Max Lucado Daily: Too Busy to Notice
One's imagination is kindled thinking about the conversation of the innkeeper and his family. Did anyone mention the arrival of the young couple the night before? Did anyone ask about the pregnancy of the girl on the donkey? The innkeeper and his family were so busy. The day was upon them. The day's bread had to be made. The morning's chores had to be done. There was too much to do to imagine that the impossible had occurred. God had entered the world as a baby.
Meanwhile the city hummed. Merchants were unaware that God had visited their planet. The innkeeper would never believe that he'd just sent God into the cold. Those who missed His Majesty's arrival-missed it not because of evil acts or malice; no, they missed it simply because they weren't looking. Not much has changed in the last two thousand years, has it?
From In the Manger
Numbers 34
Boundaries of the Land
Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Give these instructions to the Israelites: When you come into the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your special possession, these will be the boundaries. 3 The southern portion of your country will extend from the wilderness of Zin, along the edge of Edom. The southern boundary will begin on the east at the Dead Sea.[a] 4 It will then run south past Scorpion Pass[b] in the direction of Zin. Its southernmost point will be Kadesh-barnea, from which it will go to Hazar-addar, and on to Azmon. 5 From Azmon the boundary will turn toward the Brook of Egypt and end at the Mediterranean Sea.[c]
6 “Your western boundary will be the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea.
7 “Your northern boundary will begin at the Mediterranean Sea and run east to Mount Hor, 8 then to Lebo-hamath, and on through Zedad 9 and Ziphron to Hazar-enan. This will be your northern boundary.
10 “The eastern boundary will start at Hazar-enan and run south to Shepham, 11 then down to Riblah on the east side of Ain. From there the boundary will run down along the eastern edge of the Sea of Galilee,[d] 12 and then along the Jordan River to the Dead Sea. These are the boundaries of your land.”
13 Then Moses told the Israelites, “This territory is the homeland you are to divide among yourselves by sacred lot. The Lord has commanded that the land be divided among the nine and a half remaining tribes. 14 The families of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh have already received their grants of land 15 on the east side of the Jordan River, across from Jericho toward the sunrise.”
Leaders to Divide the Land
16 And the Lord said to Moses, 17 “Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun are the men designated to divide the grants of land among the people. 18 Enlist one leader from each tribe to help them with the task. 19 These are the tribes and the names of the leaders:
Tribe Leader
Judah Caleb son of Jephunneh
20 Simeon Shemuel son of Ammihud
21 Benjamin Elidad son of Kislon
22 Dan Bukki son of Jogli
23 Manasseh son of Joseph Hanniel son of Ephod
24 Ephraim son of Joseph Kemuel son of Shiphtan
25 Zebulun Elizaphan son of Parnach
26 Issachar Paltiel son of Azzan
27 Asher Ahihud son of Shelomi
28 Naphtali Pedahel son of Ammihud
29 These are the men the Lord has appointed to divide the grants of land in Canaan among the Israelites.”
34:3 Hebrew Salt Sea; also in 34:12.
34:4 Or the ascent of Akrabbim.
34:5 Hebrew the sea; also in 34:6, 7.
34:11 Hebrew Sea of Kinnereth.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, December 12, 2014
Read: Psalm 91:9-16
If you make the Lord your refuge,
if you make the Most High your shelter,
10 no evil will conquer you;
no plague will come near your home.
11 For he will order his angels
to protect you wherever you go.
12 They will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.
13 You will trample upon lions and cobras;
you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!
14 The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me.
I will protect those who trust in my name.
15 When they call on me, I will answer;
I will be with them in trouble.
I will rescue and honor them.
16 I will reward them with a long life
and give them my salvation.”
Insight
Psalm 91 celebrates the safety and security of those who trust in God, who have made the Lord (the Most High) their refuge, fortress, and dwelling place (vv.2,9). The psalmist affirms that our God is powerful and faithful and therefore trustworthy (vv.1-8). He also testifies of God’s protection and deliverance in a dangerous and destructive world (vv.9-16). In the New Testament, Satan misquoted verses 11-12 to tempt Jesus to test God’s protection by jumping from the top of the temple (Matt. 4:6). In response, Jesus says that God’s promise is for those who love and obey Him (Ps. 91:14-15) and not for those who presume upon God’s grace (Matt. 4:7).
Snug As A Bug In A Rug!
By David H. Roper
I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. —Psalm 4:8
When I was a child, my family lived in a house my father built in the cedar breaks west of Duncanville, Texas. Our house had a small kitchen-dinette area, two bedrooms, and a great room with a large stone fireplace in which we burned 2-foot-long cedar logs. That fireplace was the center of warmth in our home.
There were five people in our family: my father and mother, my sister, my cousin, and me. Since we had only two bedrooms, I slept year-round on a porch with canvas screens that rolled down to the floor. Summers were delightful; winters were cold.
I remember dashing from the warmth of the living room onto the porch, tiptoeing across the frost-covered plank floor in my bare feet, leaping into bed and burrowing under a great mountain of blankets. Then, when hail, sleet, or snow lashed our house and the wind howled through the eaves like a pack of wolves, I snuggled down in sheltered rest. “Snug as a bug in a rug,” my mother used to say. I doubt that any child ever felt so warm and secure.
Now I know the greatest security of all: God Himself. I can “lie down in peace, and sleep” (Ps. 4:8), knowing that He is my shelter from the stinging storms of life. Enveloped in the warmth of His love, I’m snug as a bug in a rug.
Leaning, leaning,
Safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting arms. —Hoffman
No one is more secure than those who are in God’s hands.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 12, 2014
Personality
…that they may be one just as We are one… —John 17:22
Personality is the unique, limitless part of our life that makes us distinct from everyone else. It is too vast for us even to comprehend. An island in the sea may be just the top of a large mountain, and our personality is like that island. We don’t know the great depths of our being, therefore we cannot measure ourselves. We start out thinking we can, but soon realize that there is really only one Being who fully understands us, and that is our Creator.
Personality is the characteristic mark of the inner, spiritual man, just as individuality is the characteristic of the outer, natural man. Our Lord can never be described in terms of individuality and independence, but only in terms of His total Person— “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). Personality merges, and you only reach your true identity once you are merged with another person. When love or the Spirit of God come upon a person, he is transformed. He will then no longer insist on maintaining his individuality. Our Lord never referred to a person’s individuality or his isolated position, but spoke in terms of the total person— “…that they may be one just as We are one….” Once your rights to yourself are surrendered to God, your true personal nature begins responding to God immediately. Jesus Christ brings freedom to your total person, and even your individuality is transformed. The transformation is brought about by love— personal devotion to Jesus. Love is the overflowing result of one person in true fellowship with another.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 12, 2014
The Couple, the Need, the Miracle - #7285
A boy from the south side of Chicago; a girl from the Ozarks and they lived happily ever after. It's the story of my wife and me. As we approached our wedding day several years ago, (ahem!) it was a week after our college graduation. We had a lot of love, but no money to speak of.
So we prayed for a little wedding miracle. We were also heading into full-time Christian ministry, and there wasn't going to be very much income from that. So we prayed that God would use people as they brought gifts to our wedding so we'd have what we needed for housekeeping. We didn't need a lot. But we couldn't even afford the basics at that point.
We did receive several of the things that we needed, including four teakettles! Hey, don't ask me to explain how we ended up with four teakettles. What is this? Like a gospel quartet? Or maybe not. Well, as we were unwrapping the gifts, it was clear that God had answered our prayer. And it looked as if He had shopped for our wedding gifts. We got all the basics! We didn't know how we were going to get our startup needs met, but this one wedding guest made all the difference.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Couple, the Need, the Miracle."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John 2, beginning at verse 1. "On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding. And when the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to Him, 'They have no more wine.'" Verse 6, "Nearby stood six stone water jars, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the jars with water', so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, 'Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.'"
They probably thought, "I don't really think he's interested in a drink of water" Well, they did it anyway. "And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine." And verse 11 says, "This is the first of His miraculous signs that Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee and revealed His glory."
Now, notice what brought Jesus to Cana that day – a marriage. Notice where He did His first miracle. At a wedding. We saw our own personal miracle at our wedding, and we've seen an awful lot since. Maybe your marriage could use a miracle right now, like Cana revisited. See, that day there was a change that no man or woman could have made. I mean who could change water into wine? But Jesus did. There was a need that no man or woman could ever meet, but Jesus did.
Maybe right now change is urgently, maybe desperately, needed in your home. Or, there's a need that needs to be met if your relationship is going to be what it needs to be. Maybe it's time for Cana again; a marriage miracle. Maybe right now there's strain, and resentment, distance, frustration, possibly bitterness, maybe even thoughts about just giving it all up. But have you brought that marriage, its brokenness, its struggles, your home; have you poured it all out to Jesus? Have you poured out your dark feelings to the Lord and cried out together for Jesus' healing in your marriage?
See, the less you feel like doing it, the more you've got to do it. And if your partner absolutely will not, don't let that stop you. This says Jesus had been invited to this wedding, to this marriage. Why don't you invite Him into your marriage? Close the door to leaving, to quitting, to giving up. Ask God to show you the hope factors that maybe you can't see because of all of the strain. But there are hope factors you can build on. You've looked at the negatives enough. Can you pray this: "Lord, we can't make it work, and I don't know how you would, but we beg you to do what we can't do in this marriage"?
Two thousand years ago in the midst of a marriage, Jesus met an impossible need with His supernatural intervention. Today the scene is set again with you and the one you promised your life to: The couple, the need, and the miracle.
