Max Lucado Daily: What Faith Sees
“Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:11 NIV
Faith is trusting what the eye can’t see.
Eyes see the prowling lion. Faith sees Daniel’s angel.
Eyes see storms. Faith sees Noah’s rainbow.
Your eyes see your faults. Your faith sees your Savior.
Your eyes see your guilt. Your faith sees his blood.
Joshua 14
Division of the Land West of the Jordan
1 Now these are the areas the Israelites received as an inheritance in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun and the heads of the tribal clans of Israel allotted to them. 2 Their inheritances were assigned by lot to the nine and a half tribes, as the LORD had commanded through Moses. 3 Moses had granted the two and a half tribes their inheritance east of the Jordan but had not granted the Levites an inheritance among the rest, 4 for Joseph’s descendants had become two tribes—Manasseh and Ephraim. The Levites received no share of the land but only towns to live in, with pasturelands for their flocks and herds. 5 So the Israelites divided the land, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Allotment for Caleb
6 Now the people of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, 8 but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly. 9 So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.’[c]
10 “Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”
13 Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. 14 So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. 15 (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites.)
Then the land had rest from war.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Matthew 6:16-18
Fasting
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
For The God I Love
July 28, 2011 — by Marvin Williams
When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites. —Matthew 6:16
A couple of years ago in our church we did a sermon series on the Old Testament tabernacle. Leading up to the message on the table of showbread, I did something I had never done before—I fasted from food for several days. I fasted because I wanted to experience the truth that “man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut. 8:3). I wanted to deny myself something I love, food, for the God I love more. As I fasted, I followed Jesus’ teaching about fasting in Matthew 6:16-18.
Jesus gave a negative command: “When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance” (v.16). Then He gave a positive command about putting oil on your head and washing your face (v.17). The two commands taken together meant that they should not draw attention to themselves. Jesus was teaching that this was a private act of sacrificial worship that should not provide any room for religious pride. Finally, He gave a promise: Your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you (v.18).
Although fasting isn’t required, in giving up something we love, we may have a deeper experience of the God we love. He rewards us with Himself.
Lord, we desire to walk closely with You every day.
Help us to seek You diligently that we might
know You intimately and follow You
obediently. Amen.
Moving away from the table can bring us closer to the Father.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
July 28th, 2011
God’s Purpose or Mine?
He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side . . . —Mark 6:45
We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God’s purpose for us. In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself.
What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish— His purpose is the process itself. What He desires for me is that I see “Him walking on the sea” with no shore, no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see “Him walking on the sea” (Mark 6:49). It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.
God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself.
God’s purpose is to enable me to see that He can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
The Recorder is Always Running - #6404
Thursday, July 28, 2011
A few years back, the stress meters on Wall Street hit some new highs all because one man had been recording his telephone calls. Yeah, one of Wall Street's movers and shakers had been caught in the middle of some very profitable but very illegal stock dealings. And in order to reduce his possible penalty, he agreed to record his calls for a few weeks. Well, when that news broke, oh boy, they found out he had been caught and that he had been dealing for weeks with the tape recorder running, a lot of Wall Street lawyers got some very frantic phone calls.
And many powerful people remembered with regret what they had said and what they did the last few weeks. Now, maybe you smile a little bit at the picture of those people scrambling around and saying, "Oh, man! What did I say on the tape?" Not so fast. Imagine in your life now all the things that you've said and done in the last couple of weeks. All of them, including the ones that you thought no one knew. What if someone had recorded every conversation, every action in the last few weeks? Well, someone has.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Recorder is Always Running."
Our word for today from the Word of God, it's from Psalm 90:8. David says, "You have set our iniquities before You..." Of course he's talking about God. "...our secret sins in the light of Your presence." Now that's interesting. He says, "Those things that I thought were a secret..." Well, that's probably not even the right word to use. They weren't secret sins because You knew about them, Lord, all the time. In other words, "God's recorder has been running every minute of your life" the audio recorder, the video recorder, see they're always running.
So, there's no such thing as a secret sin, because if God knows, you're caught. It just might be that right now you feel there's a sin that you've been getting away with; a lie that no one caught you in, a transaction that was based on deception, and guess what? So far it's gone pretty well. A sexual sin that you've pretty well covered; something stolen; something you cheated on; words that you thought no one heard you say; someone that you secretly hate or you talk against.
Well, like those people on Wall Street, you would never do it if you knew it was being recorded and that it would be played back. Well, God's commitment is that one day what was done in secret will be shouted from the roof tops, openly announced, openly judged, unless you deal with it before God does. You say, "Well, then there are some things that I need to deal with." Well, don't call your attorney on earth like they did on Wall Street. Call your attorney in heaven.
1 John 2:1 - "If we sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus Christ." Your step right now is to agree with God and call that sin what it is. And then you need to make your way to the cross of Jesus, where that very sin - those very secrets - were paid for. And say, "Lord, please apply Your forgiveness to this sin; I'm done with it." And leave it at the foot of that cross. And leave there clean; leave there free of the fear of discovery, and free of the fear of how God will deal with you later on.
Today God stands ready to forgive and remove every sin you've ever committed in your life. To in His words, "...bury it in the depths of the sea." It's a wonderful, wonderful way to live. Today could be your day to be forgiven, and that happens when you go to Jesus and say, "Jesus, what You died for, I want. I believe You died for my sinning, and I am Yours." If you've never been to Him to be forgiven, if you've never asked Him to be your Rescuer from your sin, let this be that day.
Let me help you with that. Go to our website and check out the information there, YoursForLife.net.
And live today, even in the places where you're all alone, expecting to see and hear everything you do replayed, because God's recorder is always running.
