Lamentations 4 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE GREAT I AM IS NEAR

Jesus says to us what he said to the disciples on the stormy sea.  “It is I!  Don’t be afraid” (John 6:20).

The literal translation of what Jesus said is “I AM; don’t be afraid.”  I AM.  That’s God’s name.  When we wonder if God is coming, he answers with his name, “I AM!”  When we wonder if he is able, he declares, “I AM.”  When we see nothing but darkness, feel nothing but doubt, and wonder if God is near or aware, the welcome answer from Jesus is this: “I AM!”

Pause for a moment and let him tell you his name.  Your greatest need is his presence.  Yes, you want this storm to pass.  Yes, you want the winds to still.  But yes, yes, yes, you want to know, need to know, and must know that the great I AM is near. Remember, friends, you are never alone.

Lamentations 4

Waking Up with Nothing

Oh, oh, oh . . .
How gold is treated like dirt,
    the finest gold thrown out with the garbage,
Priceless jewels scattered all over,
    jewels loose in the gutters.

2 And the people of Zion, once prized,
    far surpassing their weight in gold,
Are now treated like cheap pottery,
    like everyday pots and bowls mass-produced by a potter.

3 Even wild jackals nurture their babies,
    give them their breasts to suckle.
But my people have turned cruel to their babies,
    like an ostrich in the wilderness.

4 Babies have nothing to drink.
    Their tongues stick to the roofs of their mouths.
Little children ask for bread
    but no one gives them so much as a crust.

5 People used to the finest cuisine
    forage for food in the streets.
People used to the latest in fashions
    pick through the trash for something to wear.

6 The evil guilt of my dear people
    was worse than the sin of Sodom—
The city was destroyed in a flash,
    and no one around to help.

7 The splendid and sacred nobles
    once glowed with health.
Their bodies were robust and ruddy,
    their beards like carved stone.

8 But now they are smeared with soot,
    unrecognizable in the street,
Their bones sticking out,
    their skin dried out like old leather.

9 Better to have been killed in battle
    than killed by starvation.
Better to have died of battle wounds
    than to slowly starve to death.

10 Nice and kindly women
    boiled their own children for supper.
This was the only food in town
    when my dear people were broken.

11 God let all his anger loose, held nothing back.
    He poured out his raging wrath.
He set a fire in Zion
    that burned it to the ground.

12 The kings of the earth couldn’t believe it.
    World rulers were in shock,
Watching old enemies march in big as you please,
    right through Jerusalem’s gates.

13 Because of the sins of her prophets
    and the evil of her priests,
Who exploited good and trusting people,
    robbing them of their lives,

14 These prophets and priests blindly grope their way through the streets,
    grimy and stained from their dirty lives,
Wasted by their wasted lives,
    shuffling from fatigue, dressed in rags.

15 People yell at them, “Get out of here, dirty old men!
    Get lost, don’t touch us, don’t infect us!”
They have to leave town. They wander off.
    Nobody wants them to stay here.
Everyone knows, wherever they wander,
    that they’ve been kicked out of their own hometown.

16 God himself scattered them.
    No longer does he look out for them.
He has nothing to do with the priests;
    he cares nothing for the elders.

17 We watched and watched,
    wore our eyes out looking for help. And nothing.
We mounted our lookouts and looked
    for the help that never showed up.

18 They tracked us down, those hunters.
    It wasn’t safe to go out in the street.
Our end was near, our days numbered.
    We were doomed.

19 They came after us faster than eagles in flight,
    pressed us hard in the mountains, ambushed us in the desert.

20 Our king, our life’s breath, the anointed of God,
    was caught in their traps—
Our king under whose protection
    we always said we’d live.

21 Celebrate while you can, O Edom!
    Live it up in Uz!
For it won’t be long before you drink this cup, too.
    You’ll find out what it’s like to drink God’s wrath,
Get drunk on God’s wrath
    and wake up with nothing, stripped naked.

22 And that’s it for you, Zion. The punishment’s complete.
    You won’t have to go through this exile again.
But Edom, your time is coming:
    He’ll punish your evil life, put all your sins on display.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

2 Corinthians 12:1–10

Paul’s Vision and His Thorn

I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Insight
Responding to false teachers who said he wasn’t a genuine apostle because he didn’t have ecstatic spiritual experiences, Paul deliberately boasted about the many visions and surpassingly great revelations he’d received (2 Corinthians 12:1–7). Converted and commissioned to be an apostle through a vision of the resurrected Christ (Acts 9:1–19; 22:17–21), Paul brought the gospel into Europe led by a vision of “a man of Macedonia” (16:6–10). And Paul, “caught up to paradise,” saw what heaven was like (2 Corinthians 12:1–4). Such boasting is uncharacteristic of Paul, for he wouldn’t “boast about [himself], except about [his] weaknesses” (v. 5; see also 11:30; Galatians 6:14).

Golden Scars
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 2 Corinthians 11:30

In the Netherlands, a group of fashion designers offer a “Golden Joinery” workshop. Inspired by the Japanese technique Kintsugi, where broken porcelain is visibly repaired with gold, participants collaborate in mending clothes in ways that highlight the mending work rather than trying to mask it. Those who are invited bring “a dear but broken garment and mend it with gold.” As they remake their clothes, the repair becomes ornamental, a “golden scar.”

Articles of clothing are transformed in ways that highlight the places where they were torn or frayed. Perhaps this is something like what Paul meant when he said that he would “boast” in the things that showed his weakness. Although he’d experienced “surpassingly great revelations,” he doesn’t brag about them (2 Corinthians 12:6). He is kept from getting proud and overconfident, he says, by a “thorn” in his flesh (v. 7). No one knows exactly what he was referring to—perhaps depression, a form of malaria, persecution from enemies, or something else. Whatever it was, he begged God to take it away. But God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9).

Just as the rips and tears in old clothes can become sights of beauty as they’re remade by designers, the broken and weak places in our lives can become places where God’s power and glory may shine. He holds us together, transforms us, and makes our weaknesses beautiful. By:  Amy Peterson

Reflect & Pray
What are some weaknesses you try to keep hidden from the world? How has God revealed His power through your weakness?

God, may all my scars become golden as You heal and repair me in ways that bring glory to Your name.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Is God’s Will My Will?
This is the will of God, your sanctification… —1 Thessalonians 4:3

Sanctification is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me— is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me everything that has been made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ? Am I willing to let Jesus become sanctification to me, and to let His life be exhibited in my human flesh? (see 1 Corinthians 1:30). Beware of saying, “Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.” No, you are not. Recognize your need, but stop longing and make it a matter of action. Receive Jesus Christ to become sanctification for you by absolute, unquestioning faith, and the great miracle of the atonement of Jesus will become real in you.

All that Jesus made possible becomes mine through the free and loving gift of God on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross. And my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound, humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness). It is a holiness based on agonizing repentance, a sense of inexpressible shame and degradation, and also on the amazing realization that the love of God demonstrated itself to me while I cared nothing about Him (see Romans 5:8). He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. No wonder Paul said that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is accomplished only through the magnificent atonement of Christ. Never confuse the effect with the cause. The effect in me is obedience, service, and prayer, and is the outcome of inexpressible thanks and adoration for the miraculous sanctification that has been brought about in me because of the atonement through the Cross of Christ.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We must keep ourselves in touch, not with theories, but with people, and never get out of touch with human beings, if we are going to use the word of God skilfully amongst them.  Workmen of God, 1341 L

Bible in a Year: Isaiah 59-61; 2 Thessalonians 3


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Expensive Peace - #8812

It's an amazing true story from the history of the Cree Indians of western Canada. Through many courageous exploits, a young man named Maskepetoon became known as the bravest warrior in the tribe. One day a man came to Maskepetoon's camp talking about peace - something his tribe had never known because of that relentless bloodshed between his Cree tribe and their longtime enemies, the Blackfoot. But this man with a black book called the Bible introduced this warrior to the Creator of all. The missionary told him of how the Creator God's Son defeated the Evil Manitou, the Enemy of all. He climbed to the top of a hill and gave His life on a cross as a peace offering. That meant peace could be restored between the Creator of all and the people He had made.

Maskepetoon knew that the ancient symbol of peace among the Plains Cree had always been two crossed sticks. And it was two crossed sticks that the Creator God's Son had died on. Maskepetoon decided he wanted to be like Jesus, the bravest warrior of all.

In the past, when one tribe had wanted to make peace with another, they would send their bravest warrior to meet the enemy with a special offering tied onto two crossed sticks. But that seemed impossible now when there was killing every time a Blackfoot warrior saw a Cree warrior. But in spite of the danger, Maskepetoon went into Blackfoot country on just such a mission. The camp they came to first happened to be the camp of Many Swans, a violent chief who was seeking revenge for the sons he'd lost to Cree warriors.

Maskepetoon climbed to the top of a nearby hill, raised a flag and waited for the Blackfoot band to see them. With them, they brought a beautiful pair of beaded moccasins, tied onto two crossed sticks and a Bible that told of the peace the Creator had made with all men. Pretending to want peace, Many Swans tricked the Cree peacemakers into laying down their weapons, after which he and his warriors killed them all. But the chief's wife was furious with her husband. She was tired of all the killing. Ultimately, the Blackfoot people agreed. But none of them was brave enough to risk going to talk peace with the Cree, especially after what they had done to Maskepetoon.

So the chief's wife went, carrying with her the ancient symbol of peace - a frame of crossed sticks with a specially beaded pair of moccasins tied to its center. The Cree chief, who had himself made peace with the Creator through Jesus' death, welcomed her Under his leadership, the Cree met together with the Blackfoot on a high hill, where a peace treaty was signed. And their long war was finally over.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Expensive Peace."

In so many ways, this is my story. This is your story. It's the story of peace made possible by the death of the greatest Warrior of them all - on two crossed beams - for you. Because of our sin, the Bible says we are "alienated from God"; we are "enemies" (Colossians 1:21). We are hopelessly cut off from the God who made us; the God we will meet on Judgment Day. And, in the Bible's words, "there is no peace" (Isaiah 57:21) when you're away from God. The turmoil in your soul is living proof of that.

But here comes the hope. It's in Colossians 1:20, our word for today from the Word of God. God says His Son came to reconcile our broken relationship with Him "by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross." He climbed to the top of a hill called Skull Hill and died as the sacrifice for your sin. The Bible puts it this way: "The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5).

And that blood-bought peace can be yours today. Finally, peace with God. Finally, peace in your heart. If you will lay down all the other things you've counted on to make it with God and put your total trust in Jesus, who died for you, who rose again for you. That's a step I would love to help you take this very day.

There's a lot of great information about getting started with Jesus on our website. That website is ANewStory.com. Your new story can begin there today. The war can end. Peace can begin. Peace that costs you nothing. Peace that cost the Great Warrior, Jesus, everything.