Romans 7 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A Hope-Filled Heart

You and I live in a trashy world. Unwanted garbage comes our way on a regular basis. Haven’t you been handed a trash sack of mishaps and heartaches? Sure you have. May I ask, what are you going to do with it? You could hide it. Pretend it isn’t there. But sooner or later it will start to stink. So what will you do?

If you follow the example of Christ, you’ll learn to see tough times differently. God wants you to have a hope-filled heart. . .just like Jesus. Wouldn’t you want that? Jesus saw his Father’s presence in the problem. Sure, Max, but Jesus was God. I can’t see the way he saw. Not yet, maybe. But don’t underestimate God’s power. He can change the way you look at life.

From The Lucado Inspirational Reader

Romans 7

Torn Between One Way and Another

1–3  7 You shouldn’t have any trouble understanding this, friends, for you know all the ins and outs of the law—how it works and how its power touches only the living. For instance, a wife is legally tied to her husband while he lives, but if he dies, she’s free. If she lives with another man while her husband is living, she’s obviously an adulteress. But if he dies, she is quite free to marry another man in good conscience, with no one’s disapproval.

4–6  So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God. For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God.

7  But I can hear you say, “If the law code was as bad as all that, it’s no better than sin itself.” That’s certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, “You shall not covet,” I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.

8–12  Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless, and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it. The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong. So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead. But the law code itself is God’s good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.

13  I can already hear your next question: “Does that mean I can’t even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?” No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God’s good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.

14–16  I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.

17–20  But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

21–23  It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

24  I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

25  The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, December 31, 2023

Today's Scripture

Hebrews 13:14–21

This “insider world” is not our home. We have our eyes peeled for the City about to come. Let’s take our place outside with Jesus, no longer pouring out the sacrificial blood of animals but pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus’ name.

16  Make sure you don’t take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of “sacrifice”—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.

17  Be responsive to your pastoral leaders. Listen to their counsel. They are alert to the condition of your lives and work under the strict supervision of God. Contribute to the joy of their leadership, not its drudgery. Why would you want to make things harder for them?

18–21  Pray for us. We have no doubts about what we’re doing or why, but it’s hard going and we need your prayers. All we care about is living well before God. Pray that we may be together soon.

May God, who puts all things together,

makes all things whole,

Who made a lasting mark through the sacrifice of Jesus,

the sacrifice of blood that sealed the eternal covenant,

Who led Jesus, our Great Shepherd,

up and alive from the dead,

Now put you together, provide you

with everything you need to please him,

Make us into what gives him most pleasure,

by means of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah.

All glory to Jesus forever and always!

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Insight

The anonymous author of the book of Hebrews wrote to Jewish believers in Jesus who were suffering because of persecution, encouraging them to persevere in their faith and to endure suffering for the sake of Christ—to “[bear] the disgrace he bore” (Hebrews 13:13). Believers in Jesus can persevere because, as the author reminds us, “This world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come” (v. 14 nlt). The author cites examples of believers who in faith (ch. 11) chose to suffer for Christ because they were looking for an eternal home in heaven. Abraham looked “forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (v. 10). Moses “regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. . . . He persevered because he saw him who is invisible” (vv. 26-27). By: K. T. Sim

The Righteous City

May he produce in you . . . every good thing that is pleasing to him. Hebrews 13:21 NLT

On New Year’s Eve 2000, officials in Detroit carefully opened a hundred-year-old time capsule. Nestled inside the copper box were hopeful predictions from some city leaders who expressed visions of prosperity. The mayor’s message, however, offered a different approach. He wrote, “May we be permitted to express one hope superior to all others . . . [that] you may realize as a nation, people, and city, you have grown in righteousness, for it is this that exalts a nation.”

More than success, happiness, or peace, the mayor wished that future citizens would grow in what it means to be truly just and upright. Perhaps he took his cue from Jesus, who blessed those who long for His righteousness (Matthew 5:6). But it’s easy to get discouraged when we consider God’s perfect standard.

Praise God that we don’t have to rely on our own effort to grow. The author of Hebrews said it this way: “May the God of peace . . . equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ” (Hebrews 13:20–21). We who are in Christ are made holy by His blood the moment we believe in Him (v. 12), but He actively grows the fruit of righteousness in our hearts throughout a lifetime. We’ll often stumble on the journey, yet still we look forward to “the city that is to come” where God’s righteousness will reign (v. 14).  By:  Karen Pimpo

Reflect & Pray

For what Christlike attributes would you like to be known? How can you encourage others to seek God’s righteousness?

Dear God, please work in me what’s pleasing to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, December 31, 2023

Yesterday

You shall not go out with haste,…for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. —Isaiah 52:12

Security from Yesterday. “…God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow. “…the Lord will go before you….” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste….” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

When we no longer seek God for His blessings, we have time to seek Him for Himself.  The Moral Foundations of Life, 728 L

Bible in a Year: Malachi 1-4; Revelation 22

Isaiah 42 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Imagine a Perfect World

Try this. Imagine a perfect world. Whatever that means to you. Imagine it. Does that mean peace? Then envision absolute tranquility. Does a perfect world imply joy? Then create your highest happiness. Will a perfect world have love? Ponder a place where love has no bounds. Whatever heaven means to you, imagine it. Get it firmly fixed in your mind. Delight in it. Dream about it. Long for it.

And then smile as the Father reminds you from the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” No one… no one has come close. Think of all the songs about heaven; all the artists’ portrayals; all the lessons preached; poems written; and chapters drafted. When it comes to describing heaven, we are all happy failures!

From The Lucado Inspirational Reader

Isaiah 42

 “Take a good look at my servant.

I’m backing him to the hilt.

He’s the one I chose,

and I couldn’t be more pleased with him.

I’ve bathed him with my Spirit, my life.

He’ll set everything right among the nations.

He won’t call attention to what he does

with loud speeches or gaudy parades.

He won’t brush aside the bruised and the hurt

and he won’t disregard the small and insignificant,

but he’ll steadily and firmly set things right.

He won’t tire out and quit. He won’t be stopped

until he’s finished his work—to set things right on earth.

Far-flung ocean islands

wait expectantly for his teaching.”

The God Who Makes Us Alive with His Own Life

5–9  God’s Message,

the God who created the cosmos, stretched out the skies,

laid out the earth and all that grows from it,

Who breathes life into earth’s people,

makes them alive with his own life:

“I am God. I have called you to live right and well.

I have taken responsibility for you, kept you safe.

I have set you among my people to bind them to me,

and provided you as a lighthouse to the nations,

To make a start at bringing people into the open, into light:

opening blind eyes,

releasing prisoners from dungeons,

emptying the dark prisons.

I am God. That’s my name.

I don’t franchise my glory,

don’t endorse the no-god idols.

Take note: The earlier predictions of judgment have been fulfilled.

I’m announcing the new salvation work.

Before it bursts on the scene,

I’m telling you all about it.”

10–16  Sing to God a brand-new song,

sing his praises all over the world!

Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause,

with all the far-flung islands joining in.

Let the desert and its camps raise a tune,

calling the Kedar nomads to join in.

Let the villagers in Sela round up a choir

and perform from the tops of the mountains.

Make God’s glory resound;

echo his praises from coast to coast.

God steps out like he means business.

You can see he’s primed for action.

He shouts, announcing his arrival;

he takes charge and his enemies fall into line:

“I’ve been quiet long enough.

I’ve held back, biting my tongue.

But now I’m letting loose, letting go,

like a woman who’s having a baby—

Stripping the hills bare,

withering the wildflowers,

Drying up the rivers,

turning lakes into mudflats.

But I’ll take the hand of those who don’t know the way,

who can’t see where they’re going.

I’ll be a personal guide to them,

directing them through unknown country.

I’ll be right there to show them what roads to take,

make sure they don’t fall into the ditch.

These are the things I’ll be doing for them—

sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute.”

17  But those who invested in the no-gods

are bankrupt—dead broke.

You’ve Seen a Lot, but Looked at Nothing

18–25  Pay attention! Are you deaf?

Open your eyes! Are you blind?

You’re my servant, and you’re not looking!

You’re my messenger, and you’re not listening!

The very people I depended upon, servants of God,

blind as a bat—willfully blind!

You’ve seen a lot, but looked at nothing.

You’ve heard everything, but listened to nothing.

God intended, out of the goodness of his heart,

to be lavish in his revelation.

But this is a people battered and cowed,

shut up in attics and closets,

Victims licking their wounds,

feeling ignored, abandoned.

But is anyone out there listening?

Is anyone paying attention to what’s coming?

Who do you think turned Jacob over to the thugs,

let loose the robbers on Israel?

Wasn’t it God himself, this God against whom we’ve sinned—

not doing what he commanded,

not listening to what he said?

Isn’t it God’s anger that’s behind all this,

God’s punishing power?

Their whole world collapsed but they still didn’t get it;

their life is in ruins but they don’t take it to heart.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, December 30, 2023

Today's Scripture

John 12:27–32

 “Right now I am storm-tossed. And what am I going to say? ‘Father, get me out of this’? No, this is why I came in the first place. I’ll say, ‘Father, put your glory on display.’ ”

A voice came out of the sky: “I have glorified it, and I’ll glorify it again.”

29  The listening crowd said, “Thunder!”

Others said, “An angel spoke to him!”

30–33  Jesus said, “The voice didn’t come for me but for you. At this moment the world is in crisis. Now Satan, the ruler of this world, will be thrown out. And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me and gather them around me.”

Insight

Jesus would enter the garden of Gethsemane on the evening of Passover Thursday, probably three days after the events described in John 12:27-32. Unlike the other three gospels, John doesn’t describe Christ’s anguish in Gethsemane. But he lets us know that Jesus is already tasting the sorrow coming His way. “Now my soul is troubled,” Christ said (v. 27). In Gethsemane, Jesus would pray, “Not as I will, but as you [the Father] will” (Matthew 26:39). In John, he prays, “Father, glorify your name!” (12:28). Author Warren Wiersbe says that when we experience trials, there are two prayers we can pray: “Father, save me!” or “Father, glorify Your name!” As His hour of trial approached, Jesus chose the latter, praying, “What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour” (v. 27). By: Tim Gustafson

Troubled Souls, Honest Prayers

Father, glorify your name! John 12:28

Three days before a bomb blast rocked his home in January 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had an encounter that marked him for the rest of his life. After receiving a threatening phone call, King found himself pondering an exit strategy from the civil rights movement. Then prayers emerged from his soul. “I am here taking a stand for what I believe is right. But now I am afraid. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can't face it alone.” After his prayer, there came quiet assurance. King noted, “Almost at once my fears began to go. My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.”

In John 12, Jesus acknowledged, “My soul is troubled” (v. 27). He was transparently honest about His internal disposition; still He was God-centered in His prayer. “Father, glorify your name!” (v. 28). Jesus’ prayer was one of surrender to God’s will.

How human it is for us to feel the pangs of fear and discomfort when we find ourselves with the option of honoring God or not; when wisdom requires making hard decisions about relationships, habits, or other patterns (good or bad). No matter what we’re faced with, as we pray boldly to God, He’ll give us the strength to overcome our fear and discomfort and do what brings glory to Him—for our good and the good of others. By:  Arthur Jackson

Reflect & Pray

What experiences have prompted prayers for God to be honored? What advice would you give to others facing such situations?

Father, please help me to face challenging things honestly and prayerfully that are for my good and will bring You glory.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, December 30, 2023

“And Every Virtue We Possess”

…All my springs are in you. —Psalm 87:7

Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “…put on the new man…” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!

The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.

And every virtue we possess

Is His alone.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading.  My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L

Bible in a Year: Zechariah 13-14; Revelation 21

Isaiah 41, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: LORD OF HEAVEN - December 29, 2023

When tragedy strikes, whether personal, national, or global, people wonder how God could allow such things to happen. Is God really in control? Can we trust him to run the universe if he would allow this?

It is important to recognize that God dwells in a different realm. God said to Isaiah, “Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9 NCV).

How vital, then, that we pray, armed with the knowledge that God is in heaven. And he has chosen to bend near toward earth to see our sorrow and hear our prayers. Though we may not be able to see his purpose or his plan, the Lord of heaven is on his throne and in firm control of the universe and our lives.

Isaiah 41

Do You Feel Like a Lowly Worm?

1  41 “Quiet down, far-flung ocean islands. Listen!

Sit down and rest, everyone. Recover your strength.

Gather around me. Say what’s on your heart.

Together let’s decide what’s right.

2–3  “Who got things rolling here,

got this champion from the east on the move?

Who recruited him for this job,

then rounded up and corralled the nations

so he could run roughshod over kings?

He’s off and running,

pulverizing nations into dust,

leaving only stubble and chaff in his wake.

He chases them and comes through unscathed,

his feet scarcely touching the path.

4  “Who did this? Who made it happen?

Who always gets things started?

I did. God. I’m first on the scene.

I’m also the last to leave.

5–7  “Far-flung ocean islands see it and panic.

The ends of the earth are shaken.

Fearfully they huddle together.

They try to help each other out,

making up stories in the dark.

The god-makers in the workshops

go into overtime production, crafting new models of no-gods,

Urging one another on—‘Good job!’ ‘Great design!’—

pounding in nails at the base

so that the things won’t tip over.

8–10  “But you, Israel, are my servant.

You’re Jacob, my first choice,

descendants of my good friend Abraham.

I pulled you in from all over the world,

called you in from every dark corner of the earth,

Telling you, ‘You’re my servant, serving on my side.

I’ve picked you. I haven’t dropped you.’

Don’t panic. I’m with you.

There’s no need to fear for I’m your God.

I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you.

I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.

11–13  “Count on it: Everyone who had it in for you

will end up out in the cold—

real losers.

Those who worked against you

will end up empty-handed—

nothing to show for their lives.

When you go out looking for your old adversaries

you won’t find them—

Not a trace of your old enemies,

not even a memory.

That’s right. Because I, your God,

have a firm grip on you and I’m not letting go.

I’m telling you, ‘Don’t panic.

I’m right here to help you.’

14–16  “Do you feel like a lowly worm, Jacob?

Don’t be afraid.

Feel like a fragile insect, Israel?

I’ll help you.

I, God, want to reassure you.

The God who buys you back, The Holy of Israel.

I’m transforming you from worm to harrow,

from insect to iron.

As a sharp-toothed harrow you’ll smooth out the mountains,

turn those tough old hills into loamy soil.

You’ll open the rough ground to the weather,

to the blasts of sun and wind and rain.

But you’ll be confident and exuberant,

expansive in The Holy of Israel!

17–20  “The poor and homeless are desperate for water,

their tongues parched and no water to be found.

But I’m there to be found, I’m there for them,

and I, God of Israel, will not leave them thirsty.

I’ll open up rivers for them on the barren hills,

spout fountains in the valleys.

I’ll turn the baked-clay badlands into a cool pond,

the waterless waste into splashing creeks.

I’ll plant the red cedar in that treeless wasteland,

also acacia, myrtle, and olive.

I’ll place the cypress in the desert,

with plenty of oaks and pines.

Everyone will see this. No one can miss it—

unavoidable, indisputable evidence

That I, God, personally did this.

It’s created and signed by The Holy of Israel.

21–24  “Set out your case for your gods,” says God.

“Bring your evidence,” says the King of Jacob.

“Take the stand on behalf of your idols, offer arguments,

assemble reasons.

Spread out the facts before us

so that we can assess them ourselves.

Ask them, ‘If you are gods, explain what the past means—

or, failing that, tell us what will happen in the future.

Can’t do that?

How about doing something—anything!

Good or bad—whatever.

Can you hurt us or help us? Do we need to be afraid?’

They say nothing, because they are nothing—

sham gods, no-gods, fool-making gods.

25–29  “I, God, started someone out from the north and he’s come.

He was called out of the east by name.

He’ll stomp the rulers into the mud

the way a potter works the clay.

Let me ask you, Did anyone guess that this might happen?

Did anyone tell us earlier so we might confirm it

with ‘Yes, he’s right!’?

No one mentioned it, no one announced it,

no one heard a peep out of you.

But I told Zion all about this beforehand.

I gave Jerusalem a preacher of good news.

But around here there’s no one—

no one who knows what’s going on.

I ask, but no one can tell me the score.

Nothing here. It’s all smoke and hot air—

sham gods, hollow gods, no-gods.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, December 29, 2023

Today's Scripture

James 1:1–12

 I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the

twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello!

Faith Under Pressure

2–4  Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

5–8  If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

9–11  When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of the “prosperous life.” At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.

12  Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.

Insight

James encourages believers in Jesus experiencing “trials” (1:2, 12) by describing their unseen value—growth in perseverance, maturity, and wisdom (vv. 3-5). How believers respond to difficulty witnesses to their faith in Christ, who promises them a “crown of life” (v. 12).

Many believe these trials included persecution for their faith. New Testament scholar Scot McKnight argues that James’ emphasis on the dangers of wealth and the value of humility and poverty (vv. 9-11; 2:1-7) suggests that this persecution took the form of economic oppression. In James 2:6-7, the author describes the wealthy exploiting and oppressing believers. By: Monica La Rose

The Crown of Life

God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. James 1:12 nlt

Twelve-year-old LeeAdianez Rodriguez-Espada was worried that she’d be late for a 5K run (just over 3 miles). Her anxiousness led her to take off with a group of runners fifteen minutes earlier than her start time with participants of the half-marathon (more than 13 miles)! LeeAdianez fell in pace with other runners and put one foot in front of the other. At mile four, with the finish line nowhere in sight, she realized that she was in a longer and more difficult race. Instead of dropping out, she simply kept running. The accidental half-marathoner completed her 13.1-mile race and placed 1,885th out of 2,111 finishers. Now that’s perseverance!

While undergoing persecution, many first-century believers in Jesus wanted to drop out of the race for Christ, but James encouraged them to keep running. If they patiently endured testing, God promised a double reward (James 1:4, 12). First, “perseverance [would] finish its work” so they could be “mature and complete, not lacking anything” (v. 4). Second, God would give them the “crown of life”—life in Jesus on earth and the promise of being in His presence in the life to come (v. 12).

Some days the Christian race feels like it’s not the one we signed up for—it’s something longer and more difficult than we expected. But as God provides what we need, we can persevere and keep on running. By:  Marvin Williams

Reflect & Pray

What difficulty are you enduring right now? What can you do to remain faithful to God as you undergo testing?

Dear God, my legs are tired, and I feel like giving up. Please strengthen me.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, December 29, 2023

Deserter or Disciple?

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. —John 6:66

When God, by His Spirit through His Word, gives you a clear vision of His will, you must “walk in the light” of that vision (1 John 1:7). Even though your mind and soul may be thrilled by it, if you don’t “walk in the light” of it you will sink to a level of bondage never envisioned by our Lord. Mentally disobeying the “heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) will make you a slave to ideas and views that are completely foreign to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to “walk in the light” of the vision that has been given to you. Don’t compare yourself with others or judge them— that is between God and them. When you find that one of your favorite and strongly held views clashes with the “heavenly vision,” do not begin to debate it. If you do, a sense of property and personal right will emerge in you— things on which Jesus placed no value. He was against these things as being the root of everything foreign to Himself— “…for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t see and understand this, it is because we are ignoring the underlying principles of our Lord’s teaching.

Our tendency is to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we had when God revealed His will to us. But if a New Testament standard is revealed to us by the light of God, and we don’t try to measure up, or even feel inclined to do so, then we begin to backslide. It means your conscience does not respond to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

The sympathy which is reverent with what it cannot understand is worth its weight in gold.  Baffled to Fight Better, 69 L

Bible in a Year: Zechariah 9-12; Revelation 20

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, December 29, 2023

Sick of Winter, Ready for Spring - #9645

Oh, for goodness sake, it was the polar vortex again! There I was, digging out the sweaters again, and turning up the thermostat to help the Propane Dealers Retirement Fund. And hoping the weatherman was wrong about snow and ice.

But, you know, I had no right to gripe. I mean, some cities ran out of salt for their streets this past winter. My poor friends in places like Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, New York - they were "whomped" with storm after storm this past winter. And then we've got friends in places like western New York where they just get mountains and mountains of snow during the winter.

If you had just moved to one of those snow-swamped places, it would have been easy to say, "It's always going to be winter. This much snow is never going to melt. It's just going to keep coming."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Sick of Winter, Ready for Spring."

Nope. It won't always be winter. There's hope. And hope has a name - spring. No matter how high the snowdrifts were, how endless the parade of winter storms, spring always comes. And that helps me grasp just what that precious word "hope" is all about.

Hope-less means things can never change. But hope means things you've never been able to change can change because hope has a name. His name is Jesus. He's the One of whom the Bible says in our word for today from the Word of God, Hebrews 6:19, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."

As a follower of Jesus, I can be - for the hope-starved people around me - living proof that He could change what I could never change. Because of Jesus, a parent can change. A husband or wife can change. A family can change. Because of Jesus, a temper can change, a life of depression, or a fear of death. Jesus changes control freaks, chronic worriers, fearful people, and people who have always been defined by their pain.

There's a magnet in us that attracts people to our Jesus. It's not our beliefs, the meetings we go to, the bad things we don't do. It's our hope. The Bible says folks will want to know "the reason for the hope you have" (1 Peter 3:15).

When you meet Jesus, you experience the ultimate makeover miracle: "If anyone is in Christ," the Bible says, "he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17). So we have hope to give! Hope of Jesus changing our dark side, our fears, our relationships, our eternity.

So the most powerful tool I have to open a heart to Jesus is my story - My Hope Story. Because what people want to know about Jesus is, "What difference does He make?" Your Hope Story tells about how your stressful times are different because of Jesus, your lonely times, your sad times, your wounded times. The difference Jesus makes when there's bad news from the doctor, when your family's in chaos, when the one you were counting on walks out the door, or when you stand by the casket of the one you love.

People can argue with your beliefs. They can't argue with your Hope Story. Once you were "blind." Now you "can see." The only explanation is Jesus.

I always want to be looking for natural opportunities to share some part of how my life is different because of Jesus. As you listen to a person's story, the door opens for you to tell your story. And how His story - His dying for you - has changed your story and could change theirs forever. I am, and all my spiritual brothers and sisters are, living proof that it doesn't always have to be winter.

Spring comes when Jesus comes. And maybe you've never experienced that hope for yourself. Today Jesus stands ready to give you the new beginning that your heart is hungry for. I'd love to introduce you to Him and help you know how to get started with Him. Just go to our website as soon as you can today ANewStory.com. It's time for spring.

Isaiah 41 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: NO LIMIT TO HIS LOVE - December 28, 2023

Maybe your life resembles a Bethlehem stable. Crude in some spots, smelly in others. Not much glamour. You do your best to make the best of it. But try as you might, the roof still leaks, and the winter wind still sneaks through the holes you just can’t seem to fix. You’ve shivered through your share of cold nights, and you wonder if God has a place for a person like you.

Find your answers in the Bethlehem stable. The story of Christmas is the story of God’s relentless love for us. The moment Mary touched God’s face is the moment God made his case: there is no place he will not go. No place is too common, no person is too hardened, no distance is too far. There is no person he cannot reach. There is no limit to his love.

Isaiah 41

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The Message

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Do You Feel Like a Lowly Worm?

41 

“Quiet down, far-flung ocean islands. Listen!
    Sit down and rest, everyone. Recover your strength.
Gather around me. Say what’s on your heart.
    Together let’s decide what’s right.

2-3 

“Who got things rolling here,
    got this champion from the east on the move?
Who recruited him for this job,
    then rounded up and corralled the nations
    so he could run roughshod over kings?
He’s off and running,
    pulverizing nations into dust,
    leaving only stubble and chaff in his wake.
He chases them and comes through unscathed,
    his feet scarcely touching the path.

4 

“Who did this? Who made it happen?
    Who always gets things started?
I did. God. I’m first on the scene.
    I’m also the last to leave.

5-7 

“Far-flung ocean islands see it and panic.
    The ends of the earth are shaken.
    Fearfully they huddle together.
They try to help each other out,
    making up stories in the dark.
The godmakers in the workshops
    go into overtime production, crafting new models of no-gods,
Urging one another on—‘Good job!’ ‘Great design!’—
    pounding in nails at the base
    so that the things won’t tip over.

8-10 

“But you, Israel, are my servant.
    You’re Jacob, my first choice,
    descendants of my good friend Abraham.
I pulled you in from all over the world,
    called you in from every dark corner of the earth,
Telling you, ‘You’re my servant, serving on my side.
    I’ve picked you. I haven’t dropped you.’
Don’t panic. I’m with you.
    There’s no need to fear for I’m your God.
I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you.
    I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.

11-13 

“Count on it: Everyone who had it in for you
    will end up out in the cold—
    real losers.
Those who worked against you
    will end up empty-handed—
    nothing to show for their lives.
When you go out looking for your old adversaries
    you won’t find them—
Not a trace of your old enemies,
    not even a memory.
That’s right. Because I, your God,
    have a firm grip on you and I’m not letting go.
I’m telling you, ‘Don’t panic.
    I’m right here to help you.’

14-16 

“Do you feel like a lowly worm, Jacob?
    Don’t be afraid.
Feel like a fragile insect, Israel?
    I’ll help you.
I, God, want to reassure you.
    The God who buys you back, The Holy of Israel.
I’m transforming you from worm to harrow,
    from insect to iron.
As a sharp-toothed harrow you’ll smooth out the mountains,
    turn those tough old hills into loamy soil.
You’ll open the rough ground to the weather,
    to the blasts of sun and wind and rain.
But you’ll be confident and exuberant,
    expansive in The Holy of Israel!

17-20 

“The poor and homeless are desperate for water,
    their tongues parched and no water to be found.
But I’m there to be found, I’m there for them,
    and I, God of Israel, will not leave them thirsty.
I’ll open up rivers for them on the barren hills,
    spout fountains in the valleys.
I’ll turn the baked-clay badlands into a cool pond,
    the waterless waste into splashing creeks.
I’ll plant the red cedar in that treeless wasteland,
    also acacia, myrtle, and olive.
I’ll place the cypress in the desert,
    with plenty of oaks and pines.
Everyone will see this. No one can miss it—
    unavoidable, indisputable evidence
That I, God, personally did this.
    It’s created and signed by The Holy of Israel.

21-24 

“Set out your case for your gods,” says God.
    “Bring your evidence,” says the King of Jacob.
“Take the stand on behalf of your idols, offer arguments,
    assemble reasons.
Spread out the facts before us
    so that we can assess them ourselves.
Ask them, ‘If you are gods, explain what the past means—
    or, failing that, tell us what will happen in the future.
Can’t do that?
    How about doing something—anything!
Good or bad—whatever.
    Can you hurt us or help us? Do we need to be afraid?’
They say nothing, because they are nothing—
    sham gods, no-gods, fool-making gods.

25-29 

“I, God, started someone out from the north and he’s come.
    He was called out of the east by name.
He’ll stomp the rulers into the mud
    the way a potter works the clay.
Let me ask you, Did anyone guess that this might happen?
    Did anyone tell us earlier so we might confirm it
    with ‘Yes, he’s right!’?
No one mentioned it, no one announced it,
    no one heard a peep out of you.
But I told Zion all about this beforehand.
    I gave Jerusalem a preacher of good news.
But around here there’s no one—
    no one who knows what’s going on.
    I ask, but no one can tell me the score.
Nothing here. It’s all smoke and hot air—
    sham gods, hollow gods, no-gods.”

Our Daily Bread Devotional

Today's Scripture: Exodus 22:22-27

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The Message

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22-24 “Don’t mistreat widows or orphans. If you do and they cry out to me, you can be sure I’ll take them most seriously; I’ll show my anger and come raging among you with the sword, and your wives will end up widows and your children orphans.

25 “If you lend money to my people, to any of the down-and-out among you, don’t come down hard on them and gouge them with interest.

26-27 “If you take your neighbor’s coat as security, give it back before nightfall; it may be your neighbor’s only covering—what else does the person have to sleep in? And if I hear the neighbor crying out from the cold, I’ll step in—I’m compassionate.

Insight

God gave the Ten Commandments to instruct His people how to bring honor to God through their lives. Commandments 1-4 (Exodus 20:1-11) instruct us to love God and commandments 5-10 (vv. 12-17) deal with loving our neighbor (Leviticus 19:18 ). Moses then laid down various stipulations to teach God’s people how to love their neighbors (Exodus 21:1-23:9). In Exodus 22:21-27), Moses teaches us how to love the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan—the epitome of the poorest of the poor in ancient Jewish society. Love for neighbors means justice and compassion for the needy. Moses reminded the Israelites that God “shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherl

ess and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing” (

Deuteronomy 10:17-18). And Moses warned, “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow” (27:19).

By KT Smith 

Meeting the Needs of Others 

If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset. Exodus 22:26 

Phillip’s father suffered from severe mental illness and had left home to live on the streets. After Cyndi and her young son Phillip spent a day searching for him, Phillip was rightly concerned for his dad’s well-being. He asked his mother whether his father and other people without homes were warm. In response, they launched an effort to collect and distribute blankets and cold-weather gear to homeless people in the area. For more than a decade, Cyndi has considered it her life’s work, crediting her son and her deep faith in God for awakening her to the hardship of being without a warm place to sleep.

The Bible has long taught us to respond to the needs of others. In the book of Exodus, Moses records a set of principles to guide our interaction with those who lack plentiful resources. When we’re moved to supply the needs of another, we’re to “not treat it like a business deal” and should make no gain or profit from it (Exodus 22:25). If a person’s cloak was taken as collateral, it was to be returned by sunset “because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in?” (v. 27).

Let’s ask God to open our eyes and hearts to see how we can ease the pain of those who are suffering. Whether we seek to meet the needs of many—as Cyndi and Phillip have—or those of a single person, we honor Him by treating them 

with dignity and care.

By: Kirsten Holmberg

Reflect & Pray

How has God supplied your needs through others? Whose needs might you be able to supply?

Heavenly Father, please open my eyes to the needs of others.

My Utmost for His Highest 

December 28, 2023

By Oswald Chambers 

…unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 18:3

These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God. Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man…” (Ephesians 4:24 ). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.

To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life. There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

We never enter into th

e Kingdom of God by having our head questions answered, but only by commitment.

The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption 

Bible in a Year: 

Zechariah 5-8; Revelation 19

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft, December 28, 2023

HOW TO SAVE YOUR CHILD - #9644 It was so dramatic that the cable news networks just kept replaying the video. A mother and her baby were trapped in a burning building. Some people saw the mother leaning out of the second story window with her baby in her arms, desperately trying to save him from both the smoke and the fire. The news video showed three people standing directly beneath that window, ready to catch the infant. It was an agonizing choice for that mother. If she held onto her baby, if she let him go; either way she risked his life. Finally, painfully, she released her baby and dropped him toward the people waiting underneath. It was breathtaking to see one man catch that little guy in his hands. It just so happens that he plays softball and he's a, guess what, a catcher. That baby was fine today, because a mother made a hard but life-saving choice.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Save Your Child."

In a later interview, a tearful mother explained the decision she had made about her son. She said, "I had to let go of my baby to save him." That's a choice many parents have had to make over the years, and maybe a choice you're facing right now. The only way to save your child may be to let him go...to let her go. And that's not easy for many of us, because we're far more prone to try to control our son or daughter than to release them. It may be because we love them, but it may not be the most loving thing we can do. It's often in what we do to hang onto a child that we actually damage or destroy that child.

The Bible gives us a beautiful example of releasing the child you love in our word for today from the Word of God. Hannah has shed tears for years because she cannot bear a child. Then God responds to her cries and sends her a son named Samuel; who will one day be God's man to lead His people. We can only imagine how much Hannah must have wanted to hang onto this precious son that she'd waited for so long. But listen to her prayer in 1 Samuel 1:27-28 ; a prayer that might change things in the life of your son or daughter. "'I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.' And she worshiped the Lord there."

A mother who deeply loves her child loves him enough to release him into the hands of God. When we choose instead to try to control our son or daughter, we start using approaches that are more likely to ruin their life than to run it. We know the child we wanted, and we're gonna do whatever we can to shape him or her into that child instead of celebrating the child God gave us and nurturing who that child is; not trying to re-create him into something they're not.

I was speaking at a conference where a lady came to me and afterward reminded me of when I had spoken there ten years before. She told me that I'd given an opportunity for people to come forward and surrender some part of their life they'd refused to give to Jesus. She said, "Ron, that night I surrendered my nine-year-old daughter to the Lord. She wasn't turning out the way I wanted, especially spiritually. I had tried everything to control her. That night, I just released her to the Lord. The next day she came to me and said something she'd never said, 'Mom, can we read the Bible together?'" Then that mom melted down as she said, "And today she's finishing her first year at a Christian college, training for a life in God's work." God can do with our surrender what we He could never do with our control.

When we hold onto our child, we tend to create a rebel or a robot. When we release our child to the God who gave that child to us, we cooperate with the great plan for which our child was created. Almost every religion in the world has some kind of ceremony where a newborn child is given back to the Creator. We did that in a dedication service with each of our three children. But that needs to happen every day of their life; giving them back to the One who gave him or her to us.

If your child is struggling, you 

may need to make that difficult but life-giving choice, "I have to let go of my baby to save my baby."

Romans 6 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: SIGNS OF GOD - December 27, 2023 “We have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him” (Matthew 2:2 NKJV).

You know, people see signs of God every day. Sunsets that steal the breath. Newborns that bring tears. But do all who see the signs draw near to God? No.

The wise men, however, understood the purpose of the sign. And they followed it to Jerusalem, where they heard about the scripture. The prophecy told them where to find Christ. It is interesting to note that the star reappeared after they learned about the prophecy. The star “came and stood shining right over the place where the Child was” (Matthew 2:9). It is as if the sign and word worked together to bring the wise men to Jesus.

The ultimate aim of all God’s messages, both miraculous and written, is to shed the light of heaven on Jesus.

Romans 6 New International Version

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ

6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

19 I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our Daily Bread Devotional 

Today's Scripture:

Proverbs 11:24–31 The world of the generous gets larger and larger;

the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.

25  The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed;

those who help others are helped.

26  Curses on those who drive a hard bargain!

Blessings on all who play fair and square!

27  The one who seeks good finds delight;

the student of evil becomes evil.

28  A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump;

a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.

29  Exploit or abuse your family, and end up with a fistful of air;

common sense tells you it’s a stupid way to live.

30  A good life is a fruit-bearing tree;

a violent life destroys souls.

31  If good people barely make it,

what’s in store for the bad!

Insight

As general statements of wisdom and guidelines for living, proverbs predict expected outcomes based on our wise or foolish choices. Generosity is the theme of several of these proverbs (11:24-26), and the conclusion is clear: generosity is a wise approach to life. The apostle Paul highlighted the principle of sowing and reaping mentioned in verse 24 when he wrote, “Whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Corinthians 9:6 (https://biblia.com/bible/niv/2%20Cor%209.6)). Conversely, hoarding hurts both ourselves and others. By distributing what we have, we bless all concerned. Bible commentator David Stabnow points out how King Sihon of Heshbon refused to sell grain to the Israelites when they were passing through his land, and he and his people were destroyed (Deuteronomy 2:26-36 (https://biblia.com/bible/niv/Deut%202.26-36)). Joseph, on the other hand, stored grain for the purpose of distributing it. By doing so, he blessed the entire region wit

h life—and preserved the nation of Israel in the process (

Genesis 41:56) By: 

Tim Gustafson

God’s Wisdom Saves Lives

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives.

Proverbs 11:30 

A mail carrier became concerned after seeing one of her customers’ mail pile up. The postal worker knew the elderly woman lived alone and usually picked up her mail every day. Making a wise choice, the worker mentioned her concern to one of the woman’s neighbors. This neighbor alerted yet another neighbor, who had a spare key to the woman’s home. Together they entered their friend’s home and found her lying on the floor. She had fallen four days earlier and couldn’t get up or call for help. The postal worker’s wisdom, concern, and decision to act likely saved her life.

Proverbs says, “the one who is wise saves lives” (11:30). The discernment that comes from doing right and living according to God’s wisdom can bless not only ourselves but those we encounter too. The fruit of living out what honors Him and His ways can produce a good and refreshing life. And our fruit also prompts us to care about others and to look out for their well-being.

As the writer of Proverbs asserts throughout the book, wisdom is found in reliance on God. Wisdom is considered “more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her” (8:11). The wisdom God provides is there to guide us throughout our lives. It just might save a life for eternity.

By:  Katara Patton Reflect & Pray

How can you use wisdom to help someone today? How much do you value wisdom?

Heavenly Father, please give me wisdom to follow Your path and directions. Help me to look out for others as You guide me.

Learn more about your God-given calling. 

My Utmost for His Highest 

December 27, 2023 Where the Battle is Won or Lost "If you will return, O Israel," says the Lord… —Jeremiah 4:1 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah+4%3A1)

Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until I do this, I will lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year, but that will depend on me, not God. However long it takes, I must wrestle with it alone before God, and I must resolve to go through the hell of renunciation or rejection before Him. Nothing has any power over someone who has fought the battle before God and won there.

I should never say, “I will wait until I get into difficult circumstances and then I’ll put God to the test.” Trying to do that will not work. I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul, where no one else can interfere. Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity, disaster, and defeat before the world are as sure as the laws of God. The reason the battle is lost is that I fight it first in the external world. Get alone with God, do battle before Him, and settle the matter once and for all.

In dealing with other people, our stance should always be to drive them toward making a decision of their will. That is how surrendering to God begins. Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point— a great crossroads in our life. From that point we either go toward a more and more slow, lazy, and useless Christian life, or we become more and more on fire,

 giving our utmost for 

His highest— our best for His glory.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest. Disciples Indeed, 395 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft, December 27, 2023

NIGHT LIGHTS - #9643

Our former offices were on this long hall, and each night the last one got to walk that long hall and make sure all the doors were locked and the lights were turned out. And with the amount of work the team had to get done each day, it was pretty close to "beddy-bye" time when some of them left. Of course, Daylight Saving Time meant that you could leave well into the evening and it would still be light. Maybe that's why the lights in some of our closets were accidentally left on sometimes. When it's still bright outside, it's easy to miss a light that's on. But in the winter, when it's dark, you can't miss the light!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Night Lights."

The familiar and very challenging words of Jesus are our word for today from the Word of God. It's Matthew 5:14-16) where He said, "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."

If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, I wonder if you realize how important you are! Think about when you walk into a totally dark room. What's the most important thing in that room? Isn't it the light? Who's the most important person where you work, or you live, or go to school? Isn't it the one who's the light? Jesus said that's you. If the light isn't working - if it's dim - if it goes out, there's only darkness.

You may say, "You don't know how spiritually dark it gets where I am!" And you're right. I don't know all the details. But it probably looks something like this: the talk is dirty or blasphemous or profane, sin is something to laugh at and brag about, people are routinely backstabbed and wounded verbally, honesty and integrity are hard to find - maybe even unappreciated, Christians are stereotyped as being intolerant, old-fashioned, condemning, and irrelevant. Maybe you'd like to add a few more layers of darkness to describe the place where you're trying to be like Jesus.

But remember those office closets with the light left on. Where it's bright, you don't see the light much. But the darker it is, the more the light cannot be missed! The darker the darkness, the more the light shows up! Paul talked about that contrast when he said in Philippians 2:15 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/index.php?search=Philippians+2%3A15;&version=31;&interface=print), "Become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which "you shine like stars in the universe" as you hold out the word of life."

A star can barely be seen in a bright sky. But up against the stark darkness of the night, a star is something beautiful. That's supposed to be you in the universe where God's put you. So don't keep trying to hang out in places where there is already plenty of light; places where you feel safe because they're Christian places. You're needed where it's dark, where the lost people are. You can enjoy believers in heaven forever. Your job now is to get more people to go to heaven with you!

We always told our kids as they left for school in the morning, "Go MAD today." And that means "make a difference!" That's what Jesus is saying to you each morning, "Go Make a Difference there." Be a living alternative in a place where truth doesn't matter, always tell the truth. In a place where dirty is cool, don't dignify the dirty. In a place where people cut each other up, you build people up! In a place where it's everybody for himself, you be the one who always puts other people first. In a place where Christianity is laughed at or misunderstood, you let them know what Jesus is like!

Don't be intimidated by the darkness - you are the most imp

ortant person in that dark place because you have the light of Jesus. Without you, darkness is all there is. Humbly, gently, lovingly, be the light there. You are one light that should never be turned out!

Isaiah 40 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: EVERY DAY CAN BE A CHRISTMAS - December 26, 2023 When Christ was born, so was our hope. This is why I love Christmas. The event invites us to believe the wildest of promises. He did away with every barrier, fence, sin, bent, debt, and grave. Anything that might keep us from him was demolished. He only awaits our word to walk through the door. Invite him in. Escort him to the seat of honor, and pull out his chair. Clear the table; clear the calendar. Call the kids and neighbors. Christmas is here. Christ is here.

One request from you, and God will do again what he did then: scatter the night with everlasting light. He’ll be born in you. Let “Silent Night” be sung! Every heart can be a manger. Every day can be a Christmas. The Christmas miracle—a yearlong celebration!

Isaiah 40

The Message

Messages of Comfort

Prepare for God’s Arrival

40 

1-2 “Comfort, oh comfort my people,”
    says your God.
“Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem,
    but also make it very clear
That she has served her sentence,
    that her sin is taken care of—forgiven!
She’s been punished enough and more than enough,
    and now it’s over and done with.”

3-5 

Thunder in the desert!
    “Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road straight and smooth,
    a highway fit for our God.
Fill in the valleys,
    level off the hills,
Smooth out the ruts,
    clear out the rocks.
Then God’s bright glory will shine
    and everyone will see it.
    Yes. Just as God has said.”

6-8 

A voice says, “Shout!”
    I said, “What shall I shout?”

“These people are nothing but grass,
    their love fragile as wildflowers.
The grass withers, the wildflowers fade,
    if God so much as puffs on them.
    Aren’t these people just so much grass?
True, the grass withers and the wildflowers fade,
    but our God’s Word stands firm and forever.”

9-11 

Climb a high mountain, Zion.
    You’re the preacher of good news.
Raise your voice. Make it good and loud, Jerusalem.
    You’re the preacher of good news.
    Speak loud and clear. Don’t be timid!
Tell the cities of Judah,
    “Look! Your God!”
Look at him! God, the Master, comes in power,
    ready to go into action.
He is going to pay back his enemies
    and reward those who have loved him.
Like a shepherd, he will care for his flock,
    gathering the lambs in his arms,
Hugging them as he carries them,
    leading the nursing ewes to good pasture.

The Creator of All You Can See or Imagine

12-17 

Who has scooped up the ocean
    in his two hands,
    or measured the sky between his thumb and little finger,
Who has put all the earth’s dirt in one of his baskets,
    weighed each mountain and hill?
Who could ever have told God what to do
    or taught him his business?
What expert would he have gone to for advice,
    what school would he attend to learn justice?
What god do you suppose might have taught him what he knows,
    showed him how things work?
Why, the nations are but a drop in a bucket,
    a mere smudge on a window.
Watch him sweep up the islands
    like so much dust off the floor!
There aren’t enough trees in Lebanon
    nor enough animals in those vast forests
    to furnish adequate fuel and offerings for his worship.
All the nations add up to simply nothing before him—
    less than nothing is more like it. A minus.

18-20 

So who even comes close to being like God?
    To whom or what can you compare him?
Some no-god idol? Ridiculous!
    It’s made in a workshop, cast in bronze,
Given a thin veneer of gold,
    and draped with silver filigree.
Or, perhaps someone will select a fine wood—
    olive wood, say—that won’t rot,
Then hire a woodcarver to make a no-god,
    giving special care to its base so it won’t tip over!

21-24 

Have you not been paying attention?
    Have you not been listening?
Haven’t you heard these stories all your life?
    Don’t you understand the foundation of all things?
God sits high above the round ball of earth.
    The people look like mere ants.
He stretches out the skies like a canvas—
    yes, like a tent canvas to live under.
He ignores what all the princes say and do.
    The rulers of the earth count for nothing.
Princes and rulers don’t amount to much.
    Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted,
They shrivel when God blows on them.
    Like flecks of chaff, they’re gone with the wind.

25-26 

“So—who is like me?
    Who holds a candle to me?” says The Holy.
Look at the night skies:
    Who do you think made all this?
Who marches this army of stars out each night,
    counts them off, calls each by name
—so magnificent! so powerful!—
    and never overlooks a single one?

27-31 

Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
    or, whine, Israel, saying,
“God has lost track of me.
    He doesn’t care what happens to me”?
Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.
    He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.
    And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired,
    gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out,
    young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
    They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don’t get tired,
    they walk and don’t lag behind.

Our Daily Bread Devotional 

Today's Scripture: Luke 2:15–20 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Insight

Luke tells us that “all who heard” what had been told to the shepherds about Jesus’ birth “were amazed” (2:18). In the gospel of Luke, amazement or astonishment is a recurring description of how people respond to God’s actions (see 1:63; 2:33; 4:22; 8:25; 9:43; 11:14). Amazement is the appropriate and natural response to His wonders. But such amazement isn’t identical with belief. For example, in Luke 24:41 (https://biblia.com/bible/niv/Luke%2024.41), after Christ’s appearance to His disciples after His death, we’re told “they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement.” It’s possible that Luke emphasizes that “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (2:19) to capture the value of not only reacting with amazement but also continually and daily wrestling with the realities of what God is doing. Luke’s comment on Mary’s pondering could also indicate Luke relied on her testimony (see 1:2-3) for his 

account of the shepherds.

By: Monica La Rose 

The Day after Christmas

Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Luke 2:19 

After all the joy of Christmas Day, the following day felt like a letdown. We’d stayed overnight with friends but hadn’t slept well. Then our car broke down as we were driving home. Then it started to snow. We had abandoned the car and taxied home in the snow and sleet feeling blah.

We’re not the only ones who’ve felt low after Christmas Day. Whether it’s from excessive eating, the way carols suddenly disappear from the radio, or the fact that the gifts we bought last week are now on sale half price, the magic of Christmas Day can quickly dissipate!

The Bible never tells us about the day after Jesus’ birth. But we can imagine that after walking to Bethlehem, scrambling for accommodation, Mary’s pain in giving birth, and having shepherds drop by unannounced (Luke 2:4–18 (https://biblia.com/bible/niv/Luke%202.4%E2%80%9318)), Mary and Joseph were exhausted. Yet as Mary cradled her newborn, I can imagine her reflecting on her angelic visitation (1:30–33), Elizabeth’s blessing (vv. 42–45), and her own realization of her baby’s destiny (vv. 46–55). Mary “pondered” such things in her heart (2:19), which must’ve lightened the tiredness and physical pain of that day.

We’ll all have “blah” days, perhaps even the day after Christmas. Like Mary, let’s face them by pondering the One who came into our world, forever b

rightening it with His presence.

By: Sheridan Voysey

Reflect & Pray

When are you prone to feeling a “low” after a “high”? How can you ponder today all that Jesus has brought into the world?

Dear Jesus, I praise You for entering our dark world, forever brightening my days with Your presence.

My Utmost for His Highest 

December 26, 2023 “Walk in the Light”

By Oswald Chambers (https://utmost.org/oswald-chambers-bio)

If we walk in the light as He is in the light…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. —1 John 1:7 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1%3A7)

To mistake freedom from sin only on the conscious level of our lives for complete deliverance from sin by the atonement through the Cross of Christ is a great error. No one fully knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced at Calvary. The evidence that I have been delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me. For a person to really know what sin is requires the full work and deep touch of the atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the imparting of His absolute perfection.

The Holy Spirit applies or administers the work of the atonement to us in the deep unconscious realm as well as in the conscious realm. And it is not until we truly perceive the unrivaled power of the Spirit in us that we understand the meaning of 1 John 1:7 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+1:7) , which says, “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” This verse does not refer only to conscious sin, but also to the tremendously profound understanding of sin which only the Holy Spirit in me can accomplish.

I must “walk in the light as He is in the light…”— not in the light of my own conscience, but in God’s light. If I will walk there, with nothing held back or hidden, then this amazing truth is revealed to me: “…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses [me] from all sin” so that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke in me. On the conscious level it produces a keen, sorrowful knowledge of what sin really is. The love of God working in me causes me to hate, with the Holy Spirit’s hatred for sin, anything that is n

ot in keeping with God’s holiness. To “walk in the light” means that everything that is of the darkness actually drives me closer to the center of the light.

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

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft, December 26, 2023 THE REASON FOR THE WAIT - #9642

Isn't it amazing how different your second child can be from your first child? Just when you think you've got this parent thing all figured out, God sends you a totally different kid. I remember when you know, our son's family and the kids were born and when they were little. Food was just a necessary evil for our son's oldest, our granddaughter. She can take it or leave it. Since infancy, she hadn't cared much about whether or not she had food. Oh but not her brother! No! The eating machine. Only about a year old, but he was Food King for much of his little life. When he was still supposed to be only having milk, he was following every bite any of us put into our mouth as if to say, "So when do I get some of that stuff?" How did he graduate to crawling? One thing that helped was putting some food across the room. He just needed incentive. He took off on all fours like a firecracker had gone off behind him. One day, his mom was mixing up his next meal, and he was watching and complaining. As she continued to get it ready, he continued to escalate his expressions of impatience and displeasure. By the time his food was ready, we were dealing with a very loud, very insistent protest.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Reason For the Wait."

Our grandson didn't have the words to say it, but he made his desires very clear as his food was being prepared, "I want my food, and I want it NOW!" It's a good thing his mother didn't give in. It wasn't ready yet! Believe me, it wouldn't have been good for him to get what he wanted when he wanted it. It would have been, in plain English, bleaaahhh!

I can't begin to count the times that I've been the same way with God about something I wanted it, I needed it. "What's taking so long, God? I want it, and I want it NOW!" Maybe there's something you've been asking God for, trusting God for. And it's been a while, and it still hasn't come. You want it now, but there's a reason God isn't giving it to you now. It's not ready yet. And it would disappoint you if He gave it to you now.

There's a word that's one of the major keys to God's best, it's a word that is spelled out in our word for today from the Word of God. Psalm 37 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/index.php?search=Psalm+37;&version=31;&interface=print), beginning with verse 5, tells us to: "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this...Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him...Wait for the Lord and keep His way." There's the word that often stands between you and God's best - wait. Part of committing your way to the Lord, of trusting in Him, is to wait until God says it's ready; until God says you're ready. So many people are living today in the heartache of their own impatience. They couldn't wait, so they grabbed what they could have now. And it's been much less than what God was getting ready for them.

Look, you've been waiting for God to come through. You want to be married. You're waiting for Him to answer your prayer about having a child, raising a child. You're waiting for that job, that heart change, that breakthrough, that answer, and it hasn't come yet. Don't panic. Don't let impatience cost you the perfect will of God. Premature babies aren't as healthy as ones that are full-term. Premature solutions aren't healthy either. Wait until it's full-term. Remember the principle of Galatians 4:4 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/index.php?search=Galatians+4%3A4;&version=31;&interface=print), "In the fullness of time, God will

," that's when He'll bring your answer, when it's ready. So stop whimpering, stop whining, stop trying to grab it before it's ready. If you insist on having it now, you're not going to like it!

Isaiah 39 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE WITH US GOD - December 25, 2023

The babe of Bethlehem. Immanuel. Remember the promise of the angel? “‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23 NKJV).

Immanuel. The name appears in the same Hebrew form as it did two thousand years ago. “Immanu” means “with us.” “El” refers to Elohim, or God. Not an “above us God” or a “somewhere in the neighborhood God.” He came as the “with us God.” God with us. Not with the rich or with the religious. But God with us. All of us. Russians, Germans, Buddhists, Mormons, truck drivers, librarians. God with us.

Prophets weren’t enough. Apostles wouldn’t do. Angels won’t suffice. God sent more than miracles and messages. He sent himself; he sent his Son.

Isaiah 39

The Message

There Will Be Nothing Left

39 Sometime later, King Merodach-baladan son of Baladan of Babylon sent messengers with greetings and a gift to Hezekiah. He had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and was now well.

2 Hezekiah received the messengers warmly. He took them on a tour of his royal precincts, proudly showing them all his treasures: silver, gold, spices, expensive oils, all his weapons—everything out on display. There was nothing in his house or kingdom that Hezekiah didn’t show them.

3 Later the prophet Isaiah showed up. He asked Hezekiah, “What were these men up to? What did they say? And where did they come from?”

Hezekiah said, “They came from a long way off, from Babylon.”

4 “And what did they see in your palace?”

“Everything,” said Hezekiah. “I showed them the works, opened all the doors and impressed them with it all.”

5-7 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Now listen to this Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies: I have to warn you, the time is coming when everything in this palace, along with everything your ancestors accumulated before you, will be hauled off to Babylon. God says that there will be nothing left. Nothing. And not only your things but your sons. Some of your sons will be taken into exile, ending up as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

8 Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, “Good. If God says so, it’s good.” Within himself he was thinking, “But surely nothing bad will happen in my lifetime. I’ll enjoy peace and stability as long as I live.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion 

,December 25, 2023

Today's Scripture:

Luke 2:1–7

The Birth of Jesus

2 1-5 About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.

6-7 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.

Insight

Jesus’ birth recorded in Luke 2:1-7 was prophesied in Micah 5:2. Along with this prophecy, the Old Testament contains many other prophecies about His birth and life. In Isaiah 7:14 , we read, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Moreover, Christ would “proclaim good news to the poor” (61:1) and bring miraculous healing (35:5-6; 42:7-9). Also in Isaiah, we read about Jesus’ suffering and purpose: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (53:5). Zechariah prophesied the events of Palm Sunday, that the “king” (Jesus) would come “lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9 And, again in Zechariah, Judas’ betrayal is foretold (11:12-13). Finally, Christ’s kingdom will be everlasting 2 Samuel 7:12-13;Psalm 89:29; Isaiah 9:7. By: Alyson Kieda

The Promise of Christ’s, . . . out of you will come . . . one who will be ruler over Israel.

In November 1962, physicist John W. Mauchly said, “There is no reason to suppose the average boy or girl cannot be master of a personal computer.” Mauchly’s prediction seemed remarkable at the time, but it proved astonishingly accurate. Today, using a computer or handheld device is one of the earliest skills a child learns.

While Mauchly’s prediction has come true, so have much more important predictions—those made in Scripture about the coming of Christ. For example, Micah 5:2 declared, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” God sent Jesus, who arrived in tiny Bethlehem—marking him as from the royal line of David (see Luke 2:4–7.

The same Bible that accurately predicted the first coming of Jesus also promises His return (Acts 1:11). Jesus promised His first followers that He would come back for them (John 14:1–4 ).

This Christmas, as we ponder the accurately

 predicted facts surrounding the birth of Jesus, may we also consider His promised return, and allow Him to prepare us for that majestic moment when we see Him face to face! By: Bill Crowder 

Reflect & Pray

How might you respond in worship to the truth of the prophecies of Christ’s birth? How does His promise to return for us impact your decision-making?

Loving Father, I’m so grateful for the birth of Jesus and His mission of rescue and redemption. Thank You for His certain return for me.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers,December 25, 2023

His Birth and Our New Birth

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us." —Matthew 1:23

December 25

His Birth in History. “…that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35. Jesus Christ was born into this world, not from it. He did not emerge out of history; He came into history from the outside. Jesus Christ is not the best human being the human race can boast of— He is a Being for whom the human race can take no credit at all. He is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate— God coming into human flesh from outside it. His life is the highest and the holiest entering through the most humble of doors. Our Lord’s birth was an advent— the appearance of God in human form.

His Birth in Me. “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you…” (Galatians 4:19 ). Just as our Lord came into human history from outside it, He must also come into me from outside. Have I allowed my personal human life to become a “Bethlehem” for the Son of God? I cannot enter the realm of the kingdom of God unless I am born again from above by a birth totally unlike physical birth. “You must be born again” (John 3:7 ). This is not a command, but a fact based on the authority of God. The evidence of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that “Christ is for

med” in me. And once “Christ is formed” in me, His nature immediately begins to work through me.

God Evident in the Flesh.

 This is what is made so profoundly possible for you and for me through the redemption of man by Jesus Christ.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

I have no right to say I believe in God unless I order my life as under His all-seeing Eye. Disciples Indeed, 385 L

Bible in a Year: Zephaniah 1-3; Revelation 16

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft, December 25, 2023

STOPPING FOR YOU THIS CHRISTMAS - #9641

Like most Americans, I just about O.D. on the news. No matter what it's about! It could be news about elections, or some economic problem, or eruptions in the Middle East. It's all important, but it's not exactly in the "joy to the world" category.

So I absolutely loved the feel-good story out of New York City that went viral across Facebook a couple of years ago. It was about the friendly policeman and the freezing homeless man. And it had "Christmas Story" written all over it.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Stopping for You This Christmas."

In case you missed it, a young police officer on patrol in Times Square, came upon a homeless man, who was sitting there barefoot on the sidewalk. It was one of those "two pair of socks" night for the officer and even then his feet were freezing. He couldn't imagine a man sitting there barefoot all night. So the man in blue went inside a nearby store and bought the homeless man a $100 pair of boots with his own money. When he gave those boots to that barefoot man, well, you can only imagine the joy.

It would have been one of life's invisible acts of kindness except for a tourist who was there with a cell phone camera. She was so moved with what she was watching, she snapped the picture, which was then seen by millions of people. Maybe because it was the Christmas season, that poignant scene triggered a flashback to something my personal Hero did over and over again. It's one of the many things that makes me love Him. That would be Jesus.

The incident I remember took place when Jesus was entering a town, surrounded by crowds that were really anxious to see Him. The Bible says there was a blind beggar who had heard that "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." Much to the aggravation of the people around Jesus, he started shouting loudly, "Jesus, have mercy on me!"

A lot of annoyed people there told him in no uncertain terms to shut up. So he just shouted louder. And the blind man was a growing nuisance. He was an embarrassment. After all, they had a "celebrity" in town. Then two little words that tell me so much about Jesus, and they are our word for today from the Word of God. Just two words: Luke 18:40; "Jesus stopped." Nobody else stopped, but Jesus did. Not for the mayor. Not for the millionaires. Not for the ministers, but for the miserable. The guy everyone else walked by or walked over. That's who Jesus stops everything for. And the first thing that blind man ever saw was the face of Jesus. Because Jesus did what only He could do; He gave that man his sight.

The Bible's filled with stories of people nobody would stop for except Jesus. Marginalized people like blind Bartimaeus. Obnoxious people like Zacchaeus, the hated tax collector.

For 2,000 years, Jesus has been stopping for the lonely, the losers, and the lost. And letting them know that someone knows their name. Someone hears their cry. Someone sees them. Someone really loves them. And it's God's one and only Son. He sees me; He sees a world lost in sin, away from God, headed for an awful eternity. And He does what no one else could do. What no religion could ever do. He pays for my sins with His blood. In the words of the Bible, "He was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was beaten so that we might have peace; He was lashed and we were healed!" (Isaiah 53:5.

You know, Jesus stopped for me when my soul was destitute, when my soul was doomed. Like the hymn says, "Once I was lost, but now I am found. I was blind, but now I see." You know, He might be passing your way today. Would you grab His hand today to begin your personal relationship with the man who loved you enough to die for you?

If you want to know how; if I could possibly help you, please 

check out our website today 

ANewStory.com. He's stopping for you, He sees you, He loves you. He's moving in close. On the day we celebrate Him coming into this world, let Him come into your life.