Song of Songs 5, Bible reading and Devotionals

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Max Lucado Daily: His Forgetful Natue

“As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. ?Psalm 103:12”

Recently I was thanking the Father for his mercy.  And I began listing the sins he’d forgiven.  “Remember the time I…” But I stopped.  Something was wrong.  It didn’t fit.
Does he remember?

Then I remembered.  I remembered his words in Hebrews 8:12: “And I will remember their sins no more.”  Wow!

God doesn’t just forgive, he forgets.  He erases the board.  He destroys the evidence.
He burns the microfilm.  He clears the computer.  He doesn’t remember!

No, he doesn’t, but I do, you do.  That horrid lie.  The time you exploded in anger.  That date.  That jealousy.  That habit.  Spiteful specters that slyly suggest, “Are you really forgiven?”

Do you think God was teasing when he said, “I will remember your sins no more?”  Of course you don’t.  You and I just need an occasional reminder of God’s nature.  His
forgetful nature!

5 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride;
    I have gathered my myrrh with my spice.
I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey;
    I have drunk my wine and my milk.
Friends

Eat, friends, and drink;
    drink your fill of love.
She

2 I slept but my heart was awake.
    Listen! My beloved is knocking:
“Open to me, my sister, my darling,
    my dove, my flawless one.
My head is drenched with dew,
    my hair with the dampness of the night.”
3 I have taken off my robe—
    must I put it on again?
I have washed my feet—
    must I soil them again?
4 My beloved thrust his hand through the latch-opening;
    my heart began to pound for him.
5 I arose to open for my beloved,
    and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with flowing myrrh,
    on the handles of the bolt.
6 I opened for my beloved,
    but my beloved had left; he was gone.
    My heart sank at his departure.[c]
I looked for him but did not find him.
    I called him but he did not answer.
7 The watchmen found me
    as they made their rounds in the city.
They beat me, they bruised me;
    they took away my cloak,
    those watchmen of the walls!
8 Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you —
    if you find my beloved,
what will you tell him?
    Tell him I am faint with love.
Friends

9 How is your beloved better than others,
    most beautiful of women?
How is your beloved better than others,
    that you so charge us?
She

10 My beloved is radiant and ruddy,
    outstanding among ten thousand.
11 His head is purest gold;
    his hair is wavy
    and black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves
    by the water streams,
washed in milk,
    mounted like jewels.
13 His cheeks are like beds of spice
    yielding perfume.
His lips are like lilies
    dripping with myrrh.
14 His arms are rods of gold
    set with topaz.
His body is like polished ivory
    decorated with lapis lazuli.
15 His legs are pillars of marble
    set on bases of pure gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon,
    choice as its cedars.
16 His mouth is sweetness itself;
    he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, this is my friend,
    daughters of Jerusalem.



Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Luke 9:57-62

The Cost of Following Jesus

57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

A Call To Commitment

April 27, 2012 — by David C. McCasland

No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. —Luke 9:62

Many health and fitness centers expect a flood of people to join every January who will come only a few times. They don’t mind if people pay the fee and never return. But fitness trainer Jesse Jones takes the opposite approach. If you sign up and don’t show up, he will terminate your membership. Jones says, “Save your money. Come see me in a few months when you’re serious. My passion is not for another three-month payment . . . we’re making people accountable to reach their goals.”

In Luke 9:57-62, we encounter three people who told Jesus they wanted to follow Him, and all received what seem to be harsh replies from the Lord: “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (v.58). “Let the dead bury their own dead” (v.60). “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (v.62). For each person, Jesus stated the sacrifice and commitment required to become His disciple.

A man I admire as a dedicated and sensitive follower of Christ says that Christians need to be “ready for radical commitment and change.” The Lord calls us not only to leave the status quo, but also to take that calling seriously by following Him.

Lord, I want to be sold out for You. I want to
love You with my whole heart, soul, mind, and
strength. Give me the power to be who You want me
to be, and to walk in Your ways.
Following Jesus demands our all.


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

What Do You Want?

Do you seek great things for yourself? —Jeremiah 45:5

Are you seeking great things for yourself, instead of seeking to be a great person? God wants you to be in a much closer relationship with Himself than simply receiving His gifts— He wants you to get to know Him. Even some large thing we want is only incidental; it comes and it goes. But God never gives us anything incidental. There is nothing easier than getting into the right relationship with God, unless it is not God you seek, but only what He can give you.
If you have only come as far as asking God for things, you have never come to the point of understanding the least bit of what surrender really means. You have become a Christian based on your own terms. You protest, saying, “I asked God for the Holy Spirit, but He didn’t give me the rest and the peace I expected.” And instantly God puts His finger on the reason-you are not seeking the Lord at all; you are seeking something for yourself. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you . . .” (Matthew 7:7). Ask God for what you want and do not be concerned about asking for the wrong thing, because as you draw ever closer to Him, you will cease asking for things altogether. “Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Then why should you ask? So that you may get to know Him.
Are you seeking great things for yourself? Have you said, “Oh, Lord, completely fill me with your Holy Spirit”? If God does not, it is because you are not totally surrendered to Him; there is something you still refuse to do. Are you prepared to ask yourself what it is you want from God and why you want it? God always ignores your present level of completeness in favor of your ultimate future completeness. He is not concerned about making you blessed and happy right now, but He’s continually working out His ultimate perfection for you— “. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . .” (John 17:22).


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

The Most Powerful Magnet In the World - #6600

Friday, April 27, 2012

Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands of northern New Jersey. Seventy thousand people descending on the New York Giants football game with cars clogging every artery anywhere near the stadium. Sometimes I was one of those crazy people! And all across the New York area, countless others did nothing that afternoon but watch television to see what was going on there at the Meadowlands. It's like that stadium has a giant magnet inside it, with the power to pull multitudes of people to focus on one place and on one event.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Powerful Magnet In the World."

For 2,000 years, there has been a magnet that has captured the hearts of millions of people, pulling people from every generation, every background, every corner of the world to one man. That man is Jesus Christ, and that magnet is an old rugged cross on a hill called Skull Hill, just outside the gates of Jerusalem. Even in our day, one of Hollywood's great blockbuster movies was "The Passion of the Christ," a vivid portrayal of the death of Jesus; the power of that cross to still move millions of people.

That should come as no surprise really. Jesus said it would happen before He ever died. In John 12:32-33, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus said, "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." Then the Bible goes on to explain His meaning: "He said this to show the kind of death He was going to die." So, Jesus said, "If I am lifted up on a cross, I'll draw people to Myself."

And, sure enough, for 20 centuries, His love poured out on that tree, has melted the hardest hearts and brought hope to the most hopeless hearts. If many people aren't being drawn to Him, maybe it's because those of us who know Him have been lifting up something other than Jesus and His cross; like our church, our denomination, our politics, our programs, our causes - even ourselves.

Since that brutal day on Skull Hill, a lot has happened. Churches have been built in Jesus' name, a religion bearing His name has spread across the world, rituals and creeds and ceremonies have grown up around His teachings. A lot of good, and too much that wasn't good, has been done in His name. But a trip back to that blood-stained cross strips away all the Christianity that has grown up around Christ over the centuries, and takes us back to what the central issue is for you and me.

It's you; it's me standing at the foot of that cross, looking into the face of the Son of God that has been beaten virtually beyond recognition. It's you or me watching the blood trickle down from a crown of thorns jammed into His forehead; the spikes in His hands and feet. Beyond all the religious things you've done in His name, beyond those Christians who may have hurt you or confused you, beyond all the facts about Jesus you have in your head - there's that man dying on that cross. And there's you, one of the people He's dying for, to pay for every wrong thing you have ever done. Your eternity will not be decided by what you do with Christianity or with Christians. It will be decided by what you do with Christ.

This very day, I invite you to walk with me up Skull Hill, to stand there and say the two words that are the difference between heaven and hell, "for me." Maybe you've missed that decisive step of actually giving yourself to the man who died for you; of abandoning your trust in anything else to make it with God and to put all your trust in Jesus. Would you tell Him today, "Jesus, you died for me. I can trust you. I'm Yours." And you won't just be believing in Jesus. No, you'll finally belong to Him.


And if that's what you want, I'd invite you to visit our website. I've got a brief and simple explanation there of how you get started with Jesus Christ. You can listen to it or you can read it there. It's YoursForLife.net.

On the day you stand before God, there's only one thing He's going to ask you. "What did you do with My Son and His death for you on that cross?" You could settle that question today.