Sanctuary

GOD’S ENDURING MERCY

PSALM 106:1
Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

God’s mercy is a recurring theme in the Scriptures. God’s grace is God giving us what we do not deserve, and God’s mercy is withholding from us what we really do deserve.

Sometimes I hear even Christian people talking about getting their rights. I, for one, don’t want my rights. I know what I deserve and it is not something I would like to have. I am grateful for the mercy of God.

Isn’t it a matter of His goodness that when man sinned in the Garden, God didn’t just completely give up on humanity? Isn’t it a matter of His goodness that when mankind failed (and when we fail) God didn’t immediately withdraw all of the joys and privileges of life? When we wake up in this beautiful world and compare it to what we know we deserve, we should sing with the psalmist, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for His mercy and His goodness endure forever!”


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
STRAIGHT LINES

1 SAMUEL 12:23
Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you.

Do you know someone who is heading the wrong way? Someone struggling with an overwhelming problem or temptation?

Pray—earnestly pray—for that one. The prophet Samuel told the Israelites, “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12:23). J. Sidlow Baxter pointed out that our loved ones may “spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.”

In Colossians 4, we meet a man whose prayers for others were so powerful that he received special commendation in the Bible: Epaphras … “a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (v. 12).

Oswald Chambers said, “By intercessory prayer we can hold off Satan from other lives and give the Holy Ghost a chance with them. No wonder Jesus put such tremendous emphasis on prayer!”


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
LOVE IN THE LITTLE THINGS

1 CORINTHIANS 12:24
There should be no schism in the body, but … the members should have the same care for one another.


Courtesy is one of those things that is so simple we forget about it. Most of us want to get involved in the large, huge, loving things. But you see, courtesy isn’t the great big love involvement. Courtesy is love in the little things. Courtesy is the simplicity of love.

You can take the most untutored person and put him into the highest society, and if he has a reservoir of courteous love, he will not behave unwisely. A person who is committed to God’s kind of love, as simple as he may be, will know what to do and will be accepted. Carlisle said of Robert Burns that there was no truer gentleman than the plowman poet. “He loved everything, and all things great and small that God had made. So with this simple passport he could mingle with any society and enter courts and palaces from his little cottage, and be accepted.”

I’ve known people like that. Maybe they don’t have the right clothes or don’t know just the right words to say, but because of their simplicity and their easiness with people and their courtesy in conversation, they seem to be accepted in any strata of society. That is the simplicity of love.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
A NEED-TO-KNOW BASIS

ISAIAH 55:9
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.

The more I study, the more I discover I don’t know—and I study all the time! I continually pray that God would give me greater capacity to learn and know about Him. But I accept the fact that I will never know it all—and so should you. There are definite limitations to what we have the capacity and intelligence to understand.

The Bible has everything you need to know in order to know God and receive eternal life, through faith in His Son. If you have other questions which are answered in the Bible, all the better. But if the Bible doesn’t have the answers, don’t doubt the answers the Bible does have.
There is so much about the universe and the God who made it that we simply do not know. The bottom line is that we will never understand God and all of His ways.

God’s purposes, and what He has revealed to us of them, are moving ahead on His timetable. And He has told us what we need to know, to make sure we are safely on board. Let’s learn to trust God with the things we do not understand.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY TO HIM

1 CORINTHIANS 16:2
On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper.


There is a rumor afoot that God holds churches accountable for how much they give. But that’s all it is—a rumor. That’s not the truth. In no place does the Bible even hint that God holds a church accountable for its giving. However, God does operate on an individual accountability basis. And that’s very clear in Scripture.

When we give ourselves to God first, we understand that we are accountable to Him as His people. The Bible says we are to lay aside each week that which God has entrusted to us. And we are reminded over and over in the New Testament that someday we are to give an account to God for what we have done.

If I have given myself to God first, if I have said, “God, everything that I am, everything that I have belongs to You,” then I don’t really have to live in fear of that day of accountability. I’ve already had my day of accountability. I’ve stood before God the best I know how and said, “God, You direct me, and I’ll be a channel for whatever You put in my hands. I am going to be accountable to You as You tell me in Your Word You want me to be.”


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
AUDIT YOUR ANGER

EPHESIANS 4:31
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you.

Anger turns into resentment, resentment turns into bitterness, bitterness turns into unforgiveness, and unforgiveness turns into a defiled conscience. Pretty soon, we have become captives of our own anger.

Anger is nothing more than a sophisticated version of a temper tantrum. Just because we can define it with eloquent speech doesn’t mean it is any more justified. We are still mad that we can’t get what we want. And our anger overflows out of us and defiles everyone around us.

Instead of nursing, rehearsing, conversing about, and dispersing our anger, we need to reverse our anger before it hurts us and others.
How do you reverse anger? Paul says you do it with forgiveness and lovingkindness and tenderness. You go to the person toward whom you have directed your anger and you seek forgiveness.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
AUDIT YOUR ANGER

EPHESIANS 4:31
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you.


Anger turns into resentment, resentment turns into bitterness, bitterness turns into unforgiveness, and unforgiveness turns into a defiled conscience. Pretty soon, we have become captives of our own anger.

Anger is nothing more than a sophisticated version of a temper tantrum. Just because we can define it with eloquent speech doesn’t mean it is any more justified. We are still mad that we can’t get what we want. And our anger overflows out of us and defiles everyone around us.

Instead of nursing, rehearsing, conversing about, and dispersing our anger, we need to reverse our anger before it hurts us and others.

How do you reverse anger? Paul says you do it with forgiveness and lovingkindness and tenderness. You go to the person toward whom you have directed your anger and you seek forgiveness.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
GO WITH HASTE

LUKE 2:8
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

Christmas is the season of twinkling lights, shiny tinsel, and cheery holiday bells. Yet within the brightness of Christmas a dark paradox looms: Christmas is not the best, but the worst time of year for many people. Suicides increase, loneliness is heightened, and broken families feel the pain of separation. People reason that the other eleven months of the year aren’t necessarily supposed to be filled with joy—but Christmas is.

Loneliness, financial limitations, ill health … many things can quench the holiday spark. If you fear the feelings that come your way at Christmas, you’re not alone. Another group of “forgotten” people heard a special message from the angels that first Christmas: “Fear not!” (Luke 2:10). The angels announced the One who would dispel all fear forever—Jesus Christ. The shepherds went “with haste” (Luke 2:16). They didn’t let fear stop them from meeting the Messiah.

Just as the shepherds cast aside their fears and immediately went to find Jesus, you can do the same this Christmas. Jesus is waiting to be found.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
He is our Everything!

My Lord and my God John 20:28

Relax. This day is not about you or your food or your gifts or your family... as important as they are. it's about the Prince of Peace. It's the day we commemorate the event that changed the history of the world, that provided salvation for the human race. and that brought indestructible peace into our heart.

Today we celebrate the day God entered humanity through Jesus Christ,, the Son of Mary the Son of God, the Son of man, the Son of David.
He is the Lord, the master of the ages the light of the world, the Alpha and the Omega, The first and the last. He's the good shepherd, the Chief Cornerstone, and the Lamb of God.

He is our Prince of Peace.
When trials come our way we long for peace... peace of heart, piece of mind, and peace of life. When we have the Prince of Peace, ruling in our hearts, We have the most precious gift.... the peace of God so today, focus on Him.. praise His name and worship Christ, the newborn King


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
FELLOWSHIP FOREVER

REVELATION 21:3
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.

There will be no sanctuary or tabernacle or temple in heaven—and no churches. Revelation 21:22 says that “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” Because God will be dwelling in the midst of His people, just as He started off doing in the Garden of Eden, there will be no need for a sanctuary for Him to dwell in.

We incorrectly call our churches “sanctuaries” today because they are where we draw together once a week to worship God and hear His Word proclaimed. But God does not dwell in buildings in this age; He dwells in His people. At present, we cannot “see” His presence as we will be able to in heaven. Instead of dwelling “in” us in heaven, He will dwell “among” us, in our very presence.

The same Jesus who healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the multitudes, died on Calvary, was raised from the dead, and who ascended into heaven will be walking among us in heaven. We will have unbroken, personal fellowship with Him forever.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
JANUARY 4 / FILLED WITH THE ENCOURAGER

ACTS 11:23
When [Barnabas] came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.

The Holy Spirit is the Encourager. Anyone who wants to be an encourager of others must be filled with the Encourager as Barnabas was. Because of the Spirit’s presence in him, he could readily yield to the leading of God. Our own ego and drive for self-promotion is so strong that only the Spirit can bring about the transformation needed to accomplish God’s purposes. When we build up and encourage others, we know that God is at work in and through us.

The fact that Barnabas was good, generous, gracious, and godly was not because of his upbringing or his education or his heritage. It was because he was filled with the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who indwelt Barnabas is the Spirit who is given to every believer in Jesus Christ. We receive the Holy Spirit when we are born again, and we remain filled with the Holy Spirit as we confess our sins and yield to His leading in our lives. God wants every Christian to be filled with the Encourager so that we might become encouragers as Barnabas was. The same glory brought to God through Barnabas’ life can be brought to Him through our lives.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
February 6th / YOUR WILL BE DONE

MATTHEW 6:10
Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.


It is a helpless, hopeless feeling to be caught in a whirl-pool where other people and their priorities are sucking you under. I know that my priorities are God first, my wife next, my children next, and my vocation and ministry last. What a joy it is to go to God in prayer each day and pray what I have learned from the Lord’s Prayer: “Lord, Your kingdom come, Your will be done. By the grace of God, with all that I have within me, Lord, help me this day to make Your will manifest in my life.”

I have to keep praying that every day. I pray those priorities back to God, not only because I want God to hear them, but I want me to hear them, so I don’t ever forget them. God changes us through prayer—when we pray, we get on the same wavelength with God. And as we pray, if we pray according to the will of God, little by little He takes all the things that are out of sync in our lives and puts them into sync so that we can take this big deep breath and say, “Oh, yes, that’s the way it’s supposed to be!”


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
FEBRUARY 7 / PARENTING BY FAITH

EPHESIANS 6:1, 4
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.… And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

There is no such thing as painless parenting. Pain—even excruciating pain—is a natural part of the family process in our broken world. Women know better than anyone that pain is how the family got started. And the aches and pains, the hurts and hassles will continue to intrude into the parenting pathway through the years, whether we like it or not.

That’s why a vital faith in Jesus Christ is so crucial to a happy family. God equips us through faith to meet all the challenges of parenting, even in a toxic environment.

Consider Ephesians 6:1, for example: “Children, obey your parents.” How? “In the Lord.” Or read Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives.” How? “As Christ loved the church.” Or Ephesians 5:22: “Wives, submit to your own husbands.” How? “As to the Lord.” All these instructions to the family wrap around a core of faith in God and Jesus Christ.

Don’t try to build your family without faith in God. Throw yourself on His grace and mercy and say to Him, “Lord, I know that apart from You, I can’t do anything but mess this thing up. So I’m going to hang onto You with both hands. Together, we’ll make this family work.”


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
FEBRUARY 16 / THE PERIL OF RELIGION

LUKE 18:11
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—extorters, unjust, and adulterers, or even as this tax collector.”

One of the terrible possibilities suggested by the Pharisee’s attitude in prayer is this: A person can be religious and not be right. This man’s religion became the cause of his ruin. He did everything right from a religious perspective—in fact, more than right! His problem was that he had totally excluded God from the picture of his life. His religion was all about him.

Every Sunday, people attend houses of worship with other worshipers. They sing hymns, recite liturgies, pray prayers, listen to sermons. And they will leave feeling better about themselves than when they went in. Unfortunately, they will still be deeply rooted in their sins. If our religion does nothing more than make us feel better about our sin, then that religion has doomed us, not saved us.

The Pharisee was a religious man who was lost in his religion. Along with everything else we learn in this story, we learn about the dangers of religious pride. And that doesn’t mean we are to go to a church where we leave feeling bad. It means we are to leave feeling good about the Savior whose mercy has saved us from our sins. We leave feeling good about God’s justification, not our own.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
MARCH 4

AS YOUR SOUL PROSPERS

3 JOHN 1:2
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

Verse 2 contains a revealing concept: prospering in all things as your soul prospers. As I was studying this verse, I began to wonder what it would be like if one Sunday everyone arrived at church in the same physical condition that their souls were in. That is, our outward manifestation of “prosperity” would be in direct correlation to the prosperity of our souls. It might be a very interesting sight!

How would you arrive if that happened? In a wheelchair? On crutches? Would you need assistance getting in the door? Or would you arrive in fine shape, physically fit, because your soul was in such fine condition? John knew that Gaius was a godly man, so he did not hesitate to pray that he prospered in all things in the same way his soul prospered.

If the church is going to accomplish all it is supposed to, we need many more vigorous workers than we have now. We need people who are willing, like Gaius, to play a supporting role, empowering others in their spiritual walk. The Bible promises spiritual blessings for those willing to work in such a way.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

MATTHEW 5:2–3
[Jesus] opened His mouth and taught them, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”


Malcolm Muggeridge once called the pursuit of happiness the most disastrous purpose set before mankind, something slipped into the Declaration after “life and liberty” at the last moment, almost by accident. In his Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis had the archdevil, Screwtape, advise his apprentice demons on the lure of happiness. He called it “an ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure.” That’s exactly how the pursuit of happiness works in this world.

Pleasure is an anesthesia for deadening the pain of their empty lives. There seem to be few happy people around today. That’s why I appreciate the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Nine different times Jesus uses the word blessed, which roughly translates to “happy.” The core values Jesus offers in the Beatitudes describe life that is really worth living.



David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
OPPORTUNITIES

1 PETER 5:10
May the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

Problems are often given to us by God to provide us greater opportunities. As God’s children, we need to learn how to look for the possibilities in our problems. God’s people have always worked this way. An entire section of Scripture, the “prison epistles,” was written while Paul was incarcerated in a Roman jail cell. The Book of Revelation was written by John while he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos. It was in prison that John Bunyan saw the great allegory that would later become the immortal Pilgrim’s Progress. Sometimes good things come from bad times.

Joseph learned from his prison experience that he was not forgotten by God. As a matter of fact, God used a relationship formed while Joseph was in prison to accomplish His plan.

I remember hearing Charles Colson say that his lowest times as a believer have been far more fulfilling that all his glory days in the White House when he was an unbeliever. During the lonely days of prison he learned to know God. Sometimes loneliness and difficulties are necessary in our lives, because the problems are the means God uses to provide opportunities for us.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
 
Rowan said:
REFRESHING FRIENDS

PROVERBS 27:9
Ointment and perfume delight the heart, and the sweetness of a man’s friend gives delight by hearty counsel.


Proverbs 27:9 says that “hearty counsel,” or the kind of advice which comes from a good friend, is as pleasant as “ointment and perfume.” Good, strong advice from a good, strong friend is a delight to receive. It shows that a person really cares about you and wants your best. “Hearty counsel” builds you up and strengthens you, and helps you face difficult things.

These words, attributed to George Eliot, define a fortifying friend: “Oh, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”

The Bible contains a wonderful example of a fortifying friendship between two men, David and Jonathan. In spite of circumstances which would make their friendship an unlikely one, they forged a bond that fortified each of them. Their relationship stands as a testament to what true friendship can endure and accomplish.


David Jeremiah, Sanctuary: Finding Moments of Refuge in the Presence of God
Click to expand...
(Toda Raba Tov) Thank you for sharing.
Mishlei (Proverbs) 27:9
Perfume and incense make the heart glad,
also friendship sweet with advice from the heart. (MJV)
 
koberstein said:
(Toda Raba Tov) Thank you for sharing.
Mishlei (Proverbs) 27:9
Perfume and incense make the heart glad,
also friendship sweet with advice from the heart. (MJV)
Click to expand...
Nothing better than a glad heart.

Job 8:21: “He will once again fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.”
 

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