Deuteronomy 14 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: The Heavens Declare - March 3, 2022

The Bible says that “The heavens declare the glory of God!” Our universe is God’s preeminent missionary. Doesn’t a painting suggest a painter? Don’t stars suggest a star maker? Doesn’t creation imply a creator?

Now look within you. Look at your sense of right and wrong. Who told you a moral compass exists? What is this magnetic pole that pulls the needles on the compass of your conscience if not God? Heavens above, moral code within. God did this. The wonders above you and within you testify to his existence. But God not only made the world. He loves the world. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world.” Try that on for size. The one who formed you pulls for you. Untrumpable power stoked by unstoppable love!

Deuteronomy 14

You are children of God, your God, so don’t mutilate your bodies or shave your heads in funeral rites for the dead. You only are a people holy to God, your God; God chose you out of all the people on Earth as his cherished personal treasure.

3-8 Don’t eat anything abominable. These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goat, deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, mountain sheep—any animal that has a cloven hoof and chews the cud. But you may not eat camels, rabbits, and rock badgers because they chew the cud but they don’t have a cloven hoof—that makes them ritually unclean. And pigs: Don’t eat pigs—they have a cloven hoof but don’t chew the cud, which makes them ritually unclean. Don’t even touch a pig’s carcass.

9-10 This is what you may eat from the water: anything that has fins and scales. But if it doesn’t have fins or scales, you may not eat it. It’s ritually unclean.

11-18 You may eat any ritually clean bird. These are the exceptions, so don’t eat these: eagle, vulture, black vulture, kite, falcon, the buzzard family, the raven family, ostrich, nighthawk, the hawk family, little owl, great owl, white owl, pelican, osprey, cormorant, stork, the heron family, hoopoe, bat.

19-20 Winged insects are ritually unclean; don’t eat them. But ritually clean winged creatures are permitted.

21 Because you are a people holy to God, your God, don’t eat anything that you find dead. You can, though, give it to a foreigner in your neighborhood for a meal or sell it to a foreigner.

Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

22-26 Make an offering of ten percent, a tithe, of all the produce which grows in your fields year after year. Bring this into the Presence of God, your God, at the place he designates for worship and there eat the tithe from your grain, wine, and oil and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. In this way you will learn to live in deep reverence before God, your God, as long as you live. But if the place God, your God, designates for worship is too far away and you can’t carry your tithe that far, God, your God, will still bless you: exchange your tithe for money and take the money to the place God, your God, has chosen to be worshiped. Use the money to buy anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, or beer—anything that looks good to you. You and your family can then feast in the Presence of God, your God, and have a good time.

27 Meanwhile, don’t forget to take good care of the Levites who live in your towns; they won’t get any property or inheritance of their own as you will.

28-29 At the end of every third year, gather the tithe from all your produce of that year and put it aside in storage. Keep it in reserve for the Levite who won’t get any property or inheritance as you will, and for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow who live in your neighborhood. That way they’ll have plenty to eat and God, your God, will bless you in all your work.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Thursday, March 03, 2022

Today's Scripture
1 Samuel 23:15–24
(NIV)

David kept out of the way in the wilderness of Ziph, secluded at Horesh, since it was plain that Saul was determined to hunt him down.

16–18     Jonathan, Saul’s son, visited David at Horesh and encouraged him in God. He said, “Don’t despair. My father, Saul, can’t lay a hand on you. You will be Israel’s king and I’ll be right at your side to help. And my father knows it.” Then the two of them made a covenant before God. David stayed at Horesh and Jonathan went home.

19–20     Some Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Did you know that David is hiding out near us in the caves and canyons of Horesh? Right now he’s at Hakilah Hill just south of Jeshimon. So whenever you’re ready to come down, we’d count it an honor to hand him over to the king.”

21–23     Saul said, “God bless you for thinking about me! Now go back and check everything out. Learn his routines. Observe his movements—where he goes, who he’s with. He’s very shrewd, you know. Scout out all his hiding places. Then meet me at Nacon and I’ll go with you. If he is anywhere to be found in all the thousands of Judah, I’ll track him down!”

24–27     So the Ziphites set out on their reconnaissance for Saul.

Meanwhile, David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the desert south of Jeshimon.

Insight

The relationship between David and Jonathan was truly remarkable. Jonathan was the son of King Saul and heir to the throne that David had been anointed to occupy. Jonathan believed so strongly in God’s selection and anointing of David as king, however, that he helped and encouraged his friend, at great personal cost. In a sense, Jonathan was doing what Jesus described as the mark of a true friend when He said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Jonathan was laying aside much of what his life might have been to be a friend to David. By: Bill Crowder

Encouraged in God

Saul’s son Jonathan went to David . . . and helped him find strength in God.
1 Samuel 23:16

In 1925, Langston Hughes, an aspiring writer working as a busboy at a hotel, discovered that a poet he admired (Vachel Lindsey) was staying there as a guest. Hughes shyly slipped Lindsey some of his own poetry, which Lindsey later praised enthusiastically at a public reading. Lindsey’s encouragement resulted in Hughes receiving a university scholarship, furthering him on his way to his own successful writing career.

A little encouragement can go a long way, especially when God is in it. Scripture tells of an incident when David was on the run from King Saul, who was trying “to take his life.” Saul’s son Jonathan sought David out “and helped him find strength in God. ‘Don’t be afraid,’ he said. ‘My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel’ ” (1 Samuel 23:15–17).

Jonathan was right. David would be king. The key to the effective encouragement Jonathan offered is found in the simple phrase “in God” (v. 16). Through Jesus, God gives us “eternal encouragement and good hope” (2 Thessalonians 2:16). As we humble ourselves before Him, He lifts us as no other can.

All around us are people who need the encouragement God gives. If we seek them out as Jonathan sought David and gently point them to God through a kind word or action, He’ll do the rest. Regardless of what this life may hold, a bright future in eternity awaits those who trust in Him. By:  James Banks

Reflect & Pray

How did someone provide special encouragement to you in your faith journey? What can you do to strengthen someone’s faith today?

Loving God, there’s nothing like the encouragement You give. Please give me opportunities to help others find new strength in You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 03, 2022
His Commission to Us

Feed My sheep. —John 21:17

This is love in the making. The love of God is not created— it is His nature. When we receive the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit, He unites us with God so that His love is demonstrated in us. The goal of the indwelling Holy Spirit is not just to unite us with God, but to do it in such a way that we will be one with the Father in exactly the same way Jesus was. And what kind of oneness did Jesus Christ have with the Father? He had such a oneness with the Father that He was obedient when His Father sent Him down here to be poured out for us. And He says to us, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21).

Peter now realizes that he does love Him, due to the revelation that came with the Lord’s piercing question. The Lord’s next point is— “Pour yourself out. Don’t testify about how much you love Me and don’t talk about the wonderful revelation you have had, just ‘Feed My sheep.’ ” Jesus has some extraordinarily peculiar sheep: some that are unkempt and dirty, some that are awkward or pushy, and some that have gone astray! But it is impossible to exhaust God’s love, and it is impossible to exhaust my love if it flows from the Spirit of God within me. The love of God pays no attention to my prejudices caused by my natural individuality. If I love my Lord, I have no business being guided by natural emotions— I have to feed His sheep. We will not be delivered or released from His commission to us. Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by following your own natural human emotions, sympathies, or understandings. That will only serve to revile and abuse the true love of God.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

Beware of bartering the Word of God for a more suitable conception of your own.  Disciples Indeed, 386 R

Bible in a Year: Numbers 28-30; Mark 8:22-38

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, March 03, 2022
Too Busy for the Beauty - #9169

As we drove through Utah that day I kept "oohing" and "ahhing" at one magnificent view after another. Majestic mountains, and this rugged terrain, fabulous vistas - I loved it! Then my wife reminded me that I'd seen all this before. Oh, more accurately, I should have seen it before. See, I had traveled these same scenic highways on a bus with our Native American outreach team On Eagles' Wings a couple of years before. But much of the time, I had my head down, I was buried in my work or preparation or I was busy talking with one of the team members. In the process, I totally missed some of this country's greatest beauty.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Too Busy for the Beauty."

So I missed some wonderful beauty because, yeah, too busy. Unfortunately, that's not the only time in my life I've made that mistake. And I don't think I'm the only one who's made it. In our overheated, overscheduled lives, it's just so easy to speed right by some things that are too beautiful to miss - in our surroundings, in our son, in our daughter, our grandchild, our husband or wife, in the blessings that God's unfolding right in front of us. And even in hearing the voice of God.

Many of us have been - well, OK here's a word that isn't one - "Martha-ed." Yeah. Now, even though it's not a word, it is a familiar reality I think. Let's watch busy, busy Martha missing the beauty around her in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Luke 10, beginning with verse 38, and I have to tell you, I see a mirror here almost. And I see what I'm like sometimes. Maybe it's a mirror for you, too. You decide.

Here's what it says. "Martha opened her home to Jesus. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to Him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!' 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better.'"

Martha has the Son of God in her home! Mary realizes what an opportunity this is, but Martha's so busy she misses it. And she turns negative toward her sister, she starts attacking her. I think Martha is the patron saint of all of us who are sometimes too busy to stop and see the beauty right in front of us. For someone listening today, God's trying to say to you, "Would you slow down and smell the flowers?" You are missing precious, never-again moments in the life of your child, or in your relationship with your husband or wife, moments that will never come again. Or maybe beauty in other people that you care about. Your busyness may have made you mechanical, robotic, brittle, maybe even insensitive or mean. That kind of busy is too busy.

And maybe, like Martha, you've even become so busy that, well, you're even missing time with your Jesus. Your time to listen at His feet has been crowded to the edges instead of being the sun around which all the other planets of your life and your schedule revolve. You're missing God's voice. You're missing God's fingerprints all over your day. You're speeding by a lot of things that really, really matter.

It's time to look at those priorities, isn't it? So many beautiful things are right in front of you, but you're doing so much, moving so fast you're missing them. These are moments, these are memories, these are opportunities that may never be there again. Don't let them slip through your fingers.