All of us occasionally do what is right. A few predominantly do what is right. But do any of us always do what is right? According to Paul we don't! Romans 3:10 says, "There is no one righteous; no, not one." Some beg to differ. I'm not perfect, but I'm better than most. I'd say I was a righteous person. I used to try that one on my mother. My brother's room was always messier than mine. I'd say, "See, my room is clean; just look at his." It never worked. She would show me her room and say, "This is what I mean by clean."
God does the same. He points to himself and says, This is what I mean by righteousness. David said, "He leads me in the paths of righteousness." God's way is a narrow winding path up a steep hill. At the top of the hill is a Cross!
From Traveling Light
1 Samuel 25
The Death of Samuel
Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered for his funeral. They buried him at his house in Ramah.
Nabal Angers David
Then David moved down to the wilderness of Maon.[b] 2 There was a wealthy man from Maon who owned property near the town of Carmel. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and it was sheep-shearing time. 3 This man’s name was Nabal, and his wife, Abigail, was a sensible and beautiful woman. But Nabal, a descendant of Caleb, was crude and mean in all his dealings.
4 When David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 5 he sent ten of his young men to Carmel with this message for Nabal: 6 “Peace and prosperity to you, your family, and everything you own! 7 I am told that it is sheep-shearing time. While your shepherds stayed among us near Carmel, we never harmed them, and nothing was ever stolen from them. 8 Ask your own men, and they will tell you this is true. So would you be kind to us, since we have come at a time of celebration? Please share any provisions you might have on hand with us and with your friend David.” 9 David’s young men gave this message to Nabal in David’s name, and they waited for a reply.
10 “Who is this fellow David?” Nabal sneered to the young men. “Who does this son of Jesse think he is? There are lots of servants these days who run away from their masters. 11 Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I’ve slaughtered for my shearers and give it to a band of outlaws who come from who knows where?”
12 So David’s young men returned and told him what Nabal had said. 13 “Get your swords!” was David’s reply as he strapped on his own. Then 400 men started off with David, and 200 remained behind to guard their equipment.
14 Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s servants went to Abigail and told her, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed insults at them. 15 These men have been very good to us, and we never suffered any harm from them. Nothing was stolen from us the whole time they were with us. 16 In fact, day and night they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep. 17 You need to know this and figure out what to do, for there is going to be trouble for our master and his whole family. He’s so ill-tempered that no one can even talk to him!”
18 Abigail wasted no time. She quickly gathered 200 loaves of bread, two wineskins full of wine, five sheep that had been slaughtered, nearly a bushel[c] of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 fig cakes. She packed them on donkeys 19 and said to her servants, “Go on ahead. I will follow you shortly.” But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal what she was doing.
20 As she was riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming toward her. 21 David had just been saying, “A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was lost or stolen. But he has repaid me evil for good. 22 May God strike me and kill me[d] if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning!”
Abigail Intercedes for Nabal
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him. 24 She fell at his feet and said, “I accept all blame in this matter, my lord. Please listen to what I have to say. 25 I know Nabal is a wicked and ill-tempered man; please don’t pay any attention to him. He is a fool, just as his name suggests.[e] But I never even saw the young men you sent.
26 “Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is. 27 And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men. 28 Please forgive me if I have offended you in any way. The Lord will surely reward you with a lasting dynasty, for you are fighting the Lord’s battles. And you have not done wrong throughout your entire life.
29 “Even when you are chased by those who seek to kill you, your life is safe in the care of the Lord your God, secure in his treasure pouch! But the lives of your enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling! 30 When the Lord has done all he promised and has made you leader of Israel, 31 don’t let this be a blemish on your record. Then your conscience won’t have to bear the staggering burden of needless bloodshed and vengeance. And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me, your servant!”
32 David replied to Abigail, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today! 33 Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands. 34 For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not hurried out to meet me, not one of Nabal’s men would still be alive tomorrow morning.” 35 Then David accepted her present and told her, “Return home in peace. I have heard what you said. We will not kill your husband.”
36 When Abigail arrived home, she found that Nabal was throwing a big party and was celebrating like a king. He was very drunk, so she didn’t tell him anything about her meeting with David until dawn the next day. 37 In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had happened. As a result he had a stroke,[f] and he lay paralyzed on his bed like a stone. 38 About ten days later, the Lord struck him, and he died.
David Marries Abigail
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Praise the Lord, who has avenged the insult I received from Nabal and has kept me from doing it myself. Nabal has received the punishment for his sin.” Then David sent messengers to Abigail to ask her to become his wife.
40 When the messengers arrived at Carmel, they told Abigail, “David has sent us to take you back to marry him.”
41 She bowed low to the ground and responded, “I, your servant, would be happy to marry David. I would even be willing to become a slave, washing the feet of his servants!” 42 Quickly getting ready, she took along five of her servant girls as attendants, mounted her donkey, and went with David’s messengers. And so she became his wife. 43 David also married Ahinoam from Jezreel, making both of them his wives. 44 Saul, meanwhile, had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to a man from Gallim named Palti son of Laish.
25:1 As in Greek version (see also 25:2); Hebrew reads Paran.
25:18 Hebrew 5 seahs [36.5 liters].
25:22 As in Greek version; Hebrew reads May God strike and kill the enemies of David.
25:25 The name Nabal means “fool.”
25:37 Hebrew his heart failed him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Read: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Paul and Apollos, Servants of Christ
Dear brothers and sisters,[a] when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people.[b] I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. 2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, 3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?
5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. 9 For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.
Footnotes:
3:1a Greek Brothers.
3:1b Or to people who have the Spirit.
INSIGHT: Apollos first appears on the pages of the New Testament in the book of Acts, where it says he was “born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures” (18:24). Though he spoke of Jesus boldly in the synagogue, his understanding of the Scriptures was incomplete, so he received training from Aquila and Priscilla (v. 26). Apollos is discussed in today’s text as someone who had developed a strong following among believers in Christ (1 Cor. 3:4). He is mentioned favorably by Paul in Titus 3:13 when he urged Titus to help Apollos on his journey.
Guard Your Focus
By C. P. Hia
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. —Hebrews 12:2
“That’s my disciple,” I once heard a woman say about someone she was helping. As followers of Christ we are all tasked with making disciples—sharing the good news of Christ with people and helping them grow spiritually. But it can be easy to focus on ourselves instead of Jesus.
The apostle Paul was concerned that the Corinthian church was losing its focus on Christ. The two best-known preachers in those days were Paul and Apollos. The church was divided: “I follow Paul.” “Well, I follow Apollos!” They had begun focusing on the wrong person, following the teachers rather than the Savior. But Paul corrected them. We are “God’s fellow workers.” It doesn’t matter who plants and who waters, for only God can give the growth. Christians are “God’s field, God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:6-9). The Corinthian believers didn’t belong to Paul nor to Apollos.
Jesus tells us to go and make disciples and to teach them about Him (Matt. 28:20). And the author of the book of Hebrews reminds us to focus on the Author and Finisher of our faith (12:2). Christ will be honored when we focus on Him; He is superior to any human being and He will meet our needs.
Father, I confess that it is easy to shift my focus from You to less important things. Thank You for putting people in my life that help point me to You. Help me point others to You in a way that makes You more and me less.
Put Jesus first.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Taking Possession of Our Own Soul
By your patience possess your souls. —Luke 21:19
When a person is born again, there is a period of time when he does not have the same vitality in his thinking or reasoning that he previously had. We must learn to express this new life within us, which comes by forming the mind of Christ (see Philippians 2:5). Luke 21:19 means that we take possession of our souls through patience. But many of us prefer to stay at the entrance to the Christian life, instead of going on to create and build our soul in accordance with the new life God has placed within us. We fail because we are ignorant of the way God has made us, and we blame things on the devil that are actually the result of our own undisciplined natures. Just think what we could be when we are awakened to the truth!
There are certain things in life that we need not pray about— moods, for instance. We will never get rid of moodiness by praying, but we will by kicking it out of our lives. Moods nearly always are rooted in some physical circumstance, not in our true inner self. It is a continual struggle not to listen to the moods which arise as a result of our physical condition, but we must never submit to them for a second. We have to pick ourselves up by the back of the neck and shake ourselves; then we will find that we can do what we believed we were unable to do. The problem that most of us are cursed with is simply that we won’t. The Christian life is one of spiritual courage and determination lived out in our flesh.
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Little Steps to God's Big Will - #7398
Back in the good old days my wife and I would go camping with our kids when they were young. We did some camping after they were grown up too. But it was actually easier without the kids. You know the routine. We'd get the three little Hutchcrafts ready for bed, make sure no bears were going to eat them during the night, and then we would snap all the snaps and tuck them into their sleeping bags, tied up all the flaps and zipped all the zippers on the tent door. Finally, able to settle into our sleeping bags, having found the most comfortable piece of ground underneath that we could.
Just as my wife and I were beginning to get sleepy, you'd hear the voice, "I've got to go potty!" Great! Somehow we were missing the most important nighttime routine of all for one of my kids. So I unzip my bag, unzip the sleeping bag they're in, get a jacket and shoes on her, shoes on me, unsnap the snaps, untie the ties, unzip the zippers, and march around in the darkness in the campgrounds heading for the bathroom. My best friend at that time of night? My trusty Coleman camp lantern. Not that it exactly illuminated the whole campground, or even our destination for that matter. But it did tell me what I needed to know; where to step next.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Little Steps to God's Big Will."
In our word for today from the Word of God, Psalm 119:105 we read, "Your word is a lamp to my feet. It is a light for my path." I can't read this without thinking about those night walks through the campground with my little lantern. It's that lantern, that lamp for my feet that gets me there. It's what God says His Word can do for us to get us through our life, showing us where to step next. Sure, we'd like for Him to light up the whole campground, or at least show us where the path is going. But generally He just shows us what we can handle right now. Guess what that is? The next step. I mean, how many steps can you take at a time anyway?
Sometimes this business of "God's will for your life" or "living the Christian life" just sounds so overwhelming. But really all He's asking us to give Him is today – one day at a time. "Take up your cross daily and follow Me", not once and for all. He leads us in steps toward the destination He knows but that we don't have to know.
So how can we experience a daily step with God; this light for the next step of the path? First, you commit yourself to turn on the lantern every new day; to get His Book in your lap to meet Him and let Him show you the step for that day. Then you read a few verses maybe two or three times, asking yourself two key questions. First of all, in my own words, "What has God just said here?" and secondly, "What specific thing in my life does this apply to this day?" Or, "What am I going to do differently because of what God said?" See, the Holy Spirit knows God's Word and He knows all about your life and His planning to bring the two together for this day.
So if you read about patience, then ask the Lord, "Where am I not being patient right now?" Whatever He puts the spotlight on, that becomes your area for specific involving of Jesus in that part of you; consciously making Jesus Lord of that specific piece of your life for the next twenty-four hours. If the verse focuses on resisting temptation, you say, "God, where am I facing temptation today? Let God focus the light on that. So it goes. He shines His light on something in your life for that day, using His Word to turn His light on some part of you. And if you focus on Him being Lord of that today, you'll take the next step in His natural will for your life.
See, God's macro will is made up of thousands of micro wills; in small micro obediences that ultimately will become a whole life lived for Him. So don't focus on the big walk ahead or even the ultimate destination. That's God's business. Just let the illumination of God's Word light up what He wants you to focus on right now.
It's like walking through that dark campground. The great will of God is really just a big step-by-step walk in the Word of God.