Calamities can leave us off balance and confused. Consider the crisis of Joseph's generation as recorded in Genesis 47. "Now there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Canaan languished because of the famine." Joseph faced a calamity on a global scale. Joseph told his brothers, "God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you." Joseph began and ended his crisis with God. God preceded the famine. God would outlive the famine.
How would you describe your crisis? Do you recite your woes more naturally than you do heaven's strength? You are assuming God isn't in the crisis. He is. Even a famine was fair game for God's purpose!
From You'll Get Through This
2 Samuel 22
David’s Song of Praise
David sang this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from all his enemies and from Saul. 2 He sang:
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
3 my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
He is my shield, the power that saves me,
and my place of safety.
He is my refuge, my savior,
the one who saves me from violence.
4 I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and he saved me from my enemies.
5 “The waves of death overwhelmed me;
floods of destruction swept over me.
6 The grave[j] wrapped its ropes around me;
death laid a trap in my path.
7 But in my distress I cried out to the Lord;
yes, I cried to my God for help.
He heard me from his sanctuary;
my cry reached his ears.
8 “Then the earth quaked and trembled.
The foundations of the heavens shook;
they quaked because of his anger.
9 Smoke poured from his nostrils;
fierce flames leaped from his mouth.
Glowing coals blazed forth from him.
10 He opened the heavens and came down;
dark storm clouds were beneath his feet.
11 Mounted on a mighty angelic being,[k] he flew,
soaring[l] on the wings of the wind.
12 He shrouded himself in darkness,
veiling his approach with dense rain clouds.
13 A great brightness shone around him,
and burning coals[m] blazed forth.
14 The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.
15 He shot arrows and scattered his enemies;
his lightning flashed, and they were confused.
16 Then at the command of the Lord,
at the blast of his breath,
the bottom of the sea could be seen,
and the foundations of the earth were laid bare.
17 “He reached down from heaven and rescued me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
18 He rescued me from my powerful enemies,
from those who hated me and were too strong for me.
19 They attacked me at a moment when I was in distress,
but the Lord supported me.
20 He led me to a place of safety;
he rescued me because he delights in me.
21 The Lord rewarded me for doing right;
he restored me because of my innocence.
22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
I have not turned from my God to follow evil.
23 I have followed all his regulations;
I have never abandoned his decrees.
24 I am blameless before God;
I have kept myself from sin.
25 The Lord rewarded me for doing right.
He has seen my innocence.
26 “To the faithful you show yourself faithful;
to those with integrity you show integrity.
27 To the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
28 You rescue the humble,
but your eyes watch the proud and humiliate them.
29 O Lord, you are my lamp.
The Lord lights up my darkness.
30 In your strength I can crush an army;
with my God I can scale any wall.
31 “God’s way is perfect.
All the Lord’s promises prove true.
He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.
32 For who is God except the Lord?
Who but our God is a solid rock?
33 God is my strong fortress,
and he makes my way perfect.
34 He makes me as surefooted as a deer,
enabling me to stand on mountain heights.
35 He trains my hands for battle;
he strengthens my arm to draw a bronze bow.
36 You have given me your shield of victory;
your help[n] has made me great.
37 You have made a wide path for my feet
to keep them from slipping.
38 “I chased my enemies and destroyed them;
I did not stop until they were conquered.
39 I consumed them;
I struck them down so they did not get up;
they fell beneath my feet.
40 You have armed me with strength for the battle;
you have subdued my enemies under my feet.
41 You placed my foot on their necks.
I have destroyed all who hated me.
42 They looked for help, but no one came to their rescue.
They even cried to the Lord, but he refused to answer.
43 I ground them as fine as the dust of the earth;
I trampled them[o] in the gutter like dirt.
44 “You gave me victory over my accusers.
You preserved me as the ruler over nations;
people I don’t even know now serve me.
45 Foreign nations cringe before me;
as soon as they hear of me, they submit.
46 They all lose their courage
and come trembling[p] from their strongholds.
47 “The Lord lives! Praise to my Rock!
May God, the Rock of my salvation, be exalted!
48 He is the God who pays back those who harm me;
he brings down the nations under me
49 and delivers me from my enemies.
You hold me safe beyond the reach of my enemies;
you save me from violent opponents.
50 For this, O Lord, I will praise you among the nations;
I will sing praises to your name.
51 You give great victories to your king;
you show unfailing love to your anointed,
to David and all his descendants forever.”
Footnotes:
22:6 Hebrew Sheol.
22:11a Hebrew a cherub.
22:11b As in some Hebrew manuscripts (see also Ps 18:10); other Hebrew manuscripts read appearing.
22:13 Or and lightning bolts.
22:36 As in Dead Sea Scrolls; Masoretic Text reads your answering.
22:43 As in Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Ps 18:42); Masoretic Text reads I crushed and trampled them.
22:46 As in parallel text at Ps 18:45; Hebrew reads come girding themselves.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, July 10, 2015
Read: Numbers 11:4-17
Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. 5 “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. 6 But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”
7 The manna looked like small coriander seeds, and it was pale yellow like gum resin. 8 The people would go out and gather it from the ground. They made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars. Then they boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked with olive oil. 9 The manna came down on the camp with the dew during the night.
10 Moses heard all the families standing in the doorways of their tents whining, and the Lord became extremely angry. Moses was also very aggravated. 11 And Moses said to the Lord, “Why are you treating me, your servant, so harshly? Have mercy on me! What did I do to deserve the burden of all these people? 12 Did I give birth to them? Did I bring them into the world? Why did you tell me to carry them in my arms like a mother carries a nursing baby? How can I carry them to the land you swore to give their ancestors? 13 Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people? They keep whining to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I can’t carry all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy! 15 If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!”
Moses Chooses Seventy Leaders
16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather before me seventy men who are recognized as elders and leaders of Israel. Bring them to the Tabernacle[a] to stand there with you. 17 I will come down and talk to you there. I will take some of the Spirit that is upon you, and I will put the Spirit upon them also. They will bear the burden of the people along with you, so you will not have to carry it alone.
Footnotes:
11:16 Hebrew the Tent of Meeting.
Help for a Heavy Load
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
[The men] shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone. —Numbers 11:17
It’s amazing what you can haul with a bicycle. An average adult with a specialized trailer (and a bit of determination) can use a bicycle to tow up to 300 pounds at 10 mph. There’s just one problem: Hauling a heavier load means moving more slowly. A person hauling 600 pounds of work equipment or personal possessions would only be able to move at a pace of 8 miles in one hour.
Moses carried another kind of weight in the wilderness—an emotional weight that kept him at a standstill. The Israelites’ intense craving for meat instead of manna had reduced them to tears. Hearing their ongoing lament, an exasperated Moses said to God, “I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me” (Num. 11:14).
On his own, Moses lacked the resources necessary to fix the problem. God responded by telling him to select 70 men to stand with him and share his load. God told Moses, “[The men] shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone” (v. 17).
As followers of Jesus, we don’t have to handle our burdens alone either. We have Jesus Himself, who is always willing and able to help us. And He has given us brothers and sisters in Christ to share the load. When we give Him the things that weigh us down, He gives us wisdom and support in return.
Who has come alongside you? Have you thanked them?
God’s help is only a prayer away.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, July 10, 2015
The Spiritually Lazy Saint
Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together… —Hebrews 10:24-25
We are all capable of being spiritually lazy saints. We want to stay off the rough roads of life, and our primary objective is to secure a peaceful retreat from the world. The ideas put forth in these verses from Hebrews 10 are those of stirring up one another and of keeping ourselves together. Both of these require initiative— our willingness to take the first step toward Christ-realization, not the initiative toward self-realization. To live a distant, withdrawn, and secluded life is diametrically opposed to spirituality as Jesus Christ taught it.
The true test of our spirituality occurs when we come up against injustice, degradation, ingratitude, and turmoil, all of which have the tendency to make us spiritually lazy. While being tested, we want to use prayer and Bible reading for the purpose of finding a quiet retreat. We use God only for the sake of getting peace and joy. We seek only our enjoyment of Jesus Christ, not a true realization of Him. This is the first step in the wrong direction. All these things we are seeking are simply effects, and yet we try to make them causes.
“Yes, I think it is right,” Peter said, “…to stir you up by reminding you…” (2 Peter 1:13). It is a most disturbing thing to be hit squarely in the stomach by someone being used of God to stir us up— someone who is full of spiritual activity. Simple active work and spiritual activity are not the same thing. Active work can actually be the counterfeit of spiritual activity. The real danger in spiritual laziness is that we do not want to be stirred up— all we want to hear about is a spiritual retirement from the world. Yet Jesus Christ never encourages the idea of retirement— He says, “Go and tell My brethren…” (Matthew 28:10).
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, July 10, 2015
The Tough Love of God - #7435
At first I thought I was looking at a cow from Mars. We were driving through an area of large dairy and cattle farms when I glanced over and there just inside this barbed wire fence was a cow with a big metal ring around her neck. A rod of metal was sticking up from the top of the ring and a rod sticking down from the bottom. Well my wife grew up on a farm with cows, so she was able to help me realize that this is what she called a fence crawler.
This cow - this fence crawler - was wearing this welded yoke because she had been a bad girl. A fence crawler is a cow who keeps seeing interesting things outside the fence, and so she keeps crawling out which could lead to all kinds of problems including injury and even being killed by a vehicle. So the farmer discourages going outside the fence with barbed wire and even a contraption to make it impossible to do that. I guess you could call it tough love because he cares.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Tough Love Of God."
Our word today from the Word of God comes from the Old Testament prophet Hosea 2; a very revealing statement here from God as to how He sometimes deals with the people He loves -people who are like wandering away from Him. Maybe you know someone like that. This will give you insight into how to pray in a life-changing way, or you might even be that person and this will give you some insight into some of the frustrations you're facing right now.
Here's what God says about His ancient people. He's actually comparing them and His relationship with them to a marriage relationship. He says of those who followed Him in those days and who were wandering, and He actually quotes what they're thinking, "'I will go after my lover,' she said, 'who gave me my food, my water, my wool, my linen, my oil and my drink'. Therefore, God says, 'I will block her path with thorn bushes; I will wait here so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them: she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.' She has not acknowledged that I (and this is God speaking) was the one who gave her the grain."
Then He goes on to list all the good things in her life. See, this is about someone who had forgotten all the good things in her life came from a God who loves her very much. "There's something over there that will meet my need." That's what she said in this analogy. That's what we say. "God, you know, I'm just going to wander over here and check this out." Maybe it's a need for companionship or love, recognition, some material need - whatever it is we start to wander out of the fence of God's boundaries to get some need met.
We saw something we wanted but it was outside the fence. So we became one of God's fence crawlers. God's response? He said, "I'm going to put some thorn bushes in the way - a wall. You're going to chase what you're looking for, but you'll not catch it. Why? Because He loves you. He'll frustrate your attempts to meet your needs by sinning. In a sense He'll do what that farmer will do to keep his animal from going too far into the danger zone. He'll put barbed wire in your path and maybe even lay something on you that will keep you from getting away or from getting too far.
Which leads us to that life changing way to pray for someone you know who is getting away from the Lord. Pray for the thorns, the wall, an unsuccessful pursuit of sin. It's a loving prayer that asks God to frustrate that person's sin to make that wrong relationship a dead-end street; to let sin bring some corrective pain; to pray for sin to be frustrating, disappointing.
It might be Jesus' love has been pursuing you through this program. He knows why you crawled outside the fence. So do you. You thought there was something better away from Him. But it's not working. There's guilt, bad relationships, aloneness, scars. Maybe you're feeling God's barbed wire love, a little pain from your sin to keep you from a lot of pain that's down the road. This could be your day to say, "I'm going back to my Savior, because I was so much better off with Him."
Listen to your heart. That's Jesus calling you back home.
