Psalm 17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: YOUR HEART IS HIS TABERNACLE - October 6, 2022
During the wilderness wanderings there came a wonderful moment. God had instructed Moses to build a tabernacle in which he would dwell. Once the project was complete, the majestic cloud, which had hovered above them, descended from on high and entered the holy place. From that moment on every child of Israel could point to the tabernacle and say, “God is in there.”
Gesture to your heart and say, “God is in here.” On the day you decided to follow Jesus, an unseen miracle occurred. The Holy Spirit descended from the heavens, ever spinning until the moment the motion stopped directly over your body. He took up residence within you. He turned your heart into his tabernacle. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16 NIV).

Psalm 17
Listen while I build my case, God,
    the most honest prayer you’ll ever hear.
Show the world I’m innocent—
    in your heart you know I am.
3 Go ahead, examine me from inside out,
    surprise me in the middle of the night—
You’ll find I’m just what I say I am.
    My words don’t run loose.
4-5 I’m not trying to get my way
    in the world’s way.
I’m trying to get your way,
    your Word’s way.
I’m staying on your trail;
    I’m putting one foot
In front of the other.
    I’m not giving up.
6-7 I call to you, God, because I’m sure of an answer.
    So—answer! bend your ear! listen sharp!
Paint grace-graffiti on the fences;
    take in your frightened children who
Are running from the neighborhood bullies
    straight to you.
8-9 Keep your eye on me;
    hide me under your cool wing feathers
From the wicked who are out to get me,
    from mortal enemies closing in.
10-14 Their hearts are hard as nails,
    their mouths blast hot air.
They are after me, nipping my heels,
    determined to bring me down,
Lions ready to rip me apart,
    young lions poised to pounce.
Up, God: beard them! break them!
    By your sword, free me from their clutches;
Barehanded, God, break these mortals,
    these flat-earth people who can’t think beyond today.
I’d like to see their bellies
    swollen with famine food,
The weeds they’ve sown
    harvested and baked into famine bread,
With second helpings for their children
    and crusts for their babies to chew on.
15 And me? I plan on looking
    you full in the face. When I get up,
I’ll see your full stature
    and live heaven on earth.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 06, 2022
Today's Scripture
Leviticus 25:35–3
“If one of your brothers becomes indigent and cannot support himself, help him, the same as you would a foreigner or a guest so that he can continue to live in your neighborhood. Don’t gouge him with interest charges; out of reverence for your God help your brother to continue to live with you in the neighborhood. Don’t take advantage of his plight by running up big interest charges on his loans, and don’t give him food for profit.
Insight
In the Old Testament, the Israelites were commanded to be generous to their fellow Israelites (Deuteronomy 14:27; 15:7–11) and to foreigners and strangers (Leviticus 23:22; Deuteronomy 26:12). In the New Testament, believers in Jesus were likewise to be generous. The apostle Paul gave a good example of generosity to fellow believers in 2 Corinthians 8–9. The Macedonian church, despite their extreme poverty and during a severe trial, joyfully gave as much as they could to help the needy believers in Jerusalem. And Paul urged the Corinthians to willingly do the same, reminding them: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (9:6). Today, we’re to extend that same generosity inside and outside the church: “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Hebrews 13:16).
By: Alyson Kieda

Envisioning a Different Future
Help them . . . so they can continue to live among you. Leviticus 25:35
The three hundred middle and high school students of the small town of Neodesha, Kansas, filed into a surprise school assembly. They then sat in disbelief upon hearing that a couple with ties to their town had decided to pay college tuition for every Neodesha student for the next twenty-five years. The students were stunned, overjoyed, and tearful.
Neodesha had been hard hit economically, which meant many families worried about how to cover college expenses. The gift was a generational game-changer, and the donors hoped it would immediately impact current families but also incentivize others to move to Neodesha. They envision their generosity igniting new jobs, new vitality—an entirely different future for the town.
God desired His people to be generous by not only tending to their own acute needs but also by envisioning a new future for their struggling neighbors. God’s directions were clear: “If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them” (Leviticus 25:35). The generosity wasn’t only about meeting basic physical needs but also about considering what their future life together as a community would require. “Help them,” God said, “so they can continue to live among you” (v. 35).
The deepest forms of giving reimagine a different future. God’s immense, creative generosity encourages us toward that day when we’ll all live together in wholeness and plenty.
By:  Winn Collier
Reflect & Pray
How does generosity meet immediate needs? How can it encourage you to also look further?
Dear God, I struggle with being generous in the most basic ways. Help me to see and act.  

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 06, 2022
The Nature of Regeneration
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.
The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “…until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you…” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.
Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The emphasis to-day is placed on the furtherance of an organization; the note is, “We must keep this thing going.” If we are in God’s order the thing will go; if we are not in His order, it won’t.  Conformed to His Image, 357 R
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 26-27; Philippians 2

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 06, 2022
RUNNING AFTER YOU'VE FALLEN - #9324
Now, you know something huge has happened when my Yankees are playing the Red Sox fans' favorite song - at Yankee Stadium! Well, that's what happened when bombs suddenly rained death and destruction on the Boston Marathon. The shock waves, of course, reached around the world. And it brought back an all-too-familiar wave of sadness to my heart and a lot of others.
As always, of course, the images were seared into our memories. You know, the blast, the victims and ultimately the capture. Oh, yeah, and then there was Bill; the 78-year-old runner in the orange tank-top. He was almost to the finish line when that bomb went off, and he was the one that was blown to the pavement by the blast. With the help of a race assistant, Bill was up in a moment crossing the finish line. He finished second in his division.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Running After You've Fallen."
The President of the United States talked about Bill when he spoke at the memorial service. He used him as an example of hope and resilience. Then he looked right into the camera and addressed those who were now fighting to recover what the bombs had stolen. Twice he said, "You will run again." I was pretty moved.
Since then, I've found myself mentally replaying Bill's fall and the President's words. Replaying Bill's race because of the race I run, and the times I've been knocked down. We've all had those sudden blasts that blew us over. Right? They threatened us reaching the finish line: the medical bombshell, the marital explosion, the layoffs, the accident, or the injury, the loved one you lost.
And then there are the painful outcomes of our own bad choices: failing to do what we knew was right, or letting down the people who were counting on us. But time and again, I've heard a voice saying, "Get up, Ron. You will run again." And I did. I am.
He's done the same for so many people I know. People hit with a blast that leveled them. People who might have stayed down or been carried off, but they rose again. Because He did, after He got the most savage blast anyone has ever endured.
All the weight of all the wrong of all the world on Jesus' shoulders. All the selfishness and the pain it's caused. All the hell of all the sinning humans have ever done - that I have done.
When millions of Americans watched the bloody portrayal of Jesus' death on a mini series called "The Bible," it literally lit up social media with viewers whose hearts were breaking over what they saw Him go through. But the reality is, it was awful beyond what Hollywood could ever show. As the Bible says, "It was our sorrows that weighed Him down...He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten so that we might have peace. He was whipped so we could be healed..." The Lord laid on Him the guilt and the sins of us all" (Isaiah 53:4-6). Wow! Knocked down, nailed to a cross, and buried behind a boulder.
But He came back. And He's been running ever since. He guarantees that all who run with Him will cross the finish line with Him. And He picks up fallen runners, and tells them, "You will run again." Whatever you've lost. Whatever you've done. Whatever's been done to you. Our word for today from the Word of God, John 14:19 Jesus says, "Because I live, you will live also." He is the Hope the blast cannot touch. He's the death-beating Savior who says, "We will finish this race together."
However far you've fallen, however devastating the blow you've endured, this Jesus can forgive you, He can restore you, and He can carry you. I'd love to help you know Him personally. In fact, today you could just say "Jesus, I'm Yours. You died for me, You love me that much. You came back to life so You could come into my life. Come in and change me."
Go to our website. You'll find there a lot of hope, a lot of answers for how to know you belong to Jesus. It's ANewStory.com. And listen to Jesus as He tells you how you can run again, and run with Him from here all the way to His heaven.