”...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…Romans 3:24ff”
You and I save things—a hoarder saves everything! Newspapers, letters, clothing—you name it, they keep it. Bizarre, we say!
Who wants to hoard the trash of the past? You don’t, do you? Or do you?
A tour of your heart might be telling. A pile of rejections stockpiled in one corner. Accumulated insults filling another. Images of unkind people lining the wall, littering the floor. No one can blame you. Innocence takers. Promise breakers. You’ve had your share.
Yet, doesn’t it make sense to get rid of their trash? Want to make this a day-changer?
Romans 3:24 says Out of sheer generosity God put us in right standing with himself. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ!
Choose to make every day—a great day!
Psalm 68[a]
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. A song.
1 May God arise, may his enemies be scattered;
may his foes flee before him.
2 May you blow them away like smoke—
as wax melts before the fire,
may the wicked perish before God.
3 But may the righteous be glad
and rejoice before God;
may they be happy and joyful.
4 Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds[b];
rejoice before him—his name is the LORD.
5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
6 God sets the lonely in families,[c]
he leads out the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
7 When you, God, went out before your people,
when you marched through the wilderness,[d]
8 the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain,
before God, the One of Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
9 You gave abundant showers, O God;
you refreshed your weary inheritance.
10 Your people settled in it,
and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor.
11 The Lord announces the word,
and the women who proclaim it are a mighty throng:
12 “Kings and armies flee in haste;
the women at home divide the plunder.
13 Even while you sleep among the sheep pens,[e]
the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver,
its feathers with shining gold.”
14 When the Almighty[f] scattered the kings in the land,
it was like snow fallen on Mount Zalmon.
15 Mount Bashan, majestic mountain,
Mount Bashan, rugged mountain,
16 why gaze in envy, you rugged mountain,
at the mountain where God chooses to reign,
where the LORD himself will dwell forever?
17 The chariots of God are tens of thousands
and thousands of thousands;
the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary.[g]
18 When you ascended on high,
you took many captives;
you received gifts from people,
even from[h] the rebellious—
that you,[i] LORD God, might dwell there.
19 Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens.
20 Our God is a God who saves;
from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death.
21 Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies,
the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins.
22 The Lord says, “I will bring them from Bashan;
I will bring them from the depths of the sea,
23 that your feet may wade in the blood of your foes,
while the tongues of your dogs have their share.”
24 Your procession, God, has come into view,
the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary.
25 In front are the singers, after them the musicians;
with them are the young women playing the timbrels.
26 Praise God in the great congregation;
praise the LORD in the assembly of Israel.
27 There is the little tribe of Benjamin, leading them,
there the great throng of Judah’s princes,
and there the princes of Zebulun and of Naphtali.
28 Summon your power, God[j];
show us your strength, our God, as you have done before.
29 Because of your temple at Jerusalem
kings will bring you gifts.
30 Rebuke the beast among the reeds,
the herd of bulls among the calves of the nations.
Humbled, may the beast bring bars of silver.
Scatter the nations who delight in war.
31 Envoys will come from Egypt;
Cush[k] will submit herself to God.
32 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth,
sing praise to the Lord,
33 to him who rides across the highest heavens, the ancient heavens,
who thunders with mighty voice.
34 Proclaim the power of God,
whose majesty is over Israel,
whose power is in the heavens.
35 You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary;
the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.
Praise be to God!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Read: Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Benefits Of Friendship
February 14, 2012 — by Dennis Fisher
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. —Ecclesiastes 4:9
Cicero was one of the greatest thinkers of the Roman Empire. He was a skilled orator, lawyer, politician, linguist, and writer. Still today he is quoted for his clear prose and practical wisdom.
For instance, of having friends he wrote: “Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.” He understood the double benefits of friendship along life’s journey.
Nearly a millennium earlier, King Solomon had written about the value of friends as well. In Ecclesiastes we read, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up” (4:9-10). Certainly a life without friends makes our sojourn lonely and hard to bear.
That famous Roman and that Jewish king were right: Friends are important. Friends serve as confidants, counselors, and burden-sharers.
Think about your friends. Have you been neglecting those God has provided to share your joys and sorrows? If so, seek out one of your friends for fellowship this week. Remember, “two are better than one,” because a friend can double our joy and divide our grief.
A friend is “trust,” a friend is “warmth,”
A friend is “always there”
To add to every happiness,
To lessen every care. —Anon.
Friends are flowers in the garden of life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
The Discipline of Hearing
Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops —Matthew 10:27
Sometimes God puts us through the experience and discipline of darkness to teach us to hear and obey Him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and God puts us into “the shadow of His hand” until we learn to hear Him (Isaiah 49:2). “Whatever I tell you in the dark. . .”— pay attention when God puts you into darkness, and keep your mouth closed while you are there. Are you in the dark right now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? If so, then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will speak while in the wrong mood— darkness is the time to listen. Don’t talk to other people about it; don’t read books to find out the reason for the darkness; just listen and obey. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else once you are back in the light.
After every time of darkness, we should experience a mixture of delight and humiliation. If there is only delight, I question whether we have really heard God at all. We should experience delight for having heard God speak, but mostly humiliation for having taken so long to hear Him! Then we will exclaim, “How slow I have been to listen and understand what God has been telling me!” And yet God has been saying it for days and even weeks. But once you hear Him, He gives you the gift of humiliation, which brings a softness of heart— a gift that will always cause you to listen to God now.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Sad Success - #6547
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
I won't be going to a Lady Gaga concert soon, but tons of people have and will. To some, that headline-generating singer is just another cultural side show. But at least for now, the entertainer known for her bizarre outfits and her wild performances is an A-list celebrity and a cultural icon.
And it's all too easy to forget she's a person. Like all of us, a person with a story. She's starting to tell some of that story. As I read part of it yesterday, I honestly felt sad. For all of her stratospheric success in the spotlight, there's apparently a lot of hurt offstage.
In a Vanity Fair interview, Lady Gaga says, "If I'm supposed to end up like some crazy casualty, then that's my destiny...I love show business. I need it. It's like breath! When the spotlight goes off, I don't know quite what to do with myself."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sad Success."
I thought, "Man, that's not just Lady Gaga. The 'spotlight' eventually goes off for all of us. And when it does, it exposes the hollowness inside." The "spotlight" that's "like breath"? Well, that could be a relationship that made you feel valued, or maybe a job - a position that gave you a sense of worth, children who needed you and validated you, an arena of accomplishment that gave you some recognition.
But every spotlight eventually goes off and leaves you with whoever you were and whatever you had before there was a spotlight. As one former Olympian said, "If you don't know who you are before you win the gold, you won't know after the gold is in your hand."
In the interview, Lady Gaga went on to talk about another sadness that many know all too well - disappointing relationships. She said, "I have never felt truly cherished by a lover. I have an inability to know what happiness feels like with a man. It starts out good, and then they hate me. I had a man say to me, 'You will die alone in a house bigger than you know, with all your money and hit records, and you will die alone.'"
That's brutal stuff. Of course, you don't have to have a big house, or big money, or a big name to know how empty a relationship can leave you feeling. Because it was supposed to answer your loneliness and satisfy your heart. But even the best of relationships turns out to be good, but not good enough; not to fill the hole in your heart.
Our word for today from the Word of God, John 4:13-14. They tell us that this is where Jesus comes in. He met a woman at a desert well. Her restless heart had never found rest in her serial relationships with men. Jesus told her that whoever kept trying to satisfy their thirst from human "wells," He called them, would always be "thirsty again." "But those who drink the water I give him," He said, "will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life." What you cannot find at the top of the mountain, what you cannot find in the depths of a relationship, can be found in the love of Jesus Christ.
For 2,000 years, Jesus has been the sustaining fulfillment for millions of us when life's spotlights go off. He's been the one love that's cherished us like no other, to the point of laying down His life so we wouldn't have to die for our sins. Until we commit ourselves to this God who gave His life for us and then rose from the grave to be alive to come into our life, our hearts are, in the Bible's words, "like the tossing sea which cannot rest...there is no peace" (Isaiah 57:20-21).
You tired of that? You tired of the restlessness? You tired of empty? You tired of disappointing? It's time for you to walk into the love you were made for; the love that sent Jesus Christ to a cross for every wrong thing you've ever done. Today, reach out and embrace Him. Grab Him! Go to our website would you? It's called YoursForLife.net, and there we'll walk you through beginning your personal relationship with Him.
There's good news! At the point when we are feeling the aching hole in our heart, we're one step away from the only One who can fill it.