Matthew 10:1-20 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: WORDS OF TRUTH - June 14, 2021

Not only did Jesus not make it to the deathbed of Lazarus, he didn’t make it to the burial. He was four days late. Martha was forthright. “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21). Martha was to Jesus what your hurting friend is to you. How can we respond when our friend is undone?

Well here’s what Jesus did – he looked Martha in the face and said these starchy words: “I am the resurrection and the life…Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26). The Bible’s word for such a response is admonishment. Above all, admonishment is truth spoken into a difficult circumstance. Yes, we hold the hand of the struggler. And yes, yes, yes, we speak words of truth into moments of despair. This is how happiness happens.

Matthew 10:1-20
The Twelve Harvest Hands
The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives. This is the list of the twelve he sent:

Simon (they called him Peter, or “Rock”),

Andrew, his brother,

James, Zebedee’s son,

John, his brother,

Philip,

Bartholomew,

Thomas,

Matthew, the tax man,

James, son of Alphaeus,

Thaddaeus,

Simon, the Canaanite,

Judas Iscariot (who later turned on him).

5-8 Jesus sent his twelve harvest hands out with this charge:

“Don’t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don’t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.

9-10 “Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light.

11 “When you enter a town or village, don’t insist on staying in a luxury inn. Get a modest place with some modest people, and be content there until you leave.

12-15 “When you knock on a door, be courteous in your greeting. If they welcome you, be gentle in your conversation. If they don’t welcome you, quietly withdraw. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way. You can be sure that on Judgment Day they’ll be mighty sorry—but it’s no concern of yours now.

16 “Stay alert. This is hazardous work I’m assigning you. You’re going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don’t call attention to yourselves. Be as shrewd as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.

17-20 “Don’t be naive. Some people will question your motives, others will smear your reputation—just because you believe in me. Don’t be upset when they haul you before the civil authorities. Without knowing it, they’ve done you—and me—a favor, given you a platform for preaching the kingdom news! And don’t worry about what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there; the Spirit of your Father will supply the words.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Monday, June 14, 2021
Read: Psalm 121

A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord watches over you—
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
    he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore.

INSIGHT
Psalm 121 is one of fifteen “songs of ascent” sung by the people of Israel as they walked together to the high ground of their temple-city (ch. 120–134). Three times a year, Jewish worshipers traveled in groups from their scattered communities to Jerusalem for the annual feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 16:16). For such a journey, the opening words of Psalm 121 seem to reflect the fears and hopes of travelers making their way uphill on winding and dangerous footpaths toward the mountaintop city of God. Their confidence was not in these mountains, however. Their hope was in the Creator who, in both life and death, is able to protect His people. Their songs echo the words of Jeremiah who wrote, “Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel” (Jeremiah 3:23 kjv).

Visit ChristianUniversity.org/OT020 to learn more about reading the Psalms.

By Our Daily Bread
The Power of God

My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:2

Rebecca and Russell’s doctors told them they couldn’t have children. But God had other ideas—and ten years later Rebecca conceived. The pregnancy was a healthy one; and when the contractions started, the couple excitedly rushed to the hospital. Yet the hours of labor grew long and more intense, and Rebecca’s body still wasn’t progressing enough for delivery. Finally, the doctor decided she needed to perform an emergency C-section. Fearful, Rebecca sobbed for her baby and herself. The doctor calmly assured her, saying, “I will do my best, but we’re going to pray to God because He can do more.” She prayed with Rebecca, and fifteen minutes later, Bruce, a healthy baby boy, was born.

That doctor understood her dependence on God and His power. She recognized that although she had the training and skill to do the surgery, she still needed God’s wisdom, strength, and help to guide her hands (Psalm 121:1–2).

It’s encouraging to hear about highly skilled people, or of anyone, who recognize they need Him—because, honestly, we all do. He’s God; we’re not. He alone “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). Let’s have a humble heart to learn from Him and to trust Him in prayer “because He can do more” than we ever could.

How have you gained an understanding of your own need for God and His power? How is this dependence seen in your daily life?

I need You and Your wisdom and power, God, for decisions, skill, work, relationships—all of my life.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, June 14, 2021
Get Moving! (1)

Abide in Me… —John 15:4

In the matter of determination. The Spirit of Jesus is put into me by way of the atonement by the Cross of Christ. I then have to build my thinking patiently to bring it into perfect harmony with my Lord. God will not make me think like Jesus— I have to do it myself. I have to bring “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). “Abide in Me”— in intellectual matters, in money matters, in every one of the matters that make human life what it is. Our lives are not made up of only one neatly confined area.

Am I preventing God from doing things in my circumstances by saying that it will only serve to hinder my fellowship with Him? How irrelevant and disrespectful that is! It does not matter what my circumstances are. I can be as much assured of abiding in Jesus in any one of them as I am in any prayer meeting. It is unnecessary to change and arrange my circumstances myself. Our Lord’s inner abiding was pure and unblemished. He was at home with God wherever His body was. He never chose His own circumstances, but was meek, submitting to His Father’s plans and directions for Him. Just think of how amazingly relaxed our Lord’s life was! But we tend to keep God at a fever pitch in our lives. We have none of the serenity of the life which is “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).

Think of the things that take you out of the position of abiding in Christ. You say, “Yes, Lord, just a minute— I still have this to do. Yes, I will abide as soon as this is finished, or as soon as this week is over. It will be all right, Lord. I will abide then.” Get moving— begin to abide now. In the initial stages it will be a continual effort to abide, but as you continue, it will become so much a part of your life that you will abide in Him without any conscious effort. Make the determination to abide in Jesus wherever you are now or wherever you may be placed in the future.

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

Bible in a Year: Ezra 9-10; Acts 1

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, June 14, 2021

Pretty Poison - #8981

While I was with one of my grandchildren, I saw a frog. She loved it! Then I picked up that little bug-eyed green fellow and held him close so she could get a better look at him. It was one of Kermit's cousins, you know. I didn't have any second thoughts about picking up a frog. No, they're harmless! Well, most of the time - unless it's what they call a poisonous dart frog. I don't think we have those, but they're about one and one-half inches long, and they live in tropical rainforests in Central and South America. And they are the good-lookers of the frog kingdom. They're not some boring ole' green. The dart frog is really very brightly colored. He looks very interesting, but he can be carrying enough poison to kill 20,000 mice. Or more important to you and me - ten people!

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

Here's a creature who looks so good and kills so dead. Just like sin; maybe the sin that's been looking pretty good to you lately. So many people have reached out and touched what they never should have touched, and they paid a painful price that they could never imagined. Sin may be pretty, but it's pretty poison!

Listen to this eye-opening revelation from our word for today from the Word of God in James 1:14-15. "Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death." That's a sledgehammer verse. It traces a moral disaster from the first desire for something that's wrong to the sinful choice to get what looks so good, to its final result. When that "baby" called sin finally is born, what you get is death because sin always kills. It kills families, it kills marriages, it kills reputations, and it kills ministries. Sin kills your self-respect, kills people's trust in you and even your closeness to the God you can't live without.

The story of this attractive killer goes all the way back to the very first humans God ever created, Adam and Eve. With all the beauty of the Garden of Eden available for his enjoyment, God gave Adam this one prohibition: "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

Satan came to Eve and told her the exact opposite: "You will not surely die." And "when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it" (Genesis 2:17; 3:4, 6). And they learned the hard way that no matter how much you think you have to gain from going outside God's boundaries, you have so much more to lose. They lost Eden, they lost paradise, they lost walking with God, they gained so much pain and they died.

It may be that the same devil is lying to you right now about the sin that looks so good to you. "It won't hurt," "Everybody's doing it," "Hey, you deserve it," "You need this," "Only a little," "Oh, just this once." Anything to get you to bite. Anything to get you to take the deadly poison of sin. But it looks like you have so much to gain if you just lie a little, cheat a little, flirt a little, try a little, or take just one look. But you have so much to lose. You won't know that until it's too late unless you listen to what God says.

See, first sin fascinates you, and then it assassinates you. And God, in His love, has come to you today to wave you away from a choice that will take you where you never wanted to go, it will keep you longer than you ever wanted to stay, and it will cost you more than you ever wanted to pay. Don't walk away from that sin - run away from it. Sin looks so good and it kills so dead.