My friend, Anibal was guilty. Period. I met him in Brazil. I also met my friend Daniel who had given Anibal a Bible. And he took me with him to tell Anibal about Jesus. We centered on the cross. We talked about guilt, and forgiveness. His heart was touched as we discussed heaven, a hope no executioner could take from him. But as we discussed conversion, Anibal's face hardened. He had never backed down before any man, and he wasn't about to do it now.
"Don't you want to go to heaven?" I asked. "Sure," he grunted. But the eyes that met mine weren't tear-filled- they were the eyes of an angry prisoner. Twice imprisoned. Once because of murder, and once because of stubbornness. Jesus said, Blessed are those who know they're in trouble and have enough sense to admit it (Matthew 5:5). Anibal didn't want to…but my prayer is that we will.
From The Applause of Heaven
Psalm 35
A psalm of David.
1 O Lord, oppose those who oppose me.
Fight those who fight against me.
2 Put on your armor, and take up your shield.
Prepare for battle, and come to my aid.
3 Lift up your spear and javelin
against those who pursue me.
Let me hear you say,
“I will give you victory!”
4 Bring shame and disgrace on those trying to kill me;
turn them back and humiliate those who want to harm me.
5 Blow them away like chaff in the wind—
a wind sent by the angel of the Lord.
6 Make their path dark and slippery,
with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.
7 I did them no wrong, but they laid a trap for me.
I did them no wrong, but they dug a pit to catch me.
8 So let sudden ruin come upon them!
Let them be caught in the trap they set for me!
Let them be destroyed in the pit they dug for me.
9 Then I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will be glad because he rescues me.
10 With every bone in my body I will praise him:
“Lord, who can compare with you?
Who else rescues the helpless from the strong?
Who else protects the helpless and poor from those who rob them?”
11 Malicious witnesses testify against me.
They accuse me of crimes I know nothing about.
12 They repay me evil for good.
I am sick with despair.
13 Yet when they were ill, I grieved for them.
I denied myself by fasting for them,
but my prayers returned unanswered.
14 I was sad, as though they were my friends or family,
as if I were grieving for my own mother.
15 But they are glad now that I am in trouble;
they gleefully join together against me.
I am attacked by people I don’t even know;
they slander me constantly.
16 They mock me and call me names;
they snarl at me.
17 How long, O Lord, will you look on and do nothing?
Rescue me from their fierce attacks.
Protect my life from these lions!
18 Then I will thank you in front of the great assembly.
I will praise you before all the people.
19 Don’t let my treacherous enemies rejoice over my defeat.
Don’t let those who hate me without cause gloat over my sorrow.
20 They don’t talk of peace;
they plot against innocent people who mind their own business.
21 They shout, “Aha! Aha!
With our own eyes we saw him do it!”
22 O Lord, you know all about this.
Do not stay silent.
Do not abandon me now, O Lord.
23 Wake up! Rise to my defense!
Take up my case, my God and my Lord.
24 Declare me not guilty, O Lord my God, for you give justice.
Don’t let my enemies laugh about me in my troubles.
25 Don’t let them say, “Look, we got what we wanted!
Now we will eat him alive!”
26 May those who rejoice at my troubles
be humiliated and disgraced.
May those who triumph over me
be covered with shame and dishonor.
27 But give great joy to those who came to my defense.
Let them continually say, “Great is the Lord,
who delights in blessing his servant with peace!”
28 Then I will proclaim your justice,
and I will praise you all day long.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Read: Philippians 2:1-11
Have the Attitude of Christ
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
6 Though he was God,[a]
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges[b];
he took the humble position of a slave[c]
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,[d]
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Footnotes:
2:6 Or Being in the form of God.
2:7a Greek he emptied himself.
2:7b Or the form of a slave.
2:7c Some English translations put this phrase in verse 8.
INSIGHT:
The words that Paul penned to the Philippian church while he was under house arrest are some of the most challenging. There is so much in this short letter that goes against our natural inclinations. From prison, Paul encouraged the Philippian believers to “make his joy complete” (2:2 niv). Paul is joyful while in prison because of his faith in Christ, and he encouraged the believers to add to his joy by looking out for one another and counting others as more important than themselves. Paul then uses Jesus as the example of this kind of selflessness. In taking on humanity, Jesus gave up everything that was rightfully His to come to our rescue. J.R. Hudberg
Under Siege
By David McCasland
Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:4
During the Bosnian War (1992–1996), more than 10,000 people—civilians and soldiers—were killed in the city of Sarajevo as gunfire and mortar rounds rained down from the surrounding hills. Steven Galloway’s gripping novel The Cellist of Sarajevo unfolds there, during the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare. The book follows three fictional characters who must decide if they will become completely self-absorbed in their struggle to survive, or will somehow rise above their numbing circumstances to consider others during a time of great adversity.
From a prison in Rome, Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi, saying: “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4). Paul cited Jesus as the great example of a selfless focus on others: “Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, . . . made Himself of no reputation . . . humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (vv. 5-8). Rather than seeking sympathy from others, Jesus gave all He had to rescue us from the tyranny of sin.
Our continuing challenge as followers of Jesus is to see through His eyes and respond to the needs of others in His strength, even in our own difficult times.
Are you going through something hard right now? What can you still do for another?
Embracing God’s love for us is the key to loving others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Have You Ever Been Speechless with Sorrow?
August 18, 2015
When he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. —Luke 18:23
The rich young ruler went away from Jesus speechless with sorrow, having nothing to say in response to Jesus’ words. He had no doubt about what Jesus had said or what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow with no words with which to respond. Have you ever been there? Has God’s Word ever come to you, pointing out an area of your life, requiring you to yield it to Him? Maybe He has pointed out certain personal qualities, desires, and interests, or possibly relationships of your heart and mind. If so, then you have often been speechless with sorrow. The Lord will not go after you, and He will not plead with you. But every time He meets you at the place where He has pointed, He will simply repeat His words, saying, “If you really mean what you say, these are the conditions.”
“Sell all that you have…” (Luke 18:22). In other words, rid yourself before God of everything that might be considered a possession until you are a mere conscious human being standing before Him, and then give God that. That is where the battle is truly fought— in the realm of your will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Jesus Himself? If so, you are likely to hear one of His harsh and unyielding statements that will produce sorrow in you. What Jesus says is difficult— it is only easy when it is heard by those who have His nature in them. Beware of allowing anything to soften the hard words of Jesus Christ.
I can be so rich in my own poverty, or in the awareness of the fact that I am nobody, that I will never be a disciple of Jesus. Or I can be so rich in the awareness that I am somebody that I will never be a disciple. Am I willing to be destitute and poor even in my sense of awareness of my destitution and poverty? If not, that is why I become discouraged. Discouragement is disillusioned self-love, and self-love may be love for my devotion to Jesus— not love for Jesus Himself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
What no Religion Can Do For You - #7462
Jennifer and Courtney were three-year-old twins. And they were excited about preschool. In fact, they were so excited they got up in the middle of the night in their Omaha, Nebraska home and walked out of the house to make the six-block walk to school. Well all this while, their parents were sound asleep. You say, "Oh, isn't that cute?" No! See, snow was everywhere that night and the temperature was nine below zero. The girls were reported missing at 4:04 a.m. after family members awoke to find this light on and the door open.
Two police officers started driving the route to school, hoping that they'd find the girls before it was too late. At one point, their squad car was stopped by the ice on a steep hill. They were stopped right in front of this alley, which they decided to investigate. And there they found these little foot prints, then three tan boots no bigger than the palm of the officer's hand. And finally they found barefoot Courtney wearing an open coat and kneeling beside her sister Jennifer, who was face down in the snow wearing socks but no coat. Even though Jennifer was near death when they found her, both the girls miraculously survived. If someone hadn't come looking for them though, they would have died.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What No Religion Can Do For You."
Two little girls were lost and dying, and they wouldn't have made it back home themselves. Their only hope was for someone to look for them and find them. It's always that way for someone who's lost, including you and me. See, lost is actually a word in the Bible that's used to describe our spiritual condition. It's because, as the Bible says, "Each of us has wandered away from God like sheep."
We're created to have our life revolve around our Creator. But we've all decided to have it revolve around ourselves instead. And that wandering has taken us away from the home we were made for; a personal love relationship with the One who made us. We're lost. We're away and ultimately dying. If you're honest with yourself right now, maybe the word lost pretty much describes how you're feeling.
Our word for today from the Word of God, Luke 19:10, is awfully good news. Speaking of Jesus it says, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." Jesus is
God come looking for you; a lost child that He loves very much. Notice He did exactly what those police officers did for those lost little girls – seeking/saving. Those girls had nothing to do with their own rescue. Their only hope was a rescuer coming for them and saving them, like you and me.
Here's the simple fact: you cannot find God. God has to find you, and that's pretty radical. It means that all our religious efforts to get to God, whatever your religion, all our self-improvement will not get us home to a God whose standard is perfection. A lost child doesn't find himself. He or she gets found by the rescuer. All our spirituality, all our ceremonies, all our services, all our attempts to complete ourselves by finding God through spiritual searching or exercises still leave us lost.
According to the Bible, we are that little girl, hopelessly lost, face down in the snow about to die spiritually. And Jesus is that policeman coming to where we are to rescue us. But this rescue involves eternal death, the price tag for our sin. This rescue cost the Rescuer his life, as Jesus died on that cross, taking all the punishment and the hell that you and I deserve. And the Rescuer comes right now to where you are to bring you home from your "lostness."
Your role is to put yourself totally in the hands of Jesus, the only one who paid the price to bring you back. You're finally home when you tell Jesus you're putting your total trust in Him to be your personal Rescuer from your personal sin.
If you're ready to trust Jesus Christ to be your Savior, go to our website and check out there how to be sure you've begun your relationship with Him. It's ANewStory.com. Or you can talk with us. Text us at 442-244-WORD.
You'll never find your Creator. You're lost, but He has found you at the cost of His life. Now, let Him bring you home before it's too late.
