Ezekiel 38A Prophecy Against Gog 1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of [a] Meshech and Tubal; prophesy against him 3 and say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of [b] Meshech and Tubal. 4 I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. 5 Persia, Cush [c] and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, 6 also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you. 7 " 'Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. 8 After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. 9 You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.
10 " 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. 11 You will say, "I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people—all of them living without walls and without gates and bars. 12 I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land." 13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages [d] will say to you, "Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?" '
14 "Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: In that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice of it? 15 You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. 16 You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.
17 " 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Are you not the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel? At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them. 18 This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. 19 In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. 21 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man's sword will be against his brother. 22 I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. 23 And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.'
Our Daily Bread reading:
Jeremiah 17 1 "Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
2 Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles [a] beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.
3 My mountain in the land and your [b] wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country.
4 Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever."
5 This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.
8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."
November 15, 2007
Say No To Self-Help
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READ: Jeremiah 17:1-8
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. —Psalm 28:7 About this cover Early in my editorial career in religious publishing, I was responsible for a line of books referred to as “self-help.” The label troubled me because it seemed contrary to everything Christian.
The idea of self-help is popular because it supports the notion that we are in control. In the words of the poem “Invictus”: “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”
But we’re not! Eventually something happens that reminds us how out-of-control life is, and no self-help book can help us make it right.
Thankfully, Christians are not in the business of self-help. Quite the opposite! To become a Christian requires that we admit our helplessness and acknowledge our total dependence on God. “Without Me, you can do nothing,” said Jesus (John 15:5).
The ancient Israelites were always getting in trouble for trusting human strength rather than God’s (Jer. 17:5). Yet even after their failures, the Lord said, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord” (v.7).
When especially difficult circumstances or strong temptations invade our lives and remind us of our powerlessness, we have an all-powerful God who works on behalf of those who trust Him. —Julie Ackerman Link
No strength of our own, nor goodness we claim;Our trust is all thrown on Jesus’ name:In this our strong tower for safety we hide;The Lord is our power, “The Lord will provide.” —Newton
Whatever does not begin with God will end in failure.
Utmost for my Highest:
November 15, 2007
"What Is That to You?"LISTEN: READ:
Peter . . . said to Jesus, ’But Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said to him, ’. . . what is that to you? You follow Me’ —John 21:21-22 About this cover One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, "He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn’t." You put your hand right in front of God’s permissive will to stop it, and then God says, "What is that to you?" Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don’t allow it to continue, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another— proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.
Most of us live only within the level of consciousness— consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we’re not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach— a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint— a saint is consciously dependent on God.
'A Word with You', Ron Hutchcraft:
Emptying the Cage - #5439 Thursday, November 15, 2007
Some years ago I heard about an unusual experiment that some scientists conducted. The scientists wired a cage with low level voltage in the bottom of the cage, they put dogs in it and then they closed the door. They sent a current through. It wasn't enough to harm the dogs but it was enough to inflict some mild pain. You can guess the dog's reaction. They jumped, they barked, they howled. Well, they kept this up several times a day, but the reaction eventually changed. After a while the dogs barely twitched when the current went through the floor of that cage. They had gotten conditioned to it. In fact, the scientists then opened the cage door, sent the current through the floor and not one dog even tried to leave. It's as if they'd given up ever getting away from the pain. One last step in the experiment: they put a dog in the cage who had not been conditioned to the current and they left the door open. Well, they turned on the juice and the new dog knew exactly what to do. He ran right out of the cage followed by all the other dogs!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Emptying the Cage."
One dog knew what it was to be free; he knew where the hope was. But the one who had become conditioned to a hopeless situation didn't even try to leave when he could - until one of his own came into that cage and showed him the way out.
And so it is with some of the people around you. They've been hurt by bad relationships, broken relationships, selfishness, loneliness, betrayal, but they look around and they see everyone else living in the same stress and confusion and emotional hollowness. And they decide this must be the way it is and the way it always will be. Just like those dogs in that cage.
The only way they'll find hope in real life is if one of their own comes into their cage and shows them the way out. Well, that's what Jesus did when He left the shock-free environment of heaven to enter our dirty, pain-wracked cage down here. He came and said, "I am the way, I am the door ... He that follows Me shall never walk in darkness." And we followed Him into the wonderful world outside the cage. Unfortunately, many of us have forgotten the people who are still in there. We work with them, we live around them, and we meet them every day.
When Jesus was on earth, He invaded the lostness of a place called Samaria through a Samaritan woman He met at a well one day. Our word for today from the Word of God, John 4:28, says, "Then leaving her water jar the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 'Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.' Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony." That's the awesome power of one changed life; someone who will go back to his or her own people with the good news that Jesus is the way out.
God's plan for bringing life and hope to the people around you is still the same - a simple message, "Come see a man." Not come see a church, or a religion, or a set of beliefs. It's Jesus - the only one who loved them enough to die for them. And then the other part of the plan is a natural ambassador - one of their own. How is a Samaritan most likely to come to Christ? Through another Samaritan! A teacher through a teacher, a machinist through a machinist, a mother is most likely to come to Christ through another mother, a student through a student. Jesus has assigned you where you are to be His personal representative to that group of people. You're one of them. They'll listen to you. "We are Christ’s ambassadors," the Bible says.
The people you know are accepting a level of life they should never accept. It's more lonely, it's more empty, it's more disappointing, it's more fatal than it was ever meant to be. And Jesus has opened a door that leads out. But they haven't gone through it yet, maybe because no one has come into their cage to lead them out. They don't know it, but they're waiting for you.
