1 Kings 19 bible reading and devotionals.

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Max Lucado: His Masterpiece

As a group of fishermen relaxed in an old Scottish seaside inn, one of the men gestured widely, depicting a fish that got away.  His arm struck the waiter’s tray, sending its contents onto the white wall, leaving an ugly brown splotch.

The innkeeper sighed, “The whole wall will have to be repainted.”

“Perhaps not,” offered a stranger.  “Let me work with it!”

The man pulled brushes, oils, and colors out of an art box.  He dabbed away at the ugly splotch.  An image emerged–a stag with a great rack of antlers.  His signature at the bottom read:  Sir Edwin Landseer.  A famous painter of wildlife.  In his hands, a mistake became a masterpiece!

God’s hands do the same.  He draws together the disjointed blotches in our life.  Ephesians 2:7 says, we become “examples of the incredible wealth of God’s favor and kindness toward us!”

We are His masterpiece!

From Come Thirsty

1 Kings 19

Elijah Flees to Horeb

19 Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

3 Elijah was afraid[a] and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, 4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

7 The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night.

The Lord Appears to Elijah

And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

14 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”

15 The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. 16 Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. 17 Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. 18 Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”

The Call of Elisha

19 So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.”

“Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Peacocks And Their Kin

June 12, 2012 — by David H. Roper

My strength is made perfect in weakness. —2 Corinthians 12:9

Male peacocks are resplendent creatures with iridescent blue-green plumage and elongated trains tipped with “eyes” colored in hues of gold, red, and blue. They are strikingly beautiful birds, but they have ugly feet!

To be honest, most of us have some type of physical limitation. It may be something we’ve borne all our lives or one we’ve recently acquired.

Paul described his deficiency as a “thorn in the flesh” that kept him humble (2 Cor. 12:7-9). Three times he asked the Lord to remove it, probably thinking that he could then serve God better. But the Lord assured him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Paul replied, “Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

One of the ironies of faith is that God often chooses us to accomplish His most important tasks despite our imperfections, not because of our speaking ability, looks, or fitness for the task. Missionary Hudson Taylor said, “God was looking for someone weak enough to use, and he found [you and me]!” When we find our strength in Him, He can use us in ways we could never imagine (v.9).

Lord, I have many weaknesses. Please show Your
strength through me by using me in whatever way
You please. May others see You at work in me and
praise Your name. Amen.
God’s strength is best seen in our weakness.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
June 12, 2012

Getting There (2)

They said to Him, ’Rabbi . . . where are You staying?’ He said to them, ’Come and see’ —John 1:38-39

Where our self-interest sleeps and the real interest is awakened. “They . . . remained with Him that day . . . .” That is about all some of us ever do. We stay with Him a short time, only to wake up to our own realities of life. Our self-interest rises up and our abiding with Him is past. Yet there is no circumstance of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus.

“You are Simon . . . . You shall be called Cephas” (John 1:42). God writes our new name only on those places in our lives where He has erased our pride, self-sufficiency, and self-interest. Some of us have our new name written only in certain spots, like spiritual measles. And in those areas of our lives we look all right. When we are in our best spiritual mood, you would think we were the highest quality saints. But don’t dare look at us when we are not in that mood. A true disciple is one who has his new name written all over him— self-interest, pride, and self-sufficiency have been completely erased.

Pride is the sin of making “self” our god. And some of us today do this, not like the Pharisee, but like the tax collector (see Luke 18:9-14). For you to say, “Oh, I’m no saint,” is acceptable by human standards of pride, but it is unconscious blasphemy against God. You defy God to make you a saint, as if to say, “I am too weak and hopeless and outside the reach of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.” Why aren’t you a saint? It is either that you do not want to be a saint, or that you do not believe that God can make you into one. You say it would be all right if God saved you and took you straight to heaven. That is exactly what He will do! And not only do we make our home with Him, but Jesus said of His Father and Himself, “. . . We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). Put no conditions on your life— let Jesus be everything to you, and He will take you home with Him not only for a day, but for eternity.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

The "God Is For Girls" Myth - #6632

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Jeff was the quarterback of our high school football team back when we lived in New Jersey. He always attended this little Bible study we had pre-game, but he never made a commitment to Christ. Well, I saw him on one of his breaks from college. He said, "You know, Ron, I've made a commitment to Christ now, but it was hard to do it in high school, especially because we were guys.

Well, think about that! I mean, look at the population of any average church youth group. Mostly guys? No, it's usually mostly girls. Look at the missionaries around the world. More men? No, a lot more women it seems like. If one person in a married couple is a believer, more often than not isn't it the wife? What's going on here? Well, weren't the first 12 followers of Jesus men?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The 'God Is For Girls' Myth."

Our word for today from the Word of God is found in 1 John 2, and I'm going to read the second part of verse 14. John says, "I write to you young men because you are strong." Okay, there's nothing wimpy about this group he's writing to. "I'm writing to you because you are strong." Why? "The Word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one."

Okay, he's writing to young men here who are sold out to a cause; who are fighters, winners, over-comers; they're champions. They are young men who have found the ultimate outlet for their manness - Jesus Christ. They are waging spiritual war for Him and they're winning.

Now, if you go back as far as the Garden of Eden, which is about as far back as you can go, you'll find that when God came looking for somebody after the first sin He didn't come looking for Eve. He said, "Adam, where are you?" When Sarah laughed at God's promise, the Lord didn't come looking for Sarah. He came looking for Abraham. When God selected some people to build His church on, it was men - 12 men.

Now, this is not to exclude women from following Christ. Oh, no, they were intensely loyal to Him during His earthly ministry here. And no doubt women have a spiritual radar and sensitivity that we men will probably never have. There's a love and a tenderness about a woman that lets us know what God's accepting love is like. But from Eden until now, man was created by God to take the spiritual lead.

God is not just for girls. I mean, it's unacceptable for a girl to be the conscience of a dating relationship. It's unacceptable for a woman to be the spiritual leader in a family because of a man forfeiting that leadership. It's unacceptable for a man to hold back in spiritual arenas while he's giving his all in his business and every other arena.

See, man is built to look for a cause to give 100% to. That's why a guy loves sports, because it's someplace where he can feel like he's giving everything he can give; or business. He throws himself into making it in business. But every man knows that those causes are ultimately a disappointment no matter how much you give. There's only one cause a man was built to lose himself in, and that's the service of Jesus Christ; all of my manness in the service of the God-man, Jesus.

It may be that you have pursued every kind of conquest as a guy and never yet found what will fill the hole in your heart, and give you that cause that was worth everything you have. You've never found that meaning for your one life you have on this planet, and the answer is in the One who made you, who you were made for, and who died for you on a cross. The man Jesus Christ.

Maybe today is your day to finely step into completeness in Him. I hope you'll tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm your guy from now on." We'd love to help you know how to begin with Him, and that's what our website's about. Go there today. It's YoursForLife.net.

And then see, as a man, you can take your stand for Christ boldly, passionately, without reservation, and that's how you become a spiritual champion. That is maximum manhood!