Zechariah 12 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: No Harm Done

Insensitivity makes a wound that heals slowly!
Words like, "Whoa-she's put on some weight!" Or a question carelessly asked, "Trish, is it true you and Brian are separated?"
If you were to tell the one who threw these thoughtless darts about the pain they caused, the response would be, "Oh, but I had no intention. . . it was just a slip of the tongue."  No one's at fault.  No harm done.
But as the innocent attackers go on their way excusing themselves, a wounded soul is left in the dust.  God says, "He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin" (Proverbs 13:3).
The message is clear.  Excuses are shallow when they come from those who claim to be followers and imitators of God. Insensitive slurs may be accidental-but they're not excusable!
From God Came Near

Zechariah 12

Jerusalem’s Enemies to Be Destroyed

A prophecy: The word of the Lord concerning Israel.

The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. 4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’

6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.

7 “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

Mourning for the One They Pierced

10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit[a] of grace and supplication. They will look on[b] me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.

Footnotes:

Zechariah 12:10 Or the Spirit
Zechariah 12:10 Or to


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Romans 8:31-39

More Than Conquerors

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[a]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Footnotes:

Romans 8:36 Psalm 44:22
Romans 8:38 Or nor heavenly rulers

In His Grip

December 31, 2013 — by David H. Roper

I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. —Philippians 3:12

When we cross a busy street with small children in tow, we put out our hand and say, “Hold on tight,” and our little ones grasp our hand as tightly as they can. But we would never depend on their grasp. It is our grip on their hand that holds them and keeps them secure. So Paul insists, “Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me” (Phil. 3:12). Or more exactly, “Christ has a grip on me!”

One thing is certain: It is not our grip on God that keeps us safe, but the power of Jesus’ grasp. No one can take us out of His grasp—not the devil, not even ourselves. Once we’re in His hands, He will not let go.

We have this assurance: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29).

Doubly safe: Our Father on one side and our Lord and Savior on the other, clasping us in a viselike grip. These are the hands that shaped the mountains and oceans and flung the stars into space. Nothing in this life or the next “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).

Father, I thank You for the nail-pierced hands
that reached out in love and took me by my hand.
You have led me by Your right hand throughout life.
I trust You to hold me and keep me safe to the end.
The One who saved us is the One who keeps us.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 31, 2013

Yesterday

You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard —Isaiah 52:12

Security from Yesterday. “. . . God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow. “. . . the Lord will go before you . . . .” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste . . . .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

More-Itis - #7037

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

My son and I were trying to remember those basic food groups the other day. And we decided that there's one more than we learned in school. Haven't they added junk food as a basic food group? The problem with all that stuff, you know, the chips, candies, and cookies. They're habit forming! A long time ago, before you could actually skip the commercials, there was one that showed a well-known comedian reaching into a bag for one chip, then he got another and another. And he finally says, "You can't eat just one."
Frankly, I can eat just one of those chips, but just don't put a bag of chocolate covered peanuts in front of me. I'll eat the bag too. My desire for just one, "Sure, I'll have just one right now. I'll save the rest for later. I'll spread them over several days." Then I'll spread them over my body permanently, because my desire for one leads to one more and one more. Don't be too quick to judge me. I'll bet you have your weakness too. You know, you get a little, and you can never get enough.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "More-Itis."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Philippians 4. You need to remember that Paul writes this from a prison cell, chained to a Roman guard. "I am not saying this (He says) because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."
Some missionary friends of ours were recently asked to house sit for some friends of theirs, and they're having a great time. It's a refreshing change to be out of their apartment for a week and they're enjoying a well-furnished home. I said to them, "Hey, don't get spoiled." They said, "I'm afraid we will." I said, "Did you ever notice when God gives us a special gift, it's hard to just enjoy it and then move on. We want more." Like those chips; we can't have just one.
Paul's attitude is one of wonderful emotional freedom. He sees God as his provider, his trainer, and he's learned the secret of personal peace. It's called contentment. Someone has said that contentment is not getting everything you always wanted; it's realizing how much you already have. You know, that's a good thing to think about on the edge of a brand new year isn't it?
Unfortunately you and I are easily afflicted with that growing restlessness I call "more-itis". We get a little; we've got to have more. God answers your prayer or just surprises you with some material goodies, and instead of gratitude we move to grabitude-I've got to grab more of this. He gives you that opportunity you always wanted. Briefly celebrate it, and then we're hankering for another opportunity-a bigger one. God gives us a little more house, a little more money, or a car. And instead of feeding our contentment, it fuels the monster of more.
What more has you restless today: Got to have more recognition, more glory, more money, more position, more people? Why can't we just say, "Thank you for the gift" and leave it there? Our eyes always seem to be on what we don't have. You have so much more than your Master did. So do I.
The contented child of God doesn't compare, doesn't compete, and doesn't complain. Contentment simply trusts God to give the gifts as you need them and then to trust Him in between gifts. So, celebrate today and each gift that God gave you yesterday, and then be glad for what's already in your hand.
Let God turn your appetite for more into contentment with enough, and it will be a much happier new year.

Zechariah 11, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Reliable

Reliable! Liable means responsible.  Re means over and over again.

I’m wondering if someone’s listening who’s a saint of re-liability? If you are, I can’t resist the chance to say two things. The first?  Thank you!

Thank you teachers for the countless Sunday school lessons prepared and delivered with tenderness. Thank you senior saints for a generation of prayer. Thank you missionaries for your bravery in sharing the timeless truth. Thank you preachers. You thought we weren’t listening, but we were.

Thanks to all of you who practice on Monday what you hear on Sunday.  It’s on the back of your fidelity that the Gospel rides. You are reliable! You get the job done.

I said I had two things to say.  What’s the second? Keep pitching! Your Hall of Fame award is just around the corner.

From God Came Near

Zechariah 11

Open your doors, Lebanon,
    so that fire may devour your cedars!
2 Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen;
    the stately trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks of Bashan;
    the dense forest has been cut down!
3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds;
    their rich pastures are destroyed!
Listen to the roar of the lions;
    the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
Two Shepherds

4 This is what the Lord my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter. 5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them. 6 For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” declares the Lord. “I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.”

7 So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.

The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them 9 and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.”

10 Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. 11 It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord.

12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.

13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.

14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel.

15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hooves.

17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd,
    who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm and his right eye!
    May his arm be completely withered,
    his right eye totally blinded!”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

A New Heaven and a New Earth

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

Footnotes:

Revelation 21:1 Isaiah 65:17
Revelation 21:4 Isaiah 25:8

Mixed Emotions

December 30, 2013 — by Bill Crowder

Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief. —Proverbs 14:13

For Marlene and me, “mixed emotions” precisely describes our wedding. Don’t take that the wrong way. It was a wonderful event that we continue to celebrate more than 35 years later. The wedding celebration, however, was dampened because Marlene’s mom died of cancer just weeks before. Marlene’s aunt was a wonderful stand-in as the “mother of the bride,” but, in the midst of our happiness, something clearly wasn’t right. Mom was missing, and that affected everything.

That experience typifies life in a broken world. Our experiences here are a mixed bag of good and bad, joy and pain—a reality that Solomon expressed when he wrote, “Even in laughter the heart may sorrow, and the end of mirth may be grief” (Prov. 14:13). The merry heart often does grieve, for that is what this life sometimes demands.

Thankfully, however, this life is not all there is. And in the life that is to come, those who know Christ have a promise: “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). In that great day, there will be no mixed emotions—only hearts filled with the presence of God!

Peace! peace! wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above,
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray,
In fathomless billows of love. —Cornell
For the Christian, the dark sorrows of earth will one day be changed into the bright songs of heaven.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 30, 2013

“And Every Virtue We Possess”

. . . All my springs are in you —Psalm 87:7

Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “. . . put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!

The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.

And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Everything's Moving - #7036

Monday, December 30, 2013

It's a good thing our oldest son could outrun his sister when they were kids, especially after one of our "earthquake drills." Oh, the earth wasn't really shaking. It started after we returned from a trip to California where we heard a lot about earthquakes. So - for no intelligent reason I can think of - I would occasionally yell randomly, "Earthquake drill!" And the ensuing script went something like this. Brother would run to his sister and hold her tightly. Father: "What are you doing, son?" Brother: "You said if there was an earthquake, we should hang onto something heavy!" This is when speed saved his young life.

Actually, that is pretty good advice when things are moving that never moved before. Hang onto something heavy.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everything's Moving."

Lately, I've been getting that shifting landscape feeling a lot. Believers feeling comfortable watching things they would have never watched ten years ago; accepting behaviors and ideas that would have been unthinkable only a short time ago. Feeling free to wear less and show more. Letting their kids do what the culture calls cool; dissolving marriages that were, until recently, thought to be something that "no man" should "put asunder." And all this among growing questions about what marriage even is. Yes, the ground's been moving under our feet a lot lately, and it's more important than ever to "hang onto something heavy."

God's not surprised by all this. He described the tectonic shifts that would happen as human history was winding down and the return of His Son was approaching. In 2 Timothy 4:3-4 He says, "For the time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths."

There's a phenomenon at work here that I call the equal distance syndrome. There's always an equal distance between what the culture accepts and what Christians accept. And that distance can make church folks feel like they're doing pretty well morally compared to everyone else.

Problem: as the culture moves, believers move with it. So, we end up being where folks without the Manufacturer's instructions were just a few years ago. Still different, but drifting inexorably away from the unmoving standards of Almighty God. The culture moves. The polls move. Public opinion moves. God's people move. God doesn't.

In that same Bible passage that foretold the moral drift from the truth, God directs us to hang onto something heavy. So heavy, and so true that it is forever anchored in place. Our word for today from the Word of God, 2 Timothy 3:14-15 , "They will be deceived, but you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true. You have been taught the Holy Scriptures from childhood. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives."

No opinion poll, no majority vote, no societal shift can change God's mind or God's Word. His word on every moral issue is final - non-negotiable and the only way to make life work. To live as we're wired by our Creator to live, to avoid emotional and spiritual disaster, and to avoid the judgment of the God who drew the boundaries that we feel so free to question.

There's a classic story about a ship captain who realizes there's a light out there in the fog, and whatever's out there is on a collision course with his vessel. He radios that they need to adjust their course. A voice comes back telling him to adjust his. The captain again orders the man on the other end to change course, this time reminding him he's a captain. Only to be answered by a "seaman second class" demanding that the captain change course. Then came the final exchange. "I'm a battleship! Change course now." "I'm a lighthouse. Change your course."

The Lighthouse of God's Word won't be moving. It's there to show us where it's safe and to keep us from going down. Our drift from that Light leads to one destination - the rocks.

Revelation 1 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado: Majority Rules?

May the Lord lead your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s patience. 2 Thessalonians 3:5

Where do we get these ideas? The majority is not always right. In fact, it’s rarely right.

If the majority had ruled, the children of Israel never would have left Egypt. They would have voted to stay in bondage. If the majority had ruled, David never would have fought Goliath. His brothers would have voted for him to stay with the sheep. What’s the point?

You must listen to your own heart.

God says you’re on your way to becoming a disciple when you can keep a clear head and a pure heart.

Do you ever try to do something right and yet nothing seems to turn out like you planned?

Take heart. When you do what is right—God remembers.

Revelation 1
New International Version (NIV)
Prologue

1 The revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testifies to everything he saw—that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

Greetings and Doxology

4 John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits[a] before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”[b]
    and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
    and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”[c]
So shall it be! Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”

John’s Vision of Christ

9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,[d] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

19 “Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. 20 The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels[e] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Footnotes:

Revelation 1:4 That is, the sevenfold Spirit
Revelation 1:7 Daniel 7:13
Revelation 1:7 Zech. 12:10
Revelation 1:13 See Daniel 7:13.
Revelation 1:20 Or messengers


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 3 John

The elder,

To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth.

2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3 It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

5 Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters,[a] even though they are strangers to you. 6 They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. 7 It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. 8 We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.

9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. 10 So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius is well spoken of by everyone—and even by the truth itself. We also speak well of him, and you know that our testimony is true.

13 I have much to write you, but I do not want to do so with pen and ink. 14 I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.

Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

Footnotes:

3 John 1:5 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family.

Letter To A Child

December 29, 2013 — by Dennis Fisher

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. —3 John 4

Even at the end of his life, C. S. Lewis showed an interest in the spiritual nurture of younger believers. Although in ill health, he took time to respond to the letter of a child named Philip. Complimenting the boy’s fine written expression, Lewis said he was delighted that Philip understood that in the Narnia Chronicles the lion Aslan represented Jesus Christ. The next day, Lewis died at his home in the Kilns, Oxford, England, one week before his 65th birthday.

The apostle John, in his later years, sent a letter to his spiritual children. In it we see the joy of a mature believer encouraging his spiritually younger disciples to keep walking in the truth and following Christ.

John wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 1:4). Short by New Testament standards, John’s letter demonstrates the joy that comes in nurturing and watching the next generation’s spiritual growth.

Encouraging spiritual understanding in the next generation should be the pursuit of mature believers. Sending a note of appreciation, giving a word of encouragement, praying, or offering sound advice can all be ways of helping others on their spiritual journey with God.

To help another in Christ to grow
You have to pay a price
It takes the giving of yourself
And that means sacrifice. —D. DeHaan
The journey is better with someone who knows the way.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 29, 2013

Deserter or Disciple?

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more —John 6:66

When God, by His Spirit through His Word, gives you a clear vision of His will, you must “walk in the light” of that vision (1 John 1:7). Even though your mind and soul may be thrilled by it, if you don’t “walk in the light” of it you will sink to a level of bondage never envisioned by our Lord. Mentally disobeying the “heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) will make you a slave to ideas and views that are completely foreign to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to “walk in the light” of the vision that has been given to you. Don’t compare yourself with others or judge them— that is between God and them. When you find that one of your favorite and strongly held views clashes with the “heavenly vision,” do not begin to debate it. If you do, a sense of property and personal right will emerge in you— things on which Jesus placed no value. He was against these things as being the root of everything foreign to Himself— “. . . for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t see and understand this, it is because we are ignoring the underlying principles of our Lord’s teaching.

Our tendency is to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we had when God revealed His will to us. But if a New Testament standard is revealed to us by the light of God, and we don’t try to measure up, or even feel inclined to do so, then we begin to backslide. It means your conscience does not respond to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter.

Zechariah 10, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado: Jesus is the Gift

Little Carol with the pigtails, freckles, and shiny back shoes. Don’t let her sweet description fool you.  She broke my heart!  On the day of the great gift exchange in my fourth-grade class, I ripped the wrapping paper off the box to find—stationery.  Stationery!  Brown envelopes and folded note cards with a picture of a cowboy lassoing a horse.  What ten-year-old boy uses stationery?  There’s a term for this kind of gift:  obligatory!

I know we shouldn’t complain, but don’t you detect a lack of originality? And when a person gives a genuine gift, don’t you cherish the presence of a gift just for you?  Have you ever received such a gift?  Yes, you have.  You’ve been given a perfect personal gift.  One just for you. God says to anyone who’ll listen:  ”There has been born for you…a Savior…. ”  Jesus is the gift!

 “There has been born for you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11”

From GRACE

Zechariah 10

The Lord Will Care for Judah

Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime;
    it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms.
He gives showers of rain to all people,
    and plants of the field to everyone.
2 The idols speak deceitfully,
    diviners see visions that lie;
they tell dreams that are false,
    they give comfort in vain.
Therefore the people wander like sheep
    oppressed for lack of a shepherd.
3 “My anger burns against the shepherds,
    and I will punish the leaders;
for the Lord Almighty will care
    for his flock, the people of Judah,
    and make them like a proud horse in battle.
4 From Judah will come the cornerstone,
    from him the tent peg,
from him the battle bow,
    from him every ruler.
5 Together they[d] will be like warriors in battle
    trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets.
They will fight because the Lord is with them,
    and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.
6 “I will strengthen Judah
    and save the tribes of Joseph.
I will restore them
    because I have compassion on them.
They will be as though
    I had not rejected them,
for I am the Lord their God
    and I will answer them.
7 The Ephraimites will become like warriors,
    and their hearts will be glad as with wine.
Their children will see it and be joyful;
    their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.
8 I will signal for them
    and gather them in.
Surely I will redeem them;
    they will be as numerous as before.
9 Though I scatter them among the peoples,
    yet in distant lands they will remember me.
They and their children will survive,
    and they will return.
10 I will bring them back from Egypt
    and gather them from Assyria.
I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon,
    and there will not be room enough for them.
11 They will pass through the sea of trouble;
    the surging sea will be subdued
    and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.
Assyria’s pride will be brought down
    and Egypt’s scepter will pass away.
12 I will strengthen them in the Lord
    and in his name they will live securely,”
declares the Lord.

Zechariah 10:5 Or ruler, all of them together. / 5 They


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Colossians 1:21-23

 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of[a] your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Footnotes:

Colossians 1:21 Or minds, as shown by

The Presentation

December 28, 2013 — by Joe Stowell

He has reconciled . . . to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. —Colossians 1:21-22

My wife, Martie, is a great cook. After a long day I often look forward to the smell of spicy aromas that promise a tasty feast. Not only does she know how to prepare a meal, but she is also a master at the presentation. The colors of the food on the plate, beautifully arranged in a harmony of meat, white puffy rice, and vegetables welcome me to pull up my chair and enjoy her handiwork. But the food was not so attractive before she got her hands on it. The meat was raw and squishy, the rice was hard and brittle, and the vegetables needed to be scrubbed and trimmed.

It reminds me of the gracious work Jesus has done for me. I am well aware of my frailty and propensity to sin. I know that in and of myself I am not presentable to God. Yet when I’m saved, Jesus makes me a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). He takes me just as I am and makes me just as I should be—“holy, and blameless, and above reproach” (Col. 1:22). He presents me to our Father as a thing of beauty worthy to be in His presence.

May His transforming work on our behalf stimulate us to live up to the presentation and to be humbly grateful to Christ for His finishing work in our lives!

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me—
All His wonderful passion and purity!
O Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine,
Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. —Orsborn
Jesus takes us as we are and makes us what we should be.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 28, 2013

Continuous Conversion

. . . unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 18:3

These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.

To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.

Zechariah 9, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Divine Warnings

Warnings.  Red lights in life that signal us of impending danger. They exist in all parts of life. Sirens scream as a marriage starts to sour; alarms blare when a faith weakens.
We usually know when trouble is just around the corner. Christians who've fallen away felt the fire waning long before it went out.  Unwanted pregnancies or explosions of anger are usually the result of a history of ignoring warnings about an impending fire.
Are your senses numb? Are your eyes trained to turn and roll when they should pause and observe?  One-night stands.  Dust-covered Bibles.  Careless choice of companions.  Denial of Christ.
Proverbs 19:27 says, "Cease listening to [My] instruction and you will stray from the words of knowledge."
Divine warnings.  Inspired by God; tested by time. Heed them and safety is yours to enjoy!
From God Came Near

Zechariah 9

Judgment on Israel’s Enemies

 A prophecy:

The word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrak
    and will come to rest on Damascus—
for the eyes of all people and all the tribes of Israel
    are on the Lord—[a]
2 and on Hamath too, which borders on it,
    and on Tyre and Sidon, though they are very skillful.
3 Tyre has built herself a stronghold;
    she has heaped up silver like dust,
    and gold like the dirt of the streets.
4 But the Lord will take away her possessions
    and destroy her power on the sea,
    and she will be consumed by fire.
5 Ashkelon will see it and fear;
    Gaza will writhe in agony,
    and Ekron too, for her hope will wither.
Gaza will lose her king
    and Ashkelon will be deserted.
6 A mongrel people will occupy Ashdod,
    and I will put an end to the pride of the Philistines.
7 I will take the blood from their mouths,
    the forbidden food from between their teeth.
Those who are left will belong to our God
    and become a clan in Judah,
    and Ekron will be like the Jebusites.
8 But I will encamp at my temple
    to guard it against marauding forces.
Never again will an oppressor overrun my people,
    for now I am keeping watch.
The Coming of Zion’s King

9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
    righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
    and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
    and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
    His rule will extend from sea to sea
    and from the River[b] to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
12 Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope;
    even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
13 I will bend Judah as I bend my bow
    and fill it with Ephraim.
I will rouse your sons, Zion,
    against your sons, Greece,
    and make you like a warrior’s sword.
The Lord Will Appear

14 Then the Lord will appear over them;
    his arrow will flash like lightning.
The Sovereign Lord will sound the trumpet;
    he will march in the storms of the south,
15     and the Lord Almighty will shield them.
They will destroy
    and overcome with slingstones.
They will drink and roar as with wine;
    they will be full like a bowl
    used for sprinkling[c] the corners of the altar.
16 The Lord their God will save his people on that day
    as a shepherd saves his flock.
They will sparkle in his land
    like jewels in a crown.
17 How attractive and beautiful they will be!
    Grain will make the young men thrive,
    and new wine the young women.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Jeremiah 29:4-14

29:4-14
New International Version (NIV)
4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 8 Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.

10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.[a] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

Footnotes:

Jeremiah 29:14 Or will restore your fortunes

The Challenge Of Confinement

December 27, 2013 — by David C. McCasland

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. —2 Peter 3:18

At the age of 86, Ken Deal concluded more than 3 decades of volunteer jail and prison ministry with a final Sunday sermon. His message to the inmates was about serving the Lord while incarcerated. Many of the examples he used came from prisoners, some serving life sentences. In a place everyone wants to leave, he encouraged them to grow and to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others.

After the people of Judah were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar and deported to Babylon because of their disobedience to God, the prophet Jeremiah sent them this message from the Lord: “Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands . . . that you may be increased there, and not diminished” (Jer. 29:5-6).

We may face some limiting circumstance today. Whether it is the result of our failure, or through no fault of our own, we can “go” through it or seek God’s strength to “grow” through it. The challenge of every confinement is to increase rather than decrease; to grow and not diminish. The Lord’s goal is to give us “a future and a hope” (v.11).

I know, Lord, that You can use the circumstances
I am in for my good. Change me, and grow
me in my knowledge of You and intimacy
with You. Give me Your strength.
A limited situation may afford the soul a chance to grow.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 27, 2013

Where the Battle is Won or Lost

’If you will return, O Israel,’ says the Lord . . . —Jeremiah 4:1

Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until I do this, I will lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year, but that will depend on me, not God. However long it takes, I must wrestle with it alone before God, and I must resolve to go through the hell of renunciation or rejection before Him. Nothing has any power over someone who has fought the battle before God and won there.

I should never say, “I will wait until I get into difficult circumstances and then I’ll put God to the test.” Trying to do that will not work. I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul, where no one else can interfere. Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity, disaster, and defeat before the world are as sure as the laws of God. The reason the battle is lost is that I fight it first in the external world. Get alone with God, do battle before Him, and settle the matter once and for all.

In dealing with other people, our stance should always be to drive them toward making a decision of their will. That is how surrendering to God begins. Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point— a great crossroads in our life. From that point we either go toward a more and more slow, lazy, and useless Christian life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Back From the Edge - #7035

Friday, December 27, 2013

I guess there's a daredevil inside of most little boys. They like to push the limits of safety and sanity. If you've got a boy or ever raised one, you know that. I'm not sure that part of the boy ever grows up, even when that boy becomes a man. I know that whenever we would hike to the top of a mountain, I would tend to head toward the edge of the cliff. That's where you get the best view, right?
And you know what? Even now I'll walk as close as I can to the edge, and you can hear the increasingly urgent counsel of my wife, who is saying, "Ron, you have children and grandchildren; you have one life. Don't go so close to the edge." Where we lived in New Jersey, near New York City, there are these beautiful palisades; sheer cliffs along the Hudson River. You can look across at New York City from there. And it was kind of fun to step to the edge and look down into the river. I stopped doing that. It got to the point where too many people had fallen over that edge.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Back From the Edge."
1 Samuel 15 is the story of Saul disobeying God's orders to him. Saul is the King of Israel; he has been told to destroy totally the corrupted culture of the Amalekites. It's like a poison, a cancer in the land. Sometimes God will destroy a sin-saturated culture directly as He did in Sodom. Sometimes He will do it though His people. Here He is giving Saul orders to do that through his army: "Leave nothing; take nothing." Listen to what happened.
Chapter 15, verse 9, it says, "Saul and the army spared the king, and the best of the sheep and the cattle, the fat calves and lambs-everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely." Okay, they are obviously disobeying God's orders. Verse 19 says, "Why did you not obey the Lord?" This is Samuel coming to him. "'Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the sight of the Lord?' 'But I did obey the Lord' Saul said." Well folks, not true.
Verse 22, Samuel says, "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king." Here's Saul's line of thinking, "How close can I get to the edge of disobeying without crossing the line?" Instead of complete obedience, he flirted with sin and punishment by obeying as little as he could get away with. He was wrong, and he paid the price of God's blessing.
Now, we do this all the time. When there's any question about where God's boundary is, we run to the edges of sin, take the most liberal position we can, and in the process we often wander into sin and we lose God's blessing.
Teenagers say, "How far can I go physically?" And they're unsure where the moral line is. They try to do everything physically that they can and then say, "Well, I'm still a virgin." You can't be in danger of doing too little physically, only too much. "Well, I really didn't lie." You intended to deceive didn't you? That's a lie. "Well, the Bible doesn't forbid drinking." It sure does discourage it if you want God's best. "Well, divorce..." Now we'll come up with the most liberal interpretation we can find; that's what we go for, and we cross God's boundaries in the process.
I would rather risk over-obeying the Lord than under-obeying Him. I'd rather be too far inside God's line than to risk crossing it. I'd rather err on the side of caution than carelessness. There's something in us that likes to go as close to the edge as possible. But my friend, too many have fallen over that edge.
God's blessing is too precious to risk by living on the edge of sin.

Jude 1 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Blind Ambition

Success at all cost.  Becoming a legend in one’s own time. Climbing the ladder.  King of the mountain.  Top of the heap. We call it blind ambition!

We make heroes out of people who are ambitious.  We hold them up as models for our kids. And rightly so, for this world would be in bad shape without people who dream of touching the heavens. Ambition is a gift in the soul which creates disenchantment with the ordinary.

But left unchecked it becomes an insatiable addiction to power and prestige. The husband who feeds his career with twelve-hour days, the social-conscious mother who never misses a chance to serve on a committee.  “It’s all for a good cause,” she fools herself.

Blind ambition.  Distorted values. God won’t tolerate it. Blind ambition is a giant step away from God and a step closer to catastrophe!

From God Came Near

Jude 1

 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for[a] Jesus Christ:

2 Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People

3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

5 Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord[c] at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7 In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

8 In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”[d] 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.

11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”[e] 16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

A Call to Persevere

17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.[f]

Doxology

24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Footnotes:

Jude 1:1 Or by; or in
Jude 1:4 Or individuals who were marked out for condemnation
Jude 1:5 Some early manuscripts Jesus
Jude 1:9 Jude is alluding to the Jewish Testament of Moses (approximately the first century a.d.).
Jude 1:15 From the Jewish First Book of Enoch (approximately the first century b.c.)
Jude 1:23 The Greek manuscripts of these verses vary at several points.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Job 2:3-13

 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”

4 “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

6 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”

7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.

9 His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”

10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish[a] woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”

In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

11 When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. 12 When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

Footnotes:

Job 2:10 The Hebrew word rendered foolish denotes moral deficiency.

December 26, 2013 — by Julie Ackerman Link

They sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great. —Job 2:13

After 20 children and 6 staff members were murdered in a Connecticut school, the entire nation was stunned that such a horrific thing could happen. Everyone focused on the tragedy and the questions surrounding it: What kind of person would do such a thing, and why? How can we prevent it from happening again? How can we help the survivors? Amid the chaos, an unlikely group moved in and made a difference.

From Chicago came dogs— specially trained golden retrievers that offered nothing except affection. Dogs don’t speak; they simply offer their presence. Children traumatized by the violence opened up to them, expressing fears and emotions they had not spoken to any adult. Tim Hetzner of Lutheran Church Charities said, “The biggest part of their training is just learning to be quiet.”

As we learn from the book of Job, people in grief do not always need words. Sometimes they need someone to sit silently with them, to listen when they need to speak, and to hug them when their sorrow turns to sobs.

God may not intervene to change circumstances and He may not explain suffering, but He comforts us through the presence of other believers (Col. 4:8).

He’s with us in the valley,
Amid the darkest night
He tells us in our sorrow;
Faith will give way to sight. —D. DeHaan
Listening may be the most loving and Christlike thing you do today.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 26, 2013

“Walk in the Light”

If we walk in the light as He is in the light . . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin —1 John 1:7

To mistake freedom from sin only on the conscious level of our lives for complete deliverance from sin by the atonement through the Cross of Christ is a great error. No one fully knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced at Calvary. The evidence that I have been delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. For a person to really know what sin is requires the full work and deep touch of the atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the imparting of His absolute perfection.

The Holy Spirit applies or administers the work of the atonement to us in the deep unconscious realm as well as in the conscious realm. And it is not until we truly perceive the unrivaled power of the Spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7 , which says, “. . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This verse does not refer only to conscious sin, but also to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Spirit in me can accomplish.

I must “walk in the light as He is in the light . . .”— not in the light of my own conscience, but in God’s light. If I will walk there, with nothing held back or hidden, then this amazing truth is revealed to me: “. . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses [me] from all sin” so that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke in me. On the conscious level it produces a keen, sorrowful knowledge of what sin really is. The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit’s hatred for sin, anything that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To “walk in the light” means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thick Ice - #7034

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Let me give you a little weather preference test; as if we get to vote. Why don't you rank these one, two, three from the best to the worst: rain, snow, ice. I just gave you my ranking. Rain is no problem. I grew up in the Midwest; and I lived in the Northeast and so I can handle snow. Even when you have to walk or drive, there's at least like something to dig into. But ice? Oh, man, ice storms can leave some very nice things behind. Every branch, limb, and home is glistening with this beautiful coating of ice. But it is a pain if you've got to go anywhere. Reminds me of an old song, "Freeze a Jolly Good Fellow."

Well, anyway, we had some major league ice storms this past winter, and I went out one morning and I found my car entombed with this thick, hard armor of ice. I could have just tried to chip it away. In fact I started to do that. But I would have either damaged the car or damaged its' owner. So I decided to work smart. I let the car run for a while, and I warmed it up from the inside. You know what happened. A few minutes later that ice came off pretty easily.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Thick Ice."

Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts chapter 16. It's kind of about ice around a heart. See, the ice around a car is hard to penetrate, but the ice around a person is even harder. Maybe you can think of a person that you're concerned for right now who's pretty hard. Maybe some person who's got an affect on your future or your security, and there's ice around them.

Well, almost everyone has at least one impossible person in their world; one person whose ice you just can't seem to get through. Let's look at God's way of getting through the ice. For example, in Acts 16:14 , the missionary Paul comes upon a woman named Lydia, a prominent merchant in her town, and it says, "The Lord opened her heart to respond."

Back in the Old Testament Saul didn't want to be the first king of Israel until it says in 1 Samuel 10:9 , "The Lord changed his heart." Proverbs 21:21 it says, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. He directs it like a water course wherever He pleases." See, God is in the heart changing business; the heart warming business.

Think about the person in your world who's hard to reach. It might be a defiant or a wandering child, or an unresponsive mate. Maybe you've got a hard-to-talk-to boss, or employee, or a coworker, or fellow student, or a person who will be making the decisions that could greatly affect your church or your ministry; maybe someone who seems as if he or she won't ever give Jesus a chance. Well, God's method of melting the ice is the same as mine for de-icing my car. Warm that person up from the inside, change their heart, soften their heart, turn their heart your direction.

Malachi 4:6 says, "He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers." So often we try all kinds of things to convince people, and nag them, and politic with them, and lobby them. But recently I've been learning the power of a simple but powerful prayer, "Lord, change his heart; change her heart. Warm them on the inside. Turn their heart your direction, my direction. Move them to be open to what You want."

Many of us have made getting through human ice a lot harder by under-praying in this area. Why don't you focus your praying on the hearts of key people? Ask God to remove the blinders, to give you favor, to neutralize prejudices, to create openness. We would probably have a lot less conflict and a lot more success if we'd spend more time talking to God about a person than we do talking to the person or about the person.

And remember, God is a heart warmer, a heart softener, a heart changer. Pray as if He is. It works with a frozen car or a frozen person. When they've been warmed on the inside it's a lot easier to get through that ice. And believe me, no one can thaw out a heart like God can.

A New Story™

A New Story™

Zechariah 8, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: God Sent a Savior

Every Christmas I read this reminder that came in the mail several years ago. If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.

But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior!  Christmas cards. These punctuated promises. Phrases filled with the reason we do it all anyway. He became like us, so we could become like him. Angels still sing and the star still beckons.

Isaiah 9:6 proclaims, “God has given a son to us. His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God. Prince of Peace.”

Ah, the wonder of it all is that He loves each one of us like there was only one of us to love!

 From Grace for the Moment

Zechariah 8

The Lord Promises to Bless Jerusalem

The word of the Lord Almighty came to me.

2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her.”

3 This is what the Lord says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the Faithful City, and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the Holy Mountain.”

4 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each of them with cane in hand because of their age. 5 The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”

6 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “It may seem marvelous to the remnant of this people at that time, but will it seem marvelous to me?” declares the Lord Almighty.

7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west. 8 I will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.”

9 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Now hear these words, ‘Let your hands be strong so that the temple may be built.’ This is also what the prophets said who were present when the foundation was laid for the house of the Lord Almighty. 10 Before that time there were no wages for people or hire for animals. No one could go about their business safely because of their enemies, since I had turned everyone against their neighbor. 11 But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as I did in the past,” declares the Lord Almighty.

12 “The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people. 13 Just as you, Judah and Israel, have been a curse[k] among the nations, so I will save you, and you will be a blessing.[l] Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong.”

14 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Just as I had determined to bring disaster on you and showed no pity when your ancestors angered me,” says the Lord Almighty, 15 “so now I have determined to do good again to Jerusalem and Judah. Do not be afraid. 16 These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; 17 do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord.

18 The word of the Lord Almighty came to me.

19 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah. Therefore love truth and peace.”

20 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, 21 and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty. I myself am going.’ 22 And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat him.”

23 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’”

Zechariah 8:13 That is, your name has been used in cursing (see Jer. 29:22); or, you have been regarded as under a curse.
Zechariah 8:13 Or and your name will be used in blessings (see Gen. 48:20); or and you will be seen as blessed

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: 1 John 1:1-7

The Incarnation of the Word of Life

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.

Light and Darkness, Sin and Forgiveness

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all[b] sin.

Footnotes:

1 John 1:4 Some manuscripts your
1 John 1:7 Or every

Christingle

December 25, 2013 — by Bill Crowder

That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. —John 1:9

In the Czech Republic and other places, the Christmas celebration includes “Christingles.” A Christingle is an orange, representing the world, with a candle placed in the top of it to symbolize Christ the light of the world. A red ribbon encircles the orange, symbolizing the blood of Jesus. Four toothpicks with dried fruits are placed through the ribbon into the sides of the orange, representing the fruits of the earth.

This simple visual aid vividly represents the purpose behind Christ’s coming—to bring light into the darkness and to redeem a broken world by shedding His blood.

In John’s account of Christ’s life, the disciple describes Jesus as the Light of the world. He wrote of Christ: “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9). Not only did Christ the Light come to penetrate our world’s darkness, but He is also “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (v.29).

Think of it! The baby of Bethlehem became the living, risen Christ who has rescued us from our sin. And so John instructs us to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7). May all who have experienced His rescue find in Jesus the peace of walking in His light.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in Thee tonight. —Brooks
The newborn Christ-child became the Light of the world and the Lamb of God.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 25, 2013

His Birth and Our New Birth

’Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ’God with us’ —Matthew 1:23

His Birth in History. “. . . that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.

His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you . . .” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.

God Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Missing at the Party - #7033

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Billy was just about to celebrate his tenth birthday. It was the day of his birthday party, and Mom had made sure that all of his little friends were invited over. She came in the family van, drove up to the school and picked everybody up; went on home and all the kids stormed into the house with all their presents, and laid them on the table that had been set aside just for that. Then they went ahead and they played some great games, they played a little kick ball in the back yard, and they came in and they sat down for the goodies. The dining room was all decorated, and they sat around the table and in came the cake with ten candles on it. Sure enough!

Everybody began to sing "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Billy..." And then they noticed one very important ingredient in the party was missing. In all the excitement someone had forgotten to pick up Billy at school. The poor kid was still there and nobody noticed. He was missing at his own party! Well, there is a tremendous birthday party going on right now all across our country - a birthday party for Jesus. A lot of music, a lot of gifts, a lot of decorations, a lot of noise, but is He missing at the party?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Missing at the Party."

Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Luke chapter 2 and verse 11. We'd better be in the Christmas Story today, right? We'll get there in just a minute. But I have to ask the question after thinking about Billy not being at his own birthday party. Are we so caught up in the celebration like those kids were at the birthday party that we are missing Christ Himself?

I mean there are some special family observances, and that's a great thing; we love ours. And it's a time for acts of reaching out, showing God's love, demonstrating His love. Even yet it's a day to do something for somebody who is really in need. It's a season to be touching people who are more open to listening to Jesus than ever before. At more than any other time of the year, they're soft toward Him.

But more importantly it's time to consider how much room we have made for Jesus ourselves. Luke 2:11 , "Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord." Do you know that in the angel's announcement of this first Christmas He uses the phrase "to you" four times. "To you the Savior is born." "To you the Savior is born." Not to Mary, not to Joseph. This baby is for you, and Christmas is a time for you to decide finally what you're going to do with this Savior. Not to just go to His meetings, do all the Christian things, hang out in a religion that's all about Jesus, or to just passively believe in Him, but to commit yourself to the Savior who is for you.

Actually, there are five things you can do with this Jesus who came that Christmas. One is you can out-and-out reject Him and say, "I don't want Him. I'm not interested. I don't want you." Secondly, you can just postpone Him and say, "Jesus, I'll get around to You. I think one day I'll open my heart to You, but I've got some living I want to do first. Except the Bible says, "Man does not know what a day will bring forth. Don't boast about tomorrow." We can't count on tomorrow.

Well, you can postpone Him. Or you can ignore Him and just say, "You know what? I'm not against Him. I'm not going to reject Him. I just am kind of busy right now. Fourthly, you can agree with Him. "Yeah, I agree with everything about Jesus coming for, dying for our sins." Or you could totally give yourself to Him. Those first four reactions all end up at the same place; in a Christ-less eternity called hell. Only totally giving yourself to this Jesus takes you to heaven.

See, loving you is why Christ was born. And loving Him is why you were born; the reason you were put here. So, it's time to make room for Him this Christmas. The old hymn says, "Room for business, room for pleasure, but for Christ the crucified not a place that He can enter in the heart for which He died."

This Christmas I'd love to help you find your way home. Would you visit me; join me at ANewStory.com and make this Christmas your first Christmas with Christ in your heart.

Zechariah 7, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Ordinary No More

It was an ordinary night with ordinary sheep and ordinary shepherds. Then the black sky exploded with brightness.  Trees that had been shadows jumped into clarity.  Sheep that had been silent became a chorus of curiosity.  One minute the shepherd was dead asleep, the next he was rubbing his eyes and staring into the face of an angel!
The night was ordinary no more. The angel came in the night because it's when lights are best seen and when they are most needed.  It all happened in a most remarkable moment-a moment like no other.  God became a man.  Divinity arrived.  Heaven opened and placed her most precious one in a human womb.  God had come near!
In the mystery of Christmas, we find its majesty. The mystery of how God became flesh, why he chose to come at all, and how much he must love his people!
"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men"  (Luke 2:13).
From Christmas Stories

Zechariah 7

Justice and Mercy, Not Fasting

7 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. 2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the Lord 3 by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

4 Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: 5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’”

8 And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: 9 “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 12 They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.

13 “‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty. 14 ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’”


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Luke 2:1-14

The Birth of Jesus

 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Footnotes:

Luke 2:2 Or This census took place before

One Silent Night

December 24, 2013 — by Cindy Hess Kasper

Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. —Luke 2:10

Simon had emigrated from the Netherlands to the United States. His wife, Kay, and all three of their children had been born in the US. Then Jenny married Roberto from Panama. Bill married Vania from Portugal. And Lucas married Bora from South Korea.

On Christmas Eve, as the family gathered for a celebration, they began singing “Silent Night” in their native tongues—a sweet sound indeed for the Lord of the earth to hear as they celebrated the birth of His Son.

Two thousand years ago, the silence of a quiet night ended abruptly when an angel told the shepherds a baby had been born: “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people” (Luke 2:10). Then a multitude of angels began praising God, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (v.14). Christ the Lord, the Savior of the world, was born!

God’s gracious gift, His Son, which was announced on that long-ago silent night, is still available to everyone—“every tribe and nation” (Titus 2:11-14; Rev. 5:9-10). “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Silent night! holy night! Shepherds quake at the sight;
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia—
Christ the Savior is born! Christ the Savior is born! —Mohr
Heaven’s choir came down to sing when heaven’s King came down to save.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 24, 2013

The Hidden Life

. . . your life is hidden with Christ in God —Colossians 3:3

The Spirit of God testifies to and confirms the simple, but almighty, security of the life that “is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul continually brought this out in his New Testament letters. We talk as if living a sanctified life were the most uncertain and insecure thing we could do. Yet it is the most secure thing possible, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most dangerous and unsure thing is to try to live without God. For one who is born again, it is easier to live in a right-standing relationship with God than it is to go wrong, provided we heed God’s warnings and “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).

When we think of being delivered from sin, being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and “walk[ing] in the light,” we picture the peak of a great mountain. We see it as very high and wonderful, but we say, “Oh, I could never live up there!” However, when we do get there through God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak at all, but a plateau with plenty of room to live and to grow. “You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).

When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. If you see Him when He says, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:27), I defy you to worry. It is virtually impossible to doubt when He is there. Every time you are in personal contact with Jesus, His words are real to you. “My peace I give to you . . .” (John 14:27)— a peace which brings an unconstrained confidence and covers you completely, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. “. . . your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and the peace of Jesus Christ that cannot be disturbed has been imparted to you.

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Everything But Jesus - #7032

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

It was our grandson's two-year Christmas, and he was so much fun to watch. One day during the season, his mother unpacked the family Nativity Set for her and her boy to set up, and he loved it. They put up the manger, and Mary and Joseph, and the angels, and the shepherds. They put out everyone except the one figure they couldn't find. They couldn't find baby Jesus. Well, our grandson was pretty concerned about this missing person, so Mommy told him Daddy would look for baby Jesus when he got home from the office. A lot of hours passed. Our grandson heard Daddy coming up the back steps. He ran to the door and greeted his father with an impassioned two-word question, "Where's Jesus?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everything But Jesus."
That question from the heart of a two-year-old might be the question God is asking some of us as He looks at our lives this Christmas season, "Where's Jesus?" It's possible to be like our grandson was that day. Spiritually, you have everything except Jesus.
The danger of that deadly deficit is what God addresses in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Corinthians 13:5. The sobering truth is that these words were, and are, written to church folks; the folks involved in a lot of Christian things - maybe like you. Here's God's challenge: "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?"
Apparently, you can be into Jesus, but not have Jesus in you! God says here that the deciding factor as to whether or not you belong to Him is whether or not "Christ Jesus is in you." Now He's in you only if there's been a time when you personally have flung open the door of your heart and welcomed Him in as your personal Savior from your personal sin. If you don't know you've done that, you probably haven't. It's like getting married. You know if you've made the commitment or not.
But you can miss the fact that you've missed Jesus when you've got everything else. You've got a Christian vocabulary, Christian beliefs, a Christian image, Christian fellowship, maybe a Christian environment or a Christian family. But it could be that there's never been, though, that deciding transaction with Christ; that deeply personal moment when you talk to Him and give yourself to Him with all the faith you've got. So as God looks at all you've got spiritually, is He asking, "Where's Jesus?"
If you've consciously begun your relationship with Jesus Christ, He is in your life right now. He's clearly said, if you open the door, "I will come in." It is settled. But if you've never really given yourself to Jesus, I know it's hard to admit it to yourself, but it's deadly not to. And be grateful. God has given you another opportunity; He has given you this opportunity this Christmas season to take the step that will finally, really bring Jesus into your life, because some day will be your last opportunity.
Would you tell Him right now you want to know Him for real; not just know about Him? You want to know him for real beginning this very day; not just to have some beliefs about Him, but to belong to Him. It's time for you to tell Him that's what you want; to admit to Him you realize there's never been a time you've really given yourself to Him. But this is the day you open your heart to the man who died for you; who came to this earth to die to pay for your sin. He's alive because of Resurrection Day that first Easter, and He's available to you. He came that first Christmas, and now He's come where you are to come into your life. Are you ready to tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours?"
I would love to help you get started with Him. It would be a great joy of my life to help you do that. Would you join me at ANewStory.com? That's our website, ANewStory.com and let's get this settled.
Today, please make sure that Jesus is in your heart.

Zechariah 6, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Touch the World

Where will God go to touch the world?  What a great thought… and an even better question!  It's that time of year when we hear about the virgin birth. And yet it's more, much more, than a Christmas story. It's a story of how close Christ will come to you!
The first stop on his itinerary was a womb. Where will God go to touch the world? Look deep within Mary for an answer. Better still-look deep within yourself. "Christ in you, the hope of glory!" (Colossians 1:27).
Christ grew in Mary until he had to come out. Christ will grow in you until the same occurs. He will come out in your speech, in your actions, in your decisions. Every place you live will be a Bethlehem.  And every day you live will be a Christmas.
Deliver Christ into the world!
From Grace for the Moment

Zechariah 6

Four Chariots

 I looked up again, and there before me were four chariots coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze. 2 The first chariot had red horses, the second black, 3 the third white, and the fourth dappled—all of them powerful. 4 I asked the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these, my lord?”

5 The angel answered me, “These are the four spirits[d] of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world. 6 The one with the black horses is going toward the north country, the one with the white horses toward the west,[e] and the one with the dappled horses toward the south.”

7 When the powerful horses went out, they were straining to go throughout the earth. And he said, “Go throughout the earth!” So they went throughout the earth.

8 Then he called to me, “Look, those going toward the north country have given my Spirit[f] rest in the land of the north.”

A Crown for Joshua

9 The word of the Lord came to me: 10 “Take silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon. Go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. 11 Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jozadak.[g] 12 Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. 13 It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he[h] will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.’ 14 The crown will be given to Heldai,[i] Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen[j] son of Zephaniah as a memorial in the temple of the Lord. 15 Those who are far away will come and help to build the temple of the Lord, and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the Lord your God.”


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Read: Matthew 1:18-25

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son

18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[a]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet[b] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[c] because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[d] (which means “God with us”).

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Footnotes:

Matthew 1:18 Or The origin of Jesus the Messiah was like this
Matthew 1:19 Or was a righteous man and
Matthew 1:21 Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves.
Matthew 1:23 Isaiah 7:14

God With Us

December 23, 2013 — by Joe Stowell

Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, “God with us.” —Matthew 1:23

His presence in the room was obvious. Everyone else was dressed rather formally. He had on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and a weathered baseball cap. I couldn’t help but notice him as I addressed students that day in a seminary chapel in Bucharest, Romania. I have no idea why he didn’t conform to the norms of seminary attire, but I do remember his name.

At the close of the meeting he came up to introduce himself. When I asked him his name, he answered, “Immanuel.” I was surprised by his answer and asked if he knew what that meant; he unashamedly replied, “Yes—‘God with us!’”

I’ve often thought about that young man and how he stood out in the crowd. Just as Jesus came to bring the presence of God into our world—“Immanuel . . . God with us” (Matt. 1:23)—so too we are called to bring His presence into our world. Jesus made that clear when He said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21).

This Christmas, we can give the gift of God’s likeness through us. When our lives reflect the God who lives in us, we can be different from the world, and that difference can bless others with the transforming presence of His love and grace.

The gift of God’s presence through you is your gift to the world.


My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
December 23, 2013

Sharing in the Atonement

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . —Galatians 6:14

The gospel of Jesus Christ always forces a decision of our will. Have I accepted God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ? Do I have even the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self? Do I long to be so closely identified with Jesus that I am of no value for anything except Him and His purposes? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can commit myself under the banner of His Cross, and that means death to sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either decide to tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you, or that at any cost you want to be identified with His death. When you act in confident faith in what our Lord did on the cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place immediately. And you will come to know through a higher knowledge that your old life was “crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your old life is dead, having been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you now enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.

Every once in a while our Lord gives us a glimpse of what we would be like if it were not for Him. This is a confirmation of what He said— “. . . without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That is why the underlying foundation of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the joy of our first introduction into God’s kingdom as His purpose for getting us there. Yet God’s purpose in getting us into His kingdom is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Clouds Over Christmas - #7031

Monday, December 23, 2013

I just dropped off a Christmas poinsettia at a friend's house - she was getting home from the hospital today. Her husband died of cancer last week while she was laid up with back surgery. For her, I guess the words "Merry Christmas" will sound kind of hollow.
Of course, she's not alone this Christmas. In many families each Christmas, there's someone missing around the table. In just a few weeks, my wife and I have had ten friends die. There are clouds over Christmas for us, especially for the families of those who are gone.
Grief and sadness, mixed with "joy to the world" and "happy holidays" - it's a bittersweet cup at best.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'd like to have A Word With You today about "Clouds Over Christmas."
Still, there is, as was announced that first Christmas, "good news of great joy" - even for those who are walking through "the valley of the shadow of death" (Psalm 23:4) as the Bible says. Maybe, especially for them.
Not long before Jesus was born, God sent this prophecy written in our Word for today from the Word of God, Luke 1:78-79, "The rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living...in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." Some 700 years before, the prophet Isaiah said, as He prophesied Messiah's birth, "On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned" (Isaiah 9:6; 9:1).
It is for those very people in the "land of the shadow" that Jesus came that first Christmas, because we all take our turn there. When the days run out for someone we love or for us. Everyone has a last Christmas, and few of us know which one that will be.
But that's why Christmas is such good news. Because Jesus came to illuminate those clouds and shine the light of heaven on the darkest corridor of all. He walked out of His grave to prove there is life beyond the funeral. Not some religious speculation; living proof. His Light has illuminated the mysterious darkness called death and shown us a heaven beyond.
But it took Him carrying His cross into that darkness and absorbing all the hell for all my sin. Jesus died so all of us God-disobeyers could, as He said, "cross over from death to life" (John 5:24). Death is an abyss of total darkness if we have to face it with our sins unforgiven, because "the wages of sin (the Bible says) is death" (Romans 3:23) - forever death. That's eternal separation from a totally holy God.
But here's the hallelujah part: "God sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him" (1 John 4:9). Death penalty paid. Death's power shattered. Now all death can do for those who belong to
Jesus is send them home. Because of Jesus, death can't end a relationship between Jesus-followers; it can only interrupt it. There's a reunion coming!
So, in the words of the immortal 23rd Psalm, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." Darkness has lost. The Light has won. So we can say, "Merry Christmas!"
There's a wonderful peace - a peace like no other - in knowing that you are ready for eternity, whenever and however it comes. It is a peace you can experience this Christmas season and from now on.
If you'd like to know more about belonging to Jesus, I wish you'd join me at our website and let me show you there how you can be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com. You can receive there the greatest gift anyone could ever imagine. The Bible says, "The gift of God is eternal life" (Romans 6:23).