Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:36

The doors of the school burst open on the last day of school, and kids come pouring out, laughing with joy that school is out for three whole months. Freedom! Summer certainly represents a measure of freedom for everyone. Because school is out, families are free from carpools, homework, and other activities that regulate the school year calendar.

As glorious as the freedom of summer is, there is a greater freedom that lasts all year long and which is only found in the Son of God: the freedom from bondage to sin and the guilt of the law. Just as children are freed from the regulations and policies of school for three months, Christians are freed from the regulations of the law forever. But liberty is not license. Being free from the law doesn’t mean we are free to indulge our sinful nature. Rather, we are free—by the power of the indwelling Spirit—to please God because we want to, not because we have to. The Spirit writes God’s law on our heart, giving us a newfound freedom to please Him (Jeremiah 31:33).

Enjoy the freedom of the summer! Even more, enjoy the freedom granted by the Son of God by which you are “free indeed.”

The Christian is not free to please himself but to please God. John Blanchard

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Free Indeed, John 8:36 – Pastor Chuck Smith – Topical Bible Study

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. 2 Timothy 1:9

As a child, my daughter loved playing with her Swiss cheese at lunch. She’d place the pastel yellow square on her face like a mask, saying, “Look, Mom,” her sparkly green eyes peeking out from two holes in the cheese. As a young mom, that Swiss-cheese mask summed up my feelings about my efforts—genuinely offered, full of love, but so very imperfect. Holey, not holy.

Oh, how we long to live a holy life—a life set apart for God and characterized by being like Jesus. But day after day, holiness seems out of reach. In its place, our “holeyness” remains.

In 2 Timothy 1:6-7, Paul writes to his protégé Timothy, urging him to live up to his holy calling. The apostle then clarified that “[God] has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace” (v. 9). This life is possible not because of our character, but because of God’s grace. Paul continues, “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” (v. 9). Can we accept God’s grace and live from the platform of power it provides?

Whether in parenting, marriage, work, or loving our neighbor, God calls us to a holy life—made possible not because of our efforts to be perfect but because of His grace.

By:  Elisa Morgan

Reflect & Pray

How do you view personal holiness? In what ways will you ask God to remind you of His all-surpassing grace that brings about His holiness in your life?

Dear God, please help me to lean into Your grace and not my efforts to live a holy life.

For further study, read Why Would Anyone Want to Be Holy?

Are you choosing to see and meet the needs of those God has given you to serve? Romans 12:10-13

Have you ever met people who were famous or highly esteemed? How did you treat them? You likely spoke with deep respect, deferred to them, and considered their needs as greater than your own. That’s the natural response when we feel we’re in the presence of someone “important.”

When Paul says to “give preference to one another in honor” (Rom.12:10), he is essentially telling us to treat others as if they are the most important people in the room—not because they are, but because they’ve been created in God’s image. We are called to consider others as greater than ourselves (Philippians 2:3), loving and honoring them the way the Lord does.

Loving as God loves includes a willingness to lay down the need to be first, the need to be right, and the need to have things our own way. Instead, we choose the way of the cross, humbly leveraging who we are and what’s been given to us for the benefit of those around us.

Let’s continually race each other to the back of the line. When we do this well, our friendships, families, churches, and communities will be filled with people intent on showing honor by deferring to one another. As a result, we’ll be honoring the One who created us all.

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.” (Proverbs 25:2)

Education is sometimes claimed to be a “search for truth,” and scientists in particular take pride in their “research.” No doubt the scientific method has led to many useful discoveries and inventions, and rulers often have sponsored “government research” for their own ends. Furthermore, God’s primeval “dominion mandate” (Genesis 1:26-28) in effect ordains the conduct of beneficial research.

At the same time, there are some things that are far beyond the research capabilities of human investigations. Yet, they are understandable to the believing heart because these unsearchable things are near to the heart of God, who made us in His image. “I would seek unto God,” Job said, “and unto God would I commit my cause: Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number” (Job 5:8-9).

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3). “There is no searching of his understanding” (Isaiah 40:28). “Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:5). There is far more to be discovered concerning God and His great creation than all the scientists can ever hope to discover in this life. But those who love Him will have an eternity of time to search out the majestic complexities of His infinite universe, for “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

What a marvelous paradox! “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33). Yet unsearchable though they be, Paul, “less than the least of all saints,” was able to “preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8). HMM

“The tragedy of man is not that he dies, but what dies within him while he still lives.“– Albert Schweitzer

Some years ago, the wife of a close friend walked out on the marriage, leaving the husband with their four children, all under 10 years of age. When this catastrophe struck, he had just completed his Ph.D., and was embarking upon a promising teaching career at a prestigious university. Desperate now for help in raising his children, he found it necessary to relinquish his position and return to the city of his parents to enlist their assistance.

Early one morning before driving his U-Haul truck of household goods the 1400 miles north, he stopped by to say good-bye. It was painfully obvious that he was deeply crushed by the desertion of his wife, and the uncertain future awaiting him. So we talked, wept, and prayed… and finally bid farewell.

And as he climbed into the cab of the truck with his four small children he looked down, eked out a smile, and said, “Well Dwight, I still have HOPE.” As his vehicle disappeared from sight I was reminded of the words penned by St. Paul:

“We… rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, HOPE. And HOPE does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.“(Romans 2:2b-5)

Today, eight years later, my friend and his clan are doing beautifully. The children give every evidence of maturing spiritually and socially into responsible adults. Recently he was appointed the head of his department in a respected institution of higher learning.

With the sparkle back in his eyes, it is apparent that he is experiencing God’s promise that “HOPE does not disappoint us… “

So what do you do when the bottom falls out of your life?

• Allow that which lies within you to die while you are still alive? Or
• Choose to place your HOPE in the character and promises of God?

“Why are you downcast, O my soul?… Put your HOPE in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God… ‘For I know the plans I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you HOPE and a future.'” (Psalm 43:5; Jeremiah 29:11)

John 11:20-37

John 11:20

Martha had earnestly expected the Lord’s coming, and her active spirit led her to meet him. In this she is an example to us: our faith and hope and prayer, should go forth to meet the Lord in his ways of providence and grace. We may not judge Mary, but we may do well to remember that it is a temptation to contemplative Christians to sit too still in hours of sorrow. Martha was cumbered with much serving, and there have been Marys who have been cumbered with much fretting.

John 11:21, 22

Her complaint of his absence was very gentle, and her faith in his power to restore her brother was far too pleasing to Jesus for him to be displeased by what she said. How apt are we all to think that if the Lord were with us we should not be in trouble, whereas it is in affliction that he is most graciously manifest.

John 11:25, 26

It would be well after hearing any scriptural truth, to put this question to ourselves: “Believest thou this?” Especially should we be well established in the truth that Jesus is the source, substance, and firstfruits of the resurrection.

John 11:27, 28

Jesus had probably said more than is here recorded, and had asked for Mary particularly. In the gospel he asks after each one of us.

John 11:32

Her posture indicated the deepest reverence, yet her complaint was couched in the same words as that of her sister. We all find it hard to understand why the Lord permits heavy trials to overtake us.

John 11:35

This little verse is full of great teaching. It shows both the humanity and the sympathy of Jesus, and is for ever the mourner’s choicest gem of consolation.

John 11:36

A word of astonishment which may as truly be used in reference to his love to each of his servants. His love to us is wonderful.

John 11:37

Of course he could, but they had not the wit to argue that he who could preserve life could also restore it. Often men stand on the verge of faith, and yet at last die in unbelief.

“See how he loved!” exclaimed the Jews,

As tender tears from Jesus fell;

My grateful heart the thought pursues,

And on the theme delights to dwell.

“See how he loved,” who travelled on,

And taught the doctrine from the skies!

Who bade disease and pain begone,

And called the sleeping dead to rise.

“See how he loved,” who never shrank

From toil or danger, pain or death!

Who all the cup of sorrow drank,

And meekly yielded up his breath.

Such love, can we, unmoved, survey?

Oh, may our breasts with ardour glow,

To tread his steps, his laws obey,

And thus our warm affections show!

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord… that they may rest from their labors. (Revelation 14:13)

We modern Christians seem to be a strange breed in many of our ways. We are so completely satisfied with earthly things and we enjoy our creature comforts so much that we would just rather stay on here for a long, long time!

Probably most of us do not tell God about that kind of desire when we pray. But for years I have made a practice of writing many of my earnest prayers to God in a little book—a book now well worn. I remind God often of what my prayers have been.

One prayer in the book—and God knows it well by this time—is an honest supplication:

Oh, God,

Let me die rather than to go on day by day living wrong. I do not want to become a careless, fleshly old man.

I want to be right so that I can die right! Lord, I do not want my life to be extended if it would mean that I should cease to live right and fail in my mission to glorify You all of my days!

I would rather go home right now than to live on—if living on was to be a waste of God’s time and my own!

So [the widow] said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?” 1 Kings 17:18

Some of history’s most agonizing words are those whispered by Jesus Christ in His final minutes of life: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46) Those were the very words spoken by David when he felt God had abandoned him to his enemies (Psalm 22:1).

It is not unusual for us to express our frustration toward those to whom we are closest—those whom we expect will be there for us—when we feel they have let us down. Even if that person is God Himself. The widow for whom God miraculously provided a perpetual food supply (1 Kings 17:8-16) suddenly doubted God when her son died. She thought that the very God who had blessed her with food was now judging her sins by killing her son. How easily we forget the goodness of God when our circumstances change.

A good way to remember the goodness of the Lord is to thank Him daily, preferably at the beginning of your day, for the blessing of knowing Him—for His mercy, love, power, and more that covers the pathway of our life and the day that is just beginning.

The Lord’s goodness surrounds us at every moment. R. W. Barbour

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1 Kings 17:17-18:46 – Skip Heitzig

A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart. Luke 6:45 nlt

How do you eliminate foul language? A high school chose to institute a “no foul language” promise. The students took an oath, saying: “I do solemnly promise not to use profanities of any kind within the walls and properties of [our school].” This was a noble effort, but, according to Jesus, no external rule or pledge can ever cover the odor of foul speech.

Removing the stench of the words that come from our mouths begins with renewing our hearts. Just as people recognize the kind of tree by the fruit it bears (Luke 6:43-44), Jesus said that our speech is a convincing indicator of whether our hearts are in tune with Him and His ways or not. Fruit stands for a person’s speech, “for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (v. 45). Christ was pointing out that if we really want to change what’s coming out of our mouths, we first have to focus on changing our hearts as He helps us.

External promises are useless to curb the foul language that comes forth from an untransformed heart. We can only eliminate foul speech by first believing in Jesus (1 Corinthians 12:3) and then inviting the Holy Spirit to fill us (Ephesians 5:18). He works within us to inspire and help us to continually offer thanks to God (v. 20) and to speak encouraging and edifying words to others (4:15, 29; Colossians 4:6).

By:  Marvin Williams

Reflect & Pray

What do your words and speech say about your heart? How are you inviting the Holy Spirit to transform your speech these days?

Dear Jesus, please help me speak words that honor You and edify others.

For further study, read Words Matter: Speaking with Wisdom in an Age of Outrage.

To impact others with God’s love, time and energy are required. Romans 12:9-10

Many of us make it a point to show interest when we’re with other people. We’ve learned how important it is to be cordial, make small talk, and express concern at the right moments, all of which are commendable. But take a moment to consider ways that God might want you to go further.  

Pleasantries and polite chit chat are a good way to break the ice and begin a friendship. But watch for when God might be calling you to strive for something richer. Are you available and willing to go beneath the surface? Loving others well requires sacrifice—an investment of time and heartfelt energy in those relationships. It might involve shifting the calendar to spend time with a friend who needs to talk through a problem. Or it could mean going without an unnecessary purchase in order to bless someone who is hurting financially.

There are times when the Lord wants our relationships to go deeper, even when doing so gets messy. After all, isn’t that exactly what Jesus did with us? He loved us so profoundly that He gave His very life on the cross (Romans 5:8). Let’s follow His example by giving away a little more of our own life as we commit to truly loving the people around us.