Max Lucado Daily: He Wore Our Sin
Scripture often describes our behavior as the clothes we wear. 1 Peter 5:5 urges us to be "clothed with humility." In Psalm 109:18, David speaks of evil people who clothe themselves "with cursing." Garments can symbolize character; and like his garment, Jesus' character was uninterrupted perfection.
But when Christ was nailed to the cross, he took off his robe of seamless perfection and assumed a different wardrobe… the wardrobe of indignity. Stripped before his own mother. Shamed before his family. The indignity of failure. For a few pain-filled hours, the religious leaders were victors, and Christ appeared the loser. Worst of all, he wore the indignity of sin. Scripture says, "He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree." The cloth of Christ on the cross? Sin-yours and mine. The sins of all humanity.
From On Calvary's Hill
John 13:21-38
After he said these things, Jesus became visibly upset, and then he told them why. “One of you is going to betray me.”
22-25 The disciples looked around at one another, wondering who on earth he was talking about. One of the disciples, the one Jesus loved dearly, was reclining against him, his head on his shoulder. Peter motioned to him to ask who Jesus might be talking about. So, being the closest, he said, “Master, who?”
26-27 Jesus said, “The one to whom I give this crust of bread after I’ve dipped it.” Then he dipped the crust and gave it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot. As soon as the bread was in his hand, Satan entered him.
“What you must do,” said Jesus, “do. Do it and get it over with.”
28-29 No one around the supper table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that since Judas was their treasurer, Jesus was telling him to buy what they needed for the Feast, or that he should give something to the poor.
30 Judas, with the piece of bread, left. It was night.
31-32 When he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is seen for who he is, and God seen for who he is in him. The moment God is seen in him, God’s glory will be on display. In glorifying him, he himself is glorified—glory all around!
33 “Children, I am with you for only a short time longer. You are going to look high and low for me. But just as I told the Jews, I’m telling you: ‘Where I go, you are not able to come.’
34-35 “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”
36 Simon Peter asked, “Master, just where are you going?”
Jesus answered, “You can’t now follow me where I’m going. You will follow later.”
37 “Master,” said Peter, “why can’t I follow now? I’ll lay down my life for you!”
38 “Really? You’ll lay down your life for me? The truth is that before the rooster crows, you’ll deny me three times.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. When he got there, he ran across Philip and said, “Come, follow me.” (Philip’s hometown was Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter.)
45-46 Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding.”
But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.”
47 When Jesus saw him coming he said, “There’s a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body.”
48 Nathanael said, “Where did you get that idea? You don’t know me.”
Jesus answered, “One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree.”
49 Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!”
50-51 Jesus said, “You’ve become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven’t seen anything yet! Before this is over you’re going to see heaven open and God’s angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again.”
Insight
After Nathanael meets Jesus, he asks Him how He knew who he was. Jesus replied, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree” (John 1:48). William Barclay explains the significance of the fig tree in his commentary The Master’s Men. The fig tree can grow to fifteen feet high, and its branches can spread as much as twenty-five feet. So the tree served as “a kind of private room” where most devout Jews would pray and meditate. Jesus was recognizing Nathanael’s devotion and piety and that he was a man of prayer (vv. 47–48). By: K. T. Sim
The Greatest Gift
We have found . . . Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. John 1:45
Over the years, my friend Barbara has given me countless encouraging cards and thoughtful presents. After I told her I’d received Jesus as my Savior, she handed me the greatest gift she’d ever given me—my first Bible. She said, “You can grow closer to God and mature spiritually by meeting with Him daily, reading Scripture, praying, and trusting and obeying Him.” My life changed when Barbara invited me to get to know God better.
Barbara reminds me of the apostle Philip. After Jesus invited Philip to follow Him (John 1:43), the apostle immediately told his friend Nathanael that Jesus was “the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote” (v. 45). When Nathanael doubted, Philip didn’t argue, criticize, or give up on his friend. He simply invited him to meet Jesus face to face. “Come and see,” he said (v. 46).
I can imagine Philip’s joy when he heard Nathanael declare Jesus as “the Son of God” and “the king of Israel” (v. 49). What a blessing to know his friend wouldn’t miss out on seeing the “greater things” Jesus promised they’d witness (vv. 50–51).
The Holy Spirit initiates our intimate relationship with God and then lives in all who respond in faith. He enables us to know Him personally and to invite others to encounter Him daily through His Spirit and the Scriptures. An invitation to know Jesus better is a great gift to receive and give. By Xochitl Dixon
Today's Reflection
To whom will you extend an invitation to know Jesus better? How has He worked through others to grow your faith?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Heedfulness or Hypocrisy in Ourselves?
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. —1 John 5:16
If we are not heedful and pay no attention to the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other people are failing, and then we take our discernment and turn it into comments of ridicule and criticism, instead of turning it into intercession on their behalf. God reveals this truth about others to us not through the sharpness of our minds but through the direct penetration of His Spirit. If we are not attentive, we will be completely unaware of the source of the discernment God has given us, becoming critical of others and forgetting that God says, “…he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.” Be careful that you don’t become a hypocrite by spending all your time trying to get others right with God before you worship Him yourself.
One of the most subtle and illusive burdens God ever places on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning others. He gives us discernment so that we may accept the responsibility for those souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them (see Philippians 2:5). We should intercede in accordance with what God says He will give us, namely, “life for those who commit sin not leading to death.” It is not that we are able to bring God into contact with our minds, but that we awaken ourselves to the point where God is able to convey His mind to us regarding the people for whom we intercede.
Can Jesus Christ see the agony of His soul in us? He can’t unless we are so closely identified with Him that we have His view concerning the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so wholeheartedly that Jesus Christ will be completely and overwhelmingly satisfied with us as intercessors.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.”
The Shadow of an Agony
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Psalm 65, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Far From Christ
Imagine the scene at the cross. Soldiers huddled in a circle, dice-throwing-casting lots for the possessions of Christ. Common soldiers witnessing the world's most uncommon event. To them he is just another criminal; the cross is forgotten.
It makes me think of us. The religious. Those who claim heritage at the cross. All of us. The strict…the loose…the simple…spirit-filled…evangelical. All of us! We're not so unlike these soldiers. We too, play games at the foot of the cross. We compete for members. We scramble for status. Competition. Selfishness. Personal gain. It's all there. We major in the trivial, we split into little huddles. Another name. Another doctrine. So close to the cross but so far from the Christ. "May they all be one," Jesus prayed. One. Not one in groups of two thousand. One church. One faith. One Lord. No hierarchies. No traditions. Just Christ.
From On Calvary's Hill
Psalm 65
A David Psalm
65 1-2 Silence is praise to you,
Zion-dwelling God,
And also obedience.
You hear the prayer in it all.
2-8 We all arrive at your doorstep sooner
or later, loaded with guilt,
Our sins too much for us—
but you get rid of them once and for all.
Blessed are the chosen! Blessed the guest
at home in your place!
We expect our fill of good things
in your house, your heavenly manse.
All your salvation wonders
are on display in your trophy room.
Earth-Tamer, Ocean-Pourer,
Mountain-Maker, Hill-Dresser,
Muzzler of sea storm and wave crash,
of mobs in noisy riot—
Far and wide they’ll come to a stop,
they’ll stare in awe, in wonder.
Dawn and dusk take turns
calling, “Come and worship.”
9-13 Oh, visit the earth,
ask her to join the dance!
Deck her out in spring showers,
fill the God-River with living water.
Paint the wheat fields golden.
Creation was made for this!
Drench the plowed fields,
soak the dirt clods
With rainfall as harrow and rake
bring her to blossom and fruit.
Snow-crown the peaks with splendor,
scatter rose petals down your paths,
All through the wild meadows, rose petals.
Set the hills to dancing,
Dress the canyon walls with live sheep,
a drape of flax across the valleys.
Let them shout, and shout, and shout!
Oh, oh, let them sing!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Hebrews 1:1-4
Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words!
3-6 After he finished the sacrifice for sins, the Son took his honored place high in the heavens right alongside God, far higher than any angel in rank and rule. Did God ever say to an angel, “You’re my Son; today I celebrate you” or “I’m his Father, he’s my Son”? When he presents his honored Son to the world, he says, “All angels must worship him.”
Insight
The New Testament letter to the Hebrews urges first-century readers to see the prophets, laws, and temple worship as a prelude to Someone far greater (1:1–4). According to the letter’s anonymous author, God’s own Son (vv. 5–14) has suffered and “[tasted] death for everyone” (2:9) to provide a relationship with God that has replaced and made obsolete the law and covenant of Moses (3:1–6; 8:13). In layer after layer of detail, the letter describes how Jesus came to personify the Sabbath rest, high priest, sacrifice, and temple that foreshadowed Him.
For these reasons, the thirteen chapters of Hebrews urge readers not to give in to fears, distraction, or discouragement (3:8). The message is clear: don’t stop believing (10:19–11:40); don’t stop loving (10:24–25; 13:1–3); don’t stop following and relying on the Good and Great Shepherd (13:20) who gives us reason to believe that the best is yet ahead (9:28). By: Mart DeHaan
Creator and Sustainer
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory . . . sustaining all things by his powerful word. Hebrews 1:3
Working with a magnifying glass and tweezers, Swiss watchmaker Phillipe meticulously explained to me how he takes apart, cleans, and reassembles the tiny parts of specialty mechanical watches. Looking at all the intricate pieces, Phillipe showed me the essential component of the timepiece, the mainspring. The mainspring is the component that moves all the gears to allow the watch to keep time. Without it, even the most expertly designed watch will not function.
In a beautiful New Testament passage found in the book of Hebrews, the writer eloquently praises Jesus for being the one through whom God created the heavens and the earth. Like the intricacy of a specialty watch, every detail of our universe was created by Jesus (Hebrews 1:2). From the vastness of the solar system to the uniqueness of our fingerprints, all things were made by Him.
But more than the Creator, Jesus, like a clock’s mainspring, is essential for the function and flourishing of creation. His presence continually “[sustains] all things by his powerful word” (v. 3), keeping all that He has created working together in all its amazing complexity.
As you have opportunity to experience the beauty of creation today, remember that “in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). May the recognition of Jesus’s central role in both creating and sustaining the universe result in a joyful heart and a response of praise as we acknowledge His ongoing provision for us. By Lisa M. Samra
Today's Reflection
What in God’s creation has caused you to worship Him? Why?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Holiness or Hardness Toward God?
He…wondered that there was no intercessor… —Isaiah 59:16
The reason many of us stop praying and become hard toward God is that we only have an emotional interest in prayer. It sounds good to say that we pray, and we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial— that our minds are quieted and our souls are uplifted when we pray. But Isaiah implied in this verse that God is amazed at such thoughts about prayer.
Worship and intercession must go together; one is impossible without the other. Intercession means raising ourselves up to the point of getting the mind of Christ regarding the person for whom we are praying (see Philippians 2:5). Instead of worshiping God, we recite speeches to God about how prayer is supposed to work. Are we worshiping God or disputing Him when we say, “But God, I just don’t see how you are going to do this”? This is a sure sign that we are not worshiping. When we lose sight of God, we become hard and dogmatic. We throw our petitions at His throne and dictate to Him what we want Him to do. We don’t worship God, nor do we seek to conform our minds to the mind of Christ. And if we are hard toward God, we will become hard toward other people.
Are we worshiping God in a way that will raise us up to where we can take hold of Him, having such intimate contact with Him that we know His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship with God, or have we become hard and dogmatic?
Do you find yourself thinking that there is no one interceding properly? Then be that person yourself. Be a person who worships God and lives in a holy relationship with Him. Get involved in the real work of intercession, remembering that it truly is work— work that demands all your energy, but work which has no hidden pitfalls. Preaching the gospel has its share of pitfalls, but intercessory prayer has none whatsoever.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L
Imagine the scene at the cross. Soldiers huddled in a circle, dice-throwing-casting lots for the possessions of Christ. Common soldiers witnessing the world's most uncommon event. To them he is just another criminal; the cross is forgotten.
It makes me think of us. The religious. Those who claim heritage at the cross. All of us. The strict…the loose…the simple…spirit-filled…evangelical. All of us! We're not so unlike these soldiers. We too, play games at the foot of the cross. We compete for members. We scramble for status. Competition. Selfishness. Personal gain. It's all there. We major in the trivial, we split into little huddles. Another name. Another doctrine. So close to the cross but so far from the Christ. "May they all be one," Jesus prayed. One. Not one in groups of two thousand. One church. One faith. One Lord. No hierarchies. No traditions. Just Christ.
From On Calvary's Hill
Psalm 65
A David Psalm
65 1-2 Silence is praise to you,
Zion-dwelling God,
And also obedience.
You hear the prayer in it all.
2-8 We all arrive at your doorstep sooner
or later, loaded with guilt,
Our sins too much for us—
but you get rid of them once and for all.
Blessed are the chosen! Blessed the guest
at home in your place!
We expect our fill of good things
in your house, your heavenly manse.
All your salvation wonders
are on display in your trophy room.
Earth-Tamer, Ocean-Pourer,
Mountain-Maker, Hill-Dresser,
Muzzler of sea storm and wave crash,
of mobs in noisy riot—
Far and wide they’ll come to a stop,
they’ll stare in awe, in wonder.
Dawn and dusk take turns
calling, “Come and worship.”
9-13 Oh, visit the earth,
ask her to join the dance!
Deck her out in spring showers,
fill the God-River with living water.
Paint the wheat fields golden.
Creation was made for this!
Drench the plowed fields,
soak the dirt clods
With rainfall as harrow and rake
bring her to blossom and fruit.
Snow-crown the peaks with splendor,
scatter rose petals down your paths,
All through the wild meadows, rose petals.
Set the hills to dancing,
Dress the canyon walls with live sheep,
a drape of flax across the valleys.
Let them shout, and shout, and shout!
Oh, oh, let them sing!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Hebrews 1:1-4
Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words!
3-6 After he finished the sacrifice for sins, the Son took his honored place high in the heavens right alongside God, far higher than any angel in rank and rule. Did God ever say to an angel, “You’re my Son; today I celebrate you” or “I’m his Father, he’s my Son”? When he presents his honored Son to the world, he says, “All angels must worship him.”
Insight
The New Testament letter to the Hebrews urges first-century readers to see the prophets, laws, and temple worship as a prelude to Someone far greater (1:1–4). According to the letter’s anonymous author, God’s own Son (vv. 5–14) has suffered and “[tasted] death for everyone” (2:9) to provide a relationship with God that has replaced and made obsolete the law and covenant of Moses (3:1–6; 8:13). In layer after layer of detail, the letter describes how Jesus came to personify the Sabbath rest, high priest, sacrifice, and temple that foreshadowed Him.
For these reasons, the thirteen chapters of Hebrews urge readers not to give in to fears, distraction, or discouragement (3:8). The message is clear: don’t stop believing (10:19–11:40); don’t stop loving (10:24–25; 13:1–3); don’t stop following and relying on the Good and Great Shepherd (13:20) who gives us reason to believe that the best is yet ahead (9:28). By: Mart DeHaan
Creator and Sustainer
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory . . . sustaining all things by his powerful word. Hebrews 1:3
Working with a magnifying glass and tweezers, Swiss watchmaker Phillipe meticulously explained to me how he takes apart, cleans, and reassembles the tiny parts of specialty mechanical watches. Looking at all the intricate pieces, Phillipe showed me the essential component of the timepiece, the mainspring. The mainspring is the component that moves all the gears to allow the watch to keep time. Without it, even the most expertly designed watch will not function.
In a beautiful New Testament passage found in the book of Hebrews, the writer eloquently praises Jesus for being the one through whom God created the heavens and the earth. Like the intricacy of a specialty watch, every detail of our universe was created by Jesus (Hebrews 1:2). From the vastness of the solar system to the uniqueness of our fingerprints, all things were made by Him.
But more than the Creator, Jesus, like a clock’s mainspring, is essential for the function and flourishing of creation. His presence continually “[sustains] all things by his powerful word” (v. 3), keeping all that He has created working together in all its amazing complexity.
As you have opportunity to experience the beauty of creation today, remember that “in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). May the recognition of Jesus’s central role in both creating and sustaining the universe result in a joyful heart and a response of praise as we acknowledge His ongoing provision for us. By Lisa M. Samra
Today's Reflection
What in God’s creation has caused you to worship Him? Why?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Holiness or Hardness Toward God?
He…wondered that there was no intercessor… —Isaiah 59:16
The reason many of us stop praying and become hard toward God is that we only have an emotional interest in prayer. It sounds good to say that we pray, and we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial— that our minds are quieted and our souls are uplifted when we pray. But Isaiah implied in this verse that God is amazed at such thoughts about prayer.
Worship and intercession must go together; one is impossible without the other. Intercession means raising ourselves up to the point of getting the mind of Christ regarding the person for whom we are praying (see Philippians 2:5). Instead of worshiping God, we recite speeches to God about how prayer is supposed to work. Are we worshiping God or disputing Him when we say, “But God, I just don’t see how you are going to do this”? This is a sure sign that we are not worshiping. When we lose sight of God, we become hard and dogmatic. We throw our petitions at His throne and dictate to Him what we want Him to do. We don’t worship God, nor do we seek to conform our minds to the mind of Christ. And if we are hard toward God, we will become hard toward other people.
Are we worshiping God in a way that will raise us up to where we can take hold of Him, having such intimate contact with Him that we know His mind about the ones for whom we pray? Are we living in a holy relationship with God, or have we become hard and dogmatic?
Do you find yourself thinking that there is no one interceding properly? Then be that person yourself. Be a person who worships God and lives in a holy relationship with Him. Get involved in the real work of intercession, remembering that it truly is work— work that demands all your energy, but work which has no hidden pitfalls. Preaching the gospel has its share of pitfalls, but intercessory prayer has none whatsoever.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We have no right to judge where we should be put, or to have preconceived notions as to what God is fitting us for. God engineers everything; wherever He puts us, our one great aim is to pour out a whole-hearted devotion to Him in that particular work. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” My Utmost for His Highest, April 23, 773 L
Friday, March 29, 2019
Psalm 62, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: HE STILL MOVES STONES
Why did God leave us one tale after another of wounded lives being restored? It isn’t to tell us what Jesus did. It’s to tell us what Jesus does. Paul says in Romans 15:4, “Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. The Scripture gives us patience and encouragement so that we can have hope.”
Reflect on your own journey. What was it like before you met Christ? And share your story; not with everyone necessarily, but with someone. Your honest portrayal of your past may be the courage for another’s future. But don’t just depict the past. Depict the present. Describe his touch and the difference Jesus has made in your life. He’s not finished with you yet! Ah, but look how far you’ve come! What God begins, God completes. The God who spoke still speaks. The God who forgave still forgives. He still moves stones.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 62
A David Psalm
62 1-2 God, the one and only—
I’ll wait as long as he says.
Everything I need comes from him,
so why not?
He’s solid rock under my feet,
breathing room for my soul,
An impregnable castle:
I’m set for life.
3-4 How long will you gang up on me?
How long will you run with the bullies?
There’s nothing to you, any of you—
rotten floorboards, worm-eaten rafters,
Anthills plotting to bring down mountains,
far gone in make-believe.
You talk a good line,
but every “blessing” breathes a curse.
5-6 God, the one and only—
I’ll wait as long as he says.
Everything I hope for comes from him,
so why not?
He’s solid rock under my feet,
breathing room for my soul,
An impregnable castle:
I’m set for life.
7-8 My help and glory are in God
—granite-strength and safe-harbor-God—
So trust him absolutely, people;
lay your lives on the line for him.
God is a safe place to be.
9 Man as such is smoke,
woman as such, a mirage.
Put them together, they’re nothing;
two times nothing is nothing.
10 And a windfall, if it comes—
don’t make too much of it.
11 God said this once and for all;
how many times
Have I heard it repeated?
“Strength comes
Straight from God.”
12 Love to you, Lord God!
You pay a fair wage for a good day’s work!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, March 29, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Philippians 2:12-18
What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.
14-16 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.
17-18 Even if I am executed here and now, I’ll rejoice in being an element in the offering of your faith that you make on Christ’s altar, a part of your rejoicing. But turnabout’s fair play—you must join me in my rejoicing. Whatever you do, don’t feel sorry for me.
Insight
The Philippian Christians are not to work for their salvation, for salvation is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8–9). Instead, having received salvation, Paul urged them to live out their Christian life—to “work hard to show the results of [their] salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear” (Philippians 2:12 nlt). They are to follow Christ’s example in servanthood and humility (vv. 3–11). In today’s passage, Paul used two metaphors to describe how we are to live: First, we are to “shine . . . like stars” (v. 15). Pointedly, Jesus said that as “the light of the world” we are to let our “light shine before others, that they may see [our] good deeds and glorify [our] Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Second, as runners in a race (Philippians 2:16), we are to “run with perseverance” (Hebrews 12:1) and “in such a way as to get the prize”—to complete the race (1 Corinthians 9:24–27). By: K. T. Sim
Bright Lights
You are the light of the world. Matthew 5:14
In the summer of 2015, a group from our church was sobered by what we saw in Mathare, one of the slums in Nairobi, Kenya. We visited a school with dirt floors, rusting metal walls, and wooden benches. But against the backdrop of extremely humble surroundings, one person stood out.
Her name was Brilliant, and the name couldn’t have fit her better. She was an elementary school teacher who possessed joy and determination that matched her mission. Colorfully dressed, her appearance and the joy with which she instructed and encouraged the children were stunning.
The bright light Brilliant brought to her surroundings resembles the way Christians in Philippi were to be positioned in their world when Paul wrote to them in the first century. Against the background of a spiritually needy world, believers in the Lord Jesus were to shine “like stars in the sky” (Philippians 2:15). Our assignment hasn’t changed. Bright lights are needed everywhere! How encouraging it is to know that through the One “who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (v. 13) believers in Jesus can sparkle in ways that fit Jesus’s description of those who follow Him. To us He still says, “You are the light of the world. . . . Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14–16). By Arthur Jackson
Today's Reflection
How can you reveal the light of Christ to others? What can you do to bring His joy to those who desperately need it?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 29, 2019
Our Lord’s Surprise Visits
You also be ready… —Luke 12:40
A Christian worker’s greatest need is a readiness to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn. This is not easy, no matter what our experience has been. This battle is not against sin, difficulties, or circumstances, but against being so absorbed in our service to Jesus Christ that we are not ready to face Jesus Himself at every turn. The greatest need is not facing our beliefs or doctrines, or even facing the question of whether or not we are of any use to Him, but the need is to face Him.
Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical situations. The only way a servant can remain true to God is to be ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. This readiness will not be brought about by service, but through intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn. This sense of expectation will give our life the attitude of childlike wonder He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious. In other words, we must stop using religion as if it were some kind of a lofty lifestyle— we must be spiritually real.
If you are avoiding the call of the religious thinking of today’s world, and instead are “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2), setting your heart on what He wants, and thinking His thoughts, you will be considered impractical and a daydreamer. But when He suddenly appears in the work of the heat of the day, you will be the only one who is ready. You should trust no one, and even ignore the finest saint on earth if he blocks your sight of Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6). The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, March 29, 2019
The Oscar Outlook - #8405
Our kids were part of the Sesame Street generation. Maybe you can hear the theme song in the back of your mind; it depends on your age. They grew up watching what was then the most creative, groundbreaking children's program of its time. And Sesame Street always had an interesting cast of Muppet characters to make learning more interesting. I mean, who could forget Bert and Ernie, and Mr. Snuffleupagus, and Big Bird (who I always thought looked like a canary on steroids)? And, of course, the epitome of poor hygiene, Oscar the Grouch. In case you've been culturally deprived, Oscar is this hairy creature with his big eyes and a bad attitude who lives in a garbage can. He even sings a song called, "I Love Trash." Oscar doesn't have to live in a garbage can. He chooses to. No wonder he's got a bad attitude!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Oscar Outlook."
No one would choose to live in the garbage, would they? Well, in a way, a lot of people do just that, which leads us to what I consider the most curious question Jesus ever asked. He is at the pool of Bethesda, which many in that day believed had healing powers when it was stirred by an angel. Jesus sees this paralyzed man lying there who had been an invalid for 38 years. In our word for today from the Word of God, beginning in John 5:6 - "Jesus asked him, 'Do you want to get well?'" That's a curious question. "'Sir,' the invalid replied, 'I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.' Jesus said to him, 'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.' At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked."
Now why would Jesus ask a paralyzed man if he wants to get well? The Bible doesn't tell us, but I have a guess. He had been in his paralyzed condition so long he might have been almost afraid to be well. He knew how to be paralyzed; he didn't know how to be well.
That might be like some of us when it comes to the baggage, or let's call it the "garbage" of our lives. When you've experienced pain in your past, maybe abuse, betrayal, tragedy, it's easy to begin to define your life as "victim." You may very well have been the victim of some person or situation that has hurt you deeply and you had no control.
But continuing to dwell on the pain of your past; continuing to define yourself by the pain of your past, in some ways, it's like following the Oscar approach to life...sort of living in the trash can, dwelling on - or dwelling in - the garbage of your life. You hate it, but you keep returning to it mentally and emotionally. And you start to get an Oscar outlook on life: negative, grouchy, thin-skinned, pitying yourself too much, and spilling garbage on other people.
And Jesus comes along and He asks that question, "Do you want to get well?" Living amidst the garbage of your past is a choice. Jesus has been setting people free from their emotional trash cans for 2,000 years! It will mean facing your issues instead of running from them, maybe working through them with a trained counselor, it might mean doing some forgiving, a lot of praying, and letting Jesus be the Lord of the corners of your heart that you've kept off limits to Him before.
See, when Jesus was born, the announcement was, "He will save His people from their sins." That's all the garbage and junk of our past...the sins that we've done and the sins that have been done to us. And the Bible says "Jesus came to rescue us from those" so that those don't ever have to be a part of our life again; never more defined by them.
What you've done before today, it doesn't ever have to matter anymore because Jesus died; He took the rap - paid the penalty - to remove all that junk and forgive it. This day would you say to Him, "Jesus, I'm yours. I want to start over. I want a clean heart. I want a new beginning. You're alive! You walked out of your grave. I want to have You in my life." Listen, we'll help you know how to do that if you'll just visit our website. It's called ANewStory.com.
Look, the trash of your past is real, but you don't have to live there any longer! Leave the past where it belongs - at the cross of Jesus Christ and follow Jesus to a brand new beginning!
Why did God leave us one tale after another of wounded lives being restored? It isn’t to tell us what Jesus did. It’s to tell us what Jesus does. Paul says in Romans 15:4, “Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. The Scripture gives us patience and encouragement so that we can have hope.”
Reflect on your own journey. What was it like before you met Christ? And share your story; not with everyone necessarily, but with someone. Your honest portrayal of your past may be the courage for another’s future. But don’t just depict the past. Depict the present. Describe his touch and the difference Jesus has made in your life. He’s not finished with you yet! Ah, but look how far you’ve come! What God begins, God completes. The God who spoke still speaks. The God who forgave still forgives. He still moves stones.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 62
A David Psalm
62 1-2 God, the one and only—
I’ll wait as long as he says.
Everything I need comes from him,
so why not?
He’s solid rock under my feet,
breathing room for my soul,
An impregnable castle:
I’m set for life.
3-4 How long will you gang up on me?
How long will you run with the bullies?
There’s nothing to you, any of you—
rotten floorboards, worm-eaten rafters,
Anthills plotting to bring down mountains,
far gone in make-believe.
You talk a good line,
but every “blessing” breathes a curse.
5-6 God, the one and only—
I’ll wait as long as he says.
Everything I hope for comes from him,
so why not?
He’s solid rock under my feet,
breathing room for my soul,
An impregnable castle:
I’m set for life.
7-8 My help and glory are in God
—granite-strength and safe-harbor-God—
So trust him absolutely, people;
lay your lives on the line for him.
God is a safe place to be.
9 Man as such is smoke,
woman as such, a mirage.
Put them together, they’re nothing;
two times nothing is nothing.
10 And a windfall, if it comes—
don’t make too much of it.
11 God said this once and for all;
how many times
Have I heard it repeated?
“Strength comes
Straight from God.”
12 Love to you, Lord God!
You pay a fair wage for a good day’s work!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, March 29, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Philippians 2:12-18
What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.
14-16 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.
17-18 Even if I am executed here and now, I’ll rejoice in being an element in the offering of your faith that you make on Christ’s altar, a part of your rejoicing. But turnabout’s fair play—you must join me in my rejoicing. Whatever you do, don’t feel sorry for me.
Insight
The Philippian Christians are not to work for their salvation, for salvation is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8–9). Instead, having received salvation, Paul urged them to live out their Christian life—to “work hard to show the results of [their] salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear” (Philippians 2:12 nlt). They are to follow Christ’s example in servanthood and humility (vv. 3–11). In today’s passage, Paul used two metaphors to describe how we are to live: First, we are to “shine . . . like stars” (v. 15). Pointedly, Jesus said that as “the light of the world” we are to let our “light shine before others, that they may see [our] good deeds and glorify [our] Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Second, as runners in a race (Philippians 2:16), we are to “run with perseverance” (Hebrews 12:1) and “in such a way as to get the prize”—to complete the race (1 Corinthians 9:24–27). By: K. T. Sim
Bright Lights
You are the light of the world. Matthew 5:14
In the summer of 2015, a group from our church was sobered by what we saw in Mathare, one of the slums in Nairobi, Kenya. We visited a school with dirt floors, rusting metal walls, and wooden benches. But against the backdrop of extremely humble surroundings, one person stood out.
Her name was Brilliant, and the name couldn’t have fit her better. She was an elementary school teacher who possessed joy and determination that matched her mission. Colorfully dressed, her appearance and the joy with which she instructed and encouraged the children were stunning.
The bright light Brilliant brought to her surroundings resembles the way Christians in Philippi were to be positioned in their world when Paul wrote to them in the first century. Against the background of a spiritually needy world, believers in the Lord Jesus were to shine “like stars in the sky” (Philippians 2:15). Our assignment hasn’t changed. Bright lights are needed everywhere! How encouraging it is to know that through the One “who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (v. 13) believers in Jesus can sparkle in ways that fit Jesus’s description of those who follow Him. To us He still says, “You are the light of the world. . . . Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14–16). By Arthur Jackson
Today's Reflection
How can you reveal the light of Christ to others? What can you do to bring His joy to those who desperately need it?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 29, 2019
Our Lord’s Surprise Visits
You also be ready… —Luke 12:40
A Christian worker’s greatest need is a readiness to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn. This is not easy, no matter what our experience has been. This battle is not against sin, difficulties, or circumstances, but against being so absorbed in our service to Jesus Christ that we are not ready to face Jesus Himself at every turn. The greatest need is not facing our beliefs or doctrines, or even facing the question of whether or not we are of any use to Him, but the need is to face Him.
Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical situations. The only way a servant can remain true to God is to be ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. This readiness will not be brought about by service, but through intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn. This sense of expectation will give our life the attitude of childlike wonder He wants it to have. If we are going to be ready for Jesus Christ, we have to stop being religious. In other words, we must stop using religion as if it were some kind of a lofty lifestyle— we must be spiritually real.
If you are avoiding the call of the religious thinking of today’s world, and instead are “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2), setting your heart on what He wants, and thinking His thoughts, you will be considered impractical and a daydreamer. But when He suddenly appears in the work of the heat of the day, you will be the only one who is ready. You should trust no one, and even ignore the finest saint on earth if he blocks your sight of Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6). The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, March 29, 2019
The Oscar Outlook - #8405
Our kids were part of the Sesame Street generation. Maybe you can hear the theme song in the back of your mind; it depends on your age. They grew up watching what was then the most creative, groundbreaking children's program of its time. And Sesame Street always had an interesting cast of Muppet characters to make learning more interesting. I mean, who could forget Bert and Ernie, and Mr. Snuffleupagus, and Big Bird (who I always thought looked like a canary on steroids)? And, of course, the epitome of poor hygiene, Oscar the Grouch. In case you've been culturally deprived, Oscar is this hairy creature with his big eyes and a bad attitude who lives in a garbage can. He even sings a song called, "I Love Trash." Oscar doesn't have to live in a garbage can. He chooses to. No wonder he's got a bad attitude!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Oscar Outlook."
No one would choose to live in the garbage, would they? Well, in a way, a lot of people do just that, which leads us to what I consider the most curious question Jesus ever asked. He is at the pool of Bethesda, which many in that day believed had healing powers when it was stirred by an angel. Jesus sees this paralyzed man lying there who had been an invalid for 38 years. In our word for today from the Word of God, beginning in John 5:6 - "Jesus asked him, 'Do you want to get well?'" That's a curious question. "'Sir,' the invalid replied, 'I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.' Jesus said to him, 'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.' At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked."
Now why would Jesus ask a paralyzed man if he wants to get well? The Bible doesn't tell us, but I have a guess. He had been in his paralyzed condition so long he might have been almost afraid to be well. He knew how to be paralyzed; he didn't know how to be well.
That might be like some of us when it comes to the baggage, or let's call it the "garbage" of our lives. When you've experienced pain in your past, maybe abuse, betrayal, tragedy, it's easy to begin to define your life as "victim." You may very well have been the victim of some person or situation that has hurt you deeply and you had no control.
But continuing to dwell on the pain of your past; continuing to define yourself by the pain of your past, in some ways, it's like following the Oscar approach to life...sort of living in the trash can, dwelling on - or dwelling in - the garbage of your life. You hate it, but you keep returning to it mentally and emotionally. And you start to get an Oscar outlook on life: negative, grouchy, thin-skinned, pitying yourself too much, and spilling garbage on other people.
And Jesus comes along and He asks that question, "Do you want to get well?" Living amidst the garbage of your past is a choice. Jesus has been setting people free from their emotional trash cans for 2,000 years! It will mean facing your issues instead of running from them, maybe working through them with a trained counselor, it might mean doing some forgiving, a lot of praying, and letting Jesus be the Lord of the corners of your heart that you've kept off limits to Him before.
See, when Jesus was born, the announcement was, "He will save His people from their sins." That's all the garbage and junk of our past...the sins that we've done and the sins that have been done to us. And the Bible says "Jesus came to rescue us from those" so that those don't ever have to be a part of our life again; never more defined by them.
What you've done before today, it doesn't ever have to matter anymore because Jesus died; He took the rap - paid the penalty - to remove all that junk and forgive it. This day would you say to Him, "Jesus, I'm yours. I want to start over. I want a clean heart. I want a new beginning. You're alive! You walked out of your grave. I want to have You in my life." Listen, we'll help you know how to do that if you'll just visit our website. It's called ANewStory.com.
Look, the trash of your past is real, but you don't have to live there any longer! Leave the past where it belongs - at the cross of Jesus Christ and follow Jesus to a brand new beginning!
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Psalm 61, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: WHEN BEING GOOD ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH
Paul writes in Romans 3:10, “There is no one who always does what is right, not even one.” And he adds, “All have sinned and are not good enough for God’s glory.” Then how do you go to heaven?
The two criminals being crucified with Jesus mocked him. But Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing.” Then one thief began to defend Jesus saying, “We are punished justly, getting what we deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong.” The core of the gospel in one sentence—through the mouth of a crook. Then the thief asks, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
What right does he have to beg for forgiveness? The same right you have. We, like the thief, hear the voice of grace. Today you will be with me in my kingdom.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 61
A David Psalm
61 1-2 God, listen to me shout,
bend an ear to my prayer.
When I’m far from anywhere,
down to my last gasp,
I call out, “Guide me
up High Rock Mountain!”
3-5 You’ve always given me breathing room,
a place to get away from it all,
A lifetime pass to your safe-house,
an open invitation as your guest.
You’ve always taken me seriously, God,
made me welcome among those who know and love you.
6-8 Let the days of the king add up
to years and years of good rule.
Set his throne in the full light of God;
post Steady Love and Good Faith as lookouts,
And I’ll be the poet who sings your glory—
and live what I sing every day.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Psalm 125:1-5
A Pilgrim Song
125 1-5 Those who trust in God
are like Zion Mountain:
Nothing can move it, a rock-solid mountain
you can always depend on.
Mountains encircle Jerusalem,
and God encircles his people—
always has and always will.
The fist of the wicked
will never violate
What is due the righteous,
provoking wrongful violence.
Be good to your good people, God,
to those whose hearts are right!
God will round up the backsliders,
corral them with the incorrigibles.
Peace over Israel!
Insight
The psalms are often gritty reflections of the life of the writer, songs where people express themselves to God and to each other in all the circumstances of life—good, bad, happy, sad, frustrating, grieving, and every other emotion we experience. They are honest reflections on the difficulty of life in this world. Today’s psalm is no different. One of the “Songs of Ascent” (songs sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for one of three annual festivals), this psalm contains a surprising statement. While there’s often a distinction made between the righteous and the wicked, verse 3 warns us that even the righteous have the potential to do evil. By: J.R. Hudberg
Surrounded by God
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and for evermore.
Psalm 125:2
In a busy airport, a young mother struggled alone. Her toddler was in full tantrum mode—screaming, kicking, and refusing to board their plane. Overwhelmed and heavily pregnant, the burdened young mother finally gave up, sinking to the floor in frustration, covering her face, and starting to sob.
Suddenly six or seven women travelers, all strangers, formed a circle around the young mother and her child—sharing snacks, water, gentle hugs, and even a nursery song. Their loving circle calmed the mother and child, who then boarded their plane. The other women returned to their seats, not needing to discuss what they had done, but knowing their support had strengthened a young mother exactly when she needed it.
This illustrates a beautiful truth from Psalm 125. “As the mountains surround Jerusalem,” says verse 2, “so the Lord surrounds his people.” The image reminds us how the bustling city of Jerusalem is, indeed, flanked by surrounding hills—among them the Mount of Olives, Mount Zion, and Mount Moriah.
In this same way, God surrounds His people—supporting and standing guard over our souls “both now and for evermore.” Thus, on tough days, look up, “unto the hills,” as the psalmist puts it (Psalm 121:1 kjv). God awaits with strong help, steady hope, and everlasting love. By Patricia Raybon
Today's Reflection
How have you sensed the Lord surrounding you with His love? Who can you share His love with today?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Isn’t There Some Misunderstanding?
"Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to Him, "…are You going there again?" —John 11:7-8
Just because I don’t understand what Jesus Christ says, I have no right to determine that He must be mistaken in what He says. That is a dangerous view, and it is never right to think that my obedience to God’s directive will bring dishonor to Jesus. The only thing that will bring dishonor is not obeying Him. To put my view of His honor ahead of what He is plainly guiding me to do is never right, even though it may come from a real desire to prevent Him from being put to an open shame. I know when the instructions have come from God because of their quiet persistence. But when I begin to weigh the pros and cons, and doubt and debate enter into my mind, I am bringing in an element that is not of God. This will only result in my concluding that His instructions to me were not right. Many of us are faithful to our ideas about Jesus Christ, but how many of us are faithful to Jesus Himself? Faithfulness to Jesus means that I must step out even when and where I can’t see anything (see Matthew 14:29). But faithfulness to my own ideas means that I first clear the way mentally. Faith, however, is not intellectual understanding; faith is a deliberate commitment to the Person of Jesus Christ, even when I can’t see the way ahead.
Are you debating whether you should take a step of faith in Jesus, or whether you should wait until you can clearly see how to do what He has asked? Simply obey Him with unrestrained joy. When He tells you something and you begin to debate, it is because you have a misunderstanding of what honors Him and what doesn’t. Are you faithful to Jesus, or faithful to your ideas about Him? Are you faithful to what He says, or are you trying to compromise His words with thoughts that never came from Him? “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, March 28, 2019
The Most Dangerous Runaway of All - #8404
A runaway train: that's how they billed the upcoming story on the evening news, and I stayed tuned. They weren't exaggerating. Somehow a freight train (this actually happened in Ohio a few years ago) started rolling down the tracks with no one on board. It kept rolling for many miles across the Ohio countryside, sometimes at speeds of nearly 60 MPH. It was pretty amazing to see the footage of a railroad intersection, lights blinking, gates down, cars stopped, and here is a train just rolling through without anyone at the controls. Well, using a combination of ingenuity and heroism, they finally managed to get a couple of men aboard who were able to stop it. And that's a very good thing!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Dangerous Runaway of All."
A runaway train - a lot of damage possible. But it's not the most dangerous runaway of all. No, that would be a runaway mouth; which way too many of us have way too much of the time.
Listen to what our word for today from the Word of God has to say about it in Proverbs 12:18. "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Most of our words either have a healing effect or a hurting effect. Tragically, we just let too many reckless words come pouring out; critical words, negative words, accusations, frustrations, complaints, putdowns, sarcasm. Usually we don't have malicious intent, but still our runaway words leave wounds and walls that we may not even realize. Often we'll say something that we've forgotten by bedtime, but the person who heard it may remember it for years to come.
That's why God tells us in Ecclesiastes 5, "Do not be quick with your mouth...Do not let your mouth lead you into sin" (Ecclesiastes 5:2, 6). We probably all need a wall plaque of that don't you think? If you have a tendency to be "quick with your mouth," the odds are your mouth is doing way too much sinning. For a lot of us, if we think it, we say it without considering the damage it may do to someone's reputation, to someone's worth, to a relationship, to unity, to our Lord's reputation.
I really don't think some of us understand the weight of our words. We don't realize how deep our words go, how much people remember what we say, how much we're quoted to others, or how much we're affecting other people's attitudes. For us, we're just unloading our feelings or our opinion and then moving on. But our words leave a trail, and often as they are said of the forced march of Native tribes years ago, it's a "trail of tears."
Which is why a man like David prayed a prayer like he prayed in Psalm 141:3. Remember, the Bible says David was a "man after God's own heart" who really wanted to be God's man. And recognizing the power of his words, he prayed, "Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips." That's a prayer some of us may need to pray every day, to post on a wall, maybe on a mirror somewhere, to commit to memory for frequent recall. "Lord, please help me to think about what I'm saying and before I say it. Help me guard what I let come out of my mouth. Help me hear what I sound like to other people, and help me to measure what I say."
Yes, a runaway train is a scary thought, and there's no telling who it may hurt or who it may injure. But a runaway mouth? In a lot of ways that's scarier and it's a lot more common. So much damage done that could be avoided if we'll just keep that train in our mouth from running off on its own.
Paul writes in Romans 3:10, “There is no one who always does what is right, not even one.” And he adds, “All have sinned and are not good enough for God’s glory.” Then how do you go to heaven?
The two criminals being crucified with Jesus mocked him. But Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing.” Then one thief began to defend Jesus saying, “We are punished justly, getting what we deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong.” The core of the gospel in one sentence—through the mouth of a crook. Then the thief asks, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
What right does he have to beg for forgiveness? The same right you have. We, like the thief, hear the voice of grace. Today you will be with me in my kingdom.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 61
A David Psalm
61 1-2 God, listen to me shout,
bend an ear to my prayer.
When I’m far from anywhere,
down to my last gasp,
I call out, “Guide me
up High Rock Mountain!”
3-5 You’ve always given me breathing room,
a place to get away from it all,
A lifetime pass to your safe-house,
an open invitation as your guest.
You’ve always taken me seriously, God,
made me welcome among those who know and love you.
6-8 Let the days of the king add up
to years and years of good rule.
Set his throne in the full light of God;
post Steady Love and Good Faith as lookouts,
And I’ll be the poet who sings your glory—
and live what I sing every day.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Psalm 125:1-5
A Pilgrim Song
125 1-5 Those who trust in God
are like Zion Mountain:
Nothing can move it, a rock-solid mountain
you can always depend on.
Mountains encircle Jerusalem,
and God encircles his people—
always has and always will.
The fist of the wicked
will never violate
What is due the righteous,
provoking wrongful violence.
Be good to your good people, God,
to those whose hearts are right!
God will round up the backsliders,
corral them with the incorrigibles.
Peace over Israel!
Insight
The psalms are often gritty reflections of the life of the writer, songs where people express themselves to God and to each other in all the circumstances of life—good, bad, happy, sad, frustrating, grieving, and every other emotion we experience. They are honest reflections on the difficulty of life in this world. Today’s psalm is no different. One of the “Songs of Ascent” (songs sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for one of three annual festivals), this psalm contains a surprising statement. While there’s often a distinction made between the righteous and the wicked, verse 3 warns us that even the righteous have the potential to do evil. By: J.R. Hudberg
Surrounded by God
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and for evermore.
Psalm 125:2
In a busy airport, a young mother struggled alone. Her toddler was in full tantrum mode—screaming, kicking, and refusing to board their plane. Overwhelmed and heavily pregnant, the burdened young mother finally gave up, sinking to the floor in frustration, covering her face, and starting to sob.
Suddenly six or seven women travelers, all strangers, formed a circle around the young mother and her child—sharing snacks, water, gentle hugs, and even a nursery song. Their loving circle calmed the mother and child, who then boarded their plane. The other women returned to their seats, not needing to discuss what they had done, but knowing their support had strengthened a young mother exactly when she needed it.
This illustrates a beautiful truth from Psalm 125. “As the mountains surround Jerusalem,” says verse 2, “so the Lord surrounds his people.” The image reminds us how the bustling city of Jerusalem is, indeed, flanked by surrounding hills—among them the Mount of Olives, Mount Zion, and Mount Moriah.
In this same way, God surrounds His people—supporting and standing guard over our souls “both now and for evermore.” Thus, on tough days, look up, “unto the hills,” as the psalmist puts it (Psalm 121:1 kjv). God awaits with strong help, steady hope, and everlasting love. By Patricia Raybon
Today's Reflection
How have you sensed the Lord surrounding you with His love? Who can you share His love with today?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Isn’t There Some Misunderstanding?
"Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to Him, "…are You going there again?" —John 11:7-8
Just because I don’t understand what Jesus Christ says, I have no right to determine that He must be mistaken in what He says. That is a dangerous view, and it is never right to think that my obedience to God’s directive will bring dishonor to Jesus. The only thing that will bring dishonor is not obeying Him. To put my view of His honor ahead of what He is plainly guiding me to do is never right, even though it may come from a real desire to prevent Him from being put to an open shame. I know when the instructions have come from God because of their quiet persistence. But when I begin to weigh the pros and cons, and doubt and debate enter into my mind, I am bringing in an element that is not of God. This will only result in my concluding that His instructions to me were not right. Many of us are faithful to our ideas about Jesus Christ, but how many of us are faithful to Jesus Himself? Faithfulness to Jesus means that I must step out even when and where I can’t see anything (see Matthew 14:29). But faithfulness to my own ideas means that I first clear the way mentally. Faith, however, is not intellectual understanding; faith is a deliberate commitment to the Person of Jesus Christ, even when I can’t see the way ahead.
Are you debating whether you should take a step of faith in Jesus, or whether you should wait until you can clearly see how to do what He has asked? Simply obey Him with unrestrained joy. When He tells you something and you begin to debate, it is because you have a misunderstanding of what honors Him and what doesn’t. Are you faithful to Jesus, or faithful to your ideas about Him? Are you faithful to what He says, or are you trying to compromise His words with thoughts that never came from Him? “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, March 28, 2019
The Most Dangerous Runaway of All - #8404
A runaway train: that's how they billed the upcoming story on the evening news, and I stayed tuned. They weren't exaggerating. Somehow a freight train (this actually happened in Ohio a few years ago) started rolling down the tracks with no one on board. It kept rolling for many miles across the Ohio countryside, sometimes at speeds of nearly 60 MPH. It was pretty amazing to see the footage of a railroad intersection, lights blinking, gates down, cars stopped, and here is a train just rolling through without anyone at the controls. Well, using a combination of ingenuity and heroism, they finally managed to get a couple of men aboard who were able to stop it. And that's a very good thing!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Most Dangerous Runaway of All."
A runaway train - a lot of damage possible. But it's not the most dangerous runaway of all. No, that would be a runaway mouth; which way too many of us have way too much of the time.
Listen to what our word for today from the Word of God has to say about it in Proverbs 12:18. "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Most of our words either have a healing effect or a hurting effect. Tragically, we just let too many reckless words come pouring out; critical words, negative words, accusations, frustrations, complaints, putdowns, sarcasm. Usually we don't have malicious intent, but still our runaway words leave wounds and walls that we may not even realize. Often we'll say something that we've forgotten by bedtime, but the person who heard it may remember it for years to come.
That's why God tells us in Ecclesiastes 5, "Do not be quick with your mouth...Do not let your mouth lead you into sin" (Ecclesiastes 5:2, 6). We probably all need a wall plaque of that don't you think? If you have a tendency to be "quick with your mouth," the odds are your mouth is doing way too much sinning. For a lot of us, if we think it, we say it without considering the damage it may do to someone's reputation, to someone's worth, to a relationship, to unity, to our Lord's reputation.
I really don't think some of us understand the weight of our words. We don't realize how deep our words go, how much people remember what we say, how much we're quoted to others, or how much we're affecting other people's attitudes. For us, we're just unloading our feelings or our opinion and then moving on. But our words leave a trail, and often as they are said of the forced march of Native tribes years ago, it's a "trail of tears."
Which is why a man like David prayed a prayer like he prayed in Psalm 141:3. Remember, the Bible says David was a "man after God's own heart" who really wanted to be God's man. And recognizing the power of his words, he prayed, "Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips." That's a prayer some of us may need to pray every day, to post on a wall, maybe on a mirror somewhere, to commit to memory for frequent recall. "Lord, please help me to think about what I'm saying and before I say it. Help me guard what I let come out of my mouth. Help me hear what I sound like to other people, and help me to measure what I say."
Yes, a runaway train is a scary thought, and there's no telling who it may hurt or who it may injure. But a runaway mouth? In a lot of ways that's scarier and it's a lot more common. So much damage done that could be avoided if we'll just keep that train in our mouth from running off on its own.
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
John 13:1-20, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: UNDERSTANDING DEATH
By the time Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for four days. John 11:21 says that Martha confronted Jesus, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Hurt and disappointment. When we face death, our definition of God is challenged. Which, in turn, challenges our faith.
Why is it that we interpret the presence of death as the absence of God? As a result, we get angry or resentful when God doesn’t answer our prayers for healing. It’s distressing that this view of God has no place for death. Jesus didn’t raise the dead for the sake of the dead, but for the sake of the living. The same voice that awakened the corpse of Lazarus will speak again. The earth and the sea will give up their dead. There will be no more death. Jesus made sure of that.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
John 13:1-20
Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.
3-6 Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.”
8 Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!”
Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”
9 “Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!”
10-12 Jesus said, “If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene. So now you’re clean. But not every one of you.” (He knew who was betraying him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you.”) After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table.
12-17 Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.
18-20 “I’m not including all of you in this. I know precisely whom I’ve selected, so as not to interfere with the fulfillment of this Scripture:
The one who ate bread at my table
Turned on his heel against me.
“I’m telling you all this ahead of time so that when it happens you will believe that I am who I say I am. Make sure you get this right: Receiving someone I send is the same as receiving me, just as receiving me is the same as receiving the One who sent me.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:Job 38:1-11
God Confronts Job
38 And now, finally, God answered Job from the eye of a violent storm. He said:
2-11 “Why do you confuse the issue?
Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about?
Pull yourself together, Job!
Up on your feet! Stand tall!
I have some questions for you,
and I want some straight answers.
Where were you when I created the earth?
Tell me, since you know so much!
Who decided on its size? Certainly you’ll know that!
Who came up with the blueprints and measurements?
How was its foundation poured,
and who set the cornerstone,
While the morning stars sang in chorus
and all the angels shouted praise?
And who took charge of the ocean
when it gushed forth like a baby from the womb?
That was me! I wrapped it in soft clouds,
and tucked it in safely at night.
Then I made a playpen for it,
a strong playpen so it couldn’t run loose,
And said, ‘Stay here, this is your place.
Your wild tantrums are confined to this place.’
Insight
Throughout the Old Testament, the whirlwind (or storm) is connected to God’s powerful presence (2 Kings 2:1–11; Psalm 77:18; Nahum 1:3; Ezekiel 1:4; Jeremiah 4:13). In Job 38:1, God dramatically speaks out of a whirlwind (nlt, esv) and then gives two speeches, each followed by a brief answer from Job. In His first discourse, God asks Job if he knows how the vast creation and its myriad creatures came to be and how they are governed and cared for (38:1–40:2). Job, now clearly aware of his ignorance, pledges to be silent and covers his mouth (40:3–5). Yet Job has the assurance that God has not abandoned him. The all-wise, almighty, yet inscrutable Father who created and lovingly cares for His creation heard Job’s cries and spoke to him. By: Alyson Kieda
Remembering My Father
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord. Colossians 3:23
When I remember my dad, I picture him best outdoors hammering or gardening or downstairs working in his cluttered workroom, stuffed with fascinating tools and gadgets. His hands were always busy at a task or project—sometimes building (a garage or a deck or a birdhouse), sometimes locksmithing, and sometimes designing jewelry and stained-glass art.
Remembering my dad prompts me to think of my heavenly Father and Creator, who has always been busy at work. In the beginning, “[God] laid the earth’s foundations . . . [and] marked off its dimensions . . . while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy” (Job 38:4–7). Everything He created was a work of art, a masterpiece. He designed a breathtakingly beautiful world and pronounced it “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
That includes you and me. God designed us in intimate and intricate detail (Psalm 139:13–16); and He entrusted us with and instilled in us (His image bearers) the goal and desire to work, which includes ruling and caring for the Earth and its creatures (Genesis 1:26–28; 2:15). No matter the work we do—in our job or in our leisure—God empowers and gives us what we need to work wholeheartedly for Him.
In everything we do, may we do it to please Him. By Alyson Kieda
Today's Reflection
What has God worked out in your life recently? How does it change your view of even mundane tasks to see them as opportunities to serve and honor Him?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Spiritual Vision Through Personal Character
Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place… —Revelation 4:1
A higher state of mind and spiritual vision can only be achieved through the higher practice of personal character. If you live up to the highest and best that you know in the outer level of your life, God will continually say to you, “Friend, come up even higher.” There is also a continuing rule in temptation which calls you to go higher; but when you do, you only encounter other temptations and character traits. Both God and Satan use the strategy of elevation, but Satan uses it in temptation, and the effect is quite different. When the devil elevates you to a certain place, he causes you to fasten your idea of what holiness is far beyond what flesh and blood could ever bear or achieve. Your life becomes a spiritual acrobatic performance high atop a steeple. You cling to it, trying to maintain your balance and daring not to move. But when God elevates you by His grace into heavenly places, you find a vast plateau where you can move about with ease.
Compare this week in your spiritual life with the same week last year to see how God has called you to a higher level. We have all been brought to see from a higher viewpoint. Never allow God to show you a truth which you do not instantly begin to live up to, applying it to your life. Always work through it, staying in its light.
Your growth in grace is not measured by the fact that you haven’t turned back, but that you have an insight and understanding into where you are spiritually. Have you heard God say, “Come up higher,” not audibly on the outer level, but to the innermost part of your character?
“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing…?” (Genesis 18:17). God has to hide from us what He does, until, due to the growth of our personal character, we get to the level where He is then able to reveal it.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be. Conformed to His Image, 354 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Everyday Stuff, Never Everyday Again - #8403
My wife and her family were out for a swim in a nearby river. They had invited their pastor to go with them. He was pretty much a pool swimmer - a lake swimmer. He was unfamiliar with the river currents that can make swimming a little more challenging than usual. Pastor wasn't aware of the whirlpool in that water near the bluffs that overlooked the river. He got too close, and suddenly he got sucked into that swirling water. Their pastor was in serious trouble. And since everyone was swimming, they didn't immediately see the danger he was in. He'd already gone down twice when he finally managed to get off one yell for help. My father-in-law responded immediately and he went in for the rescue, and he saved his pastor's life that day.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everyday Stuff, Never Everyday Again."
My father-in-law was not a professional lifeguard. Had he waited for one that day when his pastor's life was at stake, his pastor would have died. But this was a man who knew that he was the one that was there, and the responsibility for the rescue rests with the one who is where the dying person is. Right? Especially when it comes to the people near us who are going down spiritually; dying spiritually because they don't know the Savior who's the only one who can rescue them from the death penalty for their sins.
Once you realize the ultimate reason why you are where you are, your everyday activities will never be everyday again. Consider the example of the young woman in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Kings 5:2-3. It's the story of a young Jewish girl who has been taken captive by the Syrians and forced to become a servant girl in the home of a Syrian military commander. She's clearly a victim of unfair circumstances that are beyond her control. She's in a situation that had to be lonely, she's ripped from her home, she's forced to live in another country, and we can be pretty sure she's in a place she doesn't want to be. But none of that makes her forget why she is where she is. In the course of her everyday chores, she has the opportunity to save a life...and she does.
Her master, General Naaman, has developed leprosy. He will die from it unless he can find a cure which, humanly, does not exist. But the Bible tells us, "She said to her mistress, 'If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.'" She realizes she is in a unique position to save this man's life because she knows the dying person and she knows the only one who can save him. Now, if you belong to Jesus Christ, that is exactly the position God has put you in with the people you go to school with, the people you work with, the people you live near, the people you recreate with, the people in your family.
When you go where you go each day to do what you do each day, you go on an eternal rescue mission! Jesus put you there so you can take some of those people to heaven with you. Every day, you're there to show by your life the difference that Jesus makes and to capture every God-given opportunity to tell them how they can belong to Him. And suddenly this everyday stuff you do, it becomes eternally significant.
That Syrian commander did not die by the way, because someone who worked for him cared enough to tell him how he could live. Imagine if that girl had been too shy or too scared to speak up about the answer she knew. Her silence would have been his death sentence. And so it is for the people near you who don't know Jesus. Your silence could ultimately mean their death sentence, because you know the Jesus who is their only hope. They don't know Him, but they do know you. And, humanly speaking, you are their best chance - maybe their only chance - of ever belonging to Jesus...and of ever being in heaven with you someday.
By the time Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for four days. John 11:21 says that Martha confronted Jesus, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Hurt and disappointment. When we face death, our definition of God is challenged. Which, in turn, challenges our faith.
Why is it that we interpret the presence of death as the absence of God? As a result, we get angry or resentful when God doesn’t answer our prayers for healing. It’s distressing that this view of God has no place for death. Jesus didn’t raise the dead for the sake of the dead, but for the sake of the living. The same voice that awakened the corpse of Lazarus will speak again. The earth and the sea will give up their dead. There will be no more death. Jesus made sure of that.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
John 13:1-20
Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father. Having loved his dear companions, he continued to love them right to the end. It was suppertime. The Devil by now had Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, firmly in his grip, all set for the betrayal.
3-6 Jesus knew that the Father had put him in complete charge of everything, that he came from God and was on his way back to God. So he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.”
8 Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!”
Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”
9 “Master!” said Peter. “Not only my feet, then. Wash my hands! Wash my head!”
10-12 Jesus said, “If you’ve had a bath in the morning, you only need your feet washed now and you’re clean from head to toe. My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene. So now you’re clean. But not every one of you.” (He knew who was betraying him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you.”) After he had finished washing their feet, he took his robe, put it back on, and went back to his place at the table.
12-17 Then he said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You address me as ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master,’ and rightly so. That is what I am. So if I, the Master and Teacher, washed your feet, you must now wash each other’s feet. I’ve laid down a pattern for you. What I’ve done, you do. I’m only pointing out the obvious. A servant is not ranked above his master; an employee doesn’t give orders to the employer. If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it—and live a blessed life.
18-20 “I’m not including all of you in this. I know precisely whom I’ve selected, so as not to interfere with the fulfillment of this Scripture:
The one who ate bread at my table
Turned on his heel against me.
“I’m telling you all this ahead of time so that when it happens you will believe that I am who I say I am. Make sure you get this right: Receiving someone I send is the same as receiving me, just as receiving me is the same as receiving the One who sent me.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:Job 38:1-11
God Confronts Job
38 And now, finally, God answered Job from the eye of a violent storm. He said:
2-11 “Why do you confuse the issue?
Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about?
Pull yourself together, Job!
Up on your feet! Stand tall!
I have some questions for you,
and I want some straight answers.
Where were you when I created the earth?
Tell me, since you know so much!
Who decided on its size? Certainly you’ll know that!
Who came up with the blueprints and measurements?
How was its foundation poured,
and who set the cornerstone,
While the morning stars sang in chorus
and all the angels shouted praise?
And who took charge of the ocean
when it gushed forth like a baby from the womb?
That was me! I wrapped it in soft clouds,
and tucked it in safely at night.
Then I made a playpen for it,
a strong playpen so it couldn’t run loose,
And said, ‘Stay here, this is your place.
Your wild tantrums are confined to this place.’
Insight
Throughout the Old Testament, the whirlwind (or storm) is connected to God’s powerful presence (2 Kings 2:1–11; Psalm 77:18; Nahum 1:3; Ezekiel 1:4; Jeremiah 4:13). In Job 38:1, God dramatically speaks out of a whirlwind (nlt, esv) and then gives two speeches, each followed by a brief answer from Job. In His first discourse, God asks Job if he knows how the vast creation and its myriad creatures came to be and how they are governed and cared for (38:1–40:2). Job, now clearly aware of his ignorance, pledges to be silent and covers his mouth (40:3–5). Yet Job has the assurance that God has not abandoned him. The all-wise, almighty, yet inscrutable Father who created and lovingly cares for His creation heard Job’s cries and spoke to him. By: Alyson Kieda
Remembering My Father
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord. Colossians 3:23
When I remember my dad, I picture him best outdoors hammering or gardening or downstairs working in his cluttered workroom, stuffed with fascinating tools and gadgets. His hands were always busy at a task or project—sometimes building (a garage or a deck or a birdhouse), sometimes locksmithing, and sometimes designing jewelry and stained-glass art.
Remembering my dad prompts me to think of my heavenly Father and Creator, who has always been busy at work. In the beginning, “[God] laid the earth’s foundations . . . [and] marked off its dimensions . . . while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy” (Job 38:4–7). Everything He created was a work of art, a masterpiece. He designed a breathtakingly beautiful world and pronounced it “very good” (Genesis 1:31).
That includes you and me. God designed us in intimate and intricate detail (Psalm 139:13–16); and He entrusted us with and instilled in us (His image bearers) the goal and desire to work, which includes ruling and caring for the Earth and its creatures (Genesis 1:26–28; 2:15). No matter the work we do—in our job or in our leisure—God empowers and gives us what we need to work wholeheartedly for Him.
In everything we do, may we do it to please Him. By Alyson Kieda
Today's Reflection
What has God worked out in your life recently? How does it change your view of even mundane tasks to see them as opportunities to serve and honor Him?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Spiritual Vision Through Personal Character
Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place… —Revelation 4:1
A higher state of mind and spiritual vision can only be achieved through the higher practice of personal character. If you live up to the highest and best that you know in the outer level of your life, God will continually say to you, “Friend, come up even higher.” There is also a continuing rule in temptation which calls you to go higher; but when you do, you only encounter other temptations and character traits. Both God and Satan use the strategy of elevation, but Satan uses it in temptation, and the effect is quite different. When the devil elevates you to a certain place, he causes you to fasten your idea of what holiness is far beyond what flesh and blood could ever bear or achieve. Your life becomes a spiritual acrobatic performance high atop a steeple. You cling to it, trying to maintain your balance and daring not to move. But when God elevates you by His grace into heavenly places, you find a vast plateau where you can move about with ease.
Compare this week in your spiritual life with the same week last year to see how God has called you to a higher level. We have all been brought to see from a higher viewpoint. Never allow God to show you a truth which you do not instantly begin to live up to, applying it to your life. Always work through it, staying in its light.
Your growth in grace is not measured by the fact that you haven’t turned back, but that you have an insight and understanding into where you are spiritually. Have you heard God say, “Come up higher,” not audibly on the outer level, but to the innermost part of your character?
“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing…?” (Genesis 18:17). God has to hide from us what He does, until, due to the growth of our personal character, we get to the level where He is then able to reveal it.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be. Conformed to His Image, 354 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Everyday Stuff, Never Everyday Again - #8403
My wife and her family were out for a swim in a nearby river. They had invited their pastor to go with them. He was pretty much a pool swimmer - a lake swimmer. He was unfamiliar with the river currents that can make swimming a little more challenging than usual. Pastor wasn't aware of the whirlpool in that water near the bluffs that overlooked the river. He got too close, and suddenly he got sucked into that swirling water. Their pastor was in serious trouble. And since everyone was swimming, they didn't immediately see the danger he was in. He'd already gone down twice when he finally managed to get off one yell for help. My father-in-law responded immediately and he went in for the rescue, and he saved his pastor's life that day.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Everyday Stuff, Never Everyday Again."
My father-in-law was not a professional lifeguard. Had he waited for one that day when his pastor's life was at stake, his pastor would have died. But this was a man who knew that he was the one that was there, and the responsibility for the rescue rests with the one who is where the dying person is. Right? Especially when it comes to the people near us who are going down spiritually; dying spiritually because they don't know the Savior who's the only one who can rescue them from the death penalty for their sins.
Once you realize the ultimate reason why you are where you are, your everyday activities will never be everyday again. Consider the example of the young woman in our word for today from the Word of God in 2 Kings 5:2-3. It's the story of a young Jewish girl who has been taken captive by the Syrians and forced to become a servant girl in the home of a Syrian military commander. She's clearly a victim of unfair circumstances that are beyond her control. She's in a situation that had to be lonely, she's ripped from her home, she's forced to live in another country, and we can be pretty sure she's in a place she doesn't want to be. But none of that makes her forget why she is where she is. In the course of her everyday chores, she has the opportunity to save a life...and she does.
Her master, General Naaman, has developed leprosy. He will die from it unless he can find a cure which, humanly, does not exist. But the Bible tells us, "She said to her mistress, 'If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.'" She realizes she is in a unique position to save this man's life because she knows the dying person and she knows the only one who can save him. Now, if you belong to Jesus Christ, that is exactly the position God has put you in with the people you go to school with, the people you work with, the people you live near, the people you recreate with, the people in your family.
When you go where you go each day to do what you do each day, you go on an eternal rescue mission! Jesus put you there so you can take some of those people to heaven with you. Every day, you're there to show by your life the difference that Jesus makes and to capture every God-given opportunity to tell them how they can belong to Him. And suddenly this everyday stuff you do, it becomes eternally significant.
That Syrian commander did not die by the way, because someone who worked for him cared enough to tell him how he could live. Imagine if that girl had been too shy or too scared to speak up about the answer she knew. Her silence would have been his death sentence. And so it is for the people near you who don't know Jesus. Your silence could ultimately mean their death sentence, because you know the Jesus who is their only hope. They don't know Him, but they do know you. And, humanly speaking, you are their best chance - maybe their only chance - of ever belonging to Jesus...and of ever being in heaven with you someday.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Psalm 58, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: WHEN YOU’RE CONFUSED BY GOD’S ACTIONS
The Bible says in Matthew 1:24 that “Joseph did what the Lord’s angel had told him to do.” I wonder what Joseph was thinking while Jesus was being born? Was a stable in Bethlehem what he had in mind?
You’ve probably stood where Joseph stood when things haven’t turned out like you thought they would—maybe outside an emergency room or on the manicured grass of a cemetery. When you wondered why does God do what he does. Joseph didn’t let confusion disrupt his obedience. He shut down his business, packed up his family, and even went to another country. Why? Because that’s what God said to do. Because Joseph obeyed, God used him to change the world. He does the same with us. Be a modern day Joseph. God will use you to bring Jesus into the world.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 58
A David Psalm
58 1-2 Is this any way to run a country?
Is there an honest politician in the house?
Behind the scenes you brew cauldrons of evil,
behind closed doors you make deals with demons.
3-5 The wicked crawl from the wrong side of the cradle;
their first words out of the womb are lies.
Poison, lethal rattlesnake poison,
drips from their forked tongues—
Deaf to threats, deaf to charm,
decades of wax built up in their ears.
6-9 God, smash their teeth to bits,
leave them toothless tigers.
Let their lives be buckets of water spilled,
all that’s left, a damp stain in the sand.
Let them be trampled grass
worn smooth by the traffic.
Let them dissolve into snail slime,
be a miscarried fetus that never sees sunlight.
Before what they cook up is half-done, God,
throw it out with the garbage!
10-11 The righteous will call up their friends
when they see the wicked get their reward,
Serve up their blood in goblets
as they toast one another,
Everyone cheering, “It’s worth it to play by the rules!
God’s handing out trophies and tending the earth!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Exodus 6:1-9
God said to Moses, “Now you’ll see what I’ll do to Pharaoh: With a strong hand he’ll send them out free; with a strong hand he’ll drive them out of his land.”
2-6 God continued speaking to Moses, reassuring him, “I am God. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as The Strong God, but by my name God (I-Am-Present) I was not known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the country in which they lived as sojourners. But now I’ve heard the groanings of the Israelites whom the Egyptians continue to enslave and I’ve remembered my covenant. Therefore tell the Israelites:
6-8 “I am God. I will bring you out from under the cruel hard labor of Egypt. I will rescue you from slavery. I will redeem you, intervening with great acts of judgment. I’ll take you as my own people and I’ll be God to you. You’ll know that I am God, your God who brings you out from under the cruel hard labor of Egypt. I’ll bring you into the land that I promised to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and give it to you as your own country. I AM God.”
9 But when Moses delivered this message to the Israelites, they didn’t even hear him—they were that beaten down in spirit by the harsh slave conditions.
Insight
When God first promised to give Canaan to Abraham (Genesis 12:7), He also told him his descendants would be enslaved and mistreated in Egypt for four hundred years. But God promised He would deliver them and bring them into the promised land (15:13–16). Some seven hundred years later, God tasked Moses to carry out these two promises (Exodus 3:7–10) and said He would personally fulfill them: “I will free you from being slaves” and “I will bring you to the land” (6:6, 8). By: K. T. Sim
Fluff and Other Stuff
They did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. Exodus 6:9
Winnie the Pooh famously said, “If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”
I’ve learned over the years that Winnie might be on to something. When someone won’t listen to you even though following your counsel would be to their advantage, it may be that their reticence is nothing more than a small piece of fluff in their ear. Or there may be another hindrance: Some folks find it hard to listen well because they’re broken and discouraged.
Moses said he spoke to the people of Israel but they didn’t listen because their spirits were broken and their lives were hard (Exodus 6:9). The word discouragement in the Hebrew text is literally “short of breath,” the result of their bitter enslavement in Egypt. That being the case, Israel’s reluctance to listen to Moses’s instruction called for understanding and compassion, not censure.
What should we do when others won’t listen? Winnie the Pooh’s words enshrine wisdom: “Be patient.” God says, “Love is patient, love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4); it’s willing to wait. He’s not finished with that individual. He’s working through their sorrow, our love, and our prayers. Perhaps, in His time, He’ll open their ears to hear. Just be patient. By David H. Roper
Today's Reflection
What can you learn about your relationship with God from those who won’t listen to you? How do love and patience fit together in a loving relationship?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. —Matthew 5:8
Purity is not innocence— it is much more than that. Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity. Our life with God may be right and our inner purity unblemished, yet occasionally our outer life may become spotted and stained. God intentionally does not protect us from this possibility, because this is the way we recognize the necessity of maintaining our spiritual vision through personal purity. If the outer level of our spiritual life with God is impaired to the slightest degree, we must put everything else aside until we make it right. Remember that spiritual vision depends on our character— it is “the pure in heart” who “see God.”
God makes us pure by an act of His sovereign grace, but we still have something that we must carefully watch. It is through our bodily life coming in contact with other people and other points of view that we tend to become tarnished. Not only must our “inner sanctuary” be kept right with God, but also the “outer courts” must be brought into perfect harmony with the purity God gives us through His grace. Our spiritual vision and understanding is immediately blurred when our “outer court” is stained. If we want to maintain personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean refusing to do or even think certain things. And some things that are acceptable for others will become unacceptable for us.
A practical help in keeping your personal purity unblemished in your relations with other people is to begin to see them as God does. Say to yourself, “That man or that woman is perfect in Christ Jesus! That friend or that relative is perfect in Christ Jesus!”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. Biblical Psychology, 189 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Nothing to Pay With - #8402
Our grandson was three years old and he found something he really liked in the Christian bookstore. He brought it to his Daddy and he told him he really wanted it. Our son-in-law said, "Well, do you have any money?" Sadly, our grandson said, "No." But his disappointment was quickly replaced with determination as he went over to this display area where they have this fake money you can buy. He marched up to the cash register with the prize he wanted and the "money" to pay for it. Dad re-entered the scene at that point and said, "Is that really money?" Finally, our grandson faced the sad reality. He said, "No. It's not really money."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Nothing to Pay With."
All our grandson was able to come up with was woefully inadequate to pay the price, which, by the way, is a problem lots of folks have with God with trying to get their sins and their mistakes forgiven, with trying to be good enough to get into God's heaven when they die. But it's "not really money." As sincere as many of us may be, we don't have the only thing that will get us into heaven - a way to pay for all the sins of our life. Because the Bible makes it clear that the price for our sins is a spiritual death penalty; being cut off forever from the God we've disobeyed; the God we've neglected.
There's only one payment God can accept and that He will accept. And it's clearly spelled out in our word for today from the Word of God in Hebrews 9:22. Here's what he says plainly: "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." I'll tell you what, it should be my blood; it should be my eternal death that pays for my sin. But I will thank God forever He made another way with the greatest proof of His love for me and you that we could ever conceive. He sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to die so we don't have to! He paid for what I did. He paid for what you did.
Here's how God describes the payment He has made available. It's in that same section of the Bible. It says Christ came "to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Hebrews 9:26). And here's the miracle Jesus' sacrifice makes possible: "We have been made holy." Wow! That means our sins have been forgiven; they've been forgotten by God! We're right with God. "We have been made holy," it says, "through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." There's no way you can be forgiven without the shedding of blood; without your death penalty being paid. And Jesus died for that.
But we come to God with our little handful of religion, of being a good person, of Christian beliefs and rituals and activities. And we say, "Here, God. Can I be forgiven and go to heaven now?" And God says, "You can't use that to pay for your sin. The only way to pay a death penalty is someone has to die." That someone was the Son of God for you.
So the life-or-death, heaven-or-hell issue isn't how good you are, how religious you are, how long you've been doing Christian things. No, it's this: has there ever been a time when you told Jesus Christ you were going to depend on Him and Him alone, to have your sins forgiven and to go to heaven when you die? You can't say, as many do, "Well, I've always been a Christian." No one's always been a Christian. You may have always been in a Christian church or family, but you don't belong to Jesus until you consciously grab Him to save you like a drowning person would grab a lifeguard. Because He walked out of His grave. He's alive! He's waiting now to forgive you, for you to pin all your hopes on Him.
That breakthrough moment could come for you this very day - right now actually, as you tell Jesus with all your heart, "Lord, I'm Yours. I can't contribute a thing to being rescued from the penalty for my sin. You did it all, and I am all Yours, beginning right here and beginning right now this very day."
Look, there's some great information for you about how to begin this relationship and to be sure you have at our website. Please take that next step. Go to that website and check this out. It's ANewStory.com.
My grandson got the prize he hoped for that day, but only because someone else - his Daddy - paid for it. That's the only way you'll ever get the forgiveness and the heaven you hope for. What you could never pay for, He paid for it. So this is your day to claim what He paid for for you.
The Bible says in Matthew 1:24 that “Joseph did what the Lord’s angel had told him to do.” I wonder what Joseph was thinking while Jesus was being born? Was a stable in Bethlehem what he had in mind?
You’ve probably stood where Joseph stood when things haven’t turned out like you thought they would—maybe outside an emergency room or on the manicured grass of a cemetery. When you wondered why does God do what he does. Joseph didn’t let confusion disrupt his obedience. He shut down his business, packed up his family, and even went to another country. Why? Because that’s what God said to do. Because Joseph obeyed, God used him to change the world. He does the same with us. Be a modern day Joseph. God will use you to bring Jesus into the world.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 58
A David Psalm
58 1-2 Is this any way to run a country?
Is there an honest politician in the house?
Behind the scenes you brew cauldrons of evil,
behind closed doors you make deals with demons.
3-5 The wicked crawl from the wrong side of the cradle;
their first words out of the womb are lies.
Poison, lethal rattlesnake poison,
drips from their forked tongues—
Deaf to threats, deaf to charm,
decades of wax built up in their ears.
6-9 God, smash their teeth to bits,
leave them toothless tigers.
Let their lives be buckets of water spilled,
all that’s left, a damp stain in the sand.
Let them be trampled grass
worn smooth by the traffic.
Let them dissolve into snail slime,
be a miscarried fetus that never sees sunlight.
Before what they cook up is half-done, God,
throw it out with the garbage!
10-11 The righteous will call up their friends
when they see the wicked get their reward,
Serve up their blood in goblets
as they toast one another,
Everyone cheering, “It’s worth it to play by the rules!
God’s handing out trophies and tending the earth!”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Exodus 6:1-9
God said to Moses, “Now you’ll see what I’ll do to Pharaoh: With a strong hand he’ll send them out free; with a strong hand he’ll drive them out of his land.”
2-6 God continued speaking to Moses, reassuring him, “I am God. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as The Strong God, but by my name God (I-Am-Present) I was not known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the country in which they lived as sojourners. But now I’ve heard the groanings of the Israelites whom the Egyptians continue to enslave and I’ve remembered my covenant. Therefore tell the Israelites:
6-8 “I am God. I will bring you out from under the cruel hard labor of Egypt. I will rescue you from slavery. I will redeem you, intervening with great acts of judgment. I’ll take you as my own people and I’ll be God to you. You’ll know that I am God, your God who brings you out from under the cruel hard labor of Egypt. I’ll bring you into the land that I promised to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and give it to you as your own country. I AM God.”
9 But when Moses delivered this message to the Israelites, they didn’t even hear him—they were that beaten down in spirit by the harsh slave conditions.
Insight
When God first promised to give Canaan to Abraham (Genesis 12:7), He also told him his descendants would be enslaved and mistreated in Egypt for four hundred years. But God promised He would deliver them and bring them into the promised land (15:13–16). Some seven hundred years later, God tasked Moses to carry out these two promises (Exodus 3:7–10) and said He would personally fulfill them: “I will free you from being slaves” and “I will bring you to the land” (6:6, 8). By: K. T. Sim
Fluff and Other Stuff
They did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. Exodus 6:9
Winnie the Pooh famously said, “If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”
I’ve learned over the years that Winnie might be on to something. When someone won’t listen to you even though following your counsel would be to their advantage, it may be that their reticence is nothing more than a small piece of fluff in their ear. Or there may be another hindrance: Some folks find it hard to listen well because they’re broken and discouraged.
Moses said he spoke to the people of Israel but they didn’t listen because their spirits were broken and their lives were hard (Exodus 6:9). The word discouragement in the Hebrew text is literally “short of breath,” the result of their bitter enslavement in Egypt. That being the case, Israel’s reluctance to listen to Moses’s instruction called for understanding and compassion, not censure.
What should we do when others won’t listen? Winnie the Pooh’s words enshrine wisdom: “Be patient.” God says, “Love is patient, love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4); it’s willing to wait. He’s not finished with that individual. He’s working through their sorrow, our love, and our prayers. Perhaps, in His time, He’ll open their ears to hear. Just be patient. By David H. Roper
Today's Reflection
What can you learn about your relationship with God from those who won’t listen to you? How do love and patience fit together in a loving relationship?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. —Matthew 5:8
Purity is not innocence— it is much more than that. Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity. Our life with God may be right and our inner purity unblemished, yet occasionally our outer life may become spotted and stained. God intentionally does not protect us from this possibility, because this is the way we recognize the necessity of maintaining our spiritual vision through personal purity. If the outer level of our spiritual life with God is impaired to the slightest degree, we must put everything else aside until we make it right. Remember that spiritual vision depends on our character— it is “the pure in heart” who “see God.”
God makes us pure by an act of His sovereign grace, but we still have something that we must carefully watch. It is through our bodily life coming in contact with other people and other points of view that we tend to become tarnished. Not only must our “inner sanctuary” be kept right with God, but also the “outer courts” must be brought into perfect harmony with the purity God gives us through His grace. Our spiritual vision and understanding is immediately blurred when our “outer court” is stained. If we want to maintain personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean refusing to do or even think certain things. And some things that are acceptable for others will become unacceptable for us.
A practical help in keeping your personal purity unblemished in your relations with other people is to begin to see them as God does. Say to yourself, “That man or that woman is perfect in Christ Jesus! That friend or that relative is perfect in Christ Jesus!”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. Biblical Psychology, 189 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Nothing to Pay With - #8402
Our grandson was three years old and he found something he really liked in the Christian bookstore. He brought it to his Daddy and he told him he really wanted it. Our son-in-law said, "Well, do you have any money?" Sadly, our grandson said, "No." But his disappointment was quickly replaced with determination as he went over to this display area where they have this fake money you can buy. He marched up to the cash register with the prize he wanted and the "money" to pay for it. Dad re-entered the scene at that point and said, "Is that really money?" Finally, our grandson faced the sad reality. He said, "No. It's not really money."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Nothing to Pay With."
All our grandson was able to come up with was woefully inadequate to pay the price, which, by the way, is a problem lots of folks have with God with trying to get their sins and their mistakes forgiven, with trying to be good enough to get into God's heaven when they die. But it's "not really money." As sincere as many of us may be, we don't have the only thing that will get us into heaven - a way to pay for all the sins of our life. Because the Bible makes it clear that the price for our sins is a spiritual death penalty; being cut off forever from the God we've disobeyed; the God we've neglected.
There's only one payment God can accept and that He will accept. And it's clearly spelled out in our word for today from the Word of God in Hebrews 9:22. Here's what he says plainly: "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." I'll tell you what, it should be my blood; it should be my eternal death that pays for my sin. But I will thank God forever He made another way with the greatest proof of His love for me and you that we could ever conceive. He sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to die so we don't have to! He paid for what I did. He paid for what you did.
Here's how God describes the payment He has made available. It's in that same section of the Bible. It says Christ came "to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Hebrews 9:26). And here's the miracle Jesus' sacrifice makes possible: "We have been made holy." Wow! That means our sins have been forgiven; they've been forgotten by God! We're right with God. "We have been made holy," it says, "through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." There's no way you can be forgiven without the shedding of blood; without your death penalty being paid. And Jesus died for that.
But we come to God with our little handful of religion, of being a good person, of Christian beliefs and rituals and activities. And we say, "Here, God. Can I be forgiven and go to heaven now?" And God says, "You can't use that to pay for your sin. The only way to pay a death penalty is someone has to die." That someone was the Son of God for you.
So the life-or-death, heaven-or-hell issue isn't how good you are, how religious you are, how long you've been doing Christian things. No, it's this: has there ever been a time when you told Jesus Christ you were going to depend on Him and Him alone, to have your sins forgiven and to go to heaven when you die? You can't say, as many do, "Well, I've always been a Christian." No one's always been a Christian. You may have always been in a Christian church or family, but you don't belong to Jesus until you consciously grab Him to save you like a drowning person would grab a lifeguard. Because He walked out of His grave. He's alive! He's waiting now to forgive you, for you to pin all your hopes on Him.
That breakthrough moment could come for you this very day - right now actually, as you tell Jesus with all your heart, "Lord, I'm Yours. I can't contribute a thing to being rescued from the penalty for my sin. You did it all, and I am all Yours, beginning right here and beginning right now this very day."
Look, there's some great information for you about how to begin this relationship and to be sure you have at our website. Please take that next step. Go to that website and check this out. It's ANewStory.com.
My grandson got the prize he hoped for that day, but only because someone else - his Daddy - paid for it. That's the only way you'll ever get the forgiveness and the heaven you hope for. What you could never pay for, He paid for it. So this is your day to claim what He paid for for you.
Monday, March 25, 2019
Psalm 55 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: SEEING THE UNSEEN
We can’t see the future. It’s one limitation we all share. In Mark Chapter 5 we read about Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. The Jairus we see in this story was a desperate father begging for Jesus to heal his daughter. His meeting with Jesus was interrupted by a message from home– “Your daughter is dead.” But Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
Faith sometimes begins by ignoring what people say. We have a choice to live by the facts or see by faith. Jairus opted for faith and Jesus. Mark it down! God knows you and I are blind. He knows living by faith and not by sight doesn’t come naturally. And I think that’s one reason he raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Not for her sake—she was better off in heaven. But for our sake—to teach us that heaven sees when we trust.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 55
A David Psalm
55 1-3 Open your ears, God, to my prayer;
don’t pretend you don’t hear me knocking.
Come close and whisper your answer.
I really need you.
I shudder at the mean voice,
quail before the evil eye,
As they pile on the guilt,
stockpile angry slander.
4-8 My insides are turned inside out;
specters of death have me down.
I shake with fear,
I shudder from head to foot.
“Who will give me wings,” I ask—
“wings like a dove?”
Get me out of here on dove wings;
I want some peace and quiet.
I want a walk in the country,
I want a cabin in the woods.
I’m desperate for a change
from rage and stormy weather.
9-11 Come down hard, Lord—slit their tongues.
I’m appalled how they’ve split the city
Into rival gangs
prowling the alleys
Day and night spoiling for a fight,
trash piled in the streets,
Even shopkeepers gouging and cheating
in broad daylight.
12-14 This isn’t the neighborhood bully
mocking me—I could take that.
This isn’t a foreign devil spitting
invective—I could tune that out.
It’s you! We grew up together!
You! My best friend!
Those long hours of leisure as we walked
arm in arm, God a third party to our conversation.
15 Haul my betrayers off alive to hell—let them
experience the horror, let them
feel every desolate detail of a damned life.
16-19 I call to God;
God will help me.
At dusk, dawn, and noon I sigh
deep sighs—he hears, he rescues.
My life is well and whole, secure
in the middle of danger
Even while thousands
are lined up against me.
God hears it all, and from his judge’s bench
puts them in their place.
But, set in their ways, they won’t change;
they pay him no mind.
20-21 And this, my best friend, betrayed his best friends;
his life betrayed his word.
All my life I’ve been charmed by his speech,
never dreaming he’d turn on me.
His words, which were music to my ears,
turned to daggers in my heart.
22-23 Pile your troubles on God’s shoulders—
he’ll carry your load, he’ll help you out.
He’ll never let good people
topple into ruin.
But you, God, will throw the others
into a muddy bog,
Cut the lifespan of assassins
and traitors in half.
And I trust in you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, March 25, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Galatians 6:7-10
Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
9-10 So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
Insight
The idea of perseverance or “keeping at something over time” is expressed twice in Galatians 6:9. First, readers are exhorted to “not become weary in doing good.” The word translated “become weary” (enkakeo) can also be rendered “become tired” or “lose heart.” In Luke 18:1, enkakeo is translated as “not give up” when Jesus told His disciples “they should always pray and not give up.” Each time enkakeo is used in the New Testament it’s expressed as something not to be done.
Second, perseverance is indirectly encouraged in Galatians 6:9 through the words “we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (ekluo). This word can also be translated “tire,” “become weak,” “lose courage,” or “faint.” In Hebrews 12:3, the Lord Jesus is used as the chief example of perseverance for those who are subject to “losing heart.” By: Arthur Jackson
The Blessing Is Coming
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
A friend and I went for a walk with her grandkids. While pushing the stroller, she commented that her steps were being wasted—they weren’t being counted on the activity tracker she wore on her wrist because she wasn’t swinging her arm. I reminded her that those steps were still helping her physical health. “Yeah,” she laughed. “But I really want that electronic gold star!”
I understand how she feels! Working toward something without immediate results is disheartening. But rewards aren’t always immediate or immediately visible.
When that’s the case, it’s easy to feel that the good things we do are useless, even helping a friend or being kind to a stranger. Paul explained to the church in Galatia, however, that “a man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7). But we must “not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest” (v. 9). Doing good isn’t the way to gain salvation, and the text doesn’t specify whether what we reap will be now or in heaven, but we can be assured that there will be “a harvest of blessing” (6:9 nlt).
Doing good is difficult, especially when we don’t see or know what the “harvest” will be. But as with my friend who still gained the physical benefit from walking, it’s worth continuing to do good because the blessing is coming! By Julie Schwab
Today's Reflection
Are you discouraged? Ask God to help you trust Him to be faithful in what He’s called you to do. What good thing can you do for someone today?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 25, 2019
Maintaining the Proper Relationship
…the friend of the bridegroom… —John 3:29
Goodness and purity should never be traits that draw attention to themselves, but should simply be magnets that draw people to Jesus Christ. If my holiness is not drawing others to Him, it is not the right kind of holiness; it is only an influence which awakens undue emotions and evil desires in people and diverts them from heading in the right direction. A person who is a beautiful saint can be a hindrance in leading people to the Lord by presenting only what Christ has done for him, instead of presenting Jesus Christ Himself. Others will be left with this thought— “What a fine person that man is!” That is not being a true “friend of the bridegroom”— I am increasing all the time; He is not.
To maintain this friendship and faithfulness to the Bridegroom, we have to be more careful to have the moral and vital relationship to Him above everything else, including obedience. Sometimes there is nothing to obey and our only task is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, seeing that nothing interferes with it. Only occasionally is it a matter of obedience. At those times when a crisis arises, we have to find out what God’s will is. Yet most of our life is not spent in trying to be consciously obedient, but in maintaining this relationship— being the “friend of the bridegroom.” Christian work can actually be a means of diverting a person’s focus away from Jesus Christ. Instead of being friends “of the bridegroom,” we may become amateur providences of God to someone else, working against Him while we use His weapons.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, March 25, 2019
Bring Your Bowl and I'll Feed You - #8401
I was with some missionaries in Guadalajara, Mexico, and David was there leading a team that was reaching young Latin Americans through a historic youth broadcast we had going. Now David is a big guy and I had my picture taken with him; he was wearing a tie - I was wearing a sport shirt. It looked like "bring your son to work day." Guess who looked like the son. Because of the crime rate in David's area, he and his family needed a guard dog, and they had one; a big one that's a match even for his master, David. The dog was appropriately named General and he was pretty much in charge at the house. When David came home from a night of ministry, General was right there at the gate, waiting to play. Playing with this aggressive German Shepherd could cost you a finger or two if you're not careful. But, somehow, David had done a good job of mastering the dog. In fact, I heard him tell General, "Get your bowl, and I'll feed you!" General just wanted his master to give him food, but David wanted him to go for it. So, this German Shepherd bolted up the walk to his big, empty plastic bowl, grabbed it in his iron jaws, and trotted up to his master with it. Sure enough, if he got his bowl, his master would fill it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bring Your Bowl and I'll Feed You."
God has so much more He wants to give you. So much more He wants to do for you than you've experienced yet. But He might be waiting for you to take a step in that direction first. Psalm 81:10, our word for today from the Word of God - I love this verse: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it." Sound familiar? In a sense, God's saying "Bring your bowl and I'll feed you." He wants us to want it; to pursue it.
Here's the sad reaction God often receives from His people though. The passage goes on to say, "But My people would not listen to Me; Israel would not submit to Me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. If My people would but listen to Me, if they would follow My ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes. You would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." God's saying, "I have so much to give you, but you're too busy going your own way to pursue it."
But I believe there is someone listening right now whose heart condition could be described in one word - restless. You go to God's meetings, you believe God's beliefs, you work in God's work, you eat what's served to you spiritually, but your heart's not satisfied is it? Here's why. Deuteronomy 8:3 - "I caused you to hunger so I could feed you with manna neither you nor your fathers have tasted." God said to His ancient people, "I made you hungry, I made you want more, I made you restless, so you'd be ready for something more amazing than anything you or your parents have ever experienced."
So, are you hungry for God's "something more"? He's more than ready to pour it into your life, if you'll open up to it. That means you'll have to say goodbye to spiritual business as usual - mediocrity. Are you willing to say, "Lord, I want more of You than I've ever experienced, whatever it takes. I want to make more of a difference than I've ever made whatever it takes"? Then, start to pray that way. Immerse yourself in His Book with this appetite for a new touch from God. Be with others who want a personal revival. Go after the sin in your life aggressively.
When my friend told his dog to "Get your bowl and I'll feed you," the dog dropped his toys, stopped everything else he was doing and did what he had to do to get what his master wanted to give him. Your Master is saying to you, "There's so much more for your marriage, your relationships, your ministry, your relationship with Me."
It's time to drop every other trivial pursuit and go for God's banquet. Jesus said it, those who "hunger and thirst after righteousness," He said they're the ones who'll be filled.
We can’t see the future. It’s one limitation we all share. In Mark Chapter 5 we read about Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. The Jairus we see in this story was a desperate father begging for Jesus to heal his daughter. His meeting with Jesus was interrupted by a message from home– “Your daughter is dead.” But Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
Faith sometimes begins by ignoring what people say. We have a choice to live by the facts or see by faith. Jairus opted for faith and Jesus. Mark it down! God knows you and I are blind. He knows living by faith and not by sight doesn’t come naturally. And I think that’s one reason he raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Not for her sake—she was better off in heaven. But for our sake—to teach us that heaven sees when we trust.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 55
A David Psalm
55 1-3 Open your ears, God, to my prayer;
don’t pretend you don’t hear me knocking.
Come close and whisper your answer.
I really need you.
I shudder at the mean voice,
quail before the evil eye,
As they pile on the guilt,
stockpile angry slander.
4-8 My insides are turned inside out;
specters of death have me down.
I shake with fear,
I shudder from head to foot.
“Who will give me wings,” I ask—
“wings like a dove?”
Get me out of here on dove wings;
I want some peace and quiet.
I want a walk in the country,
I want a cabin in the woods.
I’m desperate for a change
from rage and stormy weather.
9-11 Come down hard, Lord—slit their tongues.
I’m appalled how they’ve split the city
Into rival gangs
prowling the alleys
Day and night spoiling for a fight,
trash piled in the streets,
Even shopkeepers gouging and cheating
in broad daylight.
12-14 This isn’t the neighborhood bully
mocking me—I could take that.
This isn’t a foreign devil spitting
invective—I could tune that out.
It’s you! We grew up together!
You! My best friend!
Those long hours of leisure as we walked
arm in arm, God a third party to our conversation.
15 Haul my betrayers off alive to hell—let them
experience the horror, let them
feel every desolate detail of a damned life.
16-19 I call to God;
God will help me.
At dusk, dawn, and noon I sigh
deep sighs—he hears, he rescues.
My life is well and whole, secure
in the middle of danger
Even while thousands
are lined up against me.
God hears it all, and from his judge’s bench
puts them in their place.
But, set in their ways, they won’t change;
they pay him no mind.
20-21 And this, my best friend, betrayed his best friends;
his life betrayed his word.
All my life I’ve been charmed by his speech,
never dreaming he’d turn on me.
His words, which were music to my ears,
turned to daggers in my heart.
22-23 Pile your troubles on God’s shoulders—
he’ll carry your load, he’ll help you out.
He’ll never let good people
topple into ruin.
But you, God, will throw the others
into a muddy bog,
Cut the lifespan of assassins
and traitors in half.
And I trust in you.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, March 25, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Galatians 6:7-10
Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
9-10 So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
Insight
The idea of perseverance or “keeping at something over time” is expressed twice in Galatians 6:9. First, readers are exhorted to “not become weary in doing good.” The word translated “become weary” (enkakeo) can also be rendered “become tired” or “lose heart.” In Luke 18:1, enkakeo is translated as “not give up” when Jesus told His disciples “they should always pray and not give up.” Each time enkakeo is used in the New Testament it’s expressed as something not to be done.
Second, perseverance is indirectly encouraged in Galatians 6:9 through the words “we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (ekluo). This word can also be translated “tire,” “become weak,” “lose courage,” or “faint.” In Hebrews 12:3, the Lord Jesus is used as the chief example of perseverance for those who are subject to “losing heart.” By: Arthur Jackson
The Blessing Is Coming
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
A friend and I went for a walk with her grandkids. While pushing the stroller, she commented that her steps were being wasted—they weren’t being counted on the activity tracker she wore on her wrist because she wasn’t swinging her arm. I reminded her that those steps were still helping her physical health. “Yeah,” she laughed. “But I really want that electronic gold star!”
I understand how she feels! Working toward something without immediate results is disheartening. But rewards aren’t always immediate or immediately visible.
When that’s the case, it’s easy to feel that the good things we do are useless, even helping a friend or being kind to a stranger. Paul explained to the church in Galatia, however, that “a man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7). But we must “not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest” (v. 9). Doing good isn’t the way to gain salvation, and the text doesn’t specify whether what we reap will be now or in heaven, but we can be assured that there will be “a harvest of blessing” (6:9 nlt).
Doing good is difficult, especially when we don’t see or know what the “harvest” will be. But as with my friend who still gained the physical benefit from walking, it’s worth continuing to do good because the blessing is coming! By Julie Schwab
Today's Reflection
Are you discouraged? Ask God to help you trust Him to be faithful in what He’s called you to do. What good thing can you do for someone today?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 25, 2019
Maintaining the Proper Relationship
…the friend of the bridegroom… —John 3:29
Goodness and purity should never be traits that draw attention to themselves, but should simply be magnets that draw people to Jesus Christ. If my holiness is not drawing others to Him, it is not the right kind of holiness; it is only an influence which awakens undue emotions and evil desires in people and diverts them from heading in the right direction. A person who is a beautiful saint can be a hindrance in leading people to the Lord by presenting only what Christ has done for him, instead of presenting Jesus Christ Himself. Others will be left with this thought— “What a fine person that man is!” That is not being a true “friend of the bridegroom”— I am increasing all the time; He is not.
To maintain this friendship and faithfulness to the Bridegroom, we have to be more careful to have the moral and vital relationship to Him above everything else, including obedience. Sometimes there is nothing to obey and our only task is to maintain a vital connection with Jesus Christ, seeing that nothing interferes with it. Only occasionally is it a matter of obedience. At those times when a crisis arises, we have to find out what God’s will is. Yet most of our life is not spent in trying to be consciously obedient, but in maintaining this relationship— being the “friend of the bridegroom.” Christian work can actually be a means of diverting a person’s focus away from Jesus Christ. Instead of being friends “of the bridegroom,” we may become amateur providences of God to someone else, working against Him while we use His weapons.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, March 25, 2019
Bring Your Bowl and I'll Feed You - #8401
I was with some missionaries in Guadalajara, Mexico, and David was there leading a team that was reaching young Latin Americans through a historic youth broadcast we had going. Now David is a big guy and I had my picture taken with him; he was wearing a tie - I was wearing a sport shirt. It looked like "bring your son to work day." Guess who looked like the son. Because of the crime rate in David's area, he and his family needed a guard dog, and they had one; a big one that's a match even for his master, David. The dog was appropriately named General and he was pretty much in charge at the house. When David came home from a night of ministry, General was right there at the gate, waiting to play. Playing with this aggressive German Shepherd could cost you a finger or two if you're not careful. But, somehow, David had done a good job of mastering the dog. In fact, I heard him tell General, "Get your bowl, and I'll feed you!" General just wanted his master to give him food, but David wanted him to go for it. So, this German Shepherd bolted up the walk to his big, empty plastic bowl, grabbed it in his iron jaws, and trotted up to his master with it. Sure enough, if he got his bowl, his master would fill it.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Bring Your Bowl and I'll Feed You."
God has so much more He wants to give you. So much more He wants to do for you than you've experienced yet. But He might be waiting for you to take a step in that direction first. Psalm 81:10, our word for today from the Word of God - I love this verse: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it." Sound familiar? In a sense, God's saying "Bring your bowl and I'll feed you." He wants us to want it; to pursue it.
Here's the sad reaction God often receives from His people though. The passage goes on to say, "But My people would not listen to Me; Israel would not submit to Me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. If My people would but listen to Me, if they would follow My ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes. You would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." God's saying, "I have so much to give you, but you're too busy going your own way to pursue it."
But I believe there is someone listening right now whose heart condition could be described in one word - restless. You go to God's meetings, you believe God's beliefs, you work in God's work, you eat what's served to you spiritually, but your heart's not satisfied is it? Here's why. Deuteronomy 8:3 - "I caused you to hunger so I could feed you with manna neither you nor your fathers have tasted." God said to His ancient people, "I made you hungry, I made you want more, I made you restless, so you'd be ready for something more amazing than anything you or your parents have ever experienced."
So, are you hungry for God's "something more"? He's more than ready to pour it into your life, if you'll open up to it. That means you'll have to say goodbye to spiritual business as usual - mediocrity. Are you willing to say, "Lord, I want more of You than I've ever experienced, whatever it takes. I want to make more of a difference than I've ever made whatever it takes"? Then, start to pray that way. Immerse yourself in His Book with this appetite for a new touch from God. Be with others who want a personal revival. Go after the sin in your life aggressively.
When my friend told his dog to "Get your bowl and I'll feed you," the dog dropped his toys, stopped everything else he was doing and did what he had to do to get what his master wanted to give him. Your Master is saying to you, "There's so much more for your marriage, your relationships, your ministry, your relationship with Me."
It's time to drop every other trivial pursuit and go for God's banquet. Jesus said it, those who "hunger and thirst after righteousness," He said they're the ones who'll be filled.
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Psalm 53, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: The Temple Curtain Torn
On Calvary's Hill, Jesus cried out in a loud voice and died. Then the curtain in the Temple was torn into two pieces, from the top to the bottom. What did fifteen-hundred years of a curtain-draped Holy of Holies communicate? Simple: God is holy! God IS holy-separate from us and unapproachable. Even Moses was told, "You cannot see my face because no one can see me and live." God is holy and we are sinners, and there is a distance between us.
But Jesus hasn't left us with an unapproachable God. 1 Timothy 2:5 says, "There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ." When Jesus' flesh was torn on the cross, the curtain was torn in two. With no hesitation, we are welcome into God's presence-any day, any time. The barrier of sin is down. No more curtain!
From On Calvary's Hill
Psalm 53
A David Psalm
53 1-2 Bilious and bloated, they gas,
“God is gone.”
It’s poison gas—
they foul themselves, they poison
Rivers and skies;
thistles are their cash crop.
God sticks his head out of heaven.
He looks around.
He’s looking for someone not stupid—
one man, even, God-expectant,
just one God-ready woman.
3 He comes up empty. A string
of zeros. Useless, unshepherded
Sheep, taking turns pretending
to be Shepherd.
The ninety and nine
follow the one.
4 Don’t they know anything,
all these impostors?
Don’t they know
they can’t get away with this,
Treating people like a fast-food meal
over which they’re too busy to pray?
5 Night is coming for them, and nightmare—
a nightmare they’ll never wake up from.
God will make hash of these squatters,
send them packing for good.
6 Is there anyone around to save Israel?
God turns life around.
Turned-around Jacob skips rope,
turned-around Israel sings laughter.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: 2 Chronicles 5:7-14
The priests brought the Chest of the Covenant of God to its place in the Inner Sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim. The outspread wings of the cherubim formed a canopy over the Chest and its poles. The ends of the poles were so long that they stuck out from the entrance of the Inner Sanctuary, but were not noticeable further out—they’re still there today. There was nothing in the Chest itself but the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb where God made a covenant with Israel after bringing them up from Egypt.
11-13 The priests then left the Holy Place. All the priests there were consecrated, regardless of rank or assignment; and all the Levites who were musicians were there—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their families, dressed in their worship robes; the choir and orchestra assembled on the east side of the Altar and were joined by 120 priests blowing trumpets. The choir and trumpets made one voice of praise and thanks to God—orchestra and choir in perfect harmony singing and playing praise to God:
Yes! God is good!
His loyal love goes on forever!
13-14 Then a billowing cloud filled The Temple of God. The priests couldn’t even carry out their duties because of the cloud—the glory of God!—that filled The Temple of God.
Insight
Why is so much detail given about the tabernacle and the ark? In today’s passage we read that “There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb” (2 Chronicles 5:10), a seemingly unnecessary detail. The tabernacle was the place God dwelt with His people, so details mattered. The mention of the contents of the ark was the “contract” of the relationship between God and His people. It reinforced that God was with them. By: J.R. Hudberg
Singing in the Spirit
Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18–19
During the Welsh Revivals of the early twentieth century, Bible teacher and author G. Campbell Morgan described what he observed. He believed the presence of God’s Holy Spirit was moving on “billowing waves of sacred song.” Morgan wrote that he had seen the unifying influence of music in meetings that encouraged voluntary prayers, confession, and spontaneous singing. If someone got carried away by their feelings and prayed too long, or spoke in a way that didn’t resonate with others, someone would begin to softly sing. Others would gently join in, the chorus swelling in volume until drowning out all other sound.
The renewal in song that Morgan describes has its story in the Scriptures, where music plays a prominent role. Music was used to celebrate victories (Exodus 15:1–21); in worshipful dedication of the temple (2 Chronicles 5:12–14); and as a part of military strategy (20:21–23). At the center of the Bible we find a songbook (Psalms 1–150). And in Paul’s New Testament letter to the Ephesians we read this description of life in the Spirit: “[Speak] to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:19).
In conflict, in worship, in all of life, the music of our faith can help us find one voice. In harmonies old and new we’re renewed again and again, not by might, nor by power, but the Spirit and songs of our God. By Mart DeHaan
Today's Reflection
What song has spoken to your heart recently? How can music encourage you in your relationship with God?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Decreasing for His Purpose
He must increase, but I must decrease. —John 3:30
If you become a necessity to someone else’s life, you are out of God’s will. As a servant, your primary responsibility is to be a “friend of the bridegroom” (John 3:29). When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus Christ, you know that your influence has been used in the right direction. And when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don’t try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even ten times stronger, until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from Jesus Christ. Over and over again, we try to be amateur providences in someone’s life. We are indeed amateurs, coming in and actually preventing God’s will and saying, “This person should not have to experience this difficulty.” Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, our sympathy gets in the way. One day that person will say to us, “You are a thief; you stole my desire to follow Jesus, and because of you I lost sight of Him.”
Beware of rejoicing with someone over the wrong thing, but always look to rejoice over the right thing. “…the friend of the bridegroom…rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29-30). This was spoken with joy, not with sadness— at last they were to see the Bridegroom! And John said this was his joy. It represents a stepping aside, an absolute removal of the servant, never to be thought of again.
Listen intently with your entire being until you hear the Bridegroom’s voice in the life of another person. And never give any thought to what devastation, difficulties, or sickness it will bring. Just rejoice with godly excitement that His voice has been heard. You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it (see Matthew 10:34).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end.
Not Knowing Whither
On Calvary's Hill, Jesus cried out in a loud voice and died. Then the curtain in the Temple was torn into two pieces, from the top to the bottom. What did fifteen-hundred years of a curtain-draped Holy of Holies communicate? Simple: God is holy! God IS holy-separate from us and unapproachable. Even Moses was told, "You cannot see my face because no one can see me and live." God is holy and we are sinners, and there is a distance between us.
But Jesus hasn't left us with an unapproachable God. 1 Timothy 2:5 says, "There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ." When Jesus' flesh was torn on the cross, the curtain was torn in two. With no hesitation, we are welcome into God's presence-any day, any time. The barrier of sin is down. No more curtain!
From On Calvary's Hill
Psalm 53
A David Psalm
53 1-2 Bilious and bloated, they gas,
“God is gone.”
It’s poison gas—
they foul themselves, they poison
Rivers and skies;
thistles are their cash crop.
God sticks his head out of heaven.
He looks around.
He’s looking for someone not stupid—
one man, even, God-expectant,
just one God-ready woman.
3 He comes up empty. A string
of zeros. Useless, unshepherded
Sheep, taking turns pretending
to be Shepherd.
The ninety and nine
follow the one.
4 Don’t they know anything,
all these impostors?
Don’t they know
they can’t get away with this,
Treating people like a fast-food meal
over which they’re too busy to pray?
5 Night is coming for them, and nightmare—
a nightmare they’ll never wake up from.
God will make hash of these squatters,
send them packing for good.
6 Is there anyone around to save Israel?
God turns life around.
Turned-around Jacob skips rope,
turned-around Israel sings laughter.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: 2 Chronicles 5:7-14
The priests brought the Chest of the Covenant of God to its place in the Inner Sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim. The outspread wings of the cherubim formed a canopy over the Chest and its poles. The ends of the poles were so long that they stuck out from the entrance of the Inner Sanctuary, but were not noticeable further out—they’re still there today. There was nothing in the Chest itself but the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb where God made a covenant with Israel after bringing them up from Egypt.
11-13 The priests then left the Holy Place. All the priests there were consecrated, regardless of rank or assignment; and all the Levites who were musicians were there—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their families, dressed in their worship robes; the choir and orchestra assembled on the east side of the Altar and were joined by 120 priests blowing trumpets. The choir and trumpets made one voice of praise and thanks to God—orchestra and choir in perfect harmony singing and playing praise to God:
Yes! God is good!
His loyal love goes on forever!
13-14 Then a billowing cloud filled The Temple of God. The priests couldn’t even carry out their duties because of the cloud—the glory of God!—that filled The Temple of God.
Insight
Why is so much detail given about the tabernacle and the ark? In today’s passage we read that “There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb” (2 Chronicles 5:10), a seemingly unnecessary detail. The tabernacle was the place God dwelt with His people, so details mattered. The mention of the contents of the ark was the “contract” of the relationship between God and His people. It reinforced that God was with them. By: J.R. Hudberg
Singing in the Spirit
Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18–19
During the Welsh Revivals of the early twentieth century, Bible teacher and author G. Campbell Morgan described what he observed. He believed the presence of God’s Holy Spirit was moving on “billowing waves of sacred song.” Morgan wrote that he had seen the unifying influence of music in meetings that encouraged voluntary prayers, confession, and spontaneous singing. If someone got carried away by their feelings and prayed too long, or spoke in a way that didn’t resonate with others, someone would begin to softly sing. Others would gently join in, the chorus swelling in volume until drowning out all other sound.
The renewal in song that Morgan describes has its story in the Scriptures, where music plays a prominent role. Music was used to celebrate victories (Exodus 15:1–21); in worshipful dedication of the temple (2 Chronicles 5:12–14); and as a part of military strategy (20:21–23). At the center of the Bible we find a songbook (Psalms 1–150). And in Paul’s New Testament letter to the Ephesians we read this description of life in the Spirit: “[Speak] to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:19).
In conflict, in worship, in all of life, the music of our faith can help us find one voice. In harmonies old and new we’re renewed again and again, not by might, nor by power, but the Spirit and songs of our God. By Mart DeHaan
Today's Reflection
What song has spoken to your heart recently? How can music encourage you in your relationship with God?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Decreasing for His Purpose
He must increase, but I must decrease. —John 3:30
If you become a necessity to someone else’s life, you are out of God’s will. As a servant, your primary responsibility is to be a “friend of the bridegroom” (John 3:29). When you see a person who is close to grasping the claims of Jesus Christ, you know that your influence has been used in the right direction. And when you begin to see that person in the middle of a difficult and painful struggle, don’t try to prevent it, but pray that his difficulty will grow even ten times stronger, until no power on earth or in hell could hold him away from Jesus Christ. Over and over again, we try to be amateur providences in someone’s life. We are indeed amateurs, coming in and actually preventing God’s will and saying, “This person should not have to experience this difficulty.” Instead of being friends of the Bridegroom, our sympathy gets in the way. One day that person will say to us, “You are a thief; you stole my desire to follow Jesus, and because of you I lost sight of Him.”
Beware of rejoicing with someone over the wrong thing, but always look to rejoice over the right thing. “…the friend of the bridegroom…rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29-30). This was spoken with joy, not with sadness— at last they were to see the Bridegroom! And John said this was his joy. It represents a stepping aside, an absolute removal of the servant, never to be thought of again.
Listen intently with your entire being until you hear the Bridegroom’s voice in the life of another person. And never give any thought to what devastation, difficulties, or sickness it will bring. Just rejoice with godly excitement that His voice has been heard. You may often have to watch Jesus Christ wreck a life before He saves it (see Matthew 10:34).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end.
Not Knowing Whither
Saturday, March 23, 2019
John 12:27-50, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A Cry of Victory
"It is finished." Jesus cried! Stop and listen. Can you imagine the cry from the cross? What was finished? The history-long plan of redeeming man. The message of God to man. The works done by Jesus as a man on earth were finished.
Had Jesus' hands not been fastened down, I dare say that a triumphant fist would have punched the dark sky. This is no cry of despair. It is a cry of completion. A cry of victory. A cry of fulfillment. Yes, even a cry of relief. "Take me home." Come, ten thousand angels! Come and take this wounded one to the cradle of his Father's arms.
Farewell, manger's infant. Yes, take him home. Take this Son to his Father. He deserves a rest. Bless you, holy ambassador. Go home, rest well. The battle is over! It is finished.
From On Calvary's Hill
John 12:27-50
“Right now I am storm-tossed. And what am I going to say? ‘Father, get me out of this’? No, this is why I came in the first place. I’ll say, ‘Father, put your glory on display.’”
A voice came out of the sky: “I have glorified it, and I’ll glorify it again.”
29 The listening crowd said, “Thunder!”
Others said, “An angel spoke to him!”
30-33 Jesus said, “The voice didn’t come for me but for you. At this moment the world is in crisis. Now Satan, the ruler of this world, will be thrown out. And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me and gather them around me.” He put it this way to show how he was going to be put to death.
34 Voices from the crowd answered, “We heard from God’s Law that the Messiah lasts forever. How can it be necessary, as you put it, that the Son of Man ‘be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”
35-36 Jesus said, “For a brief time still, the light is among you. Walk by the light you have so darkness doesn’t destroy you. If you walk in darkness, you don’t know where you’re going. As you have the light, believe in the light. Then the light will be within you, and shining through your lives. You’ll be children of light.”
36-40 Jesus said all this, and then went into hiding. All these God-signs he had given them and they still didn’t get it, still wouldn’t trust him. This proved that the prophet Isaiah was right:
God, who believed what we preached?
Who recognized God’s arm, outstretched and ready to act?
First they wouldn’t believe, then they couldn’t—again, just as Isaiah said:
Their eyes are blinded,
their hearts are hardened,
So that they wouldn’t see with their eyes
and perceive with their hearts,
And turn to me, God,
so I could heal them.
41 Isaiah said these things after he got a glimpse of God’s cascading brightness that would pour through the Messiah.
42-43 On the other hand, a considerable number from the ranks of the leaders did believe. But because of the Pharisees, they didn’t come out in the open with it. They were afraid of getting kicked out of the meeting place. When push came to shove they cared more for human approval than for God’s glory.
44-46 Jesus summed it all up when he cried out, “Whoever believes in me, believes not just in me but in the One who sent me. Whoever looks at me is looking, in fact, at the One who sent me. I am Light that has come into the world so that all who believe in me won’t have to stay any longer in the dark.
47-50 “If anyone hears what I am saying and doesn’t take it seriously, I don’t reject him. I didn’t come to reject the world; I came to save the world. But you need to know that whoever puts me off, refusing to take in what I’m saying, is willfully choosing rejection. The Word, the Word-made-flesh that I have spoken and that I am, that Word and no other is the last word. I’m not making any of this up on my own. The Father who sent me gave me orders, told me what to say and how to say it. And I know exactly what his command produces: real and eternal life. That’s all I have to say. What the Father told me, I tell you.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
Insight
Paul’s call to ministry included the call to suffer (Acts 9:15–16). In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul described extensively his hardships. He was “hard pressed on every side . . . persecuted . . . struck down . . . always being given over to death” (vv. 8–11). Already adequately sustained by God’s sovereign power and sufficient grace (vv. 7–9), Paul was spurred on by God’s surpassing glory (vv. 16–18). Even though physically ravaged, God was renewing him every day. With eternity in view, Paul considered his sufferings as “momentary” because they would not follow him into his eternal life, and “light” because the reward that awaited him was far weightier (v. 17). Like Paul, we can look beyond our current troubles and see the “glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (v. 17 nlt). By: K. T. Sim
Obscured by Clouds
We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. 2 Corinthians 4:18
A rare supermoon appeared in November 2016—the moon in its orbit reached its closest point to the earth in over sixty years and so appeared bigger and brighter than at other times. But for me that day the skies were shrouded in gray. Although I saw photos of this wonder from friends in other places, as I gazed upward I had to trust that the supermoon was lurking behind the clouds.
The apostle Paul faced many hardships but believed that what is unseen will last forever. He said how his “momentary troubles” achieve “an eternal glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Thus he could fix his eyes “not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,” because what is unseen is eternal (v. 18). Paul yearned that the Corinthians and our faith would grow, and although we suffer, that we too would trust in God. We might not be able to see Him, but we can believe He is renewing us day by day (v. 16).
I thought about how God is unseen but eternal when I gazed at the clouds that day, knowing that the supermoon was hidden but there. And I hoped the next time I was tempted to believe that God was far from me, I would fix my eyes on what is unseen. By Amy Boucher Pye
Today's Reflection
What does it mean for you to fix your eyes on what is unseen? How does your hope in Jesus help you face the difficulties of life?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Am I Carnally Minded?
Where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal…? —1 Corinthians 3:3
The natural man, or unbeliever, knows nothing about carnality. The desires of the flesh warring against the Spirit, and the Spirit warring against the flesh, which began at rebirth, are what produce carnality and the awareness of it. But Paul said, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). In other words, carnality will disappear.
Are you quarrelsome and easily upset over small things? Do you think that no one who is a Christian is ever like that? Paul said they are, and he connected these attitudes with carnality. Is there a truth in the Bible that instantly awakens a spirit of malice or resentment in you? If so, that is proof that you are still carnal. If the process of sanctification is continuing in your life, there will be no trace of that kind of spirit remaining.
If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He doesn’t ask you to make it right; He only asks you to accept the light of truth, and then He will make it right. A child of the light will confess sin instantly and stand completely open before God. But a child of the darkness will say, “Oh, I can explain that.” When the light shines and the Spirit brings conviction of sin, be a child of the light. Confess your wrongdoing, and God will deal with it. If, however, you try to vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness.
What is the proof that carnality has gone? Never deceive yourself; when carnality is gone you will know it— it is the most real thing you can imagine. And God will see to it that you have a number of opportunities to prove to yourself the miracle of His grace. The proof is in a very practical test. You will find yourself saying, “If this had happened before, I would have had the spirit of resentment!” And you will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else. The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L
"It is finished." Jesus cried! Stop and listen. Can you imagine the cry from the cross? What was finished? The history-long plan of redeeming man. The message of God to man. The works done by Jesus as a man on earth were finished.
Had Jesus' hands not been fastened down, I dare say that a triumphant fist would have punched the dark sky. This is no cry of despair. It is a cry of completion. A cry of victory. A cry of fulfillment. Yes, even a cry of relief. "Take me home." Come, ten thousand angels! Come and take this wounded one to the cradle of his Father's arms.
Farewell, manger's infant. Yes, take him home. Take this Son to his Father. He deserves a rest. Bless you, holy ambassador. Go home, rest well. The battle is over! It is finished.
From On Calvary's Hill
John 12:27-50
“Right now I am storm-tossed. And what am I going to say? ‘Father, get me out of this’? No, this is why I came in the first place. I’ll say, ‘Father, put your glory on display.’”
A voice came out of the sky: “I have glorified it, and I’ll glorify it again.”
29 The listening crowd said, “Thunder!”
Others said, “An angel spoke to him!”
30-33 Jesus said, “The voice didn’t come for me but for you. At this moment the world is in crisis. Now Satan, the ruler of this world, will be thrown out. And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me and gather them around me.” He put it this way to show how he was going to be put to death.
34 Voices from the crowd answered, “We heard from God’s Law that the Messiah lasts forever. How can it be necessary, as you put it, that the Son of Man ‘be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”
35-36 Jesus said, “For a brief time still, the light is among you. Walk by the light you have so darkness doesn’t destroy you. If you walk in darkness, you don’t know where you’re going. As you have the light, believe in the light. Then the light will be within you, and shining through your lives. You’ll be children of light.”
36-40 Jesus said all this, and then went into hiding. All these God-signs he had given them and they still didn’t get it, still wouldn’t trust him. This proved that the prophet Isaiah was right:
God, who believed what we preached?
Who recognized God’s arm, outstretched and ready to act?
First they wouldn’t believe, then they couldn’t—again, just as Isaiah said:
Their eyes are blinded,
their hearts are hardened,
So that they wouldn’t see with their eyes
and perceive with their hearts,
And turn to me, God,
so I could heal them.
41 Isaiah said these things after he got a glimpse of God’s cascading brightness that would pour through the Messiah.
42-43 On the other hand, a considerable number from the ranks of the leaders did believe. But because of the Pharisees, they didn’t come out in the open with it. They were afraid of getting kicked out of the meeting place. When push came to shove they cared more for human approval than for God’s glory.
44-46 Jesus summed it all up when he cried out, “Whoever believes in me, believes not just in me but in the One who sent me. Whoever looks at me is looking, in fact, at the One who sent me. I am Light that has come into the world so that all who believe in me won’t have to stay any longer in the dark.
47-50 “If anyone hears what I am saying and doesn’t take it seriously, I don’t reject him. I didn’t come to reject the world; I came to save the world. But you need to know that whoever puts me off, refusing to take in what I’m saying, is willfully choosing rejection. The Word, the Word-made-flesh that I have spoken and that I am, that Word and no other is the last word. I’m not making any of this up on my own. The Father who sent me gave me orders, told me what to say and how to say it. And I know exactly what his command produces: real and eternal life. That’s all I have to say. What the Father told me, I tell you.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
Insight
Paul’s call to ministry included the call to suffer (Acts 9:15–16). In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul described extensively his hardships. He was “hard pressed on every side . . . persecuted . . . struck down . . . always being given over to death” (vv. 8–11). Already adequately sustained by God’s sovereign power and sufficient grace (vv. 7–9), Paul was spurred on by God’s surpassing glory (vv. 16–18). Even though physically ravaged, God was renewing him every day. With eternity in view, Paul considered his sufferings as “momentary” because they would not follow him into his eternal life, and “light” because the reward that awaited him was far weightier (v. 17). Like Paul, we can look beyond our current troubles and see the “glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (v. 17 nlt). By: K. T. Sim
Obscured by Clouds
We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. 2 Corinthians 4:18
A rare supermoon appeared in November 2016—the moon in its orbit reached its closest point to the earth in over sixty years and so appeared bigger and brighter than at other times. But for me that day the skies were shrouded in gray. Although I saw photos of this wonder from friends in other places, as I gazed upward I had to trust that the supermoon was lurking behind the clouds.
The apostle Paul faced many hardships but believed that what is unseen will last forever. He said how his “momentary troubles” achieve “an eternal glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Thus he could fix his eyes “not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,” because what is unseen is eternal (v. 18). Paul yearned that the Corinthians and our faith would grow, and although we suffer, that we too would trust in God. We might not be able to see Him, but we can believe He is renewing us day by day (v. 16).
I thought about how God is unseen but eternal when I gazed at the clouds that day, knowing that the supermoon was hidden but there. And I hoped the next time I was tempted to believe that God was far from me, I would fix my eyes on what is unseen. By Amy Boucher Pye
Today's Reflection
What does it mean for you to fix your eyes on what is unseen? How does your hope in Jesus help you face the difficulties of life?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Am I Carnally Minded?
Where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal…? —1 Corinthians 3:3
The natural man, or unbeliever, knows nothing about carnality. The desires of the flesh warring against the Spirit, and the Spirit warring against the flesh, which began at rebirth, are what produce carnality and the awareness of it. But Paul said, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). In other words, carnality will disappear.
Are you quarrelsome and easily upset over small things? Do you think that no one who is a Christian is ever like that? Paul said they are, and he connected these attitudes with carnality. Is there a truth in the Bible that instantly awakens a spirit of malice or resentment in you? If so, that is proof that you are still carnal. If the process of sanctification is continuing in your life, there will be no trace of that kind of spirit remaining.
If the Spirit of God detects anything in you that is wrong, He doesn’t ask you to make it right; He only asks you to accept the light of truth, and then He will make it right. A child of the light will confess sin instantly and stand completely open before God. But a child of the darkness will say, “Oh, I can explain that.” When the light shines and the Spirit brings conviction of sin, be a child of the light. Confess your wrongdoing, and God will deal with it. If, however, you try to vindicate yourself, you prove yourself to be a child of the darkness.
What is the proof that carnality has gone? Never deceive yourself; when carnality is gone you will know it— it is the most real thing you can imagine. And God will see to it that you have a number of opportunities to prove to yourself the miracle of His grace. The proof is in a very practical test. You will find yourself saying, “If this had happened before, I would have had the spirit of resentment!” And you will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else. The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L
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