Be careful with the phrase, “God led me. . .” Don’t banter it about. People have been known to justify stupidity based on a feeling! God will not lead you to lie, cheat, or hurt.
When Luke justified the writing of his gospel to Theophilus, he said, “Since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus” (Lk. 1:3). Did you note his phrase, “it seemed good also to me”? These words reflect a person at the crossroads. Luke pondered his options and selected the path that “seemed good.”
God creates the ‘want to” within us. But He will never lead you to violate His Word. He will not contradict his teaching. But he will faithfully lead you through the words of his Scripture and the advice of his faithful.
From Max on Life
Deuteronomy 33
Moses Blesses the People
This is the blessing that Moses, the man of God, gave to the people of Israel before his death:
2 “The Lord came from Mount Sinai
and dawned upon us[o] from Mount Seir;
he shone forth from Mount Paran
and came from Meribah-kadesh
with flaming fire at his right hand.[p]
3 Indeed, he loves his people;[q]
all his holy ones are in his hands.
They follow in his steps
and accept his teaching.
4 Moses gave us the Lord’s instruction,
the special possession of the people of Israel.[r]
5 The Lord became king in Israel[s]—
when the leaders of the people assembled,
when the tribes of Israel gathered as one.”
6 Moses said this about the tribe of Reuben:[t]
“Let the tribe of Reuben live and not die out,
though they are few in number.”
7 Moses said this about the tribe of Judah:
“O Lord, hear the cry of Judah
and bring them together as a people.
Give them strength to defend their cause;
help them against their enemies!”
8 Moses said this about the tribe of Levi:
“O Lord, you have given your Thummim and Urim—the sacred lots—
to your faithful servants the Levites.[u]
You put them to the test at Massah
and struggled with them at the waters of Meribah.
9 The Levites obeyed your word
and guarded your covenant.
They were more loyal to you
than to their own parents.
They ignored their relatives
and did not acknowledge their own children.
10 They teach your regulations to Jacob;
they give your instructions to Israel.
They present incense before you
and offer whole burnt offerings on the altar.
11 Bless the ministry of the Levites, O Lord,
and accept all the work of their hands.
Hit their enemies where it hurts the most;
strike down their foes so they never rise again.”
12 Moses said this about the tribe of Benjamin:
“The people of Benjamin are loved by the Lord
and live in safety beside him.
He surrounds them continuously
and preserves them from every harm.”
13 Moses said this about the tribes of Joseph:
“May their land be blessed by the Lord
with the precious gift of dew from the heavens
and water from beneath the earth;
14 with the rich fruit that grows in the sun,
and the rich harvest produced each month;
15 with the finest crops of the ancient mountains,
and the abundance from the everlasting hills;
16 with the best gifts of the earth and its bounty,
and the favor of the one who appeared in the burning bush.
May these blessings rest on Joseph’s head,
crowning the brow of the prince among his brothers.
17 Joseph has the majesty of a young bull;
he has the horns of a wild ox.
He will gore distant nations,
even to the ends of the earth.
This is my blessing for the multitudes of Ephraim
and the thousands of Manasseh.”
18 Moses said this about the tribes of Zebulun and Issachar[v]:
“May the people of Zebulun prosper in their travels.
May the people of Issachar prosper at home in their tents.
19 They summon the people to the mountain
to offer proper sacrifices there.
They benefit from the riches of the sea
and the hidden treasures in the sand.”
20 Moses said this about the tribe of Gad:
“Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad’s territory!
Gad is poised there like a lion
to tear off an arm or a head.
21 The people of Gad took the best land for themselves;
a leader’s share was assigned to them.
When the leaders of the people were assembled,
they carried out the Lord’s justice
and obeyed his regulations for Israel.”
22 Moses said this about the tribe of Dan:
“Dan is a lion’s cub,
leaping out from Bashan.”
23 Moses said this about the tribe of Naphtali:
“O Naphtali, you are rich in favor
and full of the Lord’s blessings;
may you possess the west and the south.”
24 Moses said this about the tribe of Asher:
“May Asher be blessed above other sons;
may he be esteemed by his brothers;
may he bathe his feet in olive oil.
25 May the bolts of your gates be of iron and bronze;
may you be secure all your days.”
26 “There is no one like the God of Israel.[w]
He rides across the heavens to help you,
across the skies in majestic splendor.
27 The eternal God is your refuge,
and his everlasting arms are under you.
He drives out the enemy before you;
he cries out, ‘Destroy them!’
28 So Israel will live in safety,
prosperous Jacob in security,
in a land of grain and new wine,
while the heavens drop down dew.
29 How blessed you are, O Israel!
Who else is like you, a people saved by the Lord?
He is your protecting shield
and your triumphant sword!
Your enemies will cringe before you,
and you will stomp on their backs!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Read: Psalm 121
A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.
I look up to the mountains—
does my help come from there?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth!
3 He will not let you stumble;
the one who watches over you will not slumber.
4 Indeed, he who watches over Israel
never slumbers or sleeps.
5 The Lord himself watches over you!
The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.
6 The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon at night.
7 The Lord keeps you from all harm
and watches over your life.
8 The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go,
both now and forever.
INSIGHT: Three times in this short chapter the Lord is referred to as our keeper (vv.3,4,5). This idea is of great comfort to the believer because it presents God as one who is not passive but active in our lives. To “keep” something is to actively guard and protect it. This idea is underscored by the fact that as our keeper, God does not sleep or slumber (vv.3-4) and watches over us day and night (v.6). How wonderful to know that the God who holds our lives is not disinterested but is constantly watching over us.
Our Source Of Help
By David C. McCasland
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. —Psalm 121:2
Twenty-year-old Lygon Stevens, an experienced mountaineer, had reached the summits of Mt. McKinley, Mt. Rainier, four Andean peaks in Ecuador, and 39 of Colorado’s highest mountains. “I climb because I love the mountains,” she said, “and I meet God there.” In January 2008, Lygon died in an avalanche while climbing Little Bear Peak in southern Colorado with her brother Nicklis, who survived.
| ..He has a plan for our lives.. |
In Lygon’s final journal entry, written from her tent 3 days before the avalanche, she said: “God is good, and He has a plan for our lives that is greater and more blessed than the lives we pick out for ourselves, and I am so thankful about that. Thank You, Lord, for bringing me this far and to this place. I leave the rest—my future—in those same hands and say thank You.”
Lygon echoed these words from the psalmist: “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Ps. 121:2).
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Still be our guard while troubles last
And our eternal home. —Watts
We can trust our all-knowing God for the unknown future.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, January 29, 2015
How Could Someone Be So Ignorant!
Who are You, Lord? —Acts 26:15
“The Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand…” (Isaiah 8:11). There is no escape when our Lord speaks. He always comes using His authority and taking hold of our understanding. Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken to you. God speaks in the language you know best— not through your ears, but through your circumstances.
God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. We say, “I know that this is what I should do” — and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We show our ignorance of Him in the very way we decide to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, and hurt Him by our defense of Him. We push His claims in the spirit of the devil; our words sound all right, but the spirit is that of an enemy. “He…rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of’ ” (Luke 9:55). The spirit of our Lord in His followers is described in 1 Corinthians 13.
Have I been persecuting Jesus by an eager determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty, yet have hurt Him in the process, I can be sure that this was not my duty. My way will not be to foster a meek and quiet spirit, only the spirit of self-satisfaction. We presume that whatever is unpleasant is our duty! Is that anything like the spirit of our Lord— “I delight to do Your will, O my God…” (Psalm 40:8).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Nothing But the Best - #7319
There's an interesting story that's told about Queen Victoria. She loved being able to go out and be by herself, without being recognized, so she could mingle with ordinary people. And to keep from being noticed, the Queen would "dress down." On one of her walks it began to rain, so she knocked on the door of this cottage and asked to borrow an umbrella.
Well, not recognizing the Queen, the elderly woman who answered the door lent her a beat-up umbrella, instead of her best umbrella. She did that because she wasn't sure she'd ever see the umbrella again of course. Well Queen Victoria left thanking the woman and promising to return the umbrella.
The next day a royal messenger returned the lady's umbrella. And he said to the woman, "The Queen asked me to return your umbrella." The elderly woman was heard to say, "Oh, if I'd only known who it was, I would have given her my best."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Nothing But the Best."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Jeremiah 48:10. Listen to these sobering words, "A curse" - oh, a curse - "A curse on him who is lax in doing the Lord's work." Wow! Don't be lax. Don't be lazy. Don't be careless in doing the work of God. Strong words: a curse on that person.
See, sometimes we give the Lord what's easy for us to give Him, but the King deserves our best. A lot of people are frequently lax doing the Lord's work. That's why a strong word is probably needed here. Some of us may have been financially lax with the Lord's work; we've been careless with some money. Maybe there's not been full integrity in the way funds have been taken care of. You know, it's so important that we say, "Every dollar is God's money." I heard one Christian leader put it this way, "Ron, this money is blood money. It has been bought and paid for with the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus sacrificed His life for the work this money was given to. We can't be wasteful with it." Wow.
Maybe some people are lax with their time. A lot of time gets wasted in the service of the Lord. Let's be honest about it. We need to be doing every task as if it were a royal task, because it is. With social networks, and Facebook, and all the things that are out there to distract us during the day, it is so easy to waste God's time. But we're working for the King of kings; giving 100% however big or small it is. Whether it's in or out of the spotlight, we've got to realize time is too precious to waste.
And it's possible to be lax with the quality of our work for the Lord, settling for mediocrity. The King should always be represented by excellence don't you think? Numbers 18:29 says that we "must offer as the Lord's portion, the best and holiest part of everything we have." But in a very busy world and our very busy lives the King often gets our leftovers; our leftover time, our leftover energy, our leftover talent. And that's wrong! We forget this isn't work for the church or for some Christian organization or for the people around us or the people we report to. This is for the King. This is the King who bought you back with the life of His Son.
Some day we'll stand before this King and we will offer Him the work we did for Him. I hope you will make it work that Jesus will be proud of and you don't have to be ashamed of, or in the words of 2 Timothy, "A workman who does not need to be ashamed."
Then you don't ever have to say, "If I had only known it was for the King, I would have given Him my best."