For twenty years I was the senior minister of our church. Budgets, personnel, buildings, hiring and firing… was happy to fill the role. But I was happiest preaching and writing. My mind was always gravitating toward the next series. Even during committee meetings (well, especially during committee meetings) I was doodling on the next message. More staff and more people to manage meant spending more time doing what I didn’t feel called to do.
I was blessed to have options. And equally blessed to have a church that provided flexibility as I transitioned from senior minister to teaching minister. A few people were puzzled. “Don’t you miss being the senior minister?” Translation: Weren’t you demoted? Earlier in my life I would have thought so. But God’s definition of promotion isn’t a move up the ladder, it is a move toward your call. Don’t let someone “promote” you out of your call!
From Glory Days
Song of Songs 6
Young Women of Jerusalem
Where has your lover gone,
O woman of rare beauty?
Which way did he turn
so we can help you find him?
Young Woman
2 My lover has gone down to his garden,
to his spice beds,
to browse in the gardens
and gather the lilies.
3 I am my lover’s, and my lover is mine.
He browses among the lilies.
Young Man
4 You are beautiful, my darling,
like the lovely city of Tirzah.
Yes, as beautiful as Jerusalem,
as majestic as an army with billowing banners.
5 Turn your eyes away,
for they overpower me.
Your hair falls in waves,
like a flock of goats winding down the slopes of Gilead.
6 Your teeth are as white as sheep
that are freshly washed.
Your smile is flawless,
each tooth matched with its twin.[a]
7 Your cheeks are like rosy pomegranates
behind your veil.
8 Even among sixty queens
and eighty concubines
and countless young women,
9 I would still choose my dove, my perfect one—
the favorite of her mother,
dearly loved by the one who bore her.
The young women see her and praise her;
even queens and royal concubines sing her praises:
10 “Who is this, arising like the dawn,
as fair as the moon,
as bright as the sun,
as majestic as an army with billowing banners?”
Young Woman
11 I went down to the grove of walnut trees
and out to the valley to see the new spring growth,
to see whether the grapevines had budded
or the pomegranates were in bloom.
12 Before I realized it,
my strong desires had taken me to the chariot of a noble man.[b]
Young Women of Jerusalem
13 [c]Return, return to us, O maid of Shulam.
Come back, come back, that we may see you again.
Footnotes:
6:6 Hebrew Not one is missing; each has a twin.
6:12 Or to the royal chariots of my people, or to the chariots of Amminadab. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
6:13a Verse 6:13 is numbered 7:1 in Hebrew text.
6:13b Or as you would at the movements of two armies? or as you would at the dance of Mahanaim? The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Read: Ezra 3:1-6
The Altar Is Rebuilt
3 In early autumn,[a] when the Israelites had settled in their towns, all the people assembled in Jerusalem with a unified purpose. 2 Then Jeshua son of Jehozadak[b] joined his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel with his family in rebuilding the altar of the God of Israel. They wanted to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, as instructed in the Law of Moses, the man of God. 3 Even though the people were afraid of the local residents, they rebuilt the altar at its old site. Then they began to sacrifice burnt offerings on the altar to the Lord each morning and evening.
4 They celebrated the Festival of Shelters as prescribed in the Law, sacrificing the number of burnt offerings specified for each day of the festival. 5 They also offered the regular burnt offerings and the offerings required for the new moon celebrations and the annual festivals as prescribed by the Lord. The people also gave voluntary offerings to the Lord. 6 Fifteen days before the Festival of Shelters began,[c] the priests had begun to sacrifice burnt offerings to the Lord. This was even before they had started to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple.
Footnotes:
3:1 Hebrew In the seventh month. The year is not specified, so it may have been during Cyrus’s first year (538 B.c.) or second year (537 B.c.). The seventh month of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar occurred within the months of September/October 538 B.c. and October/November 537 B.c.
3:2 Hebrew Jozadak, a variant spelling of Jehozadak; also in 3:8.
3:6 Hebrew On the first day of the seventh month. This day in the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar occurred in September or October. The Festival of Shelters began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month.
INSIGHT:
Twice in today’s passage Ezra records that the people returning from exile did things “in accordance with what is written” (vv. 2,4). However, what makes these statements impressive is what is found in the middle of the paragraph. They did all these things “despite their fear of the peoples around them”—the residents of Judah who were not part of the returning exiles (v. 3).
As It Is Written
By Dave Branon
[They] built the altar . . . to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written. —nkjv
Ezra 3:2
When it comes to putting things together—electronics, furniture, and the like—my son and I have differing approaches. Steve is more mechanically inclined, so he tends to toss the instructions aside and just start in. Meanwhile, I’m poring over the “Read This Before Starting” warning while he has already put the thing halfway together.
Sometimes we can get by without the instructions. But when it comes to putting together a life that reflects the goodness and wisdom of God, we can’t afford to ignore the directions He’s given to us in the Bible.
Jesus shows us the way to live.
The Israelites who had returned to their land after the Babylonian captivity are a good example of this. As they began to reestablish worship in their homeland, they prepared to do so “in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses” (Ezra 3:2). By building a proper altar and in celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles as prescribed by God in Leviticus 23:33-43, they did exactly what God’s directions told them to do.
Christ gave His followers some directions too. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37,39). When we believe in Him and come to Him, He shows us the way to live. The One who made us knows far better than we do how life is supposed to work.
Remind us, Lord, as we start each day that You have already shown us by Your example how to live. Help us to read Your Word and follow the directions You so graciously provide for us.
Share this prayer from our Facebook page with your friends. facebook.com/ourdailybread
If we want God to lead us, we must be willing to follow Him.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 19, 2015
“When He Has Come”
When He has come, He will convict the world of sin… —John 16:8
Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin. We know the experience of being disturbed because we have done wrong things. But conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit blots out every relationship on earth and makes us aware of only one— “Against You, You only, have I sinned…” (Psalm 51:4). When a person is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every bit of his conscience that God would not dare to forgive him. If God did forgive him, then this person would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the breaking of His heart with grief in the death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. Once we have been convicted of sin, we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary— nothing less! The love of God is spelled out on the Cross and nowhere else. The only basis for which God can forgive me is the Cross of Christ. It is there that His conscience is satisfied.
Forgiveness doesn’t merely mean that I am saved from hell and have been made ready for heaven (no one would accept forgiveness on that level). Forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a newly created relationship which identifies me with God in Christ. The miracle of redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One. He does this by putting into me a new nature, the nature of Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are in danger of being stern where God is tender, and of being tender where God is stern. The Love of God—The Message of Invincible Consolation, 673 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Go-bedience - #7529
Our sons' room was upstairs, off the beaten path of where my wife and I tended to travel in our house. But usually when we did venture into Boys World, we were in for a shock. Let's just say the boys had this unlimited capacity to make a mess and this uncanny ability to live in one without even noticing the mess. So, often the stern command would reverberate in the halls of our home: "Clean your room!" The boys seldom disagreed. Usually they would respond with a compliant, "We will." And, I think they really intended to...maybe. They knew it was fundamental to the privileges they wanted, so they went along with our cleaning orders. But did that mean the disaster area got un-disastered? Usually, no. The boys didn't disagree with what they were supposed to do; they just somehow didn't get around to doing it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about (here's a new word) "Go-bedience."
Now, obedience isn't obedience just because you agree with what you're supposed to do. There's no obedience until you go and do it. It's go-bedience!
I wonder if there's something your Heavenly Father's been telling you to do through His Word or through the inner tug of the Holy Spirit and you've been saying, "I will, Father. I agree." You know He's right. You intend to obey, but you're still sitting where you were. As surely as our sons were still disobeying until they did what we said, you're still disobeying God however politely. It's still disobedience because there's no such thing as passive obedience. If you're not moving on it, you're not obeying.
Which leads us to a powerful example of what obeying really means. It's from the life of Abraham as highlighted in our word for today from the Word of God from Hebrews 11:8. It says, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."
God had summoned Abraham to leave his family, his comfort-his comfort zone actually-to obey Him and go to a future about which God supplied almost no details. Now Abraham could have said, "Okay, Lord. I'll go." But it wasn't agreement that launched him into God's amazing adventure. It was going! It was doing it without knowing what was coming, which is what God asked of so many of His children all through the Bible.
Which is what God may be asking you to do right now, to go without knowing how it's all going to work. Maybe your Lord is asking you to start something, or to leave something or someone, or maybe to stop doing something, or to confront something, or give something, or tell someone about the Savior who died for them.
But you're delaying your obedience. You're waiting until there's more facts, or until more of the risks are eliminated. You want to analyze the situation a little more, to get more signs. But you're not obeying! It's not obedience until it's go-bedience! And faith obedience steps out, not because you know where or how, but because you know Who. You know Who you are following. You're following an all-powerful Lord who will never do you wrong! Would anyone who loved you enough to die for you do you wrong?
It's one thing to agree with what your Father wants you to do. It's a whole other thing to start doing it. Until you do, you're just disobeying your Father. The old song is right. "Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey."