Max Lucado Daily: A Whispered Reminder
In Matthew 6, Jesus prayed, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
A prayer that begins. . . "May I not view you as a distant father, but as one who has come to earth and understands the challenges and temptations of my life. Be near me today, whisper reminders that you're close. My friends need you today as they make difficult decisions in their workplace and in their families. Show them you are closer than even their earthly fathers. Thank you for hearing me and listening to my pleas. It's in Jesus' name I pray this, amen."
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Before Amen
Leviticus 21
Rules for Priests
The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: ‘A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean for any of his people who die, 2 except for a close relative, such as his mother or father, his son or daughter, his brother, 3 or an unmarried sister who is dependent on him since she has no husband—for her he may make himself unclean. 4 He must not make himself unclean for people related to him by marriage,[a] and so defile himself.
5 “‘Priests must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their beards or cut their bodies. 6 They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God. Because they present the food offerings to the Lord, the food of their God, they are to be holy.
7 “‘They must not marry women defiled by prostitution or divorced from their husbands, because priests are holy to their God. 8 Regard them as holy, because they offer up the food of your God. Consider them holy, because I the Lord am holy—I who make you holy.
9 “‘If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she disgraces her father; she must be burned in the fire.
10 “‘The high priest, the one among his brothers who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and who has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let his hair become unkempt[b] or tear his clothes. 11 He must not enter a place where there is a dead body. He must not make himself unclean, even for his father or mother, 12 nor leave the sanctuary of his God or desecrate it, because he has been dedicated by the anointing oil of his God. I am the Lord.
13 “‘The woman he marries must be a virgin. 14 He must not marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a woman defiled by prostitution, but only a virgin from his own people, 15 so that he will not defile his offspring among his people. I am the Lord, who makes him holy.’”
16 The Lord said to Moses, 17 “Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. 18 No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; 19 no man with a crippled foot or hand, 20 or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. 21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the Lord. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. 22 He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; 23 yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.’”
24 So Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Read: Genesis 12:1-10; 13:1
The Call of Abram
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5 He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—his livestock and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran—and headed for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan, 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.
7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.[a]” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 After that, Abram traveled south and set up camp in the hill country, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built another altar and dedicated it to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord. 9 Then Abram continued traveling south by stages toward the Negev.
Abram and Sarai in Egypt
10 At that time a severe famine struck the land of Canaan, forcing Abram to go down to Egypt, where he lived as a foreigner.
Footnotes:
12:7 Hebrew seed.
Mysterious Detours
By Dave Branon
Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted, and You delivered them. —Psalm 22:4
Before my wife and I embarked on a 400-mile road trip, I set up the GPS with our daughter’s home in Missouri as the destination. As we traveled through Illinois, the GPS instructed us to get off the Interstate, resulting in a detour through the city of Harvey. After the GPS directed us back to
I-80, I was baffled by this mysterious detour. Why were we directed off a perfectly good highway?
I’ll never know the answer. We continued on our way, and we trusted the GPS to get us there and home again.
That got me to thinking about detours in life. We may seem to be traveling on a smooth pathway. Then for some reason, God redirects us into an unfamiliar area. Perhaps it is an illness, or a crisis at work or school, or an unexpected tragedy occurs. We don’t understand what God is doing.
Abraham faced a mysterious detour when God told him, “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house” (Gen. 12:1). Surely Abraham must have wondered why God was routing him to the Negev desert. But he trusted God and His good purposes.
A GPS may make mistakes, but we can trust our unfailing God (Ps. 22:4). He will guide us through all our mysterious detours and lead us where He wants us to go.
We seek Your guidance, Lord, but we understand
that our path won’t always be without challenges.
Help us to trust You through the detours—knowing
that You have our best interests and Your honor at heart.
We don’t need to see the way when we stay close to the One who does.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 16, 2014
The Key to the Master’s Orders
Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest —Matthew 9:38
The key to the missionary’s difficult task is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work— that is, not work as the word is commonly used today, which often results in the shifting of our focus away from God. The key to the missionary’s difficult task is also not the key of common sense, nor is it the key of medicine, civilization, education, or even evangelization. The key is in following the Master’s orders— the key is prayer. “Pray the Lord of the harvest . . . .” In the natural realm, prayer is not practical but absurd. We have to realize that prayer is foolish from the commonsense point of view.
From Jesus Christ’s perspective, there are no nations, but only the world. How many of us pray without regard to the persons, but with regard to only one Person— Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced through distress and through conviction of sin. This is the harvest for which we have to pray that laborers be sent out to reap. We stay busy at work, while people all around us are ripe and ready to be harvested; we do not reap even one of them, but simply waste our Lord’s time in over-energized activities and programs. Suppose a crisis were to come into your father’s or your brother’s life— are you there as a laborer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? Is your response, “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s own, “a servant [who] is not greater than his master” (John 13:16), and someone who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls us to no special work— He calls us to Himself. “Pray the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Breaking Up Your Long Trip - #7244
Our youngest son was not looking forward to the drive back to college. Oh, he liked to drive, but not 14 hours alone. In fact, his un-favorite state coming from New Jersey to the Midwest – Pennsylvania. Now, this has nothing to do with the scenery. It has nothing to do with the people. Pennsylvania is a great place. It has to do with the length of Pennsylvania. It's about twice as long as any other state between home and college for him. So, when you're driving, it seems like it's the eternal state. Please, no hate mail from Pennsylvania. You can address it to my son. This is not my fault. And that was years ago as a college student.
Now, every other time that he returned to college, he had people with him. But as this day approached when he'd be driving alone, the dread of this longest day was growing. I mean, he was worried about having an older car, he was worried about a sleepy driver, and he was wishing there really was such a thing as a Star Trek transporter. That long trip was discouraging until we made a suggestion that changed everything. We said, "Why don't you break up the trip?" So we arranged for a place to stay along the way, and he split the long journey into two manageable days. You know what? He enjoyed the trip. (Parents are so smart!)
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Breaking Up Your Long Trip."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Deuteronomy 33:25. It happens to be one of my anchor verses. It is a simple, great promise from God. He says, "Your strength will equal your days." That's a pretty strong hint as to how you're supposed to handle life-days. Now there are other hints in the Bible. "This is the day the Lord has made." "Take up your cross daily and follow Me." "Give us this day our weekly... no, wait... monthly... no, our daily bread." See, it's all about days.
This is how God dispenses the spiritual and emotional resources we need to make it. He does it in 24-hour increments. The King James Version says "As your days are so shall your strength be." So you get Tuesday's strength for Tuesday. But if you're trying to run ahead and work on your Wednesday while you're still in Tuesday, you're going to sink because guess what? You've only got Tuesday's strength. We tend to say, "How am I ever going to get through this week, this month, this year? How am I going to get through this illness? How am I going to get through this tragedy, this crisis, this pain?" God's answer, "A day at a time."
My wife had hepatitis some years ago. She's always been such an important part of our ministry. You know, I already had a very, very full life; full of responsibilities. Suddenly she was out of commission and I had her responsibilities too! Life was very full, and our pastor's wife, who knows how our family worked said, "Ron, your wife has been out of commission for five weeks. How have you handled the load for five weeks?" I thought it was a good question, especially since I had months to go like this. I said, "Joanna, I haven't handled five weeks. I did 35 days." That's how God designed it.
It could be you're in emotional trouble right now because you're trying to deal with the weeks ahead and the months ahead, the "what ifs" and the "mights." You're like our son looking at that big trip. You're feeling overwhelmed; you're discouraged by the size of it. But then he broke up the long trip into manageable pieces and it changed everything. It's the same journey, but now it's doable. Worry stresses us because it runs ahead of today and it runs ahead of God's strength given on a daily basis.
Jesus has everything you're going to need to make the trip ahead. He has the money, He has the people, He has the energy, He has the grace, He has the wisdom, and He has the guidance. But He's going to dispense it to you as you need it for today-today's resources. So stay very close to Him, clinging to your Savior each new day.
So if you're looking down the road at a journey that you're not sure you can handle, please quit trying to deal with the whole trip at once. Do it God's way. Break it up into days. It's so exciting to wake up each morning and be able to say, "This is the day the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it." You, Jesus, and a day. That's a trip you can do.