1 Chronicles 21 bible reading and devotionals.

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Max Lucado Daily: Confession

Confession!  It’s a word that conjures up many images—some not so positive.

Confession isn’t telling God what he doesn’t know.  That’s impossible.  It’s not pointing fingers at others without pointing any at me.  That may feel good, but it doesn’t promote healing. Confession is a radical reliance on grace—a trust in God’s goodness.  The truth is, confessors find a freedom that deniers don’t!

Scripture says,  “If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right.  He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done. John 1:8-9?

Tell God what you did.  Again, it’s not that he doesn’t already know, but the two of you need to agree!  Then let the pure water of grace flow over your mistakes!

From GRACE

1 Chronicles 21

David Counts the Fighting Men

21 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.”

3 But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?”

4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. 5 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.

6 But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him. 7 This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.

8 Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

9 The Lord said to Gad, David’s seer, 10 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”

11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice: 12 three years of famine, three months of being swept away[c] before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

13 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

14 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. 15 And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah[d] the Jebusite.

16 David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.

17 David said to God, “Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd,[e] have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Lord my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.”

David Builds an Altar

18 Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19 So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord.

20 While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. 21 Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.

22 David said to him, “Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.”

23 Araunah said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”

24 But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”

25 So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels[f] of gold for the site. 26 David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

27 Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. 28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. 29 The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Ephesians 2:1-10

By Grace Through Faith

2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[b] 4 But[c] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The Spirit Of The Age

December 3, 2012 — by Dennis Fisher

You He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world. —Ephesians 2:1-2

Every age has its own thoughts, ideas, and values that influence the culture, the “spirit of the age.” It is the kind of growing consensus that morally lulls us to sleep, gradually causing us to accept society’s latest values.

The apostle Paul called this corrupting atmosphere the “course of this world.” Describing the lives of the believers at Ephesus before they encountered Christ, he said that they were “dead in trespasses and sins” and “walked according to the course of this world” (Eph. 2:1-2). This is the world’s peer pressure—a satanically inspired system of values and ideas that cultivates a lifestyle that is independent of God.

Jesus intends for us to live in the world (John 17:15), so worldly influence is nearly impossible to escape. But He’s given us His Word to so permeate our thinking that we don’t have to become conformed to the world’s values (Rom. 12:1-2). Instead, God helps us walk in His light (Eph. 5:8), in the Spirit (Gal. 5:25), in love (Eph. 5:2), in truth (3 John 4), and in Christ (Col. 2:6).

As we walk in God’s power and spend time in His Word, He gives us the strength to live according to kingdom values and not the spirit of the age.

Father, You have made us alive in Christ and now we
have a new kind of thinking that differs from the world.
Teach us Your kingdom’s values that we might
learn to walk in love. Amen.
Although Christians live in this world,
their allegiance is to heaven.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 3, 2012

“Not by Might nor by Power”

My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power . . . —1 Corinthians 2:4

If in preaching the gospel you substitute your knowledge of the way of salvation for confidence in the power of the gospel, you hinder people from getting to reality. Take care to see while you proclaim your knowledge of the way of salvation, that you yourself are rooted and grounded by faith in God. Never rely on the clearness of your presentation, but as you give your explanation make sure that you are relying on the Holy Spirit. Rely on the certainty of God’s redemptive power, and He will create His own life in people.

Once you are rooted in reality, nothing can shake you. If your faith is in experiences, anything that happens is likely to upset that faith. But nothing can ever change God or the reality of redemption. Base your faith on that, and you are as eternally secure as God Himself. Once you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you will never be moved again. That is the meaning of sanctification. God disapproves of our human efforts to cling to the concept that sanctification is merely an experience, while forgetting that even our sanctification must also be sanctified (see John 17:19). I must deliberately give my sanctified life to God for His service, so that He can use me as His hands and His feet.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Another At-Bat - #6756

Monday, December 3, 2012

While a lot of people were watching the Presidential debates, and there were some who didn't watch them, actually because baseball was still going on. They were just watching men with caps swinging a stick at a speeding white ball.

Now, it came on the last day of the regular baseball season when the first Presidential debate took place, but there were still decisive games being played. One of which gave my Yankees (okay, no booing - I can't hear it anyway), they get the division championship. But in the midst of some of these cliffhanger baseball dramas being played out, there was another baseball story that really captured people's attention about one guy having his one time at-bat.

Seven years ago, in his first Major League at-bat, 24-year-old Adam Greenberg was struck in the head by a 92-mile-per-hour fastball. That left him with these migraine-like symptoms and lots of other complications - the end of a dream. Well, except somebody forgot to tell Adam it was over. He was determined to fight his way back - if only some team would give him a chance.

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Another At-Bat."

Well, filmmaker and fan Matt Liston launched a passionate, online petition. He called it "One At-Bat" to get Adam that chance. And on a Tuesday night near the end of the season, Adam Greenberg stood at home plate in a Major League game at-bat again. See, the Florida Marlins signed him to a one-game contract so he could swing again. Now, he was greeted by a rousing standing ovation in the stadium, even after he struck out, because Adam Greenberg is anything but "out." He's a winner!

Now, his life was changed by one man who did whatever it took to give him another at-bat - another chance. My life was changed by the same kind of person; so were millions of others. Yours could be too. Because I had struck out big time. See, God gave me my life, but I hijacked it from Him. I did what I wanted to do with it; me defying the God who made a hundred billion galaxies, who decides if I take another breath. Ignoring Him. Marginalizing Him. Living my way instead of the way He created me to live.

I knew the Bible was talking about me when it said: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). And I had no chance of ever reaching "home." And then the God of second chances went to bat for me.

The Bible says in Ephesians 2:12 that the very God I didn't care about sent His only Son to erase the sin that had left me "without hope and without God." But the price for me to have a chance at heaven wasn't cheap. In our word for today from the Word of God in Revelation 1:5 it says, "Jesus loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood." Heaven's Prince chose to literally sacrifice His life to pay for my rebellion and yours as He was nailed to a cross.

And then He did what no man has done before or since. He walked out of His grave under His own power, to give the life that He purchased to millions. To me. To you. He did what it took to bring us all Home.

Jesus is the God of another chance...of a new beginning. He fights for you when others have counted you out. He offers restoration when others offer only condemnation. He refuses to give up on you even when you've given up on yourself. With His forgiving, life-giving power, He gives "losers" and sinner, and marriages and families a second chance, because Jesus is all about hope - another at-bat.

A new beginning - that's the gift Jesus has made possible for all of us. By forgiving what only He can forgive, and changing what only He can change. He stands ready to do that for you today, from the moment you reach out to Him to begin your personal love relationship with Him. Listen, if that's what you want, I encourage you to check out our website and see there exactly how to get started with Jesus. It's YoursForLife.net. And let the God of second chances give you a new beginning.