Abundant Grace: June 2015

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Choose the Right Persistence

“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower.” Genesis 11:4

One thing mankind can say about ourselves; we are persistent. The motto “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” pretty aptly describes our behavior. Sometimes it is positive and sometimes it just leads to more trouble. Anyone who has raised boys can attest to the troubled ending of faulty pursuits. After the flood, when the destruction of the world was fresh in the minds of all mankind, they decided to be persistent in disobeying God.

He told them to separate and move over all the earth. They decided to stay put and become great. The old “we want to be gods” attitude begun in the Garden was still persisting after God’s clear demonstration of His wrath toward sin. But not only is man persistent, so is God. He broke up their plan and fulfilled His own. God wants to break down our persistent pursuit of sin and replace it in us with His persistent pursuit of righteousness. We will find it is easier to work with Him than against Him.

Dear Father, Help me to persistently seek Your will for my life. Amen.

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Monday, June 29, 2015

Overwhelming Grace

“Cursed be Canaan” Genesis 9:25

Do you know what overwhelms me? The grace of God; that overwhelms me! God cursed the ground but still made it so productive that it can feed seven billion people. He cursed man and threw him out of the garden, but he gave him life, family, and friends to accompany him on his life’s journey. God hasn’t hesitated to curse sin, sinners, and the ground on which sin is done, but in and through it all He continues to be gracious to those who are cursed.

Canaan was cursed and God assigned all his descendants to be destroyed; but there was still grace. Rahab was a Canaanite and she was accepted by faith into the family of God and became a direct ancestor of Christ. Mankind is cursed with the certainty of physical death and eternal torment; but there is grace. God sent His Son and poured out His wrath on Him that we might have forgiveness and eternal life through faith in Christ’s work. That is the overwhelming grace of God.

Dear Father, Thank You for the abundant grace You show us each day. Amen.

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Friday, June 26, 2015

God Makes and Keeps His Promises

“Thus I establish My covenant with you.” Genesis 9:11

Our God is a covenant making God. He makes promises that He can keep. While other religions hope their gods do what they promised, we can believe it absolutely. When God makes a promise He declares that His integrity is behind it. What is His integrity? He is holy, always righteous and good, cannot lie, and is strong enough to create everything out of nothing. In other words, He is big enough, strong enough, and good enough to fulfill His promises.

He is not only a covenant making God, but also a covenant keeping God. He has sealed His covenant of forgiveness of sin and everlasting life with the blood of His own son. Jesus said, “This is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you” as he offered the cup to His disciples the night before His crucifixion. God’s covenant with us is sealed not only by His word, but by the very blood of Jesus Christ. We can count on God keeping His covenant with us.

Dear Father, Thank You for giving us the covenant of forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend. Amen

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Thursday, June 25, 2015

Just How Bad We Really Are

“The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Genesis 8:21

Mankind has become fully persuaded of its inherent goodness. Sinners of every ilk say that since they are made in the image of God, they and their sins are automatically good. But God has told us the truth, an awful truth we want to ignore. We are sinners and have evil hearts from our youth, as in the day of our birth. The psalmist declared that he was “brought forth in iniquity.” This is something we don’t like to dwell on because it disrupts the good view we have of ourselves.

If this were the only biblical truth about us then we would be hopeless. But it isn’t the only truth. There is a more wonderful truth, and that is that we are also the objects of God’s love. In His love He gave His own Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sin and make us anew, reborn in righteousness with God. In spite of our natural condition, God’s grace offers us His divine condition through repentance and faith in the cross of Christ.

Dear Father, Thank You for forgiveness and a new nature through Christ. Amen.

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Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Reminders to Remember

“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord.” Genesis 8:20

Altar building was a common activity in the Old Testament. Abraham is called the altar builder because of how many he built. Altars were erected as memorials for something God had done, deliverance He had provided, guidance He had offered, and to offer up sacrifices to His glory. The first thing Noah did when he got off that Ark was to build an altar, probably for each and every one of those reasons.

We don’t need to build altars for sacrifice, but what about building them for all the other reasons? Do we have altars to declare His faithfulness, deliverance or special guidance? Do we thank Him first when His hand has done a great thing for us? Altars needn’t be of stone but they need to be formed in our hearts as a constant reminder that here is where the Lord did just what I needed. Each time we see them we need to offer upon them the sacrifice of praise for His love and grace.

Dear Father, Prod our hearts to take note of the special graces You alone provide for us. Amen.

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Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Remembered by God

“And God remembered Noah.” Genesis 8:1

As a child I liked the song, “Do Lord, O do Lord, O do remember me.” It has easy lyrics and a lively tune. It also has a great spiritual truth. God does not forget His children, even when we most think that He has. Noah had been afloat for months in a stinky, cramped boat with almost no light. We can understand if he thought that God had forgotten him; but God hadn’t. We also see in Scripture that God remembered Abraham’s plea and saved Lot. He remembered Rachel in her childless condition and gave her a son. He remembered His people Israel and led them out of bondage in Egypt. God remembers, even when we forget to believe He does.

Have you been waiting for what you feel is too long a time for God to remember you? Do you really think He has forgotten you? Remember Noah, Abraham, Rachel, and the children of Israel. God always remembers His own.

Dear Father, When I am most afraid of being forgotten, help me remember that I am Your child. Amen.

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Monday, June 22, 2015

Are We God's Employees or His Servants?

“Thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him.” Genesis 6:22, 7:5

Jesus taught a great deal about servanthood. This is a topic that is quite foreign to the modern American mind but quite clear to those who heard Him speak. We tend to think in terms of employees with rights instead of servants with duties. I am a big fan of English mysteries, especially those that take place prior to WWII. Servants were the backbone of every large estate from king on down. Workers in their great houses did not think of themselves as employees, but as servants of one greater than themselves.

We see true servanthood in Noah. He did according to all that he was commanded. He did it though the work was hard and unrewarding. He did it for his master. The Bible records his obedience. Jesus told His listeners to look forward to hearing Him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” We are not His employees, but we are to be His servants. What words of reward will we hear from Him?

Dear Father, Thank You for letting us be servants in Your great house. Amen.

Abundant Grace can be found at my website, www.davidccraig.net. You can subscribe to this daily devotion and receive it free M-F simply by choosing the Abundant Grace tab and sign up for regular delivery to your email account. You can also find Quality Christian Books on my website plus fundraising opportunities for your Christian organization or youth group.

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Friday, June 19, 2015

Faith and a Pile of Wood

“Make yourself an ark.” Genesis 6:14

I just sent the final book in the Buffalo Stampede trilogy to the printer yesterday. It recounts the building of a faith community in Nebraska just before the Civil War. The purpose of the community was to have a place to worship freely and help others who were going along the Oregon Trail. What the settlers started out with was faith and wagonloads of wood. That’s what Noah had, faith and a pile of wood.

Noah didn’t just believe God and go his merry way. He got a pile of wood and made an ark. But he didn’t just build the ark, he was also a preacher of righteousness to the world around him while he did so. Noah was saved by grace that gave him faith which produced the ministry of works and words. Christ sent us to preach the Word and do good works as befitted our faith. Things haven’t changed since the days of Noah.

Dear Father, Let me be mindful of what my faith should produce. Amen.

The Friday Benediction

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Thursday, June 18, 2015

Saved by Grace Through Faith

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:8

What a marvelous declaration. In a world full of contempt for God, filled with every imaginable evil, every corruption of the flesh, God still held out grace. Grace is not dependent on our surroundings. Rahab found grace with God, and while all the Canaanites were to die, she was spared. Ruth found grace with God in that all Moabites were rejected but she was accepted. Not age, or sex, or heritage, or nationality, or lowliness or exaltedness of human position factors into God’s grace.

Because the Bible clearly states that “all have sinned”, then Noah was a sinner. Since the Bible clearly states that “the wages of sin is death (eternal separation from God), then by nature Noah was condemned. But Noah found grace. That grace is as alive today through Jesus Christ as it was in Noah’s day. That grace is as free today as it was in Noah’s day. By grace we are saved, and that grace is still free to all who will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear Father, Thank You for the gift of grace through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Standing Up in a Fallen World

“The wickedness of man was great in the earth.” Genesis 6:5

How much worse can it get, is a question I have heard more than once. Sadly the answer is, “Much worse.” Read the biblical description of Canaan and you will find wickedness that would astound you by its pervasiveness in all society. America has become almost as wicked as Canaan, but the days of Noah were worse. Every debauched sexual sin, so common today, and every type of crime against neighbor that still shocks us today was common then. The wickedness of man was great.

Noah was born into that world. Still he was able to find a godly wife and raise a family. He didn’t become a hermit; he became a preacher! When everyone around him was disobeying God; he publicly obeyed God and built and ark for himself and his family. He had his sons work with him and taught them to obey God. The world is wicked, but God is still alive. We need to love and serve Him and raise our families to do likewise.

Dear Father, In the midst of gross disobedience, help me to be obedient. Amen.

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Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Waiting for the Blessed Hope

“This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands.” Genesis 5:29

Do you ever feel like you spend your whole life waiting? We make an appointment at three and get in at four thirty. The contractor says two weeks which stretch to ten. Your car is promised for tomorrow, but they got the wrong part; it will be another week. We wait and wonder when we will get what we have been waiting for. That is what the days of Noah were like. At his birth it was prophesied that he would bring rest, but it was a long, long time coming.

What happens when we wait and are disappointed? We get focused on other things. We choose other options. We abandon the greater hope we had for a lesser hope we can create. This is what happens too often while we await the return of Christ. We forget the bigger promise and live in the less fulfilling smaller agendas we can control. Jesus said to watch and wait and to live focused on Him while we do.

Dear Father, Help us not to lose our focus of the precious return of Christ. Amen.

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Monday, June 15, 2015

Walking with God

“And Enoch walked with God.” Genesis 5:22

I have a dog, Molly, whom I love, and I walk with her multiple times every day. Our walks are the focus of my book, The Gospel According to Molly, (Amazon.com) I love her and I walk with her. In those walks God has taught me so many beautiful truths that I share in that book. Now, imagine if I got to walk directly with God instead of my dog. What a greater blessing that would be.

Walking is a key idea in the Bible. God said, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Paul repeatedly uses the term “walk” to describe our daily life with God. He speaks of walking in the flesh or walking in the Spirit, which would be walking close to the side of God. He urges us to make sure it is the spiritual walk that we seek, just as Enoch did. And what happened to Enoch. Two things: he was mightily used of God as a prophet and then he was not for God took him.

Dear Father, Give us focus for a steady daily walk with You. Amen.

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Friday, June 12, 2015

Made in the Likeness of Adam

“Adam begot a son in his own likeness, after his own image.” Genesis 5:3

God created man in His own image and it was good. Man sinned and marred the image of God. Man procreated and bore children after his own image, the marred image of sin and death. That is an important truth to understand. Many times I have heard from one sinful group or another, “But I am made in the image of God, so what I am and how I am must be good.” But the Bible doesn’t end in Genesis two.

Paul picks up the theme from Genesis five in Romans five and explains that sin has passed from one man to all men. Romans one explains how this sin is lived out in our world today. Romans six tells us the end consequence of being born in sin. Adam died and mankind has been dying ever since. Only Christ can make us alive again and give us eternal life. He offers it to all who will repent of their sins and turn to Him.

Dear Father, Help me not be deceived by those who ignore the truth of Your whole Word. Amen.

The Friday Benediction

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Thursday, June 11, 2015

My Brother's Keeper

“I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis 4:9

My beloved bride and I have six children who are now all grown. When they were little we sometimes had to ask one of the older ones to keep their eye on one or more younger ones. What was their response? It was a lot like Cain’s answer when God asked him about his bother Abel. But, yes, since we were children, unless we were the youngest, we had to learn, “I am my brother’s keeper.” The powers that be have given me a responsibility and I must fulfill it.

Our responsibility to others does not diminish over time; it grows. Jesus told us in Matthew that we are to care for the sick, the naked, the hungry, the thirsty, and the imprisoned. Paul admonished us to bear one another’s burdens. Hebrews says to strengthen the hands that hand down. God doesn’t leave much doubt that He, the power above all others, has charged us to be our brother’s keeper.

Dear Father, Help me to see others as You see them, and care for them as You care for them. Amen.

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Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Delays Are in Our Minds, Not in the Mind of God

“Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bore Cain.” Genesis 4:1

The modern mantra, “I want it all and I want it NOW!” is not really a new expectation. God had promised Eve that her offspring would crush Satan’s head. Now she and Adam had an offspring and what did they expect? They expected their desires would be fulfilled NOW. They named their first little boy Cain which means “spear”. This was the kid who would end their exile from Eden and give them back the good life; only it wasn’t.

Their next little boy was born with much lower expectations. Abel’s name means “emptiness”. His parents had abandoned the hope that their punishment for sin would be short-lived. What happens when we don’t get from God what we want when we want it? Do we conclude that He really doesn’t care, or do we trust that He is always caring and press on with a life of daily obedience and a continued walk of faith? Peter assures of this one great truth, “He {God} cares for you.”

Dear Father, Help me remember that You are always good and always care for me. Amen.

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Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Grace is not a Free Pass to Sin

“Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden.” Genesis 3:23

We are all looking for second chances. Perhaps it is a mulligan in golf or not getting fired for losing the company a million dollars; we want a do over. We expect the same thing from God and it arises from our lack of understanding of our sin and His holiness. The Scripture says that a man will reap what he sows. Adam reaped a sorry harvest when he and Eve were driven from their Garden home to sweat and toil until they died.

Their expulsion from the Garden did not mean that God’s promised grace was nullified. The gifts and promises of God are without repentance. But God also doesn’t just say, “That’s alright, I’ll overlook it this time.” While we may truly reap what we sow in this life, God’s promise of forgiveness now and grace for eternity is unshaken. Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden but they were not abandoned by God, and neither are we.

Dear Father, Help me to guard my steps in this life and trust in Your eternal grace. Amen.

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Monday, June 8, 2015

Take God at His Word

“He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heal.” Genesis 3:15

In the two major creeds that are most often repeated weekly in many churches, it is declared that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary. Belief in the virgin birth has declined over the years into a belief in a birth by a young woman. Yes, Mary was a young woman who also happened to be a virgin. Genesis, Isaiah, Matthew, Luke, and Galatians all say so quite clearly. Many other passages in the Scripture imply it to one degree or another.

Genesis 3 portrays the ongoing struggle for power in our world between Satan and God. Satan had done his best to corrupt man and bring them to physical and eternal death. Apparently he had won, or at least he thought so. Man sinned and death began. But then God said, “You, Satan, shall be defeated, yes destroyed, by the seed of this fallen woman. You have not and will not prevail. My Grace shall prevail." Satan would lose it all at the hands of the virgin born Son of God.

Dear Father, Thank You for Grace through the virgin born Christ. Amen.

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Friday, June 5, 2015

The Far Reaching Effect of Sin

“Cursed is the ground for your sake.” Genesis 3:17

What is the cost of lusting for what we don’t have and didn’t need? On one level it can be merely frustration, but it can move beyond that to real financial distress. We can get in over our heads and then we have to work too hard to ever have time to enjoy the fruit of our lust. The toil of our lives increases and the enjoyment decreases. It is a problem as old as Eden.

But wait, there is more. When man began to die physically, the earth began to decay as well. Man’s sin destroyed the perfection of God’s earthly creation. As the nursery rhyme goes, “and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put the earth together again.” The earth will never recover its glory until Christ comes and makes all things new. That doesn’t mean we should casually continue to destroy it, but it puts the lie to the idea that we can fix it. That is the product of our sin.

Dear Father, Help me be a steward of Your creation while I await Christ’s restoring of it. Amen.

The Friday Benediction

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Thursday, June 4, 2015

The Blame Game or Honest Repentance

“The woman You gave me, she gave it to me.” Genesis 3:12

Crash goes the lamp in the living room. You run in and find three completely innocent children sitting quietly on the couch. Each says, “Nobody did it.” Nobody takes a lot of blame in our lives. We have to blame someone and he is the easiest target. The blame game began in the Garden and continues today, but it doesn’t fool the parent and it doesn’t fool God.

A common liturgy says, “I confess that I am in bondage to sin and that I cannot free myself.” Paraphrased that means, “God, I broke all Your laws; yes, I did it. I need Your grace.” That is what we need to say about our wayward behavior, better known as sin. We should practice honesty with God who already knows the truth anyway. Our sin is not someone else’s fault, it is ours. But in our sin we can repent and confess and find the same grace God offered to Adam and Eve in the Garden. Thanks be to God.

Dear Father, I confess that I sin daily and I thank You for Your gracious forgiveness. Amen.

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Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Shopping at Satan's Store

“And you shall be as gods.” Genesis 3:5

What are you missing in life that you don’t know you are missing in life? It is the salesman’s job to make you want that item and then to pursue having it. Satan approached a person with everything and made her want more. He created a discontent so that he could sell some phony products. He was going to sell wisdom, but wisdom comes from God, not Satan. He was selling the root of idolatry with the concept that there were gods and not just one God.

We still suffer today from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We are still shopping at Satan’s store. Paul told the Philippians that whether he had much or little, he had learned to be content because he always had Christ. That is the truth that Satan stole from Eve and still tries to steal from us today. With Christ we are heirs of all things good and we need to learn contentment in the promises of God.

Dear Father, Help me to see what I have in Christ and be content. Amen

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Tuesday, June 2, 2015

God Has Indeed Said

“Hath God said . . .?” Genesis 3:1

One of the easiest ways to make a person stumble on an answer is to follow up with, “Are you sure?” That simple question creates doubt and doubt is the route to confusion. This is the ploy that Satan used in the Garden of Eden. He asked Eve the simple question, “Has God said”. Hear the inflection in his voice as he makes it not a question for which he wants and answer, but a question to pose a dilemma.

Satan tried the same trick on Jesus in the wilderness. Three times he asked, “Doesn’t Scripture say,” and each time Jesus answered with assurance that Satan has mixed up what Scripture said. How can we not be fooled by Satan’s tactic? We must know the Word of God, not just what we hear on Sunday morning but what we read daily and systematically for ourselves. If we know what God says, then Satan’s posing of the question is impotent. Truly we need to heed Paul’s admonition to “study to show ourselves approved.”

Dear Father, Help me love Your Word more and more each day. Amen

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Monday, June 1, 2015

Marriage Revealed in Christ and the Church

“This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” Genesis 2:23

God cared enough for man to give him woman. That says enough about the eternal order of things, but there is even more to this. Every other creature had a mate by which they could reproduce, and now man had one, but that is simply returning to the most obvious of eternal truths. God gave Adam a creature different than himself with whom to live.

Marriage is a picture of Christ and the church. Ephesians 5 clearly depicts this relationship. There is Christ and there is the church. We, His Church, are one with Him, but we are certainly different from Him. He is God; we are men. He is eternal; we are created. He is sinless; we are sinners. The marriage is made up of two who are different but become one in union. We become one in union with Christ by faith; man and woman become one in union by marriage. Only a marriage of man and woman can follow God’s design and demonstrate Christ and the Church.

Dear Father, Thank You for the picture and joy of marriage. Amen

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