Numbers 6, daily reading and devotions
Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 26
A Daily Blessing
I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit.
Ephesians 3:16 (NCV
Here is a scene repeated in Brazil thousands of times daily. . . .
It's early morning. Time for young Marcos to leave for school. As he gathers his books and heads for the door, he pauses by his father's chair. He searches his father's face. Bencao, Pai? Marcos asks. (Blessing, Father?)
The father raises his hand. Deus te abencoe, meu fillio, he assures. (God bless you, my son.). . .
Father and child part for the day, a blessing requested, a blessing willingly given. . . .
We should do the same. Like the child longing for the father's favor, each of us needs a daily reminder of our heavenly Father's love.
Numbers 6
The Nazirite
1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the LORD as a Nazirite, 3 he must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or from other fermented drink. He must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. 4 As long as he is a Nazirite, he must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins.
5 " 'During the entire period of his vow of separation no razor may be used on his head. He must be holy until the period of his separation to the LORD is over; he must let the hair of his head grow long. 6 Throughout the period of his separation to the LORD he must not go near a dead body. 7 Even if his own father or mother or brother or sister dies, he must not make himself ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of his separation to God is on his head. 8 Throughout the period of his separation he is consecrated to the LORD.
9 " 'If someone dies suddenly in his presence, thus defiling the hair he has dedicated, he must shave his head on the day of his cleansing—the seventh day. 10 Then on the eighth day he must bring two doves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 11 The priest is to offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to make atonement for him because he sinned by being in the presence of the dead body. That same day he is to consecrate his head. 12 He must dedicate himself to the LORD for the period of his separation and must bring a year-old male lamb as a guilt offering. The previous days do not count, because he became defiled during his separation.
13 " 'Now this is the law for the Nazirite when the period of his separation is over. He is to be brought to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 14 There he is to present his offerings to the LORD : a year-old male lamb without defect for a burnt offering, a year-old ewe lamb without defect for a sin offering, a ram without defect for a fellowship offering, [a] 15 together with their grain offerings and drink offerings, and a basket of bread made without yeast—cakes made of fine flour mixed with oil, and wafers spread with oil.
16 " 'The priest is to present them before the LORD and make the sin offering and the burnt offering. 17 He is to present the basket of unleavened bread and is to sacrifice the ram as a fellowship offering to the LORD, together with its grain offering and drink offering.
18 " 'Then at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the Nazirite must shave off the hair that he dedicated. He is to take the hair and put it in the fire that is under the sacrifice of the fellowship offering.
19 " 'After the Nazirite has shaved off the hair of his dedication, the priest is to place in his hands a boiled shoulder of the ram, and a cake and a wafer from the basket, both made without yeast. 20 The priest shall then wave them before the LORD as a wave offering; they are holy and belong to the priest, together with the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. After that, the Nazirite may drink wine.
21 " 'This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the LORD in accordance with his separation, in addition to whatever else he can afford. He must fulfill the vow he has made, according to the law of the Nazirite.' "
The Priestly Blessing
22 The LORD said to Moses, 23 "Tell Aaron and his sons, 'This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
24 " ' "The LORD bless you
and keep you;
25 the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
26 the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace." '
27 "So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Romans 6:15-23 (New International Version)
Slaves to Righteousness
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.
November 26, 2008
Catch And Release
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READ: Romans 6:15-23
Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.” —John 8:34
I’m a “catch and release” fisherman, which means I don’t kill the trout I catch, but net and handle them gently and set them free. It’s a technique that ensures “sustainability,” as conservation officers like to say, and keeps trout and other target species from disappearing in heavily fished waters.
I rarely release a trout without recalling Paul’s words about those who have been “taken captive” by Satan to do his will (2 Tim. 2:26), for I know that our adversary the devil does not catch and release but captures to consume and destroy.
We may think we can deliberately sin in a limited way for a short period of time and then get ourselves free. But as Jesus teaches us, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). Even “little” sins lead to greater and greater unrighteousness. Sin becomes the consequence of sin. We find ourselves entrapped and enslaved, and like a luckless trout, we cannot wriggle free.
Sin enslaves us. But when we yield ourselves in obedience to Christ and call upon Him for the strength to do His will, we are “released.” The result is increasing righteousness (Rom. 6:16).
Jesus assures us, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). — David H. Roper
Christ broke the bonds of sin, that I
Might know His strong eternal tie;
This blood-bought liberty I bring
To be Your bond-slave, Master-King. —F. Hess
Christ releases us from sin’s slavery into salvation’s liberty.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 26, 2008
The Focal Point of Spiritual Power
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READ:
. . . except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . —Galatians 6:14
If you want to know the power of God (that is, the resurrection life of Jesus) in your human flesh, you must dwell on the tragedy of God. Break away from your personal concern over your own spiritual condition, and with a completely open spirit consider the tragedy of God. Instantly the power of God will be in you. "Look to Me. . ." (Isaiah 45:22). Pay attention to the external Source and the internal power will be there. We lose power because we don’t focus on the right thing. The effect of the Cross is salvation, sanctification, healing, etc., but we are not to preach any of these. We are to preach "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" ( 1 Corinthians 2:2 ). The proclaiming of Jesus will do its own work. Concentrate on God’s focal point in your preaching, and even if your listeners seem to pay it no attention, they will never be the same again. If I share my own words, they are of no more importance than your words are to me. But if we share the truth of God with one another, we will encounter it again and again. We have to focus on the great point of spiritual power— the Cross. If we stay in contact with that center of power, its energy is released in our lives. In holiness movements and spiritual experience meetings, the focus tends to be put not on the Cross of Christ but on the effects of the Cross.
The feebleness of the church is being criticized today, and the criticism is justified. One reason for the feebleness is that there has not been this focus on the true center of spiritual power. We have not dwelt enough on the tragedy of Calvary or on the meaning of redemption.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Black Ice - #5708 - November 26, 2008
Category: Your Hard Times
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
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Some of us have had some very strange winters with wild temperature swings between unseasonably warm, and then sudden drops to very cold and back again. Maybe it's like that where you live. Out of those rapid changes come some less than fun driving conditions like black ice, for example. There's a snowstorm or ice storm one day, and then it's warm enough the next day to start melting much or most of that frozen stuff. Then it gets cold again at night, and what thawed during the day freezes at night, sometimes into this dark, invisible ice patch on the street - that's black ice. And invariably you turn on the traffic report and you hear about a rash of accidents often from cars or trucks speeding along at top speed down the pavement that appeared to be totally dry. Then, out of nowhere, they find themselves sliding on one of those deadly little frozen spots.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Black Ice."
Now, a lot of good people have ended up sliding into a spiritual accident the same way - on temptation's black ice. You're speeding along, carelessly assuming that you won't crash and that's where Satan lays down a patch of his black ice - a carefully crafted opportunity to sin that totally blindsides you and suddenly, you have slidden into damage you could have never imagined.
That's why our word for today from the Word of God needs to be reinforced regularly in our minds. 1 Peter 5:8: "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him." God calls us not to underestimate our enemy and his determination to devour us. We cannot take spiritual days off. We can't get spiritually lazy. No matter how smooth the sailing, how apparently safe the road, we need to always be self-controlled and alert.
1 Corinthians 10:12 warns us, "If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!" See, we've got a tendency to overestimate our ability to handle temptation. An "I can handle it" attitude is often the overconfidence that sets us up to be blindsided by the enemy of our soul. Overestimating ourselves, underestimating sin - that's the kind of spiritual driving that sends us into a deadly spin when we hit Satan's black ice.
Your enemy looks for a time when your resistance is down, your guard is down to bring you down. It can be right after a spiritual high when you're riding on your emotions or while you're taking time off or watching or listening to something for entertainment, when you're with friends you let your guard down with, when you're tired, when you're away from home, when you're discouraged, when you're enjoying success. It's in those vulnerable times that we must be sure that our radar is on, that we don't get spiritually careless, that we remain self-controlled and alert.
Satan exploits times when our resistance is down and he exploits the weaknesses he knows you have. Just when you least expect it, he'll give you an attractive opportunity to sin in that very area where you have struggled before. He may have left you alone in that area for a while, then suddenly, when you think you've made some real progress there he throws you a hard to resist chance to do it again. Listen to God's orders, "Resist him."
Maybe you've already fallen for some of our enemy's black ice. Now he wants to use that one failure to keep you sliding into greater damage and destruction. Don't fall for that. Make it right with Jesus and get right back on the main road. Stop the slide now.
Make sure you're letting Jesus drive you on that hazardous road ahead and don't take back the wheel when it looks like the road is totally safe. Your enemy always has places for you to slip, and Jesus will make sure you swerve to miss the black ice of sin's surprises.
