Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 27
Two Sisters
Since we have been made right with God by our faith, we have peace with God.
Romans 5:1 (NCV)
Pride and shame. You’d never know they are sisters. They appear so different. Pride puffs out her chest. Shame hangs her head. Pride boasts. Shame hides. Pride seeks to be seen. Shame seeks to be avoided.
But don’t be fooled, the emotions have the same parentage. And the emotions have the same impact. They keep you from your Father.
Pride says, “You’re too good for him.”
Shame says, “You’re too bad for him.”
Pride drives you away.
Shame keeps you away.
If pride is what goes before a fall, then shame is what keeps you from getting up after one.
Numbers 11
Fire From the LORD
1 Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. 2 When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire died down. 3 So that place was called Taberah, [a] because fire from the LORD had burned among them.
Quail from the LORD
4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"
7 The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. 8 The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a handmill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. 9 When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.
10 Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. 11 He asked the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? 12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? 13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!' 14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin."
16 The LORD said to Moses: "Bring me seventy of Israel's elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you. 17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.
18 "Tell the people: 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, "If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!" Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?" ' "
21 But Moses said, "Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!' 22 Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?"
23 The LORD answered Moses, "Is the LORD's arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you."
24 So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the Tent. 25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took of the Spirit that was on him and put the Spirit on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do so again. [b]
26 However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the Tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. 27 A young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."
28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' aide since youth, spoke up and said, "Moses, my lord, stop them!"
29 But Moses replied, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!" 30 Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.
31 Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them [c] down all around the camp to about three feet [d] above the ground, as far as a day's walk in any direction. 32 All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. [e] Then they spread them out all around the camp. 33 But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. 34 Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, [f] because there they buried the people who had craved other food.
35 From Kibroth Hattaavah the people traveled to Hazeroth and stayed there.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving thanks.
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his [a] ;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
November 27, 2008
Gladly!
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READ: Psalm 100
Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! —Psalm 100:1
Psalm 100 is one of the great songs of thanksgiving in the Bible. It calls us to realize that we belong to God our Maker (vv.3-4), and to praise Him for His goodness, mercy, and truth (v.5).
During a recent reading, however, I was struck by a phrase that speaks of expressing thanks in a tangible, willing way: “Serve the Lord with gladness” (v.2). Many times my service to God is more grudging than glad. I do what I consider my duty, but I’m not happy about it.
Oswald Chambers put his finger on my unthankful attitude when he said: “The will of God is the gladdest, brightest, most bountiful thing possible to conceive, and yet some of us talk of the will of God with a terrific sigh—‘Oh well, I suppose it is the will of God,’ as if His will were the most calamitous thing that could befall us. . . . We become spiritual whiners and talk pathetically about ‘suffering the will of the Lord.’ Where is the majestic vitality and might of the Son of God about that!”
True thankfulness is more than being grateful for what we possess. It’s an attitude that permeates our relationship with the Lord so that we may serve Him with gladness and joy. — David C. McCasland
Then let us adore and give Him His right,
All glory and power, all wisdom and might,
All honor and blessing, with angels above,
And thanks never ceasing for infinite love. —Wesley
For the Christian, thanksgiving is not just a day but a way of life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 27, 2008
The Consecration of Spiritual Power
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READ:
. . . by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world —Galatians 6:14
If I dwell on the Cross of Christ, I do not simply become inwardly devout and solely interested in my own holiness— I become strongly focused on Jesus Christ’s interests. Our Lord was not a recluse nor a fanatical holy man practicing self-denial. He did not physically cut Himself off from society, but He was inwardly disconnected all the time. He was not aloof, but He lived in another world. In fact, He was so much in the common everyday world that the religious people of His day accused Him of being a glutton and a drunkard. Yet our Lord never allowed anything to interfere with His consecration of spiritual power.
It is not genuine consecration to think that we can refuse to be used of God now in order to store up our spiritual power for later use. That is a hopeless mistake. The Spirit of God has set a great many people free from their sin, yet they are experiencing no fullness in their lives— no true sense of freedom. The kind of religious life we see around the world today is entirely different from the vigorous holiness of the life of Jesus Christ. "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one" ( John 17:15 ). We are to be in the world but not of it— to be separated internally, not externally (seeJohn 17:16 ).
We must never allow anything to interfere with the consecration of our spiritual power. Consecration (being dedicated to God’s service) is our part; sanctification (being set apart from sin and being made holy) is God’s part. We must make a deliberate determination to be interested only in what God is interested. The way to make that determination, when faced with a perplexing problem, is to ask yourself, "Is this the kind of thing in which Jesus Christ is interested, or is it something in which the spirit that is diametrically opposed to Jesus is interested?"
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Go-bedience - #5709
Thursday, November 27, 2008
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Our sons' room was upstairs, off the beaten path of where my wife and I tended to travel in our house. But usually when we did venture into Boys' World, we were in for a shock. Let's just say that boys have this unlimited capability to make a mess and this uncanny ability to live in one without even noticing the mess. So, often the stern command would reverberate in the halls of our home: "Clean your room!" The boys seldom disagreed. Usually they would respond with a compliant, "We will." I think they really intended to. They knew it was fundamental to the privileges they wanted, so they went along with our cleaning orders. But did that mean the disaster area got un-disastered? Usually, no. The boys didn't disagree with what they were supposed to do; they just like didn't get around to doing it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Go-bedience."
Now, obedience isn't obedience just because you agree with what you're supposed to do. There's no obedience until there's action!
I wonder if there's something your Heavenly Father's been telling you to do through His Word, through the inner tug of the Holy Spirit; something to which you've said, "I will, Father." You know He's right. You expect to obey, but you're still sitting where you were. As surely as our sons were still disobeying until they did what we said, you are still disobeying God. Politely, agreeably, but it's still disobedience because there's no such thing as passive obedience. If you're not moving on it, you're not obeying.
Which leads us to a powerful example of what obeying really means. It's from the life of Abraham as highlighted in our word for today from the Word of God from Hebrews 11:8. It says, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."
God had summoned Abraham to leave his family, his comfort - his comfort zone actually - to obey Him and to go to a future about which God supplied almost no details. Now Abraham could have said, "OK, Lord. I'll go." But it wasn't agreement that launched him into God's amazing adventure. It was going! And it was doing it without knowing what was coming, which is what God asked of so many of His children to do all through the Bible.
Which is what God may be asking you to do right now, to go without knowing how it's all going to work. Maybe your Lord is asking you to start something, or to leave something or someone, or maybe to stop doing something, or to confront something, or to give something, or to tell someone about the Savior who died for them.
But you're delaying your obedience. You're waiting until there's more facts, until more of the risks are eliminated, to analyze the situation a little more, to get more signs. But you're not obeying! It's not obedience until it's go-bedience! And faith obedience steps out, not because you know where or how, but because you know Who. You know Who you are following. You're following an all-powerful Lord who will never do you wrong!
It's one thing to agree with what your Father wants you to do. It's a whole other thing to start doing it. Until you do, you're just not obeying your Father. The song is right. "Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey."