Max Lucado Daily: Too Busy - December 13, 2021
The noise and the bustle began earlier than usual in the village. The owner of the inn had awakened earlier than most in the town. After all, the inn was full; all the were beds taken. One’s imagination is kindled thinking about the conversation of the innkeeper and his family at the breakfast table. Did anyone mention the arrival of the young couple the night before? Did anyone comment on the pregnancy of the girl on the donkey? There was nothing that novel about them. They were, quite possibly, one of several families turned away that night.
No, it was doubtful that anyone mentioned the couple’s arrival. They were too busy. The morning’s chores had to be done. There was too much to do to imagine that the impossible had occurred. God had entered the world as a baby.
Leviticus 19
“I Am God, Your God”
God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the congregation of Israel. Tell them, Be holy because I, God, your God, am holy.
3 “Every one of you must respect his mother and father.
“Keep my Sabbaths. I am God, your God.
4 “Don’t take up with no-god idols. Don’t make gods of cast metal. I am God, your God.
5-8 “When you sacrifice a Peace-Offering to God, do it as you’ve been taught so it is acceptable. Eat it on the day you sacrifice it and the day following. Whatever is left until the third day is to be burned up. If it is eaten on the third day it is polluted meat and not acceptable. Whoever eats it will be held responsible because he has violated what is holy to God. That person will be cut off from his people.
9-10 “When you harvest your land, don’t harvest right up to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings from the harvest. Don’t strip your vineyard bare or go back and pick up the fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am God, your God.
11 “Don’t steal.
“Don’t lie.
“Don’t deceive anyone.
12 “Don’t swear falsely using my name, violating the name of your God. I am God.
13 “Don’t exploit your friend or rob him.
“Don’t hold back the wages of a hired hand overnight.
14 “Don’t curse the deaf; don’t put a stumbling block in front of the blind; fear your God. I am God.
15 “Don’t pervert justice. Don’t show favoritism to either the poor or the great. Judge on the basis of what is right.
16 “Don’t spread gossip and rumors.
“Don’t just stand by when your neighbor’s life is in danger. I am God.
17 “Don’t secretly hate your neighbor. If you have something against him, get it out into the open; otherwise you are an accomplice in his guilt.
18 “Don’t seek revenge or carry a grudge against any of your people.
“Love your neighbor as yourself. I am God.
19 “Keep my decrees.
“Don’t mate two different kinds of animals.
“Don’t plant your fields with two kinds of seed.
“Don’t wear clothes woven of two kinds of material.
20-22 “If a man has sex with a slave girl who is engaged to another man but has not yet been ransomed or given her freedom, there must be an investigation. But they aren’t to be put to death because she wasn’t free. The man must bring a Compensation-Offering to God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, a ram of compensation. The priest will perform the ritual of atonement for him before God with the ram of compensation for the sin he has committed. Then he will stand forgiven of the sin he committed.
23-25 “When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, don’t eat the fruit for three years; consider it inedible. By the fourth year its fruit is holy, an offering of praise to God. Beginning in the fifth year you can eat its fruit; you’ll have richer harvests this way. I am God, your God.
26 “Don’t eat meat with blood in it.
“Don’t practice divination or sorcery.
27 “Don’t cut the hair on the sides of your head or trim your beard.
28 “Don’t gash your bodies on behalf of the dead.
“Don’t tattoo yourselves. I am God.
29 “Don’t violate your daughter by making her a whore—the whole country would soon become a brothel, filled with sordid sex.
30 “Keep my Sabbaths and revere my Sanctuary: I am God.
31 “Don’t dabble in the occult or traffic with mediums; you’ll pollute your souls. I am God, your God.
32 “Show respect to the aged; honor the presence of an elder; fear your God. I am God.
33-34 “When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don’t take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt. I am God, your God.
35-36 “Don’t cheat when measuring length, weight, or quantity. Use honest scales and weights and measures. I am God, your God. I brought you out of Egypt.
37 “Keep all my decrees and all my laws. Yes, do them. I am God.”
* * *
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, December 13, 2021
Today's Scripture
Isaiah 30:15–19
(NIV)
This is what the Sovereigny Lord, the Holy Onez of Israel, says:
“In repentance and resta is your salvation,
in quietness and trustb is your strength,
but you would have none of it.c
16 You said, ‘No, we will fleed on horses.’e
Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
17 A thousand will flee
at the threat of one;
at the threat of fivef
you will all fleeg away,
till you are lefth
like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
like a banneri on a hill.”
18 Yet the Lord longsj to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.k
For the Lord is a God of justice.l
Blessed are all who wait for him!m
19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.n How gracious he will be when you cry for help!o As soon as he hears, he will answerp you.
Insight
Isaiah 30 contains themes of both judgment and restoration for God’s people and judgment for the nations who oppressed them. The chapter can be broken down into three parts. Verses 1–18 note a warning and dangers for Judah who created an alliance with Egypt without consulting God (vv. 1–2). In verses 6 and 7, we see the envoys from Judah traveling through a dangerous land to take their “riches” and “treasures” to Egypt, which the Egyptians required in payment for military help. However, Isaiah warned that Egypt wouldn’t help as they claimed they would. The middle portion of the chapter, verses 19–26, provides a glimmer of hope, saying that the people of Zion in Jerusalem (v. 19) would one day be healed and blessed; their land, in particular, would be fruitful (vv. 23–25). However, the chapter ends on a solemn note, proclaiming judgment on Assyria (v. 31). By: Julie Schwab
A Worthwhile Wait
The Lord longs to be gracious to you . . . . Blessed are all who wait for him!
Isaiah 30:18
Stuck in a stressful job with long hours and an unreasonable boss, James wished he could quit. But he had a mortgage, a wife, and a young child to take care of. He was tempted to resign anyway, but his wife reminded him: “Let’s hang on and see what God will give us.”
Many months later, their prayers were answered. James found a new job that he enjoyed and gave him more time with the family. “Those months were long,” he told me, “but I’m glad I waited for God’s plan to unfold in His time.”
Waiting for God’s help in the midst of trouble is hard; it can be tempting to try to find our own solution first. The Israelites did just that: under threat from their enemies, they sought help from Egypt instead of turning to God (Isaiah 30:2). But God told them that if they would repent and put their trust in Him, they would find strength and salvation (v. 15). In fact, He added, “the Lord longs to be gracious to you” (v. 18).
Waiting for God takes faith and patience. But when we see His answer at the end of it all, we’ll realize it was worth it: “Blessed are all who wait for him!” (v. 18). And what’s even more amazing, God is waiting for us to come to Him! By: Leslie Koh
Reflect & Pray
What prayer request has you waiting on God? How can you meditate on His faithfulness as you seek His answer?
Father, give me the patience to wait for Your answer. I know You’re a good and loving God whose timing and will are always perfect.
Learn more about waiting.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, December 13, 2021
Intercessory Prayer
…men always ought to pray and not lose heart. —Luke 18:1
You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God. True intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that seems to be crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by His attitude toward that person or circumstance. Intercession means to “fill up…[with] what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” (Colossians 1:24), and this is precisely why there are so few intercessors. People describe intercession by saying, “It is putting yourself in someone else’s place.” That is not true! Intercession is putting yourself in God’s place; it is having His mind and His perspective.
As an intercessor, be careful not to seek too much information from God regarding the situation you are praying about, because you may be overwhelmed. If you know too much, more than God has ordained for you to know, you can’t pray; the circumstances of the people become so overpowering that you are no longer able to get to the underlying truth.
Our work is to be in such close contact with God that we may have His mind about everything, but we shirk that responsibility by substituting doing for interceding. And yet intercession is the only thing that has no drawbacks, because it keeps our relationship completely open with God.
What we must avoid in intercession is praying for someone to be simply “patched up.” We must pray that person completely through into contact with the very life of God. Think of the number of people God has brought across our path, only to see us drop them! When we pray on the basis of redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.
Wisdom From Oswald Chambers
The place for the comforter is not that of one who preaches, but of the comrade who says nothing, but prays to God about the matter. The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is not to talk platitudes, not to ask questions, but to get into contact with God, and the “greater works” will be done by prayer (see John 14:12–13). Baffled to Fight Better, 56 R
Bible in a Year: Hosea 12-14; Revelation 4
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, December 13, 2021
Destiny In the Drudgery - #9111
If you want to have some fun at a gathering where there are married couples, just ask a simple question. "How did you two meet?" You'll get some run-of-the-mill, maybe average type stories like, "We knew each other since we were six days old." But you may also get a few of them who start laughing out loud before they tell you why. They start rolling their eyes, they look at each other, and one or the other of them will say, "Do you really want to know?"
Occasionally, you'll get an answer that's about some random way of meeting - like in a laundromat, or an elevator, or some unexpected public place. Of course, you know, computer online. It's amazing how you can go out not looking, just doing something mundane, and in the middle of some everyday activity, "Poof!" There's what turns out to be your life partner. You know, sometimes that everyday stuff, whoa, turns out not to be so every day.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Destiny In the Drudgery."
Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes right out of the Christmas Story; those wonderful, familiar words about destiny in the drudgery. Luke 2:4 says, "So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son." Well, and the rest, I think we would say, is really history.
Now, Joseph needed to be in Bethlehem. Mary needed to be in Bethlehem, because all the prophecies of the Old Testament have said that the Son of God will come and be born in Bethlehem. Problem: Joseph and Mary are 90 miles away; they're up in Nazareth. Now, how are we going to get them to be in the destiny place for their lives? Ah-ha! Taxes! That's right! It was taxes that got Joseph to the town where Jesus was destined to be born. He had to go there and register. What a drudge!
Here he is, tromping over the hills, going there with his wife - mundane chores. And in the middle of the mundane is the birth of the Son of God. Now, that's very appropriate that it would happen that way, because God often buries a great gift in everyday stuff. Often the good things of your life that you're looking for come when you're not looking for them. God makes destiny out of drudgery...like a woman going to a well to draw water and she meets her Messiah in the middle of her daily chores. Or a fisherman cleaning his nets; he's cleaning up for the day, getting ready to go home and he leaves that day as a disciple of Jesus Christ - it's Simon Peter. Or how about a farmer's son, looking for his Dad's lost donkeys - Saul - and it's in that maneuver that he runs into Samuel and becomes the first King of Israel.
You know, I remember back some years ago, I had been looking - I think for about five years - for an experienced leader to take a vital leadership role in our organization, and God brought me together with someone perfectly gifted, perfectly prepared. You know how? He picked me up in an airport one day. That's how we met. Big deal! But his destiny and mine were in the drudgery of a trip to and from an airport. You say, "Well, so what?" Well, there's no such thing as waking up and saying, "Ho-hum, another day." Uh-uh. God is making something with this day. This is the day the Lord is making! Has made! "I will rejoice and be glad in it." He's weaving a tapestry. Oh, you just see the threads, but God's looking at the tapestry.
So, it's wise to commit yourself to a daily God hunt. Look for Him - God sightings, as He reveals himself somewhere in today's everyday stuff. So go with your eyes wide open into each new day - there's destiny in that drudgery. When Christ is your Lord, everyday stuff isn't everyday stuff.
From my daily reading of the bible, Our Daily Bread Devotionals, My Utmost for His Highest and Ron Hutchcraft "A Word with You" and occasionally others.