Read John 6:60-65
“And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father” (v. 65).
Without getting involved in a theological discussion of election, let us remember the fact that “The Lord is not . . . willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). It is also important to remember the words of Jesus when He said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44). This drawing we often refer to as conviction. This may be more evident in evangelistic services in dealing with unsaved people.
During an altar call several years ago, it was evident that God was drawing a young father to repent. I had spoken to him personally, but he said he had rejected God so long, it was no use to seek Him. After some persuasion he finally said, “I’ll try,” and went to the altar. As he and others began to pray, God drew near, and he soon arose from the altar rejoicing that God had saved him. The Father had brought him to Himself.
“The Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts” (Heb. 3:7, 8). (Burl McClanahan)

Jesus is pleading; O list to His voice:
Hear Him today, hear Him today.
They who believe on His name shall rejoice;
Quickly arise and away. — Fanny J. Crosby

God still hears the repentant sinner.

This week’s featured devotional is the Tuesday, August 19, 2014 entry of Opening the Word. Order your copy!
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Read Ecclesiastes 12:8-14
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (v. 13).
The phone rang. Answering it, I found a telemarketer offering a product/service that interested me. We talked about it for a little while, but I was in a hurry. I wanted to get to the bottom line. What would this cost me? The telemarketer had different ideas. His goal was to set up an appointment so I could spend twenty minutes online and on the phone talking to someone about the benefits of the product.
We ended the phone call with the telemarketer promising to email information, including prices, to me and to call the next week.
Reading Ecclesiastes can be a challenging assignment. The emphasis on vanity, emptiness, can be almost enough to bring discouragement to an optimist. Times were hard for Solomon. He had started his reign as king by doing the right things, but along the way he lost his focus. Now, coming down to the end of this book, he weighed what is really important.
Here is the bottom line; here is what is really important. “Fear God, and keep his commandments.” Finally, Solomon realized this. He had allowed his life to be full of emptiness. It was the wrong choice. Make a better choice than Solomon made. Give your life to God and do His will. “This is the whole duty of man.” (Mark Avery)

Fulfill your duty to God.

This week’s featured devotional is the Monday, August 11, 2014 entry of Opening the Word. Order your copy!
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Read Romans 6:12-23
“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (v. 22).
“And now . . .” What a blessed contrast! Because He came to me and died on Calvary, my whole life has been changed. No longer am I a slave to sin! And because of that change the fruit of my life has changed! No longer do I bear the fruit of bitterness, conflict, and impurity. Instead, I bear the fruit of forgiveness, peace, and genuineness. How can this be?
A few years ago, while we lived in Ukraine, a friend brought us some of the largest and sweetest grapes I had ever seen. They were the fruit of his own harvest, so I immediately asked him if he could help me grow such luscious fruit. He soon brought me a young vine with a sheet of directions for planting. The first thing he required was that I dig a hole one meter deep by one meter wide. When I had removed all the old soil, I was to plant that little vine in a carefully prepared mixture of compost and sand. Even if I had a new vine, the fruit would be determined by the soil it grew in.
The Christian life requires a radical change. I can be assured of everlasting life only when I have allowed God to change the soil in which my life grows. If you allow your life to grow in natural soil, the result will be inferior fruit! (Gordon Snider)

The Christian life requires a radical change.

This week’s featured devotional is the Wednesday, August 6, 2014 entry of Opening the Word. Order your copy!
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Read Hebrews 4:14-16
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (v. 16).
These verses are truly encouraging us to pray. “Come boldly” simply means we do not necessarily have to be great orators, but we have freedom to express to God our feelings, needs, and confidence that He hears us. He has invited us to share with Him our need for forgiveness so that we can receive His mercy. We also can bring to Him every burden we bear, every trial we are enduring, every temptation that we face, and every need we encounter. He has grace sufficient for whatever life hands us.
Throughout my life, I have “come boldly” to God’s throne. I came boldly when a family member was diagnosed with cancer. I came boldly in one of the darkest times of my life when a pregnancy ended three weeks early in a stillbirth. I came boldly when there was not enough money to pay taxes. I have come boldly when my daughter had a very high fever. This list could keep going, but the simple truth is this: Every time I have come boldly to the throne of grace I have obtained mercy and found grace to help. Every prayer was answered, and every need has been supplied! (Marla Cook)

Every need supplied
Every need supplied
He gives healing, cleansing, sweet peace inside
Every need supplied.

Come boldly! After all, this is your Father you are talking to!

This week’s featured devotional is the Sunday, August 3, 2014 entry of Opening the Word. Order your copy!

Read Isaiah 25:6-9
“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it” (v. 8).
“I wanted you to know that your talks with me in college were not in vain. I now believe and am going to church.” These words were from Russ, a young professional man who in the university had been a skeptic. He and I had long discussions about Jesus and His truth claims. When he claimed that he had come to faith, I was surprised. I had not felt I had done much in the way of convincing him. What changed him? It certainly had not been my arguments, which were inadequate. Rather, it was small bits of truth that in an incremental way lodged in his heart and eventually bore the fruit of faith. That young man experienced a kind of progressive revelation of truth.
God, through progressive revelation, “precept upon precept; line upon line,” has shown man about heaven. The lines in Isaiah 25:8 foreshadowed what John would more clearly reveal in Revelation 21. There will be no tears in heaven, and God’s people will enter into a glory that will never fade away. This clearer depiction of coming blessings prompted Charles H. Gabriel’s inspirational words of what awaits believers. (Dave Gordeuk)

Oh, that will be glory for me,
Glory for me, glory for me,
When by His grace I shall look on His face,
That will be glory, be glory for me.
— Charles H. Gabriel

Glimpses of heaven greet those who look for them.

This week’s featured devotional is the Monday, August 25, 2014 entry of Opening the Word. Order your copy!
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Read Deuteronomy 30:1-10
“And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live” (v. 6).

As a child, my mother would say that a rule (law) was because she loved me. I would think, “How can she love me if she doesn’t let me do that?”
As a parent myself, I fully understand her logic. We did not allow certain behavior because we knew it would result in harm. Playing with matches resulted in burns. Playing with knives could injure as well.
The restrictions were not because we wanted to be mean or demanding but because we felt we knew what was best for our children. Our goal was to raise godly young men, of value to ministry and the community.
The laws of God can be viewed in the same light. No doubt the Israelites felt they were being confined by the laws of Jehovah. To them, the concept of God loving them enough to keep them from evil, was probably unbelievable. They feared God, and “served” Him, lest judgment fall at the smallest infraction.
In our lives, however, if we truly love God, His law is not a burden to us. We love to follow His commands, because we love Him, and want to please Him. We serve Him out of love, not fear. We realize that His laws are designed for our good, as well as His glory. (Sue Colburn)
When we love God with all our heart, we find abundant life!
This week’s featured devotional is the Monday, July 21, 2014 entry of Opening the Word. Order your copy!
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Read Psalm 51:1-10
“Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom” (v. 6).
I am extremely fond of genuine leather. It is no wonder I was a Day-Timer® guy; so much so that when my secretary hid it one day, I nearly went berserk before she and my staff coughed it up. If I recall, their practical joking was not worth the risk of repeating! Even though my electronic Outlook calendar has replaced the need for my Day-Timer®, be assured my brown, brushed cowhide, senior pocket binder is always tucked securely in my computer bag. Ah, the aroma of six square inches of supple leather; twenty years since unwrapping it, the smell is as fresh today as it was then.
My point? Today’s verse expresses the never-failing desire for the genuineness that is derived from the truth revealed in God himself through His enduring Word. This truth has no substitute; it is deeply riveted on the heart. It settles for nothing short of claiming Almighty God as its source of wisdom. It is genuine. Its aroma is a sweet-smelling savor to the Father, who is full of truth and grace. This is my God! The methods to convey His truth may change, but the principles of its reliability remain constant. (RB Kuhn)

Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also.
The body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still.
His kingdom is forever. — Martin Luther

Just like the enduring attractiveness of genuine leather, so is the everpresent recognition of abiding in His truth.

This week’s featured devotional is the Tuesday, July 15, 2014 entry of Opening the Word. Order your copy!
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Read Deuteronomy 10:12-15
“And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (v. 12).
Alma grew up in our church. Her grandfather was one of the founders. The church bore his last name. She seldom missed a service. Tragically, in spite of her exposure to the gospel, she had never been saved. I prayed for her often. I visited her regularly. Numerous times I ex- plained the plan of salvation as simply as I could and asked her if she would like to pray to ask God to forgive her sins and to become the Lord of her life. Each time, she refused. Her answer became familiar. “Brother Woods, it is just so hard to understand.”
In our devotional text for today, Moses seemed to be expressing the same frustration I felt. “How easy can it be? How simple can it be?” “What doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to. . .?” The path to the foot of the cross is clearly marked and easy to follow. At the end of the path, the Savior eagerly awaits your arrival.
Why do we try to complicate what Christ has made simple? Isaiah said, “A highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein” (35:8). (L. Gayle Woods)

Why do we try to complicate what Christ has made simple?

This week’s featured devotional is the Monday, July 7, 2014 entry of Opening the Word. Order your copy!
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Read John 1:10-14
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (v. 12).
I witnessed Chester die three times in the emergency room at Oak Hill Hospital. Each time he returned to life he cried, “I have gone to hell and come back! Don’t let me die again!” This time was different — he asked for his wife. She stood at the foot of his bed as he confessed his sins to her and added the words, “I ask you and I ask God to forgive me!” Seconds later, he died again and the team resumed the code blue. After cardio version, he announced, “I have gone to heaven and come back, if I die again, let me go!”
The power given to us by Christ himself is to ask for forgiveness with a sincere heart. Because Jesus died on the cross for our sins, He will, with a speed faster than the speed of light, forgive and make us children of God! The power God gives us is summarized in 1 John 1:9. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Now we can say, “I’ve been adopted; my name is written down, and I’m a child of the King!” (Lyndell Scoles)

Receive Him today. It is His free gift to us. Delivery guaranteed!

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Read John 15:1-5
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” (v. 4).
Growing in our yard is a white oak tree that my wife started from an 27 acorn. More than a year ago, one of our grandsons broke a limb from the tree. It seemed to be a teachable moment, so I asked the four grandsons who were present to sit down around the small tree. I asked them to look at the tree and observe the scar that was left after having a limb severed from it. I reminded them that the limb could have grown large enough to offer shade and become a limb from which a swing could have been hung. Further, I said it was likely that years from that date the tree would still bear a scar.
A severed limb from an oak may not be a big deal, but that limb will never bear acorns because it is detached. Our detachment from Christ results in barrenness. Could it be that those who claim to be part of the church are so preoccupied with activity that they have neglected abiding? Because abiding is not practiced, there is no fruit. (LRW)

Abiding in Christ, His life flows through me.
Abiding in Christ, He will make me fruitful be. — Lonnie Witt

The severed branch bears no fruit.

This week’s featured devotional is the Wednesday, June 25, 2014 entry of Opening the Word. Order your copy!
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