Micah 2
Man's Plans and God's
1 Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. 2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance.
3 Therefore, the LORD says: "I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.
4 In that day men will ridicule you; they will taunt you with this mournful song: 'We are utterly ruined; my people's possession is divided up. He takes it from me! He assigns our fields to traitors.' "
5 Therefore you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD to divide the land by lot.
False Prophets 6 "Do not prophesy," their prophets say. "Do not prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us." 7 Should it be said, O house of Jacob: "Is the Spirit of the LORD angry? Does he do such things?" "Do not my words do good to him whose ways are upright?
8 Lately my people have risen up like an enemy. You strip off the rich robe from those who pass by without a care, like men returning from battle.
9 You drive the women of my people from their pleasant homes. You take away my blessing from their children forever.
10 Get up, go away! For this is not your resting place, because it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond all remedy.
11 If a liar and deceiver comes and says, 'I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,' he would be just the prophet for this people!
Deliverance Promised 12 "I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will throng with people. 13 One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their king will pass through before them, the LORD at their head."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
1 Samuel
30David Destroys the Amalekites 1 David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, 2 and had taken captive the women and all who were in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way. 3 When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 5 David's two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God.
January 8, 2008
When Life Goes Bad
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READ: 1 Samuel 30:1-6
David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. —1 Samuel 30:6 About this cover Everything looked bleak to David and his men when they arrived at Ziklag (1 Sam. 30:1-6). The Amalekites had attacked the city and taken their wives and children captive. The men were so discouraged that they wept until they had no more energy. And David, their leader, was “greatly distressed” because the people were contemplating stoning him (v.6).
In the end, David’s army rescued their families and defeated the Amalekites. But the story takes a great turn even before that when “David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (v.6). Other translations use the words encouraged or refreshed.
The text doesn’t say exactly how David did this. But it makes me wonder, In what ways can we strengthen, encourage, or refresh ourselves in the Lord when we’re feeling discouraged?
First, we can remember what God has done. We can list the ways He has cared for us in the past, and how He has provided for us or answered a prayer request.
Second, we can remember what God has promised. “Be strong and of good courage; . . . for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Josh. 1:9).
Like David, let’s learn to strengthen ourselves in the Lord, and then let’s leave the rest with Him. —Anne Cetas
“I will strengthen,” so take courage,Child of God, so weak and frail.God has said so, and it must be,For His promise cannot fail! —Anon.
Our greatest strength is often shown in our ability to stand still and trust God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 8, 2008
Is My Sacrifice Living?LISTEN: READ:
Abraham built an altar . . . ; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar . . . —Genesis 22:9 About this cover This event is a picture of the mistake we make in thinking that the ultimate God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, that is, sacrifice our lives. Not— "Lord, I am ready to go with You . . . to death" (Luke 22:33 ). But— "I am willing to be identified with Your death so that I may sacrifice my life to God."
We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham from this error, and the same process is at work in our lives. God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having, namely, life with Himself. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back our lives. Those bands are loosened immediately by identification with the death of Jesus. Then we enter into a relationship with God whereby we may sacrifice our lives to Him.
It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a "living sacrifice"— to let Him have all your strengths that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus (Romans 12:1). This is what is acceptable to God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Soul Amnesia - #5477 Tuesday, January 08, 2008
My wife and I were on a flight headed for a speaking commitment and I was in the window seat working on my messages. She was in the aisle seat with headphones on, listening to one of the airline entertainment channels. And, man, was she laughing! Which made it a little hard to focus on my work. Finally, I asked her what she was listening to; what she was laughing at. It was actually Bill Cosby talking about life at 50, including this hilarious description of an all too familiar experience - getting up to get something from another room, forgetting what you went in there for, going back and sitting down, and then remembering what it was, and so on. You forget and you wander. My wife was laughing because she says that's us. Well, I don't know if it's because my brain is fuller than ever or because my memory is going, but there's a lot I don't remember these days. You may say, "Well, yeah, that's a problem for you old people." Actually, memory loss is a problem for all ages.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Soul Amnesia."
Not remembering has a history of getting God's people into spiritual trouble. Listen to our word for today from Psalm 78:40. Speaking of God's ancient people, it says, "How often they rebelled against Him in the desert and grieved Him in the wasteland! Again and again they put God to the test; they vexed the Holy One of Israel." Now, listen to this. "They did not remember His power."
Spiritual forgetfulness - spiritual amnesia, just like God's ancient people, we tend to forget all God has done in the past, and as a result of our memory problem, we keep wandering into rebellion, mistakes, and detours from the perfect will of God. It starts when we forget God's past deliverances and we strike off on our own to fix things or decide things ourselves.
Good decisions are rooted in remembering God's history in past situations like the one we're in now. Remember those mountains that once loomed so large in front of you; the things that looked insurmountable, impossible? They're gone. Yesterday's mountains are now monuments to the love and power of God. But now there's this mountain, the one that looms in front of us. It's so overwhelming - this illness, this family crisis, this financial need, this deep wound. It's so overwhelming that it's causing you to forget how much God has done in the past; how much in control He is.
And that's when you start to panic, to hot-wire your own solution, to turn from God. But the history of your life is a series of cliffs you came to the edge of, but never went over, because of the intervention of your Lord, of times when waiting for His answer was worth it and when rushing into yours wasn't, of times that looked like the end, but then God wrote one more chapter that changed everything.
He's parted the waters over and over again, but maybe today's Red Sea has made you forget that. When the Jews stood at the entrance to the Promised Land and saw the giants, they forgot what God had done at the Red Sea. They retreated. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. It's expensive to forget what God can do.
So settle back and start flipping through that scrapbook of God's adventures in your life. You'll see that He has always, always come through, and He will this time - in His time. So don't go wandering off somewhere because you've got spiritual amnesia. Many a major spiritual mistake is because of spiritual memory loss. So as you face this mountain, don't forget the miracles!
