GOD’S WORD FOR OCTOBER 3

We are reading from a daily devotional  called “Running To Win” written by Erwin Lutzer  and the late, great D.L. Moody.   Erwin Lutzer is a light in our day as D.L. Moody was in his.  Besides his many ministries, and many books, Pastor Lutzer was Senior Pastor at Moody Church in Chicago for 36 years and now serves as Pastor Emeritus there.  He is  Chancelor and a former professor at Moody Bible Institute, where he taught Theology and Ministry, and now has numerous radio teachings.

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ALL I CAN GIVE

My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways. Proverbs 23:26

D.L. MOODY

I remember hearing a story about a Native American Indian who wanted to come to the Lord. He brought his blanket, but the Lord wouldn’t have it. He brought his gun, his dog, his bow and arrow, but the Lord wouldn’t have them. At last he brought himself, and the Lord took him. The Lord wanted himself.

What the Lord wants is not what you have got, but yourself, and you cannot do a thing to please God until you surrender yourself to Him.

ERWIN LUTZER

Before salvation, we are dead in our sins. Our fallenness permeates our entire being: Our minds are tainted with sin, our souls are stained, and our wills are paralyzed. Good people or not, we are in deep trouble. And even the best we bring to God will not be received.

If God’s rescue program had included our efforts, grace would be diminished and salvation would not be wholly the work of God. Some things can exist together, but the grace that brings salvation and human works, like oil and water, do not mix. Our self-effort will be put on a shelf labeled, “Unsuitable For Use.” God acts alone when He saves us because He neither needs nor accepts our cooperation. He invites us only to believe.

When you come to Christ, you do not come to give, but to receive. You do not come to be helped, but to be rescued. You do not come just to be made better, though thankfully, that does happen, but you come to be made alive! Salvation is not based on our promise but on His promise. It is His work, not ours, that gives us the gift of grace. We bring nothing but ourselves and our need.

    PRAYER

    Father, you have saved me apart from anything I could ever do or offer. Thank you for making me see my need for you and for saving me by grace through faith alone.

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John 3:1-3

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

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John 3:7

Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

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1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

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1 Peter 1:23

since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

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James 3:17

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

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Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

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John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'”

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Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

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2 Cor. 5:17

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

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