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DAY 32                                                                  OCTOBER 14, 2015 _____________________________________________________________      
 

crucified header nails      

 

"I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST;

IT IS NO LONGER I WHO LIVE, BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME;

AND THE LIFE WHICH I NOW LIVE IN THE FLESH 

I LIVE BY FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD,

WHO LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME."

(Galatians 2:20) 

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RAISE UP THE STANDARD!
 
"To Him Who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious Presence without fault and with great joy - to the Only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen." (Jude 24)

Morning Devotion: Feasting in His Presence - Read John 20:1-18

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and some of the other women went to the tomb of Jesus' and found the stone rolled away.  Instead of believing that Jesus had been resurrected, Mary concluded that His body had been stolen; and she immediately went and told the disciples.  When Peter and John arrived at the tomb they found it empty, just as they had been told by Mary; but they had also been told that it would be so by Jesus Himself (reference Matthew 12:40; Luke 24:46; John 2:19). While John looked in, Peter went in to the tomb and saw the Lord's grave clothes lying there.  When John finally ventured in for himself, he saw the clothes and believed that Christ had indeed been raised from the dead.  Then the two disciples left, but Mary returned to the tomb and stood outside weeping; overcome with grief for the one she loved so deeply.  She could not leave her Lord, and she was soon rewarded for her devotion.  As she peaked in to see the place where Jesus' body once laid she saw two angels, one sitting at the foot and the other at the head (just as the cherubim sit on the mercy seat in the most holy place).  "Then they said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping?" (John 20:13). Even in the presence of angels, Mary Magdalene continued in her grief and sorrow.  Nothing would comfort her except the sight of her Lord's body.  Oh, how great is the love of God, and how rich the blessings that He has in store, for His devoted followers who continue in His presence long after everyone else has grown weary and left. " 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him' - but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). 
 
 Mary turned from the empty tomb to find her Lord standing there, and asking her:  "Why are you crying?  Who is it you are looking for?" (John 20:15a).  How deeply troubled she was, for she mistook her Lord for the gardener.  How quickly we doubt God's presence when we face the trials of life, when in truth He is even closer than ever before.  The Lord has promised us He will never leave us nor forsake us (reference Matthew 28:20b; Hebrews 13:5b). Jesus wants us to know Him, not just for what He has done for us individually, but also for who He is to us personally. He allows us to experience moments of desperation so He can show us His tender touch and personal care; to give us the assurance that He really is there for us.   Jesus' appearance to Mary that Sunday morning was a compassionate reminder that, while He came to die for the sins of the whole world, He is still a personal, intimate Lord who is interested in reaching one heart at a time.  God desires a personal, living relationship with each of His children.  Too often, in the agony of our pain and grief, we miss hearing the voice of our Lord speaking to us; but if we will be still and wait upon Him we will find that He is right there with us, caring for us and carrying us through.  When Mary heard Jesus tenderly speak her name, she immediately recognized the voice of her Shepherd, and she fell down and worshiped Him.  Her sorrow was turned to joy and she was told to carry that message of joy to the other disciples.  "...weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5b).  
 
"He has risen!" (Mark 16:6b). He has risen, indeed! The open tomb opened heaven for us!  Jesus came down from heaven to bring us life, and by laying down His life He opened the gate for us to receive His very life.  Ours is the resurrected life!  "In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:11).  The life we now live we live in Christ.  We are now and forever intimately connected to our Lord, and the wealth of heaven's resources is our supply.  We are no longer empty, but are filled with the fullness of His life!  We have no reason to grieve, wail, and mourn, because we are no longer bound to the grave.  The grave clothes that once bound Jesus' body were still intact, as if to send the message that as Jesus is no longer bound to the grave, so we, as believers, are no longer bound by sin and death - we have been set free! The tomb may be empty, but the message we proclaim is full of life! We have been saved from sin and death and given new life - and not just any life - the resurrected life of Christ!  "But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:4-5). If there be any mourning or crying it should be for those who have not yet come face to face with the Lord and received His extraordinary gift of eternal life. This morning, as we pray for the lost, let us also ask God to develop His resurrection life more fully in us so we can become bold ambassadors of the most extraordinary message the world is (literally) dying to know! 
 

Heavenly Father,
"The LORD is my light and my salvation...
the LORD is the stronghold of my life..."
(Psalm 27:1)
How do I even begin to express my gratitude
for all that You are and all that You have done.
Help me to be constant in my devotion towards You
that I may have joy in Your presence,
as I look upon Your face daily and see as Mary saw,
the beauty and majesty of my risen Lord!
Wake me in the early hours to give the
best of my day to You, and fan the flame of
deep affection to stay long after others have
left the throne room. 
Open my heart to more of Yours
and fill it with a deep compassion for the souls of men. 
May I weep over them as You do,
and be stirred to greater fervency in prayer
so that I may find joy and comfort for
them in accessing Your abundant grace
to touch and bless their lives
in a personal and intimate way.
Keep my ear in tune to Your voice
and give me a willing heart to follow wherever You lead me.
There is no greater pursuit I have in my life
than to lose everything else that I may gain You!
Lead me to experience daily the fullness and might
of Your resurrection power that I may be a powerful
witness of Your glory, grace, and love in the lives
of those You desire to reach. 
Be glorified in my life, I pray.
"Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power
belong to our God!"
(Revelation 19:1b)
In Jesus' Mighty Name, I pray. Amen.

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REVOLUTIONIZE THE WORLD!
 
"Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty." (Zechariah 4:6)
 
Afternoon Devotion: Filled with His Power - Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-7

 
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the fundamental truth of the gospel message. "...that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures..." (vv. 3-4). Without this truth we have no message.  The Christian life is a resurrected life!  We have been made alive in Christ by the power of God.  The Lord wants us to experience this power daily, as we live out the Christian life.  All the power that was exerted to raise Jesus Christ from the dead is available to us today as we live and walk in Him (reference Ephesians 1:19-20).  The resurrection of Christ opened the door for us to experience a vital and necessary connection to the Lord that was impossible to attain otherwise.  It is this relationship that the apostle Paul considered to be the most excellent and worthy goal of his life.  "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him...I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead" (Philippians 3:7-8, 10-11).
 
The Lord appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and personally invited him into a living and loving relationship with the resurrected Lord (reference Acts 9:3-6).  "...and last of all He appeared to me also" (1 Corinthians 15:8).  The Lord's appearances to various people at various times after His resurrection substantiated that He is indeed risen from the dead and gave His followers the confidence and courage they need not be afraid, but to carry His message to the spiritually dead that they too might be saved.  Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have no message to proclaim.  Without a risen Savior we are all still dead in our sins with no hope of eternal life.  The message of the cross is the most important message we are called to proclaim, and as followers of Jesus Christ we must not forget or forsake these truths that opened the door for each of us to be saved.  May we not get so lost in the work of serving that we neglect the lost who are in need of saving!  "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10).  This afternoon, let us pray fervently for the salvation of those friends and family members in our lives who have not yet trusted Christ as their Savior.  And may we be faithful and bold messengers and witnesses of the glorious gospel of grace; we may just be the one God will use to answer the prayer of another believer on behalf of their loved one.  
 
"Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
(1 Corinthians 15:58) 
 

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RESTORE PRAISE!
 
"Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever, Amen!" (Revelation 7:12)
 
Evening Devotion: Focused on His Praise - Read Psalm 45
  
What a glorious privilege it is to have a deep, abiding, and personal relationship with the Savior of the world.  Can you remember the day He revealed Himself to you; when, you, like Mary and Paul, saw the risen Lord for the first time?  Can you remember how your eyes were opened to see the Lord in all His glory, and then confronted by your own sin and unworthiness,  you fell humbly on your face in worship?  I remember, as a teenager, running down the aisle and dropping to my knees at the altar in a pool of tears after I had been confronted with the risen Lord in church on a Sunday morning.  The Lord had made Himself known to me personally that particular morning in church; He saw me and called my name, just as He had called Mary, and I could barely wait until the invitation was given to run down the aisle and empty myself at His feet and bow before Him and worship Him. The memory of it has me in tears as I write this now.  And every time I witness another lost soul heading down the aisle to the altar I wonder if they see the Lord as I saw Him that day and I can't help but weep at the thought of that divine encounter with the living God  How humbled we should be to know the power of the resurrected life and to receive such a personal invitation from Holy God to enter into a living, loving relationship with Him. The tender, compassionate, and personal way God extends His grace and love to each one of us individually is beyond comprehension.  We should hold nothing back from our Lord. He deserves so much more than we give Him every day.  Let us take time to repent of those wasted hours of the day that are not spent with Him in worship, devotion and prayer.
 
As the redeemed of the Lord we need to get a firm hold on the glorious fact that Jesus Christ is alive, and begin to live our lives every day in the power of His resurrected life.  He has poured so much blessing and power into our lives and we should honor and bless Him with the witness and testimony of our lives.  We see Him now as the resurrected, exalted, King of glory, and we need to honor Him as such.  This evening, revisit in your mind the place where you first met the Lord, and offer up a prayer of gratitude for that divine encounter which transformed your life for all eternity.  Confess where you have been living your life in recent years; maybe you are relying on your own meager resources instead of the endless supply of His mighty power He provided for you through His resurrection.  Let us, as the redeemed of the Lord, return to our First Love (reference Revelation 2:4-5) with wholehearted devotion, and worship Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength!  He is alone worthy! Let us praise His glorious and wonderful name! 
 
"My heart is stirred by a noble theme
as I recite my verses for the king;
my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.
You are the most excellent of men
and Your lips have been anointed with grace,
since God has blessed You forever.
Gird Your sword upon your side, O mighty one;
clothe Yourself with splendor and majesty.
In Your majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth,
humility and righteousness;
let Your right hand display awesome deeds.

I will perpetuate Your memory through all generations;
therefore the nations will praise You for ever and ever."
(Psalm 45:1-4, 17)  
    

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