Nahum 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE BETTER OPTION

I spent too much of a high school summer working in the oil field.  We donned gas masks, waded into ankle deep, contaminated mire.  My mom burned my work clothes.  The stink stunk!  Yours can do the same.  Linger too long in the stench of your hurt, and you’ll smell like the toxin you despise.

The better option?  Join with David as he announces: “The Lord lives.  Blessed be my Rock.  It is God who avenges me.  He delivers me from my enemies.  Therefore I will give thanks to You, O God” (Psalm 18:46-49).  Wander through the gallery of God’s goodness.  Catalog His kindnesses.  Look at what you have.  Let Jesus be the friend you need.  Talk to Him.  Spare no details.  Disclose your fear.  Describe your dread.  You just found a friend for life in Jesus Christ.  What could be better th

Nahum 2

Israel’s Been to Hell and Back

The juggernaut’s coming!
    Post guards, lay in supplies.
Get yourselves together,
    get ready for the big battle.

2 God has restored the Pride of Jacob,
    the Pride of Israel.
Israel’s lived through hard times.
    He’s been to hell and back.

3-12 Weapons flash in the sun,
    the soldiers splendid in battle dress,
Chariots burnished and glistening,
    ready to charge,
A spiked forest of brandished spears,
    lethal on the horizon.
The chariots pour into the streets.
    They fill the public squares,
Flaming like torches in the sun,
    like lightning darting and flashing.
The Assyrian king rallies his men,
    but they stagger and stumble.
They run to the ramparts
    to stem the tide, but it’s too late.
Soldiers pour through the gates.
    The palace is demolished.
Soon it’s all over:
    Nineveh stripped, Nineveh doomed,
Maids and slaves moaning like doves,
    beating their breasts.
Nineveh is a tub
    from which they’ve pulled the plug.
Cries go up, “Do something! Do something!”
    but it’s too late. Nineveh’s soon empty—nothing.
Other cries come: “Plunder the silver!
    Plunder the gold!
A bonanza of plunder!
    Take everything you want!”
Doom! Damnation! Desolation!
    Hearts sink,
    knees fold,
    stomachs retch,
    faces blanch.
So, what happened to the famous
    and fierce Assyrian lion
And all those cute Assyrian cubs?
    To the lion and lioness
Cozy with their cubs,
    fierce and fearless?
To the lion who always returned from the hunt
    with fresh kills for lioness and cubs,
The lion lair heaped with bloody meat,
    blood and bones for the royal lion feast?

13 “Assyria, I’m your enemy,”
    says God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
“I’ll torch your chariots. They’ll go up in smoke.
    ‘Lion Country’ will be strewn with carcasses.
The war business is over—you’re out of work:
    You’ll have no more wars to report,
No more victories to announce.
    You’re out of war work forever.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

John 1:9–14

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Insight
The opening words of John’s gospel give us one of the most stunning claims of the New Testament. After spending three years with Jesus and then several decades reflecting on what he saw with his own eyes, John envisions his Teacher in the first moments of creation. Whereas the first words of Genesis say that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, John sees Jesus as the Eternal Word by whom all was created (vv. 1–3, 14). The only thing more astounding is the subsequent drama of rescue that’s more incomprehensible than creation itself. According to John, Jesus—the Son of God who created us in His likeness—took on the flesh of our likeness to allow us to mock, slander, and crucify Him. Why? According to John’s gospel, He did this to show us how much we’re loved (3:14–17).

A Royal Role
To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12

The closer someone in a royal family is to the throne, the more the public hears about him or her. Others are almost forgotten. The British royal family has a line of succession that includes nearly sixty people. One of them is Lord Frederick Windsor, who’s forty-ninth in line for the throne. Instead of being in the limelight, he quietly goes about his life. Though he works as a financial analyst, he’s not considered a “working royal”—one of the important family members who are paid for representing the family.

David’s son Nathan (2 Samuel 5:14) is another royal who lived outside the limelight. Very little is known about him. But while the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew mentions his son Solomon (tracing Joseph’s line, Matthew 1:6), Luke’s genealogy, which many scholars believe is Mary’s family line, mentions Nathan (Luke 3:31). Though Nathan didn’t hold a scepter, he still had a role in God’s forever kingdom.

As believers in Christ, we’re also royalty. The apostle John wrote that God gave us “the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Though we may not be in the spotlight, we’re children of the King! God considers each of us important enough to represent Him here on earth and to one day reign with Him (2 Timothy 2:11–13). Like Nathan, we may not wear an earthly crown, but we still have a part to play in God’s kingdom. By:  Linda Washington

Reflect & Pray
How does knowing you’re royalty—God’s child—make you feel? As a child of the King, what do you see as your responsibilities to the people around you?

Heavenly Father, I’m grateful that You adopted me into Your forever family.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
The Doorway to the Kingdom
Blessed are the poor in spirit… —Matthew 5:3

Beware of thinking of our Lord as only a teacher. If Jesus Christ is only a teacher, then all He can do is frustrate me by setting a standard before me I cannot attain. What is the point of presenting me with such a lofty ideal if I cannot possibly come close to reaching it? I would be happier if I never knew it. What good is there in telling me to be what I can never be— to be “pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8), to do more than my duty, or to be completely devoted to God? I must know Jesus Christ as my Savior before His teaching has any meaning for me other than that of a lofty ideal which only leads to despair. But when I am born again by the Spirit of God, I know that Jesus Christ did not come only to teach— He came to make me what He teaches I should be. The redemption means that Jesus Christ can place within anyone the same nature that ruled His own life, and all the standards God gives us are based on that nature.

The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces a sense of despair in the natural man— exactly what Jesus means for it to do. As long as we have some self-righteous idea that we can carry out our Lord’s teaching, God will allow us to continue until we expose our own ignorance by stumbling over some obstacle in our way. Only then are we willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him. “Blessed are the poor in spirit….” This is the first principle in the kingdom of God. The underlying foundation of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possessions; not making decisions for Jesus, but having such a sense of absolute futility that we finally admit, “Lord, I cannot even begin to do it.” Then Jesus says, “Blessed are you…” (Matthew 5:11). This is the doorway to the kingdom, and yet it takes us so long to believe that we are actually poor! The knowledge of our own poverty is what brings us to the proper place where Jesus Christ accomplishes His work.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed. So Send I You, 1330 L

Bible in a Year: Psalms 29-30; Acts 23:1-15

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
The Choice You Will Never Forget - #8747

Junior high band concerts - oh, that's the test of a parent's love. Yep, we got to support our kids by being at seven years of their junior high concerts. It's nice to see those young teenagers making a nice effort. It's not necessarily a memorable musical experience. Wouldn't it be interesting, let's say, to hear those young musicians trying to play a major Beethoven symphony? What if you've never heard any of his great compositions? All you've heard is that Beethoven was a musical genius. Then you hear the junior high band play a Beethoven symphony. And what do you have to say about Beethoven? "Did you say this guy was a genius? I just heard Beethoven! It was awful!" You didn't hear Beethoven. All you heard was some people doing a bad job playing his music.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Choice You Will Never Forget."

Okay, Beethoven was a genius. Don't judge Beethoven based on how some people play his music. For 2,000 years, Jesus has been judged by how well His followers have played His "music." And sometimes they have butchered it! And even the best of His followers has lived the lifestyle of Jesus imperfectly. And that's given many people a reason not to follow Jesus themselves. Maybe you're one of them.

You've seen the hypocrites; you've seen the confusing divisions between people disagreeing in Jesus' name. Maybe your exposure to certain kinds of Christianity has given you reasons to believe that it's mostly about money. And throughout history, and even now, there have been so many mistakes made and so many wrongs committed in the name of Christ. Maybe you've been personally wounded by some people who called themselves Christian.

But none of that was Jesus. Jesus wasn't a hypocrite. Jesus didn't come to start a religion called Christianity, let alone all the denominations that have come from it. And the wrongs done in Jesus' name were horrific things that Jesus would have no part of and for which He will hold people accountable.

Which brings us to the most important decision you will ever make. It was articulated by an unlikely spokesman; by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, who tried Jesus. It's recorded in Matthew 27:22, our word for today from the Word of God. He asked the question that will determine your eternity and mine. "What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" Notice, not what will I do with Christians. Not what will I do with Christianity. But what will I do with Christ? Jesus said to person after person, "Follow Me." He did not say follow My followers or My leaders or My religion. He said, "Follow Me." It's all about Jesus.

And on Judgment Day, it will be all about Jesus and what you did with the man who died in your place to pay for all the sins of your life. He didn't stay dead. Three days after He died, He walked out of His grave under His own power. So He's alive, and you will see Him at the end of your journey. The only thing that will matter at that moment will be what you did with Jesus. God won't care what you did with Christianity, but He'll base your whole eternity on what you did with Jesus.

If your trust is in anything other than Jesus, you're hanging onto a life preserver that simply will not save you. Only the Man who paid your spiritual death penalty can save you. Only the Man who has eternal life can give you eternal life. And that can only be the man who conquered death Himself.

Maybe God brought us together today so you could have this opportunity to answer the most important question you will ever answer, "What will you do with Jesus?" I pray that you'll relinquish your control of your life. Put your life in the hands of the man who died for you. Because the Bible says, "God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son" (1 John 5:12). You've got Jesus, you've got heaven. Without Jesus, no chance of heaven.

I'd be grateful to do what I can to help you answer God's life-or-death question about His Son today. It's at our website, and there's a brief explanation of just how to reach out to Jesus and begin your relationship with Him. That's ANewStory.com. Go there.

One old hymn writer puts this decision about Jesus in pretty sobering terms. He just simply said, "What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be. For someday your soul will be asking, 'What will He do with me?'"