Max Lucado Daily: EVERY GIFT IS NEEDED
Two of my teenage years were spent carrying a tuba in my high school marching band. Not necessarily what you’d describe as a call from God, but it wasn’t a wasted experience either. I learned some facts about harmony that I’ll pass on to you. Would you attend a concert of a hundred tubas? Probably not. But what band would be a band without a tuba? Or a flute? Or a trumpet? Or a steady drum? Get the idea? The operative word is need. They need each other. By themselves they make music. But together, they make magic.
What I saw decades ago in the marching band, I see today in the church. We need each other. Not all of us play the same instrument. Not all of us make the same sound. Some are soft, and others are loud. Some convert the lost. Others encourage the saved. And some keep the movement in step. But all are needed! “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12).
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Judges 15
Later on—it was during the wheat harvest—Samson visited his bride, bringing a young goat. He said, “Let me see my wife—show me her bedroom.”
But her father wouldn’t let him in. He said, “I concluded that by now you hated her with a passion, so I gave her to your best man. But her little sister is even more beautiful. Why not take her instead?”
3 Samson said, “That does it. This time when I wreak havoc on the Philistines, I’m blameless.”
4-5 Samson then went out and caught three hundred jackals. He lashed the jackals’ tails together in pairs and tied a torch between each pair of tails. He then set fire to the torches and let them loose in the Philistine fields of ripe grain. Everything burned, both stacked and standing grain, vineyards and olive orchards—everything.
6 The Philistines said, “Who did this?”
They were told, “Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite who took his bride and gave her to his best man.”
The Philistines went up and burned both her and her father to death.
7 Samson then said, “If this is the way you’re going to act, I swear I’ll get even with you. And I’m not quitting till the job’s done!”
8 With that he tore into them, ripping them limb from limb—a huge slaughter. Then he went down and stayed in a cave at Etam Rock.
9-10 The Philistines set out and made camp in Judah, preparing to attack Lehi (Jawbone). When the men of Judah asked, “Why have you come up against us?” they said, “We’re out to get Samson. We’re going after Samson to do to him what he did to us.”
11 Three companies of men from Judah went down to the cave at Etam Rock and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines already bully and lord it over us? So what’s going on with you, making things even worse?”
He said, “It was tit for tat. I only did to them what they did to me.”
12 They said, “Well, we’ve come down here to tie you up and turn you over to the Philistines.”
Samson said, “Just promise not to hurt me.”
13 “We promise,” they said. “We will tie you up and surrender you to them but, believe us, we won’t kill you.” They proceeded to tie him with new ropes and led him up from the Rock.
14-16 As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting in triumph. And then the Spirit of God came on him with great power. The ropes on his arms fell apart like flax on fire; the thongs slipped off his hands. He spotted a fresh donkey jawbone, reached down and grabbed it, and with it killed the whole company. And Samson said,
With a donkey’s jawbone
I made heaps of donkeys of them.
With a donkey’s jawbone
I killed an entire company.
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone. He named that place Ramath Lehi (Jawbone Hill).
18-19 Now he was suddenly very thirsty. He called out to God, “You have given your servant this great victory. Are you going to abandon me to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” So God split open the rock basin in Lehi; water gushed out and Samson drank. His spirit revived—he was alive again! That’s why it’s called En Hakkore (Caller’s Spring). It’s still there at Lehi today.
20 Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 19, 2018
Read: Proverbs 3:21–31
My son, do not lose sight of these—
keep sound wisdom and discretion,
22 and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.
23 Then you will walk on your way securely,
and your foot will not stumble.
24 If you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Do not be afraid of sudden terror
or of the ruin[a] of the wicked, when it comes,
26 for the Lord will be your confidence
and will keep your foot from being caught.
27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,[b]
when it is in your power to do it.
28 Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again,
tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.
29 Do not plan evil against your neighbor,
who dwells trustingly beside you.
30 Do not contend with a man for no reason,
when he has done you no harm.
31 Do not envy a man of violence
and do not choose any of his ways,
Footnotes:
Proverbs 3:25 Hebrew storm
Proverbs 3:27 Hebrew Do not withhold good from its owners
INSIGHT
Helping others by doing good when it’s in our power to act (Proverbs 3:27–28) is also the focus of Paul’s instructions to believers. Encouraging us to live meaningful and purposeful lives before a watching, non-believing world, Paul tells us to “be very careful, then, how [we] live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity” (Ephesians 5:15–16). Careful living means we are to live godly lives as “children of light” pleasing to the Lord (vv. 8, 10). Paul expects “those who have trusted in God [to] devote themselves to doing what is good” (Titus 3:8). We are to adopt a never-give-up attitude when it comes to serving others: “Let us not become weary in doing good . . . . As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:9–10).
What can you do this week to serve someone?-K. T. Sim
Bring Your Boats
By Kirsten Holmberg
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Proverbs 3:27
Hurricane Harvey brought catastrophic flooding to eastern Texas in 2017. The onslaught of rain stranded thousands of people in their homes, unable to escape the floodwaters. In what was dubbed the “Texas Navy,” many private citizens brought boats from other parts of the state and nation to help evacuate stranded people.
The actions of these valiant, generous men and women call to mind the encouragement of Proverbs 3:27, which instructs us to help others whenever we are able. They had the power to act on behalf of those in need by bringing their boats. And so they did. Their actions demonstrate a willingness to use whatever resources they had at their disposal for the benefit of others.
We may not always feel adequate for the task at hand; often we become paralyzed by thinking we don’t have the skills, experience, resources, or time to help others. In such instances, we’re quick to sideline ourselves, discounting what we do have that might be of assistance to someone else. The Texas Navy couldn’t stop the floodwaters from rising, nor could they legislate government aid. But they used what they had within their power—their boats—to come alongside the deep needs of their fellow man. May we all bring our “boats”—whatever they may be—to take the people in our paths to higher ground.
Lord, all that I have is from You. Help me to always use what You’ve given me to help others.
God provides for His people through His people.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 19, 2018
The Unheeded Secret
Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world." —John 18:36
The great enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ today is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament but comes from the systems of the world. This work insists upon endless energy and activities, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation….For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). It is a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives to be seen by others, while it is the innermost, personal area that reveals the power of a person’s life.
We must get rid of the plague of the spirit of this religious age in which we live. In our Lord’s life there was none of the pressure and the rushing of tremendous activity that we regard so highly today, and a disciple is to be like His Master. The central point of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship with Him, not public usefulness to others.
It is not the practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College— its entire strength lies in the fact that here you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him. You have no idea of where or how God is going to engineer your future circumstances, and no knowledge of what stress and strain is going to be placed on you either at home or abroad. And if you waste your time in overactivity, instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God’s redemption, then you will snap when the stress and strain do come. But if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear to be impractical, then you will remain true to Him whatever happens.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great thing about faith in God is that it keeps a man undisturbed in the midst of disturbance. Notes on Isaiah, 1376 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 19, 2018
Always Found Out - #8290
So I heard this comedy routine that suggested some humorous ways to finish this sentence: "You're having a bad day when..." Well, I heard on the news about a man who might be a finalist for the "baddest day of the year" award, and there's nothing humorous about what happened to him. There was years ago an Avianca Airlines plane that crashed on Long Island. It was a flight from Colombia to New York. This particular Colombian man was seriously injured in the crash. Well, that's a bad day; I mean that's a really bad day. They rushed him to the hospital where it was determined that they'd have to do abdominal surgery. And when the surgeons opened him up, they found little plastic bags in his stomach full of cocaine. He was a drug courier, and he had ingested those little bags of cocaine to smuggle them into the country. So after he crashed and then was operated on, he was arrested. Now who would have ever thought he would be found out? He was.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Always Found Out."
Actually, everyone is-no matter what they've done-no matter how well they have concealed it. In fact, here's God's personal guarantee of that-you can count on it. It's our word for today from the Word of God in Numbers 32:23, "You may be sure that your sin will find you out." Now you might say, "Well, only if I'm caught." If God knows, you're already caught. And God does know, and it's only a matter of time before He makes sure that you're found out.
If God let us get away with our sin, we would destroy our lives and we'd sin our way right to hell. For our own sake-because He loves us-God insures that we have to deal with our sin. Someone who is listening today, maybe you're living in the illusion that you'll get away with your sin, with that lie, that adultery, the stuff going on behind people's backs, the cheating. Or maybe you think you could get away with that pornography, that habit, that deception, the bitterness, the sinful relationship. You won't get away with it. God won't let you.
Someone says, "Well, I am getting away with it." Well, remember, exposure delayed is not exposure canceled. Judgment postponed is not judgment canceled. God talks about this time lag in judgment in 1 Timothy 5:24, "The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them." Some people may not have the money to cover up their sin or the connections or the protection. But the verse goes on to say, "The sins of others trail behind them." In other words, you can postpone judgment, but it's going to catch up with you; you can't escape it.
And the history of so many who have covered their sin shows that the later the punishment for that sin, the greater that punishment for that sin. While you think you're getting away with it, you're actually accumulating bigger and bigger consequences. Satan has let many a person go on for years with some sin that started a long time ago. And he waits until the exposure of that sin will do maximum damage-to that person, to those they love, to the name of Christ-and then he suddenly yanks on that long chain that he's held them with all those years.
If you feel safe with your sinful secret, remember that man on that plane who must have thought, "There's no way they could ever find out." Never underestimate the infinite ways of God.
That may, in fact, be God's solemn warning to you: "You can be sure that your sin will find you out." Isn't it time to deal with this? Every day the bill for that sin multiplies. This is the easiest it will ever be to face it. Whatever consequences you fear from coming clean, be sure that the consequences of waiting longer will only be greater.
These moments are Savior-moments. Don't run from dealing with this sin one day more. No, run to the cross where that sin was paid for by God's Son, where you can be forgiven, and clean, and free. If you want to have every sin erased from God's book this very day by the One who died for that sin, tell Him that. And tell Him, "Jesus, you're my only hope. I am yours beginning today."
I would encourage you to check out our website today, because it is all about being sure you've been forgiven, you're going to heaven, you belong to Jesus. It's ANewStory.com. It could be your new story.
This can be the day that the secret is brought into the light of Jesus Christ and you are forgiven and you are free.
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