Romans 3:10 introduces an essential truth. “There is no one righteous, not even one. . .no one who seeks God. All have turned away, there is no one who does good, not even one.”
We must start where God starts. We won’t appreciate what grace does until we understand who we are. We are rebels. We deserve to die. Four prison walls, thickened with hurt, and hate, surround us. Incarcerated by our past, our low-road choices, and our high-minded pride. We have been found guilty.
Our executioner’s footsteps echo against stone walls. We don’t look up as he opens the door and begins to speak. We know what he’s going to say– “Time to pay for your sins.” But we hear something else. “You’re free to go. They took Jesus instead of you.” The light shines, the shackles are gone, and our crimes are pardoned.
What just happened? Grace happened!
From GRACE
Joshua 18
The Allotments of the Remaining Land
Now that the land was under Israelite control, the entire community of Israel gathered at Shiloh and set up the Tabernacle.[f] 2 But there remained seven tribes who had not yet been allotted their grants of land.
3 Then Joshua asked them, “How long are you going to wait before taking possession of the remaining land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given to you? 4 Select three men from each tribe, and I will send them out to explore the land and map it out. They will then return to me with a written report of their proposed divisions of their new homeland. 5 Let them divide the land into seven sections, excluding Judah’s territory in the south and Joseph’s territory in the north. 6 And when you record the seven divisions of the land and bring them to me, I will cast sacred lots in the presence of the Lord our God to assign land to each tribe.
7 “The Levites, however, will not receive any allotment of land. Their role as priests of the Lord is their allotment. And the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh won’t receive any more land, for they have already received their grant of land, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave them on the east side of the Jordan River.”
8 As the men started on their way to map out the land, Joshua commanded them, “Go and explore the land and write a description of it. Then return to me, and I will assign the land to the tribes by casting sacred lots here in the presence of the Lord at Shiloh.” 9 The men did as they were told and mapped the entire territory into seven sections, listing the towns in each section. They made a written record and then returned to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh. 10 And there at Shiloh, Joshua cast sacred lots in the presence of the Lord to determine which tribe should have each section.
The Land Given to Benjamin
11 The first allotment of land went to the clans of the tribe of Benjamin. It lay between the territory assigned to the tribes of Judah and Joseph.
12 The northern boundary of Benjamin’s land began at the Jordan River, went north of the slope of Jericho, then west through the hill country and the wilderness of Beth-aven. 13 From there the boundary went south to Luz (that is, Bethel) and proceeded down to Ataroth-addar on the hill that lies south of Lower Beth-horon.
14 The boundary then made a turn and swung south along the western edge of the hill facing Beth-horon, ending at the village of Kiriath-baal (that is, Kiriath-jearim), a town belonging to the tribe of Judah. This was the western boundary.
15 The southern boundary began at the outskirts of Kiriath-jearim. From that western point it ran[g] to the spring at the waters of Nephtoah,[h] 16 and down to the base of the mountain beside the valley of Ben-Hinnom, at the northern end of the valley of Rephaim. From there it went down the valley of Hinnom, crossing south of the slope where the Jebusites lived, and continued down to En-rogel. 17 From En-rogel the boundary proceeded in a northerly direction and came to En-shemesh and on to Geliloth (which is across from the slopes of Adummim). Then it went down to the Stone of Bohan. (Bohan was Reuben’s son.) 18 From there it passed along the north side of the slope overlooking the Jordan Valley.[i] The border then went down into the valley, 19 ran past the north slope of Beth-hoglah, and ended at the north bay of the Dead Sea,[j] which is the southern end of the Jordan River. This was the southern boundary.
20 The eastern boundary was the Jordan River.
These were the boundaries of the homeland allocated to the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.
The Towns Given to Benjamin
21 These were the towns given to the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.
Jericho, Beth-hoglah, Emek-keziz, 22 Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, 23 Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, 24 Kephar-ammoni, Ophni, and Geba—twelve towns with their surrounding villages. 25 Also Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, 26 Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah, 27 Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, 28 Zela, Haeleph, the Jebusite town (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath-jearim[k]—fourteen towns with their surrounding villages.
This was the homeland allocated to the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.
18:1 Hebrew Tent of Meeting.
18:15a Or From there it went to Mozah. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
18:15b Or the spring at Me-nephtoah.
18:18 Hebrew overlooking the Arabah, or overlooking Beth-arabah.
18:19 Hebrew Salt Sea.
18:28 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads Kiriath.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, February 23, 2015
Read: Numbers 22:21-31
Balaam and His Donkey
So the next morning Balaam got up, saddled his donkey, and started off with the Moabite officials. 22 But God was angry that Balaam was going, so he sent the angel of the Lord to stand in the road to block his way. As Balaam and two servants were riding along, 23 Balaam’s donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. The donkey bolted off the road into a field, but Balaam beat it and turned it back onto the road. 24 Then the angel of the Lord stood at a place where the road narrowed between two vineyard walls. 25 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it tried to squeeze by and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So Balaam beat the donkey again. 26 Then the angel of the Lord moved farther down the road and stood in a place too narrow for the donkey to get by at all. 27 This time when the donkey saw the angel, it lay down under Balaam. In a fit of rage Balaam beat the animal again with his staff.
28 Then the Lord gave the donkey the ability to speak. “What have I done to you that deserves your beating me three times?” it asked Balaam.
29 “You have made me look like a fool!” Balaam shouted. “If I had a sword with me, I would kill you!”
30 “But I am the same donkey you have ridden all your life,” the donkey answered. “Have I ever done anything like this before?”
“No,” Balaam admitted.
31 Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him.
The Unseen World
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
The Angel of the Lord [was] standing in the way. —Numbers 22:23
Did you know that the microbes on just one of your hands outnumber all of the people on the earth? Or that millions of microbes could fit into the eye of a needle? These one-celled, living organisms are too small for us to see without a microscope, yet they live in the air, soil, water, and even in our bodies. We constantly interact with them, even though their world is completely beyond our senses.
The realities of the spiritual world are also often not visible to us humans, as the prophet Balaam discovered. He was trudging along the road with his two servants when his donkey “saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand” (Num. 22:23). To avoid the angel, the animal walked into a field, crushed Balaam’s foot against a wall, and lay down with Balaam still on her back. Balaam was angry and struck the donkey. He didn’t realize something supernatural was going on—until God opened his eyes (v.31).
The Bible tells us that a spiritual world does exist, and we may sometimes encounter realities from that realm—both good and bad (Heb. 13:2; Eph. 6:12). Because of this, we are encouraged to be watchful, prayerful, and prepared. Just as God rules the world we see, He also rules the unseen world.
Heavenly Father, help us to be strong in You
and in the power of Your might. Open our
eyes so that we may see the spiritual
realities You have for us.
All that is seen and unseen is under God’s sovereign power.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, February 23, 2015
The Determination to Serve
The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve… —Matthew 20:28
Jesus also said, “Yet I am among you as the One who serves” (Luke 22:27). Paul’s idea of service was the same as our Lord’s— “…ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5). We somehow have the idea that a person called to the ministry is called to be different and above other people. But according to Jesus Christ, he is called to be a “doormat” for others— called to be their spiritual leader, but never their superior. Paul said, “I know how to be abased…” (Philippians 4:12). Paul’s idea of service was to pour his life out to the last drop for others. And whether he received praise or blame made no difference. As long as there was one human being who did not know Jesus, Paul felt a debt of service to that person until he did come to know Him. But the chief motivation behind Paul’s service was not love for others but love for his Lord. If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and broken-hearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of ingratitude from other people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another.
Paul’s understanding of how Christ had dealt with him is the secret behind his determination to serve others. “I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man…” (1 Timothy 1:13). In other words, no matter how badly others may have treated Paul, they could never have treated him with the same degree of spite and hatred with which he had treated Jesus Christ. Once we realize that Jesus has served us even to the depths of our meagerness, our selfishness, and our sin, nothing we encounter from others will be able to exhaust our determination to serve others for His sake.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, February 23, 2015
Running On Spiritual Empty - #7336
Honestly, I don't mind waking up in the morning. What I really don't like is waking up in the early morning to a very cold house during the winter. Those first few minutes in the bathroom, no fun at all! Teenagers, you know, kind of tell you to kind of "chill". Well, I got that opportunity one morning not long ago. I chilled! I tried everything to get some heat. I pushed up the thermostat, I hit the emergency button on the furnace, and I hit the furnace. I pulled on some clothes to go outside and check the gauge on the fuel tank, which read one-eighth of a tank.
Well, we called Mr. Furnace Repair and by nighttime when we returned from our office the house was livable again. The problem: well, it was a pretty old furnace and something chilling happens when it gets too low on fuel. The nozzle starts sucking up sediment from the bottom (he said) and then it gets clogged with that sediment. After which the furnace shuts down. After which we live in our vehicle.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Running On Spiritual Empty."
I learned it's not wise to let our furnace run low on fuel or the sediment will shut it down. Actually, that's a dynamic something like what's taking place maybe in your life right now. And it accounts for why it's gotten so cold and why the junk may be resurfacing again.
Let's hear our word today from the Word of God, John 15:3-5; simple instructions from Jesus on how to keep your relationship with Him warm and working. He says, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you." Now, everything else that follows is based on the premise "you are clean." He says, "Remain in Me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing."
Here's the formula for a life in Christ that just keeps running well. You stay clean when you stay in God's Word. Like D. L. Moody said, "Either this book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book." And when you stay close to Him through His book, you're drawing your power from being around Him all the time; you remain in Him like He said. Not visiting Him once a day in your devotions or a couple of times a week at church. It's 24/7, doing life with Jesus, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
In fact, when you get very far from Him, you can do nothing. Like our furnace, you shut down spiritually. Your personal time with Jesus, your talking to Him intimately in prayer, and your letting Him talk to you about your life through His book; that regular time is equivalent to that fuel truck pulling up to our house, hooking up the hose and pouring in more fuel.
The fuel for living for Jesus is time with Jesus. So the question is, "Have you been neglecting your daily refueling time?" I can tell you from my experience, when you do, some ugly things start to happen. The sin sediment you have control over starts to resurface again. Your ugly side, your dark side comes out because you haven't been with Jesus. It starts to take over again. It starts to clog your connection to the heart of Jesus; the old you, the ugly you making a comeback. And eventually what once was warm turns cold. What once was powerful turns powerless, which might describe the condition of your life and your heart right now.
Maybe no one else can tell. You're still going through all the same motions, but the warmth is gone. The sediment is rising. The answer for you will be the same as it was for our furnace that cold winter morning; cleaning out the dirt and getting some fuel again.
Most spiritual malfunctions can be traced back to one starting point; the neglect of the daily refueling visit with Jesus Christ. You need to get back to His side today. Get the touch of His presence. Hear from His heart to your heart. It's been cold long enough hasn't it?
