Psalm 128 bible reading and Devotionals

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MaxLucado.com: Jesus Knows How You Feel

Remember when you sought a night’s rest and got a colicky baby?  When you sought to catch up at the office and got even further behind?  Or that leisurely Saturday when you ended up fixing the sink?  Take comfort, friend.  Jesus knows how you feel!

You may have trouble believing that.  Can God relate to the hassles and headaches of my life?  Of your life?

Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.”

When you tell God that you’ve reached your limit, He knows what you mean. When you shake your head at impossible deadlines; when your plans are interrupted by people who have other plans; he nods in sympathy.  He’s been there!

Jesus knows how you feel!

From In the Eye of the Storm
Please remember 40 Days of Prayer!

Dear Heavenly Father,

You have given us this promise: ”…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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

So, we pray to you. We turn from evil and look to you, our God. Please:

Unite us, Strengthen us, Appoint and anoint our next president
In the name of Christ we pray, Amen

Psalm 128

A song of ascents.

1 Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
    who walk in obedience to him.
2 You will eat the fruit of your labor;
    blessings and prosperity will be yours.
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
    within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
    around your table.
4 Yes, this will be the blessing
    for the man who fears the Lord.
5 May the Lord bless you from Zion;
    may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
    all the days of your life.
6 May you live to see your children’s children—
    peace be on Israel.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Philippians 4:10-20

God's Provision

10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

14 Yet it was kind of you to share[a] my trouble. 15 And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. 16 Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.[b] 18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 20 To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Be Content

October 2, 2012 — by C. P. Hia

I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content. —Philippians 4:11

Contentment is hard to attain. Even the apostle Paul, a hero of the faith, had to learn to be content (Phil. 4:11). It was not a natural character trait for him.

For Paul to write that he was content in every situation is truly amazing. At the time of this writing, he was in jail in Rome. Charged with sedition, treason, and other serious crimes, he had appealed to the highest court: Caesar himself. Without other legal recourse and friends in high places, he had to wait for his case to be heard. It seems as if Paul had the right to be an impatient and unhappy person. Instead, he wrote to the Philippians to say that he had learned to be content.

How did he learn this? One step at a time until he could be satisfied even in uncomfortable environments. He learned to accept whatever came his way (v.12) and to receive with thanks whatever help fellow Christians could give (vv.14-18). And most important, he recognized that God was supplying all he needed (v.19).

Contentment is not natural for any of us. The competitive spirit in us drives us to compare, to complain, and to covet. Few of us are in a predicament such as Paul’s, but we all face difficulties in which we can learn to trust God and be content.

O Lord, give me the grace to be
Content with what You give to me.
No, more than that, let me rejoice
In all You send, for it’s Your choice! —Anon.
Contentment is not possessing everything but giving thanks for everything you possess.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 2, 2012

The Place of Humiliation

If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us —Mark 9:22

After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see Mark 9:5-6 , Mark 14-23).

“If you can do anything . . . .” It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation?



A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Love Through a Telephoto Lens - #6712

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

We were shooting some video footage of a group of teenagers and they were kind of surprised when they saw the result on a TV screen. We were seated in a little cluster on the floor discussing various youth issues, and what surprised them was the fact that when they saw it on the screen they realized we had focused close-up on each individual as they were commenting. Of course, they went, "Oh, no! Look at me!" See, they thought it was going to be this big group shot. We didn't want the viewers to be distracted by anyone else, so most of the time we would zoom our telephoto lens in a real tight close-up, so you would only see one person. The telephoto effect actually makes a big difference.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Love Through a Telephoto Lens."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 5:15, and it's talking about married love. It speaks about it in symbolic terms and then gets pretty direct. "Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth."

And then God expresses here as the Inventor of sex that He is, some of the joy that He intended married couples to have, "A loving doe," it says, "a graceful deer - may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love."

This is really a passage about focused love. It's about a man who has eyes for only one woman and doesn't let his springs overflow anywhere else, who really has decided there's only one place for his love. As a result he enjoys a fulfilling and exciting relationship with her. Now, whether you're a husband or a wife, this secret of happiness is still the same. Marital and sexual fulfillment is the byproduct of focused love.

Notice here it says, "Let your ability to express love be yours alone" in so many words. And then in the King James Version, I like the way it says, "Rejoice with the wife of your youth. Let her satisfy you always." In other words there's a choice here. Let her/let him be enough. I choose to focus my telephoto lens on one person; there's no one else in my picture. As soon as you widen your focus, the discontentment, the dissatisfaction begins. Maybe you've been allowing other fantasies into your heart; a heart where you should be focusing all your fantasies on your husband or your wife. Those sexually oriented pictures, the ads, the videos, the movies, the websites; they let other women and other men into a place that should be reserved for just one person.

Maybe you joke about having a wandering eye. That's no joke! It dilutes your focus on that one man and that one woman. The soap opera love affairs, the flirtations with that other person, all those mental wanderings erode the excitement of focused love. Don't betray your lifetime partner in your fantasies. You'll both lose.

Decide to let her or let him be enough. Ask for Christ's strength to narrow your focus and you'll see just a close-up on one person. The best of married love is for those who choose love through that telephoto lens.