Psalm 19, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: WHEN HEAVEN CELEBRATES

In Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories of something lost and something found: a lost sheep; a lost coin; and a lost son.  At the end of each story, Jesus describes a celebration.  The point is clear.  Jesus is happiest when the lost are found.  Jesus rejoices because he knows what awaits the saved.  In Heaven, you will at long last, have a heart just like his.  Guiltless, fearless, tirelessly worshiping, and flawlessly discerning.

Jesus also rejoices that we are saved from hell.  He says there’s only one sound there—and that is the “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Every person you meet has been given an invitation to dinner.  When one says ‘yes,’ celebrate!  When one hesitates, urge him to get ready.  You don’t want anyone to miss the party.

Read more Just Like Jesus

Psalm 19

A David Psalm
19 1-2 God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
    God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
    Professor Night lectures each evening.

3-4 Their words aren’t heard,
    their voices aren’t recorded,
But their silence fills the earth:
    unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.

4-5 God makes a huge dome
    for the sun—a superdome!
The morning sun’s a new husband
    leaping from his honeymoon bed,
The daybreaking sun an athlete
    racing to the tape.

6 That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies
    from sunrise to sunset,
Melting ice, scorching deserts,
    warming hearts to faith.

7-9 The revelation of God is whole
    and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
    and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
    showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain
    and easy on the eyes.
God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold,
    with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate
    down to the nth degree.

10 God’s Word is better than a diamond,
    better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring,
    better than red, ripe strawberries.

11-14 There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger
    and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way?
    Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
    Keep me from stupid sins,
    from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
    scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in my mouth;
    these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them
    on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
    God, Priest-of-My-Altar.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Matthew 21:14-16

Matthew 21:14-16 The Message (MSG)
12-14 Jesus went straight to the Temple and threw out everyone who had set up shop, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of loan sharks and the stalls of dove merchants. He quoted this text:

My house was designated a house of prayer;
You have made it a hangout for thieves.

Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in. They came to Jesus and he healed them.

15-16 When the religious leaders saw the outrageous things he was doing, and heard all the children running and shouting through the Temple, “Hosanna to David’s Son!” they were up in arms and took him to task. “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

Jesus said, “Yes, I hear them. And haven’t you read in God’s Word, ‘From the mouths of children and babies I’ll furnish a place of praise’?”

Insight
After arriving in Jerusalem on what is known as Palm Sunday, Jesus made His way to the temple where He symbolically and prophetically reclaimed God’s house for its rightful purposes (Matthew 21:12). In doing so, He quoted the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah (v. 13): “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer’ [Isaiah 56:7], but you are making it ‘a den of robbers’” [Jeremiah 7:11]. Jesus’s zeal for God’s house was such that—though risky—He did not let the mismanagement of the religious leaders go unchallenged. What may have been mercenary practices were—at least momentarily—replaced with marvelous acts of mercy (v. 14), deeds which were more consistent with the purposes of the Father’s house. Though the physically blind were healed, the blindness of the leaders remained, as noted by their indignation and words to Jesus (vv. 15–16). By: Arthur Jackson

Out of the Mouths of Babes
Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes. Psalm 8:2 esv

After watching ten-year-old Viola using a tree branch as a microphone to mimic a preacher, Michele decided to give Viola the opportunity to “preach” during a village outreach. Viola accepted. Michele, a missionary in South Sudan, wrote, “The crowd was enraptured. . . . A little girl who had been abandoned stood in authority before them as a daughter of the King of kings, powerfully sharing the reality of God’s Kingdom. Half the crowd came forward to receive Jesus” (Michele Perry, Love Has a Face).

The crowd that day hadn’t expected to hear a child preach. This incident brings to mind the phrase “out of the mouths of babes,” which comes from Psalm 8. David wrote, “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes” (v. 2 esv). Jesus later quoted this verse in Matthew 21:16, after the chief priests and scribes criticized the children calling out praise to Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem. The children were a nuisance to these leaders. By quoting this Scripture, Jesus showed that God took seriously the praise of these children. They did what the leaders were unwilling to do: give glory to the longed-for Messiah.

As Viola and the children in the temple showed, God can use even a child to bring Him glory. Out of their willing hearts came a fountain of praise. By Linda Washington

Today's Reflection
How can I offer praise to God today? Why is He worthy of my praise?

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
The Impoverished Ministry of Jesus
Where then do You get that living water? —John 4:11

“The well is deep” — and even a great deal deeper than the Samaritan woman knew! (John 4:11). Think of the depths of human nature and human life; think of the depth of the “wells” in you. Have you been limiting, or impoverishing, the ministry of Jesus to the point that He is unable to work in your life? Suppose that you have a deep “well” of hurt and trouble inside your heart, and Jesus comes and says to you, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:1). Would your response be to shrug your shoulders and say, “But, Lord, the well is too deep, and even You can’t draw up quietness and comfort out of it.” Actually, that is correct. Jesus doesn’t bring anything up from the wells of human nature— He brings them down from above. We limit the Holy One of Israel by remembering only what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past, and also by saying, “Of course, I cannot expect God to do this particular thing.” The thing that approaches the very limits of His power is the very thing we as disciples of Jesus ought to believe He will do. We impoverish and weaken His ministry in us the moment we forget He is almighty. The impoverishment is in us, not in Him. We will come to Jesus for Him to be our comforter or our sympathizer, but we refrain from approaching Him as our Almighty God.

The reason some of us are such poor examples of Christianity is that we have failed to recognize that Christ is almighty. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment or surrender to Jesus Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by saying, “Of course, He can’t do anything about this.” We struggle to reach the bottom of our own well, trying to get water for ourselves. Beware of sitting back, and saying, “It can’t be done.” You will know it can be done if you will look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort to look away from yourself and to look toward Him.

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

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Taking Your Place on the Front Lines - #8383

My friend Bobby served as a Marine in Vietnam, and he told me something about his experience there that really got my attention. He said his assignment was doing electrical work on airplanes-which is not necessarily a front lines assignment. But there was a war going on all around them. So, when there was enemy activity, every soldier was trained to grab their weapon, take their position, and be prepared to fight. Their bottom line assignment was summed up in four words, "every Marine - a rifle."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Taking Your Place on the Front Lines."

Nobody is just support troops. Everybody's needed on the front lines. That's the strategy for the most important battle of all time-the battle for the souls of lost men and women that rages in every generation.

God puts flesh-and-blood on that principle in a story in Numbers 32, beginning with vs 1. It's our word for today from the Word of God. Here's the story. God has delivered the Jews from slavery in Egypt, led them through the wilderness, and now He's brought them to the banks of the Jordan River, the threshold of their Promised Land. Soon the battle for the land will begin. Even before entering, each of Israel's twelve tribes has been allotted a certain area of the land as their inheritance. That's on the west side of Jordan. On the east side of the Jordan, the Reubenites and Gadites "who had very large herds and flocks saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead (That's the lands right there where they are on the east side of the Jordan) were suitable for livestock." Okay, so these guys who already have their land kind of.

They come to Moses with an idea-a dumb idea. They said the land they were on was "suitable for livestock, and your servants have livestock...let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan." Moses' answer cuts like steel: "Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here?" They said, "How about we just settle down here, skip the battle, and root for you guys out there on the front lines? How does that sound?" Moses basically says: "No way, man. Every Marine a rifle. No watchers here; only warriors." These folks got the message. They said, "We would like to build pens here for our livestock and cities for our women and children." In other words, we'd like to stay here in our comfort zone-"but we are ready to arm ourselves and go ahead...every man armed for battle, will cross over to fight before the Lord." Good choice.

Now, about that battle for a lost and dying world from God's perspective, no one can just watch this battle. Every child of God is supposed to be a warrior in it...including you. You can't just send a check and consider yourself off the hook. You can't just support others who are fighting for lives Jesus died to save. You've got to be fighting for some yourself. You can't delegate Christ's world-reaching Great Commission to a few spiritual daredevils called missionaries or full-time workers. This call is for all of us, wherever we live, whatever we do. You may say, "Well, I don't have the gift to tell others." If you belong to Jesus, you have the assignment! Remember, "we are Christ's ambassadors" (2 Corinthians 5:20).

The truth is you're somebody's best chance of ever going to heaven, because you're the one with Jesus in their heart who is closest to that person at work, school, in your family, your neighborhood. If you don't tell them, chances are they'll never hear what Jesus did for them.

And your silence will be, in essence, an eternal death sentence for them. And beyond the people in your personal world, God wants you in the battle for the world beyond your own. You say, "Well, I can't possibly care about or support all the mission needs out there." That's right. But you know what you can do? You can say, "God, go ahead and place a piece of your broken heart for this world in my heart. Help me care about some need, and let me focus on that one." He'll do that, and you can begin to pray and give and help His soldiers who are fighting for those particular people.

No watchers in the battle for lost hearts, only warriors. Because everyone who belongs to Him, has a place on the front lines.