yochanan, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for he had married her. 18 For Yochanan said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19 Herodias set herself against him, and desired to kill him, but she couldn’t, 20 for Herod feared Yochanan, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he did many things, and he heard him gladly.
21 Then a convenient day came, that Herod on his birthday made a supper for his nobles, the high officers, and the chief men of Galilee. 22 When the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and those sitting with him. The king said to the young lady, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.” 23 He swore to her, “Whatever you shall ask of me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.”
24 She went out, and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?”
She said, “The head of Yochanan the Immerser.”
25 She came in immediately with haste to the king, and asked, “I want you to give me right now the head of Yochanan the Immerser on a platter.”
26 The king was exceedingly sorry, but for the sake of his oaths, and of his dinner guests, he didn’t wish to refuse her. 27 Immediately the king sent out a soldier of his guard, and commanded to bring Yochanan’s head, and he went and beheaded him in the prison, 28 and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the young lady; and the young lady gave it to her mother.
29 When his disciples heard this, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.
30 The emissaries gathered themselves together to Yeshua, and they told him all things, whatever they had done, and whatever they had taught. 31 He said to them, “You come apart into a deserted place, and rest awhile.” For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. 32 They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 They* saw them going, and many recognized him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him. 34 Yeshua came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. 35 When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him, and said, “This place is deserted, and it is late in the day. 36 Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat.”
37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.”
They asked him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii† worth of bread, and give them something to eat?”
38 He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go see.”
When they knew, they said, “Five, and two fish.”
39 He commanded them that everyone should sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 They sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties. 41 He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves, and he gave to his disciples to set before them, and he divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate, and were filled. 43 They took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and also of the fish. 44 Those who ate the loaves were‡ five thousand men.
45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat, and to go ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he himself sent the multitude away. 46 After he had taken leave of them, he went up the mountain to pray.
47 When evening had come, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 Seeing them distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary to them, about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea, ✡ and he would have passed by them, 49 but they, when they saw him walking on the sea, supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; 50 for they all saw him, and were troubled. But he immediately spoke with them, and said to them, “Cheer up! It is I!§ Don’t be afraid.” 51 He got into the boat with them; and the wind ceased, and they were very amazed among themselves, and marveled; 52 for they hadn’t understood about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.
53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore. 54 When they had come out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him, 55 and ran around that whole region, and began to bring those who were sick, on their mats, to where they heard he was. 56 Wherever he entered, into villages, or into cities, or into the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch just the fringe** of his garment; and as many as touched him were made well.(Messianic WEB)
~~~~~~~
Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie
P.O. Box 4000
Riverside, CA 92514-4000 United States
Phone: 1-800-821-3300
~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment