Suppose you were to stand on a stage while a film of every secret and selfish moment of your life was projected on the screen behind you? Would you not scream for the heavens to have mercy? And would you not feel just a fraction of what Christ felt on the cross? The icy displeasure of a sin-hating God?
The Bible says Christ carried all our sins in his body. See Christ on the cross? That’s a gossiper hanging there. See Jesus? Embezzler….liar…bigot. Hold it, Max! Don’t you lump Christ with those evildoers. I didn’t. HE did. More than place his name in the same sentence, he placed himself in their place. And yours! With hands nailed open, he invited God, Treat me as you would them. And God did. “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” (Matthew 27:46). Why did Christ scream those words? It’s simple–so you will never have to!
From Next Door Savior
Witnesses Summoned Against Israel
Hear this word, people of Israel, the word the Lord has spoken against you—against the whole family I brought up out of Egypt:
2 “You only have I chosen
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your sins.”
3 Do two walk together
unless they have agreed to do so?
4 Does a lion roar in the thicket
when it has no prey?
Does it growl in its den
when it has caught nothing?
5 Does a bird swoop down to a trap on the ground
when no bait is there?
Does a trap spring up from the ground
if it has not caught anything?
6 When a trumpet sounds in a city,
do not the people tremble?
When disaster comes to a city,
has not the Lord caused it?
7 Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing
without revealing his plan
to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion has roared—
who will not fear?
The Sovereign Lord has spoken—
who can but prophesy?
9 Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod
and to the fortresses of Egypt:
“Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria;
see the great unrest within her
and the oppression among her people.”
10 “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord,
“who store up in their fortresses
what they have plundered and looted.”
11 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“An enemy will overrun your land,
pull down your strongholds
and plunder your fortresses.”
12 This is what the Lord says:
“As a shepherd rescues from the lion’s mouth
only two leg bones or a piece of an ear,
so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued,
with only the head of a bed
and a piece of fabric[i] from a couch.[j]”
13 “Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the Lord God Almighty.
14 “On the day I punish Israel for her sins,
I will destroy the altars of Bethel;
the horns of the altar will be cut off
and fall to the ground.
15 I will tear down the winter house
along with the summer house;
the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed
and the mansions will be demolished,”
declares the Lord.
Footnotes:
Amos 3:12 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
Amos 3:12 Or Israelites be rescued, / those who sit in Samaria / on the edge of their beds / and in Damascus on their couches.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Read: Psalm 18:1-6
For the choir director: A psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. He sang this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from all his enemies and from Saul. He sang:
1 I love you, Lord;
you are my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.
He is my shield, the power that saves me,
and my place of safety.
3 I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and he saved me from my enemies.
4 The ropes of death entangled me;
floods of destruction swept over me.
5 The grave[a] wrapped its ropes around me;
death laid a trap in my path.
6 But in my distress I cried out to the Lord;
yes, I prayed to my God for help.
He heard me from his sanctuary;
my cry to him reached his ears.
Footnotes:
18:5 Hebrew Sheol
INSIGHT:
Psalm 18 seems to be a song of retrospective understanding. In many of David’s psalms we find him being pursued and hunted, first by Saul and later by Absalom. During those times of flight and danger, David sometimes questioned God’s faithfulness, love, and care—wondering why the Lord didn’t intervene on his behalf. In Psalm 18, however, we see a more reflective David. He looked back on his journey and saw continuous evidence of the presence and protection of God along the way (vv. 1–3; 16–19; 25–29; 35–36; 47–50)—even in the seasons of life where that evidence seemed scarce. Now, looking back, David affirmed what he had questioned—the faithfulness of God.
Before the Phone
By Keila Ochoa
In my distress I called to the Lord. Psalm 18:6
As a mom of young children I’m sometimes susceptible to panic. My first reaction is to call my mom on the phone and ask her what to do with my son’s allergy or my daughter’s sudden cough.
Mom is a great resource, but when I read the Psalms, I’m reminded of how often we need the kind of help that no mortal can give. In Psalm 18 David was in great danger. Afraid, close to death, and in anguish, he called on the Lord.
Jesus always hears our cries.
David could say, “I love you, Lord” because he understood God was a fortress, a rock, and a deliverer (vv. 1-2). God was his shield, his salvation, and his stronghold. Maybe we cannot understand David’s praise because we have not experienced God’s help. It may be that we reach for the phone before going to God for advice and help.
Surely God puts people in our lives to give us help and comfort. But let’s also remember to pray. God will hear us. As David sang, “From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears” (v. 6). When we go to God, we join David’s song and enjoy Him as our rock, our fortress, and our deliverer.
Next time you reach for the phone, remember also to pray.
Dear Lord, help me to remember You are my deliverer, and You always hear my cry.
Prayer is the bridge between panic and peace.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, January 28, 2016
How Could Someone So Persecute Jesus!
Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? —Acts 26:14
Are you determined to have your own way in living for God? We will never be free from this trap until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of “the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Stubbornness and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set on our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our own rights and insist that this is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Him. Whenever we rely on self-respect, we systematically disturb and grieve His Spirit. And when we finally understand that it is Jesus we have been persecuting all this time, it is the most crushing revelation ever.
Is the Word of God tremendously penetrating and sharp in me as I hand it on to you, or does my life betray the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the very spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of only one thing— a perfect oneness with the Father. And He tells us, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). All I do should be based on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that others may use me, go around me, or completely ignore me, but if I will submit to it for His sake, I will prevent Jesus Christ from being persecuted.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, January 28, 2016
A Little Girl, A Light - and How to Help the Lost Ones - #7579
She was just seven years old; the lone survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents, her sister, and her cousin. The sheriff said "she literally fell out of the sky into a dark hole." He called her survival "a miracle."
This "miracle" survivor somehow crawled out of this upside-down wreckage of her dad's plane dressed only in shorts and a t-shirt on a winter night. Shoeless, through brambles and underbrush, this what they called "remarkable" young girl navigated two embankments, a hill, and a creek bed in the dark.
And then the light. Actually, just a single security light on a house. When she knocked on that door, a kind, grandfatherly man brought her inside. Then she was safe. One report said this: "He thinks his security light may have been a beacon." Yeah, a beacon for a little girl who had lost so much. But, thank God, she was alive.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Little Girl, A Light - and How to Help the Lost Ones."
This story got me to thinking about who I need to be for people who've lost so much, who feel alone, whose world has suddenly crashed, who need someone to be a light - a "beacon" - in an otherwise dark night.
Actually, that is what my Jesus said I should be as His follower. It's actually in our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 5, beginning with verse 14, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."
I've been thinking what it means to be a light for people in my personal world. It means being one person they know who is all about their need, not about my own. Who has time to listen. Who doesn't just ask the obligatory "How you doin'?" But who asks that second and third question to see if that obligatory "fine" answer they gave you is really how they're doing.
Being a light means being the one who refuses to hear or speak trash talk about anyone. Who protects a person's name when they're not in the room. Who builds a person up and never tears them down. Who says, "Thank you" and "I'm sorry" and "I was wrong."
It's always treating people, as the Bible says, "with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15). Not "turning off the light" by making them feel condemned or put down.
The "light" is the person who remembers a person's birthday, who checks on them when they're sick, who's at the hospital, the wedding, and the funeral. Who drops what I'm doing when they're hurting. Who offers to pray with - not just for - them when God is needed so much.
So I ask myself: do people around me see me as "safe"; the "go-to" person when it's dark, when it's cold and when it's lonely? Have I so lived that when they hit a wall, they'll think of me as a place to turn? I'll know it's because of the Jesus in me. Am I the light on the porch when people around me are feeling lost?
I can be that for one reason. Jesus Christ has been that for me. As a dad who didn't know what to do, when there was no money, in the cold chill of that cemetery. When I was spiritually lost with no hope of heaven, because of running my life instead of God running it, I found one beacon in my storm - a cross and an empty tomb. It is, by the way, where you will find that same light, that same help, that same forgiveness; that light inside of you.
If you have never begun a relationship with this Jesus, who changes everything with planting His love and His hope inside of you and you now can survive any storm, I would invite you to go to our website and let me walk you through there the way you can be sure you belong to Him. Go to ANewStory.com. Because Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). He's kept that promise for me every time.
If someone in my personal world is wandering in the dark today, I just pray they've seen the Light in me so I can help them find home.