Daily Devotional by Max Lucado
“the One who came still comes and the One who spoke still speaks”
November 10
Just in Time
May the God you serve all the time save you!
Daniel 6:16 (NCV)
Look at Jonah in the fish belly--surrounded by gastric juices and sucked-in seaweed.... He prays.... Before he can say amen, the belly convulses, the fish belches, and Jonah lands face first on the beach.
Look at Daniel in the lions' den; his prospects aren't much better than Jonah's. Jonah had been swallowed, and Daniel is about to be....
Or look at Joseph in the pit, a chalky hole in a hot desert. The lid has been pulled over the top and the wool has been pulled over his eyes.... Like Jonah and Daniel, Joseph is trapped. He is out of options. There is no exit. There is no hope.... Though the road to the palace takes a detour through a prison, it eventually ends up at the throne....
Such are the stories in the Bible. One near-death experience after another. Just when the neck is on the chopping block, just when the noose is around the neck, Calvary comes.
From: He Still Moves Stones
Copyright (Word Publishing, 1993)
Max Lucado
Judges 1
Israel Fights the Remaining Canaanites
1 After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the LORD, "Who will be the first to go up and fight for us against the Canaanites?"
2 The LORD answered, "Judah is to go; I have given the land into their hands."
3 Then the men of Judah said to the Simeonites their brothers, "Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours." So the Simeonites went with them.
4 When Judah attacked, the LORD gave the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands and they struck down ten thousand men at Bezek. 5 It was there that they found Adoni-Bezek and fought against him, putting to rout the Canaanites and Perizzites. 6 Adoni-Bezek fled, but they chased him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
7 Then Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them." They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
8 The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire.
9 After that, the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country, the Negev and the western foothills. 10 They advanced against the Canaanites living in Hebron (formerly called Kiriath Arba) and defeated Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.
11 From there they advanced against the people living in Debir (formerly called Kiriath Sepher). 12 And Caleb said, "I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to the man who attacks and captures Kiriath Sepher." 13 Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; so Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage.
14 One day when she came to Othniel, she urged him [a] to ask her father for a field. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, "What can I do for you?"
15 She replied, "Do me a special favor. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me also springs of water." Then Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs.
16 The descendants of Moses' father-in-law, the Kenite, went up from the City of Palms [b] with the men of Judah to live among the people of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad.
17 Then the men of Judah went with the Simeonites their brothers and attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and they totally destroyed [c] the city. Therefore it was called Hormah. [d] 18 The men of Judah also took [e] Gaza, Ashkelon and Ekron—each city with its territory.
19 The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots. 20 As Moses had promised, Hebron was given to Caleb, who drove from it the three sons of Anak. 21 The Benjamites, however, failed to dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites.
22 Now the house of Joseph attacked Bethel, and the LORD was with them. 23 When they sent men to spy out Bethel (formerly called Luz), 24 the spies saw a man coming out of the city and they said to him, "Show us how to get into the city and we will see that you are treated well." 25 So he showed them, and they put the city to the sword but spared the man and his whole family. 26 He then went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.
27 But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. 28 When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely. 29 Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them. 30 Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, who remained among them; but they did subject them to forced labor. 31 Nor did Asher drive out those living in Acco or Sidon or Ahlab or Aczib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob, 32 and because of this the people of Asher lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. 33 Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and those living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath became forced laborers for them. 34 The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain. 35 And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the house of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor. 36 The boundary of the Amorites was from Scorpion [f] Pass to Sela and beyond.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Romans 12:3-11 (New International Version)
3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his[a]faith. 7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Love
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
November 10, 2009
God’s Embrace
ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download
READ: Romans 12:3-11
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. —Romans 12:10
Soon after her family left for the evening, Carol started to think that her hospital room must be the loneliest place in the world. Nighttime had fallen, her fears about her illness were back, and she felt overwhelming despair as she lay there alone.
Closing her eyes, she began to talk to God: “O Lord, I know I am not really alone. You are here with me. Please calm my heart and give me peace. Let me feel Your arms around me, holding me.”
As she prayed, Carol felt her fears beginning to subside. And when she opened her eyes, she looked up to see the warm, sparkling eyes of her friend Marge, who reached out to encircle her in a big hug. Carol felt as if God Himself were holding her tightly.
God often uses fellow believers to show us His love. “We, being many, are one body in Christ. . . . Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them” (Rom. 12:5-6). We serve others “with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11).
When we show love and compassion in simple, practical ways, we are a part of God’s ministry to His people. — Cindy Hess Kasper
Teach me to love, this is my prayer—
May the compassion of Thy heart I share;
Ready a cup of water to give,
May I unselfishly for others live. —Peterson
We show our love for God when we love His family.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
November 10, 2009
Fellowship in the Gospel
ODB RADIO: | Download
READ:
. . . fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ . . . —1 Thessalonians 3:2
After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself, thinking, "God has called me for this and for that," you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.
I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, "Lord, this causes me such heartache." To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy "world within the world," and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being "frost-bitten."
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Trash Removal That Saves Your Life - #5957
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Twenty-three seconds. It takes you longer than that to eat a slice of pizza, or at least it should. It takes me about that long to just say three or four sentences. Now, a short TV commercial is longer than that. But every 23 seconds, something absolutely amazing happens inside you. Your blood pumps through your body, delivers oxygen and nutrients to all your cells, and carries away the impurities from your cells and starts back through again in 23 seconds. Mind-blowing! That's what it takes to keep you going. You've got to have that oxygen delivered regularly. You've got to have your cell garbage taken out regularly, and your blood gets it done.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Trash Removal That Saves Your Life."
In the amazing ways of the God who made us, it's the blood that cleanses our body from the garbage that could kill us. And it is the blood that is our only hope of our soul being cleansed of the poison in there that could cost us our life forever; except my blood can't clean my soul. It takes blood that has never been poisoned by human sin. It takes the blood of Jesus Christ.
Our word for today from the Word of God makes it absolutely clear what it takes for you and me to get rid of the guilt and the penalty of the sin that will keep us out of heaven. 1 John 1:7 says: "The blood of Jesus, God's Son, purifies us from all sin." There's something about that blood Jesus Christ shed on that horrific cross that has the power, actually the only power, to remove your sin and to remove my sin. The way God made for our body to get clean inside is the way God made for our soul to get clean inside - blood. For our soul - Jesus' blood.
From the first sin in the Garden of Eden to the lie you told or the person you hurt today, God has minced no words telling us the penalty, "You will surely die" (Genesis 2:17). And the devil's lie to Adam and Eve went like this: "You will not surely die" (Genesis 3:4). He's been trying to get people to believe that lie ever since. He wants you to think that somehow you can escape the death penalty for your sin when God said that penalty is irrevocable.
But in His love, He set in motion a way that the death penalty you and I deserve (the Bible calls that hell) could be paid without us being away from Him forever. A blood sacrifice - someone with no sin of His own to pay for, dying in your place. And there's only one someone who meets that qualification. That is the Son of God. He came, as the Bible says, "to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Hebrews 9:26). Is it any wonder God says then, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22).
You can't get rid of your sin by earning it doing good things. You can't inherit God's forgiveness from a Christian family or pick it up by osmosis from just being around Christian things your whole life. Your only hope of getting clean, of getting to heaven, is the cleansing power of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Not Christianity. Jesus. The question is, have you ever thrown yourself on His mercy and said, "Jesus, only by the blood You shed for me can I be clean before God. Please, Lord, this day, carry away the garbage of my life in Your precious blood." And He will do it if you ask.
And why wouldn't you? Why would you risk one more day carrying in your soul the guilt of your sin and its awful death penalty? Why, when Jesus carried it for you on the cross so you would never have to carry it again! If you're ready to be forgiven, if you're ready to be clean through what Jesus has done for you, tell Him that today, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
And let me encourage you to go to our website. So many people at a point of considering Jesus in their life have found the help they needed there to make sure that they had gotten it done. Our website is YoursForLife.net. Or you can call for my little booklet Yours For Life toll free if you like it, at 877-741-1200.
Picture yourself carrying all the sins of your life up that hill where Jesus' cross stands and leaving it all there, never to carry it again. That could happen today.