Zechariah 12
Jerusalem's Enemies to Be Destroyed An Oracle
1 This is the word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares: 2 "I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness," declares the LORD. "I will keep a watchful eye over the house of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, 'The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God.' 6 "On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume right and left all the surrounding peoples, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.
7 "The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem's inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
Mourning for the One They Pierced 10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit [a] of grace and supplication. They will look on [b] me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion:
Numbers 5:5-8
Restitution for Wrongs 5 The LORD said to Moses, 6 "Say to the Israelites: 'When a man or woman wrongs another in any way [a] and so is unfaithful to the LORD, that person is guilty 7 and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution for his wrong, add one fifth to it and give it all to the person he has wronged. 8 But if that person has no close relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the LORD and must be given to the priest, along with the ram with which atonement is made for him.
February 4, 2008
Unlocking The Gate
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READ: Numbers 5:5-8
When a man or woman commits any sin . . . against the Lord, . . . then he shall confess the sin which he has committed. —Numbers 5:6-7 About this cover When a man or woman commits any sin . . . against the Lord, . . . then he shall confess the sin which he has committed. —Numbers 5:6-7
Researchers at the University of Toronto reported in 2006 that people who are suffering from a guilty conscience experience “a powerful urge to wash themselves.” To study this effect, the researchers asked volunteers to recall past sins. They were then given an opportunity to wash their hands as a symbol of cleansing their conscience. Those who had recalled their sins washed their hands at “twice the rate of study subjects who had not imagined past transgressions.”
The Bible proposes the only effective way of dealing with sin—confession. In the Old Testament, one of the ways the Israelites were supposed to cleanse themselves and maintain purity before God and in their community was by confessing their sins (Num. 5:5-8). To confess means “to speak the same; to agree with; to admit the truth.” When the people confessed to God, they were not telling Him anything He did not already know. But their confession was a demonstration of a change of heart. Refusing to confess their sins allowed sin to take deeper root within their lives and community.
Admitting our sin unlocks the gate so that we can have forgiveness, joy, and peace. If we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive (1 John 1:9). —Marvin Williams
If we would know God’s power to healAnd cleanse us from within,We must acknowledge when we’re wrong—Confessing it as sin. —Fasick
Confession is agreeing with God about our sin.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
February 4, 2008
The Compelling Majesty of His PowerLISTEN: READ:
The love of Christ compels us . . . —2 Corinthians 5:14 About this cover Paul said that he was overpowered, subdued, and held as in a vise by "the love of Christ." Very few of us really know what it means to be held in the grip of the love of God. We tend so often to be controlled simply by our own experience. The one thing that gripped and held Paul, to the exclusion of everything else, was the love of God. "The love of Christ compels us . . . ." When you hear that coming from the life of a man or woman it is unmistakable. You will know that the Spirit of God is completely unhindered in that person’s life.
When we are born again by the Spirit of God, our testimony is based solely on what God has done for us, and rightly so. But that will change and be removed forever once you "receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you . . ." (Acts 1:8 ). Only then will you begin to realize what Jesus meant when He went on to say, ". . . you shall be witnesses to Me . . . ." Not witnesses to what Jesus can do— that is basic and understood— but "witnesses to Me . . . ." We will accept everything that happens as if it were happening to Him, whether we receive praise or blame, persecution or reward. No one is able to take this stand for Jesus Christ who is not totally compelled by the majesty of His power. It is the only thing that matters, and yet it is strange that it’s the last thing we as Christian workers realize. Paul said that he was gripped by the love of God and that is why he acted as he did. People could perceive him as mad or sane-he did not care. There was only one thing he lived for— to persuade people of the coming judgment of God and to tell them of "the love of Christ." This total surrender to "the love of Christ" is the only thing that will bear fruit in your life. And it will always leave the mark of God’s holiness and His power, never drawing attention to your personal holiness.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft:
Everything You Need to Build Your Home - #5496 Monday, February 04, 2008
The opening of a new store in town usually creates a buzz. Something like one of those major discount stores, for example, or that Mecca do-it-yourself place - Home Depot - which stirred things up when it opened in our community for sure. This is not a commercial for them, it's just an observation. Some observers say that Home Depot's comprehensive inventory and competitive prices have actually helped interest a whole new wave of people in doing their own home improvements. It's meant to be sort of one-stop shopping for everything you need to build your home.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everything You Need to Build Your Home."
If only building or improving a home was just a matter of plywood, sheet rock, and tile. That will take care of a place called home, but not necessarily the people who are really what home is. Building a marriage, building your children - that's far more challenging. And you can't just go to a store to pick up the materials you need to be the right kind of mom or dad, to be what your wife need, what your husband needs.
And there's nothing like trying to make a family work to make you face the things that need work inside you; inside your personality, your heart, your priorities, your soul. Living in the intensity of a family really exposes the baggage that you're carrying from your past, your weaknesses, your selfishness, your dark side. There's this person we want to be that our family really needs for us to be. Then there's this person we really are, and we just don't know how to get from who we are to who we need to be. The ugly stuff in us is now marking another generation and it's hurting the very people we love the most. If we could change, we would have changed by now.
But there's a place you can go to find everything you need to build your home; to someone whose spiritual resources have transformed millions of people for thousands of years. Our word for today from the Word of God spells out concisely but clearly the secret of a home that works. In Psalm 127:1, the inventor of the family says: "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain." The simple truth is: you need the Lord to make you what your family needs you to be. Because the darkness inside us is a cancer we can't cure; the "disease of me" that no one on earth can cure. God calls it "sin," and the Bible makes it clear this cancer is incurable. It's terminal. It says, "Sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death" (James 1:15). That death included the death of many marriages and many parent relationships over the years.
We're like a drowning person or a person trapped in the rubble of an earthquake. Our only hope is a rescue. And because God loves you so much, He launched a rescue mission for you and me on a skull-shaped hill near Jerusalem called Golgotha. The Bible says, "He loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood" (Revelation 1:6). Your new beginning starts when you, in your heart, find your way to the cross of Jesus to claim His forgiveness for every wrong thing and every hurting thing you have ever done. He died to forgive you, and then He rose from the dead to prove He has the power to conquer anything including that darkness inside you. In the Bible's words, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (II Corinthians 5:17).
You begin this transforming relationship with Jesus Christ the moment you claim what He did on the cross for yourself personally; when you tell Him with all your heart, "I'm totally yours, Jesus. From this moment on, I won't be driving any more. You're in the driver's seat." That new beginning could be today for you. If you're ready to belong to this One who has more love for you and more power to help you change than anyone there is, I want to invite you to go to our website today. I hope as soon as you have an opportunity you'll go there and you'll find some very helpful information on how to be sure you've begun your relationship with Jesus Christ. Just go to yoursforlife.net.
The greatest gift you can give the people you love is for you to give yourself to Jesus. He alone can give you everything you need to build your home.
To find out how you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please visit: yoursforlife.net or call 1-888-966-7325.