Max Lucado Daily: GOD HEALS FAMILY THROUGH HIS FAMILY
“God’s family is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). The term family far and away outpaces any other biblical term to describe the church. “Brothers” or “brothers and sisters” appears a whopping 148 times between the book of Acts and the book of Revelation.
In the church we use our gifts to love each other, honor one another, and carry each other’s burdens. Do you need encouragement, prayers, or a hospitable home? God entrusts the church to purvey these treasures. Consider the church God’s treatment center for the common life. Don’t miss the place to find your place and heal your hurts. Oh, the immensity, the beauty, and the surprises of family life. In God’s church, may you find them all.
Read more Cure for the Common Life
Joshua 14
Land West of the Jordan
Here are the inheritance allotments that the People of Israel received in the land of Canaan. Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the family clans made the allotments. Each inheritance was assigned by lot to the nine and a half tribes, just as God had commanded Moses.
3-4 Moses had given the two and a half tribes their inheritance east of the Jordan, but hadn’t given an inheritance to the Levites, as he had to the others. Because the sons of Joseph had become two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, they gave no allotment to the Levites; but they did give them cities to live in with pasture rights for their flocks and herds.
5 The People of Israel followed through exactly as God had commanded Moses. They apportioned the land.
Caleb
6-12 The people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite spoke: “You’ll remember what God said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me back at Kadesh Barnea. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of God sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land. And I brought back an honest and accurate report. My companions who went with me discouraged the people, but I stuck to my guns, totally with God, my God. That was the day that Moses solemnly promised, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance, you and your children’s, forever. Yes, you have lived totally for God.’ Now look at me: God has kept me alive, as he promised. It is now forty-five years since God spoke this word to Moses, years in which Israel wandered in the wilderness. And here I am today, eighty-five years old! I’m as strong as I was the day Moses sent me out. I’m as strong as ever in battle, whether coming or going. So give me this hill country that God promised me. You yourself heard the report, that the Anakim were there with their great fortress cities. If God goes with me, I will drive them out, just as God said.”
13-14 Joshua blessed him. He gave Hebron to Caleb son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. Hebron belongs to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite still today, because he gave himself totally to God, the God of Israel.
15 The name of Hebron used to be Kiriath Arba, named after Arba, the greatest man among the Anakim.
And the land had rest from war.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, July 09, 2018
Read: Psalm 131
I Have Calmed and Quieted My Soul
A Song of Ascents. Of David.
131 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore.
INSIGHT
The theme of Psalm 131 is rest or spiritual contentment. Verse 2 says, “I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.” This idea of rest connects to the preceding song (Psalm 130) whose theme is forgiveness. Psalm 130:4 affirms, “But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.” It is forgiveness that gives us true, lasting rest because it brings us into relationship with the God who made us.
This was voiced beautifully by the church father Augustine who said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” - Bill Crowder
Be Still, My Soul!
By Arthur Jackson
I have calmed and quieted myself. Psalm 131:2
Picture a parent poised lovingly over a child, finger gently placed in front of nose and lips softly speaking the words—“hush,” “shhhh.” The demeanor and simple words are meant to comfort and quiet anxious little ones in the midst of disappointment, discomfort, or pain. Scenes like this are universal and timeless and most of us have been on the giving or receiving end of such loving expressions. When I ponder Psalm 131:2, this is the picture that comes to mind.
The language and flow of this psalm suggest that the writer, David, had experienced something that provoked serious reflection. Have you experienced a disappointment, defeat, or failure that prompted thoughtful, reflective prayer? What do you do when you are humbled by life’s circumstances? When you fail a test or lose a job or experience the end of a relationship? David poured out his heart to the Lord and in the process did a bit of honest soul-searching and inventory (Psalm 131:1). In making peace with his circumstances, he found contentment like that of a young child who was satisfied with simply being with his or her mother (v. 2).
Life’s circumstances change and sometimes we are humbled. Yet we can be hopeful and content knowing that there is One who has promised to never leave or forsake us. We can trust Him fully.
Father, when things change in my life, help me not to be anxious but to trust You and find contentment in You alone.
Read more: Cultivating a Heart of Contentment at discoveryseries.org/hp052.
Contentment is found in Christ alone.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, July 09, 2018
Will You Examine Yourself?
Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the Lord…" —Joshua 24:19
Do you have even the slightest reliance on anything or anyone other than God? Is there a remnant of reliance left on any natural quality within you, or on any particular set of circumstances? Are you relying on yourself in any manner whatsoever regarding this new proposal or plan which God has placed before you? Will you examine yourself by asking these probing questions? It really is true to say, “I cannot live a holy life,” but you can decide to let Jesus Christ make you holy. “You cannot serve the Lord…”— but you can place yourself in the proper position where God’s almighty power will flow through you. Is your relationship with God sufficient for you to expect Him to exhibit His wonderful life in you?
“The people said to Joshua, ‘No, but we will serve the Lord!’ ” (Joshua 24:21). This is not an impulsive action, but a deliberate commitment. We tend to say, “But God could never have called me to this. I’m too unworthy. It can’t mean me.” It does mean you, and the more weak and feeble you are, the better. The person who is still relying and trusting in anything within himself is the last person to even come close to saying, “I will serve the Lord.”
We say, “Oh, if only I really could believe!” The question is, “Will I believe?” No wonder Jesus Christ placed such emphasis on the sin of unbelief. “He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). If we really believed that God meant what He said, just imagine what we would be like! Do I really dare to let God be to me all that He says He will be?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no allowance whatever in the New Testament for the man who says he is saved by grace but who does not produce the graceful goods. Jesus Christ by His Redemption can make our actual life in keeping with our religious profession. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1465 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, July 09, 2018
Going Too Fast To Turn - #8216
O.K., I'll admit it, I'm often in a hurry to get where I'm going. More than once, you know, when Karen and I were traveling in the crew configuration that my wife and I used for years – me pilot at the wheel, her navigator with map. We'd be clipping along at a healthy rate of speed, believing that the purpose of the exercise is to be there, right, not to spend a lot of time getting there! Right? And even though my beautiful navigator may have announced that a turn was coming up soon, I maintain my "got to get there" speed. Then, suddenly, I hear those words, "This is our turn!" Zoom! We blow right past it – sometimes without an opportunity to turn around for several miles. So much for me trying to make good time, right? Too often, I've ended up on the wrong road – just because I was going too fast to turn.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Going Too Fast To Turn."
Actually, that's how a lot of us have ended up on the wrong road – going too fast to turn when God was telling us to turn. King David knew how important it was to listen to God's navigation instructions. Our word for today from the Word of God is in 1 Chronicles 14 and 15. In 1 Chronicles 14:10, the Philistines are moving against the Jews and "David inquired of God: 'Shall I go and attack the Philistines?' . . . The Lord answered him, 'Go, and I will hand them over to you.' So David and his men went up." And, of course, David's army was victorious. When the Philistines invaded another time, the Bible says, "David inquired of God again, and God answered him, 'Do not go straight up'." Again, David checked with the Lord, the Lord gave him a different strategy this time, and again David prevailed.
But it wasn't always that way. Just before these incidents of David allowing God to navigate, 1 Chronicles 13 tells about one of David's good ideas that turned to disaster. He had the wonderful idea of bringing back the Ark of God – getting it back to Jerusalem - that holy gold box that enshrined the presence of the Lord. But as it was being moved on an ox cart, it started to tip. A man tried to grab it. He died on the spot. No one was supposed to touch the Ark.
What went wrong here? Well, David had been working on a noble cause. But the Jewish Scriptures spelled out God's way of transporting the Ark – only Levites, only with poles through the rings on top of the Ark. Later, as the Levites are preparing to move the Ark God's way this time, David tells them what went wrong when the same mission led to disaster. He said, "We did not inquire of Him about how to do it in the prescribed way" (1 Chronicles 15:13). David says, "We blew it because we didn't check with God on how to do this."
See, David's mistake was one you and I repeat all too often. We're speeding ahead with our great idea, our great plan, and we blow right past our divine Leader. God's telling us to turn, and we're just going too fast to make the turn or maybe even hear His voice. So we end up on the wrong road or ahead of God and ahead of His perfect timing. All because we didn't inquire of the Lord. We didn't slow down long enough to see what God wanted and where God wanted us to be. So often we start out headed down a road that the Lord wants us on, but then He makes a turn while we're still speeding in the direction He was going.
Which simply means, we need to be submitting our plans to the Lord at least on a daily basis; checking with heaven before acting on earth. And not resisting the Lord when He is urging us to make a turn that we're unsure of.
Those of us who are high-energy, hard-driving, make-it-happen people, we're in the greatest danger of speeding right past the Lord on our way to this noble destination. But we'll save a lot of grief, a lot of wasted time, and a lot of trouble if we go when God says go and turn when God says turn.