Ezekiel 7, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: JESUS HEALS US ALL

Are you waiting for Jesus to heal you? Take hope from Jesus’ response to the blind men (Matthew 20:29-34): “Have mercy on us, O Lord,” they cried. Jesus stopped dead in his tracks. Something caught his attention: a prayer, an unembellished appeal for help. Jesus heard the words and stopped.

He still does. And he still asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” Friend, what in your life needs healing? Jesus’ heart went out the blind men. He “had compassion and touched their eyes.” He healed them. He will heal you, my friend. I pray he heals you instantly. He may choose to heal you gradually. But this much is sure: Jesus will heal us all ultimately, and God’s children will once again be whole. Jesus heals us all

Ezekiel 7

Fate Has Caught Up with You

God’s Word came to me, saying, “You, son of man—God, the Master, has this Message for the land of Israel:

“‘Endtime.
    The end of business as usual for everyone.
It’s all over. The end is upon you.
    I’ve launched my anger against you.
I’ve issued my verdict on the way you live.
    I’ll make you pay for your disgusting obscenities.
I won’t look the other way,
    I won’t feel sorry for you.
I’ll make you pay for the way you’ve lived:
    Your disgusting obscenities will boomerang on you,
    and you’ll realize that I am God.’

5-9 “I, God, the Master, say:
    ‘Disaster after disaster! Look, it comes!
Endtime—
    the end comes.
The end is ripe. Watch out, it’s coming!
    This is your fate, you who live in this land.
Time’s up.
    It’s zero hour.
No dragging of feet now,
    no bargaining for more time.
Soon now I’ll pour my wrath on you,
    pay out my anger against you,
Render my verdict on the way you’ve lived,
    make you pay for your disgusting obscenities.
I won’t look the other way,
    I won’t feel sorry for you.
I’ll make you pay for the way you’ve lived.
    Your disgusting obscenities will boomerang on you.
Then you’ll realize
    that it is I, God, who have hit you.

10-13 “‘Judgment Day!
    Fate has caught up with you.
The scepter outsized and pretentious,
    pride bursting all bounds,
Violence strutting,
    brandishing the evil scepter.
But there’s nothing to them,
    and nothing will be left of them.
Time’s up.
    Countdown: five, four, three, two . . .
Buyer, don’t crow; seller, don’t worry:
    Judgment wrath has turned the world topsy-turvy.
The bottom has dropped out of buying and selling.
    It will never be the same again.
But don’t fantasize an upturn in the market.
    The country is bankrupt because of its sins,
    and it’s not going to get any better.

14-16 “‘The trumpet signals the call to battle:
    “Present arms!”
But no one marches into battle.
    My wrath has them paralyzed!
On the open roads you’re killed,
    or else you go home and die of hunger and disease.
Either get murdered out in the country
    or die of sickness or hunger in town.
Survivors run for the hills.
    They moan like doves in the valleys,
Each one moaning
    for his own sins.

17-18 “‘Every hand hangs limp,
    every knee turns to rubber.
They dress in rough burlap—
    sorry scarecrows,
Shifty and shamefaced,
    with their heads shaved bald.

19-27 “‘They throw their money into the gutters.
    Their hard-earned cash stinks like garbage.
They find that it won’t buy a thing
    they either want or need on Judgment Day.
They tripped on money
    and fell into sin.
Proud and pretentious with their jewels,
    they deck out their vile and vulgar no-gods in finery.
    I’ll make those god-obscenities a stench in their nostrils.
I’ll give away their religious junk—
    strangers will pick it up for free,
    the godless spit on it and make jokes.
I’ll turn my face so I won’t have to look
    as my treasured place and people are violated,
As violent strangers walk in
    and desecrate place and people—
A bloody massacre,
    as crime and violence fill the city.
I’ll bring in the dregs of humanity
    to move into their houses.
I’ll put a stop to the boasting and strutting
    of the high-and-mighty,
And see to it that there’ll be nothing holy
    left in their holy places.
Catastrophe descends. They look for peace,
    but there’s no peace to be found—
Disaster on the heels of disaster,
    one rumor after another.
They clamor for the prophet to tell them what’s up,
    but nobody knows anything.
Priests don’t have a clue;
    the elders don’t know what to say.
The king holds his head in despair;
    the prince is devastated.
The common people are paralyzed.
    Gripped by fear, they can’t move.
I’ll deal with them where they are,
    judge them on their terms.
    They’ll know that I am God.’”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Today's Scripture & Insight:

John 10:7–18

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Footnotes
John 10:9 Or kept safe

Insight
The gospel of John introduces Jesus as a lamb (John 1:29) before describing Him as a good shepherd (ch. 10). Finally, the great mystery of the Jewish Scriptures could be explained. Even now, without God’s help no one could connect the dots between a rabbi from Nazareth (1:45-46), David’s song of the good shepherd (Psalm 23), Isaiah’s vision of people who needed to be rescued by One led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:6–7), and the prophet Ezekiel’s warning of shepherds who, in contrast to Jesus (John 10:14–15), were looking after themselves rather than their flocks (Ezekiel 34:1–2, 11–16).

Valiant Actions
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me . . . and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10:14–15

John Harper had no idea what was about to unfold as he and his six-year-old daughter embarked on the Titanic. But one thing he knew: he loved Jesus and he was passionate that others know Him too. As soon as the ship hit an iceberg and water started pouring in, Harper, a widower, put his little girl on a lifeboat and headed into the chaos to save as many people as possible. As he distributed life jackets he reportedly shouted, “Let the women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats.” Until his last breath, Harper shared about Jesus with anyone who was around him. John willingly gave his life away so others could live.

There was One who laid down His life freely two thousand years ago so you and I can live not only in this life but for all eternity. Jesus didn’t just wake up one day and decide He would pay the penalty of death for humanity’s sin. This was His life’s mission. At one point when He was talking with the Jewish religious leaders He repeatedly acknowledged, “I lay down my life” (John 10:11, 15, 17, 18). He didn’t just say these words but lived them by actually dying a horrific death on the cross. He came so that the Pharisees, John Harper, and we “may have life, and have it to the full” (v. 10).
By:  Estera Pirosca Escobar

Reflect & Pray
How do you reveal that you truly love those around you? How can you show Jesus’ love to someone through your actions today?

Jesus, there aren’t words grand enough to thank You for demonstrating the greatest act of love there is. Thank You for giving Your life away so I might live. Help me to show Your love to others no matter how much it costs me.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 19, 2020
“When He Has Come”

When He has come, He will convict the world of sin… —John 16:8

Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin. We know the experience of being disturbed because we have done wrong things. But conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit blots out every relationship on earth and makes us aware of only one— “Against You, You only, have I sinned…” (Psalm 51:4). When a person is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every bit of his conscience that God would not dare to forgive him. If God did forgive him, then this person would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the breaking of His heart with grief in the death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. Once we have been convicted of sin, we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary— nothing less! The love of God is spelled out on the Cross and nowhere else. The only basis for which God can forgive me is the Cross of Christ. It is there that His conscience is satisfied.

Forgiveness doesn’t merely mean that I am saved from hell and have been made ready for heaven (no one would accept forgiveness on that level). Forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a newly created relationship which identifies me with God in Christ. The miracle of redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One. He does this by putting into me a new nature, the nature of Jesus Christ.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.” The Shadow of an Agony, 1166 R

Bible in a Year: Ezekiel 11-13; James 1

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 19, 2020

The Difference Between Bitter and Sweet - #8834

I've eaten a few plums in my life, but I never found it particularly inspiring or educational. But one of our team members ate a plum recently and got an insight that I found enlightening. When she bit into that plum, it tasted very sweet. It didn't stay that way. The closer my friend got to the center, the more bitter the plum tasted. She explained to me her simple, but probably accurate, theory about this bittersweet taste experience. She said what the sun has touched is sweet; what the sun hasn't touched is bitter. And I said, "Hum?"

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Difference Between Bitter and Sweet."

I guess, in a way, I'm that plum. You're that plum. We've got parts of our personality, our ways of treating people, our ways of responding to stress that are actually pretty sweet and then there are those parts that are bitter for us and certainly bitter for the people close to us. Once you open your life to Jesus Christ, you have divine power available to help change those harsh, distasteful parts of you into something beautiful. It's part of that miracle 2 Corinthians 5:17 calls becoming "a new creation in Christ."

I can tell you from my own life, the parts of me that are becoming sweeter are the parts of me I have opened up to the "sunlight" of Jesus Christ. And those things about me that I don't like, the people around me don't like, God doesn't like are the areas where I need to more fully open up to Jesus' control.

The people we love, the people around us, the people who are affected by us most would probably be able to provide a pretty good list of the "bitter" parts of our personality and the ways we respond. That's the list that needs to become top priority for surrendering to Jesus Christ. It's a matter of calling the ugly parts of us what they are - no more defending, no more excusing, no more rationalizing, no more blaming. You just say, "Jesus, here it is. Come into this stubborn, sinful, dark part of who I am and shine Your light on it. I can't change it, but I don't want to be this way anymore. Please make me new."

In our word for today from the Word of God, He helps us see some specific attitudes and actions and approaches that are bitter stuff, and then what we can be like if we'll remove the walls around those areas of our life. Colossians 3, beginning with verse 8, says, "Rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator ... Therefore, as God's chosen people ... clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

The powerful reality about belonging to Jesus is that you don't have to keep on being what you've always been; maybe even what generations before you have been. Jesus changes people in ways they could never change themselves. But there may be a reason that your bitter has stayed bitter. Instead of repenting, instead of surrendering it to Jesus, you just keep looking for someone to blame for the way you are. You keep replaying the past, complaining, recruiting sympathy, or retaliating for what others have done. But you're not letting the Son - the Son of God - shine on it. Isn't it time to open up your ugly, dark side to Jesus and to release it completely to Him so He can make you like Him?

There's a Gospel song that says, "The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows." Let's add a verse. "The longer you serve Him, the sweeter you grow."