Psalm 56 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Joy Comes in the Morning - July 11, 2022
“Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5 NLT). Do you need this promise? Have you wept a river? Have you forsaken hope? Do you wonder if a morning will ever bring this night to an end?

Mary Magdalene did. Before she knew Jesus, she had seven demons. She was a prisoner of seven afflictions. What might this list include? Depression? Loneliness? Shame? Fear? Maybe she was a recluse, maybe she was a prostitute. Maybe she’d been abused or abandoned.

The number seven is sometimes used in the Bible to describe completeness. It could be that Mary Magdalene was completely consumed with troubles. But Jesus spoke and the demons fled. Banished. Evicted. Mary Magdalene could sleep well, eat enough, and smile again. And Jesus restored life to her life.

Psalm 56

 Take my side, God—I’m getting kicked around,
    stomped on every day.
Not a day goes by
    but somebody beats me up;
They make it their duty
    to beat me up.
When I get really afraid
    I come to you in trust.
I’m proud to praise God;
    fearless now, I trust in God.
    What can mere mortals do?

5-6
They don’t let up—
    they smear my reputation
    and huddle to plot my collapse.
They gang up,
    sneak together through the alleys
To take me by surprise,
    wait their chance to get me.

7
Pay them back in evil!
    Get angry, God!
    Down with these people!

8
You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn
    through the sleepless nights,
Each tear entered in your ledger,
    each ache written in your book.

9
If my enemies run away,
    turn tail when I yell at them,
Then I’ll know
    that God is on my side.

10-11
I’m proud to praise God,
    proud to praise God.
Fearless now, I trust in God;
    what can mere mortals do to me?

12-13
God, you did everything you promised,
    and I’m thanking you with all my heart.
You pulled me from the brink of death,
    my feet from the cliff-edge of doom.
Now I stroll at leisure with God
    in the sunlit fields of life.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion   
Monday, July 11, 2022

Today's Scripture
1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1

*“We are allowed to do anything,” so they say. That is true, but not everything is good. “We are allowed to do anything”—but not everything is helpful. 24None of you should be looking to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

25 You are free to eat anything sold in the meat market, without asking any questions because of your conscience. 26*For, as the scripture says, “The earth and everything in it belong to the Lord.”

27 If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you decide to go, eat what is set before you, without asking any questions because of your conscience. 28But if someone says to you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat that food, for the sake of the one who told you and for conscience’ sake- 29that is, not your own conscience, but the other person’s conscience.

“Well, then,” someone asks, “why should my freedom to act be limited by another person’s conscience? 30If I thank God for my food, why should anyone criticize me about food for which I give thanks?”

31 Well, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all for God’s glory. 32Live in such a way as to cause no trouble either to Jews or Gentiles or to the church of God. 33Just do as I do; I try to please everyone in all that I do, not thinking of my own good, but of the good of all, so that they might be saved.

11 * Imitate me, then, just as I imitate Christ.

Insight

In writing these words to the church at Corinth, Paul was attempting to recalibrate their values and priorities. As a church family, the Corinthians had become marked by sin, division, pride, lawsuits against one another, and personality cults. The apostle was reminding them of what matters most. We can learn from his words as well. First, the glory and honor of God must be paramount in our thinking (1 Corinthians 10:31). Second, our example must not bring harm to anyone, but rather bring the grace of Jesus to all (vv. 32–33). Third, we likewise need examples to pattern the Christ-life for us (11:1). By: Bill Crowder

True Freedom

No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.
1 Corinthians 10:24

While reading on the train, Meiling was busy highlighting sentences and jotting down notes in the margins of her book. But a conversation between a mother and child seated nearby stopped her. The mom was correcting her child for doodling in her library book. Meiling quickly put her pen away, not wanting the toddler to ignore her mother’s words by following Meiling’s example. She knew that the child wouldn’t understand the difference between damaging a loaned book and making notes in one you owned.

Meiling’s actions reminded me of the apostle Paul’s inspired words in 1 Corinthians 10:23–24: “ ‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say—but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.”

The believers in Jesus in the young church in Corinth saw their freedom in Christ as an opportunity to pursue personal interests. But Paul wrote that they should view it as an opportunity to benefit and build up others. He taught them that true freedom isn’t the right to do as one pleases, but the liberty to do as they should for God.

We follow in Jesus’ footsteps when we use our freedom to choose building others up instead of serving ourselves. By:  Poh Fang Chia

Reflect & Pray

Why does it honor God when you’re careful in what you say and do around others? How can you be more considerate of others in the exercise of your freedom?

Jesus, thank You for setting me free. Give me wisdom and grace to exercise my freedom in ways that truly honor You and bless others.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, July 11, 2022

The Spiritually Vigorous Saint

…that I may know Him… —Philippians 3:10

A saint is not to take the initiative toward self-realization, but toward knowing Jesus Christ. A spiritually vigorous saint never believes that his circumstances simply happen at random, nor does he ever think of his life as being divided into the secular and the sacred. He sees every situation in which he finds himself as the means of obtaining a greater knowledge of Jesus Christ, and he has an attitude of unrestrained abandon and total surrender about him. The Holy Spirit is determined that we will have the realization of Jesus Christ in every area of our lives, and He will bring us back to the same point over and over again until we do. Self-realization only leads to the glorification of good works, whereas a saint of God glorifies Jesus Christ through his good works. Whatever we may be doing— even eating, drinking, or washing disciples’ feet— we have to take the initiative of realizing and recognizing Jesus Christ in it. Every phase of our life has its counterpart in the life of Jesus. Our Lord realized His relationship to the Father even in the most menial task. “Jesus, knowing…that He had come from God and was going to God,…took a towel…and began to wash the disciples’ feet…” (John 13:3-5).

The aim of a spiritually vigorous saint is “that I may know Him…” Do I know Him where I am today? If not, I am failing Him. I am not here for self-realization, but to know Jesus Christ. In Christian work our initiative and motivation are too often simply the result of realizing that there is work to be done and that we must do it. Yet that is never the attitude of a spiritually vigorous saint. His aim is to achieve the realization of Jesus Christ in every set of circumstances.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed. Our Brilliant Heritage

Bible in a Year: Psalms 1-3; Acts 17:1-15

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, July 11, 2022

Family Baggage, Family Sins - #9261

I had just finished presenting one of our outreach parenting seminars and I had talked near the end about how we tend to copy the ways that our parents raised us. Well, this man came and told me that he had noticed something a little different the first time his wife cooked a roast for him. I wondered where this was going. Well, he said she cut off the ends of the roast! He said, "Well, that's strange," but he let it go. And then, after a few times, he said, "Honey, why do you do that?" And she said, "Well, my mother did it." He said, "Why did she do it?" She said, "I'm going to ask her." So she asked her mother and her mother said, (You guessed it!) "Well, my mother did it." She said, "Well, do you know why my grandmother did it?" The mother said, "Well, actually, while she was still alive I asked her one time." She said, "Yeah, I'll tell you why I cut off the ends of the beef. My pan was too short!" So, here are three generations doing what great-grandmother did long after the reason for doing it was history!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Family Baggage Family Sins."

Now, it's too bad all the ways that we clone our parents aren't that harmless. Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Peter 1:18 which says, "You were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers...with the precious blood of Christ." Okay, all of us got some of those empty ways of life from our family. I mean, suddenly one day this baby arrives and your name is changed forever-suddenly you're daddy, you're mommy. And you comb through that receiving blanket looking for the instruction book that comes with the baby, right? On how to parent! After all, there's an instruction book for cars, and appliances. There's got to be one for life's most important job! Sorry!

There's the tendency to unconsciously, then, revert to the way mom or dad did it. Even if it was something that hurt us, something we really disliked. Suddenly you're hearing the echo of a parent, you're saying things you thought you would never say, you're doing things you said you would never do. Maybe it's that tendency to criticize, to blow up, to be a work-a-holic. Maybe you weren't shown much love outwardly, and now your kids are suffering from that same kind of emotional starvation.

The fact is we've all inherited empty ways of life from our parents who were probably copying one of their parents. And now another generation is about to be marked by this weakness, or this sin that has marked so many before us unless it stops with you; which it can because of Jesus. This is a hopeless cycle of despair and hurt except for those liberating words, "You were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you with the precious blood of Christ." You don't have to be that way anymore. When Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross He was covering those family sins too. The shedding of His blood broke the power of that sin. If you've trusted Jesus to be your Savior from your sin, then His resurrection power lives in you. You can repent of that and ask Him to unleash His transforming power to change it.

If that family sin has gone far enough, here's the liberation plan:

    First, do what you're doing right now-face it as a sin against God, no excuses!
    Confess it to Him as a sin.
    Confess it to the ones who have been affected by that sin in your family. Ask your family to pray for you, to forgive you, to start working on the new you in the power of Jesus.
    And then turn the other way. Make a conscious effort to do it the right way today.

And you know what? It begins when you begin a relationship with Jesus, and all those sins are forgiven and the power of them in your life is broken. If you've never done that, today tell Him, "Jesus I'm yours." Get to our website where you can be sure you belong to Him. It's ANewStory.com.

Those hand-me-downs are often ignored and excused, because they've become such a part of us. But they're wrong, they're destructive, and they're beatable. Because of the precious blood of Christ you can face the monster of family sin and say, "Enough! It stops here!"