Psalm 149 bible reading and devotionals.

Click to listen or download.

MaxLucado.com: A Little Light, Please

Every so often a storm will come, and I’ll look up into the blackening sky and say, “God, a little light, please?”

Light came for the disciples.  A figure came to them walking on the water. It wasn’t what they expected.  They weren’t looking for Jesus to come walking on the water.  And since Jesus came in a way they didn’t expect, they almost missed seeing the answer to their prayers.

Unless we look and listen closely, we risk making the same mistake.  When the disciples saw Jesus in the middle of their stormy night, they called Him a ghost.  (Matt. 14:26)  An hallucination.  We do the same.

When God comes, we doubters think all pain will flee.  Life will be tranquil.  No questions will remain.  But it is through whispered promises He speaks:  When you doubt, look around; I am closer than you think.

From In the Eye of the Storm


Psalm 149

1 Praise the Lord.[a]
Sing to the Lord a new song,
    his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.
2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;
    let the people of Zion be glad in their King.
3 Let them praise his name with dancing
    and make music to him with timbrel and harp.
4 For the Lord takes delight in his people;
    he crowns the humble with victory.
5 Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor
    and sing for joy on their beds.
6 May the praise of God be in their mouths
    and a double-edged sword in their hands,
7 to inflict vengeance on the nations
    and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with fetters,
    their nobles with shackles of iron,
9 to carry out the sentence written against them—
    this is the glory of all his faithful people.
Praise the Lord.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Matthew 20:1-16

Laborers in the Vineyard

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius[a] a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’[b] 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

What Has God Done For Me Lately?

October 18, 2012 — by Randy Kilgore

Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? —Matthew 20:15

I met a man who was absolutely convinced that God couldn’t forgive him for the things he’d done. An older man took him under his wing, and a year later, I was delighted that the younger man had not only accepted Jesus as his Savior but was also consuming Scripture ravenously. Three years later, though, when I talked with him, I noticed that his enthusiasm had been replaced by grumbling: “I just don’t understand how God can let evil people prosper while so many of His children (including himself, he might have added) are struggling to make ends meet.” The grumbling ate at the joy of his faith.

Like so many of us, he had forgotten how much he had needed Christ’s grace. The gratitude he had felt when he first received the Lord was now lost. This reminds us of the vineyard workers in Jesus’ parable (Matt. 20:1-16). Their focus shifted to what was happening to and for other people (vv.10-12).

While God owes us nothing, He freely gives us the salvation He promises when we accept Christ. He then adds to His generosity by sending His Spirit to help us in this life as we prepare for the joy of eternity with Him. The seeming unfairness of life demands that we keep our eyes on Him and His Word—not on others.

Lord, I admit that my focus at times gets drawn
to others and what they have. Forgive me and
help me to stop grumbling. You are good to me
and provide what I need. Thank You. Amen.
All you need to know to be content is this: God is good.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
October 18, 2012

The Key to the Missionary’s Devotion

. . . they went forth for His name’s sake . . . —3 John 7

Our Lord told us how our love for Him is to exhibit itself when He asked, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:17). And then He said, “Feed My sheep.” In effect, He said, “Identify yourself with My interests in other people,” not, “Identify Me with your interests in other people.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 shows us the characteristics of this love— it is actually the love of God expressing itself. The true test of my love for Jesus is a very practical one, and all the rest is sentimental talk.

Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy Spirit— “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit . . .” (Romans 5:5). And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and comes in contact with everyone I meet. I remain faithful to His name, even though the commonsense view of my life may seemingly deny that, and may appear to be declaring that He has no more power than the morning mist.

The key to the missionary’s devotion is that he is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself. It does not mean simply being detached from the external things surrounding us. Our Lord was amazingly in touch with the ordinary things of life, but He had an inner detachment except toward God. External detachment is often an actual indication of a secret, growing, inner attachment to the things we stay away from externally.

The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women our Lord sends out on His endeavors are ordinary human people, but people who are controlled by their devotion to Him, which has been brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Something Worse Than Lonely - #6724

Thursday, October 18, 2012

When there's a primetime news special on television, you expect it to be about some major breaking world event, or a disaster, or some sensational social issue. I was surprised to see, then, a CBS news special that was just on the subject of loneliness. It was called "On Lonely Street." They were quoted there as saying, "Social scientists are seeing an epidemic of loneliness.

In fact, they interviewed the founder of the biggest dating service in the world, and here's what he said, "People today have all the material things; they don't have someone to hold onto; someone to have a long history with". Someone was well quoted as saying, "The most lonely place in the world is the human heart." You know, if loneliness is an epidemic, could it be you have a pretty heavy case of it?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Something Worse Than Lonely."

Our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Timothy 4. Paul is writing this. It's actually his last chapter he will ever write in Scripture; his last known letter written to Timothy. He is pretty much abandoned in a prison cell. You talk about Lonely Street! In fact, here's what he says in verse 16: "At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength."

You know there's something worse than being lonely? Somebody put it this way, "What's worse than being lonely is being lonely alone." I used to hear a Christian song when I was growing up. They would sing, "You'll never be lonely again." And they meant that you wouldn't be lonely if you knew Christ. But I'm not sure that's accurate.

You do get lonely. You lose people you love, you're abandoned, you're misunderstood, you're rejected sometimes by people who are around you and would like to help. They just don't know how. You feel alone and lonely, and you can't eliminate loneliness. But you can eliminate alone. Maybe they ought to rewrite that song, "You'll never be alone again."

See, Paul said, "I was lonely. I was abandoned. I had nobody there, and nobody could even get to me in that prison. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength." Maybe that's where you are right now. However lonely you are, picture Jesus there. He is at your side. At least you don't ever have to be alone again because Jesus was alone on the cross, separated from God so no one would ever have to be without God again.

He paid the price for the sin that you and I have that keeps us away from God. That's why Jesus cried as He was carrying every wrong thing I've ever done and you've ever done, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" He carried all your sins. He was cut off from the Father so you would never have to be. He was the last man who ever had to be alone.

And when you pin your hopes on Christ, you receive in Him a friend who feels every feeling, who can't be kept away by prison bars, and who won't turn away from you ever. If He was ever going to do that, He would have done it on the cross. Oh, you can know Him and feel alone, but you're not. You might feel alone because you need to draw close to Him by pouring out your deepest, most honest feelings to Him. Let Him hear all of it.

Read what He's written to you in the Bible. Go reach out to someone in His name. But it could be you've never made the Savior your personal Savior. You've never said, "Jesus, I'm Yours. I'm giving myself to You." Would you tell Him that today?

I hope you'll go to our website, because I've laid out there exactly how to know that you have begun a personal relationship with God's Son, Jesus Christ. It's YoursForLife.net.

Yes, it's a lonely world. Will you walk on Lonely Street again? Yes, you will. But the day you come to Jesus Christ is your last day alone.