Max Lucado Daily: ONE STEP AT A TIME
Arthur Hays Sulzberger was the publisher of the New York Times during the second World War. Because of the world conflict, he found it almost impossible to sleep. He was never able to set aside worries from his mind until he adopted as his motto these five words… “one step enough for me.” He took the words from the old hymn, “Lead Kindly Light.”
“Lead, kindly Light. . .
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.”
Friend, God isn’t going to let you see the distant scene either, so you might as well quit looking for it. God promises a lamp to our feet but not a crystal ball into the future. We don’t need to know what will happen tomorrow. We only need to know that Hebrews 4:16 promises that “we will find grace to help us when we need it!”
Read more Traveling Light
Genesis 46
So Israel set out on the journey with everything he owned. He arrived at Beersheba and worshiped, offering sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
2 God spoke to Israel in a vision that night: “Jacob! Jacob!”
“Yes?” he said. “I’m listening.”
3-4 God said, “I am the God of your father. Don’t be afraid of going down to Egypt. I’m going to make you a great nation there. I’ll go with you down to Egypt; I’ll also bring you back here. And when you die, Joseph will be with you; with his own hand he’ll close your eyes.”
5-7 Then Jacob left Beersheba. Israel’s sons loaded their father and their little ones and their wives on the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They arrived in Egypt with the livestock and the wealth they had accumulated in Canaan. Jacob brought everyone in his family with him—sons and grandsons, daughters and granddaughters. Everyone.
8 These are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his descendants, who went to Egypt:
Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.
9 Reuben’s sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
10 Simeon’s sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.
11 Levi’s sons: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
12 Judah’s sons: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (Er and Onan had already died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.
13 Issachar’s sons: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.
14 Zebulun’s sons: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.
15 These are the sons that Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram. There was also his daughter Dinah. Altogether, sons and daughters, they numbered thirty-three.
16 Gad’s sons: Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.
17 Asher’s sons: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beriah. Also their sister Serah, and Beriah’s sons, Heber and Malkiel.
18 These are the children that Zilpah, the maid that Laban gave to his daughter Leah, bore to Jacob—sixteen of them.
19-21 The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph was the father of two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, from his marriage to Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. They were born to him in Egypt. Benjamin’s sons were Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.
22 These are the children born to Jacob through Rachel—fourteen.
23 Dan’s son: Hushim.
24 Naphtali’s sons: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.
25 These are the children born to Jacob through Bilhah, the maid Laban had given to his daughter Rachel—seven.
26-27 Summing up, all those who went down to Egypt with Jacob—his own children, not counting his sons’ wives—numbered sixty-six. Counting in the two sons born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who ended up in Egypt numbered seventy.
28-29 Jacob sent Judah on ahead to get directions to Goshen from Joseph. When they got to Goshen, Joseph gave orders for his chariot and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. The moment Joseph saw him, he threw himself on his neck and wept. He wept a long time.
30 Israel said to Joseph, “I’m ready to die. I’ve looked into your face—you are indeed alive.”
31-34 Joseph then spoke to his brothers and his father’s family. “I’ll go and tell Pharaoh, ‘My brothers and my father’s family, all of whom lived in Canaan, have come to me. The men are shepherds; they’ve always made their living by raising livestock. And they’ve brought their flocks and herds with them, along with everything else they own.’ When Pharaoh calls you in and asks what kind of work you do, tell him, ‘Your servants have always kept livestock for as long as we can remember—we and our parents also.’ That way he’ll let you stay apart in the area of Goshen—for Egyptians look down on anyone who is a shepherd.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, January 19, 2018
Read: Zechariah 4:1–7
The Gold Lampstand and the Two Olive Trees
Then the angel who talked with me returned and woke me up, like someone awakened from sleep. 2 He asked me, “What do you see?”
I answered, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamps. 3 Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”
4 I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”
5 He answered, “Do you not know what these are?”
“No, my lord,” I replied.
6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.
7 “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’”
INSIGHT
What keeps us from finishing the work entrusted to us? Eighteen years had passed since Cyrus, king of Persia, told Jewish captives of Babylon to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple of their God (Ezra 6:3,14). Now the prophet Zechariah urged completion. This temple, like the Messiah who would someday enter its courts, represented the heart of God for the world. Anything done for His honor—and for the good of others—is done in His Spirit. - Mart DeHaan
By the Spirit’s Power
By Marvin Williams
What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Zechariah 4:7
What do you do when there is a mountain in your way? The story of Dashrath Manjhi can inspire us. When his wife died because he was unable to get her to the hospital to receive urgent medical care, Manjhi did what seemed impossible. He spent twenty-two years chiseling a massive gap in a mountain so other villagers could get to the local hospital to receive the medical care they needed. Before he died, the government of India celebrated him for his achievement.
Rebuilding the temple must have looked impossible to Zerubbabel, one of the leaders of Israel who returned from exile. The people were discouraged, faced opposition from their enemies, and lacked resources or a big army. But God sent Zechariah to remind Zerubbabel that the task would take something more powerful than military strength, individual power, or man-made resources. It would take the Spirit’s power (Zechariah 4:6). With the assurance of divine aid, Zerubbabel trusted that God would level any mountain of difficulty that stood in the way of rebuilding the temple and restoring the community (v. 7).
We have two options: rely on our own strength or trust the Spirit’s power.
What do we do when there is a “mountain” before us? We have two options: rely on our own strength or trust the Spirit’s power. When we trust His power, He will either level the mountain or give us the strength and endurance to climb over it.
What challenges stand in your way? How will you trust the power of God's Spirit in your life? Share it on Facebook.com/ourdailybread.
Human power is inadequate to accomplish God’s purposes.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, January 19, 2018
Vision and Darkness
When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. —Genesis 15:12
Whenever God gives a vision to a Christian, it is as if He puts him in “the shadow of His hand” (Isaiah 49:2). The saint’s duty is to be still and listen. There is a “darkness” that comes from too much light— that is the time to listen. The story of Abram and Hagar in Genesis 16 is an excellent example of listening to so-called good advice during a time of darkness, rather than waiting for God to send the light. When God gives you a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will bring the vision He has given you to reality in your life if you will wait on His timing. Never try to help God fulfill His word. Abram went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all of his self-sufficiency was destroyed. He grew past the point of relying on his own common sense. Those years of silence were a time of discipline, not a period of God’s displeasure. There is never any need to pretend that your life is filled with joy and confidence; just wait upon God and be grounded in Him (see Isaiah 50:10-11).
Do I trust at all in the flesh? Or have I learned to go beyond all confidence in myself and other people of God? Do I trust in books and prayers or other joys in my life? Or have I placed my confidence in God Himself, not in His blessings? “I am Almighty God…”— El-Shaddai, the All-Powerful God (Genesis 17:1). The reason we are all being disciplined is that we will know God is real. As soon as God becomes real to us, people pale by comparison, becoming shadows of reality. Nothing that other saints do or say can ever upset the one who is built on God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, January 19, 2018
Debt-Free - #8095
Our friend, Vicki, is one very happy woman. For many years now, she has carried a heavy load of nagging credit card debt. If you've ever been in debt for a while, you know how it always weighs you down like this heavy backpack on your back. Well, Vicki recently came into some money through an inheritance, and you know what she did with it! She had a party-a check writing party! All the debts are paid, and you can tell she feels like she just got out of prison!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Debt-Free."
There is tremendous joy in knowing that your debt is gone and you've got a new beginning. Especially when the debt is the one you owe to God - we all owe to God - for the wrong things we've done.
We all have things we've done that we're not proud of, that we're ashamed of, that we wish we could do over, but we can't. We've hurt the people we love, we've said so many things we wish we shouldn't have said, and we've done things we thought we would never do. The weight of all that is a very heavy burden on the human soul.
The weight even gets heavier when we read in the Bible what the penalty is for our spiritual debt. It says, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). There is an eternal death penalty for the way that we've run our own lives instead of letting God run them. The prospect of a hopeless eternity makes the weight of our sin almost unbearable.
But that's why Jesus is such awesome good news. The prospect of being spiritually debt-free is wrapped up in three words Jesus spoke just before He died on that cross. They're recorded in our word for today from the Word of God in John 19:30, "Jesus said, 'It is finished.'" In the original Greek language this was written in, that's just one word, and it's used as an accounting word that actually means "paid in full."
Like our friend's credit card debt-nothing owed any more. So that when you stand before God on Judgment Day, where your sins once appeared in God's book, it will simply say, "Paid in full!" Which means the only thing that could keep you out of heaven is gone! WOW!
But you don't pay the bill. You can't! There's no amount of doing good that can ever pay a death penalty. If you think your religion is going to get you to heaven, there's no way in the world it can pay that death penalty. But God loves you so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to that cross to pay for what only He could pay, so you won't have an eternity without Him. Jesus absorbed all the guilt and all the hell of every wrong thing you have ever done, and then He declared once and for all, "It is finished - paid in full!"
This very day you can experience the incredible joy of knowing that you are forever free from the weight of your sin; the joy of a brand new beginning. What Jesus did on His cross removes your sin when you tell Jesus you are putting all your trust in Him to forgive you and to take you to heaven when you die. No one else can. You will never have to face the judgment you deserve because Jesus faced the judgment you deserve.
Your new beginning starts the moment you open your heart to Jesus. Would you let that be today? Wherever you are right now, tell Him, "Jesus, I know that what You did on the cross is my only hope of a relationship with God, of going to heaven, and of having my sins erased from God's Book forever. And I know You walked out of your grave. You are alive! Would you walk into my life today?"
There's some wonderful information that I'd love to give you on all of this. It's at our website appropriately named ANewStory.com. Would you go there as soon as you can? This could very well be the beginning of your new story.
I am praying that you'll be able to go to sleep this very night saying, "I am forgiven. I am free!"