Joshua said: "Tribe of Judah, take the high country. Manasseh, occupy the valleys. People of God, inhabit the land east of the Jordan."
Jesus says: Joe, take your place in the domain of medicine. Mary, your territory is accounting. Susan, I give you the gift of compassion. Now occupy your territory.
Everybody gets a gift and these gifts come in different doses and combinations. 1 Corinthians 12:7 says, "Each person is given something to do that shows who God is." Our inheritance is grace-based and equal. But our assignments are tailor made. No two snowflakes the same and no two fingerprints the same. Why would two skill sets be the same? No wonder Paul said in Ephesians 5:17 to make sure you understand what the Master wants! Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that.
From Glory Days
Song of Solomon 5
Young Man
I have entered my garden, my treasure,[d] my bride!
I gather myrrh with my spices
and eat honeycomb with my honey.
I drink wine with my milk.
Young Women of Jerusalem
Oh, lover and beloved, eat and drink!
Yes, drink deeply of your love!
Young Woman
2 I slept, but my heart was awake,
when I heard my lover knocking and calling:
“Open to me, my treasure, my darling,
my dove, my perfect one.
My head is drenched with dew,
my hair with the dampness of the night.”
3 But I responded,
“I have taken off my robe.
Should I get dressed again?
I have washed my feet.
Should I get them soiled?”
4 My lover tried to unlatch the door,
and my heart thrilled within me.
5 I jumped up to open the door for my love,
and my hands dripped with perfume.
My fingers dripped with lovely myrrh
as I pulled back the bolt.
6 I opened to my lover,
but he was gone!
My heart sank.
I searched for him
but could not find him anywhere.
I called to him,
but there was no reply.
7 The night watchmen found me
as they made their rounds.
They beat and bruised me
and stripped off my veil,
those watchmen on the walls.
8 Make this promise, O women of Jerusalem—
If you find my lover,
tell him I am weak with love.
Young Women of Jerusalem
9 Why is your lover better than all others,
O woman of rare beauty?
What makes your lover so special
that we must promise this?
Young Woman
10 My lover is dark and dazzling,
better than ten thousand others!
11 His head is finest gold,
his wavy hair is black as a raven.
12 His eyes sparkle like doves
beside springs of water;
they are set like jewels
washed in milk.
13 His cheeks are like gardens of spices
giving off fragrance.
His lips are like lilies,
perfumed with myrrh.
14 His arms are like rounded bars of gold,
set with beryl.
His body is like bright ivory,
glowing with lapis lazuli.
15 His legs are like marble pillars
set in sockets of finest gold.
His posture is stately,
like the noble cedars of Lebanon.
16 His mouth is sweetness itself;
he is desirable in every way.
Such, O women of Jerusalem,
is my lover, my friend.
Footnotes:
5:1 Hebrew my sister; also in 5:2.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Read: Isaiah 66:5-13
Hear this message from the Lord,
all you who tremble at his words:
“Your own people hate you
and throw you out for being loyal to my name.
‘Let the Lord be honored!’ they scoff.
‘Be joyful in him!’
But they will be put to shame.
6 What is all the commotion in the city?
What is that terrible noise from the Temple?
It is the voice of the Lord
taking vengeance against his enemies.
7 “Before the birth pains even begin,
Jerusalem gives birth to a son.
8 Who has ever seen anything as strange as this?
Who ever heard of such a thing?
Has a nation ever been born in a single day?
Has a country ever come forth in a mere moment?
But by the time Jerusalem’s[a] birth pains begin,
her children will be born.
9 Would I ever bring this nation to the point of birth
and then not deliver it?” asks the Lord.
“No! I would never keep this nation from being born,”
says your God.
10 “Rejoice with Jerusalem!
Be glad with her, all you who love her
and all you who mourn for her.
11 Drink deeply of her glory
even as an infant drinks at its mother’s comforting breasts.”
12 This is what the Lord says:
“I will give Jerusalem a river of peace and prosperity.
The wealth of the nations will flow to her.
Her children will be nursed at her breasts,
carried in her arms, and held on her lap.
13 I will comfort you there in Jerusalem
as a mother comforts her child.”
Footnotes:
66:8 Hebrew Zion’s.
INSIGHT:
Having warned of exile in Babylon (Isa. 39:6-7), Isaiah now comforts the Israelites with the promise that God will bring them back to Judea and bless them (chs. 40–66). This restoration is so certain and swift that it is likened to a woman giving birth to a child before she even experiences labor pains (39:7-8). What God promises, He fulfills (v. 9). God will love His people like a mother loves her child (v. 13).
Safe in His Arms
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.
Isaiah 66:13
I sat next to my daughter’s bed in a recovery room after she had undergone surgery. When her eyes fluttered open, she realized she was uncomfortable and started to cry. I tried to reassure her by stroking her arm, but she only became more upset. With help from a nurse, I moved her from the bed and onto my lap. I brushed tears from her cheeks and reminded her that she would eventually feel better.
Through Isaiah, God told the Israelites, “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you” (Isa. 66:13). God promised to give His children peace and to carry them the way a mother totes a child around on her side. This tender message was for the people who had a reverence for God—those who “tremble at his word” (v. 5).
We can depend on God's love to support us when we suffer.
God’s ability and desire to comfort His people appears again in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian believers. Paul said the Lord is the one “who comforts us in all our troubles” (2 Cor. 1:3-4). God is gentle and sympathetic with us when we are in trouble.
One day all suffering will end. Our tears will dry up permanently, and we will be safe in God’s arms forever (Rev. 21:4). Until then, we can depend on God’s love to support us when we suffer.
Dear God, help me to remember that nothing can separate me from Your love. Please assure me of Your care through the power of the Holy Spirit.
God comforts His people.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
The Eternal Goal
By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing…I will bless you… —Genesis 22:16-17
Abraham, at this point, has reached where he is in touch with the very nature of God. He now understands the reality of God.
My goal is God Himself…
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.
“At any cost…by any road” means submitting to God’s way of bringing us to the goal.
There is no possibility of questioning God when He speaks, if He speaks to His own nature in me. Prompt obedience is the only result. When Jesus says, “Come,” I simply come; when He says, “Let go,” I let go; when He says, “Trust God in this matter,” I trust. This work of obedience is the evidence that the nature of God is in me.
God’s revelation of Himself to me is influenced by my character, not by God’s character.
’Tis because I am ordinary,
Thy ways so often look ordinary to me.
It is through the discipline of obedience that I get to the place where Abraham was and I see who God is. God will never be real to me until I come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ. Then I will know and can boldly proclaim, “In all the world, my God, there is none but Thee, there is none but Thee.”
The promises of God are of no value to us until, through obedience, we come to understand the nature of God. We may read some things in the Bible every day for a year and they may mean nothing to us. Then, because we have been obedient to God in some small detail, we suddenly see what God means and His nature is instantly opened up to us. “All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen…” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Our “Yes” must be born of obedience; when by obedience we ratify a promise of God by saying, “Amen,” or, “So be it.” That promise becomes ours.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye. Disciples Indeed, 385 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Important Times, and Urgent Action - #7527
Our oldest son and his wife, our wonderful daughter now, were living on an Indian reservation and had ministered there for several years. And now they were expecting their first baby. It was wonderful this baby girl was going to come. They lived pretty far from the hospital, so of course, you needed to "get in gear" when it was time. And those were the words our daughter-in-law spoke that fateful night, "I think it's time!" Well, they had gone to the classes. They knew what to do. Oh, but my son? Well, he simply started walking around in circles in his living room going, "Okay! Okay! Okay!" Meanwhile his wife's gently going, "It's time." "Okay! Okay! Okay!" Well, listen, when you know what time it is, you need to know what action to take.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Important Times, and Urgent Action."
By the way, they got there in time. I thought you'd want to know.
Now you and I have been chosen by God to live in very important times, and it's important for us to know what time it is and what to do with that. I mean, people are exploring all kinds of spiritual answers. There are big questions about all the uncertainties of the world economy, and we're so dependent on technology.
Then there's worry about who's the latest to get nuclear weapons, and terrorism that can pop up anywhere, anytime, and a world that looks more like the kind of world Jesus said he'd come back to than maybe it's ever looked. These are extraordinary times. It's time to do some extraordinary living. It's time for some urgent action, because maybe God is going, "It's time. It's time." We're at a defining moment, and we've got to realize what time it is and respond accordingly.
Like some people did at another defining moment some 3,000 years ago. Israel was emerging as a nation, as they have again today. Their first king, Saul, had turned out to be a disaster. He died as a suicide in battle, and people are deciding where their allegiance is going to be. God has His man for king: David. He's about to take his rightful throne as his descendant, Jesus Christ, will do one day when He returns to earth to rule from what the Bible calls "the throne of David."
1 Chronicles 12 records that there were many fighting men who "came to Hebron fully determined to make David king over all Israel." We also read that "the Spirit came upon Amasai, chief of the Thirty, and he said: 'We are yours, O David! We are with you, O son of Jesse!'" And then in our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Chronicles 12:32, we read about one group of people who show us how to be in a defining moment like they lived in, like we live in. The Bible describes "the men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do."
Now if you understand the times you're living in, you will know what you should do. And those who are committed to enthroning the rightful king – and we know Christ is that king – they showed us the defining choice in defining times back then; making the King your king and living to enlarge His kingdom. They were "fully determined to make David king over all." That's where your choices lie. To make sure the king, King Jesus, is your king. This is a moment like never before, to say, "I am Yours, O Jesus! I am with You, O Son of God!" He's moving toward wrapping up all history. You'd better make sure He's the center of your personal history.
Secondly, if you really know what time it is, you're going to be living to enlarge the kingdom of King Jesus before He returns. That means getting as many people to belong to Him as you can. Throwing your influence and your money, your possessions, and your future into the greatest cause on the planet; the cause for which your King gave His life – rescuing spiritually dying people.
It's time to look through everything we own, everything we've planned, everything we've dreamed in light of the times God has chosen us to live in. When it's the fourth quarter, you don't play as if it's the first quarter. Be sure you understand the time and you know what to do.
It has never mattered more to live for what really matters and what will matter forever. Perhaps you hear Jesus saying, "It's time!"