Matthew 21:1-22 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily: Take Your Needs to Jesus - August 30, 2021

Jesus was attending a wedding with the disciples and his mother, Mary, when she approached him with a seemingly irrelevant problem. “‘They have no more wine,’ she told him” (John 2:3). Mary presented the problem, Jesus commanded a solution, and the wineless wedding was suddenly wine flush. And we are left with this message: our diminishing supplies, no matter how insignificant, matter to heaven.

Listen, if Jesus was willing to use divine clout to solve a social faux pas, how much more would he be willing to intervene on the weightier matters of life? He wants you to know that you can take your needs—all your needs—to him. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).

Matthew 21:1-22

The Royal Welcome

 When they neared Jerusalem, having arrived at Bethphage on Mount Olives, Jesus sent two disciples with these instructions: “Go over to the village across from you. You’ll find a donkey tethered there, her colt with her. Untie her and bring them to me. If anyone asks what you’re doing, say, ‘The Master needs them!’ He will send them with you.”

4-5 This is the full story of what was sketched earlier by the prophet:

Tell Zion’s daughter,
“Look, your king’s on his way,
    poised and ready, mounted
On a donkey, on a colt,
    foal of a pack animal.”

6-9 The disciples went and did exactly what Jesus told them to do. They led the donkey and colt out, laid some of their clothes on them, and Jesus mounted. Nearly all the people in the crowd threw their garments down on the road, giving him a royal welcome. Others cut branches from the trees and threw them down as a welcome mat. Crowds went ahead and crowds followed, all of them calling out, “Hosanna to David’s son!” “Blessed is he who comes in God’s name!” “Hosanna in highest heaven!”

10 As he made his entrance into Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken. Unnerved, people were asking, “What’s going on here? Who is this?”

11 The parade crowd answered, “This is the prophet Jesus, the one from Nazareth in Galilee.”
He Kicked Over the Tables

12-14 Jesus went straight to the Temple and threw out everyone who had set up shop, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of loan sharks and the stalls of dove merchants. He quoted this text:

My house was designated a house of prayer;
You have made it a hangout for thieves.

Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in. They came to Jesus and he healed them.

15-16 When the religious leaders saw the outrageous things he was doing, and heard all the children running and shouting through the Temple, “Hosanna to David’s Son!” they were up in arms and took him to task. “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

Jesus said, “Yes, I hear them. And haven’t you read in God’s Word, ‘From the mouths of children and babies I’ll furnish a place of praise’?”

17 Fed up, Jesus spun around and left the city for Bethany, where he spent the night.
The Withered Fig Tree

18-20 Early the next morning Jesus was returning to the city. He was hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree alongside the road, he approached it anticipating a breakfast of figs. When he got to the tree, there was nothing but fig leaves. He said, “No more figs from this tree—ever!” The fig tree withered on the spot, a dry stick. The disciples saw it happen. They rubbed their eyes, saying, “Did we really see this? A leafy tree one minute, a dry stick the next?”

21-22 But Jesus was matter-of-fact: “Yes—and if you embrace this kingdom life and don’t doubt God, you’ll not only do minor feats like I did to the fig tree, but also triumph over huge obstacles. This mountain, for instance, you’ll tell, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it will jump. Absolutely everything, ranging from small to large, as you make it a part of your believing prayer, gets included as you lay hold of God.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Monday, August 30, 2021
Today's Scripture
2 Chronicles 34:1–8
(NIV)

 Josiaho was eight years old when he became king,p and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed the ways of his father David,q not turning aside to the right or to the left.

3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the Godr of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols. 4 Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poless and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.t 5 He burnedu the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem. 6 In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them, 7 he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powderv and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

8 In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the Lord his God.

Insight

Second Chronicles 34–35 build on the account given in 2 Kings 22–23; however, additional details are included in 2 Chronicles. For example, 2 Kings 22 shows Josiah’s actions as primarily taking place during the eighteenth year of his reign, but 2 Chronicles 34 details the breakdown of events between the eighth, twelfth, and eighteenth years. The varying details don’t indicate inaccuracies; rather, they present a more complete picture of the Bible with each book including a different emphasis: 2 Kings focuses on Josiah as a king whereas 2 Chronicles uses his story to present the importance of the Passover. By: Julie Schwa

Mercy and Grace

[Josiah] began to seek the God of his father David.
2 Chronicles 34:3

A stately sunflower stood on its own in the center of a lonely stretch of national highway, just a few feet from the fast lane. As I drove past, I wondered how it had grown there with no other sunflowers visible for miles. Only God could create a plant so hardy it could thrive so close to the roadway in the gray gravel lining the median. There it was, thriving, swaying gently in the breeze and cheerfully greeting travelers as they hurried by.

The Old Testament tells the story of a faithful king of Judah who also showed up unexpectedly. His father and grandfather had enthusiastically served other gods; but after Josiah had been in power for eight years, “while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David” (2 Chronicles 34:3). He sent workmen to “repair the temple of the Lord” (v. 8), and as they did they discovered the Book of the Law (the first five books of the Old Testament; v. 14). God then inspired Josiah to lead the entire nation of Judah to return to the faith of their ancestors, and they served the Lord “as long as [Josiah] lived” (v. 33).

Our God is the master of unanticipated mercies. He’s able to cause great good to spring up unexpectedly out of the hard gravel of life’s most unfavorable circumstances. Watch Him closely. He may do it again today. By:  James Banks

Reflect & Pray

What mercies have you seen from God that you never anticipated? How does the thought that He’s able to bring about unexpected good give you hope today?

Heavenly Father, I praise You for never changing. Your mercies are “new every morning!” (Lamentations 3:23). Help me to look forward to what You have for me today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 30, 2021

Usefulness or Relationship?

Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. —Luke 10:20

Jesus Christ is saying here, “Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.” The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you do not have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour “rivers of living water” through you (John 7:38). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7).

Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person’s life is that person’s relationship with God— something of great value to His Father. Jesus is “bringing many sons to glory…” (Hebrews 2:10).

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.
The Place of Help

Bible in a Year: Psalms 129-131; 1 Corinthians 11:1-16

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 30, 2021
Removing the Toxic Waste - #9036

There's usually a political battle when the government wants to establish a toxic waste dump somewhere. Not too many people have been excited about having radioactive or otherwise toxic kind of material buried near them. The American government established what they called a "Super Fund" to pay for the cleanup of some of those areas, because they can be hazardous to people's health. I'll tell you what. I'd sure want it cleaned up if there was a toxic waste dump near where I live.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Removing the Toxic Waste."

People can accumulate toxic stuff, too, like toxic attitudes, reactions that give off kind of a spiritual radiation that pollutes the environment and it's hazardous to the spiritual health of other people.

In our word for today from the Word of God, He orders a cleanup of the toxic waste dump that we sometimes carry around right inside of us. In Colossians 3:8, God says this: "Rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips." So God's calling for zero tolerance of these hurtful ways of talking...these hurtful ways of treating people.

Later, He describes what we're like when we've started to clean up the toxic waste that we've been communicating. He says, "Clothe yourselves with compassion" - I'm liking this list better already - "kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you" (Colossians 3:12-13). In short, let it go instead of letting it grow.

When we're being one of those "anger, malice, rage and slander" people, it's usually because we've become very good at being a "wrongologist." That's someone who's an expert on what's wrong with our friends, what's wrong with our church, what's wrong with our coworkers, our spouse, our family. When you regularly focus on the things that are wrong - and there are some in every person and every situation - you make yourself miserable a lot of the time, and it doesn't stop there. You radiate those toxins to the people around you and you bring them down, too!

"Wrongologists" tend to rewrite that old spiritual that says, "It's not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer." See, their song says, "It's my brother, it's my sister, it's not me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer." That's the opposite of the kind of things a new person in Christ is to be known for. Remember, "compassion (that means you give the other people the benefit of the doubt), kindness, humility (that means you're committed to serving other people, not judging them), and then gentleness (instead of harshness), and patience."

You know, Jesus didn't die to make you more religious. He died to make you like Him; to take on His characteristics. To treat people as He treated them, to lift people up, not tear them down. To bring joy and love and healing into the lives you touch, not negativity, not criticism.

Maybe you've allowed too much toxic waste to get buried in your heart. Would you talk to Jesus about that right now? Let Him help you remove all that toxic garbage that contaminates you and frankly everyone around you. Then, instead of polluting your environment, you can be a breath of fresh air!