Daily Devotion by Ray Stedman

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 18TH​

Through The Valley​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 23:4

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4

This again is a very picturesque scene. The shepherd is leading the sheep back home at evening. As they go down through a narrow gorge, the long shadows lie across the trail. In the Hebrew this is a valley of deep shadows. The sheep, because they are so timid and defenseless, are frightened by their experience. But they trust the shepherd, and therefore they are comforted. They will fear no evil because the shepherd is with them. We are reminded of the Lord's words quoted in the book of Hebrews: Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). Hence we can confidently say, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Hebrews 13:6). I do not know what your experience has been, but whenever I'm in a situation like this, when there is a great deal of pressure, I begin to wonder if the Lord hasn't abandoned me. But He says He never leaves us, never forsakes us. He is always there. Therefore, we have no reason to fear. That is a great comfort.

And then David writes, Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. The rod was a club that was used to drive off wild animals. It was never used on the sheep but was a heavy instrument used to protect the sheep from marauding predators. The staff was a slender pole with a little crook on the end that was used to aid the sheep. The crook could be hooked around the leg of a sheep to pull it from harm. Or it could be used as an instrument to direct, and occasionally to discipline, the sheep with taps on the side of the body.

Understanding how shepherds tend their sheep has helped me so much in understanding the character of God. When I go wandering away He doesn't say, There goes that stupid sheep, and--WHAP!--down comes that big club! No, His attitude is, How can I help My sheep? How can I move in to bring him back into line? How can I comfort him and supply what he needs? God may have to discipline, but He always does it in love. He reproves, corrects, encourages, and instructs in righteousness, dealing with us firmly and gently.

The rod and staff are also used against the two greatest enemies we have to face. The rod is for the enemy without, Satan, who is working through the world system to destroy us. Jesus said, He is a liar and a murderer. He's out to devour us, and so the Lord uses the club on him. But I am the other enemy, the enemy within. In the immortal words, We have met the enemy, and he is us. I know that. The shepherd's staff is used to chasten and subdue the enemy within. But the confidence He gives is that I have nothing to fear, neither from the enemy without or from the enemy within.

Lord, thank You for leading me through the dark valley, keeping me from harm as I go. Thank You even for Your reproof and correction, which is another expression of Your great love.

​

Life Application​

The Good Shepherd surrounds His sheep with His constant presence. What are two evidences of His protecting love and His firm and gentle care for the sheep?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 19TH​

Worship In The Wilderness​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 23:5-6

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
Psalm 23:5-6

In verses 5 and 6 David changes the metaphor a bit--from the good shepherd to the gracious host. Jehovah spreads a sumptuous meal before him, a great banquet, in the presence of his enemies. This figure encompasses all the figures David has used before. That God feeds and provides, leads and protects, is all bound up in this symbol of a gracious host.

Interestingly enough, this figure grows right out of the historical situation in which David wrote. When David was driven into the wilderness by his son's rebellion, he found himself out in the desert, hungry and weary, his army in disarray. As recorded in 2 Samuel 17, three men who were not even Israelites, Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai brought bedding and bowls and articles of pottery. They also brought wheat and barley, flour and roasted grain, beans and lentils, honey and curds, sheep, and cheese from cows' milk for David and his people to eat. For they said, 'The people have become hungry and tired and thirsty in the desert'(2 Samuel 17:28-29).

David saw in this that God, as a gracious host, was preparing a table before him in the presence of his enemies. Paul said it this way: And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

A final note is that the word follow in verse 6 literally means pursue. David says that God's goodness and mercy shall pursue him, in contrast to his enemies' pursuit to dethrone and destroy him. David's desire was to go back to the tabernacle and to worship there. God's mercy and kindness ought to evoke the same response from us. We worship not in a tabernacle, but, as Jesus said, in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).

We worship in the inner man, where God dwells. When we see that the Good Shepherd does feed us and does lead us and does protect us, our response ought to be worship--a recognition of all that Jehovah is, a word of thanks for what He has done, and the statement, Here is more of myself for You to put to Your intended purpose. That is true worship.

Father, You are the Good Shepherd. You are utterly trustworthy. You feed me, lead me, guard me, and protect me. I surrender myself to You in grateful worship.

​

Life Application​

God offers to treat us as guests at His table! He lavishes His love on us sinners. Are we resisting that astounding love, and failing to worship Him with our lives?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[civic]

@Obadiah I was thinking of you and your love for Ray Stedman. I was fortunate enough to go yo his church a few times as a younf believer when I lived in the Bay Area.

Howard Hendricks is an amazing Bible Teacher, Expositor, Theologian and Author. Here is his forward to a book written by his good friend Ray Stedman I thought you would appreciate.

From " Portrait of Integrity "

Message: Forward ()

Every young man who survives the challenge of a lonely childhood secretly embraces a hope that one day he will meet a soul brother, a kindred spirit, another guy who sees life the same way he does. So when I met Ray Stedman on the post-WWII campus of Dallas Theological Seminary, the two of us...

www.raystedman.org

Every young man who survives the challenge of a lonely childhood secretly embraces a hope that one day he will meet a soul brother, a kindred spirit, another guy who sees life the same way he does. So when I met Ray Stedman on the post-WWII campus of Dallas Theological Seminary, the two of us bonded immediately. In His all-knowing wisdom God sometimes designs a rocky path for spunky little boys, a maze of twists and turns with dark shadows and blank walls. When a man finally emerges, he spots another grown-up doggie right away.

From opposite sides of the North American continent, Ray and I melded together our permanent heart connection. Both of us were sure of where we wanted to go, and here was a comrade for the journey. We were marching in a war-weary world that was done with victory parades and memorial monuments. Our generation was asking, “Now what?”

Ray brought his western outdoorsmanship, honed with military exposure and Pentecostal roots. I contributed my eastern conservatism polished with college disciplines and Presbyterian flavoring. Together we sat in classrooms absorbing ancient biblical truth; together we leaned against tree trunks and squatted in the shade of campus pecan branches to sort out what it all meant for the spiritual mixmaster where we found ourselves.

We hacked away at theological mysteries and proposed our solutions, pounding and kneading them, only then to discard them and start all over again the next day with altered assumptions. Our theological wrestling matches always ended with a win-win verdict. Each of us was clarifying in his mind what we knew God wanted in the years ahead. As graduation approached, our focus narrowed and we agreed to a split teamwork. Ray would go back to the West Coast and I would stay someplace east of the Rockies. Together we would trust God to incubate a new batch of young leaders to show mid-century USA the power of biblical belief and practice. Now, it’s been more than a decade since God called Ray home to heaven. His departure left a cavernous hole in my heart. I have missed him more than words can ever express. Our visceral linkage never detached, but always vibrated with a mutual love. Though we lived many miles distant from each other, every phone call or visit or hastily scribbled note started as if the previous one had simply ended with a comma and this was the continuation.

Ray’s exceptional contribution was not only to me personally, but to his constantly expanding world. The life-changing message of God’s grace in Christ had ignited his inner confidence in such a way that every fiber of his being was devoted to translating an accurate representation of Jesus Christ to our ever-more-secularized world. Consequently, every message he delivered was a carefully prepared feast for hungry hearts. He did his exegetical homework with diligence, but just as intently he scrutinized his society. And thus he engaged his listeners with logic and irrefutable data so compelling that any hearer had to respond. Whether he addressed two or three informally, or several thousand in a large meeting, Ray was always the same—conversational, confident, and magnetic. Ray defied every stereotype. He was totally approachable, never wanting to be known as a condescending cleric. He spoke as an ordinary man, but his words seared permanently like a tattoo. He was affable, warm, yet exacting, but he never scarred an earnest seeker. He was spiritual but never churchy; he was impatient with pretense, angry with arrogance, but always at ease with the awkwardness of a crippled sheep seeking spiritual shelter.

Ray was rough-hewn but never abrasive; he was always a gentleman, never coarse or crude. He loved to laugh and learned to lay his deepest sorrows on his Lord, so that in the midst of disappointment he could still rejoice. His eye was fixed on an eternal objective.

I am a rich man for having had a companionship with Ray Stedman. My heart beats with anticipation to catch up with him in heaven. For those who know only the sweet aroma of his lasting fragrance, Mark Mitchell has crafted a remarkable literary likeness of Ray. Read it to meet one of the most attractive men who ever walked this earth. Like Abel, “. . . by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.”

Ray was unique, impossible to encapsulate in words, but he was a man through whom God’s Spirit brought light to darkened minds, a man totally devoted to serving our Savior, and solid proof that it is not the man but the message that makes the difference.

Howard G. Hendricks
Distinguished Professor
Chairman, Center for Christian Leadership
Dallas Theological Seminary

 

[civic]

The writer of Hebrews charges every new generation with the task of remembering past leaders: "Remember your leaders who first taught you the word of God. Think of all the good that has come from their lives, and trust the Lord as they do" (Hebrews 13:7 NLT).
Ray Stedman was one of the great pastors and leaders of a generation of evangelicals that is quickly passing away. From a secular standpoint, Tom Brokaw calls this "the greatest generation." Whether or not Ray Stedman's generation of evangelicals was the greatest, they certainly leave a legacy that today's generation cannot afford to neglect.

When asked why a biography of Ray Stedman should be written, Ray's longtime friend Howard Hendricks responded, "We're living in a generation in which the pedestals are empty. . . . One of the disadvantages of our generation is that it's called the 'Now Generation' because the past is irrelevant, the future is uncertain; therefore they live for the present. The result is they have historical amnesia and need to know the men of the last generation, upon whose shoulders we stand today. Ray certainly qualifies, I believe. He was a much more important leader in evangelicalism than most Christians would know, because of his incredible humility. He was never a self-promoter. He never sought high positions. But everywhere I go, to this day when I mention Ray Stedman's name I get an incredible response. . . . He would be a candidate, in my mind, for a position on the Mount Rushmore of evangelicals." ( Howard Hendricks, interview by author, Summer 200l.)

J. I. Packer also recognized Ray as one of those great leaders. In an endorsement of an expositional commentary written by Kent Hughes, Packer made the following reference to Stedman: "Throughout the Christian centuries, from Crysostom and Augustine through Luther, Calvin, and Matthew Henry, to Martin Lloyd-Jones and Ray Stedman, working pastors have been proving themselves to be the best of all Bible expositors." (R. Kent Hughes, Colossians and Philemon, The Supremacy of Christ, 2nd edition (Westchester: Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, 1995). Quotation is from the back of the book jacket.)

Is Packer right in placing Stedman among the likes of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin? Consider his legacy:
In 1948, when Ray Stedman came to what was then called Peninsula Bible Fellowship (later to become Peninsula Bible Church), he began what became a prototype for the first "seeker sensitive" church. When I arrived at Peninsula Bible Church (PBC) as a new Christian in 1974, it was packed with teenagers. Having been raised in a Roman Catholic home, this was the first Protestant church I had ever entered; yet I felt immediately at home. The building was simple, and the style of the worship service was casual. Blue jeans were the norm, and contemporary music filled the place with praise. Ray encouraged people to stand up and share about their struggles and sins so the body could "bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2 NASB)

In one important sense, however, Ray's ministry was unlike the modern seeker-sensitive movement, which often abandons biblical exposition in favor of topical preaching that seeks relevancy by focusing on "felt needs." Ray believed that nothing could be more exciting and more relevant to the needs of people than the Scriptures being taught as they should be. Throughout his ministry, he remained committed to biblical exposition, but did so in a way that communicated clearly even to those without any religious background. When Ray preached, unchurched people felt he was talking to them. In other words, Ray believed biblical exposition is the most seeker-sensitive thing a preacher can do!
Stedman's high regard for the Word of God and biblical exposition was at the heart of what he believed the church is all about. "I'm very much persuaded that the power of preaching is, by God's design, the most powerful motivation of a congregation that you will ever see," he said. "Nothing turns people on like God's truth, and when they see the remarkable plan of God for the functioning of His people, they can hardly wait to find opportunity to put it into practice. And much of the artificial prods that we use today to get people going are simply a confession on our part that we have not found the way to motivate people by the power of the preaching of the Word of God." ( Lecture at Glen Eyrie, unpublished article, n.d.)

Though conservative in his theology, Ray Stedman was a radical in the area of ecclesiology. At PBC, Ray birthed many of the things we take for granted in the evangelical church today and chronicled it all in Body Life, his seminal book on the church. In this book, which has sold thousands of copies since it was first published in 1972, Ray applied the New Testament vision of the church as the body of Christ to a new generation. He believed the work of the ministry should be done by people in the pews rather than by professionals and that the role of pastors is to equip the saints to use their spiritual gifts. In keeping with this conviction, Ray deplored all things ecclesiastical, even refusing to be called the senior pastor of PBC. He avoided anything that promoted hierarchical separation in the church, and he insisted that the church be led by servant-leaders (called elders) who were responsible to Christ, the Living Head of the body.

Ray's commitment to equipping the saints also extended to the training of pastors. He loved mentoring young men who desired to teach the Scriptures, and he believed that pastors should be trained in the local church rather than in the seminary. Along with David Roper, Ray started Scribe School, a two-year internship program with heavy emphasis on biblical languages, where many pastors were trained over the years. Ray's vision to train pastors also found expression in a successful pastors' conference where for years he and his colleagues taught the principles of Body Life to hundreds of Christian leaders. It is a testimony to the success of Ray's vision that when he retired there was no need to hire a pastor to replace him. Several men already on staff were well prepared to preach and lead the church. And today, many Scribe School graduates, including myself, minister throughout the nation and the world.

One of the men profoundly influenced by Ray Stedman was Charles Swindoll. At one point in his life, after he and several pastors had met with Ray, Swindoll reflected, ''As we said good-bye to Ray, I walked a little slower. I thought about the things he had taught me without directly instructing me and about the courage he had given me without deliberately exhorting me. I wondered how it happened. I wondered why I had been so privileged to have my 'face' reflected in his 'water' or my 'iron' sharpened by his 'iron' . . . I found myself wanting to run back to his car and tell him how much I love and admire him. But it was late, and after all I'm a fifty-five-year-old man. A husband. A father. A grandfather. A pastor. . . . But as I stood there alone in the cold night air, I suddenly realized what I wanted to be most when I grow up." ( Charles Swindoll, Of Servants and Mentors, unpublished article, n.d.)

It is my hope that this biography of Ray Stedman will provide a new generation of evangelicals a refreshing and relevant model of what to be when they grow up.
Introduction
SERIES: PORTRAIT OF INTEGRITY -- THE BOOK
JUNE 01, 2004
AUTHOR: MARK S. MITCHELL
Message transcript and recording © 2004 by Ray Stedman Ministries, owner of sole copyright by assignment from the author. For permission to use this content, please review RayStedman.org/permissions. Subject to permissions policy, all rights reserved.

 

[Obadiah]

Yeah Ray is the best. I love how his son has made that wonderful website with all of his teaching on it. All the audio sermons and transcripts. All of his devotions that I post you are from sermons that he's preached. I really like this one from yesterday.

Through The Valley post #101​

I'm also a big Charles Swindoll fan. Thanks for Sharing all that information Civic.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 20TH​

A Song Of Resurrection​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 40

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
Psalm 40:2-3

The Holy Spirit spoke marvelously through David, causing him to record his own experiences and yet express truths that were beyond his experience. His language grew greater than the event he was trying to describe. The only ultimate fulfillment was to be in those coming days when the Messiah would appear among men in the flesh. Psalm 40 is, in a sense, our Lord's own autobiography. He Himself tells us why He came to earth, what was accomplished, and what His experiences were.

This is a description of resurrection. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire or, as the Hebrew has it, out of the pit of tumult, out of a terrible experience, out of a place of desolation and despair and death.

Life is often filled with death. Every experience that is opposite to what God has designed for us is an experience of death. Bitterness and shame and sorrow, hate and greed and loneliness, are all forms of death that come into our lives right now. That is what our Lord was experiencing. He understands these things because He has been through them Himself. Ultimately they led Him, as they will lead us, to that final moment when life ends and death is before us--the deep, dark desolation of death. But, He says, the Lord drew me out of that. He lifted me up from a slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, and set my feet upon a rock and made my steps secure.

That is a beautiful description of the experience of resurrection. None of us has ever been resurrected. There is a great difference between what happened to Lazarus and what happened to Jesus. Lazarus was really resuscitated; he was restored to this life almost as though he had been given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But Jesus was resurrected. He was the firstborn from the dead. He stepped into a whole new experience of life that God had designed from the beginning for humanity. That is what the Messiah is describing here. The result is, He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

A new song describes a new experience. When God does something great for you, you do not sit down and recite a proverb or compose a paragraph or devise a recipe. You write a song, because singing is one of the best ways we have of expressing what is happening to us. And so He has a new song to celebrate a new kind of living, resurrected life. The effect of that resurrection life, He tells us, is going to be widespread. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD (Psalm 40:3). The effect of the resurrection of Jesus was that the story of Christianity, the message of the Christian gospel, exploded in the Roman world as the church literally thrust out in every direction and shook the world of that day.

Lord, You have the power to bring life from death. Thank You that through the resurrection of Jesus You have given me new life.

​

Life Application​

Bitterness, shame, hate, sorrow, and loneliness are all forms of death. Do we believe and act on His indwelling Presence to dispel every form of death we experience?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 21ST​

The King In His Beauty​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 45

All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad. Daughters of kings are among your honored women; at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.
Psalm 45:8-9

These verses describe a marriage service. Traced for us here is a remarkable series of preparations. First, the groom has prepared himself. The writer says, All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. These are burial spices. You remember that when the women went to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, they carried with them a quantity of spices--myrrh and aloes--in order to wrap the body of the Lord and preserve it in its death. And yet here these same spices are present at the wedding.

What does this mean? This marriage is made possible out of death; somehow out of death comes this fragrant incense that makes glorious the scene of the wedding. You can see how beautifully this fits with what the apostle Paul describes for us in Ephesians 5:25 when he says that Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. He died for it. He went into the bonds of death for us. Why? In order that He might present to Himself a glorious church, a beautiful bride, without spot or blemish or any such thing.

Then, he has prepared a place. We read of where this wedding is to take place: From palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad. It is a picture of a beautiful place, and it reminds us immediately of Jesus' words to His disciples before the cross. He said to them, I am going there to prepare a place for you (John 14:2). That place is being prepared now. It is a place of beauty and glory beyond any possible description. These terms used here are simply a way of suggesting to us what it is like: ivory palaces filled with music and gladness with a rejoicing company around.

And finally the bride herself is prepared: At your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir. In Oriental custom, the bridegroom himself, who paid for the golden dress, always presented this golden dress to the queen. This is also a wonderful picture for us. Who is it that is preparing us for this day, for this sharing of life together? It is He who is preparing us. He has clothed us with His own righteous golden robe. Gold, in Scripture, is always the picture of deity, and this is a hint of what Peter speaks of: You may participate, he says, in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Do you really grasp this? This is true! Jesus Christ is blending our lives with His and giving us all His position and all His privileges. All that belongs to Him belongs to us. One of the things that is most seriously wrong with the church today is that we are forgetting the privileges we have. We do not reckon on them, we do not think about how tremendous they are. Yet here stands the bride, ready to join Him, dressed in gold that He has provided.

Lord Jesus, You are our beautiful King, and we long for you like a bride longs for her husband. Thank You for adorning us in Your own righteousness that we might dwell with You forever.

​

Life Application​

Do we truly by faith grasp how we participate in the divine nature? How does Jesus blend His Life with ours to give us His position and all His privileges?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 22ND​

The Sacrifice Of Thanksgiving​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 50

Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High.
Psalm 50:14

What does God want from us? He does not want mere hymn singing, although that is fine. Nor does He want only prayer, although that too is fine. He does not simply want our attendance, although that is fine. What He wants, first, is a thankful heart. That is what He seeks, a thankful heart. Each one of us is to offer to Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving. A sacrifice is something into which we put effort; it costs us. Have you ever asked yourself why the Scriptures stress thanksgiving so much? Both the Old and New Testaments emphasize that above everything else, God wants thankfulness. Give thanks in all circumstances, says the apostle Paul, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Why is this? It is because thanksgiving only comes as a result of having received something. You do not give thanks until you have received something that comes from someone else. Therefore thanksgiving is the proper expression of Christianity, because Christianity is receiving something constantly from God.

Of course if you have not received anything from God, then you have nothing to thank Him for. Though you come to the service, you really have nothing to say. God is a realist. He does not want fake thanksgiving. I know there are certain people (and they are awfully hard to live with) who think that Christianity consists of pretending to be thankful. They think it means screwing a smile on your face and going around pretending that troubles do not bother you. That is a most painful form of Christianity. God does not want you to go around shouting, Hallelujah! I've got cancer! But there is something about having cancer to be thankful for. That is what He wants you to see. There are aspects of it that no one can possibly enjoy, but there are other aspects that reveal purpose, meaning, and reason. God wants you to see this--what He can do with that situation and how you can be thankful. Thanksgiving is the first thing He wants in worship.

The second thing is an obedient will. Fulfill your vows to the Most High. Notice the kind of obedience it is. It is not something forced upon you; it is something you have chosen for yourself. A vow is something you decide to give, a promise you make because of truth you have seen. You say, I never saw it like that before. I really ought to do something about it. God helping me, I'm going to do such and such. That is a vow. God says, I'm not asking you to do things you have not yet learned are important. But when you have vowed something, then do it. Act on it. Obey it.

Lord, I offer to You right now the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Thank You that You are at work for good both in me and through me. Grant that I might obey your truth out of a heart of gratitude.

​

Life Application​

We can expend much energy complaining, blessing no one. How can we re-focus our thoughts so that we have an attitude of gratitude no matter our circumstances?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 23RD​

A Cry For Mercy​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 51:1-9

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
Psalm 51:1-2

What a marvelous understanding of the nature of sin and the character of God's forgiveness is found in these verses! There are three things David asks for. First, he understands that sin is like a crime. If criminals are to be delivered from the effects of their crime, they do not need justice but mercy. Sin is an illegal act, a violation of justice, and an act of lawlessness and rebellion and therefore requires mercy.

Then he says, Blot out my transgressions, and thereby he reveals that he understands sin is like a debt. It is something owed, an account that has accumulated and needs to be erased.

Finally he cries, Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. He understands that sin is like an ugly stain, a defilement upon the soul. Even though the act fades into the past, the dirty defiling stain remains a stigma upon the heart. So he cries out and asks to be delivered from these things.

Notice that David understands well the basis for forgiveness. He asks on the basis of two things: first, according to your unfailing love. He understands that he himself deserves nothing from God, that God is not bound to forgive him. Some people are never able to realize forgiveness because they think they deserve it, that God owes it to them. But David knows better. He realizes that only because of God's love may he even approach God to ask. On the basis of that unqualified acceptance, that marvelous continuing love-that-will-not-let-me-go, he says to God, I am coming to you and asking now for this.

Second, as David appeals to God according to your great compassion, he again indicates his understanding of the character of God. God is not a penny pincher; He does not dole out bits of mercy, drop by drop. No, He pours it out. His are abundant mercies. When God forgives, He forgives beyond our utmost imaginings. Two figures of speech that are used in the Old Testament depict the forgiveness of God. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:12). How far is that? Well, how far do you have to go east before you start going west? You never come to west. Then God says He will hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19). Someone has added that he puts up a sign that reads NO FISHING. Do not go down there and try to fish old sins out once God has dealt with them. What relief comes when we begin to understand this fullness of God's forgiveness.

Father, thank You that I can come to You with my sin and cry out for mercy and love. Your love is steadfast; your mercy is abundant. I trust that You are always willing to forgive.

​

Life Application​

The Word of God teaches the true nature of sin, and the astounding basis for God's forgiveness. Are we learning to live in these liberating truths?


Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 24TH​

A Willing Spirit​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 51:10-19

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Psalm 51:12

Several years ago, while I was preparing to preach a sermon on this psalm, I received an anonymous letter from someone in my congregation saying that he was a Christian but was involved in a very serious and continuing moral failure. The letter was an attempt to be honest and tell me the trouble in his life. I didn't know if that person would be in the service the next Sunday or not, but I hoped he would be.
I decided to refer to the letter in my sermon for two reasons: first, because it was anonymous, and I could do it without betraying a confidence; and second, because the problem was of such a serious nature that I wanted to help the person if I could.

The writer had acknowledged that he knew the action was wrong but finally excused himself on the basis that God had not yet given him the power to break away from it. That was self-deception. The truth is that God has given us the power to break away from these things. Peter clearly declares: His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). The very possession of the life of Jesus Christ in us is the power that it takes to break away from habits of sin. No one will ever be free from the awful grip of evil upon their lives until they understand that they already have from God all that it takes to be free, if they will but step out upon it.

David is also asking for help. Lord, give me this willing spirit, he says, and God immediately gives it. Then it must be acted on. That is the point. Do not wait for a feeling to come that you are forgiven. God has said you are forgiven. Do not wait for a feeling of power to possess you. God has declared He has already given you the power. As you believe Him (and that is what faith is), you can do what you need to do and what God wants you to do.

That is what happened with David, and that is what happened with the anonymous letter writer. After preaching that sermon, I found out the person had been in that service, because he later wrote a second anonymous letter. This time he shared how God had used that message to deliver him from the grip of the evil relationship he had described before.

Lord, thank You for giving me all that I need for both forgiveness and power through the Lord Jesus.

​

Life Application​

We can choose to be helpless victims of ruinous habits, but God provides an alternative. Are we willing to be set free by Christ's divine power?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 25TH​

A Crisis Of Faith​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 77:1-10

And I say, It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.
Psalm 77:10 RSV

Here is a man who is really trying to be honest. He says, I have analyzed my situation: I tried prayer all night long. In the past I have been given help, but no help has come now. God has made my heart to sing in the past, but it is empty, barren, and cheerless now. Why is this? I have thought about it: I searched my own life, my own heart, and these questions have come to me, and I cannot answer them. My conclusion must be that I have misjudged God. I have thought that God was changeless, that He would always respond every time I came to Him, but He has not. Therefore, I am driven to the irresistible conclusion that He is like a man, and you cannot count on Him.

This psalmist is facing the possibility of losing his faith. All that he once rested on, which has been such a comfort to him, which has strengthened him and given him character and power among men, seems to be nothing but a crumbling foundation that is disappearing fast. Soon he must lose all that he has held onto in the past. This is the day of [his] trouble and his present distress. Is that not the hidden problem with many of us? I have lost track of the times people have called me up and said, I just don't know what to do. I've tried prayer, I've tried reading my Bible, I've tried to think through, but nothing seems to help. I don't know what to do. What's happening to me?

Apparent unresponsiveness from God is not unusual. All of God's saints have experienced this from time to time. This is part of the standard program God has for disciplining and training His own. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13a). The faithfulness of God is deliberately put into contrast with the statement, No temptation has seized you except what is common to man because every one of us tends to suffer from the feeling that what is happening to us is unique. But many have experienced similar temptations if they are seeking to live the life of faith.

The prophet Isaiah declares the reason this is true. Isaiah reveals what God says. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways (Isaiah 55:8). That is, God says, My reason is above yours. You understand so little of life compared to what I see in it. My thoughts are not your thoughts; therefore, you can expect there will come times when you will not understand but will be perplexed. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts; as the heavens are above the earth, so much greater is His vision of what reality is. If we are limited then to the tiny section of life that we can grasp with our puny understanding, it is only to be expected that there will come times when we do not understand what God is doing. So do not be troubled by these times of perplexity. They are normal experiences coming to all in the life of faith.

Our Father, I am so grateful that the things Your Word talks about are not remote from my experience, that You are the God who is interested in life. When I cannot understand, teach me to trust in You.

​

Life Application​

When we lessen our trust in God, the object of our faith, our faith is weakened. Have we grasped the need to re-focus on God's character revealed in Christ Jesus?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 26TH​

Obtaining God's Help​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 77:11-13

I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.
Psalm 77:11-12

The crucial words in these verses are I will. They indicate that the psalmist has caught hold of himself. He is no longer the victim of his feelings, and that is the point. The control of his life shifts from his heart to his head, and that is the way God intended it to be. He sees that the place to begin is not with himself, as he has been doing, or with his circumstances, but with God. And the proper order is not with prayer and then meditation, but the reverse: to begin with meditating about God, which leads to petition based on an understanding of who God is.

That is the way out, and it points up the trouble this man has had before. He began his prayer with himself at the center. You can see that in his words. This problem that has brought him to God occupies his mind. This man's whole thought is, What is happening to me? Look how I cry and nothing happens.

The result of that is always the same. When self is at the center, then the heart takes over, and the mind is governed by the feelings. We then find ourselves limited to what the Bible calls natural thinking, or thinking on a limited narrow plane, which does not take into consideration all the facts. Here is a picture of a man who is giving way to his feelings, allowing them to drive him into increasing distress and despair. He finds himself attempting to be logical, but only on this one plane of thought, related to self. That is why he misses the point so completely.

The heart is a powerful factor in human thinking. When the heart, the emotions, and feelings get hold of us, and control our thinking, then we discover that we are helpless to reason properly. But when something stops us, then the head and the will can assert themselves and take over.
What is wrong with beginning with myself? The answer is obvious. People are limited beings, so when you begin with the person, your thinking is necessarily limited. But when you start with God, you are starting with the great fact that includes all other facts. You have broadened your vision to take in every aspect of truth. Someone has described that kind of thinking as cubical thinking. Truth is not a single level of thought; it is a cube. It has sides, other aspects, which need to be considered. All truth is related to other truth. You will discover that as you relate a fact to other truths that touch it on every side of the cube, you see this fact in a different light from when you consider it by itself.

Have you begun to learn how to handle the temptations to doubt that come to you; how to systematically, thoughtfully, and carefully begin where God wants you to begin and work through from that basis? Have you risen above the limitations of natural thinking and begun to think spiritually?

Father, teach me to start not with me and my own limited understanding, but with You.

​

Life Application​

We lose heart when our thoughts are self-focused and mired in life's problems. We will find the picture changes when God is the starting point of our meditation.

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 27TH​

From Despair To Victory​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 77:14-15

With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
Psalm 77:15

Psalm 77 has tremendous value for anyone who has ever faced life's serious questions: Is there a dependable God? Are there absolute values in life? Is there meaning to life; is there any purpose to this existence? Here is a man who finds his way from the despairing conclusion expressed in verse 10, And I say, 'It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed(Psalm 77:10 RSV) to the triumphant declaration of verse 13: Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God?

He does it by meditating on the deeds of the Lord. He thinks long and hard about certain actions of God in history--certain concrete, stubborn facts that cannot be forgotten or explained away, which have been witnessed by thousands and even millions of people, and the results of which have permanently altered the course of history.

The events of the Exodus were redemptive. What was God doing down there in Egypt with these people, bringing plagues upon the Egyptians, sweeping through the land in terrible judgments, eventually taking in death the firstborn of the land? What are these? Miracles, yes, but designed to buy back a people. Here they come, bought back and brought out of the bondage of Egypt. All this is to picture for all time the purpose of God's activity. All the miracles of both the Old Testament and the New Testament have this quality about them.

What does it mean to redeem? It means to restore to usefulness something that has been rendered useless. When I was a seminary student, I spent three years as a summer intern in two different churches in Pasadena. And, probably like seminary students yet today, when I arrived in Pasadena in the spring of each year I arrived penniless, with nothing to hold me over until the first paycheck came. The first time this problem happened, I discovered a way of solving it that I then used every year that I was a summer intern. As soon as I arrived in Pasadena, I took my typewriter down to the pawnshop and hocked it. That carried me over until I got my first paycheck. Then, when the first paycheck came, I would take the necessary money and go down and redeem the typewriter. When that typewriter was in the pawnshop, it was absolutely useless. I could not use it; the pawnbroker could not use it; no one had the right to use that typewriter. It was rendered utterly useless to anybody. It was only when it was redeemed that it was put back into functional service.

That is what redemption does, and that is God's special work. Everything He does in human life is aimed in this direction. These mighty activities of God, recorded as miracles, are all redemptive in character. They serve to buy us back. They restore us. They chip away at all the accretions of years of wrong living, wrongful habits, and hurtful attitudes and strip them off to restore us to useful functioning again.

Father, thank You for Your special work of redemption in the history of Israel and in my own life as well. Thank You that by Your work You give purpose and turn me from despair to victory.

​

Life Application​

How do God's redemptive miracles help us answer life's tough questions? Are we amazed how God's redeeming grace moves us from inefficacy to absolute victory?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 28TH​

Man And God​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 8

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him... ?
Psalm 8:3-4a

Imagine the scene. Here is young David out under the stars at night watching his sheep. The air at that time and place was not darkened with smog or polluted with the irritants that fill the atmosphere today. The stars were brilliant, and the moon, in its full phase, was crossing the heavens. He felt, as we have all felt as we have stood under the stars at night, something of mingled mystery and awe as he looked up into the star-spangled heavens. He considered the beauty of nature and its silent witness to the wisdom of God. All the breath-taking beauty of this scene broke upon his eyes as the sun set. He was astonished at the greatness of a God who could create such things.

Thirty centuries after David wrote these words, we feel the same awe when we consider the starry heavens. Astronauts have been physically able to walk on the same moon that David could observe only from a distance, yet all the knowledge that has been gained about the universe in which we live only serves to deepen our impression of the tremendous wisdom and power of God. How vast is the universe in which we live! These billions of galaxies whirl in their silent courses through the deepness of space. How tremendous is the power that sustains it all and keeps it operating as one harmonious unit! That is what impressed this psalmist.

Then he faces the inevitable question that comes to those who contemplate God's greatness. 'What is man, he asks, in the sight of a God who could make a universe like this? You will recognize that this is the question that cries for an answer in our day. What are humans? Where did they come from? What is their purpose here? Why do they exist on this small planet in this vast universe? These are the questions that are being asked more and more.

The psalmist goes on to answer his own question: You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5). Man has a unique relationship to God. He was made to be a little less than God. What is included in that remarkable expression is the revelation of God's purpose for man. According to the Bible, God made man to be the expression of God's life, the human vehicle of the divine life, the means by which the invisible God would be made visible to His creatures. Man was to be the instrument by which God would do His work in the world and the expression of the character and being of God. He is the creature nearest to God. There is none other nearer, for God Himself was to live in man. That is the revelation of the Bible. Man is such a unique being, such a remarkable being, that God Himself intends to live in Him to be the glory of man's life.

We thank You, Father, that in You we find our true worth and identity.

​

Life Application​

God created human beings to be fully alive in union with Him. Are we allowing God to restore that union with the risen Christ to be fully alive in and through us?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 29TH​

The Secret Of Usefulness​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 84

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
Psalm 84:5

Here the secret of usefulness is set forth. Blessed are those whose strength is in you.

Many of you have been Christians for a long time. When you get in difficulties or troubles or pressures, where is your strength? Have you found that your strength is in God, that He is the One who makes a difference?

One Saturday night I came home after a day away from my church responsibilities, and I was very tired. My wife told me some of the things that had been happening, some of the pressures that had come that day from the church and from the family. They were the kind of things I would normally want to lay before the Lord and pray about. But I didn't feel like praying. I was tired, and I wanted to go to bed. I thought to myself, What's the use of praying, anyway? I'm so tired that my prayers wouldn't have any power.

Then it struck me: What a thing to say! What difference does it make how I feel? My reliance isn't upon my prayers but upon God's power. It always bothers me to hear Christians talk about the power of prayer. There isn't any power in prayer. There is power in the God who answers prayer. I was rebuked in my own spirit by the remembrance that it makes no difference how tired I happen to be. So I prayed--very briefly, because the power of prayer doesn't lie in the length of it, either. Charles Spurgeon used to speak of those who had the idea that the power of the ministry lay in the lungs of the preacher. But it doesn't lie there, either. Power lies in the God who is behind prayer. Blessed are those whose strength is in you.
Some time ago I was trying to sell my car. Intending to put an ad in the paper, I read through several car ads to learn how to phrase it. I noticed a phrase that appeared again and again throughout the ads. It said, Power all around. At first I didn't know what that meant, and then I realized it meant power steering, power brakes, automatic transmission, power windows, power seats, and, in the case of a convertible, a power top. Power all around! All this power is designed to take the terrible strain out of driving so that all you need to do is sit there and push little buttons and things will happen. What a tremendous description of the Christian life! Power all around!

Lord, You are the strength of my life. When I am weak and weary, let me turn to You for the power I need.

​

Life Application​

Are we missing the wonder of the divine invasion, which is Christ-in-you? Do we place the full weight of our weakness and weariness on that powerful Resource?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 30TH​

Why Give Thanks?​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 95:1-5

For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.
Psalm 95:3-4

The psalmist is giving the basic reasons everyone should give thanksgiving and praise to God. They apply not only to believers but also to all people. Each person has a responsibility to praise God, for all are creatures of His hands. In Romans 1, the apostle Paul points out that one of the charges God brings against people is that although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him (Romans 1:21).

They did not recognize their relationship to Him. It is a constant source of amazement to me that people can be so blind to the fact that they are not, as they often imagine themselves to be, independent creatures making their own way through life. We take for granted all the forces that keep us alive and boastfully talk about being self-made people. We strut through life as if there were no one else we need to recognize as the source of our strength and power.

Dr. H. A. Ironside used to tell of an experience he once had at a restaurant. He ordered his meal, and just as he was about to eat, a man walked up to his table and said, Do you mind if I sit down with you? Dr. Ironside said that it was quite all right, so the man sat down. As was his custom, Dr. Ironside bowed his head and said a silent word of thanksgiving to the Lord before he ate. When he lifted up his head, the man said to him,

Do you have a headache?
Ironside said, No, I don't.
The man said, Well, is there anything wrong with your food?

Ironside said, No, why?

Well, the man said, I saw you sitting there with your head down, and I thought you must be sick, or there was something wrong with your food.

Ironside replied, No, I was simply returning thanks to God as I always do before I eat.

The man said, Oh, you're one of those, are you? Well, I never give thanks. I earn my money by the sweat of my brow, and I don't have to give thanks to anybody when I eat. I just start right in!

Dr. Ironside said, Yes, you're just like my dog. That's what he does, too!

That little story suggests that when people will not give thanks to God, they are acting like irrational animals. Such is the basis of this appeal by the psalmist: no matter how we may feel or what our attitude toward God may be, we are bound, as creatures dependent upon His love and grace, at least to give thanks to Him as our Creator. Psalm 96:8 says, Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name. God is always worthy of our thanksgiving, not just when we feel like giving it. We should do it for His name's sake. Doubtless it would make a great difference in our worship if we would remember that praise is not something that merely reflects our transient feelings but is something we ought to do simply because God made us, and we cannot live a moment without Him.

Lord, I give thanks to You because You are so worthy of glory. Forgive me for taking You and all that You do for granted.

​

Life Application​

Does our thankfulness move beyond TGIF - Thank God It's Friday? Does God's character and goodness stir us to deep gratitude for His mercy and love toward us?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR OCTOBER 31ST​

Hearken To His Voice!​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: PSALM 95:6-11

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts...
Psalm 95:7b-8a

God speaks to us in this Psalm to tell us what it is that He essentially wants in worship, what makes worship true worship. It is that today we would listen to His voice! That is what He wants. He wants us to heed his voice--not just come together.

It is commendable for people to come to a church service, but the value of it soon vanishes if all we do is sit while our thoughts are elsewhere. The central fact of worship is to listen to the Word of God, the voice of God. That is why the exposition of Scripture must be the central thing in public worship. Those churches that have departed from this are making a travesty of worship. Worship must include listening to the voice of God, hearing what He has to say, and letting His Word correct our attitudes and our reactions. I wish it were possible for each of you to watch people during the hour of worship. Externally it looks as though you are all paying attention. You sit there quietly, with rapt, turned-up faces, your eyes open and staring straight ahead, apparently attracted by what the Word of God is saying. But having sat there myself, I know it is not always true. Some of you are playing golf. Others of you are rehearsing a business deal. Some of you are planning a trip. Some are going over a conversation you had two days ago. It would be fascinating at the end of a service to know where everybody has been! But God is desirous that whatever else you may do in a service, when His Word is speaking, listen! And not only listen, hearken! Hearken means to heed the Word, to do something about it, to let it really change you.

Hardening the heart is the exact opposite of hearkening to His voice. If you hearken to His voice, you are not hardening your heart. If you harden your hearts you are not hearkening to His voice. The two are mutually exclusive. He gives us an example of what He means by hardening the heart. It occurred shortly after the Israelites had come through the Red Sea and had journeyed only a week or two into the wilderness beyond. They came to a place where there was no water, and they all became thirsty. They had hardly had time to become very thirsty when the leaders of the people came to Moses and began to complain. What are you doing? Leading us out into this wilderness to perish? Where is this God that is supposed to be taking care of us? Why hasn't He provided water for us? They demanded that God prove Himself again.

That, says God, is what it means to harden your heart. This is the problem God has with us. It disturbs God that people can come week after week and hear stirring and glowing reports of what He is doing in many lives and see the evident change that has come to many and experience the release and freedom He is bringing about in many hearts, and still, the minute anything goes wrong with them, they are ready to fall apart.

Lord, we pray that You will help us to hearken, to not be like the fathers of old who resisted You, vexed you, and grieved you for forty years

​

Life Application​

Besides church, are we purposefully seeking quiet times and spaces when we can pay attention and hearken to God's word letting Him speak peace into our souls?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR NOVEMBER 1ST​

Guard The Teaching​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 TIMOTHY 1:1-7

The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
1 Timothy 1:5

Just as error can be detected by what it produces, so too can truth be detected by what it produces. You can tell the gospel is having its effect upon you when you are becoming a more compassionate, loving, patient, tenderhearted person and you are reflecting these qualities to people around you. That is what Jesus said would happen, and that is why His great commandment to us is that we should love one another.

The apostle now traces the course of love back to its source. We will begin to understand more clearly what he is saying if we begin at the end and work back. Paul says, love which comes from a pure heart, and behind that a good conscience, and behind that sincere faith. To begin at the end, faith is believing what God has said about the total end of your old life and the impartation of your new life, which is identified with the righteousness of Christ--this is what you believe. You are a new person; you are not the same. Everything of corrective nature in Christianity is to come back to that source. Therefore, love begins with sincere faith that the great facts of the gospel are personally true of you.

When you believe that, your actions will begin to change. You will begin to see that some of the things you have been doing are not consistent with a changed life. They are not the normal outworking of a heart that has been made anew in Jesus Christ, and, therefore, these things begin to fade. People do not have to be forced to stop things; they begin to see that these things are inconsistent with a changed life. That is what Paul means when he speaks of a good conscience. Conscience is the judge of your behavior. It deals with the way you act, either accusing you or excusing you. And as you begin to be consistent in your actions with what you really are and see yourself to be, you have a good conscience; it no longer troubles you. You see yourself forgiven, restored, and accepted, the past washed away. Every day you begin anew on this basis, living according to a good conscience.

That, in turn, results in a pure heart. Your inner attitudes and thought life begin to change because you are no longer the same person you once were, and you do not think of yourself that way. You find yourself giving up freely and gladly those times when you used to wallow in lustful thoughts. It is no longer you. You do not want that anymore. Your heart is being purified so that your inner attitudes have changed.
Then, as that occurs, you begin to be a vessel from which flows the love of God. As Paul said in Romans 5:5, God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Love begins to touch you and those all around you. That is the gospel. Paul sent Timothy to Ephesus to ensure that this message be clear and uncomplicated in Ephesus.

Grant to me, Lord, that I may learn more fully to appropriate that new life that is available to me, by which I may become a loving person as Jesus was.

​

Life Application​

The definition of genuine love in no way resembles the meaningless street versions. Genuine love has three basic components, well worth noting and memorizing.


Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR NOVEMBER 2ND​

Using The Law Lawfully​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 TIMOTHY 1:8-11

We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.
1 Timothy 1:8

The Law is both good and useful in the Christian life. This immediately does away with the claim and misunderstanding of many Christians that we are so completely delivered from the Law that we have nothing to do with it anymore. Paul says that is not the case. The Law is good and useful, but it has to be used rightly.

The Law is good, of course, because God Himself gave it. The striking thing about the Law is that those Ten Commandments are the only part of the Bible God Himself physically wrote with His own hand. Moses did not write them; Charlton Heston did not write them! They were written by the hand of God on tablets of stone and delivered by angels to Moses on Mount Sinai. In fact, God wrote the Law twice. After the first tablets were broken, Moses returned to the mountain, and God wrote the Law again. That in itself ought to indicate that the Law is important and not to be done away with.

Furthermore, as you study those Ten Commandments, you discover that they reflect the character and holiness of God. They are an expression of the life of God, both in its outward behavior and its inward attitudes. That is why the Law never will change. The Law represents God's righteous demands for human behavior anywhere on earth. It is even written into the hearts of people who have never heard of the Ten Commandments. That is why most human laws--laws we make for the control of our behavior in city, state, and national government--are based upon, and reflect, the Ten Commandments. So the Law is not going to be done away with. Paul says it is holy, just, and good.

Further, the Law is useful. Even for us Christians, the Law has a place in our lives, Paul says, if one uses it properly. Not everything about the Law carries over into the Christian life, but there is an appropriate use of the Law in the Christian life. Our Lord Himself indicated that in the Sermon on the Mount:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:17-19).
Those words ought to make very clear what Paul insists on here in 1 Timothy that the Law is not eliminated. The Law will always be there because it is holy, just, and good; it reflects the character of God. So it does have a part in our Christian experience.

Lord, thank You for Your Law, which reflects Your character. Teach me to use Your Law properly, in a way that is consistent with the gospel.

​

Life Application​

The Ten Commandments give us insight into who God is. Christ's love provides us with the motivation and the power to fulfill them. Do our lives reflect God's character?

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR NOVEMBER 3RD​

Chief Of Sinners​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 TIMOTHY 1:12-17

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1 Timothy 1:15 KJV

That sounds simple to us, yet it is very profound. All of us were mixed up, confused, bewildered, darkened in our understanding, and alienated from the life of God. Read Paul's descriptions in Ephesians about what we were like before we came to Christ. Everybody--those with brilliant minds, highly educated people--everybody is in the same boat. Christ Jesus came to take away the darkness, unveil the mysteries, remove the illusions, reveal reality, and awaken love, compassion, mercy, and ministry to others. This is the purpose of Christianity.

Then Paul says what is the most astonishing thing of all in this passage: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. If he had said, I was the chief, we would all understand that, because certainly he was in the forefront of the ranks. But now, looking back as he comes near to the end of his life, he says, I am the chief of sinners.

That causes many people a lot of trouble. They read those words and say, Has he forgotten the words he wrote in Galatians 2:20, 'I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God'? Has he forgotten what he said in 2 Corinthians 5:17: 'If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!'? Surely he can't forget that he has been redeemed; he has been made righteous. He cannot call himself the chief of sinners. But he does.

Some say that this is a kind of humble exaggeration, like we sometimes say, I'm not all that good, really. I do not think it is false humility. Paul means every word of this. He has not forgotten what he has written. What he is thinking of is not what he is in Christ (because in Him he was made righteous and delivered, the power of sin was broken), but he is thinking about himself as a total man living in a world of evil; he is thinking of himself as we have to think of ourselves, made whole in Christ and yet with the flesh still active in our lives. We still struggle against it. It is no longer us but an alien invader still able to exercise its deceiving power over us.

There is hidden here a very important principle that all of us will have to learn sometime or other. Whatever the flesh once manifested itself to be in our lives--some extreme form of evil, whatever we have done that is now, in our own sight, bad, ugly, and something we are ashamed of--we have to remember that that is an area of weakness that needs to be guarded very carefully, because we can return to that in an instant, no matter how long we have been Christians. That is what Paul is talking about.

Father, once I was blind; I could not see myself for what I was. Yet I thank you that you came and invaded my life and began to take away the veil and to help me to see what I was like.

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Life Application​

We have met the enemy and he is us! The wonder is that Christ died for His enemies. Confession makes us eligible for His redeeming grace and forgiveness.

Daily Devotion © 2006, 2023 by Ray Stedman Ministries.