Is guilt having its way with you? If so, here is a promise from Isaiah 1:18: "No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow." God can do what no one else can. He can extract every last mark from your soul.
Give God your guilt. Pray simply, "Father you are good. I need help. Forgive me. . ." Tell Jesus what you did. Do it as often as needed. One time, two times, ten times a day? By all means! Hold nothing back. No sin is too ancient or recent, too evil or insignificant.
Before amen-comes the power of a simple prayer. Sign on at BeforeAmen.com. Commit every day for 4 weeks, to pray 4 minutes. Then get ready to connect with God like never before!
From Before Amen
Numbers 16
Korah, Dathan and Abiram
Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites—Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth—became insolent[h] 2 and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. 3 They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”
4 When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. 5 Then he said to Korah and all his followers: “In the morning the Lord will show who belongs to him and who is holy, and he will have that person come near him. The man he chooses he will cause to come near him. 6 You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this: Take censers 7 and tomorrow put burning coals and incense in them before the Lord. The man the Lord chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far!”
8 Moses also said to Korah, “Now listen, you Levites! 9 Isn’t it enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the Lord’s tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? 10 He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too. 11 It is against the Lord that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?”
12 Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. But they said, “We will not come! 13 Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you also want to lord it over us! 14 Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you want to treat these men like slaves[i]? No, we will not come!”
15 Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord, “Do not accept their offering. I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, nor have I wronged any of them.”
16 Moses said to Korah, “You and all your followers are to appear before the Lord tomorrow—you and they and Aaron. 17 Each man is to take his censer and put incense in it—250 censers in all—and present it before the Lord. You and Aaron are to present your censers also.” 18 So each of them took his censer, put burning coals and incense in it, and stood with Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 19 When Korah had gathered all his followers in opposition to them at the entrance to the tent of meeting, the glory of the Lord appeared to the entire assembly. 20 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 21 “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.”
22 But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, “O God, the God who gives breath to all living things, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?”
23 Then the Lord said to Moses, 24 “Say to the assembly, ‘Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram.’”
25 Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. 26 He warned the assembly, “Move back from the tents of these wicked men! Do not touch anything belonging to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.” 27 So they moved away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing with their wives, children and little ones at the entrances to their tents.
28 Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: 29 If these men die a natural death and suffer the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. 30 But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the realm of the dead, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.”
31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. 33 They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. 34 At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!”
35 And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
36 The Lord said to Moses, 37 “Tell Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, to remove the censers from the charred remains and scatter the coals some distance away, for the censers are holy— 38 the censers of the men who sinned at the cost of their lives. Hammer the censers into sheets to overlay the altar, for they were presented before the Lord and have become holy. Let them be a sign to the Israelites.”
39 So Eleazar the priest collected the bronze censers brought by those who had been burned to death, and he had them hammered out to overlay the altar, 40 as the Lord directed him through Moses. This was to remind the Israelites that no one except a descendant of Aaron should come to burn incense before the Lord, or he would become like Korah and his followers.
41 The next day the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. “You have killed the Lord’s people,” they said.
42 But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the tent of meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. 43 Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the tent of meeting, 44 and the Lord said to Moses, 45 “Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” And they fell facedown.
46 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started.” 47 So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. 48 He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. 49 But 14,700 people died from the plague, in addition to those who had died because of Korah. 50 Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the tent of meeting, for the plague had stopped.[j]
Numbers 16:1 Or Peleth—took men
Numbers 16:14 Or to deceive these men; Hebrew Will you gouge out the eyes of these men
Numbers 16:50 In Hebrew texts 16:36-50 is numbered 17:1-15.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, November 17, 2014
Read: Ephesians 6:10-18
The Whole Armor of God
A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we[a] are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. 15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.[b] 16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.[c] 17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.[d]
Footnotes:
6:12 Some manuscripts read you.
6:15 Or For shoes, put on the readiness to preach the Good News of peace with God.
6:16 Greek the evil one.
6:18 Greek all of God’s holy people.
Insight
The church at Ephesus, to whom the letter of Ephesians was written, was begun by the apostle Paul after he visited the city (Acts 18:18-21). Paul’s work there was followed by that of Apollos (vv.24-26), a man who had great passion but an incomplete understanding of the way of Christ. This prompted two of Paul’s colleagues, Aquila and Priscilla (v.26), to take Apollos under their wing and mentor him. This collaboration in ministry reveals how the work of the early church, so often focused on Paul’s work, was a true team effort.
Defeated Adversary
By Cindy Hess Kasper
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. —1 Peter 5:8
The roaring lion is the legendary “king of the jungle.” But the only lions many of us see are the lethargic felines that reside in zoos. Their days are filled with lots of rest, and their dinner is served to them without the lions having to lift a single paw.
In their natural habitat, however, lions aren’t always living a laid-back life. Their hunger tells them to go hunting, and in doing so they seek the young, weak, sick, or injured. Crouching in tall grasses, they slowly creep forward. Then with a sudden pounce, they clamp their jaws to the body of their victim.
Peter used “a roaring lion” as a metaphor for Satan. He is a confident predator, looking for easy prey to devour (1 Peter 5:8). In dealing with this adversary, God’s children must be vigilant at putting “on the whole armor of God” and thus they can “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph. 6:10-11).
The good news is that Satan is a defeated adversary. While he is a powerful foe, those who are protected by salvation, prayer, and the Word of God need not be paralyzed in fear at this roaring lion. We are “kept by the power of God” (1 Peter 1:5). James 4:7 assures us: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Lord, we know that our enemy seeks to devour us.
Please protect us from him. We believe Your
Word that He who is in us is greater than he
who is in the world.
No evil can penetrate the armor of God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, November 17, 2014
The Eternal Goal
By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing…I will bless you… —Genesis 22:16-17
Abraham, at this point, has reached where he is in touch with the very nature of God. He now understands the reality of God.
My goal is God Himself…
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.
“At any cost…by any road” means submitting to God’s way of bringing us to the goal.
There is no possibility of questioning God when He speaks, if He speaks to His own nature in me. Prompt obedience is the only result. When Jesus says, “Come,” I simply come; when He says, “Let go,” I let go; when He says, “Trust God in this matter,” I trust. This work of obedience is the evidence that the nature of God is in me.
God’s revelation of Himself to me is influenced by my character, not by God’s character.
’Tis because I am ordinary,
Thy ways so often look ordinary to me.
It is through the discipline of obedience that I get to the place where Abraham was and I see who God is. God will never be real to me until I come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ. Then I will know and can boldly proclaim, “In all the world, my God, there is none but Thee, there is none but Thee.”
The promises of God are of no value to us until, through obedience, we come to understand the nature of God. We may read some things in the Bible every day for a year and they may mean nothing to us. Then, because we have been obedient to God in some small detail, we suddenly see what God means and His nature is instantly opened up to us. “All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen…” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Our “Yes” must be born of obedience; when by obedience we ratify a promise of God by saying, “Amen,” or, “So be it.” That promise becomes ours.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, November 17, 2014
A Soldier of Your Own - #7266
So who cares about the weather in Afghanistan, or Germany, or the Middle East, or Asia? Well...if you've got a soldier there, you care. All of the sudden you want to know what's going on, the news about that place is very important to you. You know, when you know and love someone, you're following all the news very closely from the part of the world that is now their home. It's amazing how your interests, how your involvement changes when you have a soldier of your own.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Soldier of Your Own."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Philippians 1, and we're reading the words of Paul; one of God's greatest warriors. We'll begin reading at verse 3. Now remember, this is written from prison, "I thank my God every time I remember you, and all my prayers for all of you. I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel, from the first day until now." Now verse 7, "It is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart whether I'm in chains or defending and confirming the Gospel. All of you share in God's grace with me."
Paul's great human source of strength in prison seems to be his brothers and sisters at the church in Philippi. In a sense, those Christians had attached themselves to a frontline warrior named Paul. They gave him prayer support. They gave him financial support. They gave him affection, encouragement, they cared about his work, they cared about his health, and they took an interest in the places he went. They had a soldier of their own! Do you?
See I believe God wants to lay on the heart of every believer, one of his frontline soldiers. So that you have someone for whom you feel some personal responsibility: missions, missionaries, who are reaching some corner of a lost world. And all of that that you hear about in missions messages and that's just a concept to you of missions and the great commission and going and making disciples of all nations, that all comes to life when you allow God to make you a personal partner with one of His warriors. What did Paul say? "I always pray with Joy because of your partnership in the Gospel." Who would call YOU a partner with them in the Gospel? See then it's not just pictures and missionary letters, and some detached general concern.
My wife and I have friends who are in various parts of the world representing Christ. We pray intensely for them. I think our kids grew up knowing the meaning of missions because missions had names for them. They were guests in our house. Those are the letters that we read in that stack of mail. We write letters to them.
See, each of us needs a deeply personal attachment to the cause of telling a dying world about Jesus. The Great Commission with a name on it. That's what happens when you partner with a missionary. That's what it means to know that you have someone like a Paul that's a missionary, that's on the frontlines. And if you are a Paul, if you are that missionary; you know what it means to have someone like those Philippian Christians. It's a source of strength when you need it most. I cannot tell you how much it has meant to us personally. In critical moments in ministry, in intense battles, in what seemed impossible situations, to know that there are people who said, "Ron, we pray for you every day." It is the greatest gift you could give me; it's the greatest gift you can give to anyone in God's work.
So, would you take some initiative to find a Paul that you could get involved with? God wants to do a divine matchup between a missionary who needs you and a missionary you need. You know what, we wake up to a part of the world when we have someone there that we love, when we have a soldier there. The Lord of the Harvest wants to give you a stake in some corner of this lost world because you've got a soldier of your own.
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