Max Lucado Daily: WE NEED A GOOD SHEPHERD
Sheep aren’t smart. They tend to wander into running creeks for water, then their wool grows heavy and they drown. They have no sense of direction. They need a shepherd to lead them to calm water. So do we! We, like sheep, tend to be swept away by waters we should have avoided. We have no defense against the evil lion who prowls about seeking whom he might devour.
Isaiah 53:6 reminds us, “We all have wandered away like sheep; each of us has gone his own way.” We need a shepherd to care for us and to guide us. And Jesus is that Good Shepherd. The Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. The Shepherd who protects, provides, and possesses his sheep. The Psalmist says: The Lord is my shepherd! (Psalm 23). The imagery is carried over to the New Testament as Jesus is called the good shepherd of the sheep. (John 10:14-15).
Read more A Gentle Thunder
Judges 10
Tola
1-2 Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, was next after Abimelech. He rose to the occasion to save Israel. He was a man of Issachar. He lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. He judged Israel for twenty-three years and then died and was buried at Shamir.
Jair
3-5 After him, Jair the Gileadite stepped into leadership. He judged Israel for twenty-two years. He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys and had thirty towns in Gilead. The towns are still called Jair’s Villages. Jair died and was buried in Kamon.
6-8 And then the People of Israel went back to doing evil in God’s sight. They worshiped the Baal gods and Ashtoreth goddesses: gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab; gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. They just walked off and left God, quit worshiping him. And God exploded in hot anger at Israel and sold them off to the Philistines and Ammonites, who, beginning that year, bullied and battered the People of Israel mercilessly. For eighteen years they had them under their thumb, all the People of Israel who lived east of the Jordan in the Amorite country of Gilead.
9 Then the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to go to war also against Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Israel was in a bad way!
10 The People of Israel cried out to God for help: “We’ve sinned against you! We left our God and worshiped the Baal gods!”
11-14 God answered the People of Israel: “When the Egyptians, Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines, Sidonians—even Amalek and Midian!—oppressed you and you cried out to me for help, I saved you from them. And now you’ve gone off and betrayed me, worshiping other gods. I’m not saving you anymore. Go ahead! Cry out for help to the gods you’ve chosen—let them get you out of the mess you’re in!”
15 The People of Israel said to God: “We’ve sinned. Do to us whatever you think best, but please, get us out of this!”
16 Then they cleaned house of the foreign gods and worshiped only God. And God took Israel’s troubles to heart.
Jephthah
17-18 The Ammonites prepared for war, setting camp in Gilead. The People of Israel set their rival camp in Mizpah. The leaders in Gilead said, “Who will stand up for us against the Ammonites? We’ll make him head over everyone in Gilead!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 12, 2018
Read: Isaiah 40:9–11
The Greatness of God
9 Go on up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;[a]
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;[b]
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.
Footnotes:
Isaiah 40:9 Or O herald of good news to Zion
Isaiah 40:9 Or O herald of good news to Jerusalem
INSIGHT
We also see the shepherd imagery in the New Testament when Jesus is described as our Good Shepherd. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11) and “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep” (vv. 14–15). Just as a shepherd watched over, provided for, and protected his sheep against danger and death and even pursued them when lost (Psalm 23:1–3; Luke 15:4), Jesus laid down His life for our sins and then rose again so that we would have the opportunity to live forever with Him (John 3:16). By doing so, He freed all who receive Him as Savior from the clutches of our enemy, Satan, and from eternal misery. And in this life, our Shepherd leads and guides us along the way. We need not fear, for He is with us (Psalm 23:4). He loves us and knows us (John 10:14–15).
In what area of your life do you need the comfort of the Good Shepherd? - Alyson Kieda
Safe in His Arms
By Arthur Jackson
He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. Isaiah 40:11
The weather outside was threatening, and the alert on my cell phone warned about the possibility of flash floods. An unusual number of cars were parked in my neighborhood as parents and others gathered to pick up children at the school bus drop-off point. By the time the bus arrived, it had started to rain. That’s when I observed a woman exit her car and retrieve an umbrella from the trunk. She walked towards a little girl and made sure the child was shielded from the rain until they returned to the vehicle. What a beautiful “real time” picture of parental, protective care that reminded me of the care of our heavenly Father.
The prophet Isaiah forecast punishment for disobedience followed by brighter days for God’s people (Isaiah 40:1–8). The heavenly dispatch from the mountain (v. 9) assured the Israelites of God’s mighty presence and tender care. The good news, then and now, is that because of God’s power and ruling authority, anxious hearts need not fear (vv. 9–10). Included in the announcement was news about the Lord’s protection, the kind of protection shepherds provide (v. 11): vulnerable young sheep would find safety in the Shepherd’s arms; nursing ewes would be led gently.
In a world where circumstances aren’t always easy, such images of safety and care compel us to look confidently to the Lord. Those who trust wholeheartedly in the Lord find security and renewed strength in Him (v. 31).
Father, in a world where we are sometimes threatened, we are comforted because of Your gracious care for us—in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The good news is that God cares for us!
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 12, 2018
Getting into God’s Stride
Enoch walked with God… —Genesis 5:24
The true test of a person’s spiritual life and character is not what he does in the extraordinary moments of life, but what he does during the ordinary times when there is nothing tremendous or exciting happening. A person’s worth is revealed in his attitude toward the ordinary things of life when he is not under the spotlight (see John 1:35-37 and John 3:30). It is painful work to get in step with God and to keep pace with Him— it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God, there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride, but once we have done so, the only characteristic that exhibits itself is the very life of God Himself. The individual person is merged into a personal oneness with God, and God’s stride and His power alone are exhibited.
It is difficult to get into stride with God, because as soon as we start walking with Him we find that His pace has surpassed us before we have even taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined in His ways. It was said of Jesus— “He will not fail nor be discouraged…” (Isaiah 42:4) because He never worked from His own individual standpoint, but always worked from the standpoint of His Father. And we must learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned through the atmosphere that surrounds us, not through intellectual reasoning. It is God’s Spirit that changes the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and then things begin to be possible which before were impossible. Getting into God’s stride means nothing less than oneness with Him. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don’t give up because the pain is intense right now— get on with it, and before long you will find that you have a new vision and a new purpose.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest. Disciples Indeed, 395 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 12, 2018
The High Price of Hurrying - #8285
Our Native American outreach team traveled across Alaska one summer to villages that were a long way from the nearest road. So, we spent a lot of time on small missionary airplanes. Missionary pilots, man, they are some of the best pilots in the world - my heroes. They have to be. I mean, every travel morning, they're on the phone, carefully checking the weather conditions. And if the weather wasn't safe, we didn't fly until it was no matter how urgent our schedule. And that's a good thing. Our pilot explained to me a condition that has cost many a pilot his life – it's referred to as get-thereitis. You know, it's cutting corners, rushing into your flight because you're obsessed with getting there. Then he told me a pilot's saying that I had to think about for a minute. He said, "Many a pilot has been buried on a sunny day." Translation: if only he had waited just a little longer.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The High Price of Hurrying."
It isn't just pilots that are afflicted with get-thereitis. A lot of us struggle with delays and waiting. God's time is almost always later than ours, right? But we go ahead, rev up the engines, start the propellers, and go flying off into dangerous skies because we just couldn't wait... "Gotta get there!"
Which means it's time for us to hear from God in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Psalm 37:5. God says, "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Wait for the Lord and keep his way." When you commit your way to the Lord, when you're really trusting in Him, you are also submitting yourself to His timing – which almost always means waiting patiently.
Scripture shows us over and over again that the greatest enemy of God's will and God's best is often impatience. Abraham and Sarah had been promised a son in their old age, but they thought God was taking too long. So, Abraham sleeps with Sarah's servant and she becomes a surrogate mother. The son God promised comes 13 years later. But Abraham and Sarah's impatience starts a conflict, not only in their own family, but one that continues 4,000 years later today between the Arab sons of Ishmael and the Jewish sons of Isaac.
Moses thought he should do something to deliver his people from Egypt. He couldn't wait for God to do it, though, in His way, and he ends up killing an Egyptian and being a fugitive in the desert for 40 years. Rebekah - she knew that God had said her younger son, Jacob, would receive his father Isaac's blessing rather than her firstborn son, Esau. But it looked like Isaac was dying and it wasn't going to happen. So, in her get-thereitis, Rebekah hatches a plot for Jacob to trick Isaac into giving the blessing to him. What happened? It resulted in the family being split apart by bitterness for years and in her not seeing her beloved Jacob for 14 years. P.S.: Isaac didn't die for another 20 years!
In each case, the goal was something God wanted, but it wasn't His time. When we rush it, we ruin it. When we go early, we crash. It pays to wait for the right time. Just ask any pilot. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "God makes everything beautiful in his time." Just as it is in flying, if you wait until the time is right, it will be a beautiful flight. If you don't wait and if you just take off, the result will be disaster.