Exodus 38 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: The Butterfly Effect - November 9, 2021

Do you know the theory of the butterfly effect? It goes something like this: a butterfly in West Africa flaps its wings, and, at just the right time, it stirs the smallest of air gusts. The burst of air grows, rippling around the globe until it results in a hurricane in…let’s say Florida.

I’m on board with the butterfly part. It’s not the result I question, it’s the randomness. Who finds consolation in a philosophy of happenstance? But I do find great comfort in promises like Ephesians 1:11: “We were chosen from the beginning to be his [God’s], and all things happen just as he decided long ago.” The butterfly might stir, but only with the permission of God can a wing flap create a hurricane.

Exodus 38

The Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering

He made the Altar of Whole-Burnt-Offering from acacia wood. He made it seven and a half feet square and four and a half feet high. He made horns at each of the four corners. The horns were made of one piece with the Altar and covered with a veneer of bronze. He made from bronze all the utensils for the Altar: the buckets for removing the ashes, shovels, basins, forks, and fire pans. He made a grate of bronze mesh under the ledge halfway up the Altar. He cast four rings at each of the four corners of the bronze grating to hold the poles. He made the poles of acacia wood and covered them with a veneer of bronze. He inserted the poles through the rings on the two sides of the Altar for carrying it. The Altar was made out of boards; it was hollow.
The Washbasin

8 He made the Bronze Washbasin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women’s work group who were assigned to serve at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
The Courtyard

9-11 And he made the Courtyard. On the south side the hangings for the Courtyard, woven from fine twisted linen, were 150 feet long, with their twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and fastening hooks and bands of silver. The north side was exactly the same.

12-20 The west end of the Courtyard had seventy-five feet of hangings with ten posts and bases, and fastening hooks and bands of silver. Across the seventy-five feet at the front, or east end, were twenty-two and a half feet of hangings, with their three posts and bases on one side and the same for the other side. All the hangings around the Courtyard were of fine twisted linen. The bases for the posts were bronze and the fastening hooks and bands on the posts were of silver. The posts of the Courtyard were both capped and banded with silver. The screen at the door of the Courtyard was embroidered in blue, purple, and scarlet fabric with fine twisted linen. It was thirty feet long and seven and a half feet high, matching the hangings of the Courtyard. There were four posts with bases of bronze and fastening hooks of silver; they were capped and banded in silver. All the pegs for The Dwelling and the Courtyard were made of bronze.

* * *

21-23 This is an inventory of The Dwelling that housed The Testimony drawn up by order of Moses for the work of the Levites under Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest. Bezalel, the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything that God had commanded Moses. Working with Bezalel was Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an artisan, designer, and embroiderer in blue, purple, and scarlet fabrics and fine linen.

24 Gold. The total amount of gold used in construction of the Sanctuary, all of it contributed freely, weighed out at 1,900 pounds according to the Sanctuary standard.

25-28 Silver. The silver from those in the community who were registered in the census came to 6,437 pounds according to the Sanctuary standard—that amounted to a beka, or half-shekel, for every registered person aged twenty and over, a total of 603,550 men. They used the three and one-quarter tons of silver to cast the bases for the Sanctuary and for the hangings, one hundred bases at sixty-four pounds each. They used the remaining thirty-seven pounds to make the connecting hooks on the posts, and the caps and bands for the posts.

29-31 Bronze. The bronze that was brought in weighed 4,522 pounds. It was used to make the door of the Tent of Meeting, the Bronze Altar with its bronze grating, all the utensils of the Altar, the bases around the Courtyard, the bases for the gate of the Courtyard, and all the pegs for The Dwelling and the Courtyard.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Tuesday, November 09, 2021

Today's Scripture
John 15:1–8
(NIV)

The Vine and the Branches

15 “I ams the true vine,t and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,u while every branch that does bear fruitv he prunesa so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.w 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you.x No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;y apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.z 7 If you remain in mea and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.b 8 This is to my Father’s glory,c that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Insight

When Jesus spoke of Himself as the true vine and His disciples as His fruit-bearing branches (John 15:1–8), He gave them a word picture they may have heard before. Asaph the songwriter and Isaiah the prophet (Psalm 80:8; Isaiah 5:7) had likened their nation to a vineyard that produced a bitter harvest of violence and injustice. Against that backdrop, Jesus Himself is described as the true and better vine that produces the harvest His Father is looking for. But His disciples still had a lot to learn. They hadn’t yet abandoned Him in a way that would show them why they needed His Spirit to produce within them fruit worthy of this vine (John 15:9–17). Neither had they yet experienced that the harvest the Father was looking for was a Spirit-enabled love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). By: Mart DeHaan

A True Disciple of Jesus

I am the vine; you are the branches.
John 15:5

When Christian Mustad showed his Van Gogh landscape to art collector Auguste Pellerin, Pellerin took one look and said it wasn’t authentic. Mustad hid the painting in his attic, where it remained for fifty years. Mustad died, and the painting was evaluated off and on over the next four decades. Each time it was determined to be a fake—until 2012, when an expert used a computer to count the thread separations in the painting’s canvas. He discovered it had been cut from the same canvas as another work of Van Gogh. Mustad had owned a real Van Gogh all along.

Do you feel like a fake? Do you fear that if people examined you, they’d see how little you pray, give, and serve? Are you tempted to hide in the attic, away from prying eyes?

Look deeper, beneath the colors and contours of your life. If you’ve turned from your own ways and put your faith in Jesus, then you and He belong to the same canvas. To use Jesus’ picture, “I am the vine; you are the branches” (John 15:5). Christ and you form a seamless whole.

Resting in Jesus makes you a true disciple of His. It’s also the only way to improve your picture. He said, “If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (v. 5). By:  Mike Wittmer

Reflect & Pray

What things cause you to wonder if you’re a true disciple of Jesus? How might this fear drive you to Him?

Jesus, I rest in You like a branch clings to its vine.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, November 09, 2021

Sacred Service

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ… —Colossians 1:24

The Christian worker has to be a sacred “go-between.” He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual’s personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker’s life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.

When we say, “What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!” then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32).

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God, or with the conception of an amiable Being who says, “Oh well, sin doesn’t matter much”?  Disciples Indeed, 389 L

Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 46-47; Hebrews 6

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, November 09, 2021

When Life Is Just "More Of The Same" - #9087

Like most countries, America has some holidays that are pretty meaningful. We've got the Fourth of July to celebrate our independence. We've got Veterans' Day and Memorial Day, and those are great times to remember all those who've fought for our freedom. We celebrate the birthdays of some great Americans like Lincoln and Washington and Martin Luther King. And then there's one oddball day on your calendar though - Groundhog Day.

Only in America, right? It's a day named for the chubby cousin of a rat. A town whose main event is a groundhog playing peek-a-boo. As Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff says, "I love this country!"

We even have a movie called "Groundhog Day." It's actually set in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the home of the king groundhog. But it was hearing about the premise of the movie, not the location that intrigues me.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When Life Is Just 'More of the Same.'"

Basically, Bill Murray plays a TV newscaster who keeps reliving the same day over and over again. It happens to be Groundhog Day in the town that's the epicenter of that celebration. In the movie, the idea of repeating the same day again and again is played for laughs. Unfortunately, for too many people, that's their real life. And there's nothing funny about it.

"Same old, same old" - that's how life feels for a lot of people. Just a disconnected, seemingly meaningless series of events that start to feel pretty much the same. We start wondering about "why am I here?" somewhere in our turbulent teenage years I think. Unfortunately, a lot of us do our whole life and we still don't know the answer. We've got this pile of puzzle pieces on the floor in front of us, and we can't find the top of the puzzle box. We can't figure out what it all makes.

For me, for countless millions over 2,000 years, that's where Jesus comes in. Not the religion called Christianity, but Jesus. People have written volumes on the purpose of life. God does it in six words in the Bible. He's talking about Jesus here. It's in our word for today from the Word of God in Colossians 1:16. He says we are "created by Him and for Him." Wow! I'm created by Jesus. I'm created for Jesus. And life will not add up until I have Jesus. Or maybe more accurately, Jesus has me.

The only One who really knows the purpose of your life is the One who gave you your life. And He says you were made for a relationship with Jesus, His Son. A relationship that honestly, our sin has spoiled. We've decided we'd do life our way instead of God's way. And it's a relationship that His death for our sin has made possible. And then three days after he died, He walked out of His grave under His own power so He could walk into your life today. You know, the earth's life depends on it revolving around the sun. If the earth goes off on an orbit away from the sun, all life will cease. In the same way, our life depends on our revolving around the Son. That's S-O-N, the Son of God.

Maybe you've never begun a personal relationship with Jesus. Maybe you don't yet belong to the One that you were made by and made for. This could be the end of a lifetime search today. Because it begins when you say, "Jesus, I get it now. I was made by You, I was made for You, but instead I've lived for me, and I'm in trouble with God. But Jesus, I believe that some of those sins You were dying on that cross for; some of those sins were mine. Because You're alive, I can tell You today, 'Jesus, I'm Yours.'"

I want to invite you to our website today and ask you to spend a couple of minutes there checking it out. Because there we've tried to kind of build a Bible bridge there that will take you right into the beginning of a relationship with Jesus. The website's ANewStory.com. Remember that and check it out, will you?

I'm thanking God today that life doesn't have to be a meaningless parade of days that replay the same old questions and the same old emptiness. On the day we step into the relationship we were made for, we step into the "more" that God put us here for, and you know what? The search is over.