Sometimes I wonder…how can our world get so chaotic? And I sometimes wonder why so many hearts have to hurt? Do you ever get doubt storms? Do you have turbulent days when the enemy is too big, and the answers too few? Every so often a storm will come, and I'll look up into the blackening sky and say, "God, a little light, please?"
The light came for Jesus' disciples. A figure came to them walking on the water. It wasn't what they expected. Maybe they were listening for a divine proclamation to still the storm. One thing is for sure, they were not looking for Jesus to come walking on the water. "It's a ghost,' they said and cried out in fear." And since Jesus came in a way they didn't expect, they almost missed seeing the answer to their prayers. And unless we look and listen closely, we risk making the same mistake!
From In the Eye of the Storm
Exodus 20
The Ten Commandments
And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before[d] me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”
20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”
21 The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
Idols and Altars
22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: 23 Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.
24 “‘Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. 25 If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. 26 And do not go up to my altar on steps, or your private parts may be exposed.’
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
August 03, 2014
Read: Matthew 28:1-10
Jesus Has Risen
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Insight
The “other Mary” (Matt. 28:1) in today’s account is apparently the same woman described as “Mary the wife of Clopas” who was at the cross and burial of Jesus (27:61; John 19:25). It appears she was the mother of James “the Less” and Joses (Mark 15:40), and despite sharing the same name, she was a sister of Mary, Jesus’ mother (John 19:25).
Is There Hope?
By Anne Cetas
“He is not here; for He is risen, as He said.” —Matthew 28:6
I sat quietly at the graveside of my father, waiting for the private family burial of my mother to begin. The funeral director carried the urn that held her ashes. My heart felt numb and my head was in a fog. How can I handle losing them both within just 3 months? In my grief I felt loss and loneliness and a little hopeless facing a future without them.
Then the pastor read about another graveside. On the first day of the week, early in the morning, women went to Jesus’ tomb, carrying spices for His body (Matt. 28:1; Luke 24:1). There they were startled to find an open and empty tomb—and an angel. “Do not be afraid,” he said to them (Matt. 28:5). They didn’t need to be afraid of the empty tomb or of the angel, because he had good news for them.
Hope stirred when I heard the next words: “He is not here; for He is risen, as He said” (v.6). Because Jesus had come back to life, death had been conquered! Jesus reminded His followers just a few days before His death: “Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19).
Even though we grieve at the loss of our loved ones, we find hope through the resurrection of Jesus and His promise that there is life after death.
Thank You, Lord, for comfort and hope.
What would we do without You? Your death
and resurrection provide all we need for
this life and the next.
Because He lives, we live.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 15, 2014
The Evidence of the New Birth
You must be born again —John 3:7
The answer to Nicodemus’ question, “How can a man be born when he is old?” is: Only when he is willing to die to everything in his life, including his rights, his virtues, and his religion, and becomes willing to receive into himself a new life that he has never before experienced (John 3:4). This new life exhibits itself in our conscious repentance and through our unconscious holiness.
“But as many as received Him. . .” (John 1:12). Is my knowledge of Jesus the result of my own internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I have learned through listening to others? Is there something in my life that unites me with the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior? My spiritual history must have as its underlying foundation a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. To be born again means that I see Jesus.
“. . . unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God ” (John 3:3). Am I seeking only for the evidence of God’s kingdom, or am I actually recognizing His absolute sovereign control? The new birth gives me a new power of vision by which I begin to discern God’s control. His sovereignty was there all the time, but with God being true to His nature, I could not see it until I received His very nature myself.
“Whoever has been born of God does not sin. . .” (1 John 3:9). Am I seeking to stop sinning or have I actually stopped? To be born of God means that I have His supernatural power to stop sinning. The Bible never asks, “Should a Christian sin?” The Bible emphatically states that a Christian must not sin. The work of the new birth is being effective in us when we do not commit sin. It is not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have actually stopped sinning. Yet 1 John 3:9 does not mean that we cannot sin— it simply means that if we will obey the life of God in us, that we do not have to sin.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 15, 2014
Stuffed But Sitting On It - #7200
Somewhere in the Fathers Handbook, I think, it says that the father gets to carve the turkey, or the ham, or the roast. And I don't mind; I feel very fatherly when I get to do that, very manly sitting at the head of the table with my super carving knife. But I have observed this phenomenon. Often I end up with an empty plate. See, sometimes at a large dinner gathering, you've got someone who loads up their own plate, starts chowing down and shortstops all the food where they are. Ever notice that it all seems to pile up sometimes in a corner and doesn't get moved past there? After all, they're satisfied, so some of us end up with nothing in our corner, while some lucky guy has it all in his corner. Now, what's fair is that you take what you need and you pass it on to others who don't have any yet. When you've got plenty it's awfully easy to forget those who haven't been served yet.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stuffed But Sitting On It."
Our word for today from the Word of God is found in Matthew 10. Jesus is speaking to His disciples, who have in a sense been sitting at the dinner table and being very well fed. They have sat in many meetings with Jesus, they have heard and seen a lot, and now He calls them together in Matthew 10:8 and says, "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons." He's sending them out now. And then these beautiful words, and I remember a chorus to this effect, "Freely you have received; freely give." In other words, Jesus is saying, "Look, I passed it to you. Not just so you could be full, but you're supposed to pass it to others."
There's a story in the Old Testament in the book of 2 Kings. It tells about four lepers who lived outside a city that was being starved to death by an enemy siege. Finally they decided just to surrender to the enemy thinking, "Well, you know what? We're probably going to be killed anyway, or we're going to die of starvation. So, maybe they'll take us and feed us, or we'll just die like we're going to die here." What happened was they found out that God had performed a miracle and driven the enemy out. The camp was empty. And they ended up with all of this food that had been left behind! They're sitting there eating and chowing down all night long while people are still starving to death in the city that they just came from.
Finally, by the morning light, one of them says, "This is a day of good tidings, and we do not well we are keeping it to ourselves." What a picture of us as American Christians. We're the spiritually wealthiest Christians in history: seminars, and workshops, and radio programs, and TV programs, and conferences, and magazines, and books, and websites. It's just so easy to get caught up in a comfortable cycle of listening and just saying, "Well, you know, that was a nice sermon, wasn't it?" Going to Bible study, and attending a fellowship we enjoy, going to concerts, and feeling real spiritual a lot of the time.
And we are to be growing. We are to be filling up with spiritual resources-loading up on the Lord, loading up on His truth-but not just to enjoy it ourselves. "Freely you have received; freely give." Jesus said, "To whom much is given, much is required." Shouldn't you be giving as much as you're getting? Responsibility goes with all that you're hearing, and seeing, and learning. It goes with those riches. There are lost people who need at least a little of what you have a lot of.
Every believer should be actively involved in reaching the lost; rescuing the dying somehow...including you, in an outreach to people that you are uniquely close to, or by starting or supporting outreach programs through your church, or by giving time or talent to a Christian ministry that is actively rescuing lost people. Maybe even by changing your life plans. But just don't keep piling it up on your plate, because there are people all around you who are dying of starvation.