Daily Devotional, Year 2 – May 1 (Making Deals With My Self!)

By admin On March 15th, 2015

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Daily Devotional, Year 2 – May 1

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Making Deals With My Self!

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Do you remember in Luke 16:1-9, the parable of the Unjust Steward?

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Well, this man was about to get fired from being a steward.

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But in desperation, he decided to go to his employer’s debtors and settled with each for less than what they owed his employer.

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Listen… “So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty…” Luke 16:5, 6

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And so, this is what he did with each debtor. And when his employer found out what this steward did, the employer actually commended the steward for being so shrewd!

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Parable of Unjust Steward- armenianchurchwd.com – public domain

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HOW DOES THIS TRANSLATE?

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In this parable of the Unjust Steward, Jesus noted that the people of the world, “are in their generation wiser than the children of light.”

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So, it would be a wise practice to take note of how the people of this world prepare themselves for trouble and translate how they do things in the physical realm, to discover how we might prepare in the spiritual realm.

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Parable of Unjust Steward- armenianchurchwd.com – public domain

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MAKING DEALS WITH OUR SELF

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Well, this following daily devotional commentary may or may not give the primary meaning of this strange little parable.

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Nevertheless, for all those who are studying their Bible, trying to do the Lord’s will, those Believers greatest desire is to please their Lord.

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But for most of us, we know more than we do. In other words, it just doesn’t seem as if we can imitate the Lord Jesus, as we would like to!

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And as a result, our obedience falls short of our Bible knowledge!

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Okay, so what are we to do?

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USMC – Prayer before Bible study – Wikimedia – public domain

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DOING WHAT WE CAN DO

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Well, let’s guess what that unjust steward would do in this situation? How would that shrewd steward handle his inability to perform the way that the Lord would want him to perform?

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Well of course, he would begin to make deals, wouldn’t he? This steward was shrewd!

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But who would he make deals with? After all, he can’t get others to be obedient for him, can he?

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No, but he can begin to make deals with his own self!

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Parable of the Unjust Steward – Jan Luyken etching – Bowyer Bible – Copy-Left License – cropped and colored image – Wikipedia

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MAKING A DEAL REGARDING PRAYER

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**For instance, let’s say that he understands that Jesus, “prayed without ceasing”, as it commands us to do in 1st Thessalonians 5:17.**

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But he doesn’t feel like he’s able to do that, at this point in his Christian walk.

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So, this unjust steward makes a deal with himself, to begin a thrice-daily prayer regimen.

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And this unjust steward begins where he is and starts his own three-times-daily prayer regimen and begins to beg for more spiritual strength and faith to eventually increase his prayers.

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Prayer at Day’s End – Angelus by Jean-François Millet – Wikipedia – Public Domain

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A TEMPORARY SOLUTION

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The point is, we may not be able to give our everything to the Lord right at this point.

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But if we would only think about it, there is always something that we CAN do, though it falls short of the ideal.

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And of course, this is only one example. And as we all know, there are many other areas of the Christian life, in which we might make similar deals with our own self, as a temporary solution, while hoping to eventually grow increasingly more spiritual.

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USMC – Prayer before Bible study – Wikimedia – public domain

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THE FLOCKS ARE TENDER

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“And he (Jacob) said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly,” Genesis 33:13, 14

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This above passage makes a big concept as we apply it to our own lives and to those around us. God is leading us on, step-by-step. We cannot expect those around us to be making giant steps up the Pilgrim’s Pathway.

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On the other hand, we must not begin to take our ease, and become stagnant in the battle of overcoming. We must continue to press onward and upward. We must keep hiding the Word in our hearts. And we must keep praying for greater grace!

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Meeting of Jacob and Esau – 1844 – Wikipaintings – Public Domain

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NEW DOORS WILL OPEN

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This is perhaps one way to look at that parable.

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And whether or not this is the true meaning, it nevertheless is a Bible truth of how we are to grow, little by little, in our spiritual life.

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And if we will begin today to do what we can do, we would no doubt find that a new door soon opens for us to take a further step up that gently ascending heavenly pathway!

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And if all I can do at this point in time, is to merely lay in bed, and wish that God would save me: that, my friend, is a very good beginning!

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TODAY’S PRAYER…

“Dear Lord, Help me to do what I feel I can do today. But keep me seeking for more faith to more closely perform Thy will tomorrow…

Woman Praying – cropped image – Wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

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THE END

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TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN

Info & pics of constellations on this site from Wikipedia & International Astronomical Union (click here)

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REVELATION 12 FLEEING WOMAN

But of course, this story in the heavens is incomplete, since the Pleiades does not show this captive angel woman (picture to above right), making her way to the threshold of the door, as did the concubine, in this Judges 19 story.

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So what’s the solution to this? Just how does God portray this woman making her way to the door, in the story written in the heavens? The answer is found in the The Woman of Revelation 12 Constellation. This is where this other constellation comes in and completes this story: the The Woman of Revelation 12 Constellation (also known as Ursa Major, or the Great Bear or the Big Dipper), completes this story. So let’s take another look at this fleeing woman of Revelation 12…

(You may click here to read more about The Pleiades… “The Pleiades: The Captive Angel & Mystery Harlot Constellation” )

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CHURCH ABUSED TILL DAWNING

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“Thus she (the Church) committed her whoredoms…and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her. Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians (the worldly), upon whom she doted. These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword…for they had executed judgment upon her.” Ezekiel 23:7-10 [condensed]

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This above passage from Ezekiel, speaks of God’s people, Israel (which symbolizes God’s New Testament Church in these last days.)

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But how does this relate to the Signs in the Heavens? In the previous section, The Pleiades is shown to symbolize God’s apostate Church. But of course, this story in the heavens is incomplete, since the Pleiades does not show this woman making her way to the threshold of the door. This is where the Revelation 12 Woman completes this story…

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TOMORROW…

“May 2 (Flower of the Field, Part 1: The Price of Dust)”

soil-dirt-Happy-silage-bale-Wikimedia-Creative-Commons-Attribution-2.0-Generic-licens-e1429016804724

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20+ MINUTE AUDIO STUDY IN JEREMIAH

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ALL‘NOBLE BEREANS’ (open-minded seekers of Bible truth) ARE ENCOURAGED TO BEGIN FOLLOWING THIS 650+ AUDIO BIBLE STUDY THROUGH THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH EACH DAY ON THIS DAILY DEVOTIONAL.

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THIS STUDY #487 IS PRESENTED BY THE LATE HAROLD CAMPING…

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above picture: Prophet Jeremiah – www.christianimagesource.org – Public Domain

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