Max Lucado Daily: THE HOPE-FILLED HEART
You and I live in a trashy world. Unwanted garbage comes our way on a regular basis. Haven’t you been handed a trash sack of mishaps and heartaches? Sure you have. May I ask, what are you going to do with it? You could hide it. Pretend it isn’t there. But sooner or later it will start to stink. So what will you do?
If you follow the example of Christ, you’ll learn to see tough times differently. He wants you to have a hope-filled heart… just like Jesus. Wouldn’t you want that? Jesus saw his Father’s presence in the problem. Sure, Max, but Jesus was God! I can’t see the way he saw. Not yet, maybe. But don’t underestimate God’s power. He can change the way you look at life.
1 Corinthians 10:19-33
Do you see the difference? Sacrifices offered to idols are offered to nothing, for what’s the idol but a nothing? Or worse than nothing, a minus, a demon! I don’t want you to become part of something that reduces you to less than yourself. And you can’t have it both ways, banqueting with the Master one day and slumming with demons the next. Besides, the Master won’t put up with it. He wants us—all or nothing. Do you think you can get off with anything less?
23-24 Looking at it one way, you could say, “Anything goes. Because of God’s immense generosity and grace, we don’t have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster.” But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.
25-28 With that as a base to work from, common sense can take you the rest of the way. Eat anything sold at the butcher shop, for instance; you don’t have to run an “idolatry test” on every item. “The earth,” after all, “is God’s, and everything in it.” That “everything” certainly includes the leg of lamb in the butcher shop. If a nonbeliever invites you to dinner and you feel like going, go ahead and enjoy yourself; eat everything placed before you. It would be both bad manners and bad spirituality to cross-examine your host on the ethical purity of each course as it is served. On the other hand, if he goes out of his way to tell you that this or that was sacrificed to god or goddess so-and-so, you should pass. Even though you may be indifferent as to where it came from, he isn’t, and you don’t want to send mixed messages to him about who you are worshiping.
29-30 But, except for these special cases, I’m not going to walk around on eggshells worrying about what small-minded people might say; I’m going to stride free and easy, knowing what our large-minded Master has already said. If I eat what is served to me, grateful to God for what is on the table, how can I worry about what someone will say? I thanked God for it and he blessed it!
31-33 So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you’re eating to God’s glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God’s glory. At the same time, don’t be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on the toes of those who aren’t as free as you are. I try my best to be considerate of everyone’s feelings in all these matters; I hope you will be, too.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Luke 8:4–8, 11–15
While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”
When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”b
“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.e 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.f 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, richesg and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
Insight
When Christ’s disciples asked Him to interpret the story of the sower (Luke 8:9–10), He first quoted from the prophet Isaiah to explain why He spoke to the crowds in parables (Isaiah 6:1–10). As in the days of Isaiah, Israel still wasn’t ready to recognize the kind of good news they needed. While looking for political relief and material prosperity, they couldn’t imagine a rescue and kingdom found in the mercy and love of a rejected Messiah—and in a harvest of peace, joy, and goodwill that would grow in and by His Spirit. By: Mart DeHaan
Beautiful Fruit
The seed is the word of God. Luke 8:11
“Kids should be able to throw a seed anywhere they want [in the garden] and see what pops up,” suggests Rebecca Lemos-Otero, founder of City Blossoms. While this is not a model for careful gardening, it reflects the reality that each seed has the potential to burst forth with life. Since 2004, City Blossoms has created gardens for schools and neighborhoods in low-income areas. The kids are learning about nutrition and gaining job skills through gardening. Rebecca says, “Having a lively green space in an urban area . . . creates a way for kids to be outside doing something productive and beautiful.”
Jesus told a story about the scattering of seed that had the potential of producing “a hundred times more than was sown” (Luke 8:8). That seed was God’s good news planted on “good soil,” which He explained is “honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest” (v. 15 nlt).
The only way we can be fruitful, Jesus said, is to stay connected to Him (John 15:4). As we’re taught by Christ and cling to Him, the Spirit produces in us His fruit of “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). He uses the fruit He produces in us to touch the lives of others, who are then changed and grow fruit from their own lives. This makes for a beautiful life. By: Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
How are you staying connected to Jesus? What fruit do you want Him to produce in you?
I want a beautiful life, Father. Please produce Your fruit in me that I might live a life that points others to You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Yesterday
You shall not go out with haste,…for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. —Isaiah 52:12
Security from Yesterday. “…God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. “…the Lord will go before you….” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste….” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.
Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We never enter into the Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment. The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Footprints the Tide Can't Touch - #8602
Man, our family loves the ocean! We love to walk the beach and, you know, if my wife had had a head start on me, I could figure out which way she went - oh, I would kid her about being a little paddle-footed - she'd leave behind footprints that made a slight "V" in the sand. Of course, when the tide started coming in you could forget all the footprints any of us left that day! When the waves finish giving the beach a bath, you can't even tell anyone walked there today. Notice when they want to commemorate the careers of those Hollywood stars, they have them put their footprints in cement in the sidewalk, not in sand at the beach.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Footprints the Tide Can't Touch."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Daniel 12:2. See, we only get to walk this beach once. What kind of marks do we leave behind? How much will it matter that you and I have ever walked this way? Daniel 12:2-3 say this, "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever."
Now, the verse before it talks about eternal issues. It says, "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." That's why it's so important to lead people to righteousness. Two eternal destinations: everlasting life - that's heaven of course, and everlasting shame and contempt - that's hell. Now, he goes on here to say that you and I can have a vital part in which destination it will be for the people we know. If we lead them to righteousness, we'll shine like the stars forever and ever. People you influence for Jesus Christ will be the lasting legacy of your life. Everlasting! Footprints in cement, not in sand!
The problem is we get distracted from the eternal, don't we? We spend so much of our time and our energy on earth stuff. We want to make a financial mark, a career mark, an educational mark, but the tide will one day come along and erase all those footprints we left in the sand. Someone will get your position, they'll get your money, they'll get your house. Or maybe we'll get involved in causes that will help improve things a little but will have no impact on eternity...sand. Or we'll just get so busy or self-occupied we neglect the people around us for our schedule, our goals, and our security.
There's another poem I heard often as a young man and it puts everything in perspective, "Only one life, 'twill soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last." Daniel affirms the ultimate lasting thing you can do with your life is to lead someone else to eternal life. Take somebody to heaven with you! Is there going to be somebody there because of you? Are you working on leaving that kind of mark on the people around you?
Maybe you've become distracted by leaving marks in the sand; marks that just won't matter in eternity. The Lord's saying, "I've planted you among those people because I'm trusting you to tell them about Me. To let them know I love them enough to give My life for them. To tell them the difference I've made for you and how I can make all the difference for them."
How are you doing on the project that really matters; bringing people you know to heaven with you? It is, after all, what Jesus gave His life for. It ought to be what our lives are about, don't you think? Could it be that you've misplaced your priorities? That most of the marks of your life are in the sand of earth stuff rather than in the cement of eternity?
Why don't you begin to use your influence to bring people you know to your Jesus - the relationship they've been looking for their whole life? The tides of time can never erase a life that you have brought to Jesus.
You may not have made many tracks in earth's sand, but marks you have made in eternity cement will be there for 100 billion years and more - people who are in heaven because of Jesus and because you told them!
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Monday, December 30, 2019
Psalm 47, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A PERFECT WORLD
Try this. Imagine a perfect world. Whatever that means to you…imagine it. Does that mean peace? Then envision absolute tranquility. Does a perfect world imply joy? Then create your highest happiness. Will a perfect world have love? Ponder a place where love has no bounds.
Whatever heaven means to you, imagine it. Get it firmly fixed in your mind. Delight in it. Dream about it. Long for it. And then smile as the Father reminds you from the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”
No one…no one has come close. Think of all the songs about heaven. All the artists’ portrayals. All the lessons preached, poems written and chapters drafted. When it comes to describing heaven, we are all happy failures!
Psalm 47
A Psalm of the Sons of Korah
Applause, everyone. Bravo, bravissimo!
Shout God-songs at the top of your lungs!
God Most High is stunning,
astride land and ocean.
He crushes hostile people,
puts nations at our feet.
He set us at the head of the line,
prize-winning Jacob, his favorite.
Loud cheers as God climbs the mountain,
a ram’s horn blast at the summit.
Sing songs to God, sing out!
Sing to our King, sing praise!
He’s Lord over earth,
so sing your best songs to God.
God is Lord of godless nations—
sovereign, he’s King of the mountain.
Princes from all over are gathered,
people of Abraham’s God.
The powers of earth are God’s—
he soars over all.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 30, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 22:8–11
The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah,
and you looked in that dayz
to the weaponsa in the Palace of the Forest.b
9 You saw that the walls of the City of David
were broken throughc in many places;
you stored up water
in the Lower Pool.d
10 You counted the buildings in Jerusalem
and tore down housese to strengthen the wall.f
11 You built a reservoir between the two wallsg
for the water of the Old Pool,h
but you did not look to the One who made it,
or have regardi for the One who plannedj it long ago.
Insight
During the reign of King Hezekiah (728–686 bc), the Southern Kingdom of Judah faced a significant military threat from the Assyrians, who’d already destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel (722 bc). To prepare Judah to fight the Assyrians, Hezekiah adopted the defensive strategy of denying the invading army access to their water supply (2 Chronicles 32:1–8). He “blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land” (v. 4) and at the same time dug tunnels to bring water into the city to ensure they’d have sufficient water to last them through a prolonged siege (2 Kings 20:20). He also fortified the wall defenses that protected the city and the water supply and made large numbers of weapons and shields (2 Chronicles 32:5).
A Designed Deficiency
You did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago. Isaiah 22:11
There’s a natural spring that rises on the east side of the city of Jerusalem. In ancient times it was the city’s only water supply and was located outside the walls. Thus it was the point of Jerusalem’s greatest vulnerability. The exposed spring meant that the city, otherwise impenetrable, could be forced to surrender if an attacker were to divert or dam the spring.
King Hezekiah addressed this weakness by driving a tunnel through 1,750 feet of solid rock from the spring into the city where it flowed into the “Lower Pool” (see 2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:2–4). But in all of this, Hezekiah “did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago” (Isaiah 22:11). Planned what?
God Himself “planned” the city of Jerusalem in such a way that its water supply was unprotected. The spring outside the wall was a constant reminder that the inhabitants of the city must depend solely on Him for their salvation.
Can it be that our deficiencies exist for our good? Indeed, the apostle Paul said that he would “boast” in his limitations, because it was through weakness that the beauty and power of Jesus was seen in him (2 Corinthians 12:9–10). Can we then regard each limitation as a gift that reveals God as our strength? By: David H. Roper
Reflect & Pray
What are your deficiencies? How are they helping you gain trust in God?
God, I’m weak. I pray that others would see that You are my strength.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 30, 2019
…All my springs are in you. —Psalm 87:7
Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “…put on the new man…” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!
The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.
And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 30, 2019
Growing Amazing Gardens - #8601
Our grandson couldn't wait to tell me back then. His Grandma had bought a little kit for him called the "Magic Garden." Together, they put together these little plastic pieces that formed the frame for an outdoor scene that had a mountain as its backdrop. Then Grandma helped our grandson pour the liquid from the kit over the crystals that were hiding in the designated areas of that frame. The next day our grandson came to our house to see what had happened. When he stopped by my office to tell me, his eyes got big and his hands were in motion to try to explain to me what he had seen, "It grow!" And he had this kind of sense of wonderment. He was right. The trees had sprouted full pink foliage overnight, colorful flowers and bushes had bloomed, and as our grandson said, "Mountain grow snow." Well, sure enough, the mountain had filled in with a cover of snow. Wow! So, what had been last night's plain plastic frame had suddenly exploded into this fully blooming, Technicolor show!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Growing Amazing Gardens."
That "Magic Garden" kit appeared pretty plain and unimpressive at first look. But the secret was that there was all kinds of potential beauty there. Of course, you'll never see that beauty if you don't water it to make it grow! By the way, people are like that, too, including some folks in your personal world right now. They may not look or feel like they're much, but they've got all kinds of potential for beauty if someone will water what needs to grow.
God gave us a hint of this life-changing chemistry in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 4:15-16. He says, "Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."
The "water" in this chemistry for growth is it says, "speaking the truth in love" and things that "build up" those that we're in contact with. So if we nurture the good things in people, if we love them by telling them the truth about Jesus and about who they are in Him, we can actually help people start to become more like Jesus, to start producing His spiritual characteristics.
The problem is we often can't see past the basic "kit" in front of us. We look at our partner, our son or daughter, our mother or father, our fellow believer or co-worker, and all we can see is their "warts," their weaknesses, and the things they need to improve. We're experts at seeing the flaws and the areas for improvement in other people. Consequently, most of us have already had a lifetime's worth of criticism, putdowns, and harshness.
But the eyes of Jesus don't just see what a person is; they see what a person could be, if someone would just water their potential with some encouragement, and praise, and believing in them. Jesus told Simon, "You are Simon, but you will be 'the rock'." He saw what Simon could be, and in fact, what He did became in Jesus' amazing garden.
So, what you water will grow. People will become what you call them. And the people in your family, in your church, at the place where you work have so much beauty planted in them by our Creator. But somebody needs to believe in what they could be. So build them up. Don't ever tear them down. Build their confidence, don't take it away. Load them up with praise. They don't need the growth-stunting effects of our negatives.
You'll be amazed at what can happen in the garden of lives around you if you'll water them to bring out their latent beauty. In the words of my grandson, "They grow!"
Try this. Imagine a perfect world. Whatever that means to you…imagine it. Does that mean peace? Then envision absolute tranquility. Does a perfect world imply joy? Then create your highest happiness. Will a perfect world have love? Ponder a place where love has no bounds.
Whatever heaven means to you, imagine it. Get it firmly fixed in your mind. Delight in it. Dream about it. Long for it. And then smile as the Father reminds you from the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”
No one…no one has come close. Think of all the songs about heaven. All the artists’ portrayals. All the lessons preached, poems written and chapters drafted. When it comes to describing heaven, we are all happy failures!
Psalm 47
A Psalm of the Sons of Korah
Applause, everyone. Bravo, bravissimo!
Shout God-songs at the top of your lungs!
God Most High is stunning,
astride land and ocean.
He crushes hostile people,
puts nations at our feet.
He set us at the head of the line,
prize-winning Jacob, his favorite.
Loud cheers as God climbs the mountain,
a ram’s horn blast at the summit.
Sing songs to God, sing out!
Sing to our King, sing praise!
He’s Lord over earth,
so sing your best songs to God.
God is Lord of godless nations—
sovereign, he’s King of the mountain.
Princes from all over are gathered,
people of Abraham’s God.
The powers of earth are God’s—
he soars over all.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 30, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 22:8–11
The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah,
and you looked in that dayz
to the weaponsa in the Palace of the Forest.b
9 You saw that the walls of the City of David
were broken throughc in many places;
you stored up water
in the Lower Pool.d
10 You counted the buildings in Jerusalem
and tore down housese to strengthen the wall.f
11 You built a reservoir between the two wallsg
for the water of the Old Pool,h
but you did not look to the One who made it,
or have regardi for the One who plannedj it long ago.
Insight
During the reign of King Hezekiah (728–686 bc), the Southern Kingdom of Judah faced a significant military threat from the Assyrians, who’d already destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel (722 bc). To prepare Judah to fight the Assyrians, Hezekiah adopted the defensive strategy of denying the invading army access to their water supply (2 Chronicles 32:1–8). He “blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land” (v. 4) and at the same time dug tunnels to bring water into the city to ensure they’d have sufficient water to last them through a prolonged siege (2 Kings 20:20). He also fortified the wall defenses that protected the city and the water supply and made large numbers of weapons and shields (2 Chronicles 32:5).
A Designed Deficiency
You did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago. Isaiah 22:11
There’s a natural spring that rises on the east side of the city of Jerusalem. In ancient times it was the city’s only water supply and was located outside the walls. Thus it was the point of Jerusalem’s greatest vulnerability. The exposed spring meant that the city, otherwise impenetrable, could be forced to surrender if an attacker were to divert or dam the spring.
King Hezekiah addressed this weakness by driving a tunnel through 1,750 feet of solid rock from the spring into the city where it flowed into the “Lower Pool” (see 2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:2–4). But in all of this, Hezekiah “did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago” (Isaiah 22:11). Planned what?
God Himself “planned” the city of Jerusalem in such a way that its water supply was unprotected. The spring outside the wall was a constant reminder that the inhabitants of the city must depend solely on Him for their salvation.
Can it be that our deficiencies exist for our good? Indeed, the apostle Paul said that he would “boast” in his limitations, because it was through weakness that the beauty and power of Jesus was seen in him (2 Corinthians 12:9–10). Can we then regard each limitation as a gift that reveals God as our strength? By: David H. Roper
Reflect & Pray
What are your deficiencies? How are they helping you gain trust in God?
God, I’m weak. I pray that others would see that You are my strength.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 30, 2019
…All my springs are in you. —Psalm 87:7
Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “…put on the new man…” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!
The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.
And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 30, 2019
Growing Amazing Gardens - #8601
Our grandson couldn't wait to tell me back then. His Grandma had bought a little kit for him called the "Magic Garden." Together, they put together these little plastic pieces that formed the frame for an outdoor scene that had a mountain as its backdrop. Then Grandma helped our grandson pour the liquid from the kit over the crystals that were hiding in the designated areas of that frame. The next day our grandson came to our house to see what had happened. When he stopped by my office to tell me, his eyes got big and his hands were in motion to try to explain to me what he had seen, "It grow!" And he had this kind of sense of wonderment. He was right. The trees had sprouted full pink foliage overnight, colorful flowers and bushes had bloomed, and as our grandson said, "Mountain grow snow." Well, sure enough, the mountain had filled in with a cover of snow. Wow! So, what had been last night's plain plastic frame had suddenly exploded into this fully blooming, Technicolor show!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Growing Amazing Gardens."
That "Magic Garden" kit appeared pretty plain and unimpressive at first look. But the secret was that there was all kinds of potential beauty there. Of course, you'll never see that beauty if you don't water it to make it grow! By the way, people are like that, too, including some folks in your personal world right now. They may not look or feel like they're much, but they've got all kinds of potential for beauty if someone will water what needs to grow.
God gave us a hint of this life-changing chemistry in our word for today from the Word of God in Ephesians 4:15-16. He says, "Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."
The "water" in this chemistry for growth is it says, "speaking the truth in love" and things that "build up" those that we're in contact with. So if we nurture the good things in people, if we love them by telling them the truth about Jesus and about who they are in Him, we can actually help people start to become more like Jesus, to start producing His spiritual characteristics.
The problem is we often can't see past the basic "kit" in front of us. We look at our partner, our son or daughter, our mother or father, our fellow believer or co-worker, and all we can see is their "warts," their weaknesses, and the things they need to improve. We're experts at seeing the flaws and the areas for improvement in other people. Consequently, most of us have already had a lifetime's worth of criticism, putdowns, and harshness.
But the eyes of Jesus don't just see what a person is; they see what a person could be, if someone would just water their potential with some encouragement, and praise, and believing in them. Jesus told Simon, "You are Simon, but you will be 'the rock'." He saw what Simon could be, and in fact, what He did became in Jesus' amazing garden.
So, what you water will grow. People will become what you call them. And the people in your family, in your church, at the place where you work have so much beauty planted in them by our Creator. But somebody needs to believe in what they could be. So build them up. Don't ever tear them down. Build their confidence, don't take it away. Load them up with praise. They don't need the growth-stunting effects of our negatives.
You'll be amazed at what can happen in the garden of lives around you if you'll water them to bring out their latent beauty. In the words of my grandson, "They grow!"
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Psalm 46, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE NEVER FAILING LOVE OF GOD
God will not let you go. The big news of the Bible is not that you love God but that God loves you! He tattooed your name on the palm of his hand. His thoughts of you outnumber the sand on the shore. You never leave his mind, escape his sight, flee his thoughts. You need not win his love. You already have it.
He sees the worst of you and loves you still. Your sins of tomorrow and failings of the future will not surprise him; he sees them now. Every day and deed of your life has passed before his eyes and been calculated in his decision. He knows you better than you know you and has reached this verdict– he loves you still!
No discovery will disillusion him. No rebellion will dissuade him. He loves you with an everlasting love. God’s love—never failing…never ending.
Psalm 46
A Song of the Sons of Korah
God is a safe place to hide,
ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
4-6 River fountains splash joy, cooling God’s city,
this sacred haunt of the Most High.
God lives here, the streets are safe,
God at your service from crack of dawn.
Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
but Earth does anything he says.
7 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
8-10 Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
Bans war from pole to pole,
breaks all the weapons across his knee.
“Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything.”
11 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: James 2:14–26
Faith and Deeds
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?n Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.o 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?p 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.q
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds,r and I will show you my faiths by my deeds.t 19 You believe that there is one God.u Good! Even the demons believe thatv—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is uselessd?w 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?x 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together,y and his faith was made complete by what he did.z 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”e a and he was called God’s friend.b 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?c 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.d
Insight
The book of James has been compared to the book of Proverbs because both contain practical advice for living out a life of faith in God. James 2:14–26 is foundational for understanding the relationship between our faith and works. James introduces this topic early in his letter (1:27) and continues to tell his readers that true faith is demonstrated by actions.
Washed in Love
You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. James 2:24
A small church in Southern California recognized an opportunity to express God’s love in a practical way. Believers in Jesus gathered at a local laundromat to give back to their community by washing clothes for those in financial need. They cleaned and folded clothes together, and sometimes provided a hot meal or bags of groceries for recipients.
One volunteer discovered the greatest reward was in the “actual contact with people . . . hearing their stories.” Because of their relationship with Jesus, these volunteers wanted to live out their faith through loving words and actions that helped them nurture genuine relationships with others.
The apostle James affirms that every act of a professing believer’s loving service is a result of genuine faith. He states that “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:14–17). Declaring we believe makes us children of God, but it’s when we serve Him by serving others that we act as believers who trust and follow Jesus (v. 24). Faith and service are as closely interdependent as the body and the spirit (v. 26), a beautiful display of the power of Christ as He works in and through us.
After personally accepting that God’s sacrifice on the cross washes us in perfect love, we can respond in authentic faith that overflows into the ways we serve others. By: Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
How has someone helped you be more open to knowing Jesus personally? How can you demonstrate your faith in Christ through loving words and actions?
Jesus, please flood our lives with Your perfect, cleansing love, so that we can pour it into the lives of others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Deserter or Disciple?
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. —John 6:66
When God, by His Spirit through His Word, gives you a clear vision of His will, you must “walk in the light” of that vision (1 John 1:7). Even though your mind and soul may be thrilled by it, if you don’t “walk in the light” of it you will sink to a level of bondage never envisioned by our Lord. Mentally disobeying the “heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) will make you a slave to ideas and views that are completely foreign to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to “walk in the light” of the vision that has been given to you. Don’t compare yourself with others or judge them— that is between God and them. When you find that one of your favorite and strongly held views clashes with the “heavenly vision,” do not begin to debate it. If you do, a sense of property and personal right will emerge in you— things on which Jesus placed no value. He was against these things as being the root of everything foreign to Himself— “…for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t see and understand this, it is because we are ignoring the underlying principles of our Lord’s teaching.
Our tendency is to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we had when God revealed His will to us. But if a New Testament standard is revealed to us by the light of God, and we don’t try to measure up, or even feel inclined to do so, then we begin to backslide. It means your conscience does not respond to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
When you are joyful, be joyful; when you are sad, be sad. If God has given you a sweet cup, don’t make it bitter; and if He has given you a bitter cup, don’t try and make it sweet; take things as they come. Shade of His Hand, 1226 L
God will not let you go. The big news of the Bible is not that you love God but that God loves you! He tattooed your name on the palm of his hand. His thoughts of you outnumber the sand on the shore. You never leave his mind, escape his sight, flee his thoughts. You need not win his love. You already have it.
He sees the worst of you and loves you still. Your sins of tomorrow and failings of the future will not surprise him; he sees them now. Every day and deed of your life has passed before his eyes and been calculated in his decision. He knows you better than you know you and has reached this verdict– he loves you still!
No discovery will disillusion him. No rebellion will dissuade him. He loves you with an everlasting love. God’s love—never failing…never ending.
Psalm 46
A Song of the Sons of Korah
God is a safe place to hide,
ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
4-6 River fountains splash joy, cooling God’s city,
this sacred haunt of the Most High.
God lives here, the streets are safe,
God at your service from crack of dawn.
Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
but Earth does anything he says.
7 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
8-10 Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
Bans war from pole to pole,
breaks all the weapons across his knee.
“Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
loving look at me, your High God,
above politics, above everything.”
11 Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: James 2:14–26
Faith and Deeds
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?n Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.o 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?p 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.q
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds,r and I will show you my faiths by my deeds.t 19 You believe that there is one God.u Good! Even the demons believe thatv—and shudder.
20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is uselessd?w 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?x 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together,y and his faith was made complete by what he did.z 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”e a and he was called God’s friend.b 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?c 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.d
Insight
The book of James has been compared to the book of Proverbs because both contain practical advice for living out a life of faith in God. James 2:14–26 is foundational for understanding the relationship between our faith and works. James introduces this topic early in his letter (1:27) and continues to tell his readers that true faith is demonstrated by actions.
Washed in Love
You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. James 2:24
A small church in Southern California recognized an opportunity to express God’s love in a practical way. Believers in Jesus gathered at a local laundromat to give back to their community by washing clothes for those in financial need. They cleaned and folded clothes together, and sometimes provided a hot meal or bags of groceries for recipients.
One volunteer discovered the greatest reward was in the “actual contact with people . . . hearing their stories.” Because of their relationship with Jesus, these volunteers wanted to live out their faith through loving words and actions that helped them nurture genuine relationships with others.
The apostle James affirms that every act of a professing believer’s loving service is a result of genuine faith. He states that “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:14–17). Declaring we believe makes us children of God, but it’s when we serve Him by serving others that we act as believers who trust and follow Jesus (v. 24). Faith and service are as closely interdependent as the body and the spirit (v. 26), a beautiful display of the power of Christ as He works in and through us.
After personally accepting that God’s sacrifice on the cross washes us in perfect love, we can respond in authentic faith that overflows into the ways we serve others. By: Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
How has someone helped you be more open to knowing Jesus personally? How can you demonstrate your faith in Christ through loving words and actions?
Jesus, please flood our lives with Your perfect, cleansing love, so that we can pour it into the lives of others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Deserter or Disciple?
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. —John 6:66
When God, by His Spirit through His Word, gives you a clear vision of His will, you must “walk in the light” of that vision (1 John 1:7). Even though your mind and soul may be thrilled by it, if you don’t “walk in the light” of it you will sink to a level of bondage never envisioned by our Lord. Mentally disobeying the “heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) will make you a slave to ideas and views that are completely foreign to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to “walk in the light” of the vision that has been given to you. Don’t compare yourself with others or judge them— that is between God and them. When you find that one of your favorite and strongly held views clashes with the “heavenly vision,” do not begin to debate it. If you do, a sense of property and personal right will emerge in you— things on which Jesus placed no value. He was against these things as being the root of everything foreign to Himself— “…for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t see and understand this, it is because we are ignoring the underlying principles of our Lord’s teaching.
Our tendency is to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we had when God revealed His will to us. But if a New Testament standard is revealed to us by the light of God, and we don’t try to measure up, or even feel inclined to do so, then we begin to backslide. It means your conscience does not respond to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
When you are joyful, be joyful; when you are sad, be sad. If God has given you a sweet cup, don’t make it bitter; and if He has given you a bitter cup, don’t try and make it sweet; take things as they come. Shade of His Hand, 1226 L
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Psalm 45 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE NEVER FAILING LOVE OF GOD
God will not let you go. The big news of the Bible is not that you love God but that God loves you! He tattooed your name on the palm of his hand. His thoughts of you outnumber the sand on the shore. You never leave his mind, escape his sight, flee his thoughts. You need not win his love. You already have it.
He sees the worst of you and loves you still. Your sins of tomorrow and failings of the future will not surprise him; he sees them now. Every day and deed of your life has passed before his eyes and been calculated in his decision. He knows you better than you know you and has reached this verdict– he loves you still!
No discovery will disillusion him. No rebellion will dissuade him. He loves you with an everlasting love. God’s love—never failing…never ending.
Psalm 45
A Wedding Song of the Sons of Korah
My heart bursts its banks,
spilling beauty and goodness.
I pour it out in a poem to the king,
shaping the river into words:
2-4 “You’re the handsomest of men;
every word from your lips is sheer grace,
and God has blessed you, blessed you so much.
Strap your sword to your side, warrior!
Accept praise! Accept due honor!
Ride majestically! Ride triumphantly!
Ride on the side of truth!
Ride for the righteous meek!
4-5 “Your instructions are glow-in-the-dark;
you shoot sharp arrows
Into enemy hearts; the king’s
foes lie down in the dust, beaten.
6-7 “Your throne is God’s throne,
ever and always;
The scepter of your royal rule
measures right living.
You love the right
and hate the wrong.
And that is why God, your very own God,
poured fragrant oil on your head,
Marking you out as king
from among your dear companions.
8-9 “Your ozone-drenched garments
are fragrant with mountain breeze.
Chamber music—from the throne room—
makes you want to dance.
Kings’ daughters are maids in your court,
the Bride glittering with golden jewelry.
10-12 “Now listen, daughter, don’t miss a word:
forget your country, put your home behind you.
Be here—the king is wild for you.
Since he’s your lord, adore him.
Wedding gifts pour in from Tyre;
rich guests shower you with presents.”
13-15 (Her wedding dress is dazzling,
lined with gold by the weavers;
All her dresses and robes
are woven with gold.
She is led to the king,
followed by her virgin companions.
A procession of joy and laughter!
a grand entrance to the king’s palace!)
16-17 “Set your mind now on sons—
don’t dote on father and grandfather.
You’ll set your sons up as princes
all over the earth.
I’ll make you famous for generations;
you’ll be the talk of the town
for a long, long time.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 49:8–16
Restoration of Israel
8 This is what the Lord says:
“In the time of my favorw I will answer you,
and in the day of salvation I will help you;x
I will keepy you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people,z
to restore the landa
and to reassign its desolate inheritances,b
9 to say to the captives,c ‘Come out,’
and to those in darkness,d ‘Be free!’
“They will feed beside the roads
and find pasture on every barren hill.e
10 They will neither hunger nor thirst,f
nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them.g
He who has compassionh on them will guidei them
and lead them beside springsj of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into roads,
and my highwaysk will be raised up.l
12 See, they will come from afarm—
some from the north, some from the west,n
some from the region of Aswan.b”
13 Shout for joy,o you heavens;
rejoice, you earth;p
burst into song, you mountains!q
For the Lord comfortsr his people
and will have compassions on his afflicted ones.t
14 But Zionu said, “The Lord has forsakenv me,
the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the childw she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!x
16 See, I have engravedy you on the palms of my hands;
your wallsz are ever before me.
Insight
The book of Isaiah is one of the Major Prophets of the Old Testament, categorized as such because of its length. It’s sometimes referred to as a “miniature Bible” because it has sixty-six chapters divided into two major divisions of thirty-nine and twenty-seven chapters. The Bible contains sixty-six books and is divided into the Old Testament with thirty-nine books and the New Testament with twenty-seven books. Isaiah is the Old Testament book referenced most often in the New Testament, apart from the Psalms. By: Arthur Jackson
Never Forgotten
I will not forget you! Isaiah 49:15
Egged on by my children to prove I’d endured years mastering the basics of piano, I sat down and started playing the C Major scale. Having played very little piano in nearly two decades, I was surprised I remembered! Feeling brave, I proceeded to play seven different scales by heart one right after the other. I was shocked! Years of practicing had imprinted the notes and technique so deeply in my fingers’ “memory” that they instantly knew what to do.
There are some things that can never be forgotten. But God’s love for His children is far more deeply imprinted than any of our fading memories—in fact, God can’t forget them. This is what the Israelites needed to hear when the exile left them feeling abandoned by Him (Isaiah 49:14). His response through Isaiah was unequivocal: “I will not forget you!” (v. 15). God’s promise to care for His people was more certain than a mother’s love for her child.
To assure them of His unchanging love, He gave them a picture of His commitment: “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (v. 16). It’s a beautiful image of God’s constant awareness of His children; their names and faces always before Him.
Still today, we can easily feel overlooked and forgotten. How comforting to remember that we’re “etched” on God’s hands—always remembered, cared for, and loved by our Father. By: Lisa M. Samra
Reflect & Pray
When have you felt forgotten or abandoned? In what ways has God always been present with you to remind you of His constant love?
Jesus, thank You that I’m never forgotten by You. When I feel abandoned by others, help me to remember and rest in Your never-ending, constant love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Continuous Conversion
…unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 18:3
These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man…” (Ephesians 4:24). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.
To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is impossible to read too much, but always keep before you why you read. Remember that “the need to receive, recognize, and rely on the Holy Spirit” is before all else. Approved Unto God, 11 L
God will not let you go. The big news of the Bible is not that you love God but that God loves you! He tattooed your name on the palm of his hand. His thoughts of you outnumber the sand on the shore. You never leave his mind, escape his sight, flee his thoughts. You need not win his love. You already have it.
He sees the worst of you and loves you still. Your sins of tomorrow and failings of the future will not surprise him; he sees them now. Every day and deed of your life has passed before his eyes and been calculated in his decision. He knows you better than you know you and has reached this verdict– he loves you still!
No discovery will disillusion him. No rebellion will dissuade him. He loves you with an everlasting love. God’s love—never failing…never ending.
Psalm 45
A Wedding Song of the Sons of Korah
My heart bursts its banks,
spilling beauty and goodness.
I pour it out in a poem to the king,
shaping the river into words:
2-4 “You’re the handsomest of men;
every word from your lips is sheer grace,
and God has blessed you, blessed you so much.
Strap your sword to your side, warrior!
Accept praise! Accept due honor!
Ride majestically! Ride triumphantly!
Ride on the side of truth!
Ride for the righteous meek!
4-5 “Your instructions are glow-in-the-dark;
you shoot sharp arrows
Into enemy hearts; the king’s
foes lie down in the dust, beaten.
6-7 “Your throne is God’s throne,
ever and always;
The scepter of your royal rule
measures right living.
You love the right
and hate the wrong.
And that is why God, your very own God,
poured fragrant oil on your head,
Marking you out as king
from among your dear companions.
8-9 “Your ozone-drenched garments
are fragrant with mountain breeze.
Chamber music—from the throne room—
makes you want to dance.
Kings’ daughters are maids in your court,
the Bride glittering with golden jewelry.
10-12 “Now listen, daughter, don’t miss a word:
forget your country, put your home behind you.
Be here—the king is wild for you.
Since he’s your lord, adore him.
Wedding gifts pour in from Tyre;
rich guests shower you with presents.”
13-15 (Her wedding dress is dazzling,
lined with gold by the weavers;
All her dresses and robes
are woven with gold.
She is led to the king,
followed by her virgin companions.
A procession of joy and laughter!
a grand entrance to the king’s palace!)
16-17 “Set your mind now on sons—
don’t dote on father and grandfather.
You’ll set your sons up as princes
all over the earth.
I’ll make you famous for generations;
you’ll be the talk of the town
for a long, long time.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 49:8–16
Restoration of Israel
8 This is what the Lord says:
“In the time of my favorw I will answer you,
and in the day of salvation I will help you;x
I will keepy you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people,z
to restore the landa
and to reassign its desolate inheritances,b
9 to say to the captives,c ‘Come out,’
and to those in darkness,d ‘Be free!’
“They will feed beside the roads
and find pasture on every barren hill.e
10 They will neither hunger nor thirst,f
nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them.g
He who has compassionh on them will guidei them
and lead them beside springsj of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into roads,
and my highwaysk will be raised up.l
12 See, they will come from afarm—
some from the north, some from the west,n
some from the region of Aswan.b”
13 Shout for joy,o you heavens;
rejoice, you earth;p
burst into song, you mountains!q
For the Lord comfortsr his people
and will have compassions on his afflicted ones.t
14 But Zionu said, “The Lord has forsakenv me,
the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the childw she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!x
16 See, I have engravedy you on the palms of my hands;
your wallsz are ever before me.
Insight
The book of Isaiah is one of the Major Prophets of the Old Testament, categorized as such because of its length. It’s sometimes referred to as a “miniature Bible” because it has sixty-six chapters divided into two major divisions of thirty-nine and twenty-seven chapters. The Bible contains sixty-six books and is divided into the Old Testament with thirty-nine books and the New Testament with twenty-seven books. Isaiah is the Old Testament book referenced most often in the New Testament, apart from the Psalms. By: Arthur Jackson
Never Forgotten
I will not forget you! Isaiah 49:15
Egged on by my children to prove I’d endured years mastering the basics of piano, I sat down and started playing the C Major scale. Having played very little piano in nearly two decades, I was surprised I remembered! Feeling brave, I proceeded to play seven different scales by heart one right after the other. I was shocked! Years of practicing had imprinted the notes and technique so deeply in my fingers’ “memory” that they instantly knew what to do.
There are some things that can never be forgotten. But God’s love for His children is far more deeply imprinted than any of our fading memories—in fact, God can’t forget them. This is what the Israelites needed to hear when the exile left them feeling abandoned by Him (Isaiah 49:14). His response through Isaiah was unequivocal: “I will not forget you!” (v. 15). God’s promise to care for His people was more certain than a mother’s love for her child.
To assure them of His unchanging love, He gave them a picture of His commitment: “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (v. 16). It’s a beautiful image of God’s constant awareness of His children; their names and faces always before Him.
Still today, we can easily feel overlooked and forgotten. How comforting to remember that we’re “etched” on God’s hands—always remembered, cared for, and loved by our Father. By: Lisa M. Samra
Reflect & Pray
When have you felt forgotten or abandoned? In what ways has God always been present with you to remind you of His constant love?
Jesus, thank You that I’m never forgotten by You. When I feel abandoned by others, help me to remember and rest in Your never-ending, constant love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, December 28, 2019
Continuous Conversion
…unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 18:3
These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man…” (Ephesians 4:24). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.
To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is impossible to read too much, but always keep before you why you read. Remember that “the need to receive, recognize, and rely on the Holy Spirit” is before all else. Approved Unto God, 11 L
Friday, December 27, 2019
1 Corinthians 10:1-18, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE NEVER FAILING LOVE OF GOD
God will not let you go. The big news of the Bible is not that you love God but that God loves you! He tattooed your name on the palm of his hand. His thoughts of you outnumber the sand on the shore. You never leave his mind, escape his sight, flee his thoughts. You need not win his love. You already have it.
He sees the worst of you and loves you still. Your sins of tomorrow and failings of the future will not surprise him; he sees them now. Every day and deed of your life has passed before his eyes and been calculated in his decision. He knows you better than you know you and has reached this verdict– he loves you still!
No discovery will disillusion him. No rebellion will dissuade him. He loves you with an everlasting love. God’s love—never failing…never ending.
1 Corinthians 10:1-18
Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.
6-10 The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—“First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.
11-12 These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.
13 No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.
14 So, my very dear friends, when you see people reducing God to something they can use or control, get out of their company as fast as you can.
15-18 I assume I’m addressing believers now who are mature. Draw your own conclusions: When we drink the cup of blessing, aren’t we taking into ourselves the blood, the very life, of Christ? And isn’t it the same with the loaf of bread we break and eat? Don’t we take into ourselves the body, the very life, of Christ? Because there is one loaf, our many-ness becomes one-ness—Christ doesn’t become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in him. We don’t reduce Christ to what we are; he raises us to what he is. That’s basically what happened even in old Israel—those who ate the sacrifices offered on God’s altar entered into God’s action at the altar.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, December 27, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 119:1, 133–136
Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,p
who walkq according to the law of the Lord.r
Direct my footsteps according to your word;r
let no sin rules over me.
134 Redeem me from human oppression,t
that I may obey your precepts.u
135 Make your face shinev on your servant
and teach me your decrees.w
136 Streams of tearsx flow from my eyes,
for your law is not obeyed.y
Insight
Psalm 119 is the longest psalm and chapter in the Bible; its 176 verses speak of the authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures. The author isn’t named. One rabbinic tradition says Ezra penned it, whose devotion for Scripture is well-attested (Ezra 7:10; Nehemiah 8:1–9). But most scholars say David composed the psalm because it sounds Davidic in tone and expression, and reflects his own experience. Oppressed and persecuted by many powerful enemies, the psalmist writes of the encouragement and strength he received from trusting and meditating on the Scriptures (vv. 11, 15, 23, 27, 48, 78, 97, 99, 148). Acknowledging the Scriptures have protected and preserved his life, the writer commits himself to obeying them (v. 129).
Led by His Word
Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me. Psalm 119:133
At the BBC in London, Paul Arnold’s first broadcasting job was making “walking sounds” in radio dramas. While actors read from scripts during a walking scene, Paul as stage manager made corresponding sounds with his feet—careful to match his pace to the actor’s voice and spoken lines. The key challenge, he explained, was yielding to the actor in the story, “so the two of us were working together.”
A divine version of such cooperation was sought by the author of Psalm 119, which emphasizes living by the precepts of God’s Word. As Psalm 119:1 says, “Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.” Led this way by God and following His instructions, we can remain pure (v. 9), overcome scorn (v. 22), and escape greed (v. 36). He will enable us to resist sin (v. 61), find godly friends (v. 63), and live in joy (v. 111).
Theologian Charles Bridges commented on verse 133: “When I take therefore a step into the world, let me ask—Is it ordered in God’s word, which exhibits Christ as my perfect example?”
Walking this way, we show the world Jesus. May He help us walk so closely with Him that people glimpse in us our Leader, Friend, and Savior! By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
How closely do you walk with God? Finding your answer in Psalm 119, identify one key step you can make to follow God more closely. What benefit can you gain?
Dear God, order my steps in the wisdom found in Scripture today, helping me to walk like You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 27, 2019
Where the Battle is Won or Lost
"If you will return, O Israel," says the Lord… —Jeremiah 4:1
Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until I do this, I will lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year, but that will depend on me, not God. However long it takes, I must wrestle with it alone before God, and I must resolve to go through the hell of renunciation or rejection before Him. Nothing has any power over someone who has fought the battle before God and won there.
I should never say, “I will wait until I get into difficult circumstances and then I’ll put God to the test.” Trying to do that will not work. I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul, where no one else can interfere. Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity, disaster, and defeat before the world are as sure as the laws of God. The reason the battle is lost is that I fight it first in the external world. Get alone with God, do battle before Him, and settle the matter once and for all.
In dealing with other people, our stance should always be to drive them toward making a decision of their will. That is how surrendering to God begins. Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point— a great crossroads in our life. From that point we either go toward a more and more slow, lazy, and useless Christian life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 27, 2019
No Escape On a Dead-End Road - #8600
They were just a young fire-fighting crew, assigned to work on a relatively small brush fire in Washington State. No one could have imagined what was about to happen. Seemingly timid fires suddenly roared to life and then they were out of control. In the end, 14 firefighters had to pin their hopes on those tinfoil shelters designed to be the last line of protection in their firetrap. Ultimately, four young firefighters died in the fire that day. They had tried to escape the fire by heading for a nearby road. Apparently, their superiors had not advised them that it was a dead-end road.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Escape On a Dead-End Road."
That was a horrible tragedy, made even more tragic by the fact that what they thought was a way of escape turned out to be a dead-end road. As I read about this disaster, I couldn't help but think that so many people are making that same kind of mistake when it comes to their spiritual destiny.
Most people are counting on the fact that their religion, their spirituality is going to be an escape route from whatever judgment we all get for the wrong things we've done. Well, to put it bluntly: a way to miss hell, a way to make heaven. Tragically, many sincere people might be counting on that road that won't get them there.
Actually, the Bible says that's exactly what's happening in a lot of lives. In Proverbs 14:12, it's our word for today from the Word of God. Listen, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." Well, it seems right - leads to death. Those are pretty disturbing words! Because whatever road you're on to escape judgment and get to God usually "seems right." But if it isn't God's road, it doesn't matter how right it seems. It will lead to an end we didn't expect - to spiritual death.
Thankfully, God makes the way to Him very clear throughout the Bible. One of those places is 1 Timothy 2, beginning with verse 3: "God our Savior wants all men to be saved...There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men." This isn't multiple-choice. God says the only way to Him is through His Son Jesus.
Someone might say, "But that's not fair! You mean only one religion gets you to God?" Actually, no religion gets you to God, including Christianity. Only Jesus can because only Jesus "gave Himself as a ransom" for us. That's ransom as in, you know, the price you pay to get someone back. Because our sin has an eternal death penalty, actually described by Jesus as involving a place of fire. The price to be paid is death, and that's what you and I deserve for hijacking our lives from God. But Jesus loves you too much to lose you. So He went to the cross to pay that price to remove the sin that will otherwise keep you out of His heaven.
If you've been depending on any other way than total trust in Jesus the Rescuer, you're on a dead-end street. But today you can, as the Bible says, "cross over from death to life" (John 5:24) by grabbing Jesus as if He is your only hope. Because He is.
Don't you want to begin this relationship with Him? If you do, would you tell Him? "Jesus, I believe that when You died, some of those sins You were dying for were mine. I believe You came back to life. You're alive; You're ready to come into my life. And beginning today, Jesus, I'm Yours."
If you're at that point, you're at a good point to make a visit to our website. I think it might help you get all the way home. It's ANewStory.com.
Jesus stands ready to lead you out of the fire. Make sure that you're on the only road that will lead you to safety; that will lead you to His heaven.
God will not let you go. The big news of the Bible is not that you love God but that God loves you! He tattooed your name on the palm of his hand. His thoughts of you outnumber the sand on the shore. You never leave his mind, escape his sight, flee his thoughts. You need not win his love. You already have it.
He sees the worst of you and loves you still. Your sins of tomorrow and failings of the future will not surprise him; he sees them now. Every day and deed of your life has passed before his eyes and been calculated in his decision. He knows you better than you know you and has reached this verdict– he loves you still!
No discovery will disillusion him. No rebellion will dissuade him. He loves you with an everlasting love. God’s love—never failing…never ending.
1 Corinthians 10:1-18
Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased.
6-10 The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—“First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them.
11-12 These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.
13 No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.
14 So, my very dear friends, when you see people reducing God to something they can use or control, get out of their company as fast as you can.
15-18 I assume I’m addressing believers now who are mature. Draw your own conclusions: When we drink the cup of blessing, aren’t we taking into ourselves the blood, the very life, of Christ? And isn’t it the same with the loaf of bread we break and eat? Don’t we take into ourselves the body, the very life, of Christ? Because there is one loaf, our many-ness becomes one-ness—Christ doesn’t become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in him. We don’t reduce Christ to what we are; he raises us to what he is. That’s basically what happened even in old Israel—those who ate the sacrifices offered on God’s altar entered into God’s action at the altar.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, December 27, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 119:1, 133–136
Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,p
who walkq according to the law of the Lord.r
Direct my footsteps according to your word;r
let no sin rules over me.
134 Redeem me from human oppression,t
that I may obey your precepts.u
135 Make your face shinev on your servant
and teach me your decrees.w
136 Streams of tearsx flow from my eyes,
for your law is not obeyed.y
Insight
Psalm 119 is the longest psalm and chapter in the Bible; its 176 verses speak of the authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures. The author isn’t named. One rabbinic tradition says Ezra penned it, whose devotion for Scripture is well-attested (Ezra 7:10; Nehemiah 8:1–9). But most scholars say David composed the psalm because it sounds Davidic in tone and expression, and reflects his own experience. Oppressed and persecuted by many powerful enemies, the psalmist writes of the encouragement and strength he received from trusting and meditating on the Scriptures (vv. 11, 15, 23, 27, 48, 78, 97, 99, 148). Acknowledging the Scriptures have protected and preserved his life, the writer commits himself to obeying them (v. 129).
Led by His Word
Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me. Psalm 119:133
At the BBC in London, Paul Arnold’s first broadcasting job was making “walking sounds” in radio dramas. While actors read from scripts during a walking scene, Paul as stage manager made corresponding sounds with his feet—careful to match his pace to the actor’s voice and spoken lines. The key challenge, he explained, was yielding to the actor in the story, “so the two of us were working together.”
A divine version of such cooperation was sought by the author of Psalm 119, which emphasizes living by the precepts of God’s Word. As Psalm 119:1 says, “Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.” Led this way by God and following His instructions, we can remain pure (v. 9), overcome scorn (v. 22), and escape greed (v. 36). He will enable us to resist sin (v. 61), find godly friends (v. 63), and live in joy (v. 111).
Theologian Charles Bridges commented on verse 133: “When I take therefore a step into the world, let me ask—Is it ordered in God’s word, which exhibits Christ as my perfect example?”
Walking this way, we show the world Jesus. May He help us walk so closely with Him that people glimpse in us our Leader, Friend, and Savior! By: Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
How closely do you walk with God? Finding your answer in Psalm 119, identify one key step you can make to follow God more closely. What benefit can you gain?
Dear God, order my steps in the wisdom found in Scripture today, helping me to walk like You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, December 27, 2019
Where the Battle is Won or Lost
"If you will return, O Israel," says the Lord… —Jeremiah 4:1
Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until I do this, I will lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year, but that will depend on me, not God. However long it takes, I must wrestle with it alone before God, and I must resolve to go through the hell of renunciation or rejection before Him. Nothing has any power over someone who has fought the battle before God and won there.
I should never say, “I will wait until I get into difficult circumstances and then I’ll put God to the test.” Trying to do that will not work. I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul, where no one else can interfere. Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity, disaster, and defeat before the world are as sure as the laws of God. The reason the battle is lost is that I fight it first in the external world. Get alone with God, do battle before Him, and settle the matter once and for all.
In dealing with other people, our stance should always be to drive them toward making a decision of their will. That is how surrendering to God begins. Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point— a great crossroads in our life. From that point we either go toward a more and more slow, lazy, and useless Christian life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, December 27, 2019
No Escape On a Dead-End Road - #8600
They were just a young fire-fighting crew, assigned to work on a relatively small brush fire in Washington State. No one could have imagined what was about to happen. Seemingly timid fires suddenly roared to life and then they were out of control. In the end, 14 firefighters had to pin their hopes on those tinfoil shelters designed to be the last line of protection in their firetrap. Ultimately, four young firefighters died in the fire that day. They had tried to escape the fire by heading for a nearby road. Apparently, their superiors had not advised them that it was a dead-end road.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "No Escape On a Dead-End Road."
That was a horrible tragedy, made even more tragic by the fact that what they thought was a way of escape turned out to be a dead-end road. As I read about this disaster, I couldn't help but think that so many people are making that same kind of mistake when it comes to their spiritual destiny.
Most people are counting on the fact that their religion, their spirituality is going to be an escape route from whatever judgment we all get for the wrong things we've done. Well, to put it bluntly: a way to miss hell, a way to make heaven. Tragically, many sincere people might be counting on that road that won't get them there.
Actually, the Bible says that's exactly what's happening in a lot of lives. In Proverbs 14:12, it's our word for today from the Word of God. Listen, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." Well, it seems right - leads to death. Those are pretty disturbing words! Because whatever road you're on to escape judgment and get to God usually "seems right." But if it isn't God's road, it doesn't matter how right it seems. It will lead to an end we didn't expect - to spiritual death.
Thankfully, God makes the way to Him very clear throughout the Bible. One of those places is 1 Timothy 2, beginning with verse 3: "God our Savior wants all men to be saved...There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all men." This isn't multiple-choice. God says the only way to Him is through His Son Jesus.
Someone might say, "But that's not fair! You mean only one religion gets you to God?" Actually, no religion gets you to God, including Christianity. Only Jesus can because only Jesus "gave Himself as a ransom" for us. That's ransom as in, you know, the price you pay to get someone back. Because our sin has an eternal death penalty, actually described by Jesus as involving a place of fire. The price to be paid is death, and that's what you and I deserve for hijacking our lives from God. But Jesus loves you too much to lose you. So He went to the cross to pay that price to remove the sin that will otherwise keep you out of His heaven.
If you've been depending on any other way than total trust in Jesus the Rescuer, you're on a dead-end street. But today you can, as the Bible says, "cross over from death to life" (John 5:24) by grabbing Jesus as if He is your only hope. Because He is.
Don't you want to begin this relationship with Him? If you do, would you tell Him? "Jesus, I believe that when You died, some of those sins You were dying for were mine. I believe You came back to life. You're alive; You're ready to come into my life. And beginning today, Jesus, I'm Yours."
If you're at that point, you're at a good point to make a visit to our website. I think it might help you get all the way home. It's ANewStory.com.
Jesus stands ready to lead you out of the fire. Make sure that you're on the only road that will lead you to safety; that will lead you to His heaven.
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Psalm 44 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: IT’S IMPORTANT TO FORGIVE
You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.
Is it still hard to consider the thought of forgiving the one who hurt you? If so, go one more time to the upper room. Watch Jesus as he goes from disciple to disciple. Can you see him? Can you hear the water splash? Can you hear him shuffle on the floor to the next person? Keep that image in mind. John 13:12 says, “When he had finished washing their feet…” Please note– Jesus finished washing their feet. That means he left no one out.
Why is that important? Because that means he washed the feet of Judas. Jesus washed the feet of his betrayer. That’s not to say it was easy for Jesus. That’s not to say it’s easy for you. But that is to say, God will never call you to do what he hasn’t already done!
Psalm 44
A Psalm of the Sons of Korah
We’ve been hearing about this, God,
all our lives.
Our fathers told us the stories
their fathers told them,
How single-handedly you weeded out the godless
from the fields and planted us,
How you sent those people packing
but gave us a fresh start.
We didn’t fight for this land;
we didn’t work for it—it was a gift!
You gave it, smiling as you gave it,
delighting as you gave it.
4-8 You’re my King, O God—
command victories for Jacob!
With your help we’ll wipe out our enemies,
in your name we’ll stomp them to dust.
I don’t trust in weapons;
my sword won’t save me—
But it’s you, you who saved us from the enemy;
you made those who hate us lose face.
All day we parade God’s praise—
we thank you by name over and over.
9-12 But now you’ve walked off and left us,
you’ve disgraced us and won’t fight for us.
You made us turn tail and run;
those who hate us have cleaned us out.
You delivered us as sheep to the butcher,
you scattered us to the four winds.
You sold your people at a discount—
you made nothing on the sale.
13-16 You made people on the street,
urchins, poke fun and call us names.
You made us a joke among the godless,
a cheap joke among the rabble.
Every day I’m up against it,
my nose rubbed in my shame—
Gossip and ridicule fill the air,
people out to get me crowd the street.
17-19 All this came down on us,
and we’ve done nothing to deserve it.
We never betrayed your Covenant: our hearts
were never false, our feet never left your path.
Do we deserve torture in a den of jackals?
or lockup in a black hole?
20-22 If we had forgotten to pray to our God
or made fools of ourselves with store-bought gods,
Wouldn’t God have figured this out?
We can’t hide things from him.
No, you decided to make us martyrs,
lambs assigned for sacrifice each day.
23-26 Get up, God! Are you going to sleep all day?
Wake up! Don’t you care what happens to us?
Why do you bury your face in the pillow?
Why pretend things are just fine with us?
And here we are—flat on our faces in the dirt,
held down with a boot on our necks.
Get up and come to our rescue.
If you love us so much, Help us!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 2:4–10
But because of his great love for us,n God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressionso—it is by grace you have been saved.p 6 And God raised us up with Christq and seated us with himr in the heavenly realmss in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,t expressed in his kindnessu to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by gracev you have been saved,w through faithx—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works,y so that no one can boast.z 10 For we are God’s handiwork,a createdb in Christ Jesus to do good works,c which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Insight
Around ad 60 or 61 Paul wrote the letter of Ephesians to the church in Ephesus—whom he loved dearly—after spending three years with them (Acts 20:17–31). He’d longed to make a friendly visit to them, but instead was imprisoned in Rome in “his own rented house” (28:30). Yet in that enforced confinement, Paul was free to have visitors and to write and preach. In fact, there “he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!” (v. 31). While Paul awaited trial before Caesar, he wrote his letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians. By: Alyson Kieda
The Big Shuffle
It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8
In The Call of Service, author Robert Coles, exploring our reasons for serving, tells the moving story of an older woman’s service to others. As a bus driver, she showed great care toward the children she drove to school each day—quizzing them on homework and celebrating their successes. “I want to see these kids make it in life,” she said of her motivation. But there was another reason too.
As a youth, the words of an aunt had shaken this woman to the core. “She’d tell us that we had to do something God would notice,” she told Coles, “or else we’d get lost in the big shuffle!” Worried at the prospect of hell after the “big shuffle” of judgment, this woman had devised ways to “get God’s attention”—going to church so “He’d see me being loyal” and working hard to serve others so God might “hear from others what I was doing.”
I grieved reading her words. How had this dear woman never known that she already had God’s attention? (Matthew 10:30). How had she not heard that Jesus took care of the big shuffle for us, offering freedom from judgment forever? (Romans 8:1). How had she missed that salvation can’t be bought with good deeds but is a gift to anyone who believes? (Ephesians 2:8–9).
Christ’s life, death, and resurrection take care of our future with God and set us free to serve others with joy. By: Sheridan Voysey
Reflect & Pray
Why is it easy to mistakenly believe you must do good things to be accepted by God? How does understanding the gospel help you to love others better?
God, help me to trust that You’ve done what’s needed for me to be accepted by You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 26, 2019
“Walk in the Light”
If we walk in the light as He is in the light…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. —1 John 1:7
To mistake freedom from sin only on the conscious level of our lives for complete deliverance from sin by the atonement through the Cross of Christ is a great error. No one fully knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced at Calvary. The evidence that I have been delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. For a person to really know what sin is requires the full work and deep touch of the atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the imparting of His absolute perfection.
The Holy Spirit applies or administers the work of the atonement to us in the deep unconscious realm as well as in the conscious realm. And it is not until we truly perceive the unrivaled power of the Spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7 , which says, “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This verse does not refer only to conscious sin, but also to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Spirit in me can accomplish.
I must “walk in the light as He is in the light…”— not in the light of my own conscience, but in God’s light. If I will walk there, with nothing held back or hidden, then this amazing truth is revealed to me: “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses [me] from all sin” so that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke in me. On the conscious level it produces a keen, sorrowful knowledge of what sin really is. The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit’s hatred for sin, anything that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To “walk in the light” means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand. Not Knowing Whither, 888 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, December 26, 2019
The Painful Road to Beauty - #8599
Our friends live in a rugged and majestic area really in the American West. They call it "Big Sky Country" out there. Yeah, that's right! Their house has been there for a long, long time - long before many other people settled where they are. Sitting in their living room, you can't help but admire these beautiful old logs in the walls. But for years, no one ever saw those logs. Over the years, they were covered by first one layer of material, then another, then another. Our friends actually had to strip away five layers of stuff: plaster, sheet rock, even manure...layers that were covering up the original beauty of this house.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Painful Road to Beauty."
Our friends had to strip away layer after layer of this accumulated junk to get what now looks so beautiful. There's a Master Builder who's working on you and me, and He's using that same method to help us display the beauty we were made for. In fact, some of what you're going through right now might be Jesus stripping away another layer of ugly or useless stuff; not to hurt you, but to make you into something more beautiful than you ever dreamed you could be.
In Malachi 3:2-3, our word for today from the Word of God, He describes the process of His makeover miracles with another analogy, refining precious metal that really isn't very precious until it's refined. The Bible says the Lord Almighty "will be like a refiner's fire ... He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify ... and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness."
God's method of getting people ready to do important things for Him is to put them through the fire; not to burn them, but to remove the impurities that keep them from being useful to Him and valuable to others. He strips away old attitudes, old pride, old sinful baggage and old ways of doing things, old layers of selfishness, or self-reliance and self-centeredness. Not to cause you pain, but to make you more precious and more powerful than you've ever been before.
That doesn't mean that having junk stripped away doesn't hurt. It does. God uses hard things in your life as tools to remove another ugly layer. Romans 5:2-4 provide this helpful perspective on the hard things we go through: "We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." I like that part. I want to have the glory of God reflecting from my life like the glory of the sun reflects through the moon. I don't especially like the next part, though. "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts."
Now why would we rejoice and be thankful for the hard things we're going through? Because we understand that they are the process by which the glory comes, by which the hope comes. I'm sure our friends out there in Big Sky Country must have gotten pretty tired of stripping away another layer after another layer. But I think I know what kept them going through the hard times. These words: "It's going to be worth it when it's done." And it is. I didn't see the process, but I sure saw the beauty that resulted.
Any person you know who reflects the radiance and the beauty of a life filled with God, I can guarantee you they have gotten that way, not primarily through their good times but through their great pain and struggle of the stripping processes of God. He knows what you can be, and He loves you too much to leave you like you are. Today's hard times are the tool of God to replace what's ugly and useless with something you will love and He can use. You won't always love the process, but you're going to love what He's making!
You will never forgive anyone more than God has already forgiven you.
Is it still hard to consider the thought of forgiving the one who hurt you? If so, go one more time to the upper room. Watch Jesus as he goes from disciple to disciple. Can you see him? Can you hear the water splash? Can you hear him shuffle on the floor to the next person? Keep that image in mind. John 13:12 says, “When he had finished washing their feet…” Please note– Jesus finished washing their feet. That means he left no one out.
Why is that important? Because that means he washed the feet of Judas. Jesus washed the feet of his betrayer. That’s not to say it was easy for Jesus. That’s not to say it’s easy for you. But that is to say, God will never call you to do what he hasn’t already done!
Psalm 44
A Psalm of the Sons of Korah
We’ve been hearing about this, God,
all our lives.
Our fathers told us the stories
their fathers told them,
How single-handedly you weeded out the godless
from the fields and planted us,
How you sent those people packing
but gave us a fresh start.
We didn’t fight for this land;
we didn’t work for it—it was a gift!
You gave it, smiling as you gave it,
delighting as you gave it.
4-8 You’re my King, O God—
command victories for Jacob!
With your help we’ll wipe out our enemies,
in your name we’ll stomp them to dust.
I don’t trust in weapons;
my sword won’t save me—
But it’s you, you who saved us from the enemy;
you made those who hate us lose face.
All day we parade God’s praise—
we thank you by name over and over.
9-12 But now you’ve walked off and left us,
you’ve disgraced us and won’t fight for us.
You made us turn tail and run;
those who hate us have cleaned us out.
You delivered us as sheep to the butcher,
you scattered us to the four winds.
You sold your people at a discount—
you made nothing on the sale.
13-16 You made people on the street,
urchins, poke fun and call us names.
You made us a joke among the godless,
a cheap joke among the rabble.
Every day I’m up against it,
my nose rubbed in my shame—
Gossip and ridicule fill the air,
people out to get me crowd the street.
17-19 All this came down on us,
and we’ve done nothing to deserve it.
We never betrayed your Covenant: our hearts
were never false, our feet never left your path.
Do we deserve torture in a den of jackals?
or lockup in a black hole?
20-22 If we had forgotten to pray to our God
or made fools of ourselves with store-bought gods,
Wouldn’t God have figured this out?
We can’t hide things from him.
No, you decided to make us martyrs,
lambs assigned for sacrifice each day.
23-26 Get up, God! Are you going to sleep all day?
Wake up! Don’t you care what happens to us?
Why do you bury your face in the pillow?
Why pretend things are just fine with us?
And here we are—flat on our faces in the dirt,
held down with a boot on our necks.
Get up and come to our rescue.
If you love us so much, Help us!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, December 26, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 2:4–10
But because of his great love for us,n God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressionso—it is by grace you have been saved.p 6 And God raised us up with Christq and seated us with himr in the heavenly realmss in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,t expressed in his kindnessu to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by gracev you have been saved,w through faithx—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works,y so that no one can boast.z 10 For we are God’s handiwork,a createdb in Christ Jesus to do good works,c which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Insight
Around ad 60 or 61 Paul wrote the letter of Ephesians to the church in Ephesus—whom he loved dearly—after spending three years with them (Acts 20:17–31). He’d longed to make a friendly visit to them, but instead was imprisoned in Rome in “his own rented house” (28:30). Yet in that enforced confinement, Paul was free to have visitors and to write and preach. In fact, there “he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!” (v. 31). While Paul awaited trial before Caesar, he wrote his letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Ephesians. By: Alyson Kieda
The Big Shuffle
It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8
In The Call of Service, author Robert Coles, exploring our reasons for serving, tells the moving story of an older woman’s service to others. As a bus driver, she showed great care toward the children she drove to school each day—quizzing them on homework and celebrating their successes. “I want to see these kids make it in life,” she said of her motivation. But there was another reason too.
As a youth, the words of an aunt had shaken this woman to the core. “She’d tell us that we had to do something God would notice,” she told Coles, “or else we’d get lost in the big shuffle!” Worried at the prospect of hell after the “big shuffle” of judgment, this woman had devised ways to “get God’s attention”—going to church so “He’d see me being loyal” and working hard to serve others so God might “hear from others what I was doing.”
I grieved reading her words. How had this dear woman never known that she already had God’s attention? (Matthew 10:30). How had she not heard that Jesus took care of the big shuffle for us, offering freedom from judgment forever? (Romans 8:1). How had she missed that salvation can’t be bought with good deeds but is a gift to anyone who believes? (Ephesians 2:8–9).
Christ’s life, death, and resurrection take care of our future with God and set us free to serve others with joy. By: Sheridan Voysey
Reflect & Pray
Why is it easy to mistakenly believe you must do good things to be accepted by God? How does understanding the gospel help you to love others better?
God, help me to trust that You’ve done what’s needed for me to be accepted by You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, December 26, 2019
“Walk in the Light”
If we walk in the light as He is in the light…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. —1 John 1:7
To mistake freedom from sin only on the conscious level of our lives for complete deliverance from sin by the atonement through the Cross of Christ is a great error. No one fully knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced at Calvary. The evidence that I have been delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. For a person to really know what sin is requires the full work and deep touch of the atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the imparting of His absolute perfection.
The Holy Spirit applies or administers the work of the atonement to us in the deep unconscious realm as well as in the conscious realm. And it is not until we truly perceive the unrivaled power of the Spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7 , which says, “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This verse does not refer only to conscious sin, but also to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Spirit in me can accomplish.
I must “walk in the light as He is in the light…”— not in the light of my own conscience, but in God’s light. If I will walk there, with nothing held back or hidden, then this amazing truth is revealed to me: “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses [me] from all sin” so that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke in me. On the conscious level it produces a keen, sorrowful knowledge of what sin really is. The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit’s hatred for sin, anything that is not in keeping with God’s holiness. To “walk in the light” means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand. Not Knowing Whither, 888 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, December 26, 2019
The Painful Road to Beauty - #8599
Our friends live in a rugged and majestic area really in the American West. They call it "Big Sky Country" out there. Yeah, that's right! Their house has been there for a long, long time - long before many other people settled where they are. Sitting in their living room, you can't help but admire these beautiful old logs in the walls. But for years, no one ever saw those logs. Over the years, they were covered by first one layer of material, then another, then another. Our friends actually had to strip away five layers of stuff: plaster, sheet rock, even manure...layers that were covering up the original beauty of this house.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Painful Road to Beauty."
Our friends had to strip away layer after layer of this accumulated junk to get what now looks so beautiful. There's a Master Builder who's working on you and me, and He's using that same method to help us display the beauty we were made for. In fact, some of what you're going through right now might be Jesus stripping away another layer of ugly or useless stuff; not to hurt you, but to make you into something more beautiful than you ever dreamed you could be.
In Malachi 3:2-3, our word for today from the Word of God, He describes the process of His makeover miracles with another analogy, refining precious metal that really isn't very precious until it's refined. The Bible says the Lord Almighty "will be like a refiner's fire ... He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify ... and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness."
God's method of getting people ready to do important things for Him is to put them through the fire; not to burn them, but to remove the impurities that keep them from being useful to Him and valuable to others. He strips away old attitudes, old pride, old sinful baggage and old ways of doing things, old layers of selfishness, or self-reliance and self-centeredness. Not to cause you pain, but to make you more precious and more powerful than you've ever been before.
That doesn't mean that having junk stripped away doesn't hurt. It does. God uses hard things in your life as tools to remove another ugly layer. Romans 5:2-4 provide this helpful perspective on the hard things we go through: "We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." I like that part. I want to have the glory of God reflecting from my life like the glory of the sun reflects through the moon. I don't especially like the next part, though. "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts."
Now why would we rejoice and be thankful for the hard things we're going through? Because we understand that they are the process by which the glory comes, by which the hope comes. I'm sure our friends out there in Big Sky Country must have gotten pretty tired of stripping away another layer after another layer. But I think I know what kept them going through the hard times. These words: "It's going to be worth it when it's done." And it is. I didn't see the process, but I sure saw the beauty that resulted.
Any person you know who reflects the radiance and the beauty of a life filled with God, I can guarantee you they have gotten that way, not primarily through their good times but through their great pain and struggle of the stripping processes of God. He knows what you can be, and He loves you too much to leave you like you are. Today's hard times are the tool of God to replace what's ugly and useless with something you will love and He can use. You won't always love the process, but you're going to love what He's making!
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Psalm 42, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE VIRGIN BIRTH OF CHRIST
The virgin birth is more…much more than a Christmas story. It’s a story of how close Christ will come to you!
The first stop on His itinerary was a womb. Where will God go to touch the world? Look deep within Mary for an answer. Better still—look deep within yourself. “Christ in you, the hope of glory!” Scripture says in Colossians 1:27.
Christ grew in Mary until He had to come out. Christ will grow in you until the same occurs. He will come out in your speech, in your actions, in your decisions. Every place you live will be a Bethlehem. And every day you live will be a Christmas. Deliver Christ into the world…into your world.
In this day of Advent,
Max Lucado
Psalm 42
A psalm of the sons of Korah
A white-tailed deer drinks
from the creek;
I want to drink God,
deep draughts of God.
I’m thirsty for God-alive.
I wonder, “Will I ever make it—
arrive and drink in God’s presence?”
I’m on a diet of tears—
tears for breakfast, tears for supper.
All day long
people knock at my door,
Pestering,
“Where is this God of yours?”
4 These are the things I go over and over,
emptying out the pockets of my life.
I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd,
right out in front,
Leading them all,
eager to arrive and worship,
Shouting praises, singing thanksgiving—
celebrating, all of us, God’s feast!
5 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God.
6-8 When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse
everything I know of you,
From Jordan depths to Hermon heights,
including Mount Mizar.
Chaos calls to chaos,
to the tune of whitewater rapids.
Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers
crash and crush me.
Then God promises to love me all day,
sing songs all through the night!
My life is God’s prayer.
9-10 Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God,
“Why did you let me down?
Why am I walking around in tears,
harassed by enemies?”
They’re out for the kill, these
tormentors with their obscenities,
Taunting day after day,
“Where is this God of yours?”
11 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
2 Corinthians 8:1–9
The Collection for the Lord’s People
8 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedoniang churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.h 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able,i and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharingj in this servicek to the Lord’s people.l 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. 6 So we urgedm Titus,n just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completiono this act of grace on your part. 7 But since you excel in everythingp—in faith, in speech, in knowledge,q in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in youa—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
8 I am not commanding you,r but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. 9 For you know the graces of our Lord Jesus Christ,t that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,u so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Insight
Paul motivates the Corinthian church by citing the inspiring example of the Macedonians. He’s also asking for a generosity that will demonstrate unity between churches. Division between the Jewish and gentile believers in Jesus plagued the early church. By giving to the church in Jerusalem, gentile disciples of Christ in Corinth and Macedonia would be contributing to a Jewish congregation, sending an implicit message of love and acceptance. Paul further notes how the Macedonian believers faced severe trials, yet gave out of “overflowing joy” and “extreme poverty” (2 Corinthians 8:2–3). This joy is a natural response to “the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches” (v. 1). Our circumstances don’t destroy our ability to give, and they can’t steal the joy that flows out of the grace God gives us. By: Tim Gustafson
Growing into Giving
Freely you have received; freely give. Matthew 10:8
“I got you a present!” my two-year-old grandson shouted excitedly as he pressed a box into my hands. “He picked it out all by himself,” my wife smiled.
I opened the box to find a Christmas ornament of his favorite cartoon character. “Can I see it?” he asked anxiously. Then he played with “my” present for the rest of the evening, and as I watched him, I smiled.
I smiled because I remembered gifts I had given loved ones in the past, like the music album I gave my older brother one Christmas when I was in high school that I really wanted to listen to (and did). And I realized how years later God was still stretching me and teaching me to give more unselfishly.
Giving is something we grow into. Paul wrote, “But since you excel in everything . . . see that you also excel in this grace of giving” (2 Corinthians 8:7). Grace fills our giving as we understand that all we have is from God, and He has shown us “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
God generously gave us the most unselfish gift of all: His only Son, who would die on a cross for our sins and be raised to life. Any who receive this ultimate gift are rich beyond measure. As our hearts are focused on Him, our hands open in love to others. By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
In what ways do you need to grow in giving? What could you do today?
Thank You, Father, for giving me the best gift of all: Your Son! Help me to share Your generosity with others today.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
His Birth and Our New Birth
"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us." —Matthew 1:23
His Birth in History. “…that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.
His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you…” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.
God Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is an easy thing to argue from precedent because it makes everything simple, but it is a risky thing to do. Give God “elbow room”; let Him come into His universe as He pleases. If we confine God in His working to religious people or to certain ways, we place ourselves on an equality with God. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
The Name on the Gift - #8598
Who needs Santa Claus? Our family sure doesn't. Not with our little grandson around. No, you know, with the family all gathered around in our living room for opening our gifts, we could get the best gift-deliverer around. Our grandson used to get so excited about each gift, no matter who it's for. He would identify what name was on the tag on each present and then he'd run to deliver it to them. Of course, there are certain gifts he's more excited about than others - the ones that have his name on them.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and on this Christmas Day, I want to have A Word With You about "The Name on the Gift."
I can't think of anything more exciting for you this Christmas than to look at the gift and realize it's got your name on it. The gift that God sent Jesus to give you, that is. It could be that He's been standing there in front of you, offering you this greatest gift of all for a long time. But you've never really realized that it had your name on it. You've never reached out and received it. It's time.
In Luke 2:11, our word for today from the Word of God, right out of the Christmas Story, the Lord presents His gift and who it's for. The angel who announced Jesus' birth said, "Today a Savior has been born to you." I want to ask you to take that "you" very, very personally. Jesus was born for you, to die for you, for every wrong thing you have ever done. That's why He can rescue you from the eternal death penalty that you deserve - that we all deserve - for hijacking our life from God. Behind His Christmas cradle stands the shadow of the Good Friday cross where He loved you enough to die for you. For you!
One of the writers of the New Testament realized how intensely personal that cross really is when he put it this way, "I live my life by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). A friend of mine met a man on an airplane who was talking about his lifelong search for spiritual answers and spiritual peace, and he hadn't found it. Then one day he said he paid a visit to the church that he had grown up in years ago. And standing there alone, he saw the cross up front. He said, "I had seen that cross so many times. I'd known about that cross my whole life. But I suddenly realized what I had missed all these years. I was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that was for me." And that day his search ended.
That's the day yours will too. When, in your heart, you walk up to the cross where Jesus gave His life, and you say those two words that change everything, "For me. Jesus, this was for me. What You did there was for me." If you've never done that, wouldn't this be a great day - a memorable day - to give Him the life that He paid for on that cross? To finally start to belong to the One who loves you the most.
The gift God gave that first Christmas wasn't a religion or some rituals or some beliefs. He gave His only Son. And His Son is waiting to give you the gift of His forgiveness for every wrong thing you've ever done, His peace, and His heaven forever. What a day to begin your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This Christmas Day, why don't you just say, "Jesus, You came for me. You died for me. You walked out of your grave under your own power so I could have life forever. Jesus, I'm done running my life. You died for me and from this day on I am yours!" Wow!
I hope you'll do that now. And then I hope you'll just check out our website where the information is there to help you begin this relationship. It might be exactly what you need to cross over. Our website is ANewStory.com. Yours could begin today.
Your name is on the greatest gift that God ever gave. This Christmas, take the gift for yourself. It cost Him everything.
The virgin birth is more…much more than a Christmas story. It’s a story of how close Christ will come to you!
The first stop on His itinerary was a womb. Where will God go to touch the world? Look deep within Mary for an answer. Better still—look deep within yourself. “Christ in you, the hope of glory!” Scripture says in Colossians 1:27.
Christ grew in Mary until He had to come out. Christ will grow in you until the same occurs. He will come out in your speech, in your actions, in your decisions. Every place you live will be a Bethlehem. And every day you live will be a Christmas. Deliver Christ into the world…into your world.
In this day of Advent,
Max Lucado
Psalm 42
A psalm of the sons of Korah
A white-tailed deer drinks
from the creek;
I want to drink God,
deep draughts of God.
I’m thirsty for God-alive.
I wonder, “Will I ever make it—
arrive and drink in God’s presence?”
I’m on a diet of tears—
tears for breakfast, tears for supper.
All day long
people knock at my door,
Pestering,
“Where is this God of yours?”
4 These are the things I go over and over,
emptying out the pockets of my life.
I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd,
right out in front,
Leading them all,
eager to arrive and worship,
Shouting praises, singing thanksgiving—
celebrating, all of us, God’s feast!
5 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God.
6-8 When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse
everything I know of you,
From Jordan depths to Hermon heights,
including Mount Mizar.
Chaos calls to chaos,
to the tune of whitewater rapids.
Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers
crash and crush me.
Then God promises to love me all day,
sing songs all through the night!
My life is God’s prayer.
9-10 Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God,
“Why did you let me down?
Why am I walking around in tears,
harassed by enemies?”
They’re out for the kill, these
tormentors with their obscenities,
Taunting day after day,
“Where is this God of yours?”
11 Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
2 Corinthians 8:1–9
The Collection for the Lord’s People
8 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedoniang churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.h 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able,i and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharingj in this servicek to the Lord’s people.l 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. 6 So we urgedm Titus,n just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completiono this act of grace on your part. 7 But since you excel in everythingp—in faith, in speech, in knowledge,q in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in youa—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
8 I am not commanding you,r but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. 9 For you know the graces of our Lord Jesus Christ,t that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,u so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Insight
Paul motivates the Corinthian church by citing the inspiring example of the Macedonians. He’s also asking for a generosity that will demonstrate unity between churches. Division between the Jewish and gentile believers in Jesus plagued the early church. By giving to the church in Jerusalem, gentile disciples of Christ in Corinth and Macedonia would be contributing to a Jewish congregation, sending an implicit message of love and acceptance. Paul further notes how the Macedonian believers faced severe trials, yet gave out of “overflowing joy” and “extreme poverty” (2 Corinthians 8:2–3). This joy is a natural response to “the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches” (v. 1). Our circumstances don’t destroy our ability to give, and they can’t steal the joy that flows out of the grace God gives us. By: Tim Gustafson
Growing into Giving
Freely you have received; freely give. Matthew 10:8
“I got you a present!” my two-year-old grandson shouted excitedly as he pressed a box into my hands. “He picked it out all by himself,” my wife smiled.
I opened the box to find a Christmas ornament of his favorite cartoon character. “Can I see it?” he asked anxiously. Then he played with “my” present for the rest of the evening, and as I watched him, I smiled.
I smiled because I remembered gifts I had given loved ones in the past, like the music album I gave my older brother one Christmas when I was in high school that I really wanted to listen to (and did). And I realized how years later God was still stretching me and teaching me to give more unselfishly.
Giving is something we grow into. Paul wrote, “But since you excel in everything . . . see that you also excel in this grace of giving” (2 Corinthians 8:7). Grace fills our giving as we understand that all we have is from God, and He has shown us “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
God generously gave us the most unselfish gift of all: His only Son, who would die on a cross for our sins and be raised to life. Any who receive this ultimate gift are rich beyond measure. As our hearts are focused on Him, our hands open in love to others. By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
In what ways do you need to grow in giving? What could you do today?
Thank You, Father, for giving me the best gift of all: Your Son! Help me to share Your generosity with others today.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
His Birth and Our New Birth
"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us." —Matthew 1:23
His Birth in History. “…that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.
His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you…” (Galatians 4:19). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is formed” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.
God Evident in the Flesh. This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is an easy thing to argue from precedent because it makes everything simple, but it is a risky thing to do. Give God “elbow room”; let Him come into His universe as He pleases. If we confine God in His working to religious people or to certain ways, we place ourselves on an equality with God. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
The Name on the Gift - #8598
Who needs Santa Claus? Our family sure doesn't. Not with our little grandson around. No, you know, with the family all gathered around in our living room for opening our gifts, we could get the best gift-deliverer around. Our grandson used to get so excited about each gift, no matter who it's for. He would identify what name was on the tag on each present and then he'd run to deliver it to them. Of course, there are certain gifts he's more excited about than others - the ones that have his name on them.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and on this Christmas Day, I want to have A Word With You about "The Name on the Gift."
I can't think of anything more exciting for you this Christmas than to look at the gift and realize it's got your name on it. The gift that God sent Jesus to give you, that is. It could be that He's been standing there in front of you, offering you this greatest gift of all for a long time. But you've never really realized that it had your name on it. You've never reached out and received it. It's time.
In Luke 2:11, our word for today from the Word of God, right out of the Christmas Story, the Lord presents His gift and who it's for. The angel who announced Jesus' birth said, "Today a Savior has been born to you." I want to ask you to take that "you" very, very personally. Jesus was born for you, to die for you, for every wrong thing you have ever done. That's why He can rescue you from the eternal death penalty that you deserve - that we all deserve - for hijacking our life from God. Behind His Christmas cradle stands the shadow of the Good Friday cross where He loved you enough to die for you. For you!
One of the writers of the New Testament realized how intensely personal that cross really is when he put it this way, "I live my life by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). A friend of mine met a man on an airplane who was talking about his lifelong search for spiritual answers and spiritual peace, and he hadn't found it. Then one day he said he paid a visit to the church that he had grown up in years ago. And standing there alone, he saw the cross up front. He said, "I had seen that cross so many times. I'd known about that cross my whole life. But I suddenly realized what I had missed all these years. I was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that was for me." And that day his search ended.
That's the day yours will too. When, in your heart, you walk up to the cross where Jesus gave His life, and you say those two words that change everything, "For me. Jesus, this was for me. What You did there was for me." If you've never done that, wouldn't this be a great day - a memorable day - to give Him the life that He paid for on that cross? To finally start to belong to the One who loves you the most.
The gift God gave that first Christmas wasn't a religion or some rituals or some beliefs. He gave His only Son. And His Son is waiting to give you the gift of His forgiveness for every wrong thing you've ever done, His peace, and His heaven forever. What a day to begin your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This Christmas Day, why don't you just say, "Jesus, You came for me. You died for me. You walked out of your grave under your own power so I could have life forever. Jesus, I'm done running my life. You died for me and from this day on I am yours!" Wow!
I hope you'll do that now. And then I hope you'll just check out our website where the information is there to help you begin this relationship. It might be exactly what you need to cross over. Our website is ANewStory.com. Yours could begin today.
Your name is on the greatest gift that God ever gave. This Christmas, take the gift for yourself. It cost Him everything.
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
1 Chronicles 16 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: HE SEEMED ANYTHING BUT A KING
In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what he was doing, was a teenage girl in a smelly stable. As Mary looked into the face of the baby, her son, her Lord, his majesty— she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knew she was holding God. So this is he. And she remembered the words of the angel when he said, “His kingdom will never end!” He looked like anything but a King. His cry, though strong and healthy, was still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby.
Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter. God came near! And Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end!” May you be a part of it.
No Wonder They Call Him Savior: Experiencing the Truth of the Cross
1 Chronicles 16 The Message (MSG)
They brought the Chest of God and placed it right in the center of the tent that David had pitched for it; then they worshiped by presenting burnt offerings and peace offerings to God. When David had completed the offerings of worship, he blessed the people in the name of God. Then he passed around to every one there, men and women alike, a loaf of bread, a slice of barbecue, and a raisin cake.
4-6 Then David assigned some of the Levites to the Chest of God to lead worship—to intercede, give thanks, and praise the God of Israel. Asaph was in charge; under him were Zechariah, Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom, and Jeiel, who played the musical instruments. Asaph was on percussion. The priests Benaiah and Jahaziel blew the trumpets before the Chest of the Covenant of God at set times through the day.
7 That was the day that David inaugurated regular worship of praise to God, led by Asaph and his company.
8-19 Thank God! Call out his Name!
Tell the whole world who he is and what he’s done!
Sing to him! Play songs for him!
Broadcast all his wonders!
Revel in his holy Name,
God-seekers, be jubilant!
Study God and his strength,
seek his presence day and night;
Remember all the wonders he performed,
the miracles and judgments that came out of his mouth.
Seed of Israel his servant!
Children of Jacob, his first choice!
He is God, our God;
wherever you go you come on his judgments and decisions.
He keeps his commitments across thousands
of generations, the covenant he commanded,
The same one he made with Abraham,
the very one he swore to Isaac;
He posted it in big block letters to Jacob,
this eternal covenant with Israel:
“I give you the land of Canaan,
this is your inheritance;
Even though you’re not much to look at,
a few straggling strangers.”
20-22 They wandered from country to country,
camped out in one kingdom after another;
But he didn’t let anyone push them around,
he stood up for them against bully-kings:
“Don’t you dare touch my anointed ones,
don’t lay a hand on my prophets.”
23-27 Sing to God, everyone and everything!
Get out his salvation news every day!
Publish his glory among the godless nations,
his wonders to all races and religions.
And why? Because God is great—well worth praising!
No god or goddess comes close in honor.
All the popular gods are stuff and nonsense,
but God made the cosmos!
Splendor and majesty flow out of him,
strength and joy fill his place.
28-29 Shout Bravo! to God, families of the peoples,
in awe of the Glory, in awe of the Strength: Bravo!
Shout Bravo! to his famous Name,
lift high an offering and enter his presence!
Stand resplendent in his robes of holiness!
30-33 God is serious business, take him seriously;
he’s put the earth in place and it’s not moving.
So let Heaven rejoice, let Earth be jubilant,
and pass the word among the nations, “God reigns!”
Let Ocean, all teeming with life, bellow,
let Field and all its creatures shake the rafters;
Then the trees in the forest will add their applause
to all who are pleased and present before God
—he’s on his way to set things right!
34-36 Give thanks to God—he is good
and his love never quits.
Say, “Save us, Savior God,
round us up and get us out of these godless places,
So we can give thanks to your holy Name,
and bask in your life of praise.”
Blessed be God, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Then everybody said, “Yes! Amen!” and “Praise God!”
37-42 David left Asaph and his coworkers with the Chest of the Covenant of God and in charge of the work of worship; they were responsible for the needs of worship around the clock. He also assigned Obed-Edom and his sixty-eight relatives to help them. Obed-Edom son of Jeduthun and Hosah were in charge of the security guards. The priest Zadok and his family of priests were assigned to the Tent of God at the sacred mound at Gibeon to make sure that the services of morning and evening worship were conducted daily, complete with Whole-Burnt-Offerings offered on the Altar of Burnt Offering, as ordered in the Law of God, which was the norm for Israel. With them were Heman, Jeduthun, and others specifically named, with the job description: “Give thanks to God, for his love never quits!” Heman and Jeduthun were also well equipped with trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments for accompanying sacred songs. The sons of Jeduthun formed the security guard.
43 Arrangements completed, the people all left for home. And David went home to bless his family.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Luke 2:25–33
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout.k He was waiting for the consolation of Israel,l and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,m 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,n
you may now dismissd your servant in peace.o
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,p
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”q
33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him.
Insight
Simeon (Greek, Simon) is a common name among the Jews and means “listen” or “he has heard.” Eleven men with this name are mentioned in the New Testament (Matthew 4:18; 10:4; 13:55; 26:6; 27:32; Luke 2:25; Luke 7:40; John 6:71; Acts 8:9; 9:43; 13:1).
Nothing more is known of the Simeon in Luke 2 except what is told in this passage. Simeon, Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth (the parents of John the Baptist; Luke 1:5–7), and Anna (an elderly prophetess; 2:36) constituted the righteous remnant of Jews who were “eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel” (v. 25 nlt). Luke says that “the Holy Spirit was on [Simeon]” (v. 25), a description that’s used of Old Testament prophets speaking for God (Numbers 11:25; 1 Samuel 10:6, 10; 19:20, 23). Since Anna was a prophetess and was in the temple “at that very moment” (Luke 2:36–38), scholars believe that Simeon was also a prophet.
A Christmas Visitor
Sovereign Lord, . . . you may now dismiss your servant in peace. Luke 2:29
On Christmas Eve 1944, a man known as “Old Brinker” lay dying in a prison hospital, waiting for the makeshift Christmas service led by fellow prisoners. “When does the music start?” he asked William McDougall, who was imprisoned with him in Muntok Prison in Sumatra. “Soon,” replied McDougall. “Good,” replied the dying man. “Then I’ll be able to compare them with the angels.”
Although decades earlier Brinker had moved away from his faith in God, in his dying days he confessed his sins and found peace with Him. Instead of greeting others with a sour look, he would smile, which “was quite a transformation,” said McDougall.
Brinker died peacefully after the choir of eleven emaciated prisoners sang his request, “Silent Night.” Knowing that Brinker once again followed Jesus and would be united with God in heaven, McDougall observed, “Perhaps Death had been a welcome Christmas visitor to old Brinker.”
How Brinker anticipated his death reminds me of Simeon, a holy man to whom the Holy Spirit revealed that “he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah” (Luke 2:26). When Simeon saw Jesus in the temple, he exclaimed, “You may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation” (vv. 29–30).
As with Brinker, the greatest Christmas gift we can receive or share is that of saving faith in Jesus. By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
Why do you think McDougall saw death as a welcome visitor for Brinker? How does Jesus bring you joy and change you?
Jesus, thank You for ushering in peace through Your death and resurrection. Help me to share Your gift of salvation with someone I know or meet.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
The Hidden Life
…your life is hidden with Christ in God. —Colossians 3:3
The Spirit of God testifies to and confirms the simple, but almighty, security of the life that “is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul continually brought this out in his New Testament letters. We talk as if living a sanctified life were the most uncertain and insecure thing we could do. Yet it is the most secure thing possible, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most dangerous and unsure thing is to try to live without God. For one who is born again, it is easier to live in a right-standing relationship with God than it is to go wrong, provided we heed God’s warnings and “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).
When we think of being delivered from sin, being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and “walk[ing] in the light,” we picture the peak of a great mountain. We see it as very high and wonderful, but we say, “Oh, I could never live up there!” However, when we do get there through God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak at all, but a plateau with plenty of room to live and to grow. “You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).
When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. If you see Him when He says, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:27), I defy you to worry. It is virtually impossible to doubt when He is there. Every time you are in personal contact with Jesus, His words are real to you. “My peace I give to you…” (John 14:27)— a peace which brings an unconstrained confidence and covers you completely, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. “…your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and the peace of Jesus Christ that cannot be disturbed has been imparted to you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
What Linus and I Missed in the Manger - #8597
Every year, about this time, Linus comes marching on stage with his trusty blanket. And he uses a passage from the Bible to help poor ol' Charlie Brown understand "what Christmas is really all about." ..."And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in the manger." Until recently, I had no idea how loaded those words were.
Meanwhile, an angel roars in over shepherds watching their sheep and announces, "I bring you good tidings of great joy ... Today in the town of David (that's Bethlehem) a Savior has been born to you ... this will be a sign to you: you will find a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger."
I doubt that Linus - or certainly not the guy saying it right now - had a clue about the bombshell in the manger. A stunning revelation that, for all my years going over the Christmas story, I had totally missed. Now, my discovery has made this "most wonderful time of the year" even wonderfuler!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today from the Word of God about "What Linas and I Missed in the Manger."
Bethlehem was only about five miles from Jerusalem, where the great temple of God was. Where, for centuries, people would bring a spotless lamb as a sacrifice for their sin. It is widely believed that the Christmas shepherds were raising temple sheep, destined to be the blood sacrifice for the sin of the bringer.
Here's what I'm just learning after all these years. When a lamb was born, the temple shepherds would carefully examine him to see if he had any blemishes. If that lamb was without spot, they would wrap him in cloth strips called swaddling and lay Him in a stone manger filled with straw.
Suddenly, heaven announces that the newborn Messiah would be found "wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Imagine what that may have said to them. The newborn Messiah was, in a sense, a lamb. A spotless lamb to be sacrificed.
In the northern corner of the "little town of Bethlehem," there stood a tower called in Micah 4:8, the "watchtower of the flock" - or Migdal Eder in Hebrew. It is thought to be that when a ewe of the temple flock was ready to give birth, the shepherds would carry her to the cave beneath the tower. And there, the sacred temple lambs were born.
This is where I fasten my seat belt. The angel told the shepherds that the sign by which to identify the newborn Messiah would be a swaddled baby in a manger. I've always pictured those poor herders sort of playing Christmas hide-and-seek, looking for a baby that fit that description. Wrong! The Messiah would be wrapped and mangered - just like those spotless lambs, destined for sacrifice. It's likely they went as fast as their sandals could go to Migdal Eder. To the cave where it's believed that the sacrificial lambs were born! That baby in the hay was, indeed, the Lamb. God's Lamb.
When John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world, he didn't say, "Look! The King of kings" or "the Son of God." Here's our word for today from the Word of God in John 1:29. He said, "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
This is the breathtaking plan that had been in God's mind since before the world began - down to the swaddling clothes and the manger. Lambs sacrificed to graphically tell us that sin carries a penalty that can only be paid by death. Preparing the way for God's Lamb, who came to do all the dying for all the sinning of every one of us. For me. I can hardly write those words.
Listen, our website, ANewStory.com, is there at a point like this to help you know how you can experience the forgiveness and the love of this Jesus for yourself beginning today. In this Christmas season I hope you'll get there.
The Bible tells us that one day we who belong to this Jesus will join 100 million angels who are worshiping Him in heaven. And who are singing the an
them of heaven, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" Heaven can't get over the price God's Lamb paid for us rebels against Him, and neither can I.
In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what he was doing, was a teenage girl in a smelly stable. As Mary looked into the face of the baby, her son, her Lord, his majesty— she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knew she was holding God. So this is he. And she remembered the words of the angel when he said, “His kingdom will never end!” He looked like anything but a King. His cry, though strong and healthy, was still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby.
Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter. God came near! And Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end!” May you be a part of it.
No Wonder They Call Him Savior: Experiencing the Truth of the Cross
1 Chronicles 16 The Message (MSG)
They brought the Chest of God and placed it right in the center of the tent that David had pitched for it; then they worshiped by presenting burnt offerings and peace offerings to God. When David had completed the offerings of worship, he blessed the people in the name of God. Then he passed around to every one there, men and women alike, a loaf of bread, a slice of barbecue, and a raisin cake.
4-6 Then David assigned some of the Levites to the Chest of God to lead worship—to intercede, give thanks, and praise the God of Israel. Asaph was in charge; under him were Zechariah, Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom, and Jeiel, who played the musical instruments. Asaph was on percussion. The priests Benaiah and Jahaziel blew the trumpets before the Chest of the Covenant of God at set times through the day.
7 That was the day that David inaugurated regular worship of praise to God, led by Asaph and his company.
8-19 Thank God! Call out his Name!
Tell the whole world who he is and what he’s done!
Sing to him! Play songs for him!
Broadcast all his wonders!
Revel in his holy Name,
God-seekers, be jubilant!
Study God and his strength,
seek his presence day and night;
Remember all the wonders he performed,
the miracles and judgments that came out of his mouth.
Seed of Israel his servant!
Children of Jacob, his first choice!
He is God, our God;
wherever you go you come on his judgments and decisions.
He keeps his commitments across thousands
of generations, the covenant he commanded,
The same one he made with Abraham,
the very one he swore to Isaac;
He posted it in big block letters to Jacob,
this eternal covenant with Israel:
“I give you the land of Canaan,
this is your inheritance;
Even though you’re not much to look at,
a few straggling strangers.”
20-22 They wandered from country to country,
camped out in one kingdom after another;
But he didn’t let anyone push them around,
he stood up for them against bully-kings:
“Don’t you dare touch my anointed ones,
don’t lay a hand on my prophets.”
23-27 Sing to God, everyone and everything!
Get out his salvation news every day!
Publish his glory among the godless nations,
his wonders to all races and religions.
And why? Because God is great—well worth praising!
No god or goddess comes close in honor.
All the popular gods are stuff and nonsense,
but God made the cosmos!
Splendor and majesty flow out of him,
strength and joy fill his place.
28-29 Shout Bravo! to God, families of the peoples,
in awe of the Glory, in awe of the Strength: Bravo!
Shout Bravo! to his famous Name,
lift high an offering and enter his presence!
Stand resplendent in his robes of holiness!
30-33 God is serious business, take him seriously;
he’s put the earth in place and it’s not moving.
So let Heaven rejoice, let Earth be jubilant,
and pass the word among the nations, “God reigns!”
Let Ocean, all teeming with life, bellow,
let Field and all its creatures shake the rafters;
Then the trees in the forest will add their applause
to all who are pleased and present before God
—he’s on his way to set things right!
34-36 Give thanks to God—he is good
and his love never quits.
Say, “Save us, Savior God,
round us up and get us out of these godless places,
So we can give thanks to your holy Name,
and bask in your life of praise.”
Blessed be God, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Then everybody said, “Yes! Amen!” and “Praise God!”
37-42 David left Asaph and his coworkers with the Chest of the Covenant of God and in charge of the work of worship; they were responsible for the needs of worship around the clock. He also assigned Obed-Edom and his sixty-eight relatives to help them. Obed-Edom son of Jeduthun and Hosah were in charge of the security guards. The priest Zadok and his family of priests were assigned to the Tent of God at the sacred mound at Gibeon to make sure that the services of morning and evening worship were conducted daily, complete with Whole-Burnt-Offerings offered on the Altar of Burnt Offering, as ordered in the Law of God, which was the norm for Israel. With them were Heman, Jeduthun, and others specifically named, with the job description: “Give thanks to God, for his love never quits!” Heman and Jeduthun were also well equipped with trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments for accompanying sacred songs. The sons of Jeduthun formed the security guard.
43 Arrangements completed, the people all left for home. And David went home to bless his family.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Luke 2:25–33
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout.k He was waiting for the consolation of Israel,l and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,m 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,n
you may now dismissd your servant in peace.o
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,p
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”q
33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him.
Insight
Simeon (Greek, Simon) is a common name among the Jews and means “listen” or “he has heard.” Eleven men with this name are mentioned in the New Testament (Matthew 4:18; 10:4; 13:55; 26:6; 27:32; Luke 2:25; Luke 7:40; John 6:71; Acts 8:9; 9:43; 13:1).
Nothing more is known of the Simeon in Luke 2 except what is told in this passage. Simeon, Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth (the parents of John the Baptist; Luke 1:5–7), and Anna (an elderly prophetess; 2:36) constituted the righteous remnant of Jews who were “eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel” (v. 25 nlt). Luke says that “the Holy Spirit was on [Simeon]” (v. 25), a description that’s used of Old Testament prophets speaking for God (Numbers 11:25; 1 Samuel 10:6, 10; 19:20, 23). Since Anna was a prophetess and was in the temple “at that very moment” (Luke 2:36–38), scholars believe that Simeon was also a prophet.
A Christmas Visitor
Sovereign Lord, . . . you may now dismiss your servant in peace. Luke 2:29
On Christmas Eve 1944, a man known as “Old Brinker” lay dying in a prison hospital, waiting for the makeshift Christmas service led by fellow prisoners. “When does the music start?” he asked William McDougall, who was imprisoned with him in Muntok Prison in Sumatra. “Soon,” replied McDougall. “Good,” replied the dying man. “Then I’ll be able to compare them with the angels.”
Although decades earlier Brinker had moved away from his faith in God, in his dying days he confessed his sins and found peace with Him. Instead of greeting others with a sour look, he would smile, which “was quite a transformation,” said McDougall.
Brinker died peacefully after the choir of eleven emaciated prisoners sang his request, “Silent Night.” Knowing that Brinker once again followed Jesus and would be united with God in heaven, McDougall observed, “Perhaps Death had been a welcome Christmas visitor to old Brinker.”
How Brinker anticipated his death reminds me of Simeon, a holy man to whom the Holy Spirit revealed that “he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah” (Luke 2:26). When Simeon saw Jesus in the temple, he exclaimed, “You may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation” (vv. 29–30).
As with Brinker, the greatest Christmas gift we can receive or share is that of saving faith in Jesus. By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
Why do you think McDougall saw death as a welcome visitor for Brinker? How does Jesus bring you joy and change you?
Jesus, thank You for ushering in peace through Your death and resurrection. Help me to share Your gift of salvation with someone I know or meet.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
The Hidden Life
…your life is hidden with Christ in God. —Colossians 3:3
The Spirit of God testifies to and confirms the simple, but almighty, security of the life that “is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul continually brought this out in his New Testament letters. We talk as if living a sanctified life were the most uncertain and insecure thing we could do. Yet it is the most secure thing possible, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most dangerous and unsure thing is to try to live without God. For one who is born again, it is easier to live in a right-standing relationship with God than it is to go wrong, provided we heed God’s warnings and “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).
When we think of being delivered from sin, being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and “walk[ing] in the light,” we picture the peak of a great mountain. We see it as very high and wonderful, but we say, “Oh, I could never live up there!” However, when we do get there through God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak at all, but a plateau with plenty of room to live and to grow. “You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).
When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. If you see Him when He says, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:27), I defy you to worry. It is virtually impossible to doubt when He is there. Every time you are in personal contact with Jesus, His words are real to you. “My peace I give to you…” (John 14:27)— a peace which brings an unconstrained confidence and covers you completely, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. “…your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and the peace of Jesus Christ that cannot be disturbed has been imparted to you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Disciples Indeed
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
What Linus and I Missed in the Manger - #8597
Every year, about this time, Linus comes marching on stage with his trusty blanket. And he uses a passage from the Bible to help poor ol' Charlie Brown understand "what Christmas is really all about." ..."And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in the manger." Until recently, I had no idea how loaded those words were.
Meanwhile, an angel roars in over shepherds watching their sheep and announces, "I bring you good tidings of great joy ... Today in the town of David (that's Bethlehem) a Savior has been born to you ... this will be a sign to you: you will find a babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger."
I doubt that Linus - or certainly not the guy saying it right now - had a clue about the bombshell in the manger. A stunning revelation that, for all my years going over the Christmas story, I had totally missed. Now, my discovery has made this "most wonderful time of the year" even wonderfuler!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today from the Word of God about "What Linas and I Missed in the Manger."
Bethlehem was only about five miles from Jerusalem, where the great temple of God was. Where, for centuries, people would bring a spotless lamb as a sacrifice for their sin. It is widely believed that the Christmas shepherds were raising temple sheep, destined to be the blood sacrifice for the sin of the bringer.
Here's what I'm just learning after all these years. When a lamb was born, the temple shepherds would carefully examine him to see if he had any blemishes. If that lamb was without spot, they would wrap him in cloth strips called swaddling and lay Him in a stone manger filled with straw.
Suddenly, heaven announces that the newborn Messiah would be found "wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Imagine what that may have said to them. The newborn Messiah was, in a sense, a lamb. A spotless lamb to be sacrificed.
In the northern corner of the "little town of Bethlehem," there stood a tower called in Micah 4:8, the "watchtower of the flock" - or Migdal Eder in Hebrew. It is thought to be that when a ewe of the temple flock was ready to give birth, the shepherds would carry her to the cave beneath the tower. And there, the sacred temple lambs were born.
This is where I fasten my seat belt. The angel told the shepherds that the sign by which to identify the newborn Messiah would be a swaddled baby in a manger. I've always pictured those poor herders sort of playing Christmas hide-and-seek, looking for a baby that fit that description. Wrong! The Messiah would be wrapped and mangered - just like those spotless lambs, destined for sacrifice. It's likely they went as fast as their sandals could go to Migdal Eder. To the cave where it's believed that the sacrificial lambs were born! That baby in the hay was, indeed, the Lamb. God's Lamb.
When John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world, he didn't say, "Look! The King of kings" or "the Son of God." Here's our word for today from the Word of God in John 1:29. He said, "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
This is the breathtaking plan that had been in God's mind since before the world began - down to the swaddling clothes and the manger. Lambs sacrificed to graphically tell us that sin carries a penalty that can only be paid by death. Preparing the way for God's Lamb, who came to do all the dying for all the sinning of every one of us. For me. I can hardly write those words.
Listen, our website, ANewStory.com, is there at a point like this to help you know how you can experience the forgiveness and the love of this Jesus for yourself beginning today. In this Christmas season I hope you'll get there.
The Bible tells us that one day we who belong to this Jesus will join 100 million angels who are worshiping Him in heaven. And who are singing the an
them of heaven, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" Heaven can't get over the price God's Lamb paid for us rebels against Him, and neither can I.
Monday, December 23, 2019
1 Corinthians 9, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: NO ROOM IN THE INN
Some of the saddest words on earth are we don’t have room for you. Jesus knew the sounds of those words. He was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, “We don’t have room for you.” And when he hung on the cross, wasn’t the message one of utter rejection? “We don’t have room for you in this world.”
Today Jesus is given the same treatment. He goes from heart to heart, asking if he might enter. Every so often, he is welcomed. Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise. “In my Father’s house are many rooms” (John 14:2). We make room for him in our hearts, and Jesus makes room for us in his house!
1 Corinthians 9 The Message (MSG)
And don’t tell me that I have no authority to write like this. I’m perfectly free to do this—isn’t that obvious? Haven’t I been given a job to do? Wasn’t I commissioned to this work in a face-to-face meeting with Jesus, our Master? Aren’t you yourselves proof of the good work that I’ve done for the Master? Even if no one else admits the authority of my commission, you can’t deny it. Why, my work with you is living proof of my authority!
3-7 I’m not shy in standing up to my critics. We who are on missionary assignments for God have a right to decent accommodations, and we have a right to support for us and our families. You don’t seem to have raised questions with the other apostles and our Master’s brothers and Peter in these matters. So, why me? Is it just Barnabas and I who have to go it alone and pay our own way? Are soldiers self-employed? Are gardeners forbidden to eat vegetables from their own gardens? Don’t milkmaids get to drink their fill from the pail?
8-12 I’m not just sounding off because I’m irritated. This is all written in the scriptural law. Moses wrote, “Don’t muzzle an ox to keep it from eating the grain when it’s threshing.” Do you think Moses’ primary concern was the care of farm animals? Don’t you think his concern extends to us? Of course. Farmers plow and thresh expecting something when the crop comes in. So if we have planted spiritual seed among you, is it out of line to expect a meal or two from you? Others demand plenty from you in these ways. Don’t we who have never demanded deserve even more?
12-14 But we’re not going to start demanding now what we’ve always had a perfect right to. Our decision all along has been to put up with anything rather than to get in the way or detract from the Message of Christ. All I’m concerned with right now is that you not use our decision to take advantage of others, depriving them of what is rightly theirs. You know, don’t you, that it’s always been taken for granted that those who work in the Temple live off the proceeds of the Temple, and that those who offer sacrifices at the altar eat their meals from what has been sacrificed? Along the same lines, the Master directed that those who spread the Message be supported by those who believe the Message.
15-18 Still, I want it made clear that I’ve never gotten anything out of this for myself, and that I’m not writing now to get something. I’d rather die than give anyone ammunition to discredit me or impugn my motives. If I proclaim the Message, it’s not to get something out of it for myself. I’m compelled to do it, and doomed if I don’t! If this was my own idea of just another way to make a living, I’d expect some pay. But since it’s not my idea but something solemnly entrusted to me, why would I expect to get paid? So am I getting anything out of it? Yes, as a matter of fact: the pleasure of proclaiming the Message at no cost to you. You don’t even have to pay my expenses!
19-23 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
24-25 You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.
26-27 I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 23, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Luke 2:15–19
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.c 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.d
Insight
In Luke 2:15–19, we see several responses to God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus. The shepherds responded by believing and then acting on their urgent desire to see what God had done (v. 15). After seeing Jesus, they shared the news (v. 17), which the people responded to with amazement (v. 18). But Mary’s response is arguably deeper than all of these responses, and likely one Luke intended to be a model of faith. When Mary “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (v. 19), she continued a long tradition of God’s people responding to His revelation by internalizing it in their hearts through ongoing pondering or meditation (see Psalm 119:11; Proverbs 3:1–3). By: Monica La Rose
A String of Yeses
Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19
One Christmas, my grandmother gave me a beautiful pearl necklace. The beautiful beads glowed about my neck until one day the string broke. Balls bounced in all directions off our home’s hardwood flooring. Crawling over the planks, I recovered each tiny orb. On their own, they were small. But oh, when strung together, those pearls made such an impression!
Sometimes my yeses to God seem so insignificant—like those individual pearls. I compare myself to Mary, the mother of Jesus who was so fantastically obedient. She said yes when she embraced God’s call for her to carry the Messiah. “‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled’” (Luke 1:38). Did she understand all that would be required of her? That an even bigger yes to relinquishing her Son on the cross loomed ahead?
After the visits of the angels and shepherds, Luke 2:19 tells us that Mary “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Treasure means to “store up.” Ponder means to “thread together.” The phrase is repeated of Mary in Luke 2:51. She would respond with many yeses over her lifetime.
As with Mary, the key to our obedience might be a threading together of various yeses to our Father’s invitations, one at a time, until they string into the treasure of a surrendered life. By: Elisa Morgan
Reflect & Pray
What yeses do you need to say to God? How can you learn to be more obedient?
Dear God, help us to respond, one yes at a time, to Your ongoing work in our lives.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 23, 2019
Sharing in the Atonement
God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… —Galatians 6:14
The gospel of Jesus Christ always forces a decision of our will. Have I accepted God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ? Do I have even the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self? Do I long to be so closely identified with Jesus that I am of no value for anything except Him and His purposes? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can commit myself under the banner of His Cross, and that means death to sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either decide to tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you, or that at any cost you want to be identified with His death. When you act in confident faith in what our Lord did on the cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place immediately. And you will come to know through a higher knowledge that your old life was “crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your old life is dead, having been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you now enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.
Every once in a while our Lord gives us a glimpse of what we would be like if it were not for Him. This is a confirmation of what He said— “…without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That is why the underlying foundation of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the joy of our first introduction into God’s kingdom as His purpose for getting us there. Yet God’s purpose in getting us into His kingdom is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.
SDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. Not Knowing Whither, 903 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 23, 2019
One Safe Place This Christmas - #8596
Christmas Eve at our house is anything but a "Silent Night." How about "Family Circus"? Each year brings a lot of high-energy, high-decibel giving and the opening of gifts. One year, somewhere in the flying wrapping paper, was one overwhelmed two-year-old. Quietly dazed amid the happy din. There was one person who noticed. Grandma, of course.
My Karen slipped unobtrusively to the floor. Found a corner where she and our little guy were quietly working on the toy he had just opened, oblivious to the mayhem all around them. Grandma had created a safe zone in the midst of the craziness. A bewildered little boy had found one safe place. The place was a person. Someone who loved him very, very much.
That's where I've found my one safe place. Along with countless millions of others like me; someone who loves me very, very much. His love is written in blood, shed on a cross to pay for my sins against Him so I could be forgiven and be with Him in heaven forever.
For many years, He blessed me beyond words by letting me do life with a woman who so radiantly embodied His love. But, in these years for the first time in my adult life, the queen of my Christmas continues to be missing at Christmas. She went Home very suddenly. It was a day like no other. So, you know, while we're singing and reading about Jesus, she'll be with Him, face-to-face.
I got a note from a friend that captured in a sentence the heart of this family. It said, "It seemed someone so fully alive and vibrant couldn't possibly have left us." That says it all. Back when it was our first "empty chair Christmas," she was so missing. She still is. And so missed. In many ways, she was a harbor for me on my stormiest days.
Then, in an instant, I was on my own. So I guess I'm that shell-shocked little boy this Christmas. And Grandma, well once again, not here.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Safe Place This Christmas."
My safe place still is here on Christmas. Because in the words of Romans 8:39, our word for today from the Word of God,"nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The only love on earth that death cannot take away. I have tested this love. I have proven it in my darkest hour - that "the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and they are safe." (Proverbs 18:10) What a beautiful word "safe."
When the grief ambushes trigger the tears again, the anchor holds. When loneliness resurfaces without warning, Jesus just holds me closer. When the prospect of doing the years ahead without my baby chills my soul, He whispers, "I've got this, Ron. And I've got you."
You know, my greatest heartache this Christmas is not for me. Or even for our children and grandchildren who adored her so. They have her Jesus. No, my heart aches for so many who face great loss and brokenness without that one Safe Place. The death-conquering Savior who said, "I am leaving you with a gift - a peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be trou
bled or afraid." (John 14:27)
But I know that peace is within their reach as it has been for me. It's within your reach by pinning all their hopes on Jesus and what He did for us on the cross. What He won for us when he walked out of His grave at His empty tomb.
That's why I want you to go to our website. I've got nothing there except to tell you how to begin this relationship. That's the most important thing you'll find there. It's ANewStory.com. Please check it out.
Look, I know that for those of us who have lost someone we love last year, the years before, maybe a long time ago, there'll still be some tender - even overwhelming - moments. But someone who loves you and loves me very, very much will move in close. And in His arms I'll be safe. You'll be safe.
Some of the saddest words on earth are we don’t have room for you. Jesus knew the sounds of those words. He was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, “We don’t have room for you.” And when he hung on the cross, wasn’t the message one of utter rejection? “We don’t have room for you in this world.”
Today Jesus is given the same treatment. He goes from heart to heart, asking if he might enter. Every so often, he is welcomed. Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise. “In my Father’s house are many rooms” (John 14:2). We make room for him in our hearts, and Jesus makes room for us in his house!
1 Corinthians 9 The Message (MSG)
And don’t tell me that I have no authority to write like this. I’m perfectly free to do this—isn’t that obvious? Haven’t I been given a job to do? Wasn’t I commissioned to this work in a face-to-face meeting with Jesus, our Master? Aren’t you yourselves proof of the good work that I’ve done for the Master? Even if no one else admits the authority of my commission, you can’t deny it. Why, my work with you is living proof of my authority!
3-7 I’m not shy in standing up to my critics. We who are on missionary assignments for God have a right to decent accommodations, and we have a right to support for us and our families. You don’t seem to have raised questions with the other apostles and our Master’s brothers and Peter in these matters. So, why me? Is it just Barnabas and I who have to go it alone and pay our own way? Are soldiers self-employed? Are gardeners forbidden to eat vegetables from their own gardens? Don’t milkmaids get to drink their fill from the pail?
8-12 I’m not just sounding off because I’m irritated. This is all written in the scriptural law. Moses wrote, “Don’t muzzle an ox to keep it from eating the grain when it’s threshing.” Do you think Moses’ primary concern was the care of farm animals? Don’t you think his concern extends to us? Of course. Farmers plow and thresh expecting something when the crop comes in. So if we have planted spiritual seed among you, is it out of line to expect a meal or two from you? Others demand plenty from you in these ways. Don’t we who have never demanded deserve even more?
12-14 But we’re not going to start demanding now what we’ve always had a perfect right to. Our decision all along has been to put up with anything rather than to get in the way or detract from the Message of Christ. All I’m concerned with right now is that you not use our decision to take advantage of others, depriving them of what is rightly theirs. You know, don’t you, that it’s always been taken for granted that those who work in the Temple live off the proceeds of the Temple, and that those who offer sacrifices at the altar eat their meals from what has been sacrificed? Along the same lines, the Master directed that those who spread the Message be supported by those who believe the Message.
15-18 Still, I want it made clear that I’ve never gotten anything out of this for myself, and that I’m not writing now to get something. I’d rather die than give anyone ammunition to discredit me or impugn my motives. If I proclaim the Message, it’s not to get something out of it for myself. I’m compelled to do it, and doomed if I don’t! If this was my own idea of just another way to make a living, I’d expect some pay. But since it’s not my idea but something solemnly entrusted to me, why would I expect to get paid? So am I getting anything out of it? Yes, as a matter of fact: the pleasure of proclaiming the Message at no cost to you. You don’t even have to pay my expenses!
19-23 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
24-25 You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.
26-27 I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 23, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Luke 2:15–19
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.c 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.d
Insight
In Luke 2:15–19, we see several responses to God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus. The shepherds responded by believing and then acting on their urgent desire to see what God had done (v. 15). After seeing Jesus, they shared the news (v. 17), which the people responded to with amazement (v. 18). But Mary’s response is arguably deeper than all of these responses, and likely one Luke intended to be a model of faith. When Mary “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (v. 19), she continued a long tradition of God’s people responding to His revelation by internalizing it in their hearts through ongoing pondering or meditation (see Psalm 119:11; Proverbs 3:1–3). By: Monica La Rose
A String of Yeses
Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19
One Christmas, my grandmother gave me a beautiful pearl necklace. The beautiful beads glowed about my neck until one day the string broke. Balls bounced in all directions off our home’s hardwood flooring. Crawling over the planks, I recovered each tiny orb. On their own, they were small. But oh, when strung together, those pearls made such an impression!
Sometimes my yeses to God seem so insignificant—like those individual pearls. I compare myself to Mary, the mother of Jesus who was so fantastically obedient. She said yes when she embraced God’s call for her to carry the Messiah. “‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled’” (Luke 1:38). Did she understand all that would be required of her? That an even bigger yes to relinquishing her Son on the cross loomed ahead?
After the visits of the angels and shepherds, Luke 2:19 tells us that Mary “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Treasure means to “store up.” Ponder means to “thread together.” The phrase is repeated of Mary in Luke 2:51. She would respond with many yeses over her lifetime.
As with Mary, the key to our obedience might be a threading together of various yeses to our Father’s invitations, one at a time, until they string into the treasure of a surrendered life. By: Elisa Morgan
Reflect & Pray
What yeses do you need to say to God? How can you learn to be more obedient?
Dear God, help us to respond, one yes at a time, to Your ongoing work in our lives.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 23, 2019
Sharing in the Atonement
God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… —Galatians 6:14
The gospel of Jesus Christ always forces a decision of our will. Have I accepted God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ? Do I have even the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self? Do I long to be so closely identified with Jesus that I am of no value for anything except Him and His purposes? The great privilege of discipleship is that I can commit myself under the banner of His Cross, and that means death to sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either decide to tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you, or that at any cost you want to be identified with His death. When you act in confident faith in what our Lord did on the cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place immediately. And you will come to know through a higher knowledge that your old life was “crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your old life is dead, having been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you now enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.
Every once in a while our Lord gives us a glimpse of what we would be like if it were not for Him. This is a confirmation of what He said— “…without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That is why the underlying foundation of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the joy of our first introduction into God’s kingdom as His purpose for getting us there. Yet God’s purpose in getting us into His kingdom is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.
SDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. Not Knowing Whither, 903 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 23, 2019
One Safe Place This Christmas - #8596
Christmas Eve at our house is anything but a "Silent Night." How about "Family Circus"? Each year brings a lot of high-energy, high-decibel giving and the opening of gifts. One year, somewhere in the flying wrapping paper, was one overwhelmed two-year-old. Quietly dazed amid the happy din. There was one person who noticed. Grandma, of course.
My Karen slipped unobtrusively to the floor. Found a corner where she and our little guy were quietly working on the toy he had just opened, oblivious to the mayhem all around them. Grandma had created a safe zone in the midst of the craziness. A bewildered little boy had found one safe place. The place was a person. Someone who loved him very, very much.
That's where I've found my one safe place. Along with countless millions of others like me; someone who loves me very, very much. His love is written in blood, shed on a cross to pay for my sins against Him so I could be forgiven and be with Him in heaven forever.
For many years, He blessed me beyond words by letting me do life with a woman who so radiantly embodied His love. But, in these years for the first time in my adult life, the queen of my Christmas continues to be missing at Christmas. She went Home very suddenly. It was a day like no other. So, you know, while we're singing and reading about Jesus, she'll be with Him, face-to-face.
I got a note from a friend that captured in a sentence the heart of this family. It said, "It seemed someone so fully alive and vibrant couldn't possibly have left us." That says it all. Back when it was our first "empty chair Christmas," she was so missing. She still is. And so missed. In many ways, she was a harbor for me on my stormiest days.
Then, in an instant, I was on my own. So I guess I'm that shell-shocked little boy this Christmas. And Grandma, well once again, not here.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Safe Place This Christmas."
My safe place still is here on Christmas. Because in the words of Romans 8:39, our word for today from the Word of God,"nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The only love on earth that death cannot take away. I have tested this love. I have proven it in my darkest hour - that "the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and they are safe." (Proverbs 18:10) What a beautiful word "safe."
When the grief ambushes trigger the tears again, the anchor holds. When loneliness resurfaces without warning, Jesus just holds me closer. When the prospect of doing the years ahead without my baby chills my soul, He whispers, "I've got this, Ron. And I've got you."
You know, my greatest heartache this Christmas is not for me. Or even for our children and grandchildren who adored her so. They have her Jesus. No, my heart aches for so many who face great loss and brokenness without that one Safe Place. The death-conquering Savior who said, "I am leaving you with a gift - a peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be trou
bled or afraid." (John 14:27)
But I know that peace is within their reach as it has been for me. It's within your reach by pinning all their hopes on Jesus and what He did for us on the cross. What He won for us when he walked out of His grave at His empty tomb.
That's why I want you to go to our website. I've got nothing there except to tell you how to begin this relationship. That's the most important thing you'll find there. It's ANewStory.com. Please check it out.
Look, I know that for those of us who have lost someone we love last year, the years before, maybe a long time ago, there'll still be some tender - even overwhelming - moments. But someone who loves you and loves me very, very much will move in close. And in His arms I'll be safe. You'll be safe.
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