Max Lucado Daily: A Call to Courage - October 28, 2021
When Mordecai learned that the Persian king had issued a decree to kill the Jews, he urged Esther to reach out to the king. Esther reminded Mordecai that if she went in to the throne room uninvited, the king could have her head. Mordecai responded with the greatest one paragraph call to courage ever spoken by a human tongue.
He said “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you are silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13–14).
Mordecai knew this: relief will come. What he said to Esther, God says to you: you were made for this moment.
Exodus 29-
Consecration of Priests
“This is the ceremony for dedicating them as priests. Take a young bull and two rams, healthy and without defects. Using fine wheat flour but no yeast make bread and cakes mixed with oil and wafers spread with oil. Place them in a basket and carry them along with the bull and the two rams. Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water.
5-9 “Then take the vestments and dress Aaron in the tunic, the robe of the Ephod, the Ephod, and the Breastpiece, belting the Ephod on him with the embroidered waistband. Set the turban on his head and place the sacred crown on the turban. Then take the anointing oil and pour it on his head, anointing him. Then bring his sons, put tunics on them and gird them with sashes, both Aaron and his sons, and set hats on them. Their priesthood is upheld by law and is permanent.
9-14 “This is how you will ordain Aaron and his sons: Bring the bull to the Tent of Meeting. Aaron and his sons will place their hands on the head of the bull. Then you will slaughter the bull in the presence of God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Take some of the bull’s blood and smear it on the horns of the Altar with your finger; pour the rest of the blood on the base of the Altar. Next take all the fat that covers the innards, fat from around the liver and the two kidneys, and burn it on the Altar. But the flesh of the bull, including its hide and dung, you will burn up outside the camp. It is an Absolution-Offering.
15-18 “Then take one of the rams. Have Aaron and his sons place their hands on the head of the ram. Slaughter the ram and take its blood and throw it against the Altar, all around. Cut the ram into pieces; wash its innards and legs, then gather the pieces and its head and burn the whole ram on the Altar. It is a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God, a pleasant fragrance, an offering by fire to God.
19-21 “Then take the second ram. Have Aaron and his sons place their hands on the ram’s head. Slaughter the ram. Take some of its blood and rub it on Aaron’s right earlobe and on the right earlobes of his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. Sprinkle the rest of the blood against all sides of the Altar. Then take some of the blood that is on the Altar, mix it with some of the anointing oil, and splash it on Aaron and his clothes and on his sons and their clothes so that Aaron and his clothes and his sons and his sons’ clothes will be made holy.
22-23 “Take the fat from the ram, the fat tail, the fat that covers the innards, the long lobe of the liver, the two kidneys and the fat on them, and the right thigh: this is the ordination ram. Also take one loaf of bread, an oil cake, and a wafer from the breadbasket that is in the presence of God.
24-25 “Place all of these in the open hands of Aaron and his sons who will wave them before God, a Wave-Offering. Then take them from their hands and burn them on the Altar with the Whole-Burnt-Offering—a pleasing fragrance before God, a gift to God.
26 “Now take the breast from Aaron’s ordination ram and wave it before God, a Wave-Offering. That will be your portion.
27-28 “Bless the Wave-Offering breast and the thigh that was held up. These are the parts of the ordination ram that are for Aaron and his sons. Aaron and his sons are always to get this offering from the Israelites; the Israelites are to make this offering regularly from their Peace-Offerings.
29-30 “Aaron’s sacred garments are to be handed down to his descendants so they can be anointed and ordained in them. The son who succeeds him as priest is to wear them for seven days and enter the Tent of Meeting to minister in the Holy Place.
31-34 “Take the ordination ram and boil the meat in the Holy Place. At the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, Aaron and his sons will eat the boiled ram and the bread that is in the basket. Atoned by these offerings, ordained and hallowed by them, they are the only ones who are to eat them. No outsiders are to eat them; they’re holy. Anything from the ordination ram or from the bread that is left over until morning you are to burn up. Don’t eat it; it’s holy.
35-37 “Do everything for the ordination of Aaron and his sons exactly as I’ve commanded you throughout the seven days. Offer a bull as an Absolution-Offering for atonement each day. Offer it on the Altar when you make atonement for it: Anoint and hallow it. Make atonement for the Altar and hallow it for seven days; the Altar will become soaked in holiness—anyone who so much as touches the Altar will become holy.
38-41 “This is what you are to offer on the Altar: two year-old lambs each and every day, one lamb in the morning and the second lamb at evening. With the sacrifice of the first lamb offer two quarts of fine flour with a quart of virgin olive oil, plus a quart of wine for a Drink-Offering. The sacrifice of the second lamb, the one at evening, is also to be accompanied by the same Grain-Offering and Drink-Offering of the morning sacrifice to give a pleasing fragrance, a gift to God.
42-46 “This is to be your regular, daily Whole-Burnt-Offering before God, generation after generation, sacrificed at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. That’s where I’ll meet you; that’s where I’ll speak with you; that’s where I’ll meet the Israelites, at the place made holy by my Glory. I’ll make the Tent of Meeting and the Altar holy. I’ll make Aaron and his sons holy in order to serve me as priests. I’ll move in and live with the Israelites. I’ll be their God. They’ll realize that I am their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I could live with them. I am God, your God.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Today's Scripture
1 John 5:13–15
(NIV)
Concluding Affirmations
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of Godi so that you may know that you have eternal life.j 14 This is the confidencek we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.l 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we knowm that we have what we asked of him.
Insight
In 1 John 5:14–15, we find a conditional promise for answered prayer: God hears our prayers and gives us what we ask for when “we ask anything according to his will.” To pray according to God’s will is to “ask for anything that pleases him” (nlt) or “in accord with his own plan” (J. B. Phillips). The psalmist, painfully aware that God’s promise of answered prayer is conditioned upon a right relationship with Him, cautioned, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18). The apostle James warns that God won’t give us what we pray for when we “ask with wrong motives, that [we] may spend what [we] get on [our] pleasures” (James 4:3). A right relationship with Jesus is required: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). By: K. T. Sim
Is God Listening?
If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
1 John 5:14
When I served on my church’s congregational care team, one of my duties was to pray over the requests penciled on pew cards during the services. For an aunt’s health. For a couple’s finances. For a grandson’s discovery of God. Rarely did I hear the results of these prayers. Most were anonymous, and I had no way of knowing how God had responded. I confess that at times I wondered, Was He really listening? Was anything happening as a result of my prayers?
Over our lifetimes, most of us question, “Does God hear me?” I remember my own Hannah-like pleas for a child that went unanswered for years. And there were my pleas that my father find faith, yet he died without any apparent confession.
Etched across the millennia are myriad instances of God’s ear bending to listen: to Israel’s groans under slavery (Exodus 2:24); to Moses on Mount Sinai (Deuteronomy 9:19); to Joshua at Gilgal (Joshua 10:14); to Hannah’s prayers for a child (1 Samuel 1:10–17); to David crying out for deliverance from Saul (2 Samuel 22:7).
First John 5:14 crescendos, “If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” The word for “hears” means to pay attention and to respond on the basis of having heard.
As we go to God today, may we have the confidence of His listening ear spanning the history of His people. He hears our pleas. By: Elisa Morgan
Reflect & Pray
Pause to consider what you’ve most recently asked of God. What motivated you to ask? How can you know that God hears you?
Father, I come asking and trusting You to hear me because You say that You do.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Justification by Faith
If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. —Romans 5:10
I am not saved by believing— I simply realize I am saved by believing. And it is not repentance that saves me— repentance is only the sign that I realize what God has done through Christ Jesus. The danger here is putting the emphasis on the effect, instead of on the cause. Is it my obedience, consecration, and dedication that make me right with God? It is never that! I am made right with God because, prior to all of that, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals, the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ instantly places me into a right relationship with God. And as a result of the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, or because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings justification with a shattering, radiant light, and I know that I am saved, even though I don’t know how it was accomplished.
The salvation that comes from God is not based on human logic, but on the sacrificial death of Jesus. We can be born again solely because of the atonement of our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creations, not through their repentance or their belief, but through the wonderful work of God in Christ Jesus which preceded all of our experience (see 2 Corinthians 5:17-19). The unconquerable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We do not have to accomplish these things ourselves— they have been accomplished through the atonement of the Cross of Christ. The supernatural becomes natural to us through the miracle of God, and there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done— “It is finished!” (John 19:30).
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: Jeremiah 15-17; 2 Timothy 2
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Escaping the Flood, Or Not - #9079
I think I still remember one line of poetry from high school, "Water, water everywhere." Well, you know what? For lots of folks during the spring, that isn't poetry. It's their town, their neighborhood, their house. Rivers overflowing, backing up into every creek and stream. It can be a mess.
When my wife hears the word "flood," she actually feels something inside. Because the defining event for the town she grew up in was the flood that turned a quiet creek into a raging torrent - actually a deadly torrent. Those who lived it, like she did, will never forget it.
The saddest part of the story is the people who died, because well, they didn't have to. As those flash floods cascaded down from the mountains toward their town, rescuers came by a house in a boat to warn the people there and take them to safety. But they chose to ignore the warning. You know what they said? "Aw, we've been OK here for years. We're not leaving now." Their bodies were found days later, and miles away.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Escaping the Flood, Or Not."
You know, God grieves over people like that. Actually, I do, too. People who've been warned that there's danger, even death coming. People who have a rescuer at their door and think they can make it on their own and they die, when they could have lived...forever.
Our word today from the Word of God is in Deuteronomy 30:19. God pleads with us, "I have set before you life and death...choose life." Now, that "life" is a person - His Son. Here's the Bible again, "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (1 John 5:11). The judgment of God for us hijacking our life from Him is racing our direction. The Bible says, "God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing" (Ecclesiastes 12:14). But there's a rescuer at the door. It's Jesus.
He says, "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in" (Revelation 3:20). He can take us to safety because He did all the dying for all our sinning when He hung on that cross.
Now, maybe you've never realized that that is what Jesus did for you. Maybe you've never realized that what Jesus did was for you. Maybe you've never made your way in your heart to that cross and said those two eternity-changing words, "For me. Lord Jesus, what you were doing there was for me." Maybe you've been around this a lot and you've heard His knocking more times than you can count. You've just never opened the door. You've continued to put it off.
See, either way, whether you've never known this before or you've heard it all your life, it's important. It's eternally important that you answer the door and let Jesus save you. The Bible cries out, "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart" (Hebrews 4:7).
It could be that there's a tug in your heart today. You're hearing the voice of Jesus. You're hearing the knock of the Rescuer at your door saying, "Judgment is coming. The flood is coming, but you don't have to be taken by it. I took your punishment for you." He took all the flood of all of God's judgment on Himself at that cross. And I'd say to you as you hear this that the more times you have heard His voice and done nothing, the harder your heart becomes. And that is the edge of an abyss that no one should risk.
If you're hearing His voice today, listen to what God said. Obey His command, "Do not harden your heart." Open your heart to hear Jesus today, to the Savior who died for you. What a tragedy if you would go on and pay for all eternity for what He already paid for on the cross.
Right now you could say to Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." And if that's where your heart is, I'd encourage you to get to our website. I've done everything I could there to explain in plain words, with God's Word out of the Bible, how you can begin your relationship with Jesus and know you have. That website is ANewStory.com.
If you've never gotten into the boat with Jesus, God's Rescuer, I beg you to do that today. The flood is coming, and you won't make it without Him.