Quote from Forum Archives on March 12, 2002, 11:55 am

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

The Bible says: "My command is this: Love each other as I have
loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down
his life for his friends." (John 15:12-13, NIV). The Bible also
records that Jesus did just that, He lay down his life for His
friends. Those who earnestly seek Him and follow as He taught
are His friends. But there is a more interesting thing than
that. You see, there has been a time when not one of us had any
connection or interest in Jesus at all.

The Bible speaks about that, too: "6 You see, at just the right
time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the
ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man,
though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8, NIV). You can read
these verses in their complete context in your own Bible or
online at
bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=John+15&version=NIV-IBS&showfn=yes&showxref=yes&language=english
for the passage from John and
bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=Romans+5&version=NIV-IBS&showfn=yes&showxref=yes&language=english
for the passage from Romans.

Yesterday, Neil Anderson wrote a good message about God's plan
for our lives. The plan involves trust. These days, we often
question who we can trust. God plan requires that we trust in
Him, particularly when we cannot see any direct evidence to
trust, other than His Word. We know that the words of people are
frequently dubious, at best. So often, what someone says,
sometimes even promises, are things we've learned, through
experience, are things we cannot trust.

I'm here to tell you today, through experience, that God's Word
IS the ONE thing I CAN trust for sure. Because of Him, I can
take risks, I can risk being exposed. I can risk hurt, I can
reach out. I trust Him with all of my heart. How about you?
Which plan do you trust?

Your Brother in Christ,
Brian

N E I L A N D E R S O N D A I L Y D E V O T I O N A L
from Freedom in Christ Ministries

March 11

PLAN A VS. PLAN B

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your
own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will
make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5, 6).

Untold numbers of Christians are spiritually unaware and defeated
in their daily lives. They don't realize that there is a battle
going on for their minds. When struggling believers perceive the
nature of the conflict and realize that they can be transformed
by the renewing of their minds, they will experience freedom.

Faith is God's way to live and reason is man's way, but faith and
man's ability to rationalize are often in conflict. It's not that
faith is unreasonable, nor am I suggesting that you ignore your
responsibility to think. On the contrary, we are required by God
to think and choose. God is a rational God and He does work
through our ability to reason. The problem is that our ability to
reason is limited. The Lord said: "As the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts
than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9). We are incapable of
determining God's thoughts through human reasoning, therefore we
are dependent on divine revelation.

So we can live God's way: operating by faith, which I like to
call Plan A. Or we can live our way: operating by our limited
ability to reason, which is Plan B. Plan B is based on our
tendency to rationalize, "I don't see it God's way" or "I don't
believe it," so we do it our way. Solomon urged us always to live
God's way when he wrote: "Do not lean on your own understanding"
(Plan B), but "in all your ways acknowledge Him" (Plan
A)(Proverbs 3:5, 6).

The strength of Plan A in your life is determined by your
personal conviction that God's way is always right and by how
committed you are to obey Him. The strength of Plan B is
determined by the amount of time and energy you invest in
entertaining thoughts which are contrary to God's Word. You may
really know God's way is best. But the moment you begin to
entertain thoughts or ideas which are contrary to God's Word, you
have established Plan B as an escape route in case Plan A should
fail. Is it rational to choose our way over God's way?

Lord, I want to be done with self-centered, mediocre planning. I
choose to submit my will to Your perfect way and trust You for
the outcome.

-----------
This daily devotional is published and distributed by
Crosswalk.com. It is written by Neil Anderson at
< www.ficm.org >.

You can purchase "Daily in Christ" and other titles by Neil
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CBD).
< shopping.crosswalk.com/bye/devo_na >

Additional devotionals are available from Crosswalk.com:
< devotionals.crosswalk.com >.
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=====
--
Brian Masinick, "The Mas", mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: www.geocities.com/masinick/

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