Ezekiel 48, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Unpredictable Dependence

You have to wonder—if God’s most merciful act is His refusal to answer some of our prayers! We piously ask for His will and then pout if everything doesn’t go our way.

The problem is not that God doesn’t give us what we hope for. It’s that we do not know the right thing for which to hope. Hope isn’t what you expect—it’s what you would never dream. It’s a wild, improbable tale with a pinch-me-I’m-dreaming ending. It’s Abraham adjusting his bifocals so he can see, not his grandson, but his son. It’s Moses standing at the promised land, not with Aaron or Miriam at his side, but with Elijah and the crucified Christ.

Hope is not a granted wish or a favor performed. It’s far greater than that.  It’s a zany, unpredictable dependence on a God who loves to surprise us out of our socks!

From God Came Near

Ezekiel 48

The Division of the Land

48 “These are the tribes, listed by name: At the northern frontier, Dan will have one portion; it will follow the Hethlon road to Lebo Hamath; Hazar Enan and the northern border of Damascus next to Hamath will be part of its border from the east side to the west side.

2 “Asher will have one portion; it will border the territory of Dan from east to west.

3 “Naphtali will have one portion; it will border the territory of Asher from east to west.

4 “Manasseh will have one portion; it will border the territory of Naphtali from east to west.

5 “Ephraim will have one portion; it will border the territory of Manasseh from east to west.

6 “Reuben will have one portion; it will border the territory of Ephraim from east to west.

7 “Judah will have one portion; it will border the territory of Reuben from east to west.

8 “Bordering the territory of Judah from east to west will be the portion you are to present as a special gift. It will be 25,000 cubits[f] wide, and its length from east to west will equal one of the tribal portions; the sanctuary will be in the center of it.

9 “The special portion you are to offer to the Lord will be 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits[g] wide. 10 This will be the sacred portion for the priests. It will be 25,000 cubits long on the north side, 10,000 cubits wide on the west side, 10,000 cubits wide on the east side and 25,000 cubits long on the south side. In the center of it will be the sanctuary of the Lord. 11 This will be for the consecrated priests, the Zadokites, who were faithful in serving me and did not go astray as the Levites did when the Israelites went astray. 12 It will be a special gift to them from the sacred portion of the land, a most holy portion, bordering the territory of the Levites.

13 “Alongside the territory of the priests, the Levites will have an allotment 25,000 cubits long and 10,000 cubits wide. Its total length will be 25,000 cubits and its width 10,000 cubits. 14 They must not sell or exchange any of it. This is the best of the land and must not pass into other hands, because it is holy to the Lord.

15 “The remaining area, 5,000 cubits[h] wide and 25,000 cubits long, will be for the common use of the city, for houses and for pastureland. The city will be in the center of it 16 and will have these measurements: the north side 4,500 cubits,[i] the south side 4,500 cubits, the east side 4,500 cubits, and the west side 4,500 cubits. 17 The pastureland for the city will be 250 cubits[j] on the north, 250 cubits on the south, 250 cubits on the east, and 250 cubits on the west. 18 What remains of the area, bordering on the sacred portion and running the length of it, will be 10,000 cubits on the east side and 10,000 cubits on the west side. Its produce will supply food for the workers of the city. 19 The workers from the city who farm it will come from all the tribes of Israel. 20 The entire portion will be a square, 25,000 cubits on each side. As a special gift you will set aside the sacred portion, along with the property of the city.

21 “What remains on both sides of the area formed by the sacred portion and the property of the city will belong to the prince. It will extend eastward from the 25,000 cubits of the sacred portion to the eastern border, and westward from the 25,000 cubits to the western border. Both these areas running the length of the tribal portions will belong to the prince, and the sacred portion with the temple sanctuary will be in the center of them. 22 So the property of the Levites and the property of the city will lie in the center of the area that belongs to the prince. The area belonging to the prince will lie between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin.

23 “As for the rest of the tribes: Benjamin will have one portion; it will extend from the east side to the west side.

24 “Simeon will have one portion; it will border the territory of Benjamin from east to west.

25 “Issachar will have one portion; it will border the territory of Simeon from east to west.

26 “Zebulun will have one portion; it will border the territory of Issachar from east to west.

27 “Gad will have one portion; it will border the territory of Zebulun from east to west.

28 “The southern boundary of Gad will run south from Tamar to the waters of Meribah Kadesh, then along the Wadi of Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea.

29 “This is the land you are to allot as an inheritance to the tribes of Israel, and these will be their portions,” declares the Sovereign Lord.

The Gates of the New City

30 “These will be the exits of the city: Beginning on the north side, which is 4,500 cubits long, 31 the gates of the city will be named after the tribes of Israel. The three gates on the north side will be the gate of Reuben, the gate of Judah and the gate of Levi.

32 “On the east side, which is 4,500 cubits long, will be three gates: the gate of Joseph, the gate of Benjamin and the gate of Dan.

33 “On the south side, which measures 4,500 cubits, will be three gates: the gate of Simeon, the gate of Issachar and the gate of Zebulun.

34 “On the west side, which is 4,500 cubits long, will be three gates: the gate of Gad, the gate of Asher and the gate of Naphtali.

35 “The distance all around will be 18,000 cubits.[k]

“And the name of the city from that time on will be:

the Lord is there.”


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Psalm 103:1-11

Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord works righteousness
    and justice for all the oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
    his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;

More Than Enough

December 6, 2013 — by Cindy Hess Kasper

[The Lord] crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies. —Psalm 103:4

When I entertained a large group in my home, I feared that the menu I planned wouldn’t be enough to serve all the guests. I shouldn’t have worried though. Several friends unexpectedly brought additional items and all of us were able to enjoy the surprise surplus. We had more than enough and were able to share out of the abundance.

We serve a God of abundance who is consistently “more than enough.” We can see God’s generous nature in the way He loves His children.

In Psalm 103, David lists the many benefits our Father bestows on us. Verse 4 says that He redeems our life from destruction and crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies.

The apostle Paul reminds us that God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing” and “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 1:3; 3:20).

Because of His great love, we are called children of God (1 John 3:1), and His grace gives us “sufficiency in all things” that we “may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8).

God’s love and grace, spilled over into our lives, enables us to share them with others. The God of power and provision is always the God of “more than enough”!

Praise, my soul, the King of heaven;
To His feet your tribute bring.
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
Evermore His praises sing. —Lyte
We always have enough when God is our supply.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 7, 2013

Repentance

Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation . . . —2 Corinthians 7:10

Conviction of sin is best described in the words:

My sins, my sins, my Savior,
How sad on Thee they fall.

Conviction of sin is one of the most uncommon things that ever happens to a person. It is the beginning of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict people of sin (see John 16:8). And when the Holy Spirit stirs a person’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not that person’s relationship with others that bothers him but his relationship with God— “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight . . .” (Psalm 51:4). The wonders of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven person who is truly holy. He proves he is forgiven by being the opposite of what he was previously, by the grace of God. Repentance always brings a person to the point of saying, “I have sinned.” The surest sign that God is at work in his life is when he says that and means it. Anything less is simply sorrow for having made foolish mistakes— a reflex action caused by self-disgust.

The entrance into the kingdom of God is through the sharp, sudden pains of repentance colliding with man’s respectable “goodness.” Then the Holy Spirit, who produces these struggles, begins the formation of the Son of God in the person’s life (see Galatians 4:19). This new life will reveal itself in conscious repentance followed by unconscious holiness, never the other way around. The foundation of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a person cannot repent when he chooses— repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears.” If you ever cease to understand the value of repentance, you allow yourself to remain in sin. Examine yourself to see if you have forgotten how to be truly repentant.



A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

The Sandbag Syndrome - #7020

Friday, December 6, 2013

If you've ever given a child a helium balloon, you know you had better tie it to something or you're going to have a heartbroken kid pretty soon! That crazy balloon will just float away and slowly disappear into the sky, and you will have a crying child pointing at the sky and expecting you to somehow get up there and retrieve it.

Now, when you go from a helium balloon to a hot air balloon-the kind that carries people-you don't want that balloon to just go drifting off somewhere. That's why they put those sandbags on hot air balloons. I think they call it ballast. It's to hold them down; to help control them and to keep them from drifting off. Balloons need ballast; so do people.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Sandbag Syndrome."

As we look at our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 12:7 , realize that Paul has been telling us just before this about some very inflating times he has had with God. And then he says, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me." Actually that word thorn means a sharpened stake, and it's probably a better translation to say "for his flesh" than in it. So, he's saying, "God gave me, but then it was also a messenger from Satan, a stake for the flesh."

Now, that thorn-that stake-it applies not only to Paul's situation, but to that frustrating factor in your life that is limiting you, that's holding you down, maybe even tormenting you right now. You say, "Well, why?" Paul wondered, "Why is this in my life when God is using me so much?" Well, in the original language, the phrase that opens and closes this verse is repeated...the exact same phrase. He says, "So that I may not be exalted over much, I have this thorn in my flesh." "So that," again he says, "I may not be exalted over much."

In other words, if it weren't for this stake, I'd go drifting off on my own ambitions in my own strength. It's like divine sandbags holding him from drifting off. See, when God is working in your life and through your life, you need ballast to keep your feet on the ground. I call them the Lord's levelers. They aren't much fun; Paul's wasn't. But we really need them.

It's a pattern in Scripture. Elijah, at probably the greatest moment of his life is really being used by God-Mount Carmel where he defeated 400 false prophets. Right after that he's on the most wanted list, he's being pursued by the queen's forces, and he's very depressed. See, when a thorn comes at a time like that, you say, "Oh, something's wrong!" You know what? It may very well mean that everything's okay. The Lord has allowed some sandbags to come into your life.

Maybe you could be a little inflated by what God's been doing, and God doesn't want you to be flying off on your own. So, that thorn, that stake, that sandbag is a constant reminder of how much you need your Lord.

Like Paul, you can actually learn to thank the Lord for the ballast that He gives you with those sandbags. Sure, they're heavy, but they're really helpful.