Obadiah 1 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: The Reward of a Lifetime

A person lives to themselves nearly their whole life and then right at the end—they accept Christ and heaven is theirs to enjoy forever!  Doesn’t seem fair, does it?

When we accept salvation from Jesus Christ, we all accept the same deal—eternal life with the Savior.  If someone accepts Christ at ten years old or at age 85, lying on his deathbed—what’s the difference?  Are you envious of God’s generosity?  No!  We love his generosity.  Don’t ever change that, God!

Remember the thieves on the Cross?  One thief cursed Jesus, the other defended Him.  At the last moment, he said to Jesus:  “remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).  And Jesus forgave him!  The time of forgiveness doesn’t matter!  Anytime is the best time to receive Christ!  And it is indeed the reward of a lifetime!

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”  (Ephesians 1:7)

From Max on Life

Obadiah 1
New International Version (NIV)
Obadiah’s Vision

1 The vision of Obadiah.

This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom—

We have heard a message from the Lord:
    An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Rise, let us go against her for battle”—
2 “See, I will make you small among the nations;
    you will be utterly despised.
3 The pride of your heart has deceived you,
    you who live in the clefts of the rocks[a]
    and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
    ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
4 Though you soar like the eagle
    and make your nest among the stars,
    from there I will bring you down,”
declares the Lord.
5 “If thieves came to you,
    if robbers in the night—
oh, what a disaster awaits you!—
    would they not steal only as much as they wanted?
If grape pickers came to you,
    would they not leave a few grapes?
6 But how Esau will be ransacked,
    his hidden treasures pillaged!
7 All your allies will force you to the border;
    your friends will deceive and overpower you;
those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,[b]
    but you will not detect it.
8 “In that day,” declares the Lord,
    “will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,
    those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?
9 Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified,
    and everyone in Esau’s mountains
    will be cut down in the slaughter.
10 Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
    you will be covered with shame;
    you will be destroyed forever.
11 On the day you stood aloof
    while strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
    and cast lots for Jerusalem,
    you were like one of them.
12 You should not gloat over your brother
    in the day of his misfortune,
nor rejoice over the people of Judah
    in the day of their destruction,
nor boast so much
    in the day of their trouble.
13 You should not march through the gates of my people
    in the day of their disaster,
nor gloat over them in their calamity
    in the day of their disaster,
nor seize their wealth
    in the day of their disaster.
14 You should not wait at the crossroads
    to cut down their fugitives,
nor hand over their survivors
    in the day of their trouble.
15 “The day of the Lord is near
    for all nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
    your deeds will return upon your own head.
16 Just as you drank on my holy hill,
    so all the nations will drink continually;
they will drink and drink
    and be as if they had never been.
17 But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;
    it will be holy,
    and Jacob will possess his inheritance.
18 Jacob will be a fire
    and Joseph a flame;
Esau will be stubble,
    and they will set him on fire and destroy him.
There will be no survivors
    from Esau.”
The Lord has spoken.
19 People from the Negev will occupy
    the mountains of Esau,
and people from the foothills will possess
    the land of the Philistines.
They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,
    and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20 This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan
    will possess the land as far as Zarephath;
the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
    will possess the towns of the Negev.
21 Deliverers will go up on[c] Mount Zion
    to govern the mountains of Esau.
    And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Job 12:1-10

12 Then Job answered and said:

2 “No doubt you are the people,
    and wisdom will die with you.
3 But I have understanding as well as you;
    I am not inferior to you.
    Who does not know such things as these?
4 I am a laughingstock to my friends;
    I, who called to God and he answered me,
    a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.
5 In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune;
    it is ready for those whose feet slip.
6 The tents of robbers are at peace,
    and those who provoke God are secure,
    who bring their god in their hand.[a]
7 “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
    the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;
8 or the bushes of the earth,[b] and they will teach you;
    and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
9 Who among all these does not know
    that the hand of the Lord has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing
    and the breath of all mankind.

God Must Love Me More

January 14, 2013 — by Randy Kilgore

A [disaster] is despised in the thought of one who is at ease; it is made ready for those whose feet slip. —Job 12:5

During a difficult recession, I organized a support group for fellow Christians to help them cope with unemployment. We provided resumé reviews, networking, and prayer support. One problem emerged: Whenever someone got a job, he or she almost never returned to the group to offer encouragement. That increased the loneliness and isolation of those left in the group.

Worse, though, were comments from those who had never experienced a job loss. They mirrored the accusations of Job’s friends in his suffering: “If you were pure and upright, surely now [God] would awake for you, and prosper [you]” (8:6). By chapter 12, Job is starting to express things in terms modern workers can understand. He says that he feels despised by those whose life is easy (v.5).

When things are going well for us, we may start to think that we who don’t have troubles are better somehow, or are more loved by God, than those who are struggling. We forget that the effects of this fallen world are indiscriminate.

We are all loved by the Lord and we all need Him—in good times and bad. The successes, abundance, and positions that God has given to us are tools to help us encourage others in their time of need.

Give us the humility, Lord, not to act like Job’s friends
who accused him of sin because of his trials. Show us
how to help those who are struggling so that we might
give the kind of encouragement You have given us.
Humility toward God makes us gentle toward others.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
January 14, 2013

Called By God

I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ’Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ’Here am I! Send me’ —Isaiah 6:8

God did not direct His call to Isaiah— Isaiah overheard God saying, “. . . who will go for Us?” The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear “the voice of the Lord” continually asking, “. . . who will go for Us?” However, God doesn’t single out someone and say, “Now, you go.” He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, “Here am I! Send me.”

Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard-”the voice of the Lord.” In perfect freedom we too will say, “Here am I! Send me.”


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Calling Off the Pity Party - #6786

Monday, January 14, 2013

One of my favorite cartoon characters is Pigpen. From, you know, Peanuts. Maybe you're a Charlie Brown fan like I am, but Pigpen is that little fellow you always know when he's coming. Yeah, he never has to make a lot of noise, because there's this cloud of dust that precedes him wherever he goes and also follows him wherever he goes. Actually, I know some real people like Pigpen. Now wait, wait! I don't mean people who haven't showered for a month, but the dirt they circulate - it's emotional dirt. It's called self-pity. Every time they talk it seems like they're preoccupied with their needs, their latest problems, the unfair treatment they've gotten, their aches and pains. Now, listen, we all slip into the pit of self-pity once in a while, but some people live there. There's a great alternative to living in that Pigpen cloud of dust called self-pity.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Calling Off the Pity Party."

I'll tell you, you talk about having an excuse for a pity party, this man had everything going wrong. His name is Joseph. You remember the story. Of all twelve sons, Joseph's Dad treated him with preferential treatment. So his brothers turned against him, left him for dead in a pit. Slave traders came and took him away to Egypt.

Joseph got a great job, though, for a powerful man. And the man's wife tried to make moves on him, and Joseph refused to do it. Well, she accused him of having done it, and in her anger she gets him thrown into prison. So, his family is against him, he lost his job for doing the right thing. Now he's in prison. He doesn't know for how long he's going to be there. But here's what the Bible says about Joseph. It tells us that he knew the secret of how to be in a pit without being in "the pits"; how to be in a pit without having a pity party. And here's the secret of why Joseph was so unsinkable when everything went wrong and had everything to complain about.

Genesis 40:2-7 - "Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them. After they had been in custody for some time, each of the two men - the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt - had a dream that same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. So he asked Pharaoh's officials, 'Why are your faces so sad today?'"

See, Joseph was walking around this prison, not pitying himself, which I suppose justifiably he could have. No, he's looking for who needs him. He learned to live daily asking this question, I believe. Even when you are in a prison, "Who needs me here?" There was no time to just focus on how bad his situation was. No, he wanted to help these guys in their situation. And eventually, one of these men that Joseph cared about got him out of that prison.

The very best way out of your prison of depression and self-pity is to live each day looking for someone who needs you, not for what you need. It might be the new kid at school, or a friend who is struggling right now, or an excluded person who needs somebody to bring him in, put an arm around him, or that friend who's out of work, maybe a lonely older person you know. You might not have to look any farther than your own family to find the someone who needs you today.

But Jesus told us that we would find our life - not by looking for it, not by hanging onto it - by giving it away, He said. Not because you feel like it, but because Jesus lived like that, and because you know that's where to find light at the end of your own personal tunnel. Remember, even when you get home tonight, ask yourself the question, "So, who needs me here right now?"