2 Samuel 17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: JESUS PRAYS FOR YOU - August 31, 2022
Have you ever had anyone stand up for you? The answer is yes. Jesus stands at this very moment, offering intercession on your behalf. Jesus says to you what he said to the Apostle Peter. Knowing the apostle was about to be severely tested by Satan, Jesus assured him, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail” (Luke 22:32 NKJV).
Jesus promises to pray and stand up for you. When we forget to pray, he remembers to pray. When we are full of doubt, he is full of faith. Where we are unworthy to be heard, he is ever worthy to be heard. We’d prefer to have every question answered, but Jesus has, instead, chosen to tell us this much: “I will pray you through the storm.” Are the prayers of Jesus answered? Of course they are! And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable.

2 Samuel 17
Next Ahithophel advised Absalom, “Let me handpick twelve thousand men and go after David tonight. I’ll come on him when he’s bone tired and take him by complete surprise. The whole army will run off and I’ll kill only David. Then I’ll bring the army back to you—a bride brought back to her husband! You’re only after one man, after all. Then everyone will be together in peace!”
4 Absalom thought it was an excellent strategy, and all the elders of Israel agreed.
5 But then Absalom said, “Call in Hushai the Arkite—let’s hear what he has to say.”
6 So Hushai came and Absalom put it to him, “This is what Ahithophel advised. Should we do it? What do you say?”
7-10 Hushai said, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given in this instance is not good. You know your father and his men, brave and bitterly angry—like a bear robbed of her cubs. And your father is an experienced fighter; you can be sure he won’t be caught napping at a time like this. Even while we’re talking, he’s probably holed up in some cave or other. If he jumps your men from ambush, word will soon get back, ‘A slaughter of Absalom’s army!’ Even if your men are valiant with hearts of lions, they’ll fall apart at such news, for everyone in Israel knows the kind of fighting stuff your father’s made of, and also the men with him.
11-13 “Here’s what I’d advise: Muster the whole country, from Dan to Beersheba, an army like the sand of the sea, and you personally lead them. We’ll smoke him out wherever he is, fall on him like dew falls on the earth, and, believe me, there won’t be a single survivor. If he hides out in a city, then the whole army will bring ropes to that city and pull it down and into a gully—not so much as a pebble left of it!”
14 Absalom and all his company agreed that the counsel of Hushai the Arkite was better than the counsel of Ahithophel. (God had determined to discredit the counsel of Ahithophel so as to bring ruin on Absalom.)
15-16 Then Hushai told the priests Zadok and Abiathar, “Ahithophel advised Absalom and the elders of Israel thus and thus, and I advised them thus and thus. Now send this message as quickly as possible to David: ‘Don’t spend the night on this side of the river; cross immediately or the king and everyone with him will be swallowed up alive.’”
17-20 Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting around at En Rogel. A servant girl would come and give them messages and then they would go and tell King David, for it wasn’t safe to be seen coming into the city. But a soldier spotted them and told Absalom, so the two of them got out of there fast and went to a man’s house in Bahurim. He had a well in his yard and they climbed into it. The wife took a rug and covered the well, then spread grain on it so no one would notice anything out of the ordinary. Shortly, Absalom’s servants came to the woman’s house and asked her, “Have you seen Ahimaaz and Jonathan?”
The woman said, “They were headed toward the river.”
They looked but didn’t find them, and then went back to Jerusalem.
21 When the coast was clear, Ahimaaz and Jonathan climbed out of the well and went on to make their report to King David, “Get up and cross the river quickly; Ahithophel has given counsel against you!”
22 David and his whole army were soon up and moving and crossed the Jordan. As morning broke there was not a single person who had not made it across the Jordan.
23 When Ahithophel realized that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and left for his hometown. After making out his will and putting his house in order, he hanged himself and died. He was buried in the family tomb.
24-26 About the time David arrived at Mahanaim, Absalom crossed the Jordan, and the whole army of Israel with him. Absalom had made Amasa head of the army, replacing Joab. (Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra, an Ishmaelite who had married Abigail, daughter of Nahash and sister of Zeruiah, the mother of Joab.) Israel and Absalom set camp in Gilead.
27-29 When David arrived at Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Ammonite Rabbah, and Makir son of Ammiel from Lo Debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim brought beds and blankets, bowls and jugs filled with wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans and lentils, honey, and curds and cheese from the flocks and herds. They presented all this to David and his army to eat, “because,” they said, “the army must be starved and exhausted and thirsty out in this wilderness.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Today's Scripture
Ecclesiastes 1:12–18
I’ve Seen It All
12–14  Call me “the Quester.” I’ve been king over Israel in Jerusalem. I looked most carefully into everything, searched out all that is done on this earth. And let me tell you, there’s not much to write home about. God hasn’t made it easy for us. I’ve seen it all and it’s nothing but smoke—smoke, and spitting into the wind.
15  Life’s a corkscrew that can’t be straightened,
A minus that won’t add up.
16–17  I said to myself, “I know more and I’m wiser than anyone before me in Jerusalem. I’ve stockpiled wisdom and knowledge.” What I’ve finally concluded is that so-called wisdom and knowledge are mindless and witless—nothing but spitting into the wind.
18  Much learning earns you much trouble.
The more you know, the more you hurt.
Insight
The book of Ecclesiastes is as strange as Proverbs is familiar. Author Ray Pritchard notes that “the ratio of regular readers of the Proverbs versus Ecclesiastes is probably 1000:1.” Though less popular, the significance of the book must not be missed. Ecclesiastes reads like somebody’s journal entries as the author (believed by many to have been Solomon), records his search for fulfillment, the results of his search, and some recommendations. The thesis statement of the book is given in verse 2: “Meaningless! Meaningless! . . . Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” How does one hold in tension the reality that our worldly existence is a gift from a loving God? While the point is highlighted over and over in the book that “all is vanity” (nkjv)—the fact that such a fragile life is best lived in the “fear of God” is also emphasized (see 12:13–14).
By: Arthur Jackson
When Knowledge Hurts
For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

Ecclesiastes 1:18
Zach Elder and his friends pulled up to shore after a twenty-five-day rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. The man who came to retrieve their rafts told them about the COVID-19 virus. They thought he was joking. But as they left the canyon their phones pinged with their parents’ urgent messages. Zach and his friends were stunned. They wished they could return to the river and escape what they now knew.
In a fallen world, knowledge often brings pain. The wise Teacher of Ecclesiastes observed, “With much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief” (1:18). Who hasn’t envied a child’s blissful ignorance? She doesn’t yet know about racism, violence, and cancer. Weren’t we happier before we grew up and discerned our own weaknesses and vices? Before we learned our family’s secrets—why our uncle drinks heavily or what caused our parents’ divorce?
The pain from knowledge can’t be wished away. Once we know, it’s no use pretending we don’t. But there’s a higher knowledge that empowers us to endure, even thrive. Jesus is the Word of God, the light that shines in our darkness (John 1:1–5). He “has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Your pain is your reason to run to Jesus. He knows you and cares for you.
By:  Mike Wittmer
Reflect & Pray
What’s something you wished you didn’t know? Tell Jesus about it. Then leave it with Him. Whenever it troubles you, take it to Jesus again.
Jesus, I don’t enjoy pain, but if it drives me to You, it’s worth it.
For further study, read Why? Seeing God in Our Pain.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, August 31, 2022

“My Joy…Your Joy”
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. —John 15:11
What was the joy that Jesus had? Joy should not be confused with happiness. In fact, it is an insult to Jesus Christ to use the word happiness in connection with Him. The joy of Jesus was His absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice to His Father— the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do— “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…” (Hebrews 12:2). “I delight to do Your will, O my God…” (Psalm 40:8). Jesus prayed that our joy might continue fulfilling itself until it becomes the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?
Living a full and overflowing life does not rest in bodily health, in circumstances, nor even in seeing God’s work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the same fellowship and oneness with Him that Jesus Himself enjoyed. But the first thing that will hinder this joy is the subtle irritability caused by giving too much thought to our circumstances. Jesus said, “…the cares of this world,…choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4:19). And before we even realize what has happened, we are caught up in our cares. All that God has done for us is merely the threshold— He wants us to come to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim who Jesus is.
Have the right relationship with God, finding your joy there, and out of you “will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). Be a fountain through which Jesus can pour His “living water.” Stop being hypocritical and proud, aware only of yourself, and live “your life…hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). A person who has the right relationship with God lives a life as natural as breathing wherever he goes. The lives that have been the greatest blessing to you are the lives of those people who themselves were unaware of having been a blessing.
    
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
To those who have had no agony Jesus says, “I have nothing for you; stand on your own feet, square your own shoulders. I have come for the man who knows he has a bigger handful than he can cope with, who knows there are forces he cannot touch; I will do everything for him if he will let Me. Only let a man grant he needs it, and I will do it for him.” The Shadow of an Agony, 1166 R
Bible in a Year: Psalms 132-134; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
DOING SOMETHING ETERNAL WITH WHAT CANNOT LAST - #9298
Our friend, Mary Ann, was just driving down the road and her precocious five-year-old piped up from the back seat. It was one of those moments. He said, "Mommy, didn't you say that Jesus was building a beautiful home for us in heaven?" She assured him that's exactly what Jesus is doing. "Well, Mommy, we've got our house here, right? And then we've got the mountain house, right? That seems like too many houses. Shouldn't we give one of them away?" I'm not sure how you answer a question like that.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Doing Something Eternal With What Cannot Last."
That's the problem Jesus has with many of us. He's entrusted some of His assets to us. Everything we have is from Him of course. He expects that we'll be investing His assets in the interests of His kingdom. Unfortunately, His assets are frozen, and we froze them. Some of us have most of Christ's resources all tied up in our own kingdom. It's that kind of thing that caused God to ask in Malachi 3:8, "Will a man rob God?" Well, unfortunately, yes.
We're living in a turbulent, unpredictable, maybe even apocalyptic world. It's time to take the kind of inventory that five-year-old boy was suggesting, and see if we are hanging onto anything that Jesus wants to use in the work He died for.
The economics of Jesus are pretty much summed up in Matthew 6:19-21, our word for today from the Word of God. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal." In other words, what the world calls "security" is all so "loseable." Then Jesus says, "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." In other words, what you give is all you'll really be able to keep. Then Jesus' sobering bottom line: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." He didn't say your treasure will go where your heart is. He said your heart will go where your treasure is.
The great missionary leader, Hudson Taylor, really convicted me with his reflections on Jesus' coming back. Listen to what he said: "The effect of this blessed hope was a thoroughly practical one. It led me to look carefully through my little library to see if there were any books there that were not needed or likely to be of no further service, and to examine my small wardrobe to be quite sure that it contained nothing that I should be sorry to give an account of should the Master come at once. I have never gone through my house, from basement to attic, with this object in view, without receiving a great accession of spiritual joy and blessing."
"I believe," Hudson Taylor said, "we are all in danger of accumulating...things which would be useful to others, while not needed by ourselves and the retention of which entails loss of blessing. If the whole resources of the Church of God," he said, "were well utilized, how much more might be accomplished! How many poor might be fed and naked clothed, and to how many of those yet unreached the Gospel might be carried."
You know, I think it's time for all of us to take a walk through our stuff and through our bank accounts and look at it all through heaven's eyes. He gave it to us to give away, and something's very wrong when His work has such deficits while some of us have surpluses.
There's nothing more exciting than releasing what you have to help finish the work that Jesus came to do. There's nothing more unsettling than to imagine Jesus returning, looking at all you have, and asking this question, "What are you doing sitting on all of that?"

2 Samuel 16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: SO HEAVENLY, SO HUMAN - August 30, 2022
Jesus was undiluted deity. No wonder no one argued when he declared, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). He has authority over everything, and he has it forever. Yet in spite of this lofty position, Jesus was willing, for a time, to forgo the privileges of divinity and enter humanity.
Are you troubled in spirit? He was too (John 12:27). Are you so anxious you could die? He was too (Matthew 26:38). Are you overwhelmed with grief? He was too (John 11:35). So human he could touch people, so mighty he could heal people. So heavenly he spoke with authority, so human he could blend in unnoticed for thirty years. So mighty he could change history and be unforgotten for two thousand years. Because Jesus was human, he understands you.
And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!

2 Samuel 16
Shortly after David passed the crest of the hill, Mephibosheth’s steward Ziba met him with a string of pack animals, saddled and loaded with a hundred loaves of bread, a hundred raisin cakes, a hundred baskets of fresh fruit, and a skin of wine.
2 The king said to Ziba, “What’s all this?”
“The donkeys,” said Ziba, “are for the king’s household to ride, the bread and fruit are for the servants to eat, and the wine is for drinking, especially for those overcome by fatigue in the wilderness.”
3 The king said, “And where is your master’s grandson?”
“He stayed in Jerusalem,” said Ziba. “He said, ‘This is the day Israel is going to restore my grandfather’s kingdom to me.’”
4 “Everything that belonged to Mephibosheth,” said the king, “is now yours.”
Ziba said, “How can I ever thank you? I’ll be forever in your debt, my master and king; may you always look on me with such kindness!”
5-8 When the king got to Bahurim, a man appeared who had connections with Saul’s family. His name was Shimei son of Gera. As he followed along he shouted insults and threw rocks right and left at David and his company, servants and soldiers alike. To the accompaniment of curses he shouted, “Get lost, get lost, you butcher, you hellhound! God has paid you back for all your dirty work in the family of Saul and for stealing his kingdom. God has given the kingdom to your son Absalom. Look at you now—ruined! And good riddance, you pathetic old man!”
9 Abishai son of Zeruiah said, “This mangy dog can’t insult my master the king this way—let me go over and cut off his head!”
10 But the king said, “Why are you sons of Zeruiah always interfering and getting in the way? If he’s cursing, it’s because God told him, ‘Curse David.’ So who dares raise questions?”
11-12 “Besides,” continued David to Abishai and the rest of his servants, “my own son, my flesh and bone, is right now trying to kill me; compared to that this Benjaminite is small potatoes. Don’t bother with him; let him curse; he’s preaching God’s word to me. And who knows, maybe God will see the trouble I’m in today and exchange the curses for something good.”
13 David and his men went on down the road, while Shimei followed along on the ridge of the hill alongside, cursing, throwing stones down on them, and kicking up dirt.
14 By the time they reached the Jordan River, David and all the men of the company were exhausted. There they rested and were revived.
15 By this time Absalom and all his men were in Jerusalem.
And Ahithophel was with them.
16 Soon after, Hushai the Arkite, David’s friend, came and greeted Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”
17 Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this the way you show devotion to your good friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend David?”
18-19 “Because,” said Hushai, “I want to be with the person that God and this people and all Israel have chosen. And I want to stay with him. Besides, who is there to serve other than the son? Just as I served your father, I’m now ready to serve you.”
20 Then Absalom spoke to Ahithophel, “Are you ready to give counsel? What do we do next?”
21-22 Ahithophel told Absalom, “Go and sleep with your father’s concubines, the ones he left to tend to the palace. Everyone will hear that you have openly disgraced your father, and the morale of everyone on your side will be strengthened.” So Absalom pitched a tent up on the roof in public view, and went in and slept with his father’s concubines.
23 The counsel that Ahithophel gave in those days was treated as if God himself had spoken. That was the reputation of Ahithophel’s counsel to David; it was the same with Absalom.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Today's Scripture Matthew 5:13–16
Salt and Light
13  “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.
14–16  “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
Insight
Ponder for a moment the connection between being the salt and light in Matthew 5:13–16 and the Beatitudes in the previous section (vv. 3–12). In the Beatitudes, Jesus lists many of the characteristics that describe people who’ll benefit under the kingdom of heaven—the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, and so on. Immediately following these descriptions, Jesus speaks the words of today’s passage. So who is the salt of the earth and the light of the world? Taking these two sections together, we see that those who are salt and light are characterized by the attributes listed in the Beatitudes. Our good deeds—humility, meekness, showing mercy, righteousness, having a pure heart, peacemaking—are to be on display to those watching (vv. 3–10). These are the actions that point people to our good Father in heaven.
By: J.R. Hudberg
Leave the Light On
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Matthew 5:14
A hotel chain’s commercial featured one little building standing amidst a dark night. Nothing else was around. The only light in the scene came from a small lamp near the door on the porch of the building. The bulb cast enough illumination for a visitor to walk up the steps and enter the building. The commercial ended with the phrase, “We’ll leave the light on for you.”
 A porch light is akin to a welcome sign, reminding weary travelers that there’s a comfortable place still open where they can stop and rest. The light invites those passing by to come on in and escape from the dark, weary journey.
Jesus says the lives of those who believe in Him should resemble that of a welcoming light. He told His followers, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). As believers, we’re to illuminate a dark world.
As He directs and empowers us, “[others] may see [our] good deeds and glorify [our] Father in heaven” (v. 16). And as we leave our lights on, they will feel welcomed to come to us to learn more about the one true Light of the World—Jesus (John 8:12).  In a weary and dark world, His light always remains on.
Have you left your light on? As Jesus shines through you today, others may see and begin radiating His light too.
By:  Katara Patton

Reflect & Pray
In what ways can you shine your light for Jesus today? What can prevent you from shining for Him?
Jesus, help me to shine brightly so that others may be drawn to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Usefulness or Relationship?
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. —Luke 10:20
Jesus Christ is saying here, “Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.” The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you do not have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour “rivers of living water” through you (John 7:38). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7).
Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person’s life is that person’s relationship with God— something of great value to His Father. Jesus is “bringing many sons to glory…” (Hebrews 2:10).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence.  Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
Bible in a Year: Psalms 129-131; 1 Corinthians 11:1-16

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
THAT MAGNIFICENT MAGNET - #9297
Some kids aren't even sure what their school bus driver looks like. They're still asleep when he picks them up in the morning. But every child who's ridden in that yellow "limo" knows that the "chauffeurs" come in all kinds of flavors.
You've got the kind bus driver who greets everyone by name, the grumpy ones who seem to want to be somewhere else, the wisecrackers, the happy road warriors, and then there was Chuck Poland, who really loved his Midland City, Alabama passengers - to death.
But when a man with a gun boarded his bus and demanded to take some children with him, Chuck Poland stopped him. One student reported that the intruder kept saying, "I'll kill y'all." No children died, and all but one got out safely. Chuck Poland didn't however. He died there with four bullets bringing him down. As America prayed for the safe return of the one child being held hostage, the story of one caring man's heroism touched us all.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "That Magnificent Magnet."
Back at Super Bowl time, which preceded this incident, there had been a lot of talk of "heroes" in the game. But the real hero was a man who drove a school bus that week. His daughter said that he always considered his young passengers as "his kids." Yes, he did. He put himself between them and the danger.
Honestly, I couldn't watch that story back then without two things happening. My heart was moved, and I thought about Jesus. So did people at the man's funeral. One fellow bus driver said, "What Chuck did was the same thing Jesus Christ did. He laid down his life to defend those school children." Those words are right out of the Bible, and they're our word for today from the Word of God, 1 John 4:16 - "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us."
What gets me here is those words "laid down." Jesus actually said, "I lay down My life; no one takes it from Me" (John 10:17-18). How could anyone take the life of the all-powerful Son of God? He made the tree He died on. He created the men who nailed Him there. He let them beat His back bloody. He let them jam the thorns into His scalp. He let them drive spikes through His hands and feet.
But more than any Hollywood portrayal of His crucifixion could ever show, He endured a soul torment no one ever has, because He had poured out on Him all the hell of all the sin of all mankind. From His shredded soul, He cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?"
And some of those sins He died to pay for were mine. Some of them were yours. Nobody ever loved me - nobody ever could love me - like that. The burden of my sin was forever lifted the day I said, "Jesus, I'm Yours." It was said of that Alabama bus driver, "You died knowing you kept everyone safe." I think that's the word I feel - safe. Because Jesus stood between me and the "bullets" of the judgment I deserved for my sin. Jesus died. I'm safe. I'm speechless. It's no wonder that the only thing God's going to want to know when you stand before Him is, "What did you do with My Son?"
The only life-saving choice is to put all your trust, pin all your hopes on the Man who died for your sins so you do not have to. If you've never done that, I invite you right where you are to say, "Jesus, I'm yours." You might be ready to receive the pardon and the life that Jesus died to give you.
You can find out how to do that. Just go to our website, and I hope you'll go there today. It's ANewStory.com. I pray you'll do that, because it's time to get this settled and go to sleep tonight knowing you are forgiven.

John 4:27-54 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THERE IS MERCY AND GRACE - August 29, 2022
You and I have stumbled in life. We’ve done our best, only to trip and fall. And the distance between where we are and where we want to be is impassable. So where do we turn? I suggest we look to one of God’s sweetest promises: “For our high priest [Jesus] is able to understand our weaknesses. He was tempted in every way that we are, but he did not sin. Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before God’s throne where there is grace. There we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it” (Hebrews 4:15-16 NCV).
When we stumble we aren’t abandoned. The stunning idea is simply this: God, for a time, became one of us. God became flesh in the form of Jesus Christ. And neither his humanity nor deity were compromised. Because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!

John 4:27-54
Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn’t believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.
28-30 The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people, “Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?” And they went out to see for themselves.
It’s Harvest Time
31 In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, “Rabbi, eat. Aren’t you going to eat?”
32 He told them, “I have food to eat you know nothing about.”
33 The disciples were puzzled. “Who could have brought him food?”
34-35 Jesus said, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. As you look around right now, wouldn’t you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time!
36-38 “The Harvester isn’t waiting. He’s taking his pay, gathering in this grain that’s ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. That’s the truth of the saying, ‘This one sows, that one harvests.’ I sent you to harvest a field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others.”
39-42 Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman’s witness: “He knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!” They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they heard what he had to say. They said to the woman, “We’re no longer taking this on your say-so. We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!”
* * *
43-45 After the two days he left for Galilee. Now, Jesus knew well from experience that a prophet is not respected in the place where he grew up. So when he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, but only because they were impressed with what he had done in Jerusalem during the Passover Feast, not that they really had a clue about who he was or what he was up to.
46-48 Now he was back in Cana of Galilee, the place where he made the water into wine. Meanwhile in Capernaum, there was a certain official from the king’s court whose son was sick. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked that he come down and heal his son, who was on the brink of death. Jesus put him off: “Unless you people are dazzled by a miracle, you refuse to believe.”
49 But the court official wouldn’t be put off. “Come down! It’s life or death for my son.”
50-51 Jesus simply replied, “Go home. Your son lives.”
The man believed the bare word Jesus spoke and headed home. On his way back, his servants intercepted him and announced, “Your son lives!”
52-53 He asked them what time he began to get better. They said, “The fever broke yesterday afternoon at one o’clock.” The father knew that that was the very moment Jesus had said, “Your son lives.”
53-54 That settled it. Not only he but his entire household believed. This was now the second sign Jesus gave after having come from Judea into Galilee.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 29, 2022
Today's Scripture
Mark 4:13–20
He continued, “Do you see how this story works? All my stories work this way.
14–15  “The farmer plants the Word. Some people are like the seed that falls on the hardened soil of the road. No sooner do they hear the Word than Satan snatches away what has been planted in them.
16–17  “And some are like the seed that lands in the gravel. When they first hear the Word, they respond with great enthusiasm. But there is such shallow soil of character that when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
18–19  “The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.
20  “But the seed planted in the good earth represents those who hear the Word, embrace it, and produce a harvest beyond their wildest dreams.”
Insight
The New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (the Synoptic Gospels) record from thirty-eight to forty-six distinct parables of Jesus. The majority appear in Luke, but many are repeated in the other gospels. Why did Jesus often speak in parables? He explains to His disciples: “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand’ ” (Matthew 13:11–13). He said this to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy (see Isaiah 6:9–10). The truths of the Bible can only be understood by the Spirit. The apostle Paul later echoed this truth in 1 Corinthians 2:7–14.
By: Alyson Kieda
Seeds of Time
Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop.

Mark 4:20
In 1879, people watching William Beal would likely think he was loony. They’d see the professor of botany filling twenty bottles with various seeds, then burying them in deep soil. What they didn’t know was that Beal was conducting a seed viability experiment that would span centuries. Every twenty years a bottle would be dug up to plant its seeds and see which seeds would germinate.
Jesus talked a lot about seed planting, often likening the sowing of seed to the spreading of “the word” (Mark 4:15). He taught that some seeds are snatched by Satan, others have no foundation and don’t take root, and yet others are hampered by the life around them and are choked out (vv. 15–19). As we spread the good news, it’s not up to us which seeds will survive. Our job is simply to sow the gospel—to tell others about Jesus: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (16:15 esv).
In 2021, another of Beal’s bottles was dug up. The seeds were planted by researchers and some sprouted, having survived more than 142 years. As God works through us and we share our faith with others, we never know if the word we share will take root or when. But we’re to be encouraged that our sowing of the good news might, even after many years, be received by someone who will “accept it, and produce a crop” (4:20).
Reflect & Pray
Consider an example of how you shared the good news with someone. How did that person respond? How are you praying for that person today?
Dear God, please give me courage to share Jesus with friends and colleagues.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 29, 2022
The Unsurpassed Intimacy of Tested Faith
Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" —John 11:40
Every time you venture out in your life of faith, you will find something in your circumstances that, from a commonsense standpoint, will flatly contradict your faith. But common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense. In fact, they are as different as the natural life and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture out with courage on the words of Jesus Christ, while the realities of your commonsense life continue to shout, “It’s all a lie”? When you are on the mountaintop, it’s easy to say, “Oh yes, I believe God can do it,” but you have to come down from the mountain to the demon-possessed valley and face the realities that scoff at your Mount-of-Transfiguration belief (see Luke 9:28-42). Every time my theology becomes clear to my own mind, I encounter something that contradicts it. As soon as I say, “I believe ‘God shall supply all [my] need,’ ” the testing of my faith begins (Philippians 4:19). When my strength runs dry and my vision is blinded, will I endure this trial of my faith victoriously or will I turn back in defeat?
Faith must be tested, because it can only become your intimate possession through conflict. What is challenging your faith right now? The test will either prove your faith right, or it will kill it. Jesus said, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” Matthew 11:6). The ultimate thing is confidence in Jesus. “We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end…” (Hebrews 3:14). Believe steadfastly on Him and everything that challenges you will strengthen your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith up to the point of our physical death, which is the last great test. Faith is absolute trust in God— trust that could never imagine that He would forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5-6).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I learning how to use my Bible? The way to become complete for the Master’s service is to be well soaked in the Bible; some of us only exploit certain passages. Our Lord wants to give us continuous instruction out of His word; continuous instruction turns hearers into disciples.  Approved Unto God, 11 L
Bible in a Year: Psalms 126-128; 1 Corinthians 10:19-33

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 29, 2022
STANDING AGAINST THE TIDE - #9296
For many years, our family went to Ocean City, New Jersey, for vacations and conferences. There's this three-mile boardwalk, great Atlantic beaches, and family atmosphere. Those are all things that we can all get excited about, but something happened over those years at the beach. The beach shrank. Not all at once; it was a little at a time. It just got eroded. Eventually, the city fathers had a major challenge on their hands. They had to rebuild their bread-and-butter; those beaches that were slowly disappearing!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Standing Against the Tide."
Some great places have been really damaged by the slow process of erosion. So have some great people. That's why you've got to make the choices that will stop the erosion in your life.
And we've all got a powerful example for that in our word for today from the Word of God in the Book of Daniel 1, beginning with verse 5. Daniel is one of a handful of promising Jewish young men who have been taken to Babylon after King Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of their land. The king includes them with some of his own Babylonian "first round draft picks" in this leadership development program that will ultimately propel them to greatness in the kingdom.
Everything was fine until the king, "assigned a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table." This was a special like "training table diet" designed to make them into the best physical specimens possible. But that kind of food was totally out of bounds for Jews back then, as defined by the laws of their God. Tough choice here. You're on your way to greatness, and right here at the beginning you're being asked to compromise a little. At stake could be your whole future - maybe even your life if you defied the most powerful man in the world.
But the Bible says, "Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel." This official was afraid he might be executed if Daniel and his Jewish comrades ended up looking worse than the other guys. So Daniel persuaded him to allow a ten-day test of an alternate diet of vegetables and water. Long story short, Daniel and company, the Bible says, "looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food" and "the king found none equal to Daniel" and his friends.
God may be asking you to risk everything right now on what looks like very expensive faithfulness. It could really cost you to do what's right, to hold to your convictions, to refuse to compromise your integrity or your purity. You're risking everything on the faithfulness of your God. It's tempting to give in to get ahead, to get that need met, or to get out of that jam. But with your compromise goes a huge piece of you and the blessing of Almighty God. Resist that eroding tide.
And remember that God's favor is for God's faithful. You may, like Daniel, find yourself in different environments, pressured by different expectations, but you've got to be sure it's always the same you! You have to "resolve not to defile yourself" to build an uncompromising wall against even the first step that would take you outside the ways of your God.
In the words of Psalm 4:5, "Offer right sacrifices, and trust in the Lord." Do what's right - even if it's a sacrifice - and trust the Lord for what happens after that. His greatest rewards are reserved for those who will not betray Him, even for another king. Erosion will take what you cannot afford to lose. Stand against that temptation, stand against the tide, and let God give you what you could never have any other way.

Psalm 69, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A Pat on the Back
How often do you see people more concerned about getting a job done right than they are about saving their necks? Too seldom, right?  But when we do-when we see a gutsy human taking a few risks-ah, now that's a person worthy of a pat on the back. So…
Here's to the woman whose husband left her with a nest of kids to raise and bills to pay, but who somehow tells me every Sunday that God has never been closer.
Here's to the single father of two girls who learned to braid their hair.
Here's to the girl who was told to abort the baby but chose to keep the baby.
Here's to the doctor who treats more than half of his patients for free.
Here's to all of you reckless lovers of life and God.
So what if you forgot about pleasing the crowd. Most of us aren't even in your league.
From In the Eye of the Storm

Psalm 69
God, God, save me!
I’m in over my head,
2 Quicksand under me, swamp water over me;
I’m going down for the third time.
3 I’m hoarse from calling for help,
Bleary-eyed from searching the sky for God.
4 I’ve got more enemies than hairs on my head;
Liars and cheats are out to knife me in the back.
What I never stole
Must I now give back?
5 God, you know every sin I’ve committed;
My life’s a wide-open book before you.
6 Don’t let those who look to you in hope
Be discouraged by what happens to me,
Dear Lord! God of the armies!
Don’t let those out looking for you
Come to a dead end by following me—
Please, dear God of Israel!
7 Because of you I look like an idiot,
I walk around ashamed to show my face.
8 My brothers shun me like a bum off the street;
My family treats me like an unwanted guest.
9 I love you more than I can say.
Because I’m madly in love with you,
They blame me for everything they dislike about you.
10 When I poured myself out in prayer and fasting,
All it got me was more contempt.
11 When I put on a sad face,
They treated me like a clown.
12 Now drunks and gluttons
Make up drinking songs about me.
13 And me? I pray.
God, it’s time for a break!
God, answer in love!
Answer with your sure salvation!
14 Rescue me from the swamp,
Don’t let me go under for good,
Pull me out of the clutch of the enemy;
This whirlpool is sucking me down.
15 Don’t let the swamp be my grave, the Black Hole
Swallow me, its jaws clenched around me.
16 Now answer me, God, because you love me;
Let me see your great mercy full-face.
17 Don’t look the other way; your servant can’t take it.
I’m in trouble. Answer right now!
18 Come close, God; get me out of here.
Rescue me from this deathtrap.
19 You know how they kick me around—
Pin on me the donkey’s ears, the dunce’s cap.
20 I’m broken by their taunts,
Flat on my face, reduced to a nothing.
I looked in vain for one friendly face. Not one.
I couldn’t find one shoulder to cry on.
21 They put poison in my soup,
Vinegar in my drink.
22 Let their supper be bait in a trap that snaps shut;
May their best friends be trappers who’ll skin them alive.
23 Make them become blind as bats,
Give them the shakes from morning to night.
24 Let them know what you think of them,
Blast them with your red-hot anger.
25 Burn down their houses,
Leave them desolate with nobody at home.
26 They gossiped about the one you disciplined,
Made up stories about anyone wounded by God.
27 Pile on the guilt,
Don’t let them off the hook.
28 Strike their names from the list of the living;
No rock-carved honor for them among the righteous.
29 I’m hurt and in pain;
Give me space for healing, and mountain air.
30 Let me shout God’s name with a praising song,
Let me tell his greatness in a prayer of thanks.
31 For God, this is better than oxen on the altar,
Far better than blue-ribbon bulls.
32 The poor in spirit see and are glad—
Oh, you God-seekers, take heart!
33 For God listens to the poor,
He doesn’t walk out on the wretched.
34 You heavens, praise him; praise him, earth;
Also ocean and all things that swim in it.
35 For God is out to help Zion,
Rebuilding the wrecked towns of Judah.
Guess who will live there—
The proud owners of the land?
36 No, the children of his servants will get it,
The lovers of his name will live in it.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, August 28, 2022
Today's Scripture
Ruth 1:11–19
But Naomi was firm: “Go back, my dear daughters. Why would you come with me? Do you suppose I still have sons in my womb who can become your future husbands? Go back, dear daughters—on your way, please! I’m too old to get a husband. Why, even if I said, ‘There’s still hope!’ and this very night got a man and had sons, can you imagine being satisfied to wait until they were grown? Would you wait that long to get married again? No, dear daughters; this is a bitter pill for me to swallow—more bitter for me than for you. God has dealt me a hard blow.”
14  Again they cried openly. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye; but Ruth embraced her and held on.
15  Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back home to live with her own people and gods; go with her.”
16–17  But Ruth said, “Don’t force me to leave you; don’t make me go home. Where you go, I go; and where you live, I’ll live. Your people are my people, your God is my god; where you die, I’ll die, and that’s where I’ll be buried, so help me God—not even death itself is going to come between us!”
18–19  When Naomi saw that Ruth had her heart set on going with her, she gave in. And so the two of them traveled on together to Bethlehem.
When they arrived in Bethlehem the whole town was soon buzzing: “Is this really our Naomi? And after all this time!”
Insight
Moab, to which Naomi and her family fled to escape the famine in Bethlehem (Ruth 1:1), was perpetually seen as Israel’s enemy. Yet, Moab was also a nation of distant relatives to the people of Israel. Whereas Israel traced their lineage to Abraham, the patriarch of Moab was Lot, Abraham’s nephew. Following the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Lot had taken up residence, Moab and Ben-Ammi (Ammon) were born to Lot following his sinful relations with his daughters (see Genesis 19:37–38). Both Moab and Ammon would become enemies of Israel and a source of no small struggle for God’s chosen people.
By: Bill Crowder
Love and Lean on God
Ruth clung to her.

Ruth 1:14
Zach was funny, smart, and well-liked. But he secretly struggled with depression. After he committed suicide at age fifteen, his mom, Lori, said of him, “It’s just hard to comprehend how someone that had so much going for him would come to that point. Zach . . . was not exempt from suicide.” There are moments in the quiet when Lori pours out her sorrow to God. She says that the deep sadness after suicide is “a whole different level of grief.” Yet she and her family have learned to lean on God and others for strength, and now they’re using their time to love others who are grappling with depression.
Lori’s motto has become “Love and lean.” This idea is also seen in the Old Testament story of Ruth. Naomi lost her husband and two sons—one who was married to Ruth (Ruth 1:3–5). Naomi, bitter and depressed, urged Ruth to return to her mother’s family where she could be cared for. Ruth, though also grieving, “clung” to her mother-in-law and committed to staying with her and caring for her (vv. 14–17). They returned to Bethlehem, Naomi’s homeland, where Ruth would be a foreigner. But they had each other to love and lean on, and God provided for them (2:11–12).
During our times of grief, God’s love remains steady. We always have Him to lean on as we also lean on and love others in His strength.
By:  Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
What does it mean for you to lean on God during your times of grief? Who may need your support right now?
Father, I’m grateful for Your faithful love and care for me. Use me to encourage others to trust You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, August 28, 2022
The Purpose of Prayer
…one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray…" —Luke 11:1
Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.
“Ask, and you will receive…” (John 16:24). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, “…unless you…become as little children…” (Matthew 18:3). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits’ end. When a person is at his wits’ end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems— the very things that have brought you to your wits’ end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.
To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Is He going to help Himself to your life, or are you taken up with your conception of what you are going to do? God is responsible for our lives, and the one great keynote is reckless reliance upon Him. Approved Unto God, 10 R
Bible in a Year: Psalms 123-125; 1 Corinthians 10:1-18

Psalm 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Love Covers a Multitude of Sins
If people love you at 6:00 a.m. one thing is sure. They love you! No makeup. No power tie. No status jewelry. No layers of images. Just unkempt honesty. Just you. "Love," wrote one forgiven soul, "covers over a multitude of sins."
Sounds like God's love. Hebrews 10:14 says, "He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." Note that the word is not improving. God doesn't improve; he perfects. He doesn't enhance; he completes. When it comes to our position before God, we are perfect. When he sees each of us, he sees one who has been made perfect through the One who is perfect-Jesus Christ. He sees perfection. Not perfection earned by us, mind you, but perfection paid by him.
Scripture says, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21 NCV).
From In the Eye of the Storm

Psalm 3
God! Look! Enemies past counting!
Enemies sprouting like mushrooms,
Mobs of them all around me, roaring their mockery:
“Hah! No help for him from God!”
3-4 But you, God, shield me on all sides;
You ground my feet, you lift my head high;
With all my might I shout up to God,
His answers thunder from the holy mountain.
5-6 I stretch myself out. I sleep.
Then I’m up again—rested, tall and steady,
Fearless before the enemy mobs
Coming at me from all sides.
7 Up, God! My God, help me!
Slap their faces,
First this cheek, then the other,
Your fist hard in their teeth!
8 Real help comes from God.
Your blessing clothes your people!

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Today's Scripture
James 4:13–17
Nothing but a Wisp of Fog
13–15  And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”
16–17  As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves. All such vaunting self-importance is evil. In fact, if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, that, for you, is evil.
Insight
Is it wrong to plan? Certainly not. Those who come away from James 4:13–17 thinking that good planning is a bad thing miss the point of the passage and ignore Scripture’s teaching elsewhere. Students of life know the value of having a plan. So did the writer in Proverbs 21:5: “Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you further behind” (the message). A good plan is a good thing. What James critiques and condemns, however, is the kind of planning that ignores life’s uncertainty and brevity (James 4:14) and God as the giver of life (v. 15). The book of James has been called the “Proverbs of the New Testament.” James 4:13–17 echoes Proverbs 27:1: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” and encourages us to “trust in the Lord with all [our] heart and lean not on [our] own understanding” (3:5).
By: Arthur Jackson
Plans and Providence
If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.

James 4:15
In 2000, an upstart company operating on a movie-rental-by-mail system offered to sell their company for $50 million to Blockbuster, the home movies and video game rentals king at that time. Netflix had roughly 300,000 subscribers, while Blockbuster had millions and millions of them. Blockbuster passed on the opportunity to purchase their little competitor. The result? Today Netflix has more than 180 million subscribers and is worth nearly $200 billion. As for Blockbuster, well . . . it went bust. None of us can predict the future.
We’re tempted to believe that we’re in control of our lives and that our plans for the future will succeed. But James says, “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (4:14). Life is brief, quick, and more fragile than we often realize. Planning is necessary, but the sin of presumption is in the assumption that we’re in control. That’s why James warns us not to “boast in [our] arrogant schemes,” for “all such boasting is evil” (v. 16).
The way to avoid this sinful practice is through grateful participation with God. Gratitude reminds us that He’s the source of every “good and perfect gift” (1:17). Then when we come to God, we ask Him not to simply bless our present and future plans but to help us join Him in what He’s doing. This is what it means to pray, “If it is the Lord’s will” (4:15).
Reflect & Pray
How are you tempted to be in control of your life? What will it mean for you to surrender to God and participate with Him?
Dear Jesus, I relinquish my plans to You. Help me to put my trust in You, because You never fail. 

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, August 27, 2022
Living Your Theology
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you… —John 12:35
Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:23). The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you. Continually bring the truth out into your real life, working it out into every area, or else even the light that you possess will itself prove to be a curse.
The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.
Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common everyday relationships. Our Lord said, “…unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). In other words, you must be more moral than the most moral person you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you working it out in the everyday issues of your life? Every detail of your life, whether physical, moral, or spiritual, is to be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ reveals, not an embarrassed God, not a confused God, not a God who stands apart from the problems, but One who stands in the thick of the whole thing with man.  Disciples Indeed, 388 L
Bible in a Year: Psalms 120-122; 1 Corinthians 9

2 Samuel 15, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A PRAYER OF REPENTANCE - August 26, 2022
I’m wondering if you’d be willing to join me in a prayer of repentance—repentance from arrogance. What have we done that God didn’t first do? What do we have that God didn’t first give us? Have any of us ever built anything that God could not destroy? Have we ever created any monument that the master of the stars can’t reduce to dust?
God asked this question through the prophet Isaiah. “‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing” (Isaiah 40:25-26).
Let’s humble ourselves before the hand of God. The Bible reminds us that those who walk in pride, God is able to humble. And we don’t want him to humble us, do we?

2 Samuel 15
As time went on, Absalom took to riding in a horse-drawn chariot, with fifty men running in front of him. Early each morning he would take up his post beside the road at the city gate. When anyone showed up with a case to bring to the king for a decision, Absalom would call him over and say, “Where do you hail from?”
And the answer would come, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.”
3-6 Then Absalom would say, “Look, you’ve got a strong case; but the king isn’t going to listen to you.” Then he’d say, “Why doesn’t someone make me a judge for this country? Anybody with a case could bring it to me and I’d settle things fair and square.” Whenever someone would treat him with special honor, he’d shrug it off and treat him like an equal, making him feel important. Absalom did this to everyone who came to do business with the king and stole the hearts of everyone in Israel.
7-8 After four years of this, Absalom spoke to the king, “Let me go to Hebron to pay a vow that I made to God. Your servant made a vow when I was living in Geshur in Aram saying, ‘If God will bring me back to Jerusalem, I’ll serve him with my life.’”
9 The king said, “Go with my blessing.” And he got up and set off for Hebron.
10-12 Then Absalom sent undercover agents to all the tribes of Israel with the message, “When you hear the blast of the ram’s horn trumpet, that’s your signal: Shout, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron!’” Two hundred men went with Absalom from Jerusalem. But they had been called together knowing nothing of the plot and made the trip innocently. While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he managed also to involve Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s advisor, calling him away from his hometown of Giloh. The conspiracy grew powerful and Absalom’s supporters multiplied.
13 Someone came to David with the report, “The whole country has taken up with Absalom!”
14 “Up and out of here!” called David to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem. “We’ve got to run for our lives or none of us will escape Absalom! Hurry, he’s about to pull the city down around our ears and slaughter us all!”
15 The king’s servants said, “Whatever our master, the king, says, we’ll do; we’re with you all the way!”
16-18 So the king and his entire household escaped on foot. The king left ten concubines behind to tend to the palace. And so they left, step by step by step, and then paused at the last house as the whole army passed by him—all the Kerethites, all the Pelethites, and the six hundred Gittites who had marched with him from Gath, went past.
19-20 The king called out to Ittai the Gittite, “What are you doing here? Go back with King Absalom. You’re a stranger here and freshly uprooted from your own country. You arrived only yesterday, and am I going to let you take your chances with us as I live on the road like a gypsy? Go back, and take your family with you. And God’s grace and truth go with you!”
21 But Ittai answered, “As God lives and my master the king lives, where my master is, that’s where I’ll be—whether it means life or death.”
22 “All right,” said David, “go ahead.” And they went on, Ittai the Gittite with all his men and all the children he had with him.
23-24 The whole country was weeping in loud lament as all the people passed by. As the king crossed the Brook Kidron, the army headed for the road to the wilderness. Zadok was also there, the Levites with him, carrying God’s Chest of the Covenant. They set the Chest of God down, Abiathar standing by, until all the people had evacuated the city.
25-26 Then the king ordered Zadok, “Take the Chest back to the city. If I get back in God’s good graces, he’ll bring me back and show me where the Chest has been set down. But if he says, ‘I’m not pleased with you’—well, he can then do with me whatever he pleases.”
27-30 The king directed Zadok the priest, “Here’s the plan: Return to the city peacefully, with Ahimaaz your son and Jonathan, Abiathar’s son, with you. I’ll wait at a spot in the wilderness across the river, until I get word from you telling us what’s up.” So Zadok and Abiathar took the Chest of God back to Jerusalem and placed it there, while David went up the Mount of Olives weeping, head covered but barefooted, and the whole army was with him, heads covered and weeping as they ascended.
31 David was told, “Ahithophel has joined the conspirators with Absalom.” He prayed, “Oh, God—turn Ahithophel’s counsel to foolishness.”
32-36 As David approached the top of the hill where God was worshiped, Hushai the Arkite, clothes ripped to shreds and dirt on his head, was there waiting for him. David said, “If you come with me, you’ll be just one more piece of luggage. Go back to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I’m ready to be your servant, O King; I used to be your father’s servant, now I’m your servant.’ Do that and you’ll be able to confuse Ahithophel’s counsel for me. The priests Zadok and Abiathar are already there; whatever information you pick up in the palace, tell them. Their two sons—Zadok’s son Ahimaaz and Abiathar’s son Jonathan—are there with them—anything you pick up can be sent to me by them.”
37 Hushai, David’s friend, arrived at the same time Absalom was entering Jerusalem.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, August 26, 2022
Today's Scripture
Philippians 4:4–7
  Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6–7  Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Insight
At this point in his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul begins a somewhat lengthy conclusion. Despite the admonishment he’s just given to the two quarreling church members, Euodia and Syntyche (Philippians 4:2), his tone remains warm and relational. The crux of the passage is this: “The Lord is near” (v. 5). The reason we can rejoice in any situation (v. 4), the reason we can “let [our] gentleness be evident to all,” the reason we can obey Paul’s exhortation not to “be anxious about anything” (v. 6) is because Jesus is near. Scholars debate whether this means His return is near or if Paul means He’s close to us. Either interpretation should have a similar effect for our understanding. He’s with us via the Holy Spirit, and He promises to return for us (John 14:3).
By: Tim Gustafson
Just Ask!
You do not have because you do not ask God.

James 4:2
The gleeful shouts arising from our basement came from my wife, Shirley. For hours she’d wrestled with a newsletter project, and she was ready to be done with it. In her anxiety and uncertainty about how to move forward, she prayed for God’s help. She also reached out to Facebook friends and soon the project was completed—a team effort.
While a newsletter project is a little thing in life, small (and not so small) things can bring about worry or anxiousness. Perhaps you’re a parent walking through the stages of childrearing for the first time; a student facing newfound academic challenges; a person grieving the loss of a loved one; or someone experiencing a home, work, or ministry challenge. Sometimes we’re needlessly on edge because we don’t ask God for help (James 4:2).
Paul pointed the followers of Jesus in Philippi and us to our first line of defense in times of need: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). When life gets complicated, we need reminders like the one from the hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus”:
Oh what peace we often forfeit,
oh what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry,
everything to God in prayer.
And perhaps in our asking God for help, He’ll lead us to ask people who can assist us.
By:  Arthur Jackson
Reflect & Pray
What situations challenge you that you can bring to God in prayer? Why do you hesitate to ask Him or others for help?
Dear God, forgive me for not bringing my burdens to You in prayer. Help me to reach out to others and ask for help too.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 26, 2022

Are You Ever Troubled?
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you… —John 14:27
There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always “spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “…My peace I give to you…”— a peace that comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment.
Are you severely troubled right now? Are you afraid and confused by the waves and the turbulence God sovereignly allows to enter your life? Have you left no stone of your faith unturned, yet still not found any well of peace, joy, or comfort? Does your life seem completely barren to you? Then look up and receive the quiet contentment of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting His peace is proof that you are right with God, because you are exhibiting the freedom to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. Allowing anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you either causes you to become troubled or gives you a false sense of security.
With regard to the problem that is pressing in on you right now, are you “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious blessing of peace exhibited in and through you. But if you only try to worry your way out of the problem, you destroy His effectiveness in you, and you deserve whatever you get. We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:27).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
Bible in a Year: Psalms 119:89-176; 1 Corinthians 8

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 26, 2022
IT STARTS AT A CROSS - #9295
I'm used to turning on the news and hearing about bullets or ballots or budgets. But the Bible? On newscast after newscast a while back, the Bible was one of the lead stories. I mean, actually "The Bible." It was the ten-hour History Channel mini-series. It stunned everybody with blockbuster ratings, especially among young viewers. There were epic moments from Noah's Ark to the parting of the Red Sea, and of course David decking Goliath.
But the last night is what so many people were talking about; particularly the one scene that literally they said "lit up" social networks like Twitter - the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. All over the cyber-universe, people said they were in tears watching Jesus die. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was like in so many conversations.
For those of us who belong to this Jesus, there's a message in all of this that could change eternities. That message could be summed up in four little words, "It's all about Jesus."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "It Starts at a Cross."
This heartfelt response to the portrayal of Jesus on the cross, I think it's a wakeup call - for those who don't know Him and for those who do. For those who don't, the choice that actually determines your destiny is what you do with what Jesus did on that cross for you. For those who do know Him, that cross and that miraculous resurrection is our message - unencumbered by anything else.
The famous preacher, Charles Spurgeon, called the cross of Jesus "that magnificent magnet." It really is. Over and over, I've seen that when you can get someone to that cross, their hearts are stolen away. So why do we Christians spend so much time on detours that distract from that destination? Like expounding on what we're against, or promoting our church, or arguing about politics or religion.
What that series "The Bible" did in its final episode was strip away 2,000 years of Christianity and bring us back to the heartbeat of God; His Son dying on a cross for us. In our word for today from the Word of God, 1 Corinthians 2:2 Paul said, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
Before there were churches, before there were "Christians," before there were creeds, there was a cross. That's the Good News that we have for our friend, our neighbor, our family member, our coworker. Not a church to go to. Not a religion to join. Not some belief to sign up for. Not an indictment of how they're living.
But a Savior, hanging on that cross, paying the awful price for all the junk of our life. It's not just how Jesus died that's so heart-rending. It's the reason He died. The Bible says, "He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped and we were healed! The Lord laid on Him the guilt and sins of us all" (Isaiah 53:5-6 - NLB).
It's not about Christians. It's not about Christianity. It's about the living Christ who loved you enough to die for you; a love that would pay any price not to lose you. That's the Good News we're commanded to share. No more. No less.
Jesus' repeated invitation was simply, "Follow Me." Not My followers, not My religion, not My rules. Just "follow Me." Jesus made it all about Jesus. We should, too. Bring people up Skull Hill with you. Stand them at the foot of that old rugged cross and whisper two words, "For you. This was for you."
Maybe you've never done that for yourself. You've never made personal what Jesus did on that cross for you. Would you let this be the day you get it done for yourself? It's at that moment when you make personal what Jesus did on the cross; that's what changes everything. It changes the rest of your life. It changes your eternity!
This is the time you should go to our website. If you're not sure you belong to Him, it will help you be sure - ANewStory.com. You can get this settled today, my friend, once and for all.

John 4:1-26 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily: STAND ON THE OFFER OF GRACE - August 25, 2022
“Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them” (Proverbs 26:12 NIV).
God hates pride. How do we explain God’s abhorrence of the haughty heart? Simple. God resists the proud because the proud resist God. Arrogance will not admit to sin. The heart of pride never confesses, never repents, never asks for forgiveness. Pride is the hidden reef that shipwrecks the soul.
Pride comes at a high price. Don’t pay it. Choose instead to stand on the offer of grace. You see, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5 NKJV). Isn’t it easy to see why? Humility is happy to do what pride will not. The humble heart is quick to acknowledge the need for God, eager to confess sin, willing to kneel before heaven’s mighty hand. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!

John 4:1-26
The Woman at the Well
 Jesus realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John performed (although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing). They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people. So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.
4-6 To get there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.
7-8 A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)
9 The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”
11-12 The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”
13-14 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”
15 The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”
16 He said, “Go call your husband and then come back.”
17-18 “I have no husband,” she said.
“That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough.”
19-20 “Oh, so you’re a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?”
21-23 “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.
23-24 “It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.”
25 The woman said, “I don’t know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story.”
26 “I am he,” said Jesus. “You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, August 25, 2022
Today's Scripture
Psalm 121
A Song of Ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From whence does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved,
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade
on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and for evermore.
Insight
As one of the Songs of Ascents (see the superscription), Psalm 121 was designated as a song of pilgrimage as the people traveled to Jerusalem for the three high feasts each year. Though there were more feasts, these three had been set aside for annual pilgrimage. Notice Deuteronomy 16:16 in Moses’ final instructions to Israel prior to his death: “Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed.” The Feast of Unleavened Bread was also known as Passover (Pesach) while the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot) was also known as Firstfruits or Pentecost. Both of these were spring feasts, while the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) was a fall feast that remembered the people’s time dwelling in tents in the wilderness.
By: Bill Crowder
When You Need Help
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:2
It was a Monday morning, but my friend Chia-ming wasn’t in the office. He was at home, cleaning the bathroom. A month unemployed, he thought, and no job leads. His firm had shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic and worries about the future filled Chia-ming with fear. I need to support my family, he thought. Where can I go for help?
In Psalm 121:1, the pilgrims to Jerusalem asked a similar question about where to find help. The journey to the Holy City on Mount Zion was long and potentially dangerous, with travelers enduring an arduous climb. The challenges they faced may seem like the difficult journeys we face in life today—trudging the path of illness, relationship problems, bereavement, stress at work or, as in the case of Chia-ming, financial difficulty and unemployment.
But we can take heart in the truth that the Maker of heaven and earth Himself helps us (v. 2). He watches over our lives (vv. 3, 5, 7–8) and He knows what we need. Shamar, the Hebrew word for “watches over,” means “to guard.” The Creator of the universe is our guardian. We’re in His safekeeping. “God took care of me and my family,” Chia-ming shared recently. “And at the right time, He provided a teaching job.”
As we trust and obey God, we can look ahead with hope, knowing we’re within the protective boundaries of His wisdom and love.
By:  Karen Huang
Reflect & Pray
What kind of help do you need from God today? How does knowing He’s the Maker of heaven and earth encourage you?
Father, thank You for being my source of help on my life’s journey.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, August 25, 2022
I have called you friends… —John 15:15
We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, “I’ll surrender if…!” Or we approach it by saying, “I suppose I have to devote my life to God.” We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.
But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.
Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God….” He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2).
Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional— for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.
“I have called you friends….” Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If there is only one strand of faith amongst all the corruption within us, God will take hold of that one strand.  Not Knowing Whither, 888 L
Bible in a Year: Psalms 119:1-88; 1 Corinthians 7:20-40

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, August 25, 2022

THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT A COLD SEASON - #9294
It was one of those winters when the bottom dropped out of the temperature in our area. I mean, folks there just aren't used to visits from North Pole weather. For a while, our favorite song was, "Freeze a Jolly Good Fellow." I was discussing this extended freeze with a friend who has lived in the area most of her life, and she actually helped me have a very positive outlook on the cold weather. She just said, "Well, just think - it's killing a lot of bugs!" Okay! Well, with all the ticks and the other pests we had the previous summer, I guess that was good news. So the next time I walked outside and felt a blast of that chilling cold, I said to myself, "Well, I'm turning blue, but the bugs are dying!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Good News About a Cold Season."
Most of us have lived long enough to see it happen - something good coming out of something that's difficult and unpleasant. If you're in a season of your life that's pretty cold right now, that may be an encouragement that would be good to remember. As you're feeling the chill of the moment, God's doing something that you're going to benefit from later on; something that could not happen without this time of bitter cold.
Just ask Joseph. The Book of Genesis tells us about a very long winter season in the life of this Old Testament hero. His brothers hated him because he was his father's favorite. They threw him in a pit and nearly let him die there. At the last minute, they changed their minds, lightened up a little, and settled for selling him into Egyptian slavery. Joseph got a great job in the house of a powerful man, and then lost it when he refused the advances of the boss's wife and she falsely accused him of assaulting her. Then, two long years in the king's prison as a result.
Ultimately, Joseph came to the attention of Pharaoh who eventually promoted him to second in command in the mighty Egyptian empire. That's when a famine drove Joseph's brothers to Egypt in search of food - food only the brother they had betrayed could give them. When they finally realize who he is and then experience his forgiveness and his mercy that they do not deserve, Joseph speaks these words in Genesis 50:20. It's our word for today from the Word of God. He says, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."
From the pit to the prison, Joseph was sustained by one thing he knew had not changed - God was working a bigger plan. If you belong to Jesus, then Joseph's God is your God, too. And He is a God who uses even the wickedness of man to accomplish great things. For Joseph, vengeful brothers, false accusations, terrible injustices. They became the tools that God used to take him to places and positions he never could have gone otherwise.
If it's cold right now, if it's dark right now, don't let discouragement win. Don't let bitterness or resentment or resignation ruin the greater plan God is working on. The question to ask in times like these isn't, "Why, God?" You may not have that answer till you get to heaven. The better question is, "How can You use this, God?" He really does, as the verse says, "work all things together for the good of those who love God" (Romans 8:28).
During this winter in your life, He wants to build in you qualities that will lead to future greatness. He wants to give you a closeness to Him that you've never had before and would never get any other way. And then, He wants to use this season to position you to make a greater difference with the rest of your life than you ever imagined.

2 Samuel 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE PROMISE OF PRAYER - August 24, 2022
You may find yourself in an impossible situation. Outnumbered and outmaneuvered. You want to quit. Could I implore you to memorize this promise and then ask God to bring it to mind? Write it where you’ll find it. Tattoo it, if not on your skin at least on your heart: “When a believing person prays, great things happen” (James 5:16 NCV).
If you’ve taken on the name of Christ, you have clout with the most powerful being in the universe. When you speak, God listens. Jesus said, “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action” (Matthew 18:19 MSG).
Prayer is just the first step. God has power you’ve never seen, strength you’ve never known, and he delights in answering prayer. And because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!

2 Samuel 14
Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king, deep down, still cared for Absalom. So he sent to Tekoa for a wise woman who lived there and instructed her, “Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in black and don’t comb your hair, so you’ll look like you’ve been grieving over a dead loved one for a long time. Then go to the king and tell him this .?.?. ” Joab then told her exactly what to say.
4 The woman of Tekoa went to the king, bowed deeply before him in homage, and said, “O King, help!”
5-7 He said, “How can I help?”
“I’m a widow,” she said. “My husband is dead. I had two sons. The two of them got into a fight out in the field and there was no one around to step between them. The one struck the other and killed him. Then the whole family ganged up against me and demanded, ‘Hand over this murderer so we can kill him for the life of the brother he murdered!’ They want to wipe out the heir and snuff out the one spark of life left to me. And then there would be nothing left of my husband—not so much as a name—on the face of the earth.
15-17 “So now I’ve dared come to the king, my master, about all this. They’re making my life miserable, and I’m afraid. I said to myself, ‘I’ll go to the king. Maybe he’ll do something! When the king hears what’s going on, he’ll step in and rescue me from the abuse of the man who would get rid of me and my son and God’s inheritance—the works!’ As your handmaid, I decided ahead of time, ‘The word of my master, the king, will be the last word in this, for my master is like an angel of God in discerning good and evil.’ God be with you!”
9 “I’ll take all responsibility for what happens,” the woman of Tekoa said. “I don’t want to compromise the king and his reputation.”
10 “Bring the man who has been harassing you,” the king continued. “I’ll see to it that he doesn’t bother you anymore.”
11 “Let the king invoke the name of God,” said the woman, “so this self-styled vigilante won’t ruin everything, to say nothing of killing my son.”
“As surely as God lives,” he said, “not so much as a hair of your son’s head will be lost.”
12 Then she asked, “May I say one more thing to my master, the king?”
He said, “Go ahead.”
13-14 “Why, then,” the woman said, “have you done this very thing against God’s people? In his verdict, the king convicts himself by not bringing home his exiled son. We all die sometime. Water spilled on the ground can’t be gathered up again. But God does not take away life. He works out ways to get the exile back.”
18 The king then said, “I’m going to ask you something. Answer me truthfully.”
“Certainly,” she said. “Let my master, the king, speak.”
19-20 The king said, “Is the hand of Joab mixed up in this?”
“On your life, my master king, a body can’t veer an inch right or left and get by with it in the royal presence! Yes, it was your servant Joab who put me up to this, and put these very words in my mouth. It was because he wanted to turn things around that your servant Joab did this. But my master is as wise as God’s angels in knowing how to handle things on this earth.”
21 The king spoke to Joab. “All right, I’ll do it. Go and bring the young man Absalom back.”
22 Joab bowed deeply in reverence and blessed the king. “I’m reassured to know that I’m still in your good graces and have your confidence, since the king is taking the counsel of his servant.”
23-24 Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. The king said, “He may return to his house, but he is not to see me face-to-face.” So Absalom returned home, but was not permitted to see the king.
25-27 This Absalom! There wasn’t a man in all Israel talked about so much for his handsome good looks—and not a blemish on him from head to toe! When he cut his hair—he always cut it short in the spring because it had grown so heavy—the weight of the hair from his head was over two pounds! Three sons were born to Absalom, and one daughter. Her name was Tamar—and she was a beauty.
28-31 Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years, and not once did he see the king face-to-face. He sent for Joab to get him in to see the king, but Joab still wouldn’t budge. He tried a second time and Joab still wouldn’t. So he told his servants, “Listen. Joab’s field adjoins mine, and he has a crop of barley in it. Go set fire to it.” So Absalom’s servants set fire to the field. That got him moving—Joab came to Absalom at home and said, “Why did your servants set my field on fire?”
32 Absalom answered him, “Listen, I sent for you saying, ‘Come, and soon. I want to send you to the king to ask, “What’s the point of my coming back from Geshur? I’d be better off still there!” Let me see the king face-to-face. If he finds me guilty, then he can put me to death.’”
33 Joab went to the king and told him what was going on. Absalom was then summoned—he came and bowed deeply in reverence before him. And the king kissed Absalom.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Today's Scripture
2 Corinthians 5:6–10
  That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.
9–10  But neither exile nor homecoming is the main thing. Cheerfully pleasing God is the main thing, and that’s what we aim to do, regardless of our conditions. Sooner or later we’ll all have to face God, regardless of our conditions. We will appear before Christ and take what’s coming to us as a result of our actions, either good or bad.
Insight
Paul wrote this rich passage in the context of pondering death. Yet he put an unusual twist on it. Not only was he longing for death, but he also viewed it as being “swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:4)—inverting our typical view of it. The chapter begins with Paul contrasting our “earthly tent” with a future “building from God, an eternal house in heaven” (v. 1). The apostle’s certainty of this eternal future prompted him to say he “would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (v. 8). For now, “we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling” (v. 2). Paul had great confidence in this because God has “given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (v. 5). This is the great message of the gospel. For believers in Christ, death is obliterated by eternal life.
By: Tim Gustafson
Landing Spot
We live by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7
The impala, a member of the antelope family, is able to jump up to ten feet high and thirty feet in length. It’s an incredible feat, and no doubt essential to its survival in the African wild. Yet, at many impala enclosures found in zoos, you’ll find that the animals are kept in place by a wall that’s merely three feet tall. How can such a low wall contain these athletic animals? It works because impalas will never jump unless they can see where they’ll land. The wall keeps the impalas inside the enclosure because they can’t see what’s on the other side.
As humans, we’re not all that different. We want to know the outcome of a situation before we move forward. The life of faith, however, rarely works that way. Writing to the church at Corinth, Paul reminded them, “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). But that doesn’t mean we’ll know His outcomes beforehand. Living by faith means trusting His good purposes even when those purposes are shrouded in mystery.
In the midst of life’s uncertainties, we can trust His unfailing love. No matter what life throws at us, “we make it our goal to please him” (2 Corinthians 5:9). 
By:  Bill Crowder
Reflect & Pray
In what areas are you struggling to see the next step you should take? Ask God to help you trust Him as you move forward in His grace.
So often, Father, I’m frozen by uncertainty and fear. I pray that You’ll guide my steps as I trust You for Your good will to be done.
For further study, read When Fear Seems Overwhelming: Finding Courage and Hope at DiscoverySeries.org/CB031.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, August 24, 2022
The Spiritual Search
What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9
The illustration of prayer that our Lord used here is one of a good child who is asking for something good. We talk about prayer as if God hears us regardless of what our relationship is to Him (see Matthew 5:45). Never say that it is not God’s will to give you what you ask. Don’t faint and give up, but find out the reason you have not received; increase the intensity of your search and examine the evidence. Is your relationship right with your spouse, your children, and your fellow students? Are you a “good child” in those relationships? Do you have to say to the Lord, “I have been irritable and cross, but I still want spiritual blessings”? You cannot receive and will have to do without them until you have the attitude of a “good child.”
We mistake defiance for devotion, arguing with God instead of surrendering. We refuse to look at the evidence that clearly indicates where we are wrong. Have I been asking God to give me money for something I want, while refusing to pay someone what I owe him? Have I been asking God for liberty while I am withholding it from someone who belongs to me? Have I refused to forgive someone, and have I been unkind to that person? Have I been living as God’s child among my relatives and friends? (see Matthew 7:12).
I am a child of God only by being born again, and as His child I am good only as I “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). For most of us, prayer simply becomes some trivial religious expression, a matter of mystical and emotional fellowship with God. We are all good at producing spiritual fog that blinds our sight. But if we will search out and examine the evidence, we will see very clearly what is wrong— a friendship, an unpaid debt, or an improper attitude. There is no use praying unless we are living as children of God. Then Jesus says, regarding His children, “Everyone who asks receives…” (Matthew 7:8).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of pronouncing any verdict on the life of faith if you are not living it. Not Knowing Whither, 900 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Being a Person a Lost One Will Come To

She was just seven years old; the lone survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents, her sister, and her cousin. The sheriff said "she literally fell out of the sky into a dark hole." They called her survival "a miracle."

This "miracle" survivor somehow crawled out of this upside-down wreckage of her dad's plane dressed only in shorts and a t-shirt on a winter night. She was shoeless. She had to go through brambles and underbrush. This what they called "remarkable" young girl navigated two embankments, a hill, and a creek bed in the dark.

And then the light. Actually, just a single security light on a house. When she knocked on that door, a kindly, grandfatherly man brought her inside. Then she was safe. One report said this: "He thinks his security light may have been a beacon." Yeah, a beacon for a little girl who had lost so much. But, thank God, she was alive.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Being a Person a Lost One Will Come To."

This story got me to thinking about who I need to be for people who've lost so much, whose world has suddenly crashed, who need someone to be a light - a "beacon" - in an otherwise dark night.

Actually, this is what my Jesus said I should be as His follower. It's actually in our word for today from the Word of God in Matthew 5, beginning with verse 14, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

I've been thinking, what it means to be a light for people in my personal world. Well, it means being one person they know who is all about their need, not about my own. Who has time to listen. Who doesn't just ask the obligatory "How you doin'?" But who asks that second and third question to see if that obligatory "fine" is really how they're doing.

Being a light means being the one who refuses to hear or speak trash talk about anybody. Who protects a person's name when they're not in the room. Who builds a person up and never tears them down. Who says, "Thank you" and "I'm sorry" and "I was wrong."

It's always treating people, as the Bible says, "with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15). Not "turning off the light" by making them feel condemned or put down.

The "light" is the person who remembers a person's birthday, who checks on them when they're sick, who's at the hospital, or the wedding, and the funeral. Who drops what I'm doing when they're hurting. Who offers to pray with - not just for - them when God is needed so much.

So I ask myself: do people around me see me as "safe," the "go-to" person when it's dark, when it's lonely? Have I so lived that when they hit a wall, they'll think of me as a safe place to turn? I'll know it's because of the Jesus in me. Am I the light on the porch when people around me are feeling lost?

I can be for one reason. Jesus Christ has been that for me. As a dad who didn't know what to do, when there was no money, in the cold chill of that cemetery. When I was spiritually lost with no hope of heaven, because of running my life instead of God running it, I found one beacon in my storm - a cross and an empty tomb. It is, by the way, where you will find that same light, that same help, that same forgiveness; that light inside of you.

If you've never begun a relationship with Jesus, who changes everything by planting His love and His hope inside you so you could survive any storm, I'd invite you to go to our website and let me walk you through the way you can be sure you belong to Him. That's ANewStory.com.

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). He's kept that promise for me every time. If someone in my personal world is wandering in the dark today, I just pray that they've seen the Light in me, because I want them to find a way home.