2 Corinthians 3 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

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Max Lucado:Grace Happens

 Today's MP3
To discover Grace is to discover God’s utter devotion to you, His stubborn resolve to give you a healing, purging love.

The Bible tells us, “You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God.”  Does he stand high on a hill and bid you climb out of the valley?  No.  He bungees down and carries you out.  Does he build a bridge and command you to cross it?  No. He crosses the bridge and shoulders you over. This is the gift God gives.  A grace that grants us the power to receive love and the power to give it.  A grace that changes us and leads us to a life that is eternally altered.

All God wants from us is faith.  Put your faith in God.  And grow in God’s Grace.  More verb than noun, more present tense than past tense, Grace didn’t just happen; it happens.  May it happen to you!

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23″

From GRACE

2 Corinthians 3
New International Version (NIV)
3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The Greater Glory of the New Covenant

7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion


Read: Psalm 39:4-13

4 “Show me, Lord, my life’s end
    and the number of my days;
    let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
    the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
    even those who seem secure.[a]
6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
    in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
    without knowing whose it will finally be.
7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for?
    My hope is in you.
8 Save me from all my transgressions;
    do not make me the scorn of fools.
9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth,
    for you are the one who has done this.
10 Remove your scourge from me;
    I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
11 When you rebuke and discipline anyone for their sin,
    you consume their wealth like a moth—
    surely everyone is but a breath.
12 “Hear my prayer, Lord,
    listen to my cry for help;
    do not be deaf to my weeping.
I dwell with you as a foreigner,
    a stranger, as all my ancestors were.
13 Look away from me, that I may enjoy life again
    before I depart and am no more.”

The Power Of Terminal Thinking

December 31, 2012 — by David C. McCasland

Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. —Psalm 39:4

As we look forward to the New Year with plans and resolutions, the voices of godly men from the past encourage us to think about something we prefer to ignore—our own death.

Thomas à Kempis (1379–1471) wrote, “Happy is he that always hath the hour of his death before his eyes and daily prepareth himself to die.” And Francois Fénelon (1651–1715) wrote, “We cannot too greatly deplore the blindness of men who do not want to think of death, and who turn away from an inevitable thing which we could be happy to think of often. Death only troubles carnal people.”

These men were not referring to a depressing preoccupation with dying, but a dynamic approach to living. We, like the psalmist David, should pray: “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. . . . Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor” (Ps. 39:4-5). David speaks of people who work in vain, heaping up wealth with no idea of who will get it (v.6). He concludes by affirming that his hope is in God, who alone can keep him from a life of spiritual rebellion and disaster (vv.7-8).

As we place our hope in God, the brevity of our life on earth is worth considering—every day.

Lord, we know that our life on this earth is so short
compared to eternity. Bless us, fill us, use us to tell
of Your love and goodness as much we can and
for as long as we can until we see You. Amen.
Considering the certainty of death
can provide a dynamic approach to life.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 31, 2012

Yesterday

You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard —Isaiah 52:12

Security from Yesterday. “. . . God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow. “. . . the Lord will go before you . . . .” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste . . . .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Acknowledging Or Attacking the Mess - #6776

Monday, December 31, 2012

Our garage had gotten to the point where it was scary. Yeah, it was so scary my son used to have nightmares about it. He'd wake up and realize the nightmare was real! It was so messy there really wasn't much walking space. You could crawl around, but that was even tight. See, it had been a busy year, and we really hadn't any time to clean it up. It wasn't that it was all our mess; we had been storing things for other people too.

But we knew it was a mess and we felt bad about it. Every time we went out there we got discouraged and endangered. (There was no telling what was under all those piles!) Now, the mess was still there even though we knew about it. Oh, and we talked about it. But then we did something other than just walk by it and talk about it. We actually attempted to clean the garage, and it quickly got to the point where you could actually walk around in it. It looked twice the size! We approached it differently this time. We attacked it, and the clean felt great!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Acknowledging Or Attacking the Mess."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 7, beginning at verse 9. "Yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us." Now, they didn't stop just feeling sorry. No, they went on. As the passage goes on it says, "Godly sorrow brings repentance..." Now, that's a key; remember that. "...that leads to salvation and leaves no regret..." Maybe I could put in there leaves no mess. "...but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done."

See, these people got busy with the mess! Now, what God is saying here is sorry doesn't do it. It didn't do it in our garage. Just to be sorry about the garage didn't change anything! Oh, we'd been sorry for a long time, but the mess was still there. Look, maybe there's a spiritual mess in some corner of your life right now. And you know what? As we are on the cusp of a brand new year, what a great time to be thinking about cleaning up the mess.

Can you think of a sin that you've confessed over and over again only to re-sin again and again in that area? Maybe it's your temper, or something to do with your personal purity, could be sinful talk, pride, or lust, but you just can't win it. Well, it may be that you still have the mess because you've confessed but you haven't repented. It's not enough to acknowledge the sin, feel sorry about the sin and ask for help. You've got to tackle that mess!

If you feel like we did when we started cleaning that garage, you might say, "Oh, this is hopeless! Where do I start on this mess?" Well, you start organizing. You start cleaning out your life. You start setting it up as if you're not going to sin like that again. You repent specifically by name for that sin. You ask God to break your heart and make you sad over it. You find someone who will hold you accountable; who knows about your battle and will ask you how it's going. You burn all the bridges to that old part of you - that wrong part of you - all those things the Devil has used to bring that sin into your life over and over again. You just don't allow yourself to get into the situations where you could even do this sin.

Will you fall again? Well, probably. Will there be a mess in the garage again? There may be. But pick it up while it's small. Get up quickly. You attack the mess when it's small, and you start a new day clean. You start a new year clean. You don't need to acknowledge that mess again; you need to attack it.

Take it from a man who finally got fed up with a mess that had been there too long. Clean really feels good.

2 Chronicles 12 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

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Max Lucado: A Better Family

Now we do not live
following our sinful selves,
but we live following the Spirit.
Romans 8:4

Perhaps your childhood memories bring more hurt than inspiration. The voices of your past cursed you, belittled you, ignored you. At the time, you thought such treatment was typical. Now you see it isn’t.

Now you find yourself trying to explain your past. Do you rise above the past and make a difference? Or do you remain controlled by the past and make excuses?

Think about this. Your parents may have given you genes, but God gives you grace. Your parents may be responsible for your body, but God has taken charge of your soul. You may get your looks from your mother, but you get eternity from your Father, your heavenly Father. God will give you what your family could never give you!

2 Chronicles 12
Shishak Attacks Jerusalem

12 After Rehoboam’s position as king was established and he had become strong, he and all Israel[b] with him abandoned the law of the Lord. 2 Because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam. 3 With twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen and the innumerable troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites[c] that came with him from Egypt, 4 he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

5 Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what the Lord says, ‘You have abandoned me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak.’”

6 The leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is just.”

7 When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: “Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will soon give them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. 8 They will, however, become subject to him, so that they may learn the difference between serving me and serving the kings of other lands.”

9 When Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, he carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields Solomon had made. 10 So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. 11 Whenever the king went to the Lord’s temple, the guards went with him, bearing the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom.

12 Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord’s anger turned from him, and he was not totally destroyed. Indeed, there was some good in Judah.

13 King Rehoboam established himself firmly in Jerusalem and continued as king. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel in which to put his Name. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. 14 He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord.

15 As for the events of Rehoboam’s reign, from beginning to end, are they not written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer that deal with genealogies? There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 16 Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. And Abijah his son succeeded him as king.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Isaiah 40:1-8

Comfort for God’s People

40 Comfort, comfort my people,
    says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
    that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord[a];
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God.[b]
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
    every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
    the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
    and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Cry out.”
    And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
    and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
    Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of our God endures forever.”

A Lasting Letter

December 30, 2012 — by Dennis Fisher

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever. —Isaiah 40:8

The family members who founded Hobby Lobby craft stores are born-again believers. The president, Steve Green, is passionate about the Scriptures and plans to establish a Bible museum that will display rare books and manuscripts from around the world. He said, “We are interested in . . . encouraging people to consider what [the Bible] has to say. . . . The goal is to create a museum around the story of the Bible. No book has been persecuted as much or loved as much. Its incredible story needs to be told.”

The Bible has been preserved through time in remarkable ways, and the museum will tell that story. The oldest copies we have of the New Testament are more numerous and closer to the date of the eyewitness events recorded than any other ancient document from that time. Their reports on Christ are more reliable than anything we know about Socrates or Caesar. It should not surprise us that God is behind the scenes using people and circumstances to pass on His inspired text of redemption. Isaiah eloquently proclaimed: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever” (Isa. 40:8).

As we read the Bible with an open heart, we long to share its message. It’s God’s lasting letter to all.

The Bible stands and it will forever,
When the world has passed away;
By inspiration it has been given—
All its precepts I will obey. —Lillenas
In all literature there is nothing that compares with the Bible.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 30, 2012

“And Every Virtue We Possess”

. . . All my springs are in you —Psalm 87:7

Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “. . . put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!

The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.

And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.

2 Chronicles 11 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

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Max Lucado: Majority Rules?

May the Lord lead your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s patience. 2 Thessalonians 3:5

Where do we get these ideas? The majority is not always right. In fact, it’s rarely right.

If the majority had ruled, the children of Israel never would have left Egypt. They would have voted to stay in bondage. If the majority had ruled, David never would have fought Goliath. His brothers would have voted for him to stay with the sheep. What’s the point?

You must listen to your own heart.

God says you’re on your way to becoming a disciple when you can keep a clear head and a pure heart.

Do you ever try to do something right and yet nothing seems to turn out like you planned?

Take heart. When you do what is right—God remembers.

2 Chronicles 11

When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered Judah and Benjamin—a hundred and eighty thousand able young men—to go to war against Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam.

2 But this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God: 3 “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, 4 ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not go up to fight against your fellow Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’” So they obeyed the words of the Lord and turned back from marching against Jeroboam.

Rehoboam Fortifies Judah

5 Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem and built up towns for defense in Judah: 6 Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, 7 Beth Zur, Soko, Adullam, 8 Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, 9 Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, 10 Zorah, Aijalon and Hebron. These were fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin. 11 He strengthened their defenses and put commanders in them, with supplies of food, olive oil and wine. 12 He put shields and spears in all the cities, and made them very strong. So Judah and Benjamin were his.

13 The priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel sided with him. 14 The Levites even abandoned their pasturelands and property and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the Lord 15 when he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols he had made. 16 Those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. 17 They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon three years, following the ways of David and Solomon during this time.

Rehoboam’s Family

18 Rehoboam married Mahalath, who was the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail, the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab. 19 She bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham. 20 Then he married Maakah daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith. 21 Rehoboam loved Maakah daughter of Absalom more than any of his other wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

22 Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maakah as crown prince among his brothers, in order to make him king. 23 He acted wisely, dispersing some of his sons throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the fortified cities. He gave them abundant provisions and took many wives for them.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Psalm 1

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
    They are like chaff
    that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Bless The Boundaries

December 29, 2012 — by Joe Stowell

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners. —Psalm 1:1

In all the years I’ve worked with people, I’ve yet to meet someone whose life was all messed up because he or she kept God’s commands. Yet, in a day when personal freedom is celebrated as an inalienable right, talk of conforming our lifestyle to God’s ways is often viewed as an infringement. And anyone who speaks out in favor of God’s boundaries is ruled out of bounds. But in this frenzy to be free, it should not go unnoticed that our society is increasingly marked with a haunting sense of meaninglessness and despair.

God’s people should have a distinctly different view of boundaries. Like the psalmist, we must realize that a blessed life comes from delighting in the law of the Lord (Ps. 1:2)—not in living like those who “walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take” (v.1 niv). A believer in Jesus will recognize that God’s boundaries are not meant to take the pizazz out of life. Instead, they are divine fences constructed with God’s wisdom to help us avoid the treachery and trouble of reckless living.

Next time you are tempted to break through God’s boundaries, remember His loving purpose in putting up fences. Choose to bless God for the boundaries and for the way they bless you.

What freedom lies with all who choose
To live for God each day!
But chains of bondage shackle those
Who choose some other way. —D. DeHaan
God’s fences keep you within the bounds of His blessings.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 29, 2012

Deserter or Disciple?

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more —John 6:66

When God, by His Spirit through His Word, gives you a clear vision of His will, you must “walk in the light” of that vision (1 John 1:7). Even though your mind and soul may be thrilled by it, if you don’t “walk in the light” of it you will sink to a level of bondage never envisioned by our Lord. Mentally disobeying the “heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) will make you a slave to ideas and views that are completely foreign to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to “walk in the light” of the vision that has been given to you. Don’t compare yourself with others or judge them— that is between God and them. When you find that one of your favorite and strongly held views clashes with the “heavenly vision,” do not begin to debate it. If you do, a sense of property and personal right will emerge in you— things on which Jesus placed no value. He was against these things as being the root of everything foreign to Himself— “. . . for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t see and understand this, it is because we are ignoring the underlying principles of our Lord’s teaching.

Our tendency is to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we had when God revealed His will to us. But if a New Testament standard is revealed to us by the light of God, and we don’t try to measure up, or even feel inclined to do so, then we begin to backslide. It means your conscience does not respond to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter.

2 Chronicles 10 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

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Max Lucado: Jesus is the Gift

Little Carol with the pigtails, freckles, and shiny back shoes. Don’t let her sweet description fool you.  She broke my heart!  On the day of the great gift exchange in my fourth-grade class, I ripped the wrapping paper off the box to find—stationery.  Stationery!  Brown envelopes and folded note cards with a picture of a cowboy lassoing a horse.  What ten-year-old boy uses stationery?  There’s a term for this kind of gift:  obligatory!

I know we shouldn’t complain, but don’t you detect a lack of originality? And when a person gives a genuine gift, don’t you cherish the presence of a gift just for you?  Have you ever received such a gift?  Yes, you have.  You’ve been given a perfect personal gift.  One just for you. God says to anyone who’ll listen:  ”There has been born for you…a Savior…. ”  Jesus is the gift!

 “There has been born for you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11”

From GRACE

2 Chronicles 10
New International Version (NIV)
Israel Rebels Against Rehoboam

10 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. 3 So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 4 “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

5 Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people went away.

6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.

7 They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”

8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, “The people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 11 My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” 13 The king answered them harshly. Rejecting the advice of the elders, 14 he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” 15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from God, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.

16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:

“What share do we have in David,
    what part in Jesse’s son?
To your tents, Israel!
    Look after your own house, David!”
So all the Israelites went home. 17 But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.

18 King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram,[a] who was in charge of forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 1 Peter 2:9-17

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Living Godly Lives in a Pagan Society

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

Wind And Fire

December 28, 2012 — by Julie Ackerman Link

Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. —1 Peter 2:17

Sometimes when I want to start a fire, the wind puts it out. But when I try to keep a fire burning, wind keeps it going. So, in the first situation, I label wind “bad” because it thwarts my plans; in the other, I label it “good” because it helps me accomplish what I want to get done.

This paradox illustrates how we judge things by the way they affect us. We declare circumstances or people “bad” if they thwart our plans or cause us inconvenience. We judge circumstances or people “good” if we agree with them and they support our cause.

But God is the One who determines what is good or bad, and He does so not by how it affects our plans but by whether or not it accomplishes His. His plan is that we would be “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people.” And His purpose for us is to “proclaim the praises of Him who called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

To accomplish God’s good purpose, we are to respect all people, love other believers, fear God, and honor those who rule over us—even when something doesn’t seem good to us (v.17). These kinds of actions may fan a spark of belief in those who observe our responses to “bad” circumstances and most of all bring praise to God.

Day by day and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here.
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear. —Berg
When things look bad, remember God is good.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 28, 2012

Continuous Conversion

. . . unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 18:3

These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.

To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft


Wisdom To Go - #6775

Friday, December 28, 2012

If you asked me to choose between a fast-food hamburger or let's say a home cooked pot roast dinner with all the trimmings, it wouldn't take me much time to decide. It probably wouldn't take you much time either. But having lived in metropolitan areas most of my life, it was great to rush into McDonald's or Burger King and grab something. See, often the choice has been between dinner on the run and no dinner at all. So, that was an easy choice.

But there was a time, believe it or not, when there weren't many fast-food places. (And yes, I can remember those.) We had to drive almost an hour where we lived at one point to get to a McDonalds. Oh, there were diners or expensive restaurants, but nothing really that fast.

Now it is always, of course my preference to have carefully prepared, full course meals. But sometimes, hey, you need what you need fast.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Wisdom To Go."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Nehemiah 2, and Nehemiah is the cup bearer to the King of Persia. He's had his heart broken when he's heard about the destroyed condition of his home city of Jerusalem, and he has been praying about this now for several months. And he goes before the king, and this particular conversation will turn out to change the course of history.

"I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, so the king asked me, 'Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This could be nothing more than sadness of heart.' I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, 'May the king live forever!'" Which, by the way, if you speak to a king that's a really good thing to say. "'Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?' The king said to me, 'What is it you want?'" Now, you can almost hear Nehemiah's knees shaking here as he says, "Then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king."

Well, he proceeds from here to tell all about his burden for the city. And the king responds and equips Nehemiah to go there, and miraculously that city is rebuilt in 52 days. Now, this turns out to be a decisive conversation. Nehemiah is really on the spot. Everything is riding on his answer.

Now, it's nice to be able to pray for a week isn't it when you have a moment when you really need some wisdom, and be able to study your Bible, and maybe go get some advice? But there are those moments when there is no chance for you to do all those things. You have to get it fast. So, what does Nehemiah do? He taps into one of God's most practical gifts - wisdom to go.

You're faced with those kinds of crunches on many occasions. Whenever it's possible, of course, it's best to take some time to decide your next step. It's like taking time to prepare and eat a great dinner. But in some situations you barely have time to drive up to the window and say, "Wisdom to go please...with everything on it." But God will give it to you in those pressure moments, maybe like the ones you're in right now.

He promises in James 1:5, "If ask for wisdom, when we lack it, He will give it to us liberally." Notice the kind of lifestyle, though, that gets that instant insight. Nehemiah gets it because he is already a prayed up person. He's been praying for four months about this situation. He's bathed it in prayer. He has surrendered the situation to the Lord. Back to Nehemiah 1:11 he says, "I am your servant (talking to the Lord). Give your servant success today. Lord, it's all up to you." Now comes that sudden moment of truth when the king says, "What is it you want?" Nehemiah fires off a "Help!" to heaven.

Now, your wisdom crunch may come in a moment of needing to know how to handle a situation with your child, or a situation at work, or how to respond to fast-breaking developments, or to an unexpected call. The good news is you can get the discernment you need to answer in God's will. Now, pray through the major arenas, the major relationships of your day. Bathe your life in prayer, and then pause before you answer to be sure that your line to heaven is open.

And then, fire off that prayer in your heart, and then pick up your wisdom to go.

2 Corinthians 2 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Click here to listen to God's word to you.

Max Lucado: Singing the Song Again

Do you have a prodigal?  Do you long for your spouse to return to God?  Do you have a friend whose faith has grown cold?  God wants them back more than you do.  Keep praying, but don’t give up.  God places a song in the hearts of his children.

Psalm 40:3 says it’s a “new song in my mouth.”  Some saints sing this song loud and long every single day of their lives.  In other cases the song falls silent.  Life’s hurts and happenings mute the music within.  Long seasons pass and God’s song isn’t sung!

Truth is, we don’t always know if someone has trusted God’s grace.  It isn’t ours to know.  But we know this:  Where there is genuine conversion, there is eternal salvation. Eventually his own will hear his voice, and something within them will awaken.  And when it does—they will begin to sing again.

He has put a new song in my mouth
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the Lord.  Psalm 40:3

From GRACE

2 Corinthians 2
New International Version (NIV)
2 1 So I made up my mind that I would not make another painful visit to you. 2 For if I grieve you, who is left to make me glad but you whom I have grieved? 3 I wrote as I did, so that when I came I would not be distressed by those who should have made me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy. 4 For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

Forgiveness for the Offender

5 If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. 6 The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. 7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9 Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10 Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

Ministers of the New Covenant

12 Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, 13 I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.

14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? 17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion


Read: Joshua 7:1-13

Achan’s Sin

7 But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things[a]; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri,[b] the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.

2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.

3 When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.” 4 So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, 5 who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water.

6 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. 7 And Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! 8 Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? 9 The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?”

10 The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. 12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

13 “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

A Winning Strategy

December 27, 2012 — by Dave Branon

Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant. —Joshua 7:11

During my days as a high school basketball coach, I made a huge mistake. I sent some of my players to scout an opponent. They returned with this report: We can take those guys easily. Overconfident, we lost to that team. Does that sound familiar? To me, it sounds like the situation at Ai when Joshua sent out his scouts, who misjudged their opponent’s strength.

But there was more to the defeat at Ai than bad scouting. Israel lost the battle and 36 soldiers for several reasons that I think we can learn from.

Shortly before the loss at Ai, Joshua led his army successfully against Jericho because he knew God’s plan of attack. But there is no mention of Joshua consulting God before Ai. Prior to the battle of Jericho, the men had consecrated themselves to God (Josh. 5:2-8). Before Ai—nothing is said about Joshua’s men preparing themselves spiritually. The reason the Bible gives for the Israelites’ loss is sin in the camp. Achan had stolen from the spoils of Jericho (7:1). They could not defeat Ai until the sin was confessed and the people had consecrated themselves (7:16-26). Then God gave them a plan for victory (8:1-7).

A winning strategy for our daily battles: confessing our sin and living in the power that God provides.

Dear Lord, before I go off into the battle today,
forgive me of my sin and lead me in the path You
want me to go. I want to serve You. Empower me
to live for You and Your will. Amen.
Purity in the heart produces power in the life.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 27, 2012

Where the Battle is Won or Lost

’If you will return, O Israel,’ says the Lord . . . —Jeremiah 4:1

Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until I do this, I will lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year, but that will depend on me, not God. However long it takes, I must wrestle with it alone before God, and I must resolve to go through the hell of renunciation or rejection before Him. Nothing has any power over someone who has fought the battle before God and won there.

I should never say, “I will wait until I get into difficult circumstances and then I’ll put God to the test.” Trying to do that will not work. I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul, where no one else can interfere. Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity, disaster, and defeat before the world are as sure as the laws of God. The reason the battle is lost is that I fight it first in the external world. Get alone with God, do battle before Him, and settle the matter once and for all.

In dealing with other people, our stance should always be to drive them toward making a decision of their will. That is how surrendering to God begins. Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point— a great crossroads in our life. From that point we either go toward a more and more slow, lazy, and useless Christian life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Rub It In - #6774

Thursday, December 27, 2012

I'll bet you didn't know that Christianity is like suntan lotion. Huh? Neither did I until I was speaking at a conference, and I took my oldest son with me. He was about 12 or 13 I think. (My poor kids had to listen to their Dad speak so many times.)

Well, we were on our way home on the plane, and all of a sudden on this long trip from the West, my son said to me, "Hey, Dad, you know what? I finally listened to a lot of your talks this time." Let's see, was that good news/bad news. Well, I don't know what he was doing before. But he said, "You know what? I've figured out that Christianity is a lot like suntan lotion." Of course, I immediately said, "Oh yes, I've often thought that." No, I didn't. I said what you would have said, "What?" He said, "You know, if you put a big, old blob of suntan lotion your arm, it doesn't do you any good until you rub it in."

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Rub It In."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Joshua 1:8 where we have God's formula for success. "Do not let this Book of the Law..." Obviously we're talking about the Bible here. We have a lot more of it now than Joshua did, but it's the same book. "Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth: meditate on it day and night..." By the way, that word meditate is used in Hebrew to talk about a cow chewing its cud. So, chew it over and over again. Why? "...so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful."

Now, you get what God is saying to Joshua? I think it's His message to you and me today. The purpose of reading is not just to know something. It's to find something to do. When Jesus was talking to the 12 disciples about going out in the Great Commission to disciple people all around the world, He said, "Go and make disciples of all nations teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." Don't just tell them what there is to know; teach them to do it.

James 1 again says that the Bible is like a mirror. When you look in a mirror, you're supposed to change something because of what you see there. Right? The one reason there's such a gap between our beliefs and our behavior is because we won't in my son's words, "Rub it in." We have these great big blobs of spiritual truth all over us. We've been hearing it forever. We went to church a couple of times this week, we've got this guy that keep coming at us on the radio, we've got Bible studies, we have our own personal Bible study. The problem is that we tend to go for information rather than transformation; for application of what God says. It's one thing to read the Bible; it's another thing to let the Bible read you.

God's interested in what difference His Word is making in you today, not just whether you can pass a Bible quiz. What did you read today? What are you doing differently because of it? When God says meditate on it, what does that mean? Does that mean you stare into space blankly, kind of an Eastern mysticism thing? Not at all! You think about something you read in the Bible until you have made a connection between what you read and something you're going to face today. That's Christian meditation. It's not focusing on nothing; it's focusing on what God said and then you've meditated when you've connected that there's something you should do with it today. I think you ought to keep a spiritual journal and write down every day, "What did I read today in my own words? What did God say today and what am I going to do differently because God said it?"

If you're in a position where you teach God's Word to people, even if you're just a parent doing that, make sure you always answer the unspoken question I think people are asking, "So what? Okay, it's true. So, what do you want me to do with it?" By all means answer that question for yourself. Look, have you gotten a little lazy as you hear God's Word; as you read God's Word, just sort of accumulating more Bible information? That leads to boredom, it leads to powerlessness, and the illusion of spiritual life.

Those Bible blobs? They're not going to do you much good until you rub them in.

2 Chronicles 9 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Click here to listen to God's word to you.

Max Lucado: No Small Power

Where there’s no assurance of salvation, there’s no peace.  No peace means no joy.  No joy results in fear-based lives.  Is this the life God creates?  No.  Grace creates a confident soul.  His love isn’t contingent on your own.  Do you find such a promise hard to believe?  In John 17:11 and verse 20, Jesus prays:

“Holy Father, keep them and care for them, all those you have given me, so that they will be united just as we are.  I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony.”

Our faith will wane, our resolve waver, but we will not fall away.  Jude 1 says, we are “kept by Jesus” and shielded by God’s power.  And that is no small power!  It’s the power of a living and ever-persistent Savior.

From GRACE

2 Chronicles

The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon

9 When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions. Arriving with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all she had on her mind. 2 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for him to explain to her. 3 When the queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon, as well as the palace he had built, 4 the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, the cupbearers in their robes and the burnt offerings he made at[g] the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.

5 She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. 6 But I did not believe what they said until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half the greatness of your wisdom was told me; you have far exceeded the report I heard. 7 How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 8 Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on his throne as king to rule for the Lord your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness.”

9 Then she gave the king 120 talents[h] of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. There had never been such spices as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

10 (The servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon brought gold from Ophir; they also brought algumwood[i] and precious stones. 11 The king used the algumwood to make steps for the temple of the Lord and for the royal palace, and to make harps and lyres for the musicians. Nothing like them had ever been seen in Judah.)

12 King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for; he gave her more than she had brought to him. Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country.

Solomon’s Splendor

13 The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents,[j] 14 not including the revenues brought in by merchants and traders. Also all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the territories brought gold and silver to Solomon.

15 King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels[k] of hammered gold went into each shield. 16 He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three hundred shekels[l] of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.

17 Then the king made a great throne covered with ivory and overlaid with pure gold. 18 The throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was attached to it. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them. 19 Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom. 20 All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s day. 21 The king had a fleet of trading ships[m] manned by Hiram’s[n] servants. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons.

22 King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. 23 All the kings of the earth sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. 24 Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, and robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.

25 Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horses,[o] which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. 26 He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. 27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. 28 Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from all other countries.

Solomon’s Death

29 As for the other events of Solomon’s reign, from beginning to end, are they not written in the records of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat? 30 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. 31 Then he rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Psalm 24

1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it on the seas
    and established it on the waters.
3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
    Who may stand in his holy place?
4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
    who does not trust in an idol
    or swear by a false god.[a]
5 They will receive blessing from the Lord
    and vindication from God their Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
    who seek your face, God of Jacob.[b][c]
7 Lift up your heads, you gates;
    be lifted up, you ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
    The Lord strong and mighty,
    the Lord mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, you gates;
    lift them up, you ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is he, this King of glory?
    The Lord Almighty—
    he is the King of glory.

Clean Hands

December 26, 2012 — by Bill Crowder

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart. —Psalm 24:3-4

It seems that wherever you go these days, you see signs encouraging people to wash their hands. With the constant threat of germs and viruses spreading disease throughout the general public, health officials continually remind us that unwashed hands form the single greatest agent for the spread of germs. So, in addition to the signs calling for vigilant hand- washing, public places will often provide hand sanitizers to help take care of germs and bacteria.

David also spoke of the importance of “clean hands,” but for a dramatically different reason. He said that clean hands are one key to being able to enter into God’s presence for worship: “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place?” he asked. And the answer? “He who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Ps. 24:3-4). Here “clean hands” is not a reference to personal hygiene but a metaphor for our spiritual condition—being cleansed from sin (1 John 1:9). It speaks of a life committed to what is right and godly—enabling us to stand blameless before our Lord in the privilege of worship.

As His life is lived out in our lives, He can help us to do what’s right so that our hands are clean and our hearts are ready to give worship to our great God.

Worship, praise, and adoration,
All are due to Jesus’ name.
Freely give your heart’s devotion,
Constantly His love proclaim. —Anon.
The road to worship begins with gratefulness
for the cleansing of God.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 26, 2012


“Walk in the Light”

If we walk in the light as He is in the light . . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin —1 John 1:7

To mistake freedom from sin only on the conscious level of our lives for complete deliverance from sin by the atonement through the Cross of Christ is a great error. No one fully knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced at Calvary. The evidence that I have been delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. For a person to really know what sin is requires the full work and deep touch of the atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the imparting of His absolute perfection.

The Holy Spirit applies or administers the work of the atonement to us in the deep unconscious realm as well as in the conscious realm. And it is not until we truly perceive the unrivaled power of the Spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7 , which says, “. . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This verse does not refer only to conscious sin, but also to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Spirit in me can accomplish.

I must “walk in the light as He is in the light . . .”— not in the light of my own conscience, but in God’s light. If I will walk there, with nothing held back or hidden, then this amazing truth is revealed to me: “. . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses [me] from all sin” so that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke in me. On the conscious level it produces a keen, sorrowful knowledge of what sin really is. The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit’s hatred for sin, anything that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To “walk in the light” means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Too Precious To Waste - #6773

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

I think it's somewhere during your senior year of high school you begin to develop this priceless trait called perspective. I know that Chris did. Chris was at school and I bumped into him one day. He stopped me and he said, "You know, Ron, you told me something when I was a freshman and I didn't believe it then. Now I do."

You said, 'You're going to blink, and suddenly you're going to be a senior.'" And I told him at that time, "You know, it looks like high school is going to be forever, Chris. I know you're only a freshmen, but believe me, it's going to be gone so fast!" Three years later, Chris stood before me, looked me in the eye and said, "Ron, where did high school go? It did go that fast!"

Well, I'm ___ years old, and I'm asking, (you say, "Ron, I didn't understand that." That's correct.) "Where did all those years go...not four years of high school." I look at my children, "Where is that little girl I carried? Where is that little boy at play?" You know, the sooner you realize how fast life is moving, the better you're going to live it.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Too Precious To Waste."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 90, and I'll begin reading at verse 10. Moses says, "The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass..." That sounds like Chris looking back at high school doesn't it? "But they quickly pass, and we fly away." I think that's the feeling.

And then Psalm 90:12 says, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Moses seems to be saying here, "When you realize how fast life goes by, you discover the preciousness (I don't know if that's a word, but we'll go with it), you discover the preciousness of a day. He says his response to life racing by is, "Lord, I want to wisely know what the best thing is to do with this day. Help me number my days; make every day count. Help me not to waste this one, Lord."

What a great way to wake up in the morning as you're coming into consciousness and going through your day, and doing your getting ready ritual in the morning, "Lord, help me not to waste this one. It's too precious to waste; these days go too fast. This isn't just another day; this is a day not like any other I'll ever have. I'll never have this 24 hours again."

Take parenting for example. Don't look at your child's life as their whole life. Have a good day with them. Today do they know the boundaries? Today do they know you love them? Have you shown it today? Today have you impressed upon them that Jesus is right here with us? Today do they know they're special? Make this day count in your parenting. Then you don't panic over big chunks of time like what's going to happen in a few months or a few years. Do the day!

How about sharing Christ with someone you care about? There may be a moment of openness and opportunity this day that may never be there again. Making a difference: deciding whether you want to live your life to make a difference, to advance God's kingdom, to seek first His kingdom. That great song "Make me a blessing to someone today." That's a wonderful prayer. How about getting ready to be with Jesus forever by spending time with Him now? Don't you want to invest in the relationship that will be your relationship forever?

Make sure today you know Him a little better than you knew Him before. You're going to look back - believe me - and you're going to say, "Where did it all go?" Well, right now you need to say, "Where will the days that I have left go?" The answer should be what I would call invested days.

A day is too precious to waste. It is only to be spent for the people and for the causes that are going to matter forever. Okay, you've got a day. Invest it!

2 Chronicles 8 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Click here to listen to God's word to you.

Max Lucado: Ordinary No More

It was an ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. Then the black sky exploded with brightness.  Trees that had been shadows jumped into clarity.  Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity.  One minute the shepherd was dead asleep, the next he was rubbing his eyes and staring into the face of an alien!

The night was ordinary no more. The angel came in the night because it’s when lights are best seen and when they are most needed.  It all happened in a most remarkable moment—a moment like no other.  God became a man.  Divinity arrived.  Heaven opened and placed her most precious one in a human womb.  God had come near!

In the mystery of Christmas, we find its majesty. The mystery of how God became flesh, why he chose to come, and how much he must love his people!

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”  (Luke 2:13)

From Christmas Stories

2 Chronicles 8

Solomon’s Other Activities

8 At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built the temple of the Lord and his own palace, 2 Solomon rebuilt the villages that Hiram[d] had given him, and settled Israelites in them. 3 Solomon then went to Hamath Zobah and captured it. 4 He also built up Tadmor in the desert and all the store cities he had built in Hamath. 5 He rebuilt Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon as fortified cities, with walls and with gates and bars, 6 as well as Baalath and all his store cities, and all the cities for his chariots and for his horses[e]—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.

7 There were still people left from the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these people were not Israelites). 8 Solomon conscripted the descendants of all these people remaining in the land—whom the Israelites had not destroyed—to serve as slave labor, as it is to this day. 9 But Solomon did not make slaves of the Israelites for his work; they were his fighting men, commanders of his captains, and commanders of his chariots and charioteers. 10 They were also King Solomon’s chief officials—two hundred and fifty officials supervising the men.

11 Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the Lord has entered are holy.”

12 On the altar of the Lord that he had built in front of the portico, Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord, 13 according to the daily requirement for offerings commanded by Moses for the Sabbaths, the New Moons and the three annual festivals—the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. 14 In keeping with the ordinance of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their duties, and the Levites to lead the praise and to assist the priests according to each day’s requirement. He also appointed the gatekeepers by divisions for the various gates, because this was what David the man of God had ordered. 15 They did not deviate from the king’s commands to the priests or to the Levites in any matter, including that of the treasuries.

16 All Solomon’s work was carried out, from the day the foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid until its completion. So the temple of the Lord was finished.

17 Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Elath on the coast of Edom. 18 And Hiram sent him ships commanded by his own men, sailors who knew the sea. These, with Solomon’s men, sailed to Ophir and brought back four hundred and fifty talents[f] of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Hebrews 1:1-9

God’s Final Word: His Son

1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

The Son Superior to Angels

5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,

“You are my Son;
    today I have become your Father”[a]?
Or again,

“I will be his Father,
    and he will be my Son”[b]?
6 And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,

“Let all God’s angels worship him.”[c]
7 In speaking of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels spirits,
    and his servants flames of fire.”[d]
8 But about the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
    a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
    therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
    by anointing you with the oil of joy.”[e]

A Message From God

December 25, 2012 — by David C. McCasland

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. —Hebrews 1:1-2

In 1971, Ray Tomlinson was experi- menting with ways people and computers could interact. When he sent a message from his computer through a network to a different unit in his office, he had sent the first e-mail. Now decades later, more than a billion e-mails are sent every day. Many contain important news from family and friends, but others may carry unwanted advertising or a destructive virus. A basic rule governing e-mail use is: “Don’t open it unless you trust the sender.”

God has sent us a message in the Person of His Son, and we can trust the Sender. In the Old Testament, God spoke to His people through the prophets and many rejected God’s Word. But it was all leading to this: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Heb. 1:1-2).

We may be awed by the inexplicable mystery of Almighty God entering our world as a baby, yet remain hesitant to embrace Christ fully and place our lives in His hands.

Christmas is the unforgettable message of love, redemption, and hope sent by God. Will you trust the Sender and open His message today?

Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth. —Wesley
God’s timeless message of hope is waiting to be received.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

His Birth and Our New Birth

’Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ’God with us’ —Matthew 1:23

His Birth in History. “. . . that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.

His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you . . .” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.

God Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Closed Doors at Christmas - #6772

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Two and a half feet of snow had just left a million people without power, and we were there! Wouldn't you know, I had picked my time to be up there in New England when that happened. Well, we checked into the motel before the storm, but now as I stood at the front desk, that phone was ringing incessantly. I kind of felt bad, because the lady gave the same answer every time, "Sorry, no room." Hey, those are tough words to hear.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Closed Doors at Christmas."

Well, you know, Jesus knows that feeling. And as we celebrate this Christmas Day, let's remember that the night He came, the inn keeper told His dad, "No room," and shut the door. Of course it wasn't the last time Jesus got shut out. You know, a lot of us are so busy and running around in our own life, so stressed, we're basically saying, "Jesus, I like you, but I really don't have any room for you."

That happened to Jesus even when He came here. In Matthew 23:37 Jesus said, "I have longed to gather you together, but you were not willing." And that tragedy continues today as Jesus tries to get into a life that He came for that first Christmas; that He died for on Good Friday - maybe yours. He paid such a high price for you. He loves you so much He doesn't want to lose you. He died to pay for the sin that would cause you to be shut out of Heaven.

Actually there is in Luke 13 a disturbing picture of what happens to people because they would not open the door to the only One who could bring them to heaven. It says this: "Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' Then you'll say, 'Well, we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'" These are people who hung out with Jesus; they knew a lot about Jesus. But He will reply, "I don't know you or where you come from. Away from Me! There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," and maybe a mom or a dad, or people you love that went ahead to heaven because they asked Jesus to be their Savior, "but you yourselves thrown out."

You don't want to be, and it's not what Jesus wants for anybody. That's why He paid the price for you to be in heaven with Him. And this Christmas Day He reaches out to you with this word for today from the Word of God, John 1:12. "To all those who received Him, He gave the right to become children of God." That could happen for you this Christmas Day. If you open the door to the man who died for you, you can be sure He'll open the door of heaven to you.

If you're ready to belong to Jesus, please go visit our website, and take just a very short time and find there, whether you want to read it or see it by way of video, you can find out there exactly how to be sure you belong to the Christ of Christmas. YoursForLife.net.

Because this Christmas, no room for Jesus means no chance of heaven.

2 Chronicles 7 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Click to listen to God’s teaching)
Max Lucado Daily: His Kingdom Will Never End

In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what he was doing, is a teenage girl in a smelly stable. As Mary looks into the face of the baby.  Her son. Her Lord.  His majesty—she can’t take her eyes off him.  Somehow Mary knows she’s holding God. So this is he. She remembers the words of the angel.  “His kingdom will never end!”

He looks like anything but a king. His cry, though strong and healthy, is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. Majesty in the midst of the mundane.  Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat.  Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.

God came near!

“And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. Luke 1:33″

From Grace for the Moment

2 Chronicles 7

The Dedication of the Temple

7 When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it. 3 When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying,

“He is good;
    his love endures forever.”
4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord. 5 And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep and goats. So the king and all the people dedicated the temple of God. 6 The priests took their positions, as did the Levites with the Lord’s musical instruments, which King David had made for praising the Lord and which were used when he gave thanks, saying, “His love endures forever.” Opposite the Levites, the priests blew their trumpets, and all the Israelites were standing.

7 Solomon consecrated the middle part of the courtyard in front of the temple of the Lord, and there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the fellowship offerings, because the bronze altar he had made could not hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat portions.

8 So Solomon observed the festival at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him—a vast assembly, people from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. 9 On the eighth day they held an assembly, for they had celebrated the dedication of the altar for seven days and the festival for seven days more. 10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people to their homes, joyful and glad in heart for the good things the Lord had done for David and Solomon and for his people Israel.

The Lord Appears to Solomon

11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, 12 the Lord appeared to him at night and said:

“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices.

13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

17 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.’

19 “But if you[a] turn away and forsake the decrees and commands I have given you[b] and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 21 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All[c] who pass by will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 22 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this disaster on them.’”


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Luke 2:13-20

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Moment Of Grace

December 24, 2012 — by David C. McCasland

Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them. —Luke 2:20

Every year, I enjoy listening to the BBC’s worldwide live radio broadcast of the Christmas Eve service from King’s College Chapel in Cambridge, England. This Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols combines Scripture readings, prayers, and choral music in a moving service of worship. One year, I was struck by the announcer’s description of the congregation leaving the magnificent chapel, saying they were “stepping out of this moment of grace and back into the real world.”

Wasn’t it that way on the first Christmas? The shepherds heard an angel announce the birth of the Savior, Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11), followed by a “multitude of the heavenly host praising God” (vv.13-14). After they found Mary, Joseph, and the Baby in Bethlehem, the shepherds couldn’t help telling others about this Child (v.17). “The shepherds went back to work, glorifying and praising God for everything that they had heard and seen, which had happened just as they had been told” (v.20 Phillips).

They had been changed by their “moment of grace.” As they stepped back into their real world, they carried the good news about Jesus in their hearts and voices.

May we too take God’s grace into the real world this Christmas and every day of the new year.

May the grace that we encounter
At this time of Christmas cheer
Not be true just in this season
But remain throughout the year. —Sper
Take the joy of Christmas with you every day.



My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 24, 2012

The Hidden Life

. . . your life is hidden with Christ in God —Colossians 3:3

The Spirit of God testifies to and confirms the simple, but almighty, security of the life that “is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul continually brought this out in his New Testament letters. We talk as if living a sanctified life were the most uncertain and insecure thing we could do. Yet it is the most secure thing possible, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most dangerous and unsure thing is to try to live without God. For one who is born again, it is easier to live in a right-standing relationship with God than it is to go wrong, provided we heed God’s warnings and “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).

When we think of being delivered from sin, being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and “walk[ing] in the light,” we picture the peak of a great mountain. We see it as very high and wonderful, but we say, “Oh, I could never live up there!” However, when we do get there through God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak at all, but a plateau with plenty of room to live and to grow. “You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).

When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. If you see Him when He says, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:27), I defy you to worry. It is virtually impossible to doubt when He is there. Every time you are in personal contact with Jesus, His words are real to you. “My peace I give to you . . .” (John 14:27)— a peace which brings an unconstrained confidence and covers you completely, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. “. . . your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and the peace of Jesus Christ that cannot be disturbed has been imparted to you.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

A Battlefield Christmas - #6771

Monday, December 24, 2012

Boy, it's been great to see, the last couple of Christmases, a lot of soldiers coming home. But last Christmas that wasn't Amy's story. I met her at a dinner I spoke at. Wow, was she stressed! She had just gotten called up to go to Afghanistan. So as the Christmas displays were lighting up everything, Amy was saying goodbye to the people she loved and leaving for the battlefield. God knows that feeling.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Battlefield Christmas."

Yeah, Jesus knows how that feels. That's actually what the Son of God was doing that first Christmas. He actually left the safety - the glory of heaven, to come to this battlefield where we live. Imagine this: The Creator of a hundred billion galaxies, of the stars, the moon, the sun, and this planet and everyone on it. The Bible says, "Worshiped by angels." The book of Revelation tells us that "He is worshiped by 10,000 times 10,000 angels." That's a hundred million angels!

Now, listen to our word for today from the Word of God in John 1:14. It says, "He became human and made His home among us." And, when He came, of course, His life began not in a palace, but in a stable and it ended on a cross. You say, "Well, poor Jesus. That's so sad that happened to Him; that He was a victim of that violence." Jesus wasn't a victim. He said in John 10:18, He said, "No one takes my life from me. I lay it down myself." He said, "I am the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep." He chose to come here. He chose to let them strip him and beat him. He chose to let them mock and ridicule him, and to drive nails through his hands and feet, and to hang on that cross. They couldn't do that to him without his permission! He made the men who nailed him to the cross. He made the tree they nailed him to.

But He had come here to do battle with the monster that has ruined so many things; so many things you and I care about. Sin - it's not breaking somebody's religious rules. Sin is the "all about me" choices that we've all made. Who hasn't? And it's because ultimately, we've hijacked our lives from the God who gave us our life. Where does that take us: Broken relationships, broken promises, broken dreams, broken marriages, broken hearts. And Jesus won when He came and paid our death penalty on that cross.

In Isaiah 53, the Bible says this, that "the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." "The punishment that made peace in my heart - peace with God possible - was upon Jesus. That sacrifice on that cross was something not just historic, not just religious, but so deeply personal.

One of the writers of the Bible put it this way, "God loved me and gave Himself for me." He did that so you could be forgiven and so you could be with Him forever in heaven some day.

So, now guess where the battle is? It's in your soul. You can feel it. It's over whether or not you will put all your trust, pin all your hopes on Him. And that battle can be over today if you'll just say, "Jesus, You who loved me enough to die for me; You who was powerful enough to walk out of Your grave, this Christmas I want to be Yours. I want to be forgiven. I want to know I'll be with You forever." Tell Him that now.

If you want to know more about how to start the relationship I've talked about, go to our website this very day - YoursForLife.net. When you open your heart to Him, the battle is finally over and the peace is in your soul.

2 Corinthians 1 bible reading and daily devotionals.

(Talk with God lately if not click to listen to God's teaching)

Max Lucado Daily: Ordinary No More

Today your Savior was
born in the town of David.
He is Christ, the Lord.
Luke 2:11

It was an ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds.

Then the black sky exploded with brightness. Trees that had been shadows jumped into clarity. Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity. One minute the shepherd was dead asleep, the next he was rubbing his eyes and staring into the face of an alien.

The night was ordinary no more.

The angel came in the night because that is when lights are best seen and when they are most needed.

It all happened in a most remarkable moment—a moment like no other.

God became a man. Divinity arrived. Heaven opened and place her most precious one in a human womb. God had come near!

In the mystery of Christmas, we find its majesty. The mystery of how God became flesh, why he chose to come, and how much he must love his people.

2 Corinthians 1
New International Version (NIV)
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia:

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise to the God of All Comfort

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,[a] about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

Paul’s Change of Plans

12 Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity[b] and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace. 13 For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, 14 as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.

15 Because I was confident of this, I wanted to visit you first so that you might benefit twice. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea. 17 Was I fickle when I intended to do this? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?

18 But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas[c] and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” 20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

23 I call God as my witness—and I stake my life on it—that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Isaiah 2:1-4

The Mountain of the Lord

2 This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

2 In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
    as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
    and all nations will stream to it.
3 Many peoples will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
    so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
    the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He will judge between the nations
    and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
    nor will they train for war anymore.

Plowshare Christmas

December 23, 2012 — by Dennis Fisher

They shall beat their swords into plowshares . . . ; neither shall they learn war anymore. —Isaiah 2:4

In his book Christmas 1945, Matthew Litt tells about the first peacetime Christmas celebration in the US after World War II. The New York Daily News alerted readers to expect a fleet of warships in New York Harbor: “Christmas Day will find a mighty armada, consisting of 4 battleships, 6 carriers, 7 cruisers, and 24 destroyers.” But instead of waging war, the military ships hosted 1,000 needy children.

The children’s measurements had been taken previously so that perfectly fitted navy-blue coats and woolen caps would be gift-wrapped and awaiting them aboard the ships. These vessels of war had been transformed into carriers of compassion.

The prophet Isaiah predicted a future day of Christ’s reign of peace on this earth: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (2:4). Christmastime serves as a reminder that the Prince of Peace will ultimately bring a time of global calm and compassion.

As we celebrate the first coming of the Prince of Peace and wait for His second coming, we are reminded of our privilege to serve as His “carriers of compassion.”

Lord, You have come and brought peace, and I long to
share Your compassion everywhere I go.
Thank You that this world will know ultimate peace
when You return. Amen.
True peace comes from the Prince of Peace.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 23, 2012

Sharing in the Atonement

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . —Galatians 6:14

The gospel of Jesus Christ always forces a decision of our will. Have I accepted God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ? Do I have even the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self? Do I long to be so closely identified with Jesus that I am of no value for anything except Him and His purposes? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can commit myself under the banner of His Cross, and that means death to sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either decide to tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you, or that at any cost you want to be identified with His death. When you act in confident faith in what our Lord did on the cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place immediately. And you will come to know through a higher knowledge that your old life was “crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your old life is dead, having been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you now enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.

Every once in a while our Lord gives us a glimpse of what we would be like if it were not for Him. This is a confirmation of what He said— “. . . without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That is why the underlying foundation of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the joy of our first introduction into God’s kingdom as His purpose for getting us there. Yet God’s purpose in getting us into His kingdom is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.