GIve Credit Where Credit Is Due

Deuteronomy 8:10-18 10When you have eaten your fill, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11"But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the LORD your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and laws. 12For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, 13and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, 14that is the time to be careful. Do not become proud at that time and forget the LORD your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. 15Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! 16He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. 17He did it so you would never think that it was your own strength and energy that made you wealthy. 18Always remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill the covenant he made with your ancestors. The above was a reminder to the children of Israel to not forget that God blessed them and their prosperity was NOT a result of anything that they did on their own. I think we can learn from this as well. It seems too often in today's "Me" society that we are all to quick to marvel at how someone made themselves rich or how they were able to accomplish a difficult goal. We then seem to make these amazing people celebrities and even idols. We want to know how they did it and how can we do it, thus endless infomercials on "how to" topics. I see these shows and think yeah, if I get thousands of people to pay $19.95 for my tape I could be rich also. It makes me want to promote a video or book that says the way to get rich is to tell people like you to buy my product that tells you to tell others to buy your product, etc. Let's not forget that EVERYTHING we have and accomplish is from God. We can do nothing on our own. If we gain riches or success it was through God given talents and/or resources. It's like the old story of the scientist that go to God and say they can do anything he can do, without using anything he has made. The Lord looks at them and says ok, we'll try something simple. Let's make a human, they all smile and watch God as he takes some dirt, forms clay and makes a man. The team of scientist begin gathering a few buckets full of dirt and God says WAIT! Get your own dirt! The point is , we can look as long as we wish, but will never find anything that God didn't make. Anything we produce or manufacture has to use some substance that was first made by God. Most importantly, when we begin to fail to thank God or acknowledge him for the blessings he gives us, we lose that blessing. When we begin to think or boast that we accomplished something on our own, then God is not pleased. We are in fact mocking him. We are also in danger of thinking of ourselves as God's equal. God commanded "Thou shall have no other gods before me" that includes our god of self. It's easy to forget we need God when things are going well, however let the first little difficulty come into our lives and we go running to Him for help. Remember to praise God in the good times and the bad. Do not forget to thank him for blessing you each day , and as those blessings grow don't lose sight of where they came from.

Christmas, B.C. - A Devotional by Greg Laurie

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1

The Christmas story is far more profound than many of us may realize. Long Before there was a planet earth, long before a man named Adam and a woman named Eve ate of the forbidden fruit in a garden named Eden ,long before Bethlehem was founded....a decision was made in eternity that Jesus Christ would come to this earth as a man and walk among us, die on the cross, and rise again on the third day.

The stunning truth is , God designed the Christmas story to make provision for our sins and failures even before there was a you and me!

Revelation 13:8 makes this clear : "The Lamb (was) slain from the foundation of the world."And C.S. Lewis succinctly explained why this was necessary when he wrote, "The Son of God became a man that men might become sons of God." Adam and Eve's sin in the garden didn't surprise God; even before He created the world He knew He would have to make provision for us.

Allow me to illustrate this with the procedure I once used with my son Jonathan whenever he sat down with a bowl of cereal. I knew he was going to make a mess. I'm a father and I'd seeen this before. So I made provision for his mess by placing a bib around his neck or putting a plastic tarp beneath his high chair ( or perhaps even getting a nearby garden hose cranked up and ready to go-you get the idea). As a parent , I made provision for the mess I knew my son was going to make.

In the same way , God made provision for the mess that man was going to make. He knew before Adam sinned that he would do so and He knew it would be necessary for Jesus to come to this earth.

Think of it! Long before Bethlehem existed , everything was decided. Before Ruth gleaned wheat in the fields of Boaz. Before David grew up and lived as a young boy and later became the king of Israel and ancester of Jesus. Some 650 years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Micah said of Bethlehem, "But you , Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah , yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah 5:2)-literally, "from the vanishing point."

When Jesus finally came , it had been more than 400 years since Israel last heard from a prophet, 400 years since the last miracle, 400 years since the appearance of an angel. The people were waiting. They were spiritually hungry. They were reaching out.

And when the time was just right, "God sent forth His Son born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons , God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts , crying out , 'Abba , Father!' " (Galations 4:4-6)

We think of Christmas as the celebration of a great arrival, and so it is. But it's also the celebration of a tremendous DEPARTURE. Never forget that Jesus came because a decision had been made that He should leave Heaven.

Did you know we have a record of His good-bye message? Hebrews 10:5-7 says, "When He came into the world, (Jesus) said: 'Sacrifice and offering You did not desire , but a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.' Then I said, 'Behold, I have come-in the volume of the book is written of Me-to do Your will, O God.'" Those were the words of Jesus to His Father. The animal sacrifices pointed to what Jesus would ultimately accomplish as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. God must become a man; there must be a final and complete sacrifice.

This should give you great comfort. God has always known that you could never measure up to His perfection. He never expected you to! Instead , He provided you with His spotless, pure Son, who came to earth and died in our place-and you need to do nothing else but accept His gift of salvation.

Are you struggling with your sin?Is there a part of your past that keeps coming back to haunt you? Do you feel as though the Christian life is too difficult?

If so, then may I remind you that God never intended for you to live up to His standards on your own? He made provison for you-and your messes-through His Son. And once you accept that provision , your life is hidden in Christ. As Paul wrote in Galations 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ , it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."

If by faith you have placed your trust in Christ , that truth should give you tremendous strength and courage. It does me! The Lord does not want us to rely on our strength, but on HIS strength. He knows that we are but dust (see Psalms 103:14).

It's exactly for that reason that when Jesus came to earth the first time, He came as a servant , not a king. He had to clean us up and take care of our messes before we would be fit to be seated at the marriage supper of the spotless Lamb.

"No man ever loved like Jesus . He taught the blind to see and the dumb to speak. He died on the cross to save us. He bore our sins. And now God says, 'Because He did , I can forgive you.'"-Billy Graham

This post was reprinted from Greg Laurie's book : "Everyday with Jesus".