POWER OF THE SPIRIT

Today's promise: The whole earth will hear

Power of the Spirit

But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere — in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. 

Acts 1:8 NLT

I love to tell the story of unseen things above, Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love; I love to tell the story because I know 'tis true, It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do. 

I love to tell the story! Twill be my theme in glory — To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. 

I Love to Tell the Story, Arabella Catherine Hankey (1834-1911)

I Love to Tell the Story

Kate Hankey, the daughter of a prosperous London banker, grew up in a stylish London suburb. She started a Bible class for girls in her neighborhood, and then, when she was only eighteen, Hankey went to London to teach a Bible class of "factory girls." In her twenties, she started other Bible classes for factory girls.

When she was in her early thirties, Kate Hankey became seriously ill. Doctors said she needed a year of bed rest. She was forbidden to teach her Bible classes for twelve months. During her long, slow recovery, she wrote two lengthy poems. The first, at the beginning of her convalescence, later became the hymn "Tell Me the Old, Old Story." The second, written ten months later, became "I Love to Tell the Story."

After ten months she felt strong enough to leave her bed. She soon returned to her Bible classes in London and continued teaching for many years. When she became too old to teach the factory girls regularly, she started a prison ministry in London — even then she continued to tell the story of Jesus.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Hymns by Mark Norton and Robert Brown, Tyndale House Publishers (1995), entry for June 8.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

GOD USES US

Today's promise: The whole earth will hear

God uses us

We are Christ's ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you.

1 Corinthians 5:20 NLT

Storms over Romania

In the summer of 1990, following the overthrow of the communist regime in Romania, a number of Romanian church leaders invited me to return to the country for a preaching mission in four cities. I will long remember the first night in Timisoara. I was preaching the gospel in a stadium that had been built to promote and proclaim communism. When I gave the invitation following the message, I thought my translator, Peter, had misinterpreted what I had said and dismissed the crowd. It seemed as though everyone got up to leave. I then realized the people were not leaving, they were responding to the invitation to accept Christ!

After several nights of rich harvests, we began meetings in the city of Medias. As I was preaching, a storm approached the stadium. The wind began to blow, and I could see a huge black cloud approaching. I knelt on the platform and prayed, "Lord God, there are people in this stadium who have never heard the gospel. They may never have another opportunity. I ask that You stay the storm and allow us to continue."

Several American businessmen in our ministry team were sitting in the top rows of the stadium that evening. They later reported that as the storm approached, it literally divided and went around the stadium. In the path of the storm, houses were destroyed, trees were uprooted, and power lines were downed. But in the stadium, we continued the service, and hundreds of people gave their lives to Christ that night. To God be all the glory!

Steve Wingfield in Live the Adventure

Adapted from The Prayer Bible Jean E. Syswerda, general editor, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), p 1593.

Digging Deeper: Read To Fly Again, the follow-up to In the Presence of My Enemies, in which Gracia Burnham reflects on the lessons and spiritual truths she learned in the jungle and how they apply to anyone's life.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

PUBLISH HIS DEEDS

Today's promise: The whole earth will hear

Publish his deeds

Sing a new song to the Lord! Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Sing to the Lord; bless his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves. Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does. 

Psalm 96:1-3 NLT

O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise! 

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)

Sing a new song

Every day we cross paths with someone who needs to hear the good news that the Lord saves. We can never fully plumb the depths of God's character and attributes, but with every day and every experience we can discover new facets about God, new songs to sing to him. To "publish" means to share and that refers not only to writing books and delivering sermons about God but also to sharing what the Lord has done in our own lives so that others might be drawn to him. Each of us can purpose to do that. The most powerful evangelism doesn't take place within the four walls of a church building. It occurs when we share with others in our neighborhood and workplace the good news of what God has done for us individually and for the whole world in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Ask God to bring people across your path today who need to hear the news that God saves and that he loves them. And then ask him for the compassion and courage to share the reason for your hope and to pray for these people.

LORD, I want to sing a new song to you and bless your name. I want to tell everyone about the amazing things you do.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Praying through the Bible by Cheri Fuller, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), entry for April 26.

Digging Deeper: Read To Fly Again, the follow-up to In the Presence of My Enemies, in which Gracia Burnham reflects on the lessons and spiritual truths she learned in the jungle and how they apply to anyone's life.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

ENDURING LOVE

Today's promise: God's timing is perfect

Enduring love

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1 NLT

The unforgettable responsive reading

It was midnight on Thursday, February 8, A.D. 356, and Athanasius, a leader in the early Christian church and passionate defender of the deity of Jesus Christ, was leading a worship service. Suddenly loud shouts and clashing armor could be heard outside the church. Soldiers had come to arrest him.

But Athanasius said, "I didn't think it right, at such a time, to leave my people," so he continued the service. He asked a deacon to read Psalm 136 and then requested the congregation to respond with the refrain, "His faithful love endures forever," which they did twenty-six times over the din of the soldiers outside.

Just as the final verse was completed, the soldiers rushed into the church, brandishing their swords and spears and crowding forward up the nave toward Anthanasius. The people yelled for Athanasius to run, but he refused to go until he had given a benediction. Then some of his assistants gathered tightly around him, and, as he recounts it, "I passed through the crowd of people unseen and escaped, giving thanks to God that I had not betrayed my people, but had seen to their safety before I thought of my own."

Athanasius was portraying to his people God's love, which endures forever. He was willing to lay down his life for his flock — just as Jesus had laid down his life for his flock a few centuries earlier.

Since God's "faithful love endures forever," why is there ever any need to worry?

adapted from The One Year® Book of Psalms with devotionals by William J. Petersen and Randy Petersen (Tyndale) entry for November 8

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

DELAY IS NOT REJECTION

Today's promise: God's timing is perfect

Delay Is Not Rejection

Although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days and did not go to them. Finally, after two days, he said to his disciples, "Let's go to Judea again." 

John 11:5-7 NLT

God often delays His response out of love, as He works all things together for good. 

Jeanne Zornes

Waiting with hope

Mary and Martha had sent their friend Jesus a message about the critical condition of their brother, Lazarus, and their urgent need for his help: "Lord, the one you love is very sick" (John 11:3). But instead of rushing off to Bethany, Jesus stayed where he was for two days before responding to Mary and Martha's plea. When he did arrive, he raised Lazarus from the dead in a magnificent display of his power.

Just as Mary and Martha struggled when Jesus answered their prayers for Lazarus in a time and way different from what they had expected, we get frustrated when the Lord delays in coming to us and answering our prayers.

As it did for the grieving sisters, two days (or two months or two years) of waiting can seem like an eternity to us. But in the midst of the "delay," God is not inactive. He is teaching us patience, perseverance, and faith and is planning to glorify himself in our circumstances. While we are waiting, he wants to cleanse our hearts and refocus us on Jesus. The Spirit always knows what will glorify God, and we can trust him when we're in the waiting room.

LORD, help me to wait for you in hope and perseverance, knowing that you will come. Grant me patience and faith in the waiting room of life yet to be.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Praying through the Bible by Cheri Fuller, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), entry for May 20.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

PRAYER IS THE KEY

Today's promise: God's timing is perfect

Prayer is the key

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them they must never give up…

Luke 18:1 NLT

Saved by a Stamp

God's answers to prayers can affect generations to come. In fact, if not for his gracious answers to a prayer offered many years ago, my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren would not know his blessing today.

The story is simple. My cousin Mirea and I wanted to visit friends in America. Sensing that we would not abandon our grand idea, my father sent us on our way with heartfelt prayers for our safety.

Our trip across Europe took several days. Finally we arrived on the western shores of England. But as we prepared to set sail for America, we were told there was a problem with our papers. Officials at the immigration office said Mirea was missing a stamp on a paper that would allow her to leave the country. We would have to stay in England for another week until Mirea's papers could be corrected, they said.

Mirea and I went to the steamship office to ask if we could exchange our tickets for a ship leaving later in the month. The man at the window was glad to make the exchange. He was sure he could resell our berths. People were eager to sail on the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

As we wandered back to the hotel, Mirea and I were disappointed that we had to stay in England. But, when the news reached us a few days later of the sinking of the Titanic, we both began to cry, in sadness for our lost shipmates, but also in relief, realizing how close we had come to death ourselves. God, in his mercy, had answered by father's father's prayer for our safety with something as small as a missing stamp. How good is God!

Elsa Sturit Kint

Adapted from The Prayer Bible Jean E. Syswerda, general editor, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), p 1495.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House

NO NEED TO WORRY

Today's promise: God's timing is perfect

No need to worry

Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth.

Colossians 3:2 NLT

Worry is the interest paid on trouble before it falls due.

Author unknown

It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Worry is rust upon the blade.

Henry Ward Beecher

Lessons of a circuit rider

When Abraham Lincoln was on his way to Washington to be inaugurated, he spent some time in New York with Horace Greeley and told him an anecdote that was meant to be an answer to the question everybody was asking him: Are we really going to have civil war?

In his circuit-riding days, Lincoln and his companions, riding to the next session of court, had crossed many rivers. But the Fox River was still ahead of them; and they said one to another, "If these streams gives us so much trouble, how shall we get over the Fox River?"

When darkness fell, they stopped for the night at a log tavern, where they fell in with the Methodist presiding elder of the district, who rode through the country in all kinds of weather and knew all about the Fox River. They gathered around him and asked him about the present state of the river.

"Oh, yes," replied the circuit rider, "I know all the Fox River. I have crossed it often and understand it well. But I have one fixed rule with regard to the Fox River — I never cross it till I reach it."

from 1001 Great Stories and Quotes by R. Kent Hughes (Tyndale) pp 430-31

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House