Max Lucado Daily: IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
The Bible that I carried as a child contained a picture of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He seemed peaceful, yet one reading of the Gospels disrupts that image. Mark says, “Jesus fell to the ground” (Mark 14:35). According to Luke, Jesus was “full of pain” (Luke 22:44). What do we do with this image of Jesus?
Simple — we read it when we feel the same. We read it when we feel afraid. For isn’t it likely that fear was one of the emotions Jesus felt? He saw something in the future so fierce, so foreboding that he begged for a change of plans: “Father, if you are willing, take away this cup of suffering” (Luke 22:42). How remarkable that Jesus felt such fear, but how kind that he told us about it. We see no mask of strength, but we do hear a request for strength. And the fact that he prayed invites us to do the same.
Ezekiel 45
Sacred Space for God
“When you divide up the inheritance of the land, you must set aside part of the land as sacred space for God: approximately seven miles long by six miles wide, all of it holy ground. Within this rectangle, reserve a seven-hundred-fifty-foot square for the Sanctuary with a seventy-five-foot buffer zone surrounding it. Mark off within the sacred reserve a section seven miles long by three miles wide. The Sanctuary with its Holy of Holies will be placed there. This is where the priests will live, those who lead worship in the Sanctuary and serve God there. Their houses will be there along with The Holy Place.
5 “To the north of the sacred reserve, an area roughly seven miles long and two and a quarter miles wide will be set aside as land for the villages of the Levites who administer the affairs of worship in the Sanctuary.
6 “To the south of the sacred reserve, measure off a section seven miles long and about a mile and a half wide for the city itself, an area held in common by the whole family of Israel.
7-8 “The prince gets the land abutting the seven-mile east and west borders of the central sacred square, extending eastward toward the Jordan and westward toward the Mediterranean. This is the prince’s possession in Israel. My princes will no longer bully my people, running roughshod over them. They’ll respect the land as it has been allotted to the tribes.
9-12 “This is the Message of God, the Master: ‘I’ve put up with you long enough, princes of Israel! Quit bullying and taking advantage of my people. Do what’s just and right for a change. Use honest scales—honest weights and honest measures. Every pound must have sixteen ounces. Every gallon must measure four quarts. The ounce is the basic measure for both. And your coins must be honest—no wooden nickels!
Everyone in the Land Must Contribute
13-15 “‘These are the prescribed offerings you are to supply: one-sixtieth part of your wheat, one-sixtieth part of your barley, one-hundredth part of your oil, one sheep out of every two hundred from the lush pastures of Israel. These will be used for the grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings for making the atonement sacrifices for the people. Decree of God, the Master.
16-17 “‘Everyone in the land must contribute to these special offerings that the prince in Israel will administer. It’s the prince’s job to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings at the Holy Festivals, the New Moons, and the Sabbaths—all the commanded feasts among the people of Israel. Sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings for making atonement for the people of Israel are his responsibility.
18-20 “‘This is the Message from God, the Master: On the first day of the first month, take an unblemished bull calf and purify the Sanctuary. The priest is to take blood from the sin offerings and rub it on the doorposts of the Temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the gate entrance to the inside courtyard. Repeat this ritual on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins without knowing it. In this way you make atonement for the Temple.
21 “‘On the fourteenth day of the first month, you will observe the Passover, a feast of seven days. During the feast you will eat bread made without yeast.
22-23 “‘On Passover, the prince supplies a bull as a sin offering for himself and all the people of the country. Each day for each of the seven days of the feast, he will supply seven bulls and seven rams unblemished as a burnt offering to God, and also each day a male goat.
24 “‘He will supply about five and a half gallons of grain offering and a gallon of oil for each bull and each ram.
25 “‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and on each of the seven days of the feast, he is to supply the same materials for sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Deuteronomy 31:15–22
Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent. 16 And the Lord said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your ancestors, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. 17 And in that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and calamities will come on them, and in that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come on us because our God is not with us?’ 18 And I will certainly hide my face in that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.
19 “Now write down this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them. 20 When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their ancestors, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant. 21 And when many disasters and calamities come on them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath.” 22 So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites.
Insight
The final chapters of the book of Deuteronomy may seem a strange way to conclude the books of the law (Genesis–Deuteronomy). In Deuteronomy 31:27, Moses says, “If you have been rebellious against the Lord while I am still alive and with you, how much more will you rebel after I die!” Then he gives the people the song in 32:1–43, which contains a litany of dire warnings and predictions about Israel’s past and future rebellion against God. But Moses also said that the words in this song and in the entire book “are your life” (32:47) because they’d remind them of the goodness of God.
What’s Your Song?
So Moses wrote down this song that day and taught it to the Israelites. Deuteronomy 31:22
Most Americans knew little about Alexander Hamilton—until 2015, when Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote his hit musical Hamilton. Now schoolchildren know Hamilton’s story by heart. They sing it to each other on the bus and at recess. He’s their favorite founding father.
God knows the power of music, and He told Moses to “write down this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it” (Deuteronomy 31:19). God knew that long after Moses was gone, when He had brought Israel into the Promised Land, they would rebel and worship other gods. So He told Moses, “This song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants” (v. 21).
Songs are nearly impossible to forget, so it’s wise to be selective about what we sing. Some songs are just for fun, and that’s fine, but we benefit from songs that boast in Jesus and encourage our faith. One of the ways we “[make] the most of every opportunity” is when we speak “to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.” So “sing and make music from your heart to the Lord” (see Ephesians 5:15–19).
Songs can be an indicator of the direction of our heart. Do the words make much of Jesus? Do we sing them wholeheartedly? What we sing will influence what we believe, so choose wisely and sing loudly. By: Mike Wittmer
Reflect & Pray
What should you look for in a worship song? Is there a favorite song you can sing more often? Why?
Father, this song is my prayer to You. (Sing your favorite.)
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Have You Ever Been Alone with God? (2)
When He was alone…the twelve asked Him about the parable. —Mark 4:10
His Solitude with Us. When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted desires, a broken friendship, or a new friendship— when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us. Notice Jesus Christ’s training of the Twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were confused. His disciples constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly explained things to them, but they didn’t understand until after they received the Holy Spirit (see John 14:26).
As you journey with God, the only thing He intends to be clear is the way He deals with your soul. The sorrows and difficulties in the lives of others will be absolutely confusing to you. We think we understand another person’s struggle until God reveals the same shortcomings in our lives. There are vast areas of stubbornness and ignorance the Holy Spirit has to reveal in each of us, but it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now? Or are we more concerned with our own ideas, friendships, and cares for our bodies? Jesus cannot teach us anything until we quiet all our intellectual questions and get alone with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him. The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L
Bible in a Year: Genesis 31-32; Matthew 9:18-38
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Beautiful Brokenness - #8873
For Christmas, I bought the ladies in the family these necklaces with a beautiful colored glass charm on them. And the Japanese word "nozomi." There's a story behind those necklaces.
In 2011 a tsunami virtually leveled the Japanese coastal city of Ishinomaki. All that was left was fields of debris where homes and tearooms once stood. Sue Takamoto was helping to clear away some of the debris one day when she noticed all the colorful shards of broken pottery that were everywhere she stepped. It was all that remained of the tearooms and kitchens that had been swept out to sea.
Sue and her friends collected and washed those shards, because they saw in those broken pieces a way to help some broken lives. They began the Nozomi Project - Japanese for "hope."
The tsunami had left a lot of single mothers without a job or income. The Nozomi Project enables them to create rings and necklaces and earrings from the broken pieces. Then it's sold online - to people like me.
Sue Takamoto said: "Many of these women lost their community and their neighbors are all gone. Their homes are washed away, and they're living in scattered places. But God can take broken pottery and broken women who think that life is over for them and do anything He wants. We are in the midst of seeing amazing things. In the rubble of our storm, we all have lots of broken pieces. We can leave them broken. Or, she said, with God's grace and help, make them into something beautiful. Something called hope."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beautiful Brokenness."
There's a lot of "broken" today. Broken hearts, broken dreams, broken families, broken health, broken relationships. For me, the tsunami was the sudden death of my Karen, the love of my life.
Our word for today from the Word of God is a word of hope for all of us who have some broken in our life. It's in Isaiah 61:1-3 and it's about Jesus: "The Lord...has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to provide for those who grieve, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes." Beauty from ashes. Nozomi. Hope.
A broken heart is an open heart. It's open in places that may have never been open before. And Jesus moves into those places with His transforming love and comfort and healing. For 2,000 years, He's been making beautiful things in people's lives from broken pieces.
I know He's been keeping the "beauty from ashes" promise for me. Something's been happening to me that's hard to describe. My heart's more tender toward other people and toward God than ever before. It's like a new compassion.
I value each day more than ever. I live with a re-fired sense of urgency. I'm thinking legacy more than ever, being intentional about passing on to my children and grandchildren and young leaders what God has taught me in a lifetime. And there's just something very special going on between me and God. He seems closer, seems more real to me than ever. Beautiful things from my broken pieces.
My prayer for you is that you will bring all your broken pieces to Jesus, lay them at His feet and open your hands to receive what He wants to give you. He loved you enough to die for you. He was powerful enough to crush death and walk out of His grave. He can be trusted.
You don't have to stay broken. Jesus stands ready to lead you into a new season where you'll make a greater difference than ever before. He knows broken. He was broken for you and me on a cross. And the Bible says, "By His wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).
You could find out more about beginning your own personal relationship with Him at our website, which this would be a great day for you to go there - ANewStory.com.
He's waiting to do for you the miracle described in a little Gospel song that says, "Something beautiful, something good. All my confusion, He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life."