Today's Devotions

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Showcase: Assorted Treats

  • Heaven's Gate to Open Wide: Jesus Loves Me (Whitney Houston) +

    Whitney Houston Jesus loves me! This I know, For the Bible tells me so; Little ones to Him belong, They Read More
  • God of Heaven Come Down: Song of Hope +

    Robbie Seay Band All things bright and beautiful You are All things wise and wonderful You are In my darkest Read More
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200px-OswaldChambersHe moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel,

and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord -Genesis 12:8

Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard it for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded (see Exodus 16:20). God will never allow you to keep a spiritual blessing completely for yourself. It must be given back to Him so that He can make it a blessing to others.

Bethel is the symbol of fellowship with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abram "pitched his tent" between the two. The lasting value of our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of worship is wrong every time- there is always plenty of time to worship God. Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. That is why we must "pitch our tents" where we will always have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three levels of spiritual life- worship, waiting, and work. Yet some of us seem to jump like spiritual frogs from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God's idea is that the three should go together as one. They were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight.

 

Reflections to Consider

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Publications

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Music

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Audio & Video

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Favorites

  • Prayer - Does it Make Any Difference, Philip Yancey +

    Contemporary classic that probes the meaning of prayer for 21st century believers, and provides extended, personal anecdotes from a wide Read More
  • Blog of the Week: Mister Noah's Neighborhood: Philip Yancey blog +

    Below is a wonderful blog by Philip Yancey--see the link at the end of the posting. Mister Noah's Neighborhood Posted Read More
  • Why Not Give the Christians a Chance: Philip Yancey on prison ministries +

    Below is an excerpt from a recent blog post by Philip Yancey--a thoughtful examination of prison ministries.The link to the Read More
  • The Winter Season of Faith: Philip Yancey's blog +

    The following is taken from Philip Yancey's blog. A link to his website is at the end of this excerpt. Read More
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Hidden Blessings

  • Transforming this World: The Hope of Glory by NT Wright +

    Wright confronts the perspective that this world doesn’t matter, and that we live only to be in heaven. He shows Read More
  • What is Good in a World that Defies Hope: a talk by NT Wright +

    This is the second part of three talks by NT Wright at Harvard University in November, 2008 on the topic Read More
  • The Stream, the Lake and the River: NT Wright +

      Acts 2.1-21; John 7.37-39; a sermon at the Eucharist on the Feast of Pentecost, 11 May 2008, by the Read More
  • Jesus in the Perfect Storm by NT Wright +

    Zechariah 9.9-17; Luke 19.28-48; A sermon for Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011, In the University Chapel of St Salvator, St Read More
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