Max Lucado Daily: YOU MAY NEED A PUSH
Ask a believer to answer the question, “Who is God the Father?” He has a reply. Or “Describe God the Son.” She will not hesitate. But ask, “Who is the Holy Spirit?” and they’re often at a loss for words. Many rely on the Father and the Son but overlook the Holy Spirit. Yet Jesus says more about the Holy Spirit than he does about the church or marriage.
On the eve of his death, as he prepared his followers to face the future without him, he made this great promise, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:8). He didn’t promise immediate success, or the absence of disease or struggles. He never guaranteed a level of income. But He promised the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit came alongside the disciples, indwelled them, and gave the early church the push they needed to face the challenges ahead. Perhaps you could use a push as well.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Joshua 18
The Shiloh Survey
Then the entire congregation of the People of Israel got together at Shiloh. They put up the Tent of Meeting.
The land was under their control but there were still seven Israelite tribes who had yet to receive their inheritance.
3-5 Joshua addressed the People of Israel: “How long are you going to sit around on your hands, putting off taking possession of the land that God, the God of your ancestors, has given you? Pick three men from each tribe so I can commission them. They will survey and map the land, showing the inheritance due each tribe, and report back to me. They will divide it into seven parts. Judah will stay in its territory in the south and the people of Joseph will keep to their place in the north.
6 “You are responsible for preparing a survey map showing seven portions. Then bring it to me so that I can cast lots for you here in the presence of our God.
7 “Only the Levites get no portion among you because the priesthood of God is their inheritance. And Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh already have their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan, given to them by Moses the servant of God.”
8 So the men set out. As they went out to survey the land, Joshua charged them: “Go. Survey the land and map it. Then come back to me and I will cast lots for you here at Shiloh in the presence of God.”
9 So off the men went. They covered the ground and mapped the country by towns in a scroll. Then they reported back to Joshua at the camp at Shiloh.
10 Joshua cast the lots for them at Shiloh in the presence of God. That’s where Joshua divided up the land to the People of Israel, according to their tribal divisions.
Benjamin
11 The first lot turned up for the tribe of Benjamin with its clans. The border of the allotment went between the peoples of Judah and Joseph.
12-13 The northern border began at the Jordan, then went up to the ridge north of Jericho, ascending west into the hill country into the wilderness of Beth Aven. From there the border went around to Luz, to its southern ridge (that is, Bethel), and then down from Ataroth Addar to the mountain to the south of Lower Beth Horon.
14 There the border took a turn on the west side and swung south from the mountain to the south of Beth Horon and ended at Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim), a town of the people of Judah. This was the west side.
15-19 The southern border began at the edge of Kiriath Jearim on the west, then ran west until it reached the spring, the Waters of Nephtoah. It then descended to the foot of the mountain opposite the Valley of Ben Hinnom (which flanks the Valley of Rephaim to the north), descended to the Hinnom Valley, just south of the Jebusite ridge, and went on to En Rogel. From there it curved north to En Shemesh and Geliloth, opposite the Red Pass (Adummim), down to the Stone of Bohan the son of Reuben, continued toward the north flank of Beth Arabah, then plunged to the Arabah. It then followed the slope of Beth Hoglah north and came out at the northern bay of the Salt Sea—the south end of the Jordan. This was the southern border.
20 The east border was formed by the Jordan.
This was the inheritance of the people of Benjamin for their clans, marked by these borders on all sides.
21-28 The cities of the tribe of Benjamin, clan by clan, were:
Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz,
Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,
Avvim, Parah, Ophrah,
Kephar Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba—
twelve towns with their villages.
Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,
Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah,
Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah,
Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath Jearim—
fourteen cities with their villages. This was the inheritance for Benjamin, according to its clans.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, September 20, 2018
Read: Romans 5:1–11
Peace with God Through Faith
5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith[b] into this grace in which we stand, and we[c] rejoice[d] in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Footnotes:
Romans 5:1 Some manuscripts let us
Romans 5:2 Some manuscripts omit by faith
Romans 5:2 Or let us; also verse 3
Romans 5:2 Or boast; also verses 3, 11
INSIGHT
Sometimes the truth of the gospel—that Jesus offers a new, guilt-free life for all who believe (Romans 8:1)—might feel a bit too good to be true. If all we’ve ever known is emptiness, hatred, and despair, how is it even possible to learn to live with love and hope?
It’s possible because it doesn’t depend on us. God’s love reaches deeper than our brokenness, loving us completely even when we’re far from Him (5:8). As we surrender to Him, we can experience His love and hope as the Spirit transforms every aspect of our life (vv. 3–5). - Monica Brands
Where to Find Hope
By Anne Cetas
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:5
Elizabeth struggled for a long time with drug addiction, and when she recovered wanted to help others in return. So she started writing notes and anonymously placing them throughout her city. Elizabeth tucks these notes under car windshield wipers and tacks them on poles in parks. She used to look for signs of hope; now she leaves them for others to find. One of her notes concluded with these words: “Much love. Hope sent.”
Hope with love—that’s what Jesus gives. He brings us His love with each new day and strengthens us with that hope. His love is not rationed out to us drop by drop but flows out of His heart freely and is poured lavishly into ours: “We know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:5 nlt). He desires to use the hard times to develop perseverance and character and bring us a satisfying, hope-filled life (vv. 3–4). And even when we’re far from Him, He still loves us (vv. 6–8).
Are you looking for signs of hope? The Lord gives hope with love through inviting us to grow in a relationship with Him. Our hope for a fulfilling life is anchored in His unfailing love.
I’m grateful, God, for the love You lavishly pour on me. Please bring me contentment in You and confidence in what You are doing in me.
Read Hope: Choosing Faith Instead of Fear at discoveryseries.org/q0733.
Hope is the anchor of the soul.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, September 20, 2018
The Divine Commandment of Life
…be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. —Matthew 5:48
Our Lord’s exhortation to us in Matthew 5:38-48 is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections— some people we like and others we don’t like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7), even those toward whom we have no affection.
The example our Lord gave us here is not that of a good person, or even of a good Christian, but of God Himself. “…be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” In other words, simply show to the other person what God has shown to you. And God will give you plenty of real life opportunities to prove whether or not you are “perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God’s interests in other people. Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian’s life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God. And when we come in contact with things that create confusion and a flurry of activity, we find to our own amazement that we have the power to stay wonderfully poised even in the center of it all.
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
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, September 20, 2018
Grabbing Opportunities - #8269
Okay, try to picture it. Maybe you don't have to picture it. Maybe you've been there. It's the Friday morning after Thanksgiving, just before doors open at, let's say, Walmart. It's still dark, but a lot of people are lined up, anxiously waiting to enter. It's the day of those fabulous sales that stores like this have to encourage your early Christmas shopping. And for a short time after the doors open, there are some absolutely amazing prices on many popular items. But you have to move quickly and scoop them up. One year recently, I remember the crush of people was so great, at one store a lady was nearly trampled to death when the doors opened. And at another store, another year, a man actually was trampled to death. Once you're in the store, you know what to do. No browsing. No chatting. You're on a mission! Just look for those sales opportunities and grab them while you can!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Grabbing Opportunities."
Aggressively seizing opportunities because time is short-that's not just a picture of a sale day shopper. That's supposed to be the picture of every follower of Jesus Christ. Not just browsing and cruising through our days, but really making them count...really making a difference with your life.
If you read our word for today from the Word of God in the original language of the New Testament, you can see just that kind of urgency and intensity. It's Ephesians 5:15 and 16, "Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise, but as wise, (Now what follows is God's definition of what it means to "live smart.") making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil." The original Greek conveys the idea of aggressively buying up every opportunity you have to do something about the darkness around you.
Near the end of this letter that Paul wrote from a prison cell, probably chained to a Roman guard, he gives us a living example of this "make a difference" mindset in action. He says, "Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel...pray that I will declare it fearlessly, as I should."
In another letter, we learn that there were believers ultimately in Caesar's household; likely some of those soldiers Paul spent so much time with. He saw his imprisonment, not so much as an ordeal, but as an opportunity to tell people there about his Jesus and to rescue them from evil.
Life is full of life-saving opportunities for those with eyes to see them; for those who understand that we're supposed to be looking for them wherever we are. I know when one member of our family was in the hospital, the reason seemed clear. There was a patient who left a trail of Jesus all through that hospital. There just to get well? No. They were there positioned by God to help spiritually rescue some of the people in that hospital.
If you want to make the greatest possible difference with the rest of your life, and I hope you do. If you want to help some people be in heaven with you, and I hope you do. If you want to obey your Savior, and I really hope you do, then each morning pray for natural opportunities to bring up your Jesus. "Lord, open a door." Then look for those opportunities to open up. Buy them up like an alert shopper.
When someone shares a burden or a concern with you, don't just promise to pray for them. Ask if you can pray with them right then. Chances are they have never heard their name in a prayer all their life! I've never had anyone turn down that offer by the way. And if God opens the door, tell them after you pray that you weren't always able to talk to God like that because there used to be a wall between you and Him that Jesus took down.
Look for opportunities to share your personal hope story, which is the story of the difference Jesus has made for you in certain life situations, particular needs, and certainly your eternal situation. Look for those opportunities. Pray for those opportunities. Grab those opportunities. Why? Because God is putting people in your life so they can have a chance at Jesus...and a chance at heaven. That's an opportunity you just must not miss.