Confirming One’s Calling and Election

2 Peter 1:5-7 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

2 Samuel 10, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals (Click to listen to God’s teaching)

Max Lucado Daily: He Became the Servant

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5

Jesus understood what it meant to be a servant.

Jesus dined out a few times in the Bible. What did he do?

At the feedings of the four and five thousand, Jesus played chef and asked the disciples to be the waiters. With the apostles at Passover, he played host and washed their feet. The host became the servant.

So how would Jesus treat a waiter?

He would be encouraging—to help him endure the struggles of his job. He’d give him a spoken word or an invitation to hear more. He’d offer forgiveness despite the mismatched orders and dirty spoon.

And I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be any hesitation to say “thanks” through a satisfactory gratuity of 15-20 percent.

2 Samuel 10

David Defeats the Ammonites

1 In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. 2 David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.
When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites, 3 the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Hasn’t David sent them to you only to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?” 4 So Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.

5 When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.”

6 When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah, as well as the king of Maakah with a thousand men, and also twelve thousand men from Tob.

7 On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. 8 The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance of their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maakah were by themselves in the open country.

9 Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. 10 He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother and deployed them against the Ammonites. 11 Joab said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to come to my rescue; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to rescue you. 12 Be strong, and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The LORD will do what is good in his sight.”

13 Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him. 14 When the Ammonites realized that the Arameans were fleeing, they fled before Abishai and went inside the city. So Joab returned from fighting the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.

15 After the Arameans saw that they had been routed by Israel, they regrouped. 16 Hadadezer had Arameans brought from beyond the Euphrates River; they went to Helam, with Shobak the commander of Hadadezer’s army leading them.

17 When David was told of this, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan and went to Helam. The Arameans formed their battle lines to meet David and fought against him. 18 But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers.[a] He also struck down Shobak the commander of their army, and he died there. 19 When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with the Israelites and became subject to them.

So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 1 John 1:1-10

The Incarnation of the Word of Life

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.
Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

Thanksgiving Pardon

November 24, 2011 — by Jennifer Benson Schuldt

The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin. —1 John 1:7

Each year at the end of November, the President of the United States issues an official pardon for the National Thanksgiving Turkey. During this lighthearted ceremony, one president remarked: “Our guest of honor looks a little nervous. Nobody’s told him yet that I’m going to give him a pardon.” The poor turkey had a good reason to be uneasy—without an acquittal, he was doomed to be Thanksgiving dinner.
We are in a similar situation when it comes to our sin. Without God’s pardon, we’re on our way to certain demise. This condition is a direct result of our own wrongdoing. The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). However, we can be set free from this death sentence because God’s Son bore our sin in His body on the cross, “that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). First John 1:7 tells us that Jesus’ blood “cleanses us from all sin.”
We can accept God’s pardon for our sin and receive eternal life when we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 10:9). Today, consider how you will respond to God’s offer of forgiveness.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide.
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow—
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! —Chisholm
Through faith in Christ,
we receive God’s pardon and escape sin’s penalty.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 24, 2011

Direction of Focus

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters . . . , so our eyes look to the Lord our God . . . —Psalm 123:2

This verse is a description of total reliance on God. Just as the eyes of a servant are riveted on his master, our eyes should be directed to and focused on God. This is how knowledge of His countenance is gained and how God reveals Himself to us (seeIsaiah 53:1). Our spiritual strength begins to be drained when we stop lifting our eyes to Him. Our stamina is sapped, not so much through external troubles surrounding us but through problems in our thinking. We wrongfully think, “I suppose I’ve been stretching myself a little too much, standing too tall and trying to look like God instead of being an ordinary humble person.” We have to realize that no effort can be too high.
For example, you came to a crisis in your life, took a stand for God, and even had the witness of the Spirit as a confirmation that what you did was right. But now, maybe weeks or years have gone by, and you are slowly coming to the conclusion— “Well, maybe what I did showed too much pride or was superficial. Was I taking a stand a bit too high for me?” Your “rational” friends come and say, “Don’t be silly. We knew when you first talked about this spiritual awakening that it was a passing impulse, that you couldn’t hold up under the strain. And anyway, God doesn’t expect you to endure.” You respond by saying, “Well, I suppose I was expecting too much.” That sounds humble to say, but it means that your reliance on God is gone, and you are now relying on worldly opinion. The danger comes when, no longer relying on God, you neglect to focus your eyes on Him. Only when God brings you to a sudden stop will you realize that you have been the loser. Whenever there is a spiritual drain in your life, correct it immediately. Realize that something has been coming between you and God, and change or remove it at once.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

The Message at Macy's Parade - #6489

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Well, I watched it as a kid, and then my kids watched it, and now my grandkids are watching it. Yep! The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has been around for a pretty long time! And those Rockettes, Well, the announcer said they've been around for over 50 years! That's just amazing they can still get their legs off the ground at that age isn't it?

Well, as the balloons floated by on Thanksgiving, I kept seeing this one word on the store behind them, "Believe." I guess that's inspiring--vaguely. Actually, "Believe." That's a pretty popular message these days. Think positive thoughts. Have faith...in something.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Message at Macy's Parade."

Now, our "open-minded" culture thinks it's a good idea to believe, but it doesn't seem to matter much what you believe in. Believe in yourself. Believe in the future. Believe in a better world.

Actually, it really does matter what you believe. You can tell that from our word for today from the Word of God. Proverbs 14:12 throws up a serious "danger" sign when it says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." I read a few years ago about some young men fighting a wildfire out west, and the wind suddenly stoked that fire and it turned on the firefighters. Well, those rookies headed in the direction that they firmly believed was the road out, but it was a dead-end road. They never made it out. They believed in the wrong thing.

When it comes to the final outcome for our eternal soul, believing--well, now we're talking a life-or-death imperative. Acts 16:31 says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." God emphatically says, "There is no other Name under heaven...by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Now, that's "saved" as in rescued from the forever death penalty of a lifetime of defying God. That's what sin is. It's doing what we want instead of what He wants. And we've lost count; we could never add up the number of times in our life that we've done what we've wanted instead of what He wanted.

And that lifetime of rebellion against God carries an eternal death penalty, and that death penalty can only be paid by someone dying...and someone did so you wouldn't have to. But only one Someone did, and that's Jesus.

Oh, there are all kinds of religions and moral philosophies and spiritualities. Actually, if a religion could have done it, if any spirituality could have done it, God would have never put His Son through the horror of that cross. No religion, including the Christian religion, can die for our sins; can get us to heaven. That's why "there's no other Name" but Jesus. It's not about there being only one religion. It's about there only being one Savior. There's only one rescuer. There's only one person who even claimed to die for our sins. There's only one person who backed up that claim by walking out of His grave under His own power, because only someone who has eternal life can give it. Jesus alone paid the price so you and I wouldn't have to.


So, we've got something...we've got Someone to believe in who can make this life have meaning and the life after this life...eternal. You know, if you have never begun your relationship with this Jesus, if you have never taken all of your trust and put it in Him like a drowning person would put all their trust in a rescuer, let this be the day you do that. Maybe God has sent this message to you to move you beyond just believing in something, or even trusting in your religion, to trusting His Son, the Savior who died for you. Tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours. Starting this day, I am Yours."

And go to our website. There's so much information there and encouragement that will help you get started with Jesus. It's YoursForLife.net. If you could begin a life with meaning and guarantee heaven forever with a commitment to Christ today, wow, now that's reason for a thanksgiving parade.