Struggle with your Body?

We cannot escape from our body.  We live in our body and deal with our body every day.

Yet, for so many of us, we struggle with our body in a variety of different ways (appearance, health, weight, ability, disability, etc).  And, it seems like almost everywhere we turn, there is something trying to shape the way we view our body and respond to it.

But, my prayer is that more people would listen LESS to what other people say (other people who struggle with their body as well).  And, my prayer is that more people would listen MORE to what God says (the God who created our bodies in His unique and creative wisdom and has a divine purpose for our bodies)

To get you thinking about God’s perspective, I recommend you to read this article and think through its implications.  May we all increasingly view our bodies more biblically and use our bodies in ways that glorify God.

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March 28 – Isaiah 37-39

Bible Reading Commitment, Encouragement, and Challenge

March 28 – Isaiah 37-39

Observe with some (Interpretation in Parentheses)

• Focusing on Isaiah 37
• God is so full of power
• As God answers prayer and defends Jerusalem for His own name’s sake, He only needs to send one angel, and in just one night, he destroys 185,000 of his enemies
• All this while Hezekiah also sleeps
• He prayed, and in God’s timing, He answered
• (God enjoys hearing the prayers of His people, and God is powerful and able to answer)
• (But, God’s promised and powerful deliverance, while it can be physical here on earth, it is not always that way)

How Points to Christ

• The life and death of Jesus Christ shows that
• Jesus said that if He prayed to the father, the father would send a legion of angels to defend Him
• But, that was not the plan or purpose for which He came
• Jesus came to die to deliver a more powerful and wicked enemy, Satan himself
• And as He does so, Jesus shows us that deliverance is coming for God’s people, and it will be filled with power, but it will often come through the path of temporary suffering

Apply

• Please pray that I would grow as a man of prayer as I am daunted by so many things that are broken and against God in this world
• Please pray that I would grow in patient longsuffering as I eagerly await God’s promised deliverance when Jesus returns again
• And please pray that I would point all people to Christ as we suffer in this world
• God is all-powerful to deliver and destroy His enemies – but it may not happen as fast as we want and as dramatically as Hezekiah experienced here on earth
• But, the day of deliverance is coming!  We can have great hope!

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March 28 – Prayer for the World and Unreached

May God increase our desire for His glory to spread to all nations and peoples – Operation World. and Joshua Project!

Unreached of the Day

Please pray for the …

Naxi of China

Population: 307,000

Language: Naxi

Religion: Ethnic Religions

Evangelical: 0.07%

For more details…

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March 26 – Judges 19-21

Bible Reading Commitment, Encouragement, and Challenge

March 26 – Judges 19-21

Observe with some (Interpretation in Parentheses)

• Focusing on Judges 19-21
• Yikes!
• What is described in these chapters seems like something made up, but it is not
• It is recorded in sacred Scripture
• A Levite has a concubine
• In times of trouble, he doesn’t lead, but casts his concubine out to be abused, and raped, and ultimately killed to spare his life
• He then takes his concubine, cuts her up into 12 pieces and mails them to the tribes of Israel to tell them all the sin from the tribe of Benjamin
• And, this is after the Levite chose not to stay the night in a Gentile land in fear of violence
• But, staying in a land of Israel was no better
• There is much more that is just horrendous, and we are left scratching our heads until the final verse of the entire books summarizes the point of all the wretched stories recorded in Judges
• “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
• (That is what leads to so much sin!  Everyone living as their own mini-king, and not submitting to God the King of Kings)

How Points to Christ

• Jesus is the King who gave up His life for wretches like the people in Judges, wretches like me, who are no better
• Jesus is the King who perfectly submitted to God and then gave up His life as a substitute for us

Apply

• Please pray that I would not seek to live my life as if I were king
• I am not
• I ruin my life and others when I do what is right in my own eyes and not God’s

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March 26 – Prayer for the World and Unreached

May God increase our desire for His glory to spread to all nations and peoples – Operation World. and Joshua Project!

Unreached of the Day

Please pray for the …

Kunbi of India

Population: 16,030,000

Language: Gujarati

Religion: Hinduism

Evangelical: 0.00%

For more details…

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March 25 – Genesis 38-41

Bible Reading Commitment, Encouragement, and Challenge

March 25 – Genesis 38-41

Observe with some (Interpretation in Parentheses)

• Focusing on Genesis 38-41
• The mercy and grace of God constantly amazes me!
• In light of the flow of Genesis, chapter 38 seems really odd and out of place
• The story has been about Joseph, and how his other brothers hated him and sold him into slavery
• Then, chapter 38 is a wretched story of one of the brothers: Judah and how sinful he and his family were
• We have Judah’s son being wicked and being killed by God
• We have Judah’s next son also being wicked and being killed as well
• We have Judah’s daughter in law tricking Judah by dressing as a prostitute
• We have Judah, who fell into his daughter in law (Tamar’s) trick by desiring a prostitute on a trip
• We have Judah being self-righteous about to kill Tamar for immorality
• But, when Judah realizes that he’s the father, instead of killing both Tamar and himself for immorality, he lets Tamar live
• So much sin and wretchedness
• The odd thing is that this story is right in the middle of Joseph’s story filled with pretty much the opposite
• Joseph, on the whole, seeks to live a righteous life
• When pursued directly to commit immorality, Joseph says no and flees, and Joseph is falsely condemned for it
• Yet, we have chapter 38, and we have no other side stories of Joseph’s other brothers either
• Why?
• Because God is so merciful and full of grace
• On a human level, we would expect Jesus to come from the line of Joseph as the most worthy brother
• But instead, Jesus comes from the line of Judah, the most unworthy and wretched brother – the brother who came up with the plan to sell Joseph into Egypt to begin with

How Points to Christ

• In Matthew 1, in the genealogy of Jesus, not many women are mentioned, but i is one of them, and so is Judah
• Almost all of the sinful characters of Genesis 38 are mentioned, but Joseph is not
• Jesus is the promised Messiah from the line of Judah
• And Jesus comes to die, not for righteous people, but for wicked, wretched sinners, like Judah

Apply

• Please pray that I would daily be overwhelmed by God’s undeserving and amazing grace to choose wretched sinners and show love to us
• Please pray that I would be characterized by thanksgiving and humility
• And please pray that I would share this great news with others

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March 25 – Prayer for the World and Unreached

May God increase our desire for His glory to spread to all nations and peoples – Operation World. and Joshua Project!

Unreached of the Day

Please pray for the …

Kayastha of India

Population: 7,229,000

Language: Bengali

Religion: Hinduism

Evangelical: 0.00%

For more details…

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March 22 – Mark 4-6

Bible Reading Commitment, Encouragement, and Challenge

March 22 – Mark 4-6

Observe with some (Interpretation in Parentheses)

• Focusing on Mark 4
• There is too much that can be said about parables, like the purpose of parables and analyzing each one
• But, one theme that jumped out to my soul today is that the role of the person sowing is simply to scatter the seed of God’s Word regularly, faithfully, broadly, and with confidence to rest and sleep
• There is not much the man can do to ensure fruit production
• God is the one who does that
• This is hugely encouraging that I can be faithful to my responsibility to scatter the Word of God and I can trust God to produce fruit
• God is really good at His job of producing fruit in His timing and building His Kingdom that may seem to start out small, but grows to immense beauty and greatness

How Points to Christ

• The Word of God is focused on Christ
• In scattering the Word of God, we are scattering the message of Christ to all the nations

Apply

• Please pray for faithfulness in being in the world to love people and proclaim Christ
• Please pray for patience and prayerful trust that God will produce fruit in His timing for His glory
• Please pray that a passion for prayer that longs to see the Kingdom of God grow and fruit produced

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March 22 – Prayer for the World and Unreached

May God increase our desire for His glory to spread to all nations and peoples – Operation World. and Joshua Project!

Unreached of the Day

Please pray for the …

Abaza of Russia

Population: 38,000

Language: Abaza

Religion: Islam

Evangelical: 0.10%

For more details…

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Struggle with Temptation?

Do you struggle with temptation?  I certainly do.   As you struggle with temptation, are you also often confused by the temptation?

Are you often confused why you continue to keep sinning, even though Scripture tells us that in Christ, we are dead to sin and new creatures?   As you face different types of temptations, are you often confused how to battle different temptations?

If so, you are not alone.  You are like me, and you are like almost every sinner I know.  But, praise God that His Word gives us comfort, hope, and instructions for these questions.

I read these two articles this morning that I found encouraging and helpful, which I pray you would find as well

First, an article about “The War Within,” and why we keep struggling with temptation.

Second, an article about “3 ways to Overcome Temptation, Sin, and Sin Patterns” (in its various forms)

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