From my daily reading of the bible, Our Daily Bread Devotionals, My Utmost for His Highest and Ron Hutchcraft "A Word with You" and occasionally others.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Judges 15, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen)
Max Lucado Daily: Amazed at Jesus
“When the Lord Jesus comes . . . all the people who have believed will be amazed at Jesus.”
Amazed at Jesus . . . Paul doesn’t measure the joy of encouraging the apostles or embracing our loved ones. If we will be amazed at these, which we certainly will, he does not say. What he does say is that we will be amazed at Jesus.
What we have only seen in our thoughts, we will see with our eyes . . . What we’ve seen in a glimpse, we will then see in full view. And . . . we will be amazed.
Judges 15
Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines
1 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father would not let him go in.
2 “I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”
3 Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” 4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, 5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.
6 When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.”
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. 7 Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” 8 He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.
9 The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. 10 The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”
“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”
11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?”
He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”
12 They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”
Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”
13 “Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. 14 As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. 15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
16 Then Samson said,
“With a donkey’s jawbone
I have made donkeys of them.[c]
With a donkey’s jawbone
I have killed a thousand men.”
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.[d]
18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore,[e] and it is still there in Lehi.
20 Samson led[f] Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Proverbs 2:1-9
Moral Benefits of Wisdom
1 My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He holds success in store for the upright,
he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,
8 for he guards the course of the just
and protects the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand what is right and just
and fair—every good path.
A Teachable Spirit
Do not be wise in your own eyes. —Proverbs 3:7
August 31, 2011 — by Anne Cetas
Just before our church service began, I overheard a young man behind me talking with his mother. They were reading an announcement in the bulletin about a challenge to read one chapter of Proverbs each day for the months of July and August. He asked his mom, “What will we do with chapter 31 in August since there are only 30 days?” She said she thought there were 31 days in August. He responded, “No, there are only 30.”
When it was time in the service to greet each other, I turned back toward him and said hello. Then I added, “August does have 31 days.” He insisted, “No, it doesn’t. There can’t be 2 months in a row with 31 days.” The singing started, so I just smiled.
This brief encounter made me think about our need to develop a teachable spirit, seeking wisdom beyond our own. In Proverbs 3, the attitude the father recommends to the son is one of humility: “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord” (v.7). In chapter 2, he says, “Incline your ear to wisdom . . . ; search for her as for hidden treasures” (vv.2,4).
Knowing whether August has 30 or 31 days doesn’t matter much, but having a teachable spirit does. It will help us gain wisdom from God and others. Reading a chapter from Proverbs each day next month may give us a start.
Lord, teach us from Your holy Word
The truth that we must know,
And help us share the joyous news
Of blessings You bestow. —D. De Haan
True wisdom begins and ends with God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 31st, 2011
"My Joy . . . Your Joy"
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full —John 15:11
What was the joy that Jesus had? Joy should not be confused with happiness. In fact, it is an insult to Jesus Christ to use the word happiness in connection with Him. The joy of Jesus was His absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice to His Father— the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do— “. . . who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross . . .” (Hebrews 12:2). “I delight to do Your will, O my God . . .” (Psalm 40:8). Jesus prayed that our joy might continue fulfilling itself until it becomes the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?
Living a full and overflowing life does not rest in bodily health, in circumstances, nor even in seeing God’s work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the same fellowship and oneness with Him that Jesus Himself enjoyed. But the first thing that will hinder this joy is the subtle irritability caused by giving too much thought to our circumstances. Jesus said, “. . . the cares of this world, . . . choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). And before we even realize what has happened, we are caught up in our cares. All that God has done for us is merely the threshold— He wants us to come to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim who Jesus is.
Have the right relationship with God, finding your joy there, and out of you “will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). Be a fountain through which Jesus can pour His “living water.” Stop being hypocritical and proud, aware only of yourself, and live “your life . . . hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). A person who has the right relationship with God lives a life as natural as breathing wherever he goes. The lives that have been the greatest blessing to you are the lives of those people who themselves were unaware of having been a blessing.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
You're Not All There - #6428
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
The five members of the Hutchcraft family have the same last name, of course, you know except for our married daughter, but that's pretty much where the sameness ends. And I think it's good we're different.
When we needed an emotional lift, for example, well we've always had our oldest son there with his sense of humor. If we needed a physical lift, he was there with his very well developed physical strength. When we needed a job done or something fixed, oh, go to our youngest son. He has sort of had the helping hands and the figure-it-out mind in the family. And when it comes to greeting people or talking with people, or giving guidance, well our daughter was always there with her great people gifts. And, Mom was always there with her common sense. Thank the Lord for my sake! We need that, and she's got this great "drop everything for you" attitude.
I guess every family's like that. You have the same name, but you've got different styles; you make different contributions. That includes God's family. And some of the family who are the most different from you, guess what? They're the ones you need the most.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "You're Not All There."
Our word for today from the Word of God is from 1 Corinthians 12. I'll be reading from verses 12, 21, 25 and 27. Basically it tells you that you're not all there. Yeah. Listen to this: "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts. And though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you.' And the hand cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you.'"
Then verse 25 says, "So there should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for each other. Now, you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." You know what God is saying here is that basically He has made all of us incomplete. None of us has all of Him. But you put us all together and we've got it all. Or to put it another way, you're not all there. There is no family member in God's family that you don't need.
You say, "Well, wait a minute! What about those folks who..." You need them! "Yeah, but I know a group of people who are very different from us. They don't have as much (you know, whatever)..." You need them. See, we're not all there. We need those people who are different from us. We tend to get into our little clusters and we appreciate only Christians who see it our way, say it our way, do it our way, express it our way. But you're not all there; I'm not all there; we're incomplete!
If you're a feeling-oriented Christian, you need the stabilizing influence of some believers who are more content-oriented. But if you're real fact-oriented, content-oriented, guess what? You could use some of the warmth and spontaneity of the more feeling-oriented Christians. Or maybe you're a free-wheeling believer, well you need some Christians who are more structured, who stress boundaries in the Christian life. You need that. But if you're real structured, you need some of those more spontaneous people. You could use their openness.
See, some of God's children will teach you how to really worship, because they're really good at that; they're experienced in that. Others will stimulate your vision for a lost world. Some will teach you to give; other Christians may teach you how to really pray. There are others who will teach you to go to reach the lost. Others will show you how to love unconditionally. And then there will be others who will teach you to dig into the Bible as your source of authority. I'll just say of my life I feel like I'm a river that has been created by many tributaries and I've been so enriched by the variety of the body of Christ. I've needed them all.
See, if you will open up to the rest of the family, you're going to be really rich! Let different Christians challenge you, and balance you, complete you. There is no family member in God's family that you don't need and who doesn't need you, because we're just not all there.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Judges 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen)
Max Lucado Daily: Live the Life
“I am a voice calling out in the desert.” John 1:23
John was a voice for Christ with more than his voice. His life matched his words. When a person’s ways and words are the same, the fusion is explosive. But when a person says one thing and lives another, the result is destructive. People will know we are Christians, not because we bear the name, but because we live the life.
Judges 14
Samson’s Marriage
1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”
3 His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?”
But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” 4 (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)
5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.
8 Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. 9 He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.
10 Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast, as was customary for young men. 11 When the people saw him, they chose thirty men to be his companions.
12 “Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. 13 If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.”
“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let’s hear it.”
14 He replied,
“Out of the eater, something to eat;
out of the strong, something sweet.”
For three days they could not give the answer.
15 On the fourth[b] day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to steal our property?”
16 Then Samson’s wife threw herself on him, sobbing, “You hate me! You don’t really love me. You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.”
“I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother,” he replied, “so why should I explain it to you?” 17 She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.
18 Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
Samson said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle.”
19 Then the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Galatians 2:15-21
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in[a] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”[b]
Christ Living In Us
August 30, 2011 — by Albert Lee
I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. —2 Timothy 4:7-8
The Ironman Triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. It is not an easy feat for anyone to accomplish. But Dick Hoyt participated in the race and completed it with his physically disabled son Rick. When Dick swam, he pulled Rick in a small boat. When Dick cycled, Rick was in a seat-pod on the bike. When Dick ran, he pushed Rick along in a wheelchair. Rick was dependent on his dad in order to finish the race. He couldn’t do it without him.
We see a parallel between their story and our own Christian life. Just as Rick was dependent on his dad, we are dependent on Christ to complete our Christian race.
As we strive to live a God-pleasing life, we realize that in spite of our best intentions and determination, we often stumble and fall short. By our strength alone, it is impossible. Oh, how we need the Lord’s help! And it has been provided. Paul declares it with these insightful words, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20).
We cannot finish the Christian race on our own. We have to do so by depending on Jesus living in us.
With longing all my heart is filled
That like Him I may be,
As on the wondrous thought I dwell,
That Christ liveth in me. —Whittle
Faith connects our weakness to God’s strength.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 30th, 2011
Usefulness or Relationship?
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven —Luke 10:20
Jesus Christ is saying here, “Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.” The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour “rivers of living water” through you (John 7:38). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7).
Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person’s life is that person’s relationship with God— something of great value to His Father. Jesus is “bringing many sons to glory . . .” (Hebrews 2:10).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Guard Could Save You a Lot of Grief - #6427
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Now, there's one good way to recognize the places that folks think are important--the guards. Yeah. I mean, they obviously think the White House is important; there are guards all around it. The bank usually has a guard. There are some club communities that I've seen where you don't get to even go into the neighborhood until the guard says, "Yes, somebody left a name here at the booth. You can go in."
Of course, there are guards at the airport, military installations, the ballpark. Oh, we know that important places need to be guarded; they need to be protected. You know, there is one important place in your life that really needs a guard, and probably doesn't have one. And it's not because of what will get in--it's because of what's getting out.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Guard Could Save You a Lot of Grief."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 13:3. It has to do with a part of you that may be doing quite a bit of damage, and it needs a guard, because important places have guards. Proverbs 13:3 says, "He who guards his lips, guards his life. But he who speaks rashly will come to ruin." A few chapters later in Proverbs 21:23 it says, "He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity." Boy, haven't we all learned that one the hard way?
I guess what God is talking about here is lip guard. Now, it's not a product I'm selling, but we do need the kind of lip guard the Bible talks about. Romans 3, an interesting passage, because it describes for us that "there is none righteous, no not one." And then in describing the sinfulness of us human beings, it gives the anatomy of sin. In the early verses it describes how our body actually carries out sin. And it mentions six specific, physical things that are involved in sinning. One time it mentions the eyes, one time it mentions the feet, and four times it mentions (guess what?) the mouth.
One could conclude from that, that most of the sinning we do, we do with our mouth. You probably let something go today verbally that may have hurt someone. Maybe it hurt another person, or maybe it hurt your reputation, or their reputation, or your chance to get something you need or want. Maybe it hurt the reputation of Jesus Christ. Sins of the mouth--they're the most common; they're the most damaging. They're the most accepted, and they shouldn't be.
When you let Christ become the Lord of your lips--your lip guard--the master of your mouth, you're really getting serious about your faith. Proverbs links it to survival. It says, "You should guard your lips. It's like guarding your life. It's for your own good." But somehow there's that last word you've got to have, right? Or that hurting point you have to make, or the critical word that seemed so clever at the time, the sarcasm, the name you called somebody, the accusation, the put down. If we could erase words like tapes or the scars that they leave like we erase chalkboards, but we can't.
We need a lip guard. It's time to focus that transforming power of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God on our run-away lips. It's got to be a daily battle, joined early before you speak to anyone. Consecrate your mouth to the Lord at the beginning of the day. Ask for grace to pause before you shoot someone verbally. And then start enjoying some victories; things that were almost said but you thought about them, prayed about them, and you never spoke them.
Don't let your mouth run on like it has been. Ask your Lord to guard your mouth. After all, important places have a guard, and nothing you have has more affect then your mouth. So, keep your lip guard handy.
“I am a voice calling out in the desert.” John 1:23
John was a voice for Christ with more than his voice. His life matched his words. When a person’s ways and words are the same, the fusion is explosive. But when a person says one thing and lives another, the result is destructive. People will know we are Christians, not because we bear the name, but because we live the life.
Judges 14
Samson’s Marriage
1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”
3 His father and mother replied, “Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?”
But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” 4 (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)
5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.
8 Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. 9 He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.
10 Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast, as was customary for young men. 11 When the people saw him, they chose thirty men to be his companions.
12 “Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. 13 If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.”
“Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let’s hear it.”
14 He replied,
“Out of the eater, something to eat;
out of the strong, something sweet.”
For three days they could not give the answer.
15 On the fourth[b] day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to steal our property?”
16 Then Samson’s wife threw herself on him, sobbing, “You hate me! You don’t really love me. You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.”
“I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother,” he replied, “so why should I explain it to you?” 17 She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.
18 Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
Samson said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle.”
19 Then the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Galatians 2:15-21
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in[a] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”[b]
Christ Living In Us
August 30, 2011 — by Albert Lee
I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. —2 Timothy 4:7-8
The Ironman Triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. It is not an easy feat for anyone to accomplish. But Dick Hoyt participated in the race and completed it with his physically disabled son Rick. When Dick swam, he pulled Rick in a small boat. When Dick cycled, Rick was in a seat-pod on the bike. When Dick ran, he pushed Rick along in a wheelchair. Rick was dependent on his dad in order to finish the race. He couldn’t do it without him.
We see a parallel between their story and our own Christian life. Just as Rick was dependent on his dad, we are dependent on Christ to complete our Christian race.
As we strive to live a God-pleasing life, we realize that in spite of our best intentions and determination, we often stumble and fall short. By our strength alone, it is impossible. Oh, how we need the Lord’s help! And it has been provided. Paul declares it with these insightful words, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20).
We cannot finish the Christian race on our own. We have to do so by depending on Jesus living in us.
With longing all my heart is filled
That like Him I may be,
As on the wondrous thought I dwell,
That Christ liveth in me. —Whittle
Faith connects our weakness to God’s strength.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 30th, 2011
Usefulness or Relationship?
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven —Luke 10:20
Jesus Christ is saying here, “Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.” The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour “rivers of living water” through you (John 7:38). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7).
Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person’s life is that person’s relationship with God— something of great value to His Father. Jesus is “bringing many sons to glory . . .” (Hebrews 2:10).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Guard Could Save You a Lot of Grief - #6427
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Now, there's one good way to recognize the places that folks think are important--the guards. Yeah. I mean, they obviously think the White House is important; there are guards all around it. The bank usually has a guard. There are some club communities that I've seen where you don't get to even go into the neighborhood until the guard says, "Yes, somebody left a name here at the booth. You can go in."
Of course, there are guards at the airport, military installations, the ballpark. Oh, we know that important places need to be guarded; they need to be protected. You know, there is one important place in your life that really needs a guard, and probably doesn't have one. And it's not because of what will get in--it's because of what's getting out.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Guard Could Save You a Lot of Grief."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 13:3. It has to do with a part of you that may be doing quite a bit of damage, and it needs a guard, because important places have guards. Proverbs 13:3 says, "He who guards his lips, guards his life. But he who speaks rashly will come to ruin." A few chapters later in Proverbs 21:23 it says, "He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity." Boy, haven't we all learned that one the hard way?
I guess what God is talking about here is lip guard. Now, it's not a product I'm selling, but we do need the kind of lip guard the Bible talks about. Romans 3, an interesting passage, because it describes for us that "there is none righteous, no not one." And then in describing the sinfulness of us human beings, it gives the anatomy of sin. In the early verses it describes how our body actually carries out sin. And it mentions six specific, physical things that are involved in sinning. One time it mentions the eyes, one time it mentions the feet, and four times it mentions (guess what?) the mouth.
One could conclude from that, that most of the sinning we do, we do with our mouth. You probably let something go today verbally that may have hurt someone. Maybe it hurt another person, or maybe it hurt your reputation, or their reputation, or your chance to get something you need or want. Maybe it hurt the reputation of Jesus Christ. Sins of the mouth--they're the most common; they're the most damaging. They're the most accepted, and they shouldn't be.
When you let Christ become the Lord of your lips--your lip guard--the master of your mouth, you're really getting serious about your faith. Proverbs links it to survival. It says, "You should guard your lips. It's like guarding your life. It's for your own good." But somehow there's that last word you've got to have, right? Or that hurting point you have to make, or the critical word that seemed so clever at the time, the sarcasm, the name you called somebody, the accusation, the put down. If we could erase words like tapes or the scars that they leave like we erase chalkboards, but we can't.
We need a lip guard. It's time to focus that transforming power of the Holy Spirit of Almighty God on our run-away lips. It's got to be a daily battle, joined early before you speak to anyone. Consecrate your mouth to the Lord at the beginning of the day. Ask for grace to pause before you shoot someone verbally. And then start enjoying some victories; things that were almost said but you thought about them, prayed about them, and you never spoke them.
Don't let your mouth run on like it has been. Ask your Lord to guard your mouth. After all, important places have a guard, and nothing you have has more affect then your mouth. So, keep your lip guard handy.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Judges 13, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen)
Max Lucado Daily: Nearer Than You Think
“Whoever is wise will . . . think about the love of the Lord.” Psalm 107:43
Aging? A necessary process to pass on to a better world.
Death? Merely a brief passage, a tunnel . . .
The next time you find yourself alone in a dark alley facing the undeniables of life, don’t cover them with a blanket, or ignore them with a nervous grin. Don’t turn up the TV and pretend they aren’t there. Instead, stand still, whisper God’s name, and listen. He is nearer than you think.
Judges 13
The Birth of Samson
1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth. 3 The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. 5 You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”
6 Then the woman went to her husband and told him, “A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. 7 But he said to me, ‘You will become pregnant and have a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death.’”
8 Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”
9 God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 The woman hurried to tell her husband, “He’s here! The man who appeared to me the other day!”
11 Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who talked to my wife?”
“I am,” he said.
12 So Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?”
13 The angel of the LORD answered, “Your wife must do all that I have told her. 14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.”
15 Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.”
16 The angel of the LORD replied, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.” (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the LORD.)
17 Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”
18 He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.[a]” 19 Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the LORD. And the LORD did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: 20 As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. 21 When the angel of the LORD did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the LORD.
22 “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!”
23 But his wife answered, “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.”
24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, 25 and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Exodus 14:1-14
1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. 3 Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.’ 4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” So the Israelites did this.
5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” 6 So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. 7 He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. 8 The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. 9 The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen[a] and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.
10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
A Matter Of Perspective
August 29, 2011 — by David C. McCasland
I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. —Exodus 14:4
Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? Whether that question is posed during a business meeting, a church council, or a family discussion, it often springs from a sense of exasperation in trying to comprehend why someone has acted in a certain way. More often than not, the answer is a matter of perspective.
If we had been among the Israelites leaving Egypt after 400 years of slavery, we would likely have seen Pharaoh as part of the problem—and he was. Yet God saw something more.
Inexplicably, the Lord told Moses to take the people back toward Egypt and camp with their backs to the Red Sea so Pharaoh would attack them (Ex. 14:1-3). The Israelites thought they were going to die, but God said that He would gain glory and honor for Himself through Pharaoh and all his army, “and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord” (vv.4,17-18).
When we simply cannot understand why God allows circumstances that threaten to overwhelm us, it’s good to remember that He has our good and His glory in mind. If we can say, “Father, please enable me to trust and honor You in this situation,” then we will be in concert with His perspective and plan.
Your words of pure, eternal truth
Shall yet unshaken stay,
When all that man has thought or planned,
Like chaff shall pass away. —Anon.
Faith helps us to accept what we cannot understand.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 29th, 2011
The Unsurpassed Intimacy of Tested Faith
Jesus said to her, ’Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ —John 11:40
Every time you venture out in your life of faith, you will find something in your circumstances that, from a commonsense standpoint, will flatly contradict your faith. But common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense. In fact, they are as different as the natural life and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture out with courage on the words of Jesus Christ, while the realities of your commonsense life continue to shout, “It’s all a lie”? When you are on the mountaintop, it’s easy to say, “Oh yes, I believe God can do it,” but you have to come down from the mountain to the demon-possessed valley and face the realities that scoff at your Mount-of-Transfiguration belief (see Luke 9:28-42). Every time my theology becomes clear to my own mind, I encounter something that contradicts it. As soon as I say, “I believe ’God shall supply all [my] need,’ ” the testing of my faith begins (Philippians 4:19). When my strength runs dry and my vision is blinded, will I endure this trial of my faith victoriously or will I turn back in defeat?
Faith must be tested, because it can only become your intimate possession through conflict. What is challenging your faith right now? The test will either prove your faith right, or it will kill it. Jesus said, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” Matthew 11:6). The ultimate thing is confidence in Jesus. “We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end . . .” (Hebrews 3:14). Believe steadfastly on Him and everything that challenges you will strengthen your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith up to the point of our physical death, which is the last great test. Faith is absolute trust in God— trust that could never imagine that He would forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5-6).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Two Goats and Good Friday - #6426
Monday, August 29, 2011
Okay, I wasn't expecting a goat to be my teacher. But something kind of special happened. A good friend of ours helped a new baby goat come into the world. You might say he was "kidding" around. But you shouldn't say that.
Right after this little wobbly thing arrived; his mother ran off and abandoned him. (Which unfortunately is a sad picture of what happens to some human children.) Well, anyway, that's when Sandy, the Great Pyrenees guard dog, came to the rescue. Our friend tried to remedy this heartbreaking situation by leaving the baby in a grassy area, near where the little guy had arrived. Nope! No deal. Then, Sandy went over to the newborn and the dog started licking off the little goat's birth residue.
The barnyard drama culminated as Sandy, who now was carrying that little guy's scent, gently nudged the mother over to her baby. And they ended up walking over there together, and mama goat got the point. Her mom instinct finally kicked in; she started licking her kid. Now, in the animal kingdom, when you give your kid a licking, I guess that's a nice thing.
That's the time my grandson weighed in. When he heard about this, and he heard about how the guard dog had lovingly intervened, his instinctive response was, "Well, that's just like Jesus!" I had two reactions. First, "Wow, he's right." Second, "Why didn't I think of that?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Two Goats and Good Friday."
Our grandson explained that he saw that the baby was us, the mother was God and the dog who came to the rescue represented Jesus. Okay, now that does need a little theological tweaking, because it wasn't God who walked away from me. It was me who walked away from God. Or as the Bible says, "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own" (Isaiah 53:6 - NLB). In a word, that's sin. Fact is, God and I were hopelessly apart. Away from our Father's love, we just wander all alone and clueless.
Then Jesus came. And here's what the Bible says in our word for today from the Word of God. It's found in 1 Timothy 2:5. It says, "There is only one God and there is one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity--the man Christ Jesus. He gave His life to purchase freedom for everyone." One person who can bring God--a holy, perfect, sinless God--together with a guy like me, who has broken God's laws, run my life my way, and tried to act like I was my own god; only one person who could do that, and that's the person who died to bring us together. That is Jesus; one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity.
So, from a barnyard birth drama--from a dog and a couple of goats--yeah, I got a glimpse of Good Friday. Jesus is hanging on that cruel cross, and I can almost see Him with one nail-pierced hand in God's hand and the other hand reaching for me to bring us together.
You know, when He was reaching for God, He was reaching for you too. It was your sin He was paying for you too. And this very day He's nudging you, pushing you in the direction of the God you were made by and the God you were made for. There's nobody else who can get you to Him, because nobody else died to pay for the sin that separates you from Him.
And this day I believe your heart is restless for the God who made you. You have a loneliness that's a cosmic loneliness. You're lonely for God. You ready for that relationship you were made for? Well, tell Him that, "Jesus, I have sinned. I have broken Your laws. I have wandered away. I want to come to You in total faith, believing that when You died You died for me, and that You are alive because You walked out of Your grave. You are my Savior from this day on."
Our website is really there to be there for you at a time like this of beginning with Jesus. A lot of good information there that will help you get started with Him. YoursForLife.net. I hope you'll check it out.
Yeah, you're being nudged in the direction of the God who made you today, so you can experience the love that your life depends on.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Luke 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen)
Max Lucado Daily: Heaven
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross.” Hebrews 12:2 NIV
Remember, heaven was not foreign to Jesus. He is the only person to live on earth after he had lived in heaven . . . he knew heaven before he came to earth. He knew what awaited him upon his return. And knowing what awaited him in heaven enabled him to bear the shame on earth.
Luke 14:25-35
New International Version (NIV)
The Cost of Being a Disciple
25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.
34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.
“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 1 Samuel 2:27-36
Prophecy Against the House of Eli
27 Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Did I not clearly reveal myself to your ancestor’s family when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh? 28 I chose your ancestor out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in my presence. I also gave your ancestor’s family all the food offerings presented by the Israelites. 29 Why do you[a] scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?’
30 “Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that members of your family would minister before me forever.’ But now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained. 31 The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your priestly house, so that no one in it will reach old age, 32 and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, no one in your family line will ever reach old age. 33 Every one of you that I do not cut off from serving at my altar I will spare only to destroy your sight and sap your strength, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life.
34 “‘And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you—they will both die on the same day. 35 I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house, and they will minister before my anointed one always. 36 Then everyone left in your family line will come and bow down before him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread and plead, “Appoint me to some priestly office so I can have food to eat.”’”
Failure To Discipline
August 28, 2011 — by Julie Ackerman Link
No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. —Hebrews 12:11
We live in the woods, so we get very little prolonged sunlight in the summer. But we love fresh tomatoes, so I decided to try growing them in pots set in a few sunny spots.
The plants started to grow right away and really fast. I was thrilled—until I realized that their fast growth was due to their efforts to reach out to the limited sunlight. By the time I figured out what was happening, the vines were too heavy to support themselves. I found some stakes, lifted the vines carefully, and fastened them in an upright position. Even though I tried to be gentle, one of the twisted vines broke when I tried to straighten it.
This reminded me that discipline must begin before character is permanently bent and twisted.
Eli the priest had two sons whom he failed to discipline. When their wickedness got so bad that he could no longer ignore it, he tried gentle rebuke (1 Sam. 2:24-25). But it was too late, and God announced the dire consequences: “I will judge [Eli’s] house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them” (3:13).
Being straightened out is painful, but being left crooked will ultimately hurt even more.
Lord, even though it’s painful, we’re thankful that
You, in love, discipline us as Your children.
Help us to respond with repentance and obedience
to Your ways. Amen.
God’s love confronts and corrects.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 28th, 2011
The Purpose of Prayer
. . . one of His disciples said to Him, ’Lord, teach us to pray . . .’ —Luke 11:1
Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.
“Ask, and you will receive . . .” (John 16:24). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” (Matthew 18:3). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits’ end. When a person is at his wits’ end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems— the very things that have brought you to your wits’ end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.
To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Judges 12, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen)
Max Lucado Daily: The Careful Gardener
“I gave you this work: to go and produce fruit, fruit that will last.” John 15:16
A good gardener will do what it takes to help a vine bear fruit. What fruit does God want? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). These are fruits of the Spirit. And this is what God longs to see in us. And like a careful gardener, he will clip and cut away anything that interferes.
Judges 12
Jephthah and Ephraim
1 The Ephraimite forces were called out, and they crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We’re going to burn down your house over your head.”
2 Jephthah answered, “I and my people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites, and although I called, you didn’t save me out of their hands. 3 When I saw that you wouldn’t help, I took my life in my hands and crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave me the victory over them. Now why have you come up today to fight me?”
4 Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh.” 5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” 6 they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.
7 Jephthah led[c] Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in a town in Gilead.
Ibzan, Elon and Abdon
8 After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem led Israel. 9 He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters away in marriage to those outside his clan, and for his sons he brought in thirty young women as wives from outside his clan. Ibzan led Israel seven years. 10 Then Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.
11 After him, Elon the Zebulunite led Israel ten years. 12 Then Elon died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
13 After him, Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, led Israel. 14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. He led Israel eight years. 15 Then Abdon son of Hillel died and was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Philippians 2:1-11
Imitating Christ’s Humility
1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
A Modest Proposal
August 27, 2011 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt
[Jesus] humbled Himself . . . to the point of death, even the death of the cross. —Philippians 2:8
As a college student, I heard count- less engagement stories. My starry-eyed friends told about glitzy restaurants, mountaintop sunsets, and rides in horse-drawn carriages. I also recall one story about a young man who simply washed his girlfriend’s feet. His “modest proposal” proved he understood that humility is vital for a lifelong commitment.
The apostle Paul also understood the significance of humility and how it holds us together. This is especially important in marriage. Paul said to reject “me-first” urges: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition” (Phil. 2:3). Instead, we should value our spouses more than ourselves, and look out for their interests.
Humility in action means serving our spouse, and no act of service is too small or too great. After all, Jesus “humbled Himself . . . to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (v.8). His selflessness showed His love for us.
What can you do today to humbly serve the one you love? Maybe it’s as simple as leaving brussels sprouts off the dinner menu or as difficult as helping him or her through a long illness. Whatever it is, placing our spouse’s needs before our own confirms our commitment to each other through Christlike humility.
In marriage, we will honor Christ
By following His lead
Of sacrificial love and care
To meet the other’s need. —Sper
If you think it’s possible to love your spouse too much,
you probably haven’t loved enough.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 27th, 2011
Living Your Theology
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you . . . —John 12:35
Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23). The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you. Continually bring the truth out into your real life, working it out into every area, or else even the light that you possess will itself prove to be a curse.
The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.
Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common everyday relationships. Our Lord said, “. . . unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). In other words, you must be more moral than the most moral person you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you working it out in the everyday issues of your life? Every detail of your life, whether physical, moral, or spiritual, is to be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Judges 11, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen)
Max Lucado Daily: He Forgets
“He forgives your sins—every one.” Psalm 103:3 The Message
It’s against God’s nature to remember forgiven sins . . .
He who is perfect love cannot hold grudges. If he does, then he isn’t perfect love. And if he isn’t perfect love, you might as well put this book down and go fishing, because both of us are chasing fairy tales.
But I believe in his loving forgetfulness. And I believe he has a graciously terrible memory.
Judges 11
1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. 2 Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.” 3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.
4 Some time later, when the Ammonites were fighting against Israel, 5 the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 “Come,” they said, “be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.”
7 Jephthah said to them, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?”
8 The elders of Gilead said to him, “Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be head over all of us who live in Gilead.”
9 Jephthah answered, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me—will I really be your head?”
10 The elders of Gilead replied, “The LORD is our witness; we will certainly do as you say.” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the LORD in Mizpah.
12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: “What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?”
13 The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.”
14 Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, 15 saying:
“This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. 16 But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea[a] and on to Kadesh. 17 Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Give us permission to go through your country,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.
18 “Next they traveled through the wilderness, skirted the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border.
19 “Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country to our own place.’ 20 Sihon, however, did not trust Israel[b] to pass through his territory. He mustered all his troops and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.
21 “Then the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and his whole army into Israel’s hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, 22 capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.
23 “Now since the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? 24 Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the LORD our God has given us, we will possess. 25 Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them? 26 For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn’t you retake them during that time? 27 I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the LORD, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”
28 The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.
29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break.”
36 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”
38 “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
From this comes the Israelite tradition 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 119:97-104
? Mem
97 Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
98 Your commands are always with me
and make me wiser than my enemies.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
100 I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path
so that I might obey your word.
102 I have not departed from your laws,
for you yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 I gain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every wrong path.
The Goodness Of The Lord
August 26, 2011 — by David H. Roper
Oh, how I love Your law! —Psalm 119:97
Some years ago I came across a short essay written by Sir James Barrie, an English baron. In it he gives an intimate picture of his mother, who deeply loved God and His Word and who literally read her Bible to pieces. “It is mine now,” Sir James wrote, “and to me the black threads with which she stitched it are a part of the contents.”
My mother also loved God’s Word. She read and pondered it for 60 years or more. I keep her Bible on my bookshelf in a prominent place. It too is tattered and torn, each stained page marked with her comments and reflections. As a boy, I often walked into her room in the morning and found her cradling her Bible in her lap, poring over its words. She did so until the day she could no longer see the words on the page. Even then her Bible was the most precious book in her possession.
When Sir James’ mother grew old, she could no longer read the words of her Bible. Yet daily, her husband put her Bible in her hands, and she would reverently hold it there.
The psalmist wrote, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth” (119:103). Have you tasted the goodness of the Lord? Open your Bible today.
The Bible, the Bible! more precious than gold;
Glad hopes and bright glories its pages unfold;
It speaks of the Father and tells of His love,
And shows us the way to the mansions above. —Anon.
A well-read Bible is a sign of a well-fed soul.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 26th, 2011
Are You Ever Troubled?
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you . . . —John 14:27
There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always “spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “. . . My peace I give to you. . .”— a peace that comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment.
Are you severely troubled right now? Are you afraid and confused by the waves and the turbulence God sovereignly allows to enter your life? Have you left no stone of your faith unturned, yet still not found any well of peace, joy, or comfort? Does your life seem completely barren to you? Then look up and receive the quiet contentment of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting His peace is proof that you are right with God, because you are exhibiting the freedom to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. Allowing anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you either causes you to become troubled or gives you a false sense of security.
With regard to the problem that is pressing in on you right now, are you “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious blessing of peace exhibited in and through you. But if you only try to worry your way out of the problem, you destroy His effectiveness in you, and you deserve whatever you get. We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:27).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wired for Worship - #6425
Friday, August 26, 2011
You can find it at a football game. You can find it in a concert. There are thousands of people drawn to a gathering, and they're talking excitedly about some star that they've come to see or hear. Hands and voices are raised in praise and all eyes are on the star, or the stars. In fact, if you want to get people really agitated, use the name of their favorite musician in vain. Or say something negative about their favorite athlete. Uh-huh. I mean, people who might be relatively passive about minor issues like nuclear war, or abortion, or people starving to death are majorly aggressive about their heroes. I mean, we're excited about our favorite musician, our favorite sports star, even our favorite spiritual celebrity...maybe too excited.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Wired for Worship."
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Luke 4:5-8. I think you'll find the passage familiar; it finds Jesus in the wilderness just before He launches into His public ministry. And here is this cosmic confrontation between the Son of God and the enemy of God--the devil. And the story I want to point us to goes something like this, "The devil led Jesus to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. He said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.' Jesus answered, 'It is written: Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'"
Well, the issue in this, which is the second temptation of Jesus, was the issue I want us to look at for a couple of minutes today. The issue was worship. Jesus and the devil obviously both know that we're wired for worship. We're just built that way. We're instinctively worshippers. We want to lose ourselves in someone; find out all we can about that person that we lose ourselves in; identify ourselves enthusiastically with them. Talk about what we know about that person; tell about what we feel about that person.
But it's God alone that we're built to wrap our lives around...to think about most of the time. That's why Jesus said when given another worship option, "Only worship God; only serve God."
Sometimes we use up a lot of our--can I call it worship-ness--on someone human. Oh, we don't call it worship. But a lot of our thinking, our loyalty, our time, our energy, our money, our enthusiasm gets taken over maybe by our favorite music group, or by an obsession with sports that finds us talking about our favorites most of the time.
There was an article in a New York area newspaper that had this headline, "Sport takes its place among the religions of America." Sometimes we can actually inadvertently worship some Christian teacher or personality. We quote them more than the Bible. We've gotten unbalanced without realizing it. We've got to guard this worship thing we've got. It's easy to become such a fan of someone on earth that the King of Kings gets pushed to the side--gets our leftovers. The devil's strategy is to just get our worshipping redirected. He knows we'll worship something.
So let me recommend that we begin our day getting overwhelmed by Jesus Christ; focusing all of our worship-ness, our fan mail so to speak, on Him. Evaluate...maybe are you a little too excited about some earthly star? See, you're wired for worship, but save it for the only One who deserves it.
“He forgives your sins—every one.” Psalm 103:3 The Message
It’s against God’s nature to remember forgiven sins . . .
He who is perfect love cannot hold grudges. If he does, then he isn’t perfect love. And if he isn’t perfect love, you might as well put this book down and go fishing, because both of us are chasing fairy tales.
But I believe in his loving forgetfulness. And I believe he has a graciously terrible memory.
Judges 11
1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. 2 Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.” 3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where a gang of scoundrels gathered around him and followed him.
4 Some time later, when the Ammonites were fighting against Israel, 5 the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. 6 “Come,” they said, “be our commander, so we can fight the Ammonites.”
7 Jephthah said to them, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me from my father’s house? Why do you come to me now, when you’re in trouble?”
8 The elders of Gilead said to him, “Nevertheless, we are turning to you now; come with us to fight the Ammonites, and you will be head over all of us who live in Gilead.”
9 Jephthah answered, “Suppose you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me—will I really be your head?”
10 The elders of Gilead replied, “The LORD is our witness; we will certainly do as you say.” 11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them. And he repeated all his words before the LORD in Mizpah.
12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the Ammonite king with the question: “What do you have against me that you have attacked my country?”
13 The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, all the way to the Jordan. Now give it back peaceably.”
14 Jephthah sent back messengers to the Ammonite king, 15 saying:
“This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. 16 But when they came up out of Egypt, Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea[a] and on to Kadesh. 17 Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Give us permission to go through your country,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent also to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.
18 “Next they traveled through the wilderness, skirted the lands of Edom and Moab, passed along the eastern side of the country of Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon. They did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was its border.
19 “Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country to our own place.’ 20 Sihon, however, did not trust Israel[b] to pass through his territory. He mustered all his troops and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.
21 “Then the LORD, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and his whole army into Israel’s hands, and they defeated them. Israel took over all the land of the Amorites who lived in that country, 22 capturing all of it from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.
23 “Now since the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven the Amorites out before his people Israel, what right have you to take it over? 24 Will you not take what your god Chemosh gives you? Likewise, whatever the LORD our God has given us, we will possess. 25 Are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel or fight with them? 26 For three hundred years Israel occupied Heshbon, Aroer, the surrounding settlements and all the towns along the Arnon. Why didn’t you retake them during that time? 27 I have not wronged you, but you are doing me wrong by waging war against me. Let the LORD, the Judge, decide the dispute this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”
28 The king of Ammon, however, paid no attention to the message Jephthah sent him.
29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break.”
36 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”
38 “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
From this comes the Israelite tradition 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Psalm 119:97-104
? Mem
97 Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
98 Your commands are always with me
and make me wiser than my enemies.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
100 I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil path
so that I might obey your word.
102 I have not departed from your laws,
for you yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 I gain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every wrong path.
The Goodness Of The Lord
August 26, 2011 — by David H. Roper
Oh, how I love Your law! —Psalm 119:97
Some years ago I came across a short essay written by Sir James Barrie, an English baron. In it he gives an intimate picture of his mother, who deeply loved God and His Word and who literally read her Bible to pieces. “It is mine now,” Sir James wrote, “and to me the black threads with which she stitched it are a part of the contents.”
My mother also loved God’s Word. She read and pondered it for 60 years or more. I keep her Bible on my bookshelf in a prominent place. It too is tattered and torn, each stained page marked with her comments and reflections. As a boy, I often walked into her room in the morning and found her cradling her Bible in her lap, poring over its words. She did so until the day she could no longer see the words on the page. Even then her Bible was the most precious book in her possession.
When Sir James’ mother grew old, she could no longer read the words of her Bible. Yet daily, her husband put her Bible in her hands, and she would reverently hold it there.
The psalmist wrote, “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth” (119:103). Have you tasted the goodness of the Lord? Open your Bible today.
The Bible, the Bible! more precious than gold;
Glad hopes and bright glories its pages unfold;
It speaks of the Father and tells of His love,
And shows us the way to the mansions above. —Anon.
A well-read Bible is a sign of a well-fed soul.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 26th, 2011
Are You Ever Troubled?
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you . . . —John 14:27
There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always “spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “. . . My peace I give to you. . .”— a peace that comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment.
Are you severely troubled right now? Are you afraid and confused by the waves and the turbulence God sovereignly allows to enter your life? Have you left no stone of your faith unturned, yet still not found any well of peace, joy, or comfort? Does your life seem completely barren to you? Then look up and receive the quiet contentment of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting His peace is proof that you are right with God, because you are exhibiting the freedom to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. Allowing anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you either causes you to become troubled or gives you a false sense of security.
With regard to the problem that is pressing in on you right now, are you “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious blessing of peace exhibited in and through you. But if you only try to worry your way out of the problem, you destroy His effectiveness in you, and you deserve whatever you get. We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:27).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wired for Worship - #6425
Friday, August 26, 2011
You can find it at a football game. You can find it in a concert. There are thousands of people drawn to a gathering, and they're talking excitedly about some star that they've come to see or hear. Hands and voices are raised in praise and all eyes are on the star, or the stars. In fact, if you want to get people really agitated, use the name of their favorite musician in vain. Or say something negative about their favorite athlete. Uh-huh. I mean, people who might be relatively passive about minor issues like nuclear war, or abortion, or people starving to death are majorly aggressive about their heroes. I mean, we're excited about our favorite musician, our favorite sports star, even our favorite spiritual celebrity...maybe too excited.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Wired for Worship."
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Luke 4:5-8. I think you'll find the passage familiar; it finds Jesus in the wilderness just before He launches into His public ministry. And here is this cosmic confrontation between the Son of God and the enemy of God--the devil. And the story I want to point us to goes something like this, "The devil led Jesus to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. He said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.' Jesus answered, 'It is written: Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'"
Well, the issue in this, which is the second temptation of Jesus, was the issue I want us to look at for a couple of minutes today. The issue was worship. Jesus and the devil obviously both know that we're wired for worship. We're just built that way. We're instinctively worshippers. We want to lose ourselves in someone; find out all we can about that person that we lose ourselves in; identify ourselves enthusiastically with them. Talk about what we know about that person; tell about what we feel about that person.
But it's God alone that we're built to wrap our lives around...to think about most of the time. That's why Jesus said when given another worship option, "Only worship God; only serve God."
Sometimes we use up a lot of our--can I call it worship-ness--on someone human. Oh, we don't call it worship. But a lot of our thinking, our loyalty, our time, our energy, our money, our enthusiasm gets taken over maybe by our favorite music group, or by an obsession with sports that finds us talking about our favorites most of the time.
There was an article in a New York area newspaper that had this headline, "Sport takes its place among the religions of America." Sometimes we can actually inadvertently worship some Christian teacher or personality. We quote them more than the Bible. We've gotten unbalanced without realizing it. We've got to guard this worship thing we've got. It's easy to become such a fan of someone on earth that the King of Kings gets pushed to the side--gets our leftovers. The devil's strategy is to just get our worshipping redirected. He knows we'll worship something.
So let me recommend that we begin our day getting overwhelmed by Jesus Christ; focusing all of our worship-ness, our fan mail so to speak, on Him. Evaluate...maybe are you a little too excited about some earthly star? See, you're wired for worship, but save it for the only One who deserves it.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Luke 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen)
Max Lucado Daily: Go Deep
“You thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night.” Psalm 1:2 The Message
The Bible is not a newspaper to be skimmed but rather a mine to be quarried.
Here is a practical point. Study the Bible a little at a time. God seems to send messages as did his manna: one day’s portion at a time. He provides ” a command here, a command there. A rule here, a rule there. A little lesson here, a little lesson there” (Isa. 28:10). Choose depth over quantity.
Luke 14
Jesus at a Pharisee’s House
1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2 There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way.
5 Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child[a] or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” 6 And they had nothing to say.
7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
The Parable of the Great Banquet
15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 2 Corinthians 11:22–12:10
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. 33 But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.
2 Corinthians 12
Paul’s Vision and His Thorn
1 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Bring It On!
August 25, 2011 — by Dave Branon
Three times I was beaten . . . ; three times I was shipwrecked; . . . in perils . . . , in weariness and toil, . . . in hunger and thirst. —2 Corinthians 11:25-27
A TV program on the History Channel featured the world’s most extreme airports. The one that caught my attention is no longer open, but it is one I had flown into. I agree that Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport was definitely a thrill ride for passengers and surely a challenge for pilots. If you came in from one direction, you had to fly over skyscrapers and then hope the plane stopped before it plunged into the sea. If you came in the other way, it seemed as if you were going to smack into a mountain.
I found it surprising that a pilot who used to take planeloads of people into Kai Tak said, “I miss flying into that airport.” But I think I know what he meant. As a pilot, he relished the challenge. He had a confidence based on his ability and his reliance on those who guided him into the airport.
Too often, we run from challenges. Yet the people we love to read about in the Bible are impressive because they battled challenges. Consider Paul. With the confidence of God’s help, he faced troubles head-on—and conquered them. Christ’s promise to Paul and to us is: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Like Paul’s example, in the confidence of God’s care we can say to the next challenge: Bring it on!
I do not ask for easy paths
Along life’s winding roads,
But for the promised grace and strength
To carry all its loads. —Meadows
If God sends you on stony paths,
He will provide you with strong shoes.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 25th, 2011
Sacrifice and Friendship
I have called you friends . . . —John 15:15
We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, “I’ll surrender if . . . !” Or we approach it by saying, “I suppose I have to devote my life to God.” We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.
But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.
Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God . . . .” He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2).
Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional— for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.
“I have called you friends. . . .” Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
A Message From the Titanic - #6424
Thursday, August 25, 2011
It's almost been a century when the unsinkable ship sank and some 1,500 passengers died. You know, I actually have my boarding pass for the Titanic. Yeah, for real! They gave it to me at the entrance to the Titanic artifacts exhibit I went to. (No, I am not that old to have the original thing.) Now, it doesn't have my name on it. It says, "J. Pearse, Crew." Now, having the name of someone who was really there that night, I guess, made what I saw a whole lot more personal.
It really hit home with me at the end of the tour, because I stood staring at this large wall that had two lists. They were reminiscent of the same lists that they posted after the tragedy in the White Star Line's Liverpool, England offices. Here are these anxious relatives waiting to hear the fate of a passenger they loved, and a company rep who comes in occasionally and adds a name to one of two lists: "Known to be saved" and "Known to be lost." My guy, "J. Pearse," was saved. My friends who also saw this exhibit turned out to be "lost."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Message From the Titanic."
The haunting images of that mighty ship going down are just indelible in my mind. But then so are those two lists. Because everyone I know--everyone listening to this--is also on one of two lists: "Known to be saved" "Known to be lost." Not "rich" or "poor"...not "liberal" or "conservative"...not "Religion X" or "Religion Y" - just "saved" or "lost."
God makes it so plain in our word for today from the Word of God, which is in 1 John 5:11-12. "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life (saved); he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (lost)." Now, if you have Jesus, you are rescued from the death penalty for your sins and you've got heaven. And God says if you don't have Jesus, you don't have heaven.
Because that "saving" came at a very high price that only the Son of God could pay. It meant Him, who had no sin, doing all the dying for all my sinning. Going through my hell so I, and so you, could go to His heaven.
The great news of Good Friday, the great news of Easter, is that you can change lists! In Jesus' words, "Whoever hears My word and believes Him who has sent me has eternal life; he has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24). I love the definite sounds of those words, "has eternal life." Not hopes to have - has. A done deal! We can know for sure right now that if we died today, we would go to heaven - eternal life insurance. No fear.
Maybe you know some folks who are still outside the lifeboat. You have nothing more urgent to do than in the Bible's words, "rescue those who are being led away to death" (Proverbs 24:11).
If you're not sure, though, that you've ever given yourself to Jesus, you have nothing more urgent to do than in the words of the Bible, "believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). That transaction between you and Him could take place this very day. Why not get this done? Why not get this settled? Why not today where you are just say, "Jesus, I believe You died for my sins. I believe You are alive because You walked out of your grave, and I am ready to give the running of my life over to You. I'm pinning all my hopes on You to get me to heaven and forgive my sins. I'm Yours!" At that moment you go from those who are "known to be lost" to those who are "known to be saved."
Let me invite you to go to our website and check it out. It's all about how to begin that relationship and be sure you have. YoursForLife.net. We'd be honored to have you visit us there.
I'll tell you, it's amazing to be saved, but it is awful to be lost.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Judges 10, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen)
Max Lucado Daily: Present Tense
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 NLT
The present-tense Christ. He never says, “I was.” We do. We do because “we were.” We were younger, faster, prettier. Prone to be people of the past tense, we reminisce. Not God. Unwavering in strength, he need never say, “I was.” Heaven has no rear view mirrors . . .
Can God be more God? No. He does not change. He is the “I am” God. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Judges 10
Tola
1 After the time of Abimelek, a man of Issachar named Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim. 2 He led[e] Israel twenty-three years; then he died, and was buried in Shamir.
Jair
3 He was followed by Jair of Gilead, who led Israel twenty-two years. 4 He had thirty sons, who rode thirty donkeys. They controlled thirty towns in Gilead, which to this day are called Havvoth Jair.[f] 5 When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.
Jephthah
6 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And because the Israelites forsook the LORD and no longer served him, 7 he became angry with them. He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites, 8 who that year shattered and crushed them. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites. 9 The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim; Israel was in great distress. 10 Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, “We have sinned against you, forsaking our God and serving the Baals.”
11 The LORD replied, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, 12 the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites[g] oppressed you and you cried to me for help, did I not save you from their hands? 13 But you have forsaken me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!”
15 But the Israelites said to the LORD, “We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now.” 16 Then they got rid of the foreign gods among them and served the LORD. And he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.
17 When the Ammonites were called to arms and camped in Gilead, the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah. 18 The leaders of the people of Gilead said to each other, “Whoever will take the lead in attacking the Ammonites will be head over all who live in Gilead.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Luke 12:22-34
Do Not Worry
22 Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life[a]? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Birds, Lilies, And Me
August 24, 2011 — by David C. Egner
Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life. —Luke 12:22
In the episodes of an old television show, the veteran police lieutenant always said this to the young officers on their way out to the street for their day’s assignments: “Be careful out there!” It was both good advice and a word of compassion because he knew what could happen to them in the line of duty.
Jesus gave His followers a similar warning, but in even stronger terms. Luke 11 ends ominously with these words: “The scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things” (v.53). In the continuation of this account, Luke says that Jesus compassionately instructed His disciples to “beware” (12:1) but not to worry or be afraid (vv.4-7,22).
Jesus was promising to guard, protect, and care for them as they went out into the world. He assured them that because He cared for simple things like birds and lilies, they could be certain that He would take care of His “little flock” of believers (vv.24-32).
We cannot know the future. But we can know this: No matter what comes, we are under the loving, caring, watchful eye of our great Shepherd, who also happens to be the Son of God!
I walked life’s path with worry,
Disturbed and quite unblest,
Until I trusted Jesus;
Now faith has given rest. —Bosch
If Jesus is concerned about flowers and birds,
He certainly cares about you and me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 24th, 2011
The Spiritual Search
What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9
The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (see Matthew 5:45). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a “good child” in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, “I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings”? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a “good child.”
We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? (see Matthew 7:12).
I am a child of God only by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, “Everyone who asks receives . . .” (Matthew 7:8).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
When Time Is Flying, File a Flight Plan - #6423
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
I used to work with our high school football team quite a bit, and their practices were in full swing. And I was talking with one of the soon to be freshman football players, and he said, "Ron, it seems like just yesterday we were having our first practices back in the summer." And I talked to some seniors, and then they said, "Ron, weren't we just freshmen? How did we get here so fast?"
Another friend's daughter was getting ready to make a decision about college, and he said, "It just seemed like yesterday that she needed my hand even to go anywhere outside the yard." And then I heard a pastor not long ago who was soon to turn 60, and he said, "You know, when I was 16, 60 seemed like forever; seemed like it was so far off. It was just yesterday I was 16 and saying that." I think we all know about this, huh? It's like Billy Graham said when he was asked what the biggest surprise of his life was, and he said, "The brevity of it."
I guess it's somewhere early in our teenage years that we realize that time is limited. Time seems to like hit the accelerator and it never looks back, never slows down. Months and years fly by like months used to fall off the calendars in those old movies. The speed of sound and the speed of light have a companion called the speed of time. And when you realize the speed at which your life is racing by, you don't just watch it happen. You do something about it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Time Is Flying, File a Flight Plan."
Our word for today from the Word of God is about the (here's a new word) "flyingness" of time, and it's in Psalm 90. This is nothing new; it goes back to at least when the psalmist wrote and he said in verse 10, "The length of our days is 70 years, 80 if we have the strength. They quickly pass and we fly away." But in verse 12, he comes up with a flight plan for when time is flying. Here's what he says, "Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
He's saying here, "The life that seems so long is really so short." And it's given to us in these things called days. He said, "Our days are flying by." "Teach us to number our days." Now, life seems to come sometimes as sort of this dull routine. The days just sort of slip by and then the days become weeks, and weeks become months, and we don't know where they went. There's no plan; there's no thought. They're sort of this plodding cycle. But this is a call from the Scripture to have no wasted days. "Teach us to number our days aright."
Smart living makes each 24 hours important. Older people wake up one day in their life and wish they could have their days back. And you may still have a lot of years ahead. Well, capture them now. Awaken each morning with an awareness that this 24 hours is a gift not to be wasted, never to be lived again. You say, "Well, I've got school, or work, or traffic, or TV, or meetings, or emails, or errands." That's not the wise way to live.
There are people who need you, opportunities to see God at work in your every day. A chance to learn something you never knew; a chance to give and receive love. And nowhere is time more precious than investing in your family. This is a building block that will either bring you closer to God and His will or farther from it.
"This is the day the Lord has made." Don't just dedicate your life, dedicate this 24 hours. When you fly a plane you don't just cruise wherever you feel like. You file a flight plan of where you're going. As you face time flying by, file a flight plan for that day; seize that day. Don't just let that day happen to you. Pray for it, plan for it, make it count.
Well used days may fly by just as fast, but they will land you where you want to land.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Judges 9, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen)
Max Lucado Daily: Heaven Sees
“[Jesus] died so he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty . . . pure and without fault.” Ephesians 5:27
From our perspective, the church isn’t so pretty. We see the backbiting, the squabbling, the divisions. Heaven sees that, as well. But heaven sees more. Heaven sees the church as cleansed and made holy by Christ.
Heaven sees the church ascending to heaven. Heaven sees the Bride wearing the spotless gown of Jesus Christ.
Judges 9
Abimelek
1 Abimelek son of Jerub-Baal went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother’s clan, 2 “Ask all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal’s sons rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember, I am your flesh and blood.”
3 When the brothers repeated all this to the citizens of Shechem, they were inclined to follow Abimelek, for they said, “He is related to us.” 4 They gave him seventy shekels[a] of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, and Abimelek used it to hire reckless scoundrels, who became his followers. 5 He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerub-Baal, escaped by hiding. 6 Then all the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo gathered beside the great tree at the pillar in Shechem to crown Abimelek king.
7 When Jotham was told about this, he climbed up on the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted to them, “Listen to me, citizens of Shechem, so that God may listen to you. 8 One day the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’
9 “But the olive tree answered, ‘Should I give up my oil, by which both gods and humans are honored, to hold sway over the trees?’
10 “Next, the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and be our king.’
11 “But the fig tree replied, ‘Should I give up my fruit, so good and sweet, to hold sway over the trees?’
12 “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘Come and be our king.’
13 “But the vine answered, ‘Should I give up my wine, which cheers both gods and humans, to hold sway over the trees?’
14 “Finally all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Come and be our king.’
15 “The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to anoint me king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, then let fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’
16 “Have you acted honorably and in good faith by making Abimelek king? Have you been fair to Jerub-Baal and his family? Have you treated him as he deserves? 17 Remember that my father fought for you and risked his life to rescue you from the hand of Midian. 18 But today you have revolted against my father’s family. You have murdered his seventy sons on a single stone and have made Abimelek, the son of his female slave, king over the citizens of Shechem because he is related to you. 19 So have you acted honorably and in good faith toward Jerub-Baal and his family today? If you have, may Abimelek be your joy, and may you be his, too! 20 But if you have not, let fire come out from Abimelek and consume you, the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo, and let fire come out from you, the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo, and consume Abimelek!”
21 Then Jotham fled, escaping to Beer, and he lived there because he was afraid of his brother Abimelek.
22 After Abimelek had governed Israel three years, 23 God stirred up animosity between Abimelek and the citizens of Shechem so that they acted treacherously against Abimelek. 24 God did this in order that the crime against Jerub-Baal’s seventy sons, the shedding of their blood, might be avenged on their brother Abimelek and on the citizens of Shechem, who had helped him murder his brothers. 25 In opposition to him these citizens of Shechem set men on the hilltops to ambush and rob everyone who passed by, and this was reported to Abimelek.
26 Now Gaal son of Ebed moved with his clan into Shechem, and its citizens put their confidence in him. 27 After they had gone out into the fields and gathered the grapes and trodden them, they held a festival in the temple of their god. While they were eating and drinking, they cursed Abimelek. 28 Then Gaal son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelek, and why should we Shechemites be subject to him? Isn’t he Jerub-Baal’s son, and isn’t Zebul his deputy? Serve the family of Hamor, Shechem’s father! Why should we serve Abimelek? 29 If only this people were under my command! Then I would get rid of him. I would say to Abimelek, ‘Call out your whole army!’”[b]
30 When Zebul the governor of the city heard what Gaal son of Ebed said, he was very angry. 31 Under cover he sent messengers to Abimelek, saying, “Gaal son of Ebed and his clan have come to Shechem and are stirring up the city against you. 32 Now then, during the night you and your men should come and lie in wait in the fields. 33 In the morning at sunrise, advance against the city. When Gaal and his men come out against you, seize the opportunity to attack them.”
34 So Abimelek and all his troops set out by night and took up concealed positions near Shechem in four companies. 35 Now Gaal son of Ebed had gone out and was standing at the entrance of the city gate just as Abimelek and his troops came out from their hiding place.
36 When Gaal saw them, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains!”
Zebul replied, “You mistake the shadows of the mountains for men.”
37 But Gaal spoke up again: “Look, people are coming down from the central hill,[c] and a company is coming from the direction of the diviners’ tree.”
38 Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your big talk now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelek that we should be subject to him?’ Aren’t these the men you ridiculed? Go out and fight them!”
39 So Gaal led out[d] the citizens of Shechem and fought Abimelek. 40 Abimelek chased him all the way to the entrance of the gate, and many were killed as they fled. 41 Then Abimelek stayed in Arumah, and Zebul drove Gaal and his clan out of Shechem.
42 The next day the people of Shechem went out to the fields, and this was reported to Abimelek. 43 So he took his men, divided them into three companies and set an ambush in the fields. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he rose to attack them. 44 Abimelek and the companies with him rushed forward to a position at the entrance of the city gate. Then two companies attacked those in the fields and struck them down. 45 All that day Abimelek pressed his attack against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he destroyed the city and scattered salt over it.
46 On hearing this, the citizens in the tower of Shechem went into the stronghold of the temple of El-Berith. 47 When Abimelek heard that they had assembled there, 48 he and all his men went up Mount Zalmon. He took an ax and cut off some branches, which he lifted to his shoulders. He ordered the men with him, “Quick! Do what you have seen me do!” 49 So all the men cut branches and followed Abimelek. They piled them against the stronghold and set it on fire with the people still inside. So all the people in the tower of Shechem, about a thousand men and women, also died.
50 Next Abimelek went to Thebez and besieged it and captured it. 51 Inside the city, however, was a strong tower, to which all the men and women—all the people of the city—had fled. They had locked themselves in and climbed up on the tower roof. 52 Abimelek went to the tower and attacked it. But as he approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire, 53 a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull.
54 Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can’t say, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his servant ran him through, and he died. 55 When the Israelites saw that Abimelek was dead, they went home.
56 Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelek had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers. 57 God also made the people of Shechem pay for all their wickedness. The curse of Jotham son of Jerub-Baal came on them.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: 2 Timothy 4:1-8
1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Joyful Reunion
August 23, 2011 — by Bill Crowder
He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! —Revelation 22:20
Some years ago when our children were still small, I flew home after a 10-day ministry trip. In those days people were allowed to visit the airport boarding area to greet incoming passengers. When my flight landed, I came out of the jet-bridge and was greeted by our little ones—so happy to see me that they were screaming and crying. I looked at my wife, whose eyes were teary. I couldn’t speak. Strangers in the gate area also teared up as our children hugged my legs and cried their greetings. It was a wonderful moment.
The memory of the intensity of that greeting serves as a gentle rebuke to the priorities of my own heart. The apostle John, eagerly desiring Jesus’ return, wrote, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20). In another passage, Paul even spoke of a crown awaiting those who have “loved His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8). Yet sometimes I don’t feel as eager for Christ’s return as my children were for mine.
Jesus is worthy of the very best of our love and devotion—and nothing on earth should compare to the thought of seeing Him face-to-face. May our love for our Savior deepen as we anticipate our joyful reunion with Him.
And for the hope of His return,
Dear Lord, Your name we praise;
With longing hearts we watch and wait
For that great day of days! —Sherwood
Those who belong to Christ should be longing to see Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
August 23rd, 2011
Prayer— Battle in "The Secret Place"
When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly —Matthew 6:6
Jesus did not say, “Dream about your Father who is in the secret place,” but He said, “. . . pray to your Father who is in the secret place. . . .” Prayer is an effort of the will. After we have entered our secret place and shut the door, the most difficult thing to do is to pray. We cannot seem to get our minds into good working order, and the first thing we have to fight is wandering thoughts. The great battle in private prayer is overcoming this problem of our idle and wandering thinking. We have to learn to discipline our minds and concentrate on willful, deliberate prayer.
We must have a specially selected place for prayer, but once we get there this plague of wandering thoughts begins, as we begin to think to ourselves, “This needs to be done, and I have to do that today.” Jesus says to “shut your door.” Having a secret stillness before God means deliberately shutting the door on our emotions and remembering Him. God is in secret, and He sees us from “the secret place”— He does not see us as other people do, or as we see ourselves. When we truly live in “the secret place,” it becomes impossible for us to doubt God. We become more sure of Him than of anyone or anything else. Enter into “the secret place,” and you will find that God was right in the middle of your everyday circumstances all the time. Get into the habit of dealing with God about everything. Unless you learn to open the door of your life completely and let God in from your first waking moment of each new day, you will be working on the wrong level throughout the day. But if you will swing the door of your life fully open and “pray to your Father who is in the secret place,” every public thing in your life will be marked with the lasting imprint of the presence of God.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Chopping Cherry Blossoms - #6422
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Oh, it was a great time to be traveling out East! I got to be there at cherry blossom time this year. I was where those pink beauties were popping out everywhere we were traveling. One of the gals on the Weather Channel was broadcasting from Washington, DC, and she had this beautiful backdrop of these exploding cherry blossoms at the Jefferson Memorial.
And the Park Ranger there, she interviewed him, and he provided some information that surprised her and actually made me slightly smarter. He said those springtime wonders have a normal life span of about 60 years. But because the Park Service prunes them regularly, they can keep beautifying their world for up to a hundred years. These guys live a long time, these Park Service cherry blossoms. Of course, if I'm a cherry blossom tree, I'm not thinking happy thoughts as someone's chopping off my branches. I'm going, "Hey! This guy's killin' me!" No, silly tree, he's making you more fruitful for a lot longer.
I can almost imagine having a conversation with God like that.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Chopping Cherry Blossoms."
Now there are those painful times when I don't especially like the cuts and the wounds: bad news, bad treatment, bad health, bad finances, bad people, bad feelings. It turns out, though, that they may not really be bad. No, Ron, He's making you more fruitful for a lot longer.
Because God is the Master Horticulturist, and He prunes what He loves. Jesus said so in our word for today from the word of God, in John 15:2 - "I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener...Every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." So, life's cuts aren't ultimately to hurt me but to make me more valuable to God and to other people than I've ever been before.
It's when life gets harder that I ask those life-changing questions that I would never ask otherwise. I find myself asking God, "Is there something I need to change, Lord?" Somehow my vision improves when I'm hurting. I see things I couldn't see when life was rosy. I need mid-course corrections which are revealed to me by those shock waves of struggle. I need to get my hands off the steering wheel and let God drive again. Sometimes it actually takes a close call or even a crash to show me that. And whatever I have to give hurting people around me, I can tell you this, it grew out of the times when God used suffering to show me how to care.
Maybe realizing God's loving purposes can help me get to that peaceful plateau that Paul reached when he said these words: "I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10).
Calling all cherry blossom trees and people like me. The pruning knife is your friend. The Gardener knows what He's doing. And He knows what you can become.