Max Lucado Daily: UNITY OF THE SPIRIT
Ephesians 4:3 says to “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” The Holy Spirit of God is the mother hen, urging the church to gather together in safety! We’re never told to create unity but rather to keep the unity the Spirit provides.
Harmony is always an option, because the Spirit is always present. Gone is the excuse, “I just can’t work alongside so-and-so.” Maybe you can’t, but the Spirit within you can! To say otherwise is to say that the Holy Spirit cannot do what he longs to do. “We were all given the one Spirit to drink,” the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:13-14…“even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” The Holy Spirit unifies the church, the body. Let the Holy Spirit do its unification work through you! And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope in him is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 20
Simeon
Asylum-Cities
Then God spoke to Joshua: “Tell the People of Israel: Designate the asylum-cities, as I instructed you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally—that is, unintentionally—may flee there as a safe place of asylum from the avenger of blood.
4 “A person shall escape for refuge to one of these cities, stand at the entrance to the city gate, and lay out his case before the city’s leaders. The leaders must then take him into the city among them and give him a place to live with them.
5-6 “If the avenger of blood chases after him, they must not give him up—he didn’t intend to kill the person; there was no history of ill-feeling. He may stay in that city until he has stood trial before the congregation and until the death of the current high priest. Then he may go back to his own home in his hometown from which he fled.”
7 They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hills of Naphtali, Shechem in the hills of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the hills of Judah.
8-9 On the other side of the Jordan, east of Jericho, they designated Bezer on the desert plateau from the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan from the tribe of Manasseh. These were the designated cities for the People of Israel and any resident foreigner living among them, so that anyone who killed someone unintentionally could flee there and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood without a fair trial before the congregation.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, September 24, 2018
Read: Isaiah 30:15–21
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning[a] and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
But you were unwilling, 16 and you said,
“No! We will flee upon horses”;
therefore you shall flee away;
and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”;
therefore your pursuers shall be swift.
17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you shall flee,
till you are left
like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain,
like a signal on a hill.
The Lord Will Be Gracious
18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.
19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
Footnotes:
Isaiah 30:15 Or repentance
INSIGHT
In today’s passage, a resurgent militant Assyria threatened to conquer all of Israel. But instead of trusting God to deliver them, Judah turned to Egypt for help. God had explicitly prohibited Israelite kings from trusting in anything other than God for deliverance (Deuteronomy 17:16). Isaiah warned that it’s futile to trust Egypt instead of the Lord (Isaiah 30:1–19; 31:1). The psalmist also warned of the futility of putting our trust in something other than God: “No king is saved by the size of his army . . . . A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save” (Psalm 33:16–17).
When have you placed your trust in something other than God? - K. T. Sim
Walking God’s Way
By Adam Holz
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21
“We’re going this way,” I said as I touched my son’s shoulder and redirected him through the crowd to follow his mom and sisters in front of us. I’d done this more often as the day wore on at the amusement park our family was visiting. He was getting tired and more easily distracted. Why can’t he just follow them? I wondered.
Then it hit me: How often do I do exactly the same thing? How often do I veer from obediently walking with God, enchanted by the temptations to pursue what I want instead of seeking His ways?
Think of Isaiah’s words from God for Israel: “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’ ” (Isaiah 30:21). Earlier in that chapter, God had rebuked His people for their rebelliousness. But if they would trust His strength instead of their own ways (v. 15), He promised to show His graciousness and compassion (v. 18).
One expression of God’s graciousness is His promise to guide us by His Spirit. That happens as we talk to Him about our desires and ask in prayer what He has for us. I’m thankful God patiently directs us, day-by-day, step-by-step, as we trust Him and listen for His voice.
Father, You’ve promised to guide us through the ups and downs and decisions we face in life. Help us to trust and follow You, and to actively listen for Your guiding voice.
God patiently directs us as we trust Him and listen for His voice.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, September 24, 2018
The “Go” of Preparation
If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. —Matthew 5:23-24
It is easy for us to imagine that we will suddenly come to a point in our lives where we are fully prepared, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished. In fact, it is a process that must be steadily maintained. It is dangerous to become settled and complacent in our present level of experience. The Christian life requires preparation and more preparation.
The sense of sacrifice in the Christian life is readily appealing to a new Christian. From a human standpoint, the one thing that attracts us to Jesus Christ is our sense of the heroic, and a close examination of us by our Lord’s words suddenly puts this tide of enthusiasm to the test. “…go your way. First be reconciled to your brother….” The “go” of preparation is to allow the Word of God to examine you closely. Your sense of heroic sacrifice is not good enough. The thing the Holy Spirit will detect in you is your nature that can never work in His service. And no one but God can detect that nature in you. Do you have anything to hide from God? If you do, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin in your life, don’t just admit it— confess it. Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master, whatever the humiliation to your right to yourself may be?
Never disregard a conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to you. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to bring it to your mind, it is the very thing He is detecting in you. You were looking for some big thing to give up, while God is telling you of some tiny thing that must go. But behind that tiny thing lies the stronghold of obstinacy, and you say, “I will not give up my right to myself”— the very thing that God intends you to give up if you are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, September 24, 2018
The Burdens That Could Crush You - #8271
Our children got together and gave us a special gift for a milestone wedding anniversary – yep, a couple of nights in the beautiful place where we honeymooned years before. Part of the gift was a picturesque, horse-drawn carriage ride through some of the area's beautiful scenery. At one point, our carriage was headed up a relatively steep hill and another carriage was starting down that hill, full of people. It had to be a real workout for the horses, believe me. Our driver pointed out something that I found intriguing. He said, "Notice that the driver is holding the brake on as they come down the hill. That's to keep the horses from bearing a load that's too heavy for them to bear. With the driver holding the brake, they still feel like they're on level ground." Huh!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Burdens That Could Crush You."
If you belong to Jesus Christ, you have a God who does for you what that driver did for those horses. He holds back the load you cannot bear. Now you might be carrying a very heavy load right now, and you may even be wondering about the accuracy of what I just said. But be assured that He knows how much weight will make you stronger, and He'll allow that much in your life. But He also knows when it's weight that would crush you, and that's when He puts on the brakes.
He promises that in many places in the Bible. One of them is our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 10:13. It says, "God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted (or the word can mean tested) beyond what you can bear." God never breaks a promise. He's not going to break this one. Without Christ in your life, God is not yet your Father and there's no guarantee about how much of a load will come to you. But He promises His children, those who have opened their lives to the love and the power of Jesus Christ, that He will always protect you from what would be unbearable.
Protection is one way He'll keep you from being overwhelmed by the weight. Provision is another way He does it. He guarantees that "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Corinthians 12:9) and "your strength will equal your days" (Deuteronomy 33:25). No matter how much strength any given day's burdens require, He's committed to give you that much strength. Your load will never outweigh the strength He will give you.
We're invited to "come boldly to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). The Greek word there for "help" is used one other place in the Bible to describe holding a ship together in a storm. That's what He's promised to do and to be for you.
God has one other way to keep you from a load you can't bear – it's His participation in carrying it. Psalm 68:19 says, "Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens." In fact, He tells us that we should be "casting all your care on Him because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). He is the great Burden-Bearer for His own. But you have to leave it with Him, not just tell Him about it.
Something amazing happens when you take a burden that you've made all your own and you roll it off on His shoulders and you tell Him, "Lord, it's Yours now. The battle is the Lord's." You begin all bent over with this massive weight on your back, and you walk away standing tall, knowing that Jesus Himself is carrying that burden now.
So take courage if you've been trusted with a heavy load. Your Lord knows when to apply the brakes and when it's more than you can bear. Any burden you have He has either decreed or allowed, because if you only lift what you've lifted before, you'll never be any stronger than you are now.
So, weary one, would you listen to this precious invitation from Jesus, not as if you're hearing me say it, but as if it's Jesus Himself speaking to you. "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).
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