Max Lucado Daily: WE ARE HIS IDEA
Why does a mother love her newborn? Because the baby is hers? Even more. Because the baby is her! Her flesh. Her blood. Her hope. Her legacy. It doesn’t bother her that the baby gives nothing. She knows a newborn is helpless and weak. She knows babies don’t ask to come into this world.
And God knows we didn’t either. We are his idea. We are his. His face. His hands. His eyes. His touch. Look deeply into the face of every human being on earth, and you will see his likeness. Though some may appear to be distant relatives, they’re not. We are, incredibly, the body of Christ. And though we may not act like our Father, there’s no greater truth than this: We are his. Unalterably, He loves us. Undyingly. And nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Ruth 3
One day her mother-in-law Naomi said to Ruth, “My dear daughter, isn’t it about time I arranged a good home for you so you can have a happy life? And isn’t Boaz our close relative, the one with whose young women you’ve been working? Maybe it’s time to make our move. Tonight is the night of Boaz’s barley harvest at the threshing floor.
3-4 “Take a bath. Put on some perfume. Get all dressed up and go to the threshing floor. But don’t let him know you’re there until the party is well under way and he’s had plenty of food and drink. When you see him slipping off to sleep, watch where he lies down and then go there. Lie at his feet to let him know that you are available to him for marriage. Then wait and see what he says. He’ll tell you what to do.”
5 Ruth said, “If you say so, I’ll do it, just as you’ve told me.”
6 She went down to the threshing floor and put her mother-in-law’s plan into action.
7 Boaz had a good time, eating and drinking his fill—he felt great. Then he went off to get some sleep, lying down at the end of a stack of barley. Ruth quietly followed; she lay down to signal her availability for marriage.
8 In the middle of the night the man was suddenly startled and sat up. Surprise! This woman asleep at his feet!
9 He said, “And who are you?”
She said, “I am Ruth, your maiden; take me under your protecting wing. You’re my close relative, you know, in the circle of covenant redeemers—you do have the right to marry me.”
10-13 He said, “God bless you, my dear daughter! What a splendid expression of love! And when you could have had your pick of any of the young men around. And now, my dear daughter, don’t you worry about a thing; I’ll do all you could want or ask. Everybody in town knows what a courageous woman you are—a real prize! You’re right, I am a close relative to you, but there is one even closer than I am. So stay the rest of the night. In the morning, if he wants to exercise his customary rights and responsibilities as the closest covenant redeemer, he’ll have his chance; but if he isn’t interested, as God lives, I’ll do it. Now go back to sleep until morning.”
14 Ruth slept at his feet until dawn, but she got up while it was still dark and wouldn’t be recognized. Then Boaz said to himself, “No one must know that Ruth came to the threshing floor.”
15 So Boaz said, “Bring the shawl you’re wearing and spread it out.”
She spread it out and he poured it full of barley, six measures, and put it on her shoulders. Then she went back to town.
16-17 When she came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “And how did things go, my dear daughter?”
Ruth told her everything that the man had done for her, adding, “And he gave me all this barley besides—six quarts! He told me, ‘You can’t go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law!’”
18 Naomi said, “Sit back and relax, my dear daughter, until we find out how things turn out; that man isn’t going to fool around. Mark my words, he’s going to get everything wrapped up today.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Read: Jeremiah 31:16–26
Thus says the Lord:
“Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
declares the Lord,
and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your future,
declares the Lord,
and your children shall come back to their own country.
18 I have heard Ephraim grieving,
‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,
like an untrained calf;
bring me back that I may be restored,
for you are the Lord my God.
19 For after I had turned away, I relented,
and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
20 Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
I do remember him still.
Therefore my heart[a] yearns for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,
declares the Lord.
21 “Set up road markers for yourself;
make yourself guideposts;
consider well the highway,
the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
return to these your cities.
22 How long will you waver,
O faithless daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth:
a woman encircles a man.”
23 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes:
“‘The Lord bless you, O habitation of righteousness,
O holy hill!’
24 And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks. 25 For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”
26 At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.
Footnotes:
Jeremiah 31:20 Hebrew bowels
INSIGHT
God tells Jeremiah to “restrain your voice from weeping” (31:16). Hope shines through. Ephraim [Israel] and Judah will repent and be restored. In a rare respite from his grief, Jeremiah can say, “My sleep had been pleasant to me” (v. 26).
What causes your tears? Know that God sees and understands them. - Tim Gustafson
Hope in the Darkness
By Poh Fang Chia
I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint. Jeremiah 31:25
According to legend, Qu Yuan was a wise and patriotic Chinese government official who lived during the time known as the Warring States period (475–246 bc). It has been said that he tried repeatedly to warn his king about an impending threat that would destroy the country, but the king rejected his advice. Eventually, Qu Yuan was exiled. When he learned about the fall of his beloved country to the foe he had warned about, he ended his life.
Qu Yuan’s life resembles some aspects of the life of the prophet Jeremiah. He too served kings who scorned his warnings, and his country was ravaged. However, while Qu Yuan gave in to his despair, Jeremiah found genuine hope. Why the difference?
Jeremiah knew the Lord who offers the only true hope. “There is hope for your descendants,” God had assured His prophet. “Your children will return to their own land” (Jeremiah 31:17). Although Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 bc, it was later rebuilt (see Nehemiah 6:15).
At some point, we all find ourselves in situations that can cause us to despair. It could be a bad medical report, a sudden job loss, a shattered family. But when life knocks us down, we can still look up—for God is on the throne! He holds our days in His hands, and He holds us close to His heart.
Lord, fill me up with hope and give me a tangible reminder today that things will turn out right in Your way, in Your time.
The world hopes for the best, but the Lord offers the best hope. John Wesley
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
The Trial of Faith
If you have faith as small as a mustard seed…nothing will be impossible for you. —Matthew 17:20
We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith— faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.
Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him— a faith that says, “I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.” The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is— “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is an easy thing to argue from precedent because it makes everything simple, but it is a risky thing to do. Give God “elbow room”; let Him come into His universe as He pleases. If we confine God in His working to religious people or to certain ways, we place ourselves on an equality with God. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
The Strongest Men In the World - #8298
We had three children, two boys and a girl. Our boys had the privilege of growing up with a sister. Did they always get along with their sister? Silly question! Of course not. But if it ever looked as if anyone was going to hurt their sister, oh, stand back folks! I mean, they even insisted on the right to approve the guys she dated; they wanted veto power. Almost no one was good enough for their sister. They didn't want her to be with anyone who wasn't going to be good for her. I guess if you're a brother with a sister, you know what I'm talking about-this strong instinct to protect your sister or eventually any woman you care about, from anything that could hurt her.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Strongest Men In the World."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Colossians 3:19. Listen to what God says here, "Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them." This really brings love for your wife out of the clouds. You say, "Oh, yes, I love my wife." Okay, then don't be harsh with her. That's a very practical way to measure how much you love her. Are you harsh with her?
God expands our orders as men in our treatment of women by saying this, "Husbands be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner so that nothing will hinder your prayers." That's 1 Peter 3. It goes beyond even marriage in 1 Timothy 5:2. It says, "Tell the younger men to treat the younger women as sisters with absolute purity." Notice in each case, God talks about showing your love by treating that woman like a sister; protecting a woman from anything that could hurt her...including you.
Unfortunately some of us have grown up with a twisted view of what makes a man a man. We have to win, so we have to cut her down so we can win. We have to be strong, so we stand on her to prove we are. We can't be wrong, so we make sure to level her. We can't show tender feelings, so we treat her with macho toughness and we keep her at a distance. But none of that's real manhood! It's insecurity. It's lack of self-control. It's insensitivity.
Even society knows the real secret of male greatness. For years they talk about being a gentleman, a gentle man! Like the ultimate man, Jesus Christ. For example, when an entire crowd of men was ready to stone a guilty woman, Jesus alone treated her with compassion and gentleness. Another woman was cut down by Jesus' friends for a choice she made about her most expensive possession. Again, Jesus protected her honor. So the measure of your manhood is how safe the women around you feel, how listened to they feel, how protected they feel-physically and emotionally, and how respected they feel by you.
For some of us this kind of tenderness just doesn't come naturally, but it can come supernaturally as you let Jesus Christ convict you of your sins of harshness; the words, the actions that have hurt a woman you care about. And then you begin to let Jesus plant His gentle strength in your heart to replace all those twisted ideas of what it means to be a man. The chainsaw in your mouth that has inflicted so many wounds on a woman you love; it's time you unplug that. Enough damage has been done. A real man does not wound a woman. Love her and do not treat her harshly.
The love of a brother for a sister, especially a spiritual sister, is not just some official emotion, "I love you." No, real love, real manhood says, "No one is going to hurt this woman! Especially me."
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Ruth 2 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: DON’T GIVE UP ON GOD!
Much of life is spent fixing lunches; turning in assignments; changing diapers; and paying bills. Routine…regular…more struggle than strut. You thought marriage was going to be a lifelong date? You thought having kids was going to be like baby-sitting? You thought the company who hired you wanted to hear all the ideas you had in college? Then you learned otherwise.
The honeymoon ended. Oh, there are moments of glamour, days of celebration. We have our share of feasts, but we also have our share of baloney sandwiches. And to have the first we must endure the second. I’ve learned that God comes. And, in the right way, he appears. So don’t bail out. Don’t give up. He is too wise to forget you and too loving to hurt you. When you can’t see him, trust him. He is praying a prayer for you that he himself will answer.
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Ruth 2
It so happened that Naomi had a relative by marriage, a man prominent and rich, connected with Elimelech’s family. His name was Boaz.
2 One day Ruth, the Moabite foreigner, said to Naomi, “I’m going to work; I’m going out to glean among the sheaves, following after some harvester who will treat me kindly.”
Naomi said, “Go ahead, dear daughter.”
3-4 And so she set out. She went and started gleaning in a field, following in the wake of the harvesters. Eventually she ended up in the part of the field owned by Boaz, her father-in-law Elimelech’s relative. A little later Boaz came out from Bethlehem, greeting his harvesters, “God be with you!” They replied, “And God bless you!”
5 Boaz asked his young servant who was foreman over the farm hands, “Who is this young woman? Where did she come from?”
6-7 The foreman said, “Why, that’s the Moabite girl, the one who came with Naomi from the country of Moab. She asked permission. ‘Let me glean,’ she said, ‘and gather among the sheaves following after your harvesters.’ She’s been at it steady ever since, from early morning until now, without so much as a break.”
8-9 Then Boaz spoke to Ruth: “Listen, my daughter. From now on don’t go to any other field to glean—stay right here in this one. And stay close to my young women. Watch where they are harvesting and follow them. And don’t worry about a thing; I’ve given orders to my servants not to harass you. When you get thirsty, feel free to go and drink from the water buckets that the servants have filled.”
10 She dropped to her knees, then bowed her face to the ground. “How does this happen that you should pick me out and treat me so kindly—me, a foreigner?”
11-12 Boaz answered her, “I’ve heard all about you—heard about the way you treated your mother-in-law after the death of her husband, and how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth and have come to live among a bunch of total strangers. God reward you well for what you’ve done—and with a generous bonus besides from God, to whom you’ve come seeking protection under his wings.”
13 She said, “Oh sir, such grace, such kindness—I don’t deserve it. You’ve touched my heart, treated me like one of your own. And I don’t even belong here!”
14 At the lunch break, Boaz said to her, “Come over here; eat some bread. Dip it in the wine.”
So she joined the harvesters. Boaz passed the roasted grain to her. She ate her fill and even had some left over.
15-16 When she got up to go back to work, Boaz ordered his servants: “Let her glean where there’s still plenty of grain on the ground—make it easy for her. Better yet, pull some of the good stuff out and leave it for her to glean. Give her special treatment.”
17-18 Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. When she threshed out what she had gathered, she ended up with nearly a full sack of barley! She gathered up her gleanings, went back to town, and showed her mother-in-law the results of her day’s work; she also gave her the leftovers from her lunch.
19 Naomi asked her, “So where did you glean today? Whose field? God bless whoever it was who took such good care of you!”
Ruth told her mother-in-law, “The man with whom I worked today? His name is Boaz.”
20 Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Why, God bless that man! God hasn’t quite walked out on us after all! He still loves us, in bad times as well as good!”
Naomi went on, “That man, Ruth, is one of our circle of covenant redeemers, a close relative of ours!”
21 Ruth the Moabitess said, “Well, listen to this: He also told me, ‘Stick with my workers until my harvesting is finished.’”
22 Naomi said to Ruth, “That’s wonderful, dear daughter! Do that! You’ll be safe in the company of his young women; no danger now of being raped in some stranger’s field.”
23 So Ruth did it—she stuck close to Boaz’s young women, gleaning in the fields daily until both the barley and wheat harvesting were finished. And she continued living with her mother-in-law.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Read: Romans 14:1–13
Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master[a] that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess[b] to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Do Not Cause Another to Stumble
13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
Footnotes:
Romans 14:4 Or lord
Romans 14:11 Or shall give praise
Agreeing to Disagree
By Mart DeHaan
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace. Romans 14:19
I remember hearing my dad talk about how difficult it was to walk away from unending arguments over differing interpretations of the Bible. By contrast he recalled how good it was when both sides agreed to disagree.
But is it really possible to set aside irreconcilable differences when so much seems to be at stake? That’s one of the questions the apostle Paul answers in his New Testament letter to the Romans. Writing to readers caught in social, political, and religious conflict, he suggests ways of finding common ground even under the most polarized conditions (14:5–6).
According to Paul, the way to agree to disagree is to recall that each of us will answer to the Lord not only for our opinions but also for how we treat one another in our differences (v. 10).
Conditions of conflict can actually become occasions to remember that there are some things more important than our own ideas—even more than our interpretations of the Bible. All of us will answer for whether we have loved one another, and even our enemies, as Christ loved us.
Now that I think of it, I remember that my dad used to talk about how good it is not just to agree to disagree but to do so with mutual love and respect.
Father, please enable us to be patient and kind with those who don’t agree with us about anything or everything.
We can agree to disagree—in love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Faith
Without faith it is impossible to please Him… —Hebrews 11:6
Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth. The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship. Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration. Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short. Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life. “We know that all things work together for good…” (Romans 8:28) so that no matter what happens, the transforming power of God’s providence transforms perfect faith into reality. Faith always works in a personal way, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children.
For every detail of common sense in life, there is a truth God has revealed by which we can prove in our practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first. The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word” (for example, see Matthew 6:33). Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a fight, not just sometimes. God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us. Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.
The Place of Help
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Trusting the Pilot - #8297
When our friends heard that our family had been invited to Alaska for a week of ministry, they were all excited for us. They said, "Oh, it's beautiful, you're going to love it! When are you going?" "February." "Oh." See, I get invited to places like Florida and Arizona in the summer, and Alaska in the dead of winter. We had a wonderful week, but the time came for my wife and kids to fly home because they had to get back to school, and I stayed for several more days of ministry. We were out on the Kenai Peninsula, in an area that felt fairly remote. We arrived at this small airport one night to rendezvous with our pilot. Dick was a missionary pilot, trained by Moody Bible Institute's top-flight pilot's school and he was experienced in flying into many remote areas of Alaska. But that night his cargo was the people I love most. My first cause for a little worry was his request to help him push the plane out of the hangar and onto the runway. That was new! Yeah, and it was icy. I had never pushed my plane into position before. I didn't like that runway. It was covered with thick, deeply-rutted ice from one end to the other. And at the end of this fairly short runway was a big stand of trees you could run into. Oh yeah, and it was heavily overcast-no moon, no stars. Well, I helped my wife and three children crowd into Dick's little Cessna, I waved good-bye as they started bouncing and maneuvering down that icy runway. I really didn't like the conditions, but I was okay because I really trusted the pilot.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Trusting the Pilot."
That night in Alaska I had to let go of people who meant an awful lot to me. They were out of my hands, and I had to trust them to the care of someone who could take them where I never could; someone who was totally trustworthy, even though he was carrying them into the unknown-unknown for me and for them but not for the pilot. He flew skillfully that night and he delivered my family safely to their destination.
Paul wrote about that kind of trust choice in 2 Timothy 1:12, and it is our word for today from the Word of God. Paul was a prisoner of Nero in a Roman prison and he knows he will probably not come out of this one alive. Everything that matters to him is out of his hands; the people he loves, his life's work, his own future. Maybe some of that sounds strangely familiar. It's out of your hands now, like my family disappearing into that Alaskan night in a little airplane. Here are Paul's words, "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day." In other words, "I've released it all into Jesus' hands. I'm trusting Him to care for it all. He's certainly able to guard what I love." Or, in the context of my Alaskan farewell to my loved ones, "I can trust the Pilot."
Right now you may be at one of those "letting go" crossroads. But you're having a hard time putting what you care so much about on the plane. You're worrying a lot, you're holding onto what you should be releasing. You're making the mistake of looking at the conditions instead of focusing on the Pilot-Jesus, who has never crashed, never lost anything that was entrusted to Him.
That night in Alaska, I could have said, "Wait! I think I'll fly the plane!" That would have been dumb! But that's what we often do at a "letting go" crossroads. We try to fly the plane, we scheme, we push, we panic, we control, or we worry ourselves sick. And because we won't release something or someone we care about, we interfere with where the Lord wants to take them-where you could never take them.
The circumstances may look uncertain...unsettling. But the engines are running. It's flight time and you either have to hold on tighter or let go. The whole situation boils down to a decisive question, "Can Jesus be trusted?" His cross answers that. His track record answers that. Today, let it go, let her go, let him go. They're in much better hands with the Pilot in charge than they could ever be with you in charge. This Pilot - oh, He will keep them safe!
Much of life is spent fixing lunches; turning in assignments; changing diapers; and paying bills. Routine…regular…more struggle than strut. You thought marriage was going to be a lifelong date? You thought having kids was going to be like baby-sitting? You thought the company who hired you wanted to hear all the ideas you had in college? Then you learned otherwise.
The honeymoon ended. Oh, there are moments of glamour, days of celebration. We have our share of feasts, but we also have our share of baloney sandwiches. And to have the first we must endure the second. I’ve learned that God comes. And, in the right way, he appears. So don’t bail out. Don’t give up. He is too wise to forget you and too loving to hurt you. When you can’t see him, trust him. He is praying a prayer for you that he himself will answer.
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Ruth 2
It so happened that Naomi had a relative by marriage, a man prominent and rich, connected with Elimelech’s family. His name was Boaz.
2 One day Ruth, the Moabite foreigner, said to Naomi, “I’m going to work; I’m going out to glean among the sheaves, following after some harvester who will treat me kindly.”
Naomi said, “Go ahead, dear daughter.”
3-4 And so she set out. She went and started gleaning in a field, following in the wake of the harvesters. Eventually she ended up in the part of the field owned by Boaz, her father-in-law Elimelech’s relative. A little later Boaz came out from Bethlehem, greeting his harvesters, “God be with you!” They replied, “And God bless you!”
5 Boaz asked his young servant who was foreman over the farm hands, “Who is this young woman? Where did she come from?”
6-7 The foreman said, “Why, that’s the Moabite girl, the one who came with Naomi from the country of Moab. She asked permission. ‘Let me glean,’ she said, ‘and gather among the sheaves following after your harvesters.’ She’s been at it steady ever since, from early morning until now, without so much as a break.”
8-9 Then Boaz spoke to Ruth: “Listen, my daughter. From now on don’t go to any other field to glean—stay right here in this one. And stay close to my young women. Watch where they are harvesting and follow them. And don’t worry about a thing; I’ve given orders to my servants not to harass you. When you get thirsty, feel free to go and drink from the water buckets that the servants have filled.”
10 She dropped to her knees, then bowed her face to the ground. “How does this happen that you should pick me out and treat me so kindly—me, a foreigner?”
11-12 Boaz answered her, “I’ve heard all about you—heard about the way you treated your mother-in-law after the death of her husband, and how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth and have come to live among a bunch of total strangers. God reward you well for what you’ve done—and with a generous bonus besides from God, to whom you’ve come seeking protection under his wings.”
13 She said, “Oh sir, such grace, such kindness—I don’t deserve it. You’ve touched my heart, treated me like one of your own. And I don’t even belong here!”
14 At the lunch break, Boaz said to her, “Come over here; eat some bread. Dip it in the wine.”
So she joined the harvesters. Boaz passed the roasted grain to her. She ate her fill and even had some left over.
15-16 When she got up to go back to work, Boaz ordered his servants: “Let her glean where there’s still plenty of grain on the ground—make it easy for her. Better yet, pull some of the good stuff out and leave it for her to glean. Give her special treatment.”
17-18 Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. When she threshed out what she had gathered, she ended up with nearly a full sack of barley! She gathered up her gleanings, went back to town, and showed her mother-in-law the results of her day’s work; she also gave her the leftovers from her lunch.
19 Naomi asked her, “So where did you glean today? Whose field? God bless whoever it was who took such good care of you!”
Ruth told her mother-in-law, “The man with whom I worked today? His name is Boaz.”
20 Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Why, God bless that man! God hasn’t quite walked out on us after all! He still loves us, in bad times as well as good!”
Naomi went on, “That man, Ruth, is one of our circle of covenant redeemers, a close relative of ours!”
21 Ruth the Moabitess said, “Well, listen to this: He also told me, ‘Stick with my workers until my harvesting is finished.’”
22 Naomi said to Ruth, “That’s wonderful, dear daughter! Do that! You’ll be safe in the company of his young women; no danger now of being raped in some stranger’s field.”
23 So Ruth did it—she stuck close to Boaz’s young women, gleaning in the fields daily until both the barley and wheat harvesting were finished. And she continued living with her mother-in-law.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Read: Romans 14:1–13
Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master[a] that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess[b] to God.”
12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Do Not Cause Another to Stumble
13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
Footnotes:
Romans 14:4 Or lord
Romans 14:11 Or shall give praise
Agreeing to Disagree
By Mart DeHaan
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace. Romans 14:19
I remember hearing my dad talk about how difficult it was to walk away from unending arguments over differing interpretations of the Bible. By contrast he recalled how good it was when both sides agreed to disagree.
But is it really possible to set aside irreconcilable differences when so much seems to be at stake? That’s one of the questions the apostle Paul answers in his New Testament letter to the Romans. Writing to readers caught in social, political, and religious conflict, he suggests ways of finding common ground even under the most polarized conditions (14:5–6).
According to Paul, the way to agree to disagree is to recall that each of us will answer to the Lord not only for our opinions but also for how we treat one another in our differences (v. 10).
Conditions of conflict can actually become occasions to remember that there are some things more important than our own ideas—even more than our interpretations of the Bible. All of us will answer for whether we have loved one another, and even our enemies, as Christ loved us.
Now that I think of it, I remember that my dad used to talk about how good it is not just to agree to disagree but to do so with mutual love and respect.
Father, please enable us to be patient and kind with those who don’t agree with us about anything or everything.
We can agree to disagree—in love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Faith
Without faith it is impossible to please Him… —Hebrews 11:6
Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth. The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship. Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration. Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short. Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life. “We know that all things work together for good…” (Romans 8:28) so that no matter what happens, the transforming power of God’s providence transforms perfect faith into reality. Faith always works in a personal way, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children.
For every detail of common sense in life, there is a truth God has revealed by which we can prove in our practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first. The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word” (for example, see Matthew 6:33). Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a fight, not just sometimes. God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us. Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.
The Place of Help
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 30, 2018
Trusting the Pilot - #8297
When our friends heard that our family had been invited to Alaska for a week of ministry, they were all excited for us. They said, "Oh, it's beautiful, you're going to love it! When are you going?" "February." "Oh." See, I get invited to places like Florida and Arizona in the summer, and Alaska in the dead of winter. We had a wonderful week, but the time came for my wife and kids to fly home because they had to get back to school, and I stayed for several more days of ministry. We were out on the Kenai Peninsula, in an area that felt fairly remote. We arrived at this small airport one night to rendezvous with our pilot. Dick was a missionary pilot, trained by Moody Bible Institute's top-flight pilot's school and he was experienced in flying into many remote areas of Alaska. But that night his cargo was the people I love most. My first cause for a little worry was his request to help him push the plane out of the hangar and onto the runway. That was new! Yeah, and it was icy. I had never pushed my plane into position before. I didn't like that runway. It was covered with thick, deeply-rutted ice from one end to the other. And at the end of this fairly short runway was a big stand of trees you could run into. Oh yeah, and it was heavily overcast-no moon, no stars. Well, I helped my wife and three children crowd into Dick's little Cessna, I waved good-bye as they started bouncing and maneuvering down that icy runway. I really didn't like the conditions, but I was okay because I really trusted the pilot.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Trusting the Pilot."
That night in Alaska I had to let go of people who meant an awful lot to me. They were out of my hands, and I had to trust them to the care of someone who could take them where I never could; someone who was totally trustworthy, even though he was carrying them into the unknown-unknown for me and for them but not for the pilot. He flew skillfully that night and he delivered my family safely to their destination.
Paul wrote about that kind of trust choice in 2 Timothy 1:12, and it is our word for today from the Word of God. Paul was a prisoner of Nero in a Roman prison and he knows he will probably not come out of this one alive. Everything that matters to him is out of his hands; the people he loves, his life's work, his own future. Maybe some of that sounds strangely familiar. It's out of your hands now, like my family disappearing into that Alaskan night in a little airplane. Here are Paul's words, "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day." In other words, "I've released it all into Jesus' hands. I'm trusting Him to care for it all. He's certainly able to guard what I love." Or, in the context of my Alaskan farewell to my loved ones, "I can trust the Pilot."
Right now you may be at one of those "letting go" crossroads. But you're having a hard time putting what you care so much about on the plane. You're worrying a lot, you're holding onto what you should be releasing. You're making the mistake of looking at the conditions instead of focusing on the Pilot-Jesus, who has never crashed, never lost anything that was entrusted to Him.
That night in Alaska, I could have said, "Wait! I think I'll fly the plane!" That would have been dumb! But that's what we often do at a "letting go" crossroads. We try to fly the plane, we scheme, we push, we panic, we control, or we worry ourselves sick. And because we won't release something or someone we care about, we interfere with where the Lord wants to take them-where you could never take them.
The circumstances may look uncertain...unsettling. But the engines are running. It's flight time and you either have to hold on tighter or let go. The whole situation boils down to a decisive question, "Can Jesus be trusted?" His cross answers that. His track record answers that. Today, let it go, let her go, let him go. They're in much better hands with the Pilot in charge than they could ever be with you in charge. This Pilot - oh, He will keep them safe!
Monday, October 29, 2018
Ruth 1, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: WHY GOD WAITS
It’s one thing to suffer for doing wrong. Something else entirely to suffer for doing right. But it happens. And it washes away the naïve assumption that if I do right, I will never suffer. Just ask the faithful couple whose crib is empty and whose womb is barren. Or the husband who took a chance and forgave his wife, only to be betrayed again.
Why does God wait? I don’t know. I only know his timing is always right and he will do what is best. Luke 18:7 promises that “God will always give what is right to his people who cry to him night and day, and he will not be slow to answer them.” Though you hear nothing, he is speaking. Though you see nothing, he is acting. With God there are no accidents. Every incident is intended to bring us closer to him!
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Ruth 1
Once upon a time—it was back in the days when judges led Israel— there was a famine in the land. A man from Bethlehem in Judah left home to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The man’s name was Elimelech; his wife’s name was Naomi; his sons were named Mahlon and Kilion—all Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They all went to the country of Moab and settled there.
3-5 Elimelech died and Naomi was left, she and her two sons. The sons took Moabite wives; the name of the first was Orpah, the second Ruth. They lived there in Moab for the next ten years. But then the two brothers, Mahlon and Kilion, died. Now the woman was left without either her young men or her husband.
6-7 One day she got herself together, she and her two daughters-in-law, to leave the country of Moab and set out for home; she had heard that God had been pleased to visit his people and give them food. And so she started out from the place she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law with her, on the road back to the land of Judah.
8-9 After a short while on the road, Naomi told her two daughters-in-law, “Go back. Go home and live with your mothers. And may God treat you as graciously as you treated your deceased husbands and me. May God give each of you a new home and a new husband!” She kissed them and they cried openly.
10 They said, “No, we’re going on with you to your people.”
11-13 But Naomi was firm: “Go back, my dear daughters. Why would you come with me? Do you suppose I still have sons in my womb who can become your future husbands? Go back, dear daughters—on your way, please! I’m too old to get a husband. Why, even if I said, ‘There’s still hope!’ and this very night got a man and had sons, can you imagine being satisfied to wait until they were grown? Would you wait that long to get married again? No, dear daughters; this is a bitter pill for me to swallow—more bitter for me than for you. God has dealt me a hard blow.”
14 Again they cried openly. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye; but Ruth embraced her and held on.
15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back home to live with her own people and gods; go with her.”
16-17 But Ruth said, “Don’t force me to leave you; don’t make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where you die, I’ll die, and that’s where I’ll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come between us!”
18-19 When Naomi saw that Ruth had her heart set on going with her, she gave in. And so the two of them traveled on together to Bethlehem.
When they arrived in Bethlehem the whole town was soon buzzing: “Is this really our Naomi? And after all this time!”
20-21 But she said, “Don’t call me Naomi; call me Bitter. The Strong One has dealt me a bitter blow. I left here full of life, and God has brought me back with nothing but the clothes on my back. Why would you call me Naomi? God certainly doesn’t. The Strong One ruined me.”
22 And so Naomi was back, and Ruth the foreigner with her, back from the country of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 29, 2018
Read: Numbers 11:1–11
The People Complain
11 And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. 3 So the name of that place was called Taberah,[a] because the fire of the Lord burned among them.
4 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. 8 The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. 9 When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.
10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. 11 Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?
Footnotes:
Numbers 11:3 Taberah means burning
INSIGHT
When we read about the anger of the Lord (Numbers 11:1, 10), it’s important to remember that His anger is not like our own. We’re inclined to lash out in fear, irritability, or a desire to get even. God’s anger is a consuming fire of love that burns in the conscience and results in consequences for those who turn their back on Him. What could give us more reason for gratitude than to know that “the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love”? (Psalm 145:8). - Mart DeHaan
Getting a Grip on Gratitude
By Xochitl Dixon
Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them? Numbers 11:22
The years of weariness caused by chronic pain and frustrations with my limited mobility had finally caught up with me. In my discontent, I became demanding and ungrateful. I began complaining about my husband’s caregiving skills. I griped about the way he cleaned the house. Even though he’s the best cook I know, I fussed about the lack of variety in our meals. When he finally shared that my grumbling hurt his feelings, I was resentful. He had no idea what I was going through. Eventually, God helped me see my wrongs, and I asked my husband and the Lord for forgiveness.
Longing for different circumstances can lead to complaining, and even a form of relationship damaging self-centeredness. The Israelites were familiar with this dilemma. It seems they were never satisfied and always griping about God’s provision (Exodus 17:1–3). Even though the Lord cared for His people in the wilderness by sending them “bread from heaven” (16:4), they began craving other food (Numbers 11:4). Instead of rejoicing over the daily miracles of God’s faithful and loving care, the Israelites wanted something more, something better, something different, or even something they used to have (vv. 4–6). They took out their frustrations on Moses (vv. 10–14).
Trusting God’s goodness and faithfulness can help us get a good grip on gratitude. Today we can thank Him for the countless ways He cares for us.
For more, read Cultivating a Heart of Contentment at discoveryseries.org/hp052.
Grateful praise satisfies us and pleases God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 29, 2018
Substitution
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. —2 Corinthians 5:21
The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us. Yet the New Testament view is that He took our sin on Himself not because of sympathy, but because of His identification with us. He was “made…to be sin….” Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the only explanation for His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy for us. We are acceptable to God not because we have obeyed, nor because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and for no other reason. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the fatherhood and the lovingkindness of God, but the New Testament says that He came to take “away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). And the revealing of the fatherhood of God is only to those to whom Jesus has been introduced as Savior. In speaking to the world, Jesus Christ never referred to Himself as One who revealed the Father, but He spoke instead of being a stumbling block (see John 15:22-24). John 14:9, where Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” was spoken to His disciples.
That Christ died for me, and therefore I am completely free from penalty, is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament is that “He died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15)— not, “He died my death”— and that through identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have His very righteousness imparted as a gift to me. The substitution which is taught in the New Testament is twofold— “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The teaching is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me (see Galatians 4:19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ. Biblical Ethics, 111 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 29, 2018
When It's Too Late to Jump - #8296
It happened decades ago, but it's one of those events I'll never really forget. It happened in Chicago where I grew up. It was the most devastating tragedy most of us would remember from that time. It was December 1, 1958, and a fire broke out at the foot of a stairway in the Our Lady of the Angels School. That fire raged out of control very quickly; it cut off all normal escape routes. Ninety grade school children died in that fire. But there's one I remember vividly from a news account that I read at the time and I still have not forgotten it. This little boy was in a second story window-they actually had a photo of him. The boy's father was down below, yelling to him to jump into his arms. That boy could see the fire racing toward him from behind, but he refused to jump. Then, one awful moment, the boy disappeared from the window. He was one of those victims.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When It's Too Late to Jump."
Over all these years, I've never been able to get the picture of that little boy out of my mind. He did not have to die. If only he had jumped into the arms that were waiting to save him. Tragically, so many people have made that same awful mistake when it comes to Jesus Christ.
Let's go to our word for today from the Word of God. It's from Ezekiel 18 beginning at verse 31. In it God poses an impassioned question that might be for you today. In calling people to get right with God, He says, "Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die? ...repent and live." God says, "I'm offering you life if you'll just turn to Me from a self-run life. Jump into My arms!" And then His question, "Why will you die?"
Dying-in the spiritual sense-is the penalty that we all face for doing it "my way" instead of God's way. Speaking of an eternal separation from God in a place that the Bible calls hell, God says, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). We hope we can earn a place in heaven by being a good person, but the Bible says the only thing we can earn - the wages - is the death penalty for our sins. No amount of religion, no amount of decency can pay a death penalty.
But then the Bible introduces the hope-the waiting arms beyond the reach of the fire. It says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). What do we know about a gift? It can't be earned; it can only be received. Someone else paid for it. Well, Jesus bought the gift of eternal life for you and me. He paid for it with His life when He paid our death penalty on the cross, and now He offers to give you heaven when you reach out, when you put your trust in Him, when you begin a relationship with Him.
The fire of God's judgment - it's real. And if we die without a relationship with Jesus Christ, that's our destination. Now, someone says, "Well, I don't believe God will send anyone to hell." That's actually right. God doesn't send anyone to hell; we send ourselves by refusing to jump into the arms that are waiting to save us.
And there is no way to be forgiven, there's no way to belong to God, no way to go to heaven without a leap of faith into the arms of Jesus. You can't think your way to Jesus. You can't earn your way to Jesus. There has to be that moment when you jump by faith into your Savior's arms. Has there ever been a moment like that in your life? Thank God there's still time. I don't know how much time.
Like the tragedy of that little boy in the window, there comes a time when it's too late to jump, or when your heart is too hard, or when your life is suddenly over. Listen to Jesus as He calls to you, "Jump! Why will you die? Repent and live."
Would you tell Him now, "Jesus, what you did on the cross is my only hope. You walking out of your grave under your own power. You are alive, and I invite you to walk into my life today. I am Yours. You are my hope and I'm pinning all my hopes on you." We have a website called ANewStory.com. I want to invite you to go there, because it has the information you need to secure this relationship with Jesus once and for all.
Every day the fire gets closer. But the arms of Jesus, they're wide open. He's waiting for you.
It’s one thing to suffer for doing wrong. Something else entirely to suffer for doing right. But it happens. And it washes away the naïve assumption that if I do right, I will never suffer. Just ask the faithful couple whose crib is empty and whose womb is barren. Or the husband who took a chance and forgave his wife, only to be betrayed again.
Why does God wait? I don’t know. I only know his timing is always right and he will do what is best. Luke 18:7 promises that “God will always give what is right to his people who cry to him night and day, and he will not be slow to answer them.” Though you hear nothing, he is speaking. Though you see nothing, he is acting. With God there are no accidents. Every incident is intended to bring us closer to him!
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Ruth 1
Once upon a time—it was back in the days when judges led Israel— there was a famine in the land. A man from Bethlehem in Judah left home to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The man’s name was Elimelech; his wife’s name was Naomi; his sons were named Mahlon and Kilion—all Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They all went to the country of Moab and settled there.
3-5 Elimelech died and Naomi was left, she and her two sons. The sons took Moabite wives; the name of the first was Orpah, the second Ruth. They lived there in Moab for the next ten years. But then the two brothers, Mahlon and Kilion, died. Now the woman was left without either her young men or her husband.
6-7 One day she got herself together, she and her two daughters-in-law, to leave the country of Moab and set out for home; she had heard that God had been pleased to visit his people and give them food. And so she started out from the place she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law with her, on the road back to the land of Judah.
8-9 After a short while on the road, Naomi told her two daughters-in-law, “Go back. Go home and live with your mothers. And may God treat you as graciously as you treated your deceased husbands and me. May God give each of you a new home and a new husband!” She kissed them and they cried openly.
10 They said, “No, we’re going on with you to your people.”
11-13 But Naomi was firm: “Go back, my dear daughters. Why would you come with me? Do you suppose I still have sons in my womb who can become your future husbands? Go back, dear daughters—on your way, please! I’m too old to get a husband. Why, even if I said, ‘There’s still hope!’ and this very night got a man and had sons, can you imagine being satisfied to wait until they were grown? Would you wait that long to get married again? No, dear daughters; this is a bitter pill for me to swallow—more bitter for me than for you. God has dealt me a hard blow.”
14 Again they cried openly. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye; but Ruth embraced her and held on.
15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back home to live with her own people and gods; go with her.”
16-17 But Ruth said, “Don’t force me to leave you; don’t make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where you die, I’ll die, and that’s where I’ll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come between us!”
18-19 When Naomi saw that Ruth had her heart set on going with her, she gave in. And so the two of them traveled on together to Bethlehem.
When they arrived in Bethlehem the whole town was soon buzzing: “Is this really our Naomi? And after all this time!”
20-21 But she said, “Don’t call me Naomi; call me Bitter. The Strong One has dealt me a bitter blow. I left here full of life, and God has brought me back with nothing but the clothes on my back. Why would you call me Naomi? God certainly doesn’t. The Strong One ruined me.”
22 And so Naomi was back, and Ruth the foreigner with her, back from the country of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 29, 2018
Read: Numbers 11:1–11
The People Complain
11 And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. 2 Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down. 3 So the name of that place was called Taberah,[a] because the fire of the Lord burned among them.
4 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. 6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”
7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. 8 The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. 9 When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.
10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased. 11 Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?
Footnotes:
Numbers 11:3 Taberah means burning
INSIGHT
When we read about the anger of the Lord (Numbers 11:1, 10), it’s important to remember that His anger is not like our own. We’re inclined to lash out in fear, irritability, or a desire to get even. God’s anger is a consuming fire of love that burns in the conscience and results in consequences for those who turn their back on Him. What could give us more reason for gratitude than to know that “the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love”? (Psalm 145:8). - Mart DeHaan
Getting a Grip on Gratitude
By Xochitl Dixon
Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them? Numbers 11:22
The years of weariness caused by chronic pain and frustrations with my limited mobility had finally caught up with me. In my discontent, I became demanding and ungrateful. I began complaining about my husband’s caregiving skills. I griped about the way he cleaned the house. Even though he’s the best cook I know, I fussed about the lack of variety in our meals. When he finally shared that my grumbling hurt his feelings, I was resentful. He had no idea what I was going through. Eventually, God helped me see my wrongs, and I asked my husband and the Lord for forgiveness.
Longing for different circumstances can lead to complaining, and even a form of relationship damaging self-centeredness. The Israelites were familiar with this dilemma. It seems they were never satisfied and always griping about God’s provision (Exodus 17:1–3). Even though the Lord cared for His people in the wilderness by sending them “bread from heaven” (16:4), they began craving other food (Numbers 11:4). Instead of rejoicing over the daily miracles of God’s faithful and loving care, the Israelites wanted something more, something better, something different, or even something they used to have (vv. 4–6). They took out their frustrations on Moses (vv. 10–14).
Trusting God’s goodness and faithfulness can help us get a good grip on gratitude. Today we can thank Him for the countless ways He cares for us.
For more, read Cultivating a Heart of Contentment at discoveryseries.org/hp052.
Grateful praise satisfies us and pleases God.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 29, 2018
Substitution
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. —2 Corinthians 5:21
The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us. Yet the New Testament view is that He took our sin on Himself not because of sympathy, but because of His identification with us. He was “made…to be sin….” Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the only explanation for His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy for us. We are acceptable to God not because we have obeyed, nor because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and for no other reason. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the fatherhood and the lovingkindness of God, but the New Testament says that He came to take “away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). And the revealing of the fatherhood of God is only to those to whom Jesus has been introduced as Savior. In speaking to the world, Jesus Christ never referred to Himself as One who revealed the Father, but He spoke instead of being a stumbling block (see John 15:22-24). John 14:9, where Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” was spoken to His disciples.
That Christ died for me, and therefore I am completely free from penalty, is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament is that “He died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15)— not, “He died my death”— and that through identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have His very righteousness imparted as a gift to me. The substitution which is taught in the New Testament is twofold— “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The teaching is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me (see Galatians 4:19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Christianity is not consistency to conscience or to convictions; Christianity is being true to Jesus Christ. Biblical Ethics, 111 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 29, 2018
When It's Too Late to Jump - #8296
It happened decades ago, but it's one of those events I'll never really forget. It happened in Chicago where I grew up. It was the most devastating tragedy most of us would remember from that time. It was December 1, 1958, and a fire broke out at the foot of a stairway in the Our Lady of the Angels School. That fire raged out of control very quickly; it cut off all normal escape routes. Ninety grade school children died in that fire. But there's one I remember vividly from a news account that I read at the time and I still have not forgotten it. This little boy was in a second story window-they actually had a photo of him. The boy's father was down below, yelling to him to jump into his arms. That boy could see the fire racing toward him from behind, but he refused to jump. Then, one awful moment, the boy disappeared from the window. He was one of those victims.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When It's Too Late to Jump."
Over all these years, I've never been able to get the picture of that little boy out of my mind. He did not have to die. If only he had jumped into the arms that were waiting to save him. Tragically, so many people have made that same awful mistake when it comes to Jesus Christ.
Let's go to our word for today from the Word of God. It's from Ezekiel 18 beginning at verse 31. In it God poses an impassioned question that might be for you today. In calling people to get right with God, He says, "Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die? ...repent and live." God says, "I'm offering you life if you'll just turn to Me from a self-run life. Jump into My arms!" And then His question, "Why will you die?"
Dying-in the spiritual sense-is the penalty that we all face for doing it "my way" instead of God's way. Speaking of an eternal separation from God in a place that the Bible calls hell, God says, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). We hope we can earn a place in heaven by being a good person, but the Bible says the only thing we can earn - the wages - is the death penalty for our sins. No amount of religion, no amount of decency can pay a death penalty.
But then the Bible introduces the hope-the waiting arms beyond the reach of the fire. It says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). What do we know about a gift? It can't be earned; it can only be received. Someone else paid for it. Well, Jesus bought the gift of eternal life for you and me. He paid for it with His life when He paid our death penalty on the cross, and now He offers to give you heaven when you reach out, when you put your trust in Him, when you begin a relationship with Him.
The fire of God's judgment - it's real. And if we die without a relationship with Jesus Christ, that's our destination. Now, someone says, "Well, I don't believe God will send anyone to hell." That's actually right. God doesn't send anyone to hell; we send ourselves by refusing to jump into the arms that are waiting to save us.
And there is no way to be forgiven, there's no way to belong to God, no way to go to heaven without a leap of faith into the arms of Jesus. You can't think your way to Jesus. You can't earn your way to Jesus. There has to be that moment when you jump by faith into your Savior's arms. Has there ever been a moment like that in your life? Thank God there's still time. I don't know how much time.
Like the tragedy of that little boy in the window, there comes a time when it's too late to jump, or when your heart is too hard, or when your life is suddenly over. Listen to Jesus as He calls to you, "Jump! Why will you die? Repent and live."
Would you tell Him now, "Jesus, what you did on the cross is my only hope. You walking out of your grave under your own power. You are alive, and I invite you to walk into my life today. I am Yours. You are my hope and I'm pinning all my hopes on you." We have a website called ANewStory.com. I want to invite you to go there, because it has the information you need to secure this relationship with Jesus once and for all.
Every day the fire gets closer. But the arms of Jesus, they're wide open. He's waiting for you.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Judges 21, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Prayer Wimps Anonymous
I'm a card carrying member of the PWA: Prayer Wimps Anonymous. Can you relate? We pray-we pray to stay sober, centered, solvent. We pray when the lump is deemed malignant. When the money runs out before the month does. We all pray-some.
But wouldn't we like to pray more? Like the disciples when they asked Jesus, "Teach us to pray!" Teach us to find strength in prayer. To banish fear in prayer.
Prayer is simply a heartfelt conversation between God and you! A prayer as simple as this one:
Father, You are good. I need help. Heal me and forgive me.
They need help. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.
Pray for 4 weeks, 4 minutes every day. Sign on at BeforeAmen.com and get ready to connect with God like never before!
Before Amen
Judges 21
Wives
Back at Mizpah the men of Israel had taken an oath: “No man among us will give his daughter to a Benjaminite in marriage.”
2-3 Now, back in Bethel, the people sat in the presence of God until evening. They cried loudly; there was widespread lamentation. They said, “Why, O God, God of Israel, has this happened? Why do we find ourselves today missing one whole tribe from Israel?”
4 Early the next morning, the people got busy and built an altar. They sacrificed Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Peace-Offerings.
5 Then the Israelites said, “Who from all the tribes of Israel didn’t show up as we gathered in the presence of God?” For they had all taken a sacred oath that anyone who had not gathered in the presence of God at Mizpah had to be put to death.
6-7 But the People of Israel were feeling sorry for Benjamin, their brothers. They said, “Today, one tribe is cut off from Israel. How can we get wives for those who are left? We have sworn by God not to give any of our daughters to them in marriage.”
8-9 They said, “Which one of the tribes of Israel didn’t gather before God at Mizpah?”
It turned out that no one had come to the gathering from Jabesh Gilead. When they took a roll call of the people, not a single person from Jabesh Gilead was there.
10-11 So the congregation sent twelve divisions of their top men there with the command, “Kill everyone of Jabesh Gilead, including women and children. These are your instructions: Every man and woman who has had sexual intercourse you must kill. But keep the virgins alive.” And that’s what they did.
12 And they found four hundred virgins among those who lived in Jabesh Gilead; they had never had sexual intercourse with a man. And they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13-14 Then the congregation sent word to the Benjaminites who were at the Rimmon Rock and offered them peace. And Benjamin came. They gave them the women they had let live at Jabesh Gilead. But even then, there weren’t enough for all the men.
15 The people felt bad for Benjamin; God had left out Benjamin—the missing piece from the Israelite tribes.
16-18 The elders of the congregation said, “How can we get wives for the rest of the men, since all the Benjaminite women have been killed? How can we keep the inheritance alive for the Benjaminite survivors? How can we prevent an entire tribe from extinction? We certainly can’t give our own daughters to them as wives.” (Remember, the Israelites had taken the oath: “Cursed is anyone who provides a wife to Benjamin.”)
19 Then they said, “There is that festival of God held every year in Shiloh. It’s north of Bethel, just east of the main road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem and a little south of Lebonah.”
20-22 So they told the Benjaminites, “Go and hide in the vineyards. Stay alert—when you see the Shiloh girls come out to dance the dances, run out of the vineyards, grab one of the Shiloh girls for your wife, and then hightail it back to the country of Benjamin. When their fathers or brothers come to lay charges against us, we’ll tell them, ‘We did them a favor. After all we didn’t go to war and kill to get wives for men. And it wasn’t as if you were in on it by giving consent. But if you keep this up, you will incur blame.’”
23 And that’s what the Benjaminites did: They carried off girls from the dance, wives enough for their number, got away, and went home to their inheritance. They rebuilt their towns and settled down.
24 From there the People of Israel dispersed, each man heading back to his own tribe and clan, each to his own plot of land.
25 At that time there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Read: Luke 22:39–46
Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives
39 And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.[a] 45 And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, 46 and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Footnotes:
Luke 22:44 Some manuscripts omit verses 43 and 44
INSIGHT
Today’s reading shows us the dramatic scene of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, facing the horrors of the cross. Not only was it one of the most painful and excruciating means of execution invented by the Romans, but for our Lord it would mean taking the sins of the world upon Himself. Just prior to His crucifixion, we witness the Son’s mysterious request of His Father. Christ asked if the cup of crucifixion could be taken from Him. Yet our Lord yielded His will to the Father knowing that it was His mission on Earth to redeem all who would believe in His sacrificial death. The lesson for us is significant. Even when we face terrible suffering, we know God can deliver us; however, we must also trust Him if He chooses not to. Only by holding our Father’s hand in the valley can we endure to see the light of the mountaintop ahead.
What troubling circumstance are you facing today, and how can you depend on God no matter what His will brings? - Dennis Fisher
Your Way, Not Mine
By James Banks
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5
Kamil and Joelle were devastated when their eight-year-old daughter Rima was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. The disease led to meningitis and a stroke, and Rima lapsed into a coma. The hospital medical team counseled her parents to make arrangements for Rima’s funeral, giving her less than a one percent chance of survival.
Kamil and Joelle fasted and prayed for a miracle. “As we pray,” Kamil said, “we need to trust God no matter what. And pray like Jesus—not my way, Father, but Yours.” “But I want so much for God to heal her!” Joelle answered honestly. “Yes! And we should ask!” Kamil responded. “But it honors God when we give ourselves to Him even when it’s hard, because that’s what Jesus did.”
Before Jesus went to the cross, He prayed: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). By praying “take this cup,” Jesus asked not to go to the cross; but He submitted to the Father out of love.
Surrendering our desires to God isn’t easy, and His wisdom can be difficult to understand in challenging moments. Kamil and Joelle’s prayers were answered in a remarkable way—Rima is a healthy fifteen year old today.
Jesus understands every struggle. Even when, for our sake, His request was not answered, He showed us how to trust our God in every need.
I want to be “all in” for You, Father. I trust in Your unfailing love and give myself to You as Your servant today.
God always deserves our commitment and praise.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Justification by Faith
If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. —Romans 5:10
I am not saved by believing— I simply realize I am saved by believing. And it is not repentance that saves me— repentance is only the sign that I realize what God has done through Christ Jesus. The danger here is putting the emphasis on the effect, instead of on the cause. Is it my obedience, consecration, and dedication that make me right with God? It is never that! I am made right with God because, prior to all of that, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals, the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ instantly places me into a right relationship with God. And as a result of the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, or because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings justification with a shattering, radiant light, and I know that I am saved, even though I don’t know how it was accomplished.
The salvation that comes from God is not based on human logic, but on the sacrificial death of Jesus. We can be born again solely because of the atonement of our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creations, not through their repentance or their belief, but through the wonderful work of God in Christ Jesus which preceded all of our experience (see 2 Corinthians 5:17-19). The unconquerable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We do not have to accomplish these things ourselves— they have been accomplished through the atonement of the Cross of Christ. The supernatural becomes natural to us through the miracle of God, and there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done— “It is finished!” (John 19:30).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
An intellectual conception of God may be found in a bad vicious character. The knowledge and vision of God is dependent entirely on a pure heart. Character determines the revelation of God to the individual. The pure in heart see God. Biblical Ethics, 125 R
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Judges 20, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A Father to the Fatherless
Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” A glimpse of God’s goodness changes us. If He is only slightly stronger than us, why pray? If He has limitations, questions, and hesitations, then you might as well pray to the Wizard of Oz.
Psalm 68:5-6 says God is “a father to the fatherless. He sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity.”
Pray with me: Dear God. Today remind me that you protect me. Be my father and defender. Defend those who are weak and afraid and feel forgotten. Show up in their lives today. Thank you for giving me a spiritual family that can never be taken away. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
At any point, you are only a prayer away from help!
Before Amen
Judges 20
Then all the People of Israel came out. The congregation met in the presence of God at Mizpah. They were all there, from Dan to Beersheba, as one person! The leaders of all the people, representing all the tribes of Israel, took their places in the gathering of God’s people. There were four hundred divisions of sword-wielding infantry.
3 Meanwhile the Benjaminites got wind that the Israelites were meeting at Mizpah.
The People of Israel said, “Now tell us. How did this outrageous evil happen?”
4-7 The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, spoke: “My concubine and I came to spend the night at Gibeah, a Benjaminite town. That night the men of Gibeah came after me. They surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They gang-raped my concubine and she died. So I took my concubine, cut up her body, and sent her piece by piece—twelve pieces!—to every part of Israel’s inheritance. This vile and outrageous crime was committed in Israel! So, Israelites, make up your minds. Decide on some action!”
8-11 All the people were at once and as one person on their feet. “None of us will go home; not a single one of us will go to his own house. Here’s our plan for dealing with Gibeah: We’ll march against it by drawing lots. We’ll take ten of every hundred men from all the tribes of Israel (a hundred of every thousand, and a thousand of every ten thousand) to carry food for the army. When the troops arrive at Gibeah they will settle accounts for this outrageous and vile evil that was done in Israel.” So all the men in Israel were gathered against the city, totally united.
12-13 The Israelite tribes sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin saying, “What’s the meaning of this outrage that took place among you? Surrender the men right here and now, these hell-raisers of Gibeah. We’ll put them to death and burn the evil out of Israel.”
13-16 But they wouldn’t do it. The Benjaminites refused to listen to their brothers, the People of Israel. Instead they raised an army from all their cities and rallied at Gibeah to go to war against the People of Israel. In no time at all they had recruited from their cities twenty-six divisions of sword-wielding infantry. From Gibeah they got seven hundred hand-picked fighters, the best. There were another seven hundred supermarksmen who were ambidextrous—they could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
17 The men of Israel, excluding Benjamin, mobilized four hundred divisions of sword-wielding fighting men.
18 They set out and went to Bethel to inquire of God. The People of Israel said, “Who of us shall be first to go into battle with the Benjaminites?”
God said, “Judah goes first.”
19-21 The People of Israel got up the next morning and camped before Gibeah. The army of Israel marched out against Benjamin and took up their positions, ready to attack Gibeah. But the Benjaminites poured out of Gibeah and devastated twenty-two Israelite divisions on the ground.
22-23 The Israelites went back to the sanctuary and wept before God until evening. They again inquired of God, “Shall we again go into battle against the Benjaminites, our brothers?”
God said, “Yes. Attack.”
24-25 The army took heart. The men of Israel took up the positions they had deployed on the first day.
On the second day, the Israelites again advanced against Benjamin. This time as the Benjaminites came out of the city, on this second day, they devastated another eighteen Israelite divisions, all swordsmen.
26 All the People of Israel, the whole army, were back at Bethel, weeping, sitting there in the presence of God. That day they fasted until evening. They sacrificed Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Peace-Offerings before God.
27-28 And they again inquired of God. The Chest of God’s Covenant was there at that time with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, as the ministering priest. They asked, “Shall we again march into battle against the Benjaminites, our brothers? Or should we call it quits?”
And God said, “Attack. Tomorrow I’ll give you victory.”
29-31 This time Israel placed men in ambush all around Gibeah. On the third day when Israel set out, they took up the same positions before the Benjaminites as before. When the Benjaminites came out to meet the army, they moved out from the city. Benjaminites began to cut down some of the troops just as they had before. About thirty men fell in the field and on the roads to Bethel and Gibeah.
32 The Benjaminites started bragging, “We’re dropping them like flies, just as before!”
33 But the Israelites strategized: “Now let’s retreat and pull them out of the city onto the main roads.” So every Israelite moved farther out to Baal Tamar; at the same time the Israelite ambush rushed from its place west of Gibeah.
34-36 Ten crack divisions from all over Israel now arrived at Gibeah—intense, bloody fighting! The Benjaminites had no idea that they were about to go down in defeat—God routed them before Israel. The Israelites decimated twenty-five divisions of Benjamin that day—25,100 killed. They were all swordsmen. The Benjaminites saw that they were beaten.
The men of Israel acted like they were retreating before Benjamin, knowing that they could depend on the ambush they had prepared for Gibeah.
37-40 The ambush erupted and made quick work of Gibeah. The ambush spread out and massacred the city. The strategy for the main body of the ambush was that they send up a smoke signal from the city. Then the men of Israel would turn in battle. When that happened, Benjamin had killed about thirty Israelites and thought they were on their way to victory, yelling out, “They’re on the run, just as in the first battle!” But then the signal went up from the city—a huge column of smoke. When the Benjaminites looked back, there it was, the whole city going up in smoke.
41-43 By the time the men of Israel had turned back on them, the men of Benjamin fell apart—they could see that they were trapped. Confronted by the Israelites, they tried to get away down the wilderness road, but by now the battle was everywhere. The men of Israel poured out of the towns, killing them right and left, hot on their trail, picking them off east of Gibeah.
44 Eighteen divisions of Benjaminites were wiped out, all their best fighters.
45 Five divisions turned to escape to the wilderness, to Rimmon Rock, but the Israelites caught and slaughtered them on roads.
Keeping the pressure on, the Israelites brought down two more divisions.
46 The total of the Benjaminites killed that day came to twenty-five divisions of infantry, their best swordsmen.
47 Six hundred men got away. They made it to Rimmon Rock in the wilderness and held out there for four months.
48 The men of Israel came back and killed all the Benjaminites who were left, all the men and animals they found in every town, and then torched the towns, sending them up in flames.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Read: Ephesians 2:1–10
By Grace Through Faith
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[b] 4 But[c] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Footnotes:
Ephesians 2:3 Greek flesh
Ephesians 2:3 Greek like the rest
Ephesians 2:4 Or And
INSIGHT
For believers, the foundation for loving others is because we’ve been loved by God. But loving others like Christ loved us doesn’t come naturally to many of us. In fact, aren’t we sometimes much harder on others than we are on ourselves? Knowing all of us share a common fallen human nature, however, can help us be more patient.
On our own, we’d all naturally live out the empty “ways of this world”—the kind of selfish, ugly lives that deserve God’s condemnation (Ephesians 2:2–3). This means none of us can take credit for any good in our lives (vv. 8–9). And it means that whomever we encounter, we can offer not only God’s truth but His love and grace. - Monica Brands
Unexpected Kindness
By Amy Boucher Pye
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Ephesians 2:10
My friend was waiting to pay for her groceries when the man in front of her turned around and handed her a voucher for £10 ($14) off her bill. Short on sleep, she burst into tears because of his kind act; then she started laughing at herself for crying. This unexpected kindness touched her heart and gave her hope during a period of exhaustion. She gave thanks to the Lord for His goodness extended to her through another person.
The theme of giving was one the apostle Paul wrote about in his letter to gentile Christians in Ephesus. He called them to leave their old lives behind and embrace the new, saying that they were saved by grace. Out of this saving grace, he explained, flows our desire to “do good works,” for we have been created in God’s image and are His “handiwork” (2:10). We, like the man at the supermarket, can spread God’s love through our everyday actions.
Of course, we don’t have to give material things to share God’s grace; we can show His love through many other actions. We can take the time to listen to someone when they speak to us. We can ask someone who is serving us how they are. We can stop to help someone in need. As we give to others, we’ll receive joy in return (Acts 20:35).
Dear Father, You created us in Your image, and we rejoice that we can share Your love and life. Help us to see the opportunities to give to others today.
We’ve been created to share God’s love through giving His gifts.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 27, 2018
The Method of Missions
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… —Matthew 28:19
Jesus Christ did not say, “Go and save souls” (the salvation of souls is the supernatural work of God), but He said, “Go…make disciples of all the nations….” Yet you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself. When the disciples returned from their first mission, they were filled with joy because even the demons were subject to them. But Jesus said, in effect, “Don’t rejoice in successful service— the great secret of joy is that you have the right relationship with Me” (see Luke 10:17-20). The missionary’s great essential is remaining true to the call of God, and realizing that his one and only purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus. Remember that there is a passion for souls that does not come from God, but from our desire to make converts to our point of view.
The challenge to the missionary does not come from the fact that people are difficult to bring to salvation, that backsliders are difficult to reclaim, or that there is a barrier of callous indifference. No, the challenge comes from the perspective of the missionary’s own personal relationship with Jesus Christ— “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (Matthew 9:28). Our Lord unwaveringly asks us that question, and it confronts us in every individual situation we encounter. The one great challenge to us is— do I know my risen Lord? Do I know the power of His indwelling Spirit? Am I wise enough in God’s sight, but foolish enough according to the wisdom of the world, to trust in what Jesus Christ has said? Or am I abandoning the great supernatural position of limitless confidence in Christ Jesus, which is really God’s only call for a missionary? If I follow any other method, I depart altogether from the methods prescribed by our Lord— “All authority has been given to Me….Go therefore…” (Matthew 28:18-19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The truth is we have nothing to fear and nothing to overcome because He is all in all and we are more than conquerors through Him. The recognition of this truth is not flattering to the worker’s sense of heroics, but it is amazingly glorifying to the work of Christ. Approved Unto God, 4 R
Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” A glimpse of God’s goodness changes us. If He is only slightly stronger than us, why pray? If He has limitations, questions, and hesitations, then you might as well pray to the Wizard of Oz.
Psalm 68:5-6 says God is “a father to the fatherless. He sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity.”
Pray with me: Dear God. Today remind me that you protect me. Be my father and defender. Defend those who are weak and afraid and feel forgotten. Show up in their lives today. Thank you for giving me a spiritual family that can never be taken away. I pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
At any point, you are only a prayer away from help!
Before Amen
Judges 20
Then all the People of Israel came out. The congregation met in the presence of God at Mizpah. They were all there, from Dan to Beersheba, as one person! The leaders of all the people, representing all the tribes of Israel, took their places in the gathering of God’s people. There were four hundred divisions of sword-wielding infantry.
3 Meanwhile the Benjaminites got wind that the Israelites were meeting at Mizpah.
The People of Israel said, “Now tell us. How did this outrageous evil happen?”
4-7 The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, spoke: “My concubine and I came to spend the night at Gibeah, a Benjaminite town. That night the men of Gibeah came after me. They surrounded the house, intending to kill me. They gang-raped my concubine and she died. So I took my concubine, cut up her body, and sent her piece by piece—twelve pieces!—to every part of Israel’s inheritance. This vile and outrageous crime was committed in Israel! So, Israelites, make up your minds. Decide on some action!”
8-11 All the people were at once and as one person on their feet. “None of us will go home; not a single one of us will go to his own house. Here’s our plan for dealing with Gibeah: We’ll march against it by drawing lots. We’ll take ten of every hundred men from all the tribes of Israel (a hundred of every thousand, and a thousand of every ten thousand) to carry food for the army. When the troops arrive at Gibeah they will settle accounts for this outrageous and vile evil that was done in Israel.” So all the men in Israel were gathered against the city, totally united.
12-13 The Israelite tribes sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin saying, “What’s the meaning of this outrage that took place among you? Surrender the men right here and now, these hell-raisers of Gibeah. We’ll put them to death and burn the evil out of Israel.”
13-16 But they wouldn’t do it. The Benjaminites refused to listen to their brothers, the People of Israel. Instead they raised an army from all their cities and rallied at Gibeah to go to war against the People of Israel. In no time at all they had recruited from their cities twenty-six divisions of sword-wielding infantry. From Gibeah they got seven hundred hand-picked fighters, the best. There were another seven hundred supermarksmen who were ambidextrous—they could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
17 The men of Israel, excluding Benjamin, mobilized four hundred divisions of sword-wielding fighting men.
18 They set out and went to Bethel to inquire of God. The People of Israel said, “Who of us shall be first to go into battle with the Benjaminites?”
God said, “Judah goes first.”
19-21 The People of Israel got up the next morning and camped before Gibeah. The army of Israel marched out against Benjamin and took up their positions, ready to attack Gibeah. But the Benjaminites poured out of Gibeah and devastated twenty-two Israelite divisions on the ground.
22-23 The Israelites went back to the sanctuary and wept before God until evening. They again inquired of God, “Shall we again go into battle against the Benjaminites, our brothers?”
God said, “Yes. Attack.”
24-25 The army took heart. The men of Israel took up the positions they had deployed on the first day.
On the second day, the Israelites again advanced against Benjamin. This time as the Benjaminites came out of the city, on this second day, they devastated another eighteen Israelite divisions, all swordsmen.
26 All the People of Israel, the whole army, were back at Bethel, weeping, sitting there in the presence of God. That day they fasted until evening. They sacrificed Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Peace-Offerings before God.
27-28 And they again inquired of God. The Chest of God’s Covenant was there at that time with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, as the ministering priest. They asked, “Shall we again march into battle against the Benjaminites, our brothers? Or should we call it quits?”
And God said, “Attack. Tomorrow I’ll give you victory.”
29-31 This time Israel placed men in ambush all around Gibeah. On the third day when Israel set out, they took up the same positions before the Benjaminites as before. When the Benjaminites came out to meet the army, they moved out from the city. Benjaminites began to cut down some of the troops just as they had before. About thirty men fell in the field and on the roads to Bethel and Gibeah.
32 The Benjaminites started bragging, “We’re dropping them like flies, just as before!”
33 But the Israelites strategized: “Now let’s retreat and pull them out of the city onto the main roads.” So every Israelite moved farther out to Baal Tamar; at the same time the Israelite ambush rushed from its place west of Gibeah.
34-36 Ten crack divisions from all over Israel now arrived at Gibeah—intense, bloody fighting! The Benjaminites had no idea that they were about to go down in defeat—God routed them before Israel. The Israelites decimated twenty-five divisions of Benjamin that day—25,100 killed. They were all swordsmen. The Benjaminites saw that they were beaten.
The men of Israel acted like they were retreating before Benjamin, knowing that they could depend on the ambush they had prepared for Gibeah.
37-40 The ambush erupted and made quick work of Gibeah. The ambush spread out and massacred the city. The strategy for the main body of the ambush was that they send up a smoke signal from the city. Then the men of Israel would turn in battle. When that happened, Benjamin had killed about thirty Israelites and thought they were on their way to victory, yelling out, “They’re on the run, just as in the first battle!” But then the signal went up from the city—a huge column of smoke. When the Benjaminites looked back, there it was, the whole city going up in smoke.
41-43 By the time the men of Israel had turned back on them, the men of Benjamin fell apart—they could see that they were trapped. Confronted by the Israelites, they tried to get away down the wilderness road, but by now the battle was everywhere. The men of Israel poured out of the towns, killing them right and left, hot on their trail, picking them off east of Gibeah.
44 Eighteen divisions of Benjaminites were wiped out, all their best fighters.
45 Five divisions turned to escape to the wilderness, to Rimmon Rock, but the Israelites caught and slaughtered them on roads.
Keeping the pressure on, the Israelites brought down two more divisions.
46 The total of the Benjaminites killed that day came to twenty-five divisions of infantry, their best swordsmen.
47 Six hundred men got away. They made it to Rimmon Rock in the wilderness and held out there for four months.
48 The men of Israel came back and killed all the Benjaminites who were left, all the men and animals they found in every town, and then torched the towns, sending them up in flames.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Read: Ephesians 2:1–10
By Grace Through Faith
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[b] 4 But[c] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Footnotes:
Ephesians 2:3 Greek flesh
Ephesians 2:3 Greek like the rest
Ephesians 2:4 Or And
INSIGHT
For believers, the foundation for loving others is because we’ve been loved by God. But loving others like Christ loved us doesn’t come naturally to many of us. In fact, aren’t we sometimes much harder on others than we are on ourselves? Knowing all of us share a common fallen human nature, however, can help us be more patient.
On our own, we’d all naturally live out the empty “ways of this world”—the kind of selfish, ugly lives that deserve God’s condemnation (Ephesians 2:2–3). This means none of us can take credit for any good in our lives (vv. 8–9). And it means that whomever we encounter, we can offer not only God’s truth but His love and grace. - Monica Brands
Unexpected Kindness
By Amy Boucher Pye
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Ephesians 2:10
My friend was waiting to pay for her groceries when the man in front of her turned around and handed her a voucher for £10 ($14) off her bill. Short on sleep, she burst into tears because of his kind act; then she started laughing at herself for crying. This unexpected kindness touched her heart and gave her hope during a period of exhaustion. She gave thanks to the Lord for His goodness extended to her through another person.
The theme of giving was one the apostle Paul wrote about in his letter to gentile Christians in Ephesus. He called them to leave their old lives behind and embrace the new, saying that they were saved by grace. Out of this saving grace, he explained, flows our desire to “do good works,” for we have been created in God’s image and are His “handiwork” (2:10). We, like the man at the supermarket, can spread God’s love through our everyday actions.
Of course, we don’t have to give material things to share God’s grace; we can show His love through many other actions. We can take the time to listen to someone when they speak to us. We can ask someone who is serving us how they are. We can stop to help someone in need. As we give to others, we’ll receive joy in return (Acts 20:35).
Dear Father, You created us in Your image, and we rejoice that we can share Your love and life. Help us to see the opportunities to give to others today.
We’ve been created to share God’s love through giving His gifts.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 27, 2018
The Method of Missions
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations… —Matthew 28:19
Jesus Christ did not say, “Go and save souls” (the salvation of souls is the supernatural work of God), but He said, “Go…make disciples of all the nations….” Yet you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself. When the disciples returned from their first mission, they were filled with joy because even the demons were subject to them. But Jesus said, in effect, “Don’t rejoice in successful service— the great secret of joy is that you have the right relationship with Me” (see Luke 10:17-20). The missionary’s great essential is remaining true to the call of God, and realizing that his one and only purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus. Remember that there is a passion for souls that does not come from God, but from our desire to make converts to our point of view.
The challenge to the missionary does not come from the fact that people are difficult to bring to salvation, that backsliders are difficult to reclaim, or that there is a barrier of callous indifference. No, the challenge comes from the perspective of the missionary’s own personal relationship with Jesus Christ— “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (Matthew 9:28). Our Lord unwaveringly asks us that question, and it confronts us in every individual situation we encounter. The one great challenge to us is— do I know my risen Lord? Do I know the power of His indwelling Spirit? Am I wise enough in God’s sight, but foolish enough according to the wisdom of the world, to trust in what Jesus Christ has said? Or am I abandoning the great supernatural position of limitless confidence in Christ Jesus, which is really God’s only call for a missionary? If I follow any other method, I depart altogether from the methods prescribed by our Lord— “All authority has been given to Me….Go therefore…” (Matthew 28:18-19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The truth is we have nothing to fear and nothing to overcome because He is all in all and we are more than conquerors through Him. The recognition of this truth is not flattering to the worker’s sense of heroics, but it is amazingly glorifying to the work of Christ. Approved Unto God, 4 R
Friday, October 26, 2018
Judges 19, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: COME AND SEE JESUS
In John 1:46 Nathaniel asked Philip, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip answered, “Come and see.” Many people still wonder. Is the life of the young Nazarene carpenter really worth considering? And Philip’s answer still suffices. Come and see.
Come and see the flame that tyrants and despots have not extinguished; the passion that oppression has not squelched. Come and see hospitals and orphanages rising beside the crumbling ruins of humanism and atheism. Come and see what Christ has done! Come and see the pierced hand of God touch the most common heart. Come and see the tomb once occupied; the grave once sealed, now empty. Nathanael came and discovered, “Teacher, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Judges 19
The Levite
19 1-4 It was an era when there was no king in Israel. A Levite, living as a stranger in the backwoods hill country of Ephraim, got himself a concubine, a woman from Bethlehem in Judah. But she quarreled with him and left, returning to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. She was there four months. Then her husband decided to go after her and try to win her back. He had a servant and a pair of donkeys with him. When he arrived at her father’s house, the girl’s father saw him, welcomed him, and made him feel at home. His father-in-law, the girl’s father, pressed him to stay. He stayed with him three days; they feasted and drank and slept.
5-6 On the fourth day, they got up at the crack of dawn and got ready to go. But the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Strengthen yourself with a hearty breakfast and then you can go.” So they sat down and ate breakfast together.
6-7 The girl’s father said to the man, “Come now, be my guest. Stay the night—make it a holiday.” The man got up to go, but his father-in-law kept after him, so he ended up spending another night.
8-9 On the fifth day, he was again up early, ready to go. The girl’s father said, “You need some breakfast.” They went back and forth, and the day slipped on as they ate and drank together. But the man and his concubine were finally ready to go. Then his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said, “Look, the day’s almost gone—why not stay the night? There’s very little daylight left; stay another night and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow you can get an early start and set off for your own place.”
10-11 But this time the man wasn’t willing to spend another night. He got things ready, left, and went as far as Jebus (Jerusalem) with his pair of saddled donkeys, his concubine, and his servant. At Jebus, though, the day was nearly gone. The servant said to his master, “It’s late; let’s go into this Jebusite city and spend the night.”
12-13 But his master said, “We’re not going into any city of foreigners. We’ll go on to Gibeah.” He directed his servant, “Keep going. Let’s go on ahead. We’ll spend the night either at Gibeah or Ramah.”
14-15 So they kept going. As they pressed on, the sun finally left them in the vicinity of Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. They left the road there to spend the night at Gibeah.
15-17 The Levite went and sat down in the town square, but no one invited them in to spend the night. Then, late in the evening, an old man came in from his day’s work in the fields. He was from the hill country of Ephraim and lived temporarily in Gibeah where all the local citizens were Benjaminites. When the old man looked up and saw the traveler in the town square, he said, “Where are you going? And where are you from?”
18-19 The Levite said, “We’re just passing through. We’re coming from Bethlehem on our way to a remote spot in the hills of Ephraim. I come from there. I’ve just made a trip to Bethlehem in Judah and I’m on my way back home, but no one has invited us in for the night. We wouldn’t be any trouble: We have food and straw for the donkeys, and bread and wine for the woman, the young man, and me—we don’t need anything.”
20-21 The old man said, “It’s going to be all right; I’ll take care of you. You aren’t going to spend the night in the town square.” He took them home and fed the donkeys. They washed up and sat down to a good meal.
22 They were relaxed and enjoying themselves when the men of the city, a gang of local hell-raisers all, surrounded the house and started pounding on the door. They yelled for the owner of the house, the old man, “Bring out the man who came to your house. We want to have sex with him.”
23-24 He went out and told them, “No, brothers! Don’t be obscene—this man is my guest. Don’t commit this outrage. Look, my virgin daughter and his concubine are here. I’ll bring them out for you. Abuse them if you must, but don’t do anything so senselessly vile to this man.”
25-26 But the men wouldn’t listen to him. Finally, the Levite pushed his concubine out the door to them. They raped her repeatedly all night long. Just before dawn they let her go. The woman came back and fell at the door of the house where her master was sleeping. When the sun rose, there she was.
27 It was morning. Her master got up and opened the door to continue his journey. There she was, his concubine, crumpled in a heap at the door, her hands on the threshold.
28 “Get up,” he said. “Let’s get going.” There was no answer.
29-30 He lifted her onto his donkey and set out for home. When he got home he took a knife and dismembered his concubine—cut her into twelve pieces. He sent her, piece by piece, throughout the country of Israel. And he ordered the men he sent out, “Say to every man in Israel: ‘Has such a thing as this ever happened from the time the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt until now? Think about it! Talk it over. Do something!’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 26, 2018
Read: 1 John 4:14–21
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[a] love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Footnotes:
1 John 4:20 Some manuscripts how can he
INSIGHT
First John 4:14 declares that Christ is the “Savior of the world.” Our response to His sacrificial death on the cross so we might be saved puts us in one of two categories: We’re either among “those who are perishing” or “[those] who are being saved” (1 Corinthians 1:18). The apostle Paul says the Greeks laughed at the ludicrousness of a dead man giving eternal life to others (vv. 22–23). But to all who believe in Jesus, the cross is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (v. 24). The Scriptures tell us, “This Good News about Christ . . . is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16 nlt), for “Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin” (1 Corinthians 1:30 nlt). - K. T. Sim
The Great Crescendo
By Bill Crowder
The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 1 John 4:14
My parents taught me to love all sorts of music—from country to classical. So my heart beat rapidly as I walked into the Moscow Conservatory, one of Russia’s great music halls, to hear the Moscow National Symphony. As the conductor drove the musicians through a masterful Tchaikovsky piece, themes developed that gradually built to a powerful crescendo—a profound and dramatic musical climax. It was a magical moment, and the audience stood to roar its approval.
The Scriptures move toward the most powerful crescendo of history: the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the moments following Adam and Eve’s fall into sin in the garden of Eden, God promised that a Redeemer would come (Genesis 3:15), and throughout the Old Testament that theme moved forward. The promise rang out in the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:21), the hopes of the prophets (1 Peter 1:10), and the longings of the people of God.
First John 4:14 confirms where that story had been going: “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” How? God accomplished His promised rescue of His broken world when Jesus died and rose again to forgive us and restore us to our Creator. And one day He will come again and restore His whole creation.
As we remember what God’s Son has done for us, we celebrate the great crescendo of God’s grace and rescue for us and His world—Jesus!
Father, Your Son has impacted Your world like nothing else. I’m grateful He has come for my rescue and will come again to restore Your world.
Celebrate the gift of Jesus!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 26, 2018
What is a Missionary?
Jesus said to them again, "…As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." —John 20:21
A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front— to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him— to carry out His plans.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ— “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matthew 28:19).
When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, “What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!” But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were “foolish” enough to trust God’s wisdom and His supernatural equipment.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand. Not Knowing Whither, 888 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 26, 2018
I grew up on the south side of Chicago, and honestly we did not have a lot of sheep running around. So I listened with fascination when I heard my father-in-law tell about being the shepherd for his family's flock of sheep. He was just a boy, he was the only child, and Mom and Dad left the sheep pretty much with him, and he was with them a lot. One day he and his parents were watching the flock and he said, "Would you like me to call one of them out?" Right, kid. Like one sheep is going to know it's him you want? So Mom and Dad kind of laughed. The little shepherd asked them to pick a sheep they wanted called out, and then he made a little bleating sound and the selected sheep proceeded to leave the flock and come right to him. Mom and Dad were still skeptical. So he said, "OK, pick another sheep." And they did. Another bleat, and Mr. Sheep answered the call. And no one else could get that kind of response. That little exercise was repeated several times, until there was no denying the amazing fact: those sheep had such a personal relationship with their shepherd that his was the only voice they followed.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "That Voice."
Our word for today from the Word of God is in John 10:3. It says, "The watchman opens the gate for the shepherd and the sheep listen to His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out." Here's a fundamental that you need to remember every day. "You sheep...Him Shepherd." And Jesus describes this incredibly personal relationship that you as a sheep have with Him as your Shepherd.
Oh yeah, there's a big Christian flock. Sure, sometimes you feel like just another church attender or just an anonymous blur in the huge family of God. But Jesus doesn't see a flock. Just like my father-in-law as a boy, he didn't see a bunch of sheep. He sees Woolly and Fluffy and Blackie, and Hoofer. (I don't know what you call sheep.) My father-in-law had an individual relationship with each sheep in that flock. That's how Jesus sees you. Others may see a flock of a hundred Christians or a thousand Christians, but Jesus sees a thousand ones. He knows you by name. He loves you as you.
The sheep know there is only one voice they can trust; the voice of the One who really loves them. My father-in-law's sheep had decided which voice they would follow and who would decide which way they went. That's what it's supposed to be like between you and Jesus isn't it? But is it? The only one voice that you will follow-Jesus. Only one person deciding which direction you'll go-Jesus.
But maybe there's another voice that's been drowning out your shepherd's voice lately. Maybe you're hearing the voice of your family or your friends, or maybe someone you're dating, maybe the voice of your company, or even of a religious leader. But the voice you've been tending to follow lately might be taking you a direction that your Shepherd would never take you.
See, there is only one voice you can trust-the Shepherd who laid down His life for you. Jesus said in John 10, "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." It's time to decide again that the voice of Jesus is the only voice you'll follow. All those other voices will lead you where you'll only end up lost. Your Good Shepherd will never lead you wrong. He's the One who loves you most. And He says He puts His sheep out and He goes ahead of them. Everywhere He'll send you, He will get there first. You will be safe. You can uncomplicate your life from the confusion of following so many different voices.
That voice of Jesus, by the way, might be speaking inside your heart right now. It may just feel like a spiritual tug. But the fact is, the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you, his wandering sheep, is trying to bring you into a relationship with Him. That's the tug you feel; that's the voice of the Shepherd calling you to belong to Him. You may have believed in Him, but have you ever really belonged to Him? You've never really given Him your whole life. You can do that this very day. "Jesus, I'm in. I'm in with you." Our website will help you get there. It's ANewStory.com, and I hope you will go there.
You are the deeply loved treasure of your Shepherd, Jesus. Choose one voice to be the only voice you follow; the voice you are hearing in your heart this very day. Choose Jesus.
In John 1:46 Nathaniel asked Philip, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip answered, “Come and see.” Many people still wonder. Is the life of the young Nazarene carpenter really worth considering? And Philip’s answer still suffices. Come and see.
Come and see the flame that tyrants and despots have not extinguished; the passion that oppression has not squelched. Come and see hospitals and orphanages rising beside the crumbling ruins of humanism and atheism. Come and see what Christ has done! Come and see the pierced hand of God touch the most common heart. Come and see the tomb once occupied; the grave once sealed, now empty. Nathanael came and discovered, “Teacher, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Judges 19
The Levite
19 1-4 It was an era when there was no king in Israel. A Levite, living as a stranger in the backwoods hill country of Ephraim, got himself a concubine, a woman from Bethlehem in Judah. But she quarreled with him and left, returning to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. She was there four months. Then her husband decided to go after her and try to win her back. He had a servant and a pair of donkeys with him. When he arrived at her father’s house, the girl’s father saw him, welcomed him, and made him feel at home. His father-in-law, the girl’s father, pressed him to stay. He stayed with him three days; they feasted and drank and slept.
5-6 On the fourth day, they got up at the crack of dawn and got ready to go. But the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Strengthen yourself with a hearty breakfast and then you can go.” So they sat down and ate breakfast together.
6-7 The girl’s father said to the man, “Come now, be my guest. Stay the night—make it a holiday.” The man got up to go, but his father-in-law kept after him, so he ended up spending another night.
8-9 On the fifth day, he was again up early, ready to go. The girl’s father said, “You need some breakfast.” They went back and forth, and the day slipped on as they ate and drank together. But the man and his concubine were finally ready to go. Then his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said, “Look, the day’s almost gone—why not stay the night? There’s very little daylight left; stay another night and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow you can get an early start and set off for your own place.”
10-11 But this time the man wasn’t willing to spend another night. He got things ready, left, and went as far as Jebus (Jerusalem) with his pair of saddled donkeys, his concubine, and his servant. At Jebus, though, the day was nearly gone. The servant said to his master, “It’s late; let’s go into this Jebusite city and spend the night.”
12-13 But his master said, “We’re not going into any city of foreigners. We’ll go on to Gibeah.” He directed his servant, “Keep going. Let’s go on ahead. We’ll spend the night either at Gibeah or Ramah.”
14-15 So they kept going. As they pressed on, the sun finally left them in the vicinity of Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. They left the road there to spend the night at Gibeah.
15-17 The Levite went and sat down in the town square, but no one invited them in to spend the night. Then, late in the evening, an old man came in from his day’s work in the fields. He was from the hill country of Ephraim and lived temporarily in Gibeah where all the local citizens were Benjaminites. When the old man looked up and saw the traveler in the town square, he said, “Where are you going? And where are you from?”
18-19 The Levite said, “We’re just passing through. We’re coming from Bethlehem on our way to a remote spot in the hills of Ephraim. I come from there. I’ve just made a trip to Bethlehem in Judah and I’m on my way back home, but no one has invited us in for the night. We wouldn’t be any trouble: We have food and straw for the donkeys, and bread and wine for the woman, the young man, and me—we don’t need anything.”
20-21 The old man said, “It’s going to be all right; I’ll take care of you. You aren’t going to spend the night in the town square.” He took them home and fed the donkeys. They washed up and sat down to a good meal.
22 They were relaxed and enjoying themselves when the men of the city, a gang of local hell-raisers all, surrounded the house and started pounding on the door. They yelled for the owner of the house, the old man, “Bring out the man who came to your house. We want to have sex with him.”
23-24 He went out and told them, “No, brothers! Don’t be obscene—this man is my guest. Don’t commit this outrage. Look, my virgin daughter and his concubine are here. I’ll bring them out for you. Abuse them if you must, but don’t do anything so senselessly vile to this man.”
25-26 But the men wouldn’t listen to him. Finally, the Levite pushed his concubine out the door to them. They raped her repeatedly all night long. Just before dawn they let her go. The woman came back and fell at the door of the house where her master was sleeping. When the sun rose, there she was.
27 It was morning. Her master got up and opened the door to continue his journey. There she was, his concubine, crumpled in a heap at the door, her hands on the threshold.
28 “Get up,” he said. “Let’s get going.” There was no answer.
29-30 He lifted her onto his donkey and set out for home. When he got home he took a knife and dismembered his concubine—cut her into twelve pieces. He sent her, piece by piece, throughout the country of Israel. And he ordered the men he sent out, “Say to every man in Israel: ‘Has such a thing as this ever happened from the time the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt until now? Think about it! Talk it over. Do something!’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 26, 2018
Read: 1 John 4:14–21
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[a] love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Footnotes:
1 John 4:20 Some manuscripts how can he
INSIGHT
First John 4:14 declares that Christ is the “Savior of the world.” Our response to His sacrificial death on the cross so we might be saved puts us in one of two categories: We’re either among “those who are perishing” or “[those] who are being saved” (1 Corinthians 1:18). The apostle Paul says the Greeks laughed at the ludicrousness of a dead man giving eternal life to others (vv. 22–23). But to all who believe in Jesus, the cross is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (v. 24). The Scriptures tell us, “This Good News about Christ . . . is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16 nlt), for “Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin” (1 Corinthians 1:30 nlt). - K. T. Sim
The Great Crescendo
By Bill Crowder
The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 1 John 4:14
My parents taught me to love all sorts of music—from country to classical. So my heart beat rapidly as I walked into the Moscow Conservatory, one of Russia’s great music halls, to hear the Moscow National Symphony. As the conductor drove the musicians through a masterful Tchaikovsky piece, themes developed that gradually built to a powerful crescendo—a profound and dramatic musical climax. It was a magical moment, and the audience stood to roar its approval.
The Scriptures move toward the most powerful crescendo of history: the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the moments following Adam and Eve’s fall into sin in the garden of Eden, God promised that a Redeemer would come (Genesis 3:15), and throughout the Old Testament that theme moved forward. The promise rang out in the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:21), the hopes of the prophets (1 Peter 1:10), and the longings of the people of God.
First John 4:14 confirms where that story had been going: “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” How? God accomplished His promised rescue of His broken world when Jesus died and rose again to forgive us and restore us to our Creator. And one day He will come again and restore His whole creation.
As we remember what God’s Son has done for us, we celebrate the great crescendo of God’s grace and rescue for us and His world—Jesus!
Father, Your Son has impacted Your world like nothing else. I’m grateful He has come for my rescue and will come again to restore Your world.
Celebrate the gift of Jesus!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 26, 2018
What is a Missionary?
Jesus said to them again, "…As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." —John 20:21
A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front— to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him— to carry out His plans.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ— “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matthew 28:19).
When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, “What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!” But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were “foolish” enough to trust God’s wisdom and His supernatural equipment.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand. Not Knowing Whither, 888 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 26, 2018
I grew up on the south side of Chicago, and honestly we did not have a lot of sheep running around. So I listened with fascination when I heard my father-in-law tell about being the shepherd for his family's flock of sheep. He was just a boy, he was the only child, and Mom and Dad left the sheep pretty much with him, and he was with them a lot. One day he and his parents were watching the flock and he said, "Would you like me to call one of them out?" Right, kid. Like one sheep is going to know it's him you want? So Mom and Dad kind of laughed. The little shepherd asked them to pick a sheep they wanted called out, and then he made a little bleating sound and the selected sheep proceeded to leave the flock and come right to him. Mom and Dad were still skeptical. So he said, "OK, pick another sheep." And they did. Another bleat, and Mr. Sheep answered the call. And no one else could get that kind of response. That little exercise was repeated several times, until there was no denying the amazing fact: those sheep had such a personal relationship with their shepherd that his was the only voice they followed.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "That Voice."
Our word for today from the Word of God is in John 10:3. It says, "The watchman opens the gate for the shepherd and the sheep listen to His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out." Here's a fundamental that you need to remember every day. "You sheep...Him Shepherd." And Jesus describes this incredibly personal relationship that you as a sheep have with Him as your Shepherd.
Oh yeah, there's a big Christian flock. Sure, sometimes you feel like just another church attender or just an anonymous blur in the huge family of God. But Jesus doesn't see a flock. Just like my father-in-law as a boy, he didn't see a bunch of sheep. He sees Woolly and Fluffy and Blackie, and Hoofer. (I don't know what you call sheep.) My father-in-law had an individual relationship with each sheep in that flock. That's how Jesus sees you. Others may see a flock of a hundred Christians or a thousand Christians, but Jesus sees a thousand ones. He knows you by name. He loves you as you.
The sheep know there is only one voice they can trust; the voice of the One who really loves them. My father-in-law's sheep had decided which voice they would follow and who would decide which way they went. That's what it's supposed to be like between you and Jesus isn't it? But is it? The only one voice that you will follow-Jesus. Only one person deciding which direction you'll go-Jesus.
But maybe there's another voice that's been drowning out your shepherd's voice lately. Maybe you're hearing the voice of your family or your friends, or maybe someone you're dating, maybe the voice of your company, or even of a religious leader. But the voice you've been tending to follow lately might be taking you a direction that your Shepherd would never take you.
See, there is only one voice you can trust-the Shepherd who laid down His life for you. Jesus said in John 10, "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." It's time to decide again that the voice of Jesus is the only voice you'll follow. All those other voices will lead you where you'll only end up lost. Your Good Shepherd will never lead you wrong. He's the One who loves you most. And He says He puts His sheep out and He goes ahead of them. Everywhere He'll send you, He will get there first. You will be safe. You can uncomplicate your life from the confusion of following so many different voices.
That voice of Jesus, by the way, might be speaking inside your heart right now. It may just feel like a spiritual tug. But the fact is, the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for you, his wandering sheep, is trying to bring you into a relationship with Him. That's the tug you feel; that's the voice of the Shepherd calling you to belong to Him. You may have believed in Him, but have you ever really belonged to Him? You've never really given Him your whole life. You can do that this very day. "Jesus, I'm in. I'm in with you." Our website will help you get there. It's ANewStory.com, and I hope you will go there.
You are the deeply loved treasure of your Shepherd, Jesus. Choose one voice to be the only voice you follow; the voice you are hearing in your heart this very day. Choose Jesus.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Luke 16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A KEY QUESTION
How far do you want God to go in getting your attention? Don’t answer too quickly. Give it some thought. God does what it takes to get our attention. Isn’t that the message of the Bible? The relentless pursuit of God. God is as creative as he is relentless. The same hand that set the children of Israel free from Egypt also sent them captive to Babylon. Both kind and stern. Faithfully firm. Patiently urgent. Eagerly tolerant. Softly shouting. Gentle thunder.
God will whisper. He will shout. He will touch and tug. He will take away our burdens; he’ll even take away our blessings. His goal is not to make you happy. His goal is to make you HIS. If there are a thousand steps between us and him, he’ll take all but one. But he will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours!
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Luke 16
The Story of the Crooked Manager
16 1-2 Jesus said to his disciples, “There was once a rich man who had a manager. He got reports that the manager had been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses. So he called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? You’re fired. And I want a complete audit of your books.’
3-4 “The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I’ve lost my job as manager. I’m not strong enough for a laboring job, and I’m too proud to beg. . . . Ah, I’ve got a plan. Here’s what I’ll do . . . then when I’m turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.’
5 “Then he went at it. One after another, he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 “He replied, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’
“The manager said, ‘Here, take your bill, sit down here—quick now—write fifty.’
7 “To the next he said, ‘And you, what do you owe?’
“He answered, ‘A hundred sacks of wheat.’
“He said, ‘Take your bill, write in eighty.’
8-9 “Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”
God Sees Behind Appearances
10-13 Jesus went on to make these comments:
If you’re honest in small things,
you’ll be honest in big things;
If you’re a crook in small things,
you’ll be a crook in big things.
If you’re not honest in small jobs,
who will put you in charge of the store?
No worker can serve two bosses:
He’ll either hate the first and love the second
Or adore the first and despise the second.
You can’t serve both God and the Bank.
14-18 When the Pharisees, a money-obsessed bunch, heard him say these things, they rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch. So Jesus spoke to them: “You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what’s behind the appearance.
What society sees and calls monumental,
God sees through and calls monstrous.
God’s Law and the Prophets climaxed in John;
Now it’s all kingdom of God—the glad news
and compelling invitation to every man and woman.
The sky will disintegrate and the earth dissolve
before a single letter of God’s Law wears out.
Using the legalities of divorce
as a cover for lust is adultery;
Using the legalities of marriage
as a cover for lust is adultery.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19-21 “There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.
22-24 “Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I’m in agony in this fire.’
25-26 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It’s not like that here. Here he’s consoled and you’re tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.’
27-28 “The rich man said, ‘Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t end up here in this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham answered, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.’
30 “‘I know, Father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but they’re not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.’
31 “Abraham replied, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Read: Jeremiah 8:8–15
“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
9 The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?
10 Therefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
11 They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”[a]
14 Why do we sit still?
Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
Footnotes:
Jeremiah 8:13 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
INSIGHT
Jeremiah delivers a devastating message of coming punishment to the people of Judah. God’s judgment of sin includes loss of spouse and property (Jeremiah 8:10), failed crops (v. 13), and overwhelming terror (v. 15). Why such a devastating punishment? They have mishandled the law of the Lord (v. 8). Jeremiah continues by saying that they have no wisdom since they have rejected the word of the Lord (v. 9). Scripture is not something to be treated lightly. In the Bible God reveals Himself and His plan for humanity’s redemption. It’s a story to be treated with the utmost respect. - J.R. Hudberg
Where Is Peace?
By Tim Gustafson
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1
“Do you still hope for peace?” a journalist asked Bob Dylan in 1984.
“There is not going to be any peace,” Dylan replied. His response drew criticism, yet there’s no denying that peace remains ever elusive.
About 600 years before Christ, most prophets were predicting peace. God’s prophet wasn’t one of them. Jeremiah reminded the people that God had said, “Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people” (Jeremiah 7:23). Yet they repeatedly ignored the Lord and His commands. Their false prophets said, “Peace, peace” (8:11), but Jeremiah predicted disaster. Jerusalem fell in 586 bc.
Peace is rare. But amid Jeremiah’s book of dire prophecies we discover a God who loves relentlessly. “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” the Lord told His rebellious people. “I will build you up again” (31:3–4).
God is a God of love and peace. Conflict comes because of our rebellion against Him. Sin destroys the world’s peace and robs each of us of inner peace. Jesus came to this planet to reconcile us to God and give us that inner peace. “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” wrote the apostle Paul (Romans 5:1). His words are among the most hope-filled ever written.
Whether we live in a combat zone or dwell in a serene neighborhood with nary a whisper of war, Christ invites us into His peace.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. C. S. Lewis
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Submitting to God’s Purpose
I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. —1 Corinthians 9:22
A Christian worker has to learn how to be God’s man or woman of great worth and excellence in the midst of a multitude of meager and worthless things. Never protest by saying, “If only I were somewhere else!” All of God’s people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose He has given them. Unless we have the right purpose intellectually in our minds and lovingly in our hearts, we will very quickly be diverted from being useful to God. We are not workers for God by choice. Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no purpose of God’s almighty grace or His mighty Word in them. Paul’s whole heart, mind, and soul were consumed with the great purpose of what Jesus Christ came to do, and he never lost sight of that one thing. We must continually confront ourselves with one central fact— “…Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
“I chose you…” (John 15:16). Keep these words as a wonderful reminder in your theology. It is not that you have gotten God, but that He has gotten you. God is at work bending, breaking, molding, and doing exactly as He chooses. And why is He doing it? He is doing it for only one purpose— that He may be able to say, “This is My man, and this is My woman.” We have to be in God’s hand so that He can place others on the Rock, Jesus Christ, just as He has placed us.
Never choose to be a worker, but once God has placed His call upon you, woe be to you if you “turn aside…to the right or the left…” (Deuteronomy 28:14). He will do with you what He never did before His call came to you, and He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word. Disciples Indeed, 386 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Storm Proof Security - #8294
If they ever ask me to be a participant in those Nielsen ratings of who's watching what TV show, they'll probably find me watching the Weather Channel more than a lot of viewers. Oh, not necessarily because I'm intrigued with low-pressure systems, or barometric readings, or cumulonimbus clouds, (See, I do watch.) but because I want to see my future in the places I might be traveling to. But sometimes, they don't have the weather on. I remember a while back they had a primetime documentary show called "Storm Stories." Now while the story of a storm that happened twenty years ago isn't going to help me plan for tomorrow, the stories were pretty dramatic. They often featured amazing accounts of the people who survived major weather disasters-and the people who didn't. It was especially interesting to see what steps would help you to be a storm survivor rather than a storm victim.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Storm Proof Security."
I'll bet you've got your own personal "storm stories," don't you? I've got mine-some life storms that you've been hit with; medical storms, financial storms, family, marital, heavy weather with your kids, your work, your ministry, your relationships. One of the most dramatic storm stories I ever read is actually in our word for today from the Word of God in Acts 27, beginning with verse 20. It's going to help you survive your storm-because it shows the two anchors you can hang onto and no storm can touch.
Paul is a Roman prisoner. He's being carried to Rome aboard a ship loaded with Caesar's grain, and they get hit with this massive storm that drives them all over the Mediterranean for two perilous weeks. Paul says, "We took such a violent battering...they began to throw the cargo overboard." That's pretty desperate. Then the apostle goes on to explain that "neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging." Have you ever been in a situation like that where none of your usual points of reference could help you and you're drifting and you're confused? That's what we're talking about here.
Then it says, "we finally gave up all hope of being saved." (Acts 27:18, 20) Notice, he says "we" gave up all hope. Even the spirit of the great Apostle Paul has succumbed to the storm. But then the next day we find him standing up and saying to everyone aboard, "Keep up your courage because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed." What happened? Well, God reminded Paul of those two anchors that will carry you through. He explains to the people on that storm-threatened ship: "Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.'" (Acts 27:22-25)
Anchor #1: Who you belong to. The God "whose I am." Don't let the storm make you forget that the Lord is your God and that His sovereignty is unshakeable. No life that is in the hands of the Sovereign Lord is out of control no matter how much it feels like the storm is winning. If you are His child, then every storm in your life has either been sent by Him or approved by Him for His glory, for your good and for your growth.
Anchor #2: Who you do it for. The God "whom I serve." The storm can blow away every reason for finishing the thing that God gave you to do except one-the One who called you to do it. He hasn't moved, no matter how much the ship is getting blown around. God told Paul, "The mission I've given you, you will complete." I think He's saying the same thing to you. Hang onto your anchors and no storm, however violent, is going to sink you!
About the ending of the storm story: The ship that was supposed to be headed from Israel to Italy...the ship that had been seemingly out of control for two weeks ended up going aground on the island just south of Italy. All the time Paul's ship had appeared to be out of control, but guess what? It had been right on course, and so is yours because of the God "whose you are and whom you serve."
How far do you want God to go in getting your attention? Don’t answer too quickly. Give it some thought. God does what it takes to get our attention. Isn’t that the message of the Bible? The relentless pursuit of God. God is as creative as he is relentless. The same hand that set the children of Israel free from Egypt also sent them captive to Babylon. Both kind and stern. Faithfully firm. Patiently urgent. Eagerly tolerant. Softly shouting. Gentle thunder.
God will whisper. He will shout. He will touch and tug. He will take away our burdens; he’ll even take away our blessings. His goal is not to make you happy. His goal is to make you HIS. If there are a thousand steps between us and him, he’ll take all but one. But he will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours!
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Luke 16
The Story of the Crooked Manager
16 1-2 Jesus said to his disciples, “There was once a rich man who had a manager. He got reports that the manager had been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses. So he called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? You’re fired. And I want a complete audit of your books.’
3-4 “The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I’ve lost my job as manager. I’m not strong enough for a laboring job, and I’m too proud to beg. . . . Ah, I’ve got a plan. Here’s what I’ll do . . . then when I’m turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.’
5 “Then he went at it. One after another, he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 “He replied, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’
“The manager said, ‘Here, take your bill, sit down here—quick now—write fifty.’
7 “To the next he said, ‘And you, what do you owe?’
“He answered, ‘A hundred sacks of wheat.’
“He said, ‘Take your bill, write in eighty.’
8-9 “Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”
God Sees Behind Appearances
10-13 Jesus went on to make these comments:
If you’re honest in small things,
you’ll be honest in big things;
If you’re a crook in small things,
you’ll be a crook in big things.
If you’re not honest in small jobs,
who will put you in charge of the store?
No worker can serve two bosses:
He’ll either hate the first and love the second
Or adore the first and despise the second.
You can’t serve both God and the Bank.
14-18 When the Pharisees, a money-obsessed bunch, heard him say these things, they rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch. So Jesus spoke to them: “You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what’s behind the appearance.
What society sees and calls monumental,
God sees through and calls monstrous.
God’s Law and the Prophets climaxed in John;
Now it’s all kingdom of God—the glad news
and compelling invitation to every man and woman.
The sky will disintegrate and the earth dissolve
before a single letter of God’s Law wears out.
Using the legalities of divorce
as a cover for lust is adultery;
Using the legalities of marriage
as a cover for lust is adultery.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19-21 “There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.
22-24 “Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I’m in agony in this fire.’
25-26 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It’s not like that here. Here he’s consoled and you’re tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.’
27-28 “The rich man said, ‘Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t end up here in this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham answered, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.’
30 “‘I know, Father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but they’re not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.’
31 “Abraham replied, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Read: Jeremiah 8:8–15
“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
9 The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?
10 Therefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
11 They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”[a]
14 Why do we sit still?
Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
Footnotes:
Jeremiah 8:13 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
INSIGHT
Jeremiah delivers a devastating message of coming punishment to the people of Judah. God’s judgment of sin includes loss of spouse and property (Jeremiah 8:10), failed crops (v. 13), and overwhelming terror (v. 15). Why such a devastating punishment? They have mishandled the law of the Lord (v. 8). Jeremiah continues by saying that they have no wisdom since they have rejected the word of the Lord (v. 9). Scripture is not something to be treated lightly. In the Bible God reveals Himself and His plan for humanity’s redemption. It’s a story to be treated with the utmost respect. - J.R. Hudberg
Where Is Peace?
By Tim Gustafson
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1
“Do you still hope for peace?” a journalist asked Bob Dylan in 1984.
“There is not going to be any peace,” Dylan replied. His response drew criticism, yet there’s no denying that peace remains ever elusive.
About 600 years before Christ, most prophets were predicting peace. God’s prophet wasn’t one of them. Jeremiah reminded the people that God had said, “Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people” (Jeremiah 7:23). Yet they repeatedly ignored the Lord and His commands. Their false prophets said, “Peace, peace” (8:11), but Jeremiah predicted disaster. Jerusalem fell in 586 bc.
Peace is rare. But amid Jeremiah’s book of dire prophecies we discover a God who loves relentlessly. “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” the Lord told His rebellious people. “I will build you up again” (31:3–4).
God is a God of love and peace. Conflict comes because of our rebellion against Him. Sin destroys the world’s peace and robs each of us of inner peace. Jesus came to this planet to reconcile us to God and give us that inner peace. “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” wrote the apostle Paul (Romans 5:1). His words are among the most hope-filled ever written.
Whether we live in a combat zone or dwell in a serene neighborhood with nary a whisper of war, Christ invites us into His peace.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. C. S. Lewis
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Submitting to God’s Purpose
I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. —1 Corinthians 9:22
A Christian worker has to learn how to be God’s man or woman of great worth and excellence in the midst of a multitude of meager and worthless things. Never protest by saying, “If only I were somewhere else!” All of God’s people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose He has given them. Unless we have the right purpose intellectually in our minds and lovingly in our hearts, we will very quickly be diverted from being useful to God. We are not workers for God by choice. Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no purpose of God’s almighty grace or His mighty Word in them. Paul’s whole heart, mind, and soul were consumed with the great purpose of what Jesus Christ came to do, and he never lost sight of that one thing. We must continually confront ourselves with one central fact— “…Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
“I chose you…” (John 15:16). Keep these words as a wonderful reminder in your theology. It is not that you have gotten God, but that He has gotten you. God is at work bending, breaking, molding, and doing exactly as He chooses. And why is He doing it? He is doing it for only one purpose— that He may be able to say, “This is My man, and this is My woman.” We have to be in God’s hand so that He can place others on the Rock, Jesus Christ, just as He has placed us.
Never choose to be a worker, but once God has placed His call upon you, woe be to you if you “turn aside…to the right or the left…” (Deuteronomy 28:14). He will do with you what He never did before His call came to you, and He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word. Disciples Indeed, 386 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Storm Proof Security - #8294
If they ever ask me to be a participant in those Nielsen ratings of who's watching what TV show, they'll probably find me watching the Weather Channel more than a lot of viewers. Oh, not necessarily because I'm intrigued with low-pressure systems, or barometric readings, or cumulonimbus clouds, (See, I do watch.) but because I want to see my future in the places I might be traveling to. But sometimes, they don't have the weather on. I remember a while back they had a primetime documentary show called "Storm Stories." Now while the story of a storm that happened twenty years ago isn't going to help me plan for tomorrow, the stories were pretty dramatic. They often featured amazing accounts of the people who survived major weather disasters-and the people who didn't. It was especially interesting to see what steps would help you to be a storm survivor rather than a storm victim.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Storm Proof Security."
I'll bet you've got your own personal "storm stories," don't you? I've got mine-some life storms that you've been hit with; medical storms, financial storms, family, marital, heavy weather with your kids, your work, your ministry, your relationships. One of the most dramatic storm stories I ever read is actually in our word for today from the Word of God in Acts 27, beginning with verse 20. It's going to help you survive your storm-because it shows the two anchors you can hang onto and no storm can touch.
Paul is a Roman prisoner. He's being carried to Rome aboard a ship loaded with Caesar's grain, and they get hit with this massive storm that drives them all over the Mediterranean for two perilous weeks. Paul says, "We took such a violent battering...they began to throw the cargo overboard." That's pretty desperate. Then the apostle goes on to explain that "neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging." Have you ever been in a situation like that where none of your usual points of reference could help you and you're drifting and you're confused? That's what we're talking about here.
Then it says, "we finally gave up all hope of being saved." (Acts 27:18, 20) Notice, he says "we" gave up all hope. Even the spirit of the great Apostle Paul has succumbed to the storm. But then the next day we find him standing up and saying to everyone aboard, "Keep up your courage because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed." What happened? Well, God reminded Paul of those two anchors that will carry you through. He explains to the people on that storm-threatened ship: "Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.'" (Acts 27:22-25)
Anchor #1: Who you belong to. The God "whose I am." Don't let the storm make you forget that the Lord is your God and that His sovereignty is unshakeable. No life that is in the hands of the Sovereign Lord is out of control no matter how much it feels like the storm is winning. If you are His child, then every storm in your life has either been sent by Him or approved by Him for His glory, for your good and for your growth.
Anchor #2: Who you do it for. The God "whom I serve." The storm can blow away every reason for finishing the thing that God gave you to do except one-the One who called you to do it. He hasn't moved, no matter how much the ship is getting blown around. God told Paul, "The mission I've given you, you will complete." I think He's saying the same thing to you. Hang onto your anchors and no storm, however violent, is going to sink you!
About the ending of the storm story: The ship that was supposed to be headed from Israel to Italy...the ship that had been seemingly out of control for two weeks ended up going aground on the island just south of Italy. All the time Paul's ship had appeared to be out of control, but guess what? It had been right on course, and so is yours because of the God "whose you are and whom you serve."
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