Ezekiel 44, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: VICTORY IS SECURE - September 30, 2024

Some years ago I attended a San Antonio Spurs basketball game. It was the final game of the regular season, and it was unique because it did not matter. The Spurs had already won their division. The game had no bearing on their standings.

The game intrigued this preacher. I saw a sermon illustration waiting to happen. Christians occupy the same spot that the Spurs did. According to the Bible, we’ve already won. According to prophecy, victory is secure. According to the message of grace and the death of Christ on the cross, no one can snatch us from our Father’s hand.

So how do we behave in the meantime? Well the Spurs were a good example. They were relaxed, confident, and happy, and they won the game. In these last days show up, play hard, and be happy. After all, the victory is secure.

What Happens Next

Ezekiel 44

Sanctuary Rules

1  44 Then the man brought me back to the outside gate complex of the Sanctuary that faces east. But it was shut.

2–3  God spoke to me: “This gate is shut and it’s to stay shut. No one is to go through it because God, the God of Israel, has gone through it. It stays shut. Only the prince, because he’s the prince, may sit there to eat in the presence of God. He is to enter the gate complex through the porch and leave by the same way.”

4  The man led me through the north gate to the front of the Temple. I looked, and—oh!—the bright Glory of God filling the Temple of God! I fell on my face in worship.

5  God said to me, “Son of man, get a grip on yourself. Use your eyes, use your ears, pay careful attention to everything I tell you about the ordinances of this Temple of God, the way all the laws work, instructions regarding it and all the entrances and exits of the Sanctuary.

6–9  “Tell this bunch of rebels, this family Israel, ‘Message of God, the Master: No more of these vile obscenities, Israel, dragging irreverent and unrepentant outsiders, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, into my Sanctuary, feeding them the sacrificial offerings as if it were the food for a neighborhood picnic. With all your vile obscenities, you’ve broken trust with me, the solemn covenant I made with you. You haven’t taken care of my holy things. You’ve hired out the work to foreigners who care nothing for this place, my Sanctuary. No irreverent and unrepentant aliens, uncircumcised in heart or flesh, not even the ones who live among Israelites, are to enter my Sanctuary.’

10–14  “The Levites who walked off and left me, along with everyone else—all Israel—who took up with all the no-god idols, will pay for everything they did wrong. From now on they’ll do only the menial work in the Sanctuary: guard the gates and help out with the Temple chores—and also kill the sacrificial animals for the people and serve them. Because they acted as priests to the no-god idols and made my people Israel stumble and fall, I’ve taken an oath to punish them. Decree of God, the Master. Yes, they’ll pay for what they’ve done. They’re fired from the priesthood. No longer will they come into my presence and take care of my holy things. No more access to The Holy Place! They’ll have to live with what they’ve done, carry the shame of their vile and obscene lives. From now on, their job is to sweep up and run errands. That’s it.

15–16  “But the Levitical priests who descend from Zadok, who faithfully took care of my Sanctuary when everyone else went off and left me, are going to come into my presence and serve me. They are going to carry out the priestly work of offering the solemn sacrifices of worship. Decree of God, the Master. They’re the only ones permitted to enter my Sanctuary. They’re the only ones to approach my table and serve me, accompanying me in my work.

17–19  “When they enter the gate complex of the inside courtyard, they are to dress in linen. No woolens are to be worn while serving at the gate complex of the inside courtyard or inside the Temple itself. They’re to wear linen turbans on their heads and linen underclothes—nothing that makes them sweat. When they go out into the outside courtyard where the people gather, they must first change out of the clothes they have been serving in, leaving them in the sacred rooms where they change to their everyday clothes, so that they don’t trivialize their holy work by the way they dress.

20  “They are to neither shave their heads nor let their hair become unkempt, but must keep their hair trimmed and neat.

21  “No priest is to drink on the job—no wine while in the inside courtyard.

22  “Priests are not to marry widows or divorcees, but only Israelite virgins or widows of priests.

23  “Their job is to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, to show them how to discern between unclean and clean.

24  “When there’s a difference of opinion, the priests will arbitrate. They’ll decide on the basis of my judgments, laws, and statutes. They are in charge of making sure the appointed feasts are honored and my Sabbaths kept holy in the ways I’ve commanded.

25–27  “A priest must not contaminate himself by going near a corpse. But when the dead person is his father or mother, son or daughter, brother or unmarried sister, he can approach the dead. But after he has been purified, he must wait another seven days. Then, when he returns to the inside courtyard of the Sanctuary to do his priestly work in the Sanctuary, he must first offer a sin offering for himself. Decree of God, the Master.

28–30  “As to priests owning land, I am their inheritance. Don’t give any land in Israel to them. I am their ‘land,’ their inheritance. They’ll take their meals from the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings. Everything in Israel offered to God in worship is theirs. The best of everything grown, plus all special gifts, comes to the priests. All that is given in worship to God goes to them. Serve them first. Serve from your best and your home will be blessed.

31  “Priests are not to eat any meat from bird or animal unfit for ordinary human consumption, such as carcasses found dead on the road or in the field.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Monday, September 30, 2024

Today's Scripture

Zechariah 4:6-10

“This is God’s Message to Zerubbabel: ‘You can’t force these things. They only come about through my Spirit,’ says God-of-the-Angel-Armies. ‘So, big mountain, who do you think you are? Next to Zerubbabel you’re nothing but a molehill. He’ll proceed to set the Cornerstone in place, accompanied by cheers: Yes! Yes! Do it!’ ”

8–10  After that, the Word of God came to me: “Zerubbabel started rebuilding this Temple and he will complete it. That will be your confirmation that God-of-the-Angel-Armies sent me to you. Does anyone dare despise this day of small beginnings? They’ll change their tune when they see Zerubbabel setting the last stone in place!”

Going back to the vision, the Messenger-Angel said, “The seven lamps are the eyes of God probing the dark corners of the world like searchlights.”

Insight

Zechariah was one of Israel’s post-exilic prophets. This means his ministry took place after some of the people returned following their seventy years of captivity in Babylon. The Talmud—a written rabbinical commentary on Jewish history and law—says that Zechariah, along with Ezra and Nehemiah, was of the Great Synagogue. This was an assembly of 120 of the leading rabbis and scholars of the day. Zechariah was a Levite born in Babylon and is referred to in Ezra 5:1 and 6:14 as well as in Nehemiah 12:16. Like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he was both a prophet and a priest. The book of Zechariah contains a significant amount of messianic prophecy. The prophet uses messages of encouragement to call the people to repentance and, having physically returned to the land, to spiritually return to God. We too can be challenged spiritually as we consider how wonderful God is.  By: Bill Crowder

“Small” Miracles

Do not despise these small beginnings. Zechariah 4:10 nlt

At our wedding shower, our shy friend Dave stood in a corner clutching an oblong, tissue-wrapped object. When his turn came to present his gift, he brought it forward. Evan and I unwrapped it to discover a hand-carved piece of wood containing perfect oblong concentric woodgrain circles and the engraved sentence, “Some of God’s miracles are small.” The plaque has hung in our home for forty-five years, reminding us again and again that God is at work even in the small things. Paying a bill. Providing a meal. Healing a cold. All tallying up to an impressive record of God’s provision.

Through the prophet Zechariah, the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel received a similar message from God regarding the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. After returning from their Babylonian captivity, a season of slow progress began, and the Israelites grew discouraged. “Do not despise these small beginnings,” God declared (Zechariah 4:10 nlt). He accomplishes His desires through us and sometimes in spite of us. “ ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (v. 6).

When we grow weary at the apparent smallness of God’s work in and around us, may we remember that some of His miracles may be “small.” He uses the small things to build toward His greater purposes.  By:  Elisa Morgan

Reflect & Pray

Where have you seen God’s small miracles in your life? How has He used small things to provide for your needs and the needs of those around you?

Dear God, thank You for working Your small miracles in my life. Please help me to notice all Your works!

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Monday, September 30, 2024

The Commission of the Call

I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions. — Colossians 1:24

The call of God is utterly unique. We think we are answering God’s call when we devote ourselves to spiritual service, but once we get into a right relationship with him, we see how wrong we’ve been. When God calls, he calls us to something we’ve never dreamed of before. In one radiant, flashing moment, we see what he wants us to do—to “fill up” in our flesh “what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions”—and we are riveted with a terrific pain.

The call of God has nothing to do with personal holiness. It’s about being made broken bread and poured-out wine. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink whole grapes. But God can never crush those who resist the fingers he uses to do it. Those fingers may belong to someone we dislike, or to some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit. We think, “If only God would use his own fingers to crush me, and do it in some special, heavenly way!” We have to learn that we cannot choose the scene or the means of our martyrdom.

I wonder what kind of fingers God has been using to squeeze you. Have you been hard as a marble and escaped? If God had persisted in squeezing you while you were still unripe, the wine would have been remarkably bitter. If you wish to be a person whom God can easily crush, you must allow his presence to govern every element of your natural life and to break those elements in his service.

We have to be rightly related to God before we can be broken in his hands. Keep right with him, let him do with you as he likes, and you will find that he is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit his other children.

Isaiah 9-10; Ephesians 3

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Wherever the providence of God may dump us down, in a slum, in a shop, in the desert, we have to labour along the line of His direction. Never allow this thought—“I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly can be of no use where you are not! Wherever He has engineered your circumstances, pray.

So Send I You, 1325 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Monday, September 30, 2024

YOUR MUSIC AND YOUR MASTER - #9841

It was one of the great showdowns of my life - over a jar of peanut butter. Yeah. See, I was in love with who would become my "bride" for two and a half years before we got married, and because I loved her I began to change some things before we got married. I lost some weight; I changed my schedule to make sure there was a little time for her in there. I changed my after shave because there was one she liked. I became interested in her friends. My love was steadily changing one area after another in my life, until the day we went grocery shopping together for the first time.

Yeah. See, there was tension over whether to buy the expensive name brand of various items which I wanted to do, or the less expensive store brand which she had been raised to do. Since it was going to be "our" money when we got married, it got to be pretty tense. It came to a head over uh... yeah, a jar of peanut butter. My name brand versus her store brand. Suddenly I had hit a wall in how far this love thing was going to go, and the line was what I wanted in my favorite foods. Fortunately, I ended up deciding that she was more important than peanut butter or soft drinks. Good choice huh? But every important love reaches a test point, and it's surprising what the issue often is.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Music and Your Master."

Well, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Psalm 40, and I'll begin reading at verse 1. It's David's personal testimony, "I waited patiently for the Lord" he says. "He turned to me; He heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God."

Now, David indicates here a very personal, very practical thing that the Lord changed when the Lord took over his life. David says He changed my music. "He put a new song in my mouth; a hymn of praise to our God." Interestingly enough, that area of music is for many a major test of how much they love their Lord. Will I let Jesus affect my music... what I listen to?

Honestly, for many followers of Christ, that's the equivalent of the peanut butter test in my love for my, then to become, wife. Do I love Jesus enough to let Him affect this - to let Him change my music? You say, "Come on, that's a teenage issue, right, that music stuff?" Not exclusively.

Music is one of the most powerful influences in our lives. It can make us feel romantic, or patriotic, or religious, sad. Music just drives in ideas. As one great composer said, "I loved music from being a young boy, because it bypasses the brain. It goes straight to the heart." That's true! Commercials use music all the time to drive messages into our head. See, if I'm going to live right, I've got to think right. And if I'm going to have to think right, I've got to get right input, which means I need to submit my music - this most powerful input - to the lordship of Christ. It doesn't matter if its country music, easy listening music, rock music, or rap music, whatever. The devil has planted his values and his messages in many styles of music. And honestly, it's often a separate compartment in many of our lives where we've put up a "No Trespassing" sign for Jesus. We say, "Well, that's just my entertainment." No! No, it's an important part of who you are. So important you won't let Jesus touch it.

He's looking at that locked closet and He's asking, "May I go in there? Didn't I die for that too?" Will you open up to the Lord this huge area of the music you listen to, who your music heroes are? Don't let it be an idol that He can't touch. Jesus is saying, "Let Me into your music."

Only you can answer the question that this raises: "Do I love Him this much?"

Ezekiel 43, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: You Matter to God

What matters to you—matters to God! You probably think that’s true when it comes to the big stuff like death, disease, sin, and disaster. But what about the smaller things?  What about grouchy bosses or flat tires?  What about broken dishes, late flights, toothaches, or a crashed hard drive? Do these matter to God?

Let me tell you who you are! In fact, let me proclaim who you are. The Bible says you are an “heir of God and a co-heir with Christ” (Romans 8:17). You have “a crown that will last forever” (1 Cor. 9:25). You were “chosen before the creation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).

But more than anything else is the simple fact—you are God’s child. 1 John 3:1 says “we are called children of God.  And we really are His children.” I love that:  we really are His children!

If something is important to you—it’s important to God!

From Lucado Inspirational Reader

Ezekiel 43

The Meaning of the Temple

1–3  43 The man brought me to the east gate. Oh! The bright Glory of the God of Israel rivered out of the east sounding like the roar of floodwaters, and the earth itself glowed with the bright Glory. It looked just like what I had seen when he came to destroy the city, exactly like what I had seen earlier at the Kebar River. And again I fell, face to the ground.

4–5  The bright Glory of God poured into the Temple through the east gate. The Spirit put me on my feet and led me to the inside courtyard and—oh! the bright Glory of God filled the Temple!

6–9  I heard someone speaking to me from inside the Temple while the man stood beside me. He said, “Son of man, this is the place for my throne, the place I’ll plant my feet. This is the place where I’ll live with the Israelites forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again drag my holy name through the mud with their whoring and the no-god idols their kings set up at all the wayside shrines. When they set up their worship shrines right alongside mine with only a thin wall between them, they dragged my holy name through the mud with their obscene and vile worship. Is it any wonder that I destroyed them in anger? So let them get rid of their whoring ways and the stinking no-god idols introduced by their kings and I’ll move in and live with them forever.

10–11  “Son of man, tell the people of Israel all about the Temple so they’ll be dismayed by their wayward lives. Get them to go over the layout. That will bring them up short. Show them the whole plan of the Temple, its ins and outs, the proportions, the regulations, and the laws. Draw a picture so they can see the design and meaning and live by its design and intent.

12  “This is the law of the Temple: As it radiates from the top of the mountain, everything around it becomes holy ground. Yes, this is law, the meaning, of the Temple.

13–14  “These are the dimensions of the altar, using the long (twenty-one-inch) ruler. The gutter at its base is twenty-one inches deep and twenty-one inches wide, with a four-inch lip around its edge.

14–15  “The height of the altar is three and a half feet from the base to the first ledge and twenty inches wide. From the first ledge to the second ledge it is seven feet high and twenty-one inches wide. The altar hearth is another seven feet high. Four horns stick upward from the hearth twenty-one inches high.

16–17  “The top of the altar, the hearth, is square, twenty-one by twenty-one feet. The upper ledge is also square, twenty-four and a half feet on each side, with a ten-and-a-half-inch lip and a twenty-one-inch-wide gutter all the way around.

“The steps of the altar ascend from the east.”

18  Then the man said to me, “Son of man, God, the Master, says: ‘These are the ordinances for conduct at the altar when it is built, for sacrificing burnt offerings and sprinkling blood on it.

19–21  “ ‘For a sin offering, give a bull to the priests, the Levitical priests who are from the family of Zadok who come into my presence to serve me. Take some of its blood and smear it on the four horns of the altar that project from the four corners of the top ledge and all around the lip. That’s to purify the altar and make it fit for the sacrifice. Then take the bull for the sin offerings and burn it in the place set aside for this in the courtyard outside the Sanctuary.

22–24  “ ‘On the second day, offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering. Purify the altar the same as you purified it for the bull. Then, when you have purified it, offer a bull without blemish and a ram without blemish from the flock. Present them before God. Sprinkle salt on them and offer them as a burnt offering to God.

25–26  “ ‘For seven days, prepare a goat for a sin offering daily, and also a bull and a ram from the flock, animals without blemish. For seven days the priests are to get the altar ready for its work, purifying it. This is how you dedicate it.

27  “ ‘After these seven days of dedication, from the eighth day on, the priests will present your burnt offerings and your peace offerings. And I’ll accept you with pleasure, with delight! Decree of God, the Master.’ ”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Today's Scripture

Proverbs 4:20-27

Learn It by Heart

20–22  Dear friend, listen well to my words;

tune your ears to my voice.

Keep my message in plain view at all times.

Concentrate! Learn it by heart!

Those who discover these words live, really live;

body and soul, they’re bursting with health.

23–27  Keep vigilant watch over your heart;

that’s where life starts.

Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth;

avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip.

Keep your eyes straight ahead;

ignore all sideshow distractions.

Watch your step,

and the road will stretch out smooth before you.

Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.

Insight

Proverbs 4 paints a picture of a life guided and nourished by “the way of wisdom” (v. 11). To be a disciple of wisdom means to let “one’s whole body” (v. 22) be transformed by it—our ears (v. 20), eyes (vv. 21, 25), feet (vv. 26-27), and, most importantly, our heart (v. 23). We’re to cling with unswerving devotion to the way of wisdom, to “guard it well, for it is [our] life” (v. 13).

Along with the prophet Ezekiel’s vision of a river of life (Ezekiel 47:1-12), Jesus may have had in mind the imagery of Proverbs 4:23, of all life flowing from our hearts, when He said: “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38). Christ is God’s wisdom made human (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30).  By: Monica La Rose

Heart Healthy

Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23

The human heart is an amazing organ. This fist-sized pumping station weighs between 7 and 15 ounces. Daily it beats around 100,000 times and pumps 2,000 gallons of blood through the 60,000 miles of blood vessels in our bodies! With such a strategic assignment and heavy workload, it’s understandable why heart health is central to the well-being of the entire body. Medical science encourages us to pursue healthy habits because the condition of our heart and the quality of our health go together.

While medical science speaks authoritatively about our physical hearts, God speaks with even greater authority about a “heart” of another kind. He addresses the mental, emotional, spiritual, and moral “center” of our being. Because the heart is the central processing unit of life, it must be protected: “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). Safeguarding our hearts will help us with our speech (v. 24), compel us to be discerning with our eyes (v. 25), and choose the best paths for our feet (v. 27). Regardless of age or stage of life, when our hearts are guarded, our lives are preserved, our relationships are protected, and God is honored. By:  Arthur Jackson

Reflect & Pray

What do your lifestyle and habits reveal about the condition of your heart? If you haven’t prayed to God for a change of heart, what’s keeping you from doing that today?

Search me, dear God, and know my heart; create in me a clean heart. Let me hide Your truth in my heart that I might not sin against You.

For further study, read Grace: Accepting God’s Gift to You.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Sunday, September 29, 2024

The Consciousness of the Call

I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! — 1 Corinthians 9:16

We are prone to forgetting the mystical, supernatural quality of the touch of God. If you can tell others where and when you received the call of God and all about what it was like, I question whether you’ve ever truly received it. The call to preach doesn’t come in a way that’s easy to describe; it’s much more supernatural. The call may come with a sudden thunderclap or with a gradual dawning, but however it comes, it comes with the undercurrent of the supernatural, something that cannot be put into words. It’s always accompanied by a glow.

“I chose you and appointed you” (John 15:16). At any moment, you may break into a sudden conscious awareness of this surprising, supernatural call that has taken hold of your life. The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification; it isn’t because you are saved and sanctified that you’ve been called to preach. The call to preach is entirely different. Paul describes it as a necessity, a compulsion, placed upon him: “I am compelled to preach.”

If you’ve been obliterating the great supernatural call of God in your life, review your circumstances and see where you’ve failed to put God first. Have you placed him after your idea of Christian service or your desire to use your natural abilities? God had no competition for first place in Paul’s life. Paul realized the call of God and devoted all his strength to answering it.

When someone is called by God, it doesn’t matter how difficult their circumstances are. Every circumstantial force that has been at work will serve God’s purposes in the end. Once you agree to answer the call, God will bring not only your conscious life but also the deeper regions of your life into harmony with his purposes.

Isaiah 7-8; Ephesians 2

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. 

Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L

Ezekiel 42, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: Come to Me

How does a person get relief from shame, embarrassment, anger?

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, "Come to Me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest.  Accept my teachings and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your lives. . ."

I can see you shaking your head.  I've tried that.  I've read the Bible.  I've sat on the pew-but I've never received relief. Could it be you went to religion and you didn't go to God? Could it be you went to a church, but never saw Christ?

"Come to Me" the verse reads. Jesus is the solution for weariness of the soul. Go to Him. Admit you have soul secrets you've never dealt with. He already knows what they are.

Go to Him! He's just waiting for you to ask Him to help!

 From When God Whispers Your Name

Ezekiel 42

The man led me north into the outside courtyard and brought me to the rooms that are in front of the open space and the house facing north. The length of the house on the north was one hundred seventy-five feet, and its width eighty-seven and a half feet. Across the thirty-five feet that separated the inside courtyard from the paved walkway at the edge of the outside courtyard, the rooms rose level by level for three stories. In front of the rooms on the inside was a hallway seventeen and a half feet wide and one hundred seventy-five feet long. Its entrances were from the north. The upper rooms themselves were narrower, their galleries being wider than on the first and second floors of the building. The rooms on the third floor had no pillars like the pillars in the outside courtyard and were smaller than the rooms on the first and second floors. There was an outside wall parallel to the rooms and the outside courtyard. It fronted the rooms for eighty-seven and a half feet. The row of rooms facing the outside courtyard was eighty-seven and a half feet long. The row on the side nearest the Sanctuary was one hundred seventy-five feet long. The first-floor rooms had their entrance from the east, coming in from the outside courtyard.

10–12  On the south side along the length of the courtyard’s outside wall and fronting on the Temple courtyard were rooms with a walkway in front of them. These were just like the rooms on the north—same exits and dimensions—with the main entrance from the east leading to the hallway and the doors to the rooms the same as those on the north side. The design on the south was a mirror image of that on the north.

13–14  Then he said to me, “The north and south rooms adjacent to the open area are holy rooms where the priests who come before God eat the holy offerings. There they place the holy offerings—grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings. These are set-apart rooms, holy space. After the priests have entered the Sanctuary, they must not return to the outside courtyard and mingle among the people until they change the sacred garments in which they minister and put on their regular clothes.”

15–16  After he had finished measuring what was inside the Temple area, he took me out the east gate and measured it from the outside. Using his measuring stick, he measured the east side: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

17  He measured the north side: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

18  He measured the south side: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

19  Last of all he went to the west side and measured it: eight hundred seventy-five feet.

20  He measured the wall on all four sides. Each wall was eight hundred seventy-five feet. The walls separated the holy from the ordinary.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Today's Scripture

Galatians 1:1-5

 I, Paul, and my companions in faith here, send greetings to the Galatian churches. My authority for writing to you does not come from any popular vote of the people, nor does it come through the appointment of some human higher-up. It comes directly from Jesus the Messiah and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. I’m God-commissioned. So I greet you with the great words, grace and peace! We know the meaning of those words because Jesus Christ rescued us from this evil world we’re in by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. God’s plan is that we all experience that rescue. Glory to God forever! Oh, yes!

Insight

In Galatians, Paul refers to Jesus as our rescuer (1:3-5) and deliverer (5:1). The apostle uses a variety of terms in his other writings to describe what Christ accomplished in His rescue mission. He provides “peace with God” (Romans 5:1); He’s “our Passover lamb” (1 Corinthians 5:7), our “Savior” (Ephesians 5:23), and redeemer (Titus 2:14). The author of Hebrews describes Him as our “great high priest” (Hebrews 4:14). The common thread of these images and metaphors is that Jesus rectifies something that’s wrong. The parables that He told in Luke 15 of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son (more commonly known as the prodigal son) have a similar theme of rescue. Christ described His own work by saying, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (19:10).  By: J.R. Hudberg

Search and Rescue

[Jesus] gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age. Galatians 1:4

Some friends went boating in the English Channel, hoping the forecast for stormy weather would change. But the winds rose, and the waves became choppy, threatening the safety of their vessel, so they radioed for help to the RNLI (the Royal National Lifeboat Institution). After some tense moments, they spotted their rescuers in the distance and realized with relief they’d soon be safe. As my friend reflected gratefully afterward, “Whether or not people ignore the rules of the sea, the RNLI still comes to the rescue.”

As he recounted the story, I thought about how Jesus leads God’s search-and-rescue mission. He came to earth to become a man, living as one of us. Through His death and resurrection, He provided us with a rescue plan when our sin and disobedience separated us from God. This truth is emphasized by Paul, when writing to the church at Galatia: “The Lord Jesus Christ . . . gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age” (Galatians 1:3-4). Paul reminded the Galatians of the gift of new life they received through Jesus’ death so that they would honor God day by day.

Jesus, our rescuer, willingly died to save us from being lost. Because He did, we have life in the kingdom of God, and in gratitude we can share the life-saving news with those in our community. By:  Amy Boucher Pye

Reflect & Pray

How do you express thanks for your rescue? With whom can you share the good news?

Dear Jesus, You give the gift of life and salvation. Please help me to receive Your love and give it to others.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Saturday, September 28, 2024

The “Go” of Unconditional Identification

“One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” — Mark 10:21

The rich young ruler in this verse was driven by a passion to be perfect. When he saw the personal holiness of Jesus Christ, the ruler wanted to be like him. But personal holiness is never what our Lord puts first when he calls a disciple. What he puts first is the absolute annihilation of my right to myself in favor of my identification with him. Jesus Christ wants me to be in a relationship with him in which there is no other relationship. That is why he says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother . . . such a person cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Discipleship has nothing to do with perfection, nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. It has everything to do with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ. This is what our Lord was expressing when he told the ruler to go and sell everything. Very few of us understand this absolute “go” of abandonment.

“Jesus looked at him and loved him” (Mark 10:21). To receive the look of Jesus is to have a heart broken forever from allegiance to anyone or anything else. Has Jesus ever looked at you? His look transforms and transfixes. Where I am soft with God is where the Lord has looked at me. If instead I am hard and vindictive, insistent on my own way, certain that the other person is in the wrong, it’s a sign that whole regions of my nature have never been transformed by his gaze.

“One thing you lack . . .” The only good thing, from Jesus Christ’s point of view, is union with himself, and nothing in between.

“Sell everything you have.” I must reduce myself until I’m a mere conscious being. I must renounce possessions of all kinds. I do this not to save my soul (only one thing saves me: absolute reliance on Jesus Christ), but to follow my Lord.

“Come, follow me.”

Isaiah 5-6; Ephesians 1

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God. 

Not Knowing Whither, 903 R

2 Peter 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: OUR FATHER HAS A PLAN - September 27, 2024

Just moments prior to his ascension into heaven, the followers of Christ inquired, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6 NKJV). Christ didn’t correct their kingdom conception. Could it be the apostles were correct? That Jesus will establish a kingdom on earth? That he will bless Israel?

Examine the itinerary of your journey home, and you will find ten centuries reserved by God for him to do what he promised to do—establish Eden. Place your ear upon the pages of your Bible and you will hear the hoofbeats of a coming king. A glorious day awaits God’s children. It includes an interlude of earthly abundance, a thousand year reign of Jesus. It most certainly includes an eternity of joy in God’s presence. Our Father has a plan, and he hold us in his hand.

What Happens Next

2 Peter 3

In the Last Days

1–2  3 My dear friends, this is now the second time I’ve written to you, both letters reminders to hold your minds in a state of undistracted attention. Keep in mind what the holy prophets said, and the command of our Master and Savior that was passed on by your apostles.

3–4  First off, you need to know that in the last days, mockers are going to have a heyday. Reducing everything to the level of their puny feelings, they’ll mock, “So what’s happened to the promise of his Coming? Our ancestors are dead and buried, and everything’s going on just as it has from the first day of creation. Nothing’s changed.”

5–7  They conveniently forget that long ago all the galaxies and this very planet were brought into existence out of watery chaos by God’s word. Then God’s word brought the chaos back in a flood that destroyed the world. The current galaxies and earth are fuel for the final fire. God is poised, ready to speak his word again, ready to give the signal for the judgment and destruction of the desecrating skeptics.

The Day the Sky Will Collapse

8–9  Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.

10  But when the Day of God’s Judgment does come, it will be unannounced, like a thief. The sky will collapse with a thunderous bang, everything disintegrating in a huge conflagration, earth and all its works exposed to the scrutiny of Judgment.

11–13  Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life? Daily expect the Day of God, eager for its arrival. The galaxies will burn up and the elements melt down that day—but we’ll hardly notice. We’ll be looking the other way, ready for the promised new heavens and the promised new earth, all landscaped with righteousness.

14–16  So, my dear friends, since this is what you have to look forward to, do your very best to be found living at your best, in purity and peace. Interpret our Master’s patient restraint for what it is: salvation. Our good brother Paul, who was given much wisdom in these matters, refers to this in all his letters, and has written you essentially the same thing. Some things Paul writes are difficult to understand. Irresponsible people who don’t know what they are talking about twist them every which way. They do it to the rest of the Scriptures, too, destroying themselves as they do it.

17–18  But you, friends, are well-warned. Be on guard lest you lose your footing and get swept off your feet by these lawless and loose-talking teachers. Grow in grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Glory to the Master, now and forever! Yes!

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Friday, September 27, 2024

Today's Scripture

Proverbs 14:7-16

Escape quickly from the company of fools;

they’re a waste of your time, a waste of your words.

8  The wisdom of the wise keeps life on track;

the foolishness of fools lands them in the ditch.

9  The stupid ridicule right and wrong,

but a moral life is a favored life.

10  The person who shuns the bitter moments of friends

will be an outsider at their celebrations.

11  Lives of careless wrongdoing are tumbledown shacks;

holy living builds soaring cathedrals.

12–13  There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough;

look again—it leads straight to hell.

Sure, those people appear to be having a good time,

but all that laughter will end in heartbreak.

Sift and Weigh Every Word

14  A mean person gets paid back in meanness,

a gracious person in grace.

15  The gullible believe anything they’re told;

the prudent sift and weigh every word.

16  The wise watch their steps and avoid evil;

fools are headstrong and reckless.

Insight

The book of Proverbs is part of a section of the Old Testament known as Wisdom Literature. Just as Proverbs focuses on practical wisdom, the book of James, considered by some to be the most Jewish book in the New Testament, has a similar focus. In chapter 3, James contrasts the “wisdom” of this world (vv. 14-16) with “wisdom that comes from heaven” (v. 17). This God-sourced wisdom is “pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere” (v. 17). As Galatians 5:22-23 describes the fruit of the Spirit’s work in our lives, James describes, in a sense, the fruit of wisdom lived out in practical terms. By: Bill Crowder

Reckless and Careless

A fool is reckless and careless. Proverbs 14:16 esv

Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is a tidal island in England connected to the mainland by a narrow road. Twice a day, the sea covers the causeway. Signs alert visitors to the dangers of crossing during high tide. Yet, tourists regularly disregard the warnings and often end up sitting atop submerged cars or swimming to raised safety huts where they can be rescued. The tide is predictable, as sure as the rising sun. And warnings are everywhere; you can’t possibly miss them. Yet, as one writer described, Lindisfarne is “where the reckless try to outrace the tide.”

Proverbs tells us that it’s foolish to be “reckless and careless” (14:16 esv). A reckless person has little regard for wisdom or wise counsel and doesn’t practice attentiveness or diligent care for others (vv. 7-8). Wisdom, however, slows us down to listen and ponder so that we’re not carried away by rash emotions or half-baked ideas (v. 16). Wisdom teaches us to ask good questions and consider the implications of our actions. While reckless people charge forward with little regard for relationships or consequences—or often truth—“prudent [people] give thought to their steps” (v. 15).

While we’ll sometimes need to act decisively or swiftly, we can resist recklessness. As we receive and practice God’s wisdom, He’ll give us the guidance we need when we need it. By:  Winn Collier

Reflect & Pray

Where have you seen reckless living? How can you avoid living recklessly?

Dear God, we live in a reckless world. Please help me to be wise and live well.

For further study, read Better than Gold: The Life-Changing Wisdom of the Bible.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Friday, September 27, 2024

The “Go” of Renunciation

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” — Luke 9:57

When the man in this verse proclaimed his intention to follow Jesus, our Lord’s response was one of severe discouragement: “Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head’” (Luke 9:58). We might find it baffling that Jesus would pass up the opportunity to win a follower; we might think it cruel that he would freeze the man’s desires and send him away discouraged. But Jesus knew what lies in the human heart.

Never apologize for your Lord, not even when his words hurt and offend until there’s nothing left to hurt and offend. Jesus Christ has no tenderness toward anything that is ultimately going to ruin someone in his service. His responses aren’t capricious, or thoughtless; they are based on his knowledge of what lies inside men and women. If the Spirit of God brings a word of the Lord to your mind and it hurts you, you can be sure there’s something inside you he wants to hurt to death.

“The Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Jesus’s words put a stop to the idea that I can serve him because it is pleasing to me. If I serve him, I can’t count on having the usual comforts. I must accept that there will be nothing but my Lord and myself and a forlorn hope. “Your lodestar,” Jesus is saying, “must be your relationship to me—and I have nowhere to lay my head.”

“Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family’” (v. 61). The person who says to the Lord, “Yes, but . . .” is the one who is fiercely ready but never goes. The exacting call of Jesus has no margin for goodbyes. When the call of God comes to you, go at once and never stop going.

Isaiah 3-4; Galatians 6

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

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

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Friday, September 27, 2024

When We Expect Too Much - #9840

My friend Bill talked to me about his son's "microwave expectations" - "I want it quick!" Bill was in his early 50s, and his son had been married about a year at that point. And Bill said, "You know, I just can't believe it. My son and his wife want a home right now. They want to own a home immediately, they want furniture now, and they want a new car now!" Then he kind of summed it up by saying, "They want in one year what it took us 20 years to get." Well, that's fairly typical. The child expects a lot more than the father had.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When We Expect Too Much."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 9, and I'm going to begin reading at verse 57. Notice here that Jesus gives very realistic expectations to anyone who is going to follow Him, unlike the Devil, who deceives you and tells you nothing about the price tag. Jesus gives it to you all up front. "As they were walking along the road, a man said to Him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.' Jesus replied, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.'" It's interesting here that Jesus is saying, "Listen, adjust your expectations, man! You're following someone who sleeps every night on the Mount of Olives. So don't expect a lot materially." (By the way, we never hear from that man again.)

I had been asked to speak at a conference, and they lodged in a very nice hotel room. And I was looking out over the city lights and I'd just gotten off the phone with my wife and sort of luxuriating in the room and the nice things that it had. And all of a sudden it hit me. I said, "You know, I'm being treated so much better than my Lord ever was. "I've got a place to live, I've got a vehicle to drive, I've got clothes, I have choices of clothes, sometimes I stay in places like this."

See, our problem is that we compare what we have to what others have and then guess what? We get discontent. That's where coveting comes from. You never covet if you don't compare. You see, we're measuring by the wrong standard. How are you doing compared to what your Lord Jesus had? He said, "The servant is not better than his master." Jesus taught us to ask for daily bread. Those are biblical expectations. If He gives us more, well that's okay. Enjoy it; be very grateful for the bonuses beyond daily bread. But the problem comes when we expect more than the basics; when we demand more than the basics.

Maybe you're wrestling with discontentment right now because you've been expecting too much...more than your Lord had when He was here. Oh, you've looked around at a greedy world and you've looked at other people your age, or other people in your situation, and you're thinking, "I want what they have." And social media will just accelerate that. Well, see, for people in the world, that's all they get. You're going to have your rich rewards forever.

Now, there's no promise of heaven on earth. Jesus said, "Expect a few years of sacrifice and then an eternity of wealth." See, you won't seek first His kingdom if you're expecting to get a lot of earth's kingdom. You can't go after both.

When our Heavenly Father gave His Son, there wasn't even an address for Him. Are you doing better than your Lord did? I think most of us are. Well, then, thank Him for that and look forward to an eternity of celebrating His riches with Him in heaven.

Ezekiel 41, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: A THOUSAND YEAR REIGN - September 26, 2024

The plainest reading of Revelation 20 is a literal thousand-year reign of Christ. The apostle John mentions it six times in seven verses. Why not take John’s number literally?

Daniel would have. Toward the end of his life, the prophet Daniel called on God to forgive the Jewish people and return them to Jerusalem. What prompted the prayer? He was reading the prophecy of Jeremiah. “This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jeremiah 25:11). At the time, sixty-seven years of captivity had passed. Daniel assumed it meant seventy literal years, so he prayed for God to keep his promise.

In the book of Revelation, John promised a thousand-year reign of Christ. I believe Daniel would have taken the number at face value; I choose to do the same.

What Happens Next

Ezekiel 41

 He brought me into the Temple itself and measured the doorposts on each side. Each was ten and a half feet thick. The entrance was seventeen and a half feet wide. The walls on each side were eight and three-quarters feet thick.

He also measured the Temple Sanctuary: seventy feet by thirty-five feet.

3–4  He went further in and measured the doorposts at the entrance: Each was three and a half feet thick. The entrance itself was ten and a half feet wide, and the entrance walls were twelve and a quarter feet thick. He measured the inside Sanctuary, thirty-five feet square, set at the end of the main Sanctuary. He told me, “This is The Holy of Holies.”

5–7  He measured the wall of the Temple. It was ten and a half feet thick. The side rooms around the Temple were seven feet wide. There were three floors of these side rooms, thirty rooms on each of the three floors. There were supporting beams around the Temple wall to hold up the side rooms, but they were free-standing, not attached to the wall itself. The side rooms around the Temple became wider from first floor to second floor to third floor. A staircase went from the bottom floor, through the middle, and then to the top floor.

8–11  I observed that the Temple had a ten-and-a-half-foot-thick raised base around it, which provided a foundation for the side rooms. The outside walls of the side rooms were eight and three-quarters feet thick. The open area between the side rooms of the Temple and the priests’ rooms was a thirty-five-foot-wide strip all around the Temple. There were two entrances to the side rooms from the open area, one placed on the north side, the other on the south. There were eight and three-quarters feet of open space all around.

12  The house that faced the Temple courtyard to the west was one hundred twenty-two and a half feet wide, with eight-and-three-quarters-foot-thick walls. The length of the wall and building was one hundred fifty-seven and a half feet.

13–14  He measured the Temple: one hundred seventy-five feet long. The Temple courtyard and the house, including its walls, measured a hundred seventy-five feet. The breadth of the front of the Temple and the open area to the east was a hundred seventy-five feet.

15–18  He measured the length of the house facing the courtyard at the back of the Temple, including the shelters on each side: one hundred seventy-five feet. The main Sanctuary, the inner Sanctuary, and the vestibule facing the courtyard were paneled with wood, and had window frames and door frames in all three sections. From floor to windows the walls were paneled. Above the outside entrance to the inner Sanctuary and on the walls at regular intervals all around the inner Sanctuary and the main Sanctuary, angel-cherubim and palm trees were carved in alternating sequence.

18–20  Each angel-cherub had two faces: a human face toward the palm tree on the right and the face of a lion toward the palm tree on the left. They were carved around the entire Temple. The cherubim—palm tree motif was carved from floor to door height on the wall of the main Sanctuary.

21–22  The main Sanctuary had a rectangular doorframe. In front of the Holy Place was something that looked like an altar of wood, five and a quarter feet high and three and a half feet square. Its corners, base, and sides were of wood. The man said to me, “This is the table that stands before God.”

23–26  Both the main Sanctuary and the Holy Place had double doors. Each door had two leaves: two hinged leaves for each door, one set swinging inward and the other set outward. The doors of the main Sanctuary were carved with angel-cherubim and palm trees. There was a canopy of wood in front of the vestibule outside. There were narrow windows alternating with carved palm trees on both sides of the porch.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Today's Scripture

John 15:13-17

This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.

16  “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.

17  “But remember the root command: Love one another.

Insight

The apostle John referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; see 20:2; 21:20). It wasn’t that Christ loved him alone or the most, but most likely that John keenly felt Jesus’ love. Of all the New Testament books, John’s writing focuses the most on God’s love. He says, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (3:16). The apostle also says, “the Father loves the Son” (v. 35; 5:20). Why? Because Christ laid down His life (10:17). In response, we’re to “love one another” (13:34) just as He loved us (15:12). By our love for each other, others will know we’re His disciples (13:35). If we love Him, we’re also called to “keep [His] commands” (14:15). In 1 John, the apostle’s emphasis is again on God’s love: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (4:8). By: Alyson Kieda

What a Friend

Love each other. John 15:17

As favorite backyard neighbors, my mother and Mrs. Sanchez grew also into friendly rivals. The two competed every Monday to be the first to hang their freshly washed laundry on their outdoor clotheslines. “She beat me again!” my mother would say. But the next week, Mama might be first—both enjoying their friendly weekly contest. Over ten years of sharing a backyard alley, the two also shared each other’s wisdom, stories, and hope.

The Bible speaks with great warmth about the virtue of such a friendship. “A friend loves at all times,” King Solomon observed (Proverbs 17:17). He also noted, “The pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice” (27:9).

Our great Friend is surely Jesus. Urging loving friendship from His disciples, He taught them, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). The very next day, He would do just that on the cross. He also told them, “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (v. 15). Then He said, “This is my command: Love each other” (v. 17).

With such words, Jesus “is elevating His listeners,” as philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff said, from lowly humans to companions and confidants. In Christ, we learn to befriend others. What a Friend to teach us such love! By:  Patricia Raybon

Reflect & Pray

How do you experience love in your friendship with Jesus? How can you be a friend like Him?

You call me friend, dear Jesus. Please help me be a loving friend to others.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Thursday, September 26, 2024

The Unblamable Attitude

If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift . . . and be reconciled to them. — Matthew 5:23–24

Jesus tells us that we should leave our gift at the altar if we remember, when we get there, that our brother or sister has something against us. He doesn’t say that every time we come to the altar we should begin, with a morbid sensitivity, to dredge up thoughts of possible problems with our brother or sister. “If you . . . remember” means “If the Spirit of God brings something to your conscious mind.” The Holy Spirit makes us sensitive to things we never thought of before. Never object to the intense sensitivity of the Spirit of God in you when he is educating you down to the scruple.

“First go and be reconciled to them” (Matthew 5:24). Our Lord’s command is simple: go back the way you came; go the way the Spirit of God indicates to you when you are at the altar; go to the person who has something against you, keeping an attitude of mind and a temper of soul that make reconciliation as natural as breathing. Jesus doesn’t mention the other person. He says, “You go.” There’s no question of your rights. The hallmark of the disciple is the ability to waive personal rights and obey the Lord Jesus.

“Then come and offer your gift” (v. 24). The process is clearly marked. First, you arrive at the altar in a heroic spirit of self-sacrifice. Then comes a sudden inspection by the Holy Spirit, followed by the sense of conviction that stops you in your tracks. You go back, tracing the way of obedience to the word of God and constructing an unblamable attitude of mind and temper toward the one you’ve wronged. Finally, you return to the altar, ready to make a glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.

Isaiah 1-2; Galatians 5

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Jesus Christ can afford to be misunderstood; we cannot. Our weakness lies in always wanting to vindicate ourselves.

The Place of Help

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Thursday, September 26, 2024

WHY COMMITMENTS FAIL - #9839

You want to write a best-selling book? Do something about self improvement. Man are we into self improvement! I mean, think about how the health clubs and how they boom in membership in January. A resolution is called, "A firm decision to do or not to do something." Well we find out that about 88% of our resolutions don't happen.

So there's a lot of things we do to be healthier and to spend more time with the family, get out of debt, do better in school, clean out the junk in our house. So why do our great intentions so often end up in failed commitments?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Commitments Fail."

My work has put me in the middle of a lot of folks' desire to change, their efforts to change. And from their experience - and then honestly from too much of my own - I've seen four reasons that we fail in commitments that we really do want to keep.

Number one, we're not specific. Goals have to be more than just general intentions. "I'm going to be a better husband." "I'm going to get in shape." "I want to make more of a difference." Well, those are great ideas, but they're not likely to succeed. How about, "I'm going to give my wife all of my attention at least once a day." "I'm not going to eat after 6 o'clock and I'll spend 20 minutes on the treadmill each day." "I'm going to volunteer at the shelter." See, those are specific and measurable, you've got a decent shot at really changing.

Here's the second reason I think we fail. We're not accountable. A resolution between me, myself and I is just too easy to forget. But when you announce to several key people the commitment you've made, you've put yourself on the line to do it. The Bible says, "Two are better than one ... if one falls down, his friend can help him up."

Here's a third reason that our commitments fail. We give up too soon. You know, babies learn to walk by a process that I call "step... boom!" They fall down, but they don't stay down. They get up! Next time it's "step, step, step... boom!" Until one day they're rocketing across the room. Sadly, when we fall down in our effort to do better, don't we often just stay down? But one day's failure is just one day's failure. One day - keep it that way. Get up and keep walking!

And the last reason - maybe the most important of all - why we don't improve like we want to improve is we've got a power shortage. Especially when it comes to the changes that really matter, like breaking the cycle that's hurting the people I love, conquering that dark part of me that's brought me down again and again, moving beyond the pain of my past, attacking that fatal flaw that keeps costing me too much.

Every new year has the same last name - "A.D." Like, 2024 A.D. "Anno Domini" the year of our Lord measured by how many years it is since Jesus Christ came. Well, my whole life has been "B.C./A.D." There was the me I couldn't change before Christ took the wheel of my life. And then the changed life that He's made possible since I gave me to Him.

I thought I could only trust me to drive, but I drove into too many ditches. I ran over too many people. I crashed too often. I couldn't get me to the man I want to be, I need to be, that the people I love need me to be. That's like one of the men who wrote the Bible. He said in our word for today from the Word of God taken from Romans 7, beginning in verse 18, "I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't ... Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?"

I know that feeling, but I've found the power to change where that same Bible-writer found it. He says. "Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord." See, it took the Man who died for my sin to give me the power to beat my sin. For 2,000 years this Jesus has changed people in ways they could never change themselves.

You might be ready for the Life-Changer right now. He says in His Word, "When anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old is gone and the new life has begun."

You tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours" and the change has begun. Our website is called ANewStory.com. Check it out! I think it will help you begin that relationship with Jesus. This can be the day that you move from B.C. to A.D. and things will never be the same.

Ezekiel 40, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE ANTICHRIST - September 25, 2024

The Antichrist is the warmonger of the end times, the enemy of God, and the nemesis of the Jews.  He will be the pawn of Satan in a final, fatal, and futile attempt to overthrow the kingdom of God. He will enter a pact with the state of Israel. Israel will either continue or begin the construction of the temple. The world will sigh with relief at the appearance of peace in the Middle East. Yet, midway through the seven-year treaty, the Antichrist’s true nature will be disclosed. He will tear up the agreement and seize the rebuilt temple, install his image, and demand universal worship. This period of time is called the Tribulation.

Jesus Christ spoke of this moment. “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel…then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:15-16 NKJV).

What Happens Next

Ezekiel 40

Measuring the Temple Complex

1–3  40 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year on the tenth of the month—it was the fourteenth year after the city fell—God touched me and brought me here. He brought me in divine vision to the land of Israel and set me down on a high mountain. To the south there were buildings that looked like a city. He took me there and I met a man deeply tanned, like bronze. He stood at the entrance holding a linen cord and a measuring stick.

4  The man said to me, “Son of man, look and listen carefully. Pay close attention to everything I’m going to show you. That’s why you’ve been brought here. And then tell Israel everything you see.”

5  First I saw a wall around the outside of the Temple complex. The measuring stick in the man’s hand was about ten feet long. He measured the thickness of the wall: about ten feet. The height was also about ten feet.

6–7  He went into the gate complex that faced the east and went up the seven steps. He measured the depth of the outside threshold of the gate complex: ten feet. There were alcoves flanking the gate corridor, each ten feet square, each separated by a wall seven and a half feet thick. The inside threshold of the gate complex that led to the porch facing into the Temple courtyard was ten feet deep.

8–9  He measured the inside porch of the gate complex: twelve feet deep, flanked by pillars three feet thick. The porch opened onto the Temple courtyard.

10  Inside this east gate complex were three alcoves on each side. Each room was the same size and the separating walls were identical.

11  He measured the outside entrance to the gate complex: fifteen feet wide and nineteen and a half feet deep.

12  In front of each alcove was a low wall eighteen inches high. The alcoves were ten feet square.

13  He measured the width of the gate complex from the outside edge of the alcove roof on one side to the outside edge of the alcove roof on the other: thirty-seven and a half feet from one top edge to the other.

14  He measured the inside walls of the gate complex: ninety feet to the porch leading into the courtyard.

15  The distance from the entrance of the gate complex to the far end of the porch was seventy-five feet.

16  The alcoves and their connecting walls inside the gate complex were topped by narrow windows all the way around. The porch also. All the windows faced inward. The doorjambs between the alcoves were decorated with palm trees.

17–19  The man then led me to the outside courtyard and all its rooms. A paved walkway had been built connecting the courtyard gates. Thirty rooms lined the courtyard. The walkway was the same length as the gateways. It flanked them and ran their entire length. This was the walkway for the outside courtyard. He measured the distance from the front of the entrance gateway across to the entrance of the inner court: one hundred fifty feet.

19–23  Then he took me to the north side. Here was another gate complex facing north, exiting the outside courtyard. He measured its length and width. It had three alcoves on each side. Its gateposts and porch were the same as in the first gate: eighty-seven and a half feet by forty-three and three-quarters feet. The windows and palm trees were identical to the east gateway. Seven steps led up to it, and its porch faced inward. Opposite this gate complex was a gate complex to the inside courtyard, on the north as on the east. The distance between the two was one hundred seventy-five feet.

24–27  Then he took me to the south side, to the south gate complex. He measured its gateposts and its porch. It was the same size as the others. The porch with its windows was the same size as those previously mentioned. It also had seven steps up to it. Its porch opened onto the outside courtyard, with palm trees decorating its gateposts on both sides. Opposite to it, the gate complex for the inner court faced south. He measured the distance across the courtyard from gate to gate: one hundred seventy-five feet.

28–31  He led me into the inside courtyard through the south gate complex. He measured it and found it the same as the outside ones. Its alcoves, connecting walls, and vestibule were the same. The gate complex and porch, windowed all around, measured eighty-seven and a half by forty-three and three-quarters feet. The vestibule of each of the gate complexes leading to the inside courtyard was forty-three and three-quarters by eight and three-quarters feet. Each vestibule faced the outside courtyard. Palm trees were carved on its doorposts. Eight steps led up to it.

32–34  He then took me to the inside courtyard on the east and measured the gate complex. It was identical to the others—alcoves, connecting walls, and vestibule all the same. The gate complex and vestibule had windows all around. It measured eighty-seven and a half by forty-three and three-quarters feet. Its porch faced the outside courtyard. There were palm trees on the doorposts on both sides. And it had eight steps.

35–37  He brought me to the gate complex to the north and measured it: same measurements. The alcoves, connecting walls, and vestibule with its windows: eighty-seven and a half by forty-three and three-quarters feet. Its porch faced the outside courtyard. There were palm trees on its doorposts on both sides. And it had eight steps.

38–43  There was a room with a door at the vestibule of the gate complex where the burnt offerings were cleaned. Two tables were placed within the vestibule, one on either side, on which the animals for burnt offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings were slaughtered. Two tables were also placed against both outside walls of the vestibule—four tables inside and four tables outside, eight tables in all for slaughtering the sacrificial animals. The four tables used for the burnt offerings were thirty-one and a half inches square and twenty-one inches high. The tools for slaughtering the sacrificial animals and other sacrifices were kept there. Meat hooks, three inches long, were fastened to the walls. The tables were for the sacrificial animals.

44–46  Right where the inside gate complex opened onto the inside courtyard there were two rooms, one at the north gate facing south and the one at the south gate facing north. The man told me, “The room facing south is for the priests who are in charge of the Temple. And the room facing north is for the priests who are in charge of the altar. These priests are the sons of Zadok, the only sons of Levi permitted to come near to God to serve him.”

47  He measured the inside courtyard: a hundred seventy-five feet square. The altar was in front of the Temple.

48–49  He led me to the porch of the Temple and measured the gateposts of the porch: eight and three-quarters feet high on both sides. The entrance to the gate complex was twenty-one feet wide and its connecting walls were four and a half feet thick. The vestibule itself was thirty-five feet wide and twenty-one feet deep. Ten steps led up to the porch. Columns flanked the gateposts.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Today's Scripture

Proverbs 3:1-12

Don’t Assume You Know It All

1–2  3 Good friend, don’t forget all I’ve taught you;

take to heart my commands.

They’ll help you live a long, long time,

a long life lived full and well.

3–4  Don’t lose your grip on Love and Loyalty.

Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart.

Earn a reputation for living well

in God’s eyes and the eyes of the people.

5–12  Trust God from the bottom of your heart;

don’t try to figure out everything on your own.

Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;

he’s the one who will keep you on track.

Don’t assume that you know it all.

Run to God! Run from evil!

Your body will glow with health,

your very bones will vibrate with life!

Honor God with everything you own;

give him the first and the best.

Your barns will burst,

your wine vats will brim over.

But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline;

don’t sulk under his loving correction.

It’s the child he loves that God corrects;

a father’s delight is behind all this.

Insight

When she faced “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9, 17), Eve saw that its fruit was “desirable for gaining wisdom” (3:6), so she took it. The wisdom humans gained in their rebellion set them in opposition to God. Now they could decide for themselves what was good and bad, but that didn’t mean they had an accurate perception of the world.

The book of Proverbs—especially chapter 3—reorients humanity, telling us that human wisdom is never enough. In verses 5-6, the author emphasizes that we’ll find the correct path when we trust God and not our own understanding. Trusting Him alone will make our way straight. In Eden, we gained worldly wisdom; it’s only in trusting submission to God that we can learn to use it well. By: Jed Ostoich

Mind-Blowing Teaching

My son . . . keep my commands in your heart. Proverbs 3:1

Sophia Roberts witnessed open heart surgery for the first time when she was around eleven years old. While that might seem a bit young for a child to view such a medical procedure, you need to know that her dad, Dr. Harold Roberts Jr., is a heart surgeon. In 2022, Sophia—now thirty years old and a surgery resident physician—teamed up with her dad to perform a successful aortic valve replacement. Harold said, “What can be better? I taught this kid how to ride a bicycle. . . . Now, to get to teach her how to operate on a human heart is pretty mind-blowing.”

While few of us will teach surgery skills to a child, Solomon describes the importance of instructing something else to the next generation—to honor God and His ways. The wise king passionately shared with his child what he’d learned in his relationship with God: “My son, . . . trust in the Lord with all your heart” (Proverbs 3:1, 5), “fear the Lord” (v. 7), “honor the Lord” (v. 9), and “do not despise the Lord’s discipline” (v. 11). Solomon knew that God “loves” and “delights in” His children who willingly receive His correction and guidance (v. 12).

Let’s teach the next generation what it means to trust, revere, honor, and be humbly molded by our awesome, amazing God. To partner with Him in doing so is a vital privilege and, well, pretty mind-blowing! By:  Tom Felten

Reflect & Pray

Why is it vital for you to share what you’ve learned about God with the next generation? What will you pass on today?

Dear God, please help me to share Your loving ways with both young and old today.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

The “Go” of Relationship

If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. — Matthew 5:41

The demands our Lord makes in the Sermon on the Mount are impossible for us to meet—unless he has done a supernatural work inside us. Not only does Jesus Christ demand that his disciples go the second mile, he also demands that there be no trace of resentment inside them when they come up against tyranny and injustice because of their commitment to him: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad” (Matthew 5:11–12). There’s no enthusiasm, no natural human quality, that can withstand the strain that Jesus Christ places upon his workers. The only thing strong enough is a personal relationship with him. This relationship must be put to the test until the disciple has just one purpose remaining: “I am here for God to send me wherever he will.” Everything else in a disciple’s life may get muddied, but this relationship to Jesus Christ must remain perfectly clear.

If I am going to be a disciple of Jesus, I must be made one supernaturally. As long as I’m dead set on being a disciple, I can be sure I am not one. Discipleship isn’t a matter of my determination, but of God’s: “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). This is the way the call to discipleship begins. I can ignore God’s call, but I can neither generate it nor decide how to answer it. When our Lord makes disciples, he doesn’t ask them to do things they’re naturally cut out for. He asks them to do things they’ve been supernaturally cut out for by his grace.

The Sermon on the Mount isn’t some unattainable ideal. It’s a statement of what will actually happen in me when Jesus Christ has changed my disposition and put into me a disposition like his own. Jesus Christ is the only one who can fulfill the Sermon on the Mount.

Song of Solomon 6-8; Galatians 4

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

There is nothing, naturally speaking, that makes us lose heart quicker than decay—the decay of bodily beauty, of natural life, of friendship, of associations, all these things make a man lose heart; but Paul says when we are trusting in Jesus Christ these things do not find us discouraged, light comes through them. 

The Place of Help, 1032 L

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Making Each Other Mighty - #9838

It was at a point where we were crossing this long bridge across the Arkansas River. The bridge was long because the river was wide. My wife made an interesting comment about the river. She said, "Now, we've seen how it got that way." Wide, she meant. Actually, we've seen the Arkansas at its headwaters where it's a very unimpressive little stream. And as we've driven across the western United States, we've seen many creeks and streams that feed into the Arkansas. They take that dinky little stream and make it into a wide and mighty river.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Making Each Other Mighty."

Tributaries: that's what creates great rivers. From all directions, those tributaries contribute to a river, feeding it, enlarging it. That's not just the way rivers grow. It's the way people grow, too, if they're open to the contribution that people in their life can make. And to the contributions they can make, as well. In a sense, you're supposed to be a river, you're enlarged and you're improved by the people in your world, and you're supposed to be a tributary, building and enlarging the lives of the folks around you.

Paul models that in Romans 1:11-12, our word for today from the Word of God. He says to the believers in Rome, "I long to see you that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong - that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith." Now, he doesn't use the words, but Paul seems to get this tributary thing. His purpose in wanting to be with these people is so he can give them some help, some encouragement, something that will make them stronger. But he also says he looks forward to how they're going to feed his stream, too, enlarging his spiritual life.

This is a pretty exciting way to view the relationships in your life and the people in your life. You are with those people both to give and to receive. I wonder if your coworkers, your family members, your friends, the folks at church feel richer because you just keep depositing good things in their life. You're supposed to be one of God's designated tributaries to help them become the mighty river that He's designed them to be. You wouldn't be there with them if He hadn't decided they need someone like you, and that you need someone like them.

Because you're also a river. What you are today; isn't that because of some human tributaries who have marked your life in the past: parents, teachers, spiritual leaders, friends, someone who listens to you, even those who've confronted you about things you didn't want to hear about? Maybe it's time to call or write or email or text some of the tributaries who've enlarged the river of your life, and just tell them what they mean to you. It's time to say "thank you" - to encourage them. Don't wait for their funeral to say all those nice things. Say it to them while they can still hear them.

And then, about those tributaries God has put in your life right now. Would you listen to them, would you open yourself up to them, even to those who are critical? Even to those who don't say it with the right words or the right tone, sometimes even with the right motive? Sometimes those people are God's mirrors to help us see things that are in our blind spot, things we haven't seen and we might not see otherwise, and things that might be limiting us or tripping us up or displeasing God. A river with no tributaries is going to remain small, and it's going to remain stagnant, and so will you.

Mighty rivers become mighty because they are fed and enlarged from many sources that feed into them. You and I are like that, too. So, would you be a tributary every day for other people, and let them help you become a mighty river.

2 Peter 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE DEVIL’S DEMISE - September 24, 2024

Satan is a fallen, embittered, and evil angel. He wreaks havoc on earth and leaves devastation in his wake. Every war, worry, and weary soul can be blamed on him. Hence, to imagine Satan bound, locked away from humanity—what an appealing thought! Has this incarceration occurred? Has Satan been removed from the earth and locked away? As far as I can tell, he is still “a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8 GNT). Satan’s incarceration is a yet-to-be event.

But he will be incarcerated. Revelation 20 declares with the reality of the devil’s upcoming demise. The millennium will be glorious because Satan will be bound, Christ will be crowned, and we will reign with Jesus for a thousand years.

What Happens Next

2 Peter 2

Lying Religious Leaders

1–2  2 But there were also lying prophets among the people then, just as there will be lying religious teachers among you. They’ll smuggle in destructive divisions, pitting you against each other—biting the hand of the One who gave them a chance to have their lives back! They’ve put themselves on a fast downhill slide to destruction, but not before they recruit a crowd of mixed-up followers who can’t tell right from wrong.

2–3  They give the way of truth a bad name. They’re only out for themselves. They’ll say anything, anything, that sounds good to exploit you. They won’t, of course, get by with it. They’ll come to a bad end, for God has never just stood by and let that kind of thing go on.

4–5  God didn’t let the rebel angels off the hook, but jailed them in hell till Judgment Day. Neither did he let the ancient ungodly world off. He wiped it out with a flood, rescuing only eight people—Noah, the sole voice of righteousness, was one of them.

6–8  God decreed destruction for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. A mound of ashes was all that was left—grim warning to anyone bent on an ungodly life. But that good man Lot, driven nearly out of his mind by the sexual filth and perversity, was rescued. Surrounded by moral rot day after day after day, that righteous man was in constant torment.

9  So God knows how to rescue the godly from evil trials. And he knows how to hold the feet of the wicked to the fire until Judgment Day.

Predators on the Prowl

10–11  God is especially incensed against these “teachers” who live by lust, addicted to a filthy existence. They despise interference from true authority, preferring to indulge in self-rule. Insolent egotists, they don’t hesitate to speak evil against the most splendid of creatures. Even angels, their superiors in every way, wouldn’t think of throwing their weight around like that, trying to slander others before God.

12–14  These people are nothing but brute beasts, born in the wild, predators on the prowl. In the very act of bringing down others with their ignorant blasphemies, they themselves will be brought down, losers in the end. Their evil will boomerang on them. They’re so despicable and addicted to pleasure that they indulge in wild parties, carousing in broad daylight. They’re obsessed with adultery, compulsive in sin, seducing every vulnerable soul they come upon. Their specialty is greed, and they’re experts at it. Dead souls!

15–16  They’ve left the main road and are directionless, having taken the way of Balaam, son of Beor, the prophet who turned profiteer, a connoisseur of evil. But Balaam was stopped in his wayward tracks: A dumb animal spoke in a human voice and prevented the prophet’s craziness.

17–19  There’s nothing to these people—they’re dried-up fountains, storm-scattered clouds, headed for a black hole in hell. They are loudmouths, full of hot air, but still they’re dangerous. Men and women who have recently escaped from a deviant life are most susceptible to their brand of seduction. They promise these newcomers freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for if they’re addicted to corruption—and they are—they’re enslaved.

20–22  If they’ve escaped from the slum of sin by experiencing our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ, and then slid back into that same old life again, they’re worse than if they had never left. Better not to have started out on the straight road to God than to start out and then turn back, repudiating the experience and the holy command. They prove the point of the proverbs, “A dog goes back to its own vomit” and “A scrubbed-up pig heads for the mud.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Today's Scripture

Romans 12:1-5

Place Your Life Before God

1–2  12 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

3  I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

4–6  In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body,

Insight

Paul wrote Romans to believers in Jesus living in Rome—a city steeped in the practices of pagan worship. Those pagans brought offerings of meat and drink to their gods hoping that the sacrifice would earn a bit of mercy. And those listening to the apostle’s letter for the first time would have immediately recognized his emphasis of “sacrifice” (12:1).

But the apostle upends the expected order of things. For the believer in Jesus, mercy comes first—not sacrifice—and it’s freely given. Paul made that argument throughout the first part of the letter, and it’s why he begins this section with “therefore.”

So, therefore, on account of God’s great mercy, we offer sacrifice. And that sacrifice isn’t the meat of a goat or cow; we offer ourselves. Paul doesn’t mean we climb onto an altar but that we offer the whole of ourselves as a gift to our merciful God. By: Jed Ostoich

Together in Jesus

In Christ we . . . form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:5

Most of the three hundred residents of Whittier, Alaska, live in one big apartment complex, and that’s why Whittier is called a “town under one roof.” Amie, a former resident, says, “I didn’t have to step outside the building-the grocery store, notary public, school, and post office were on our ground floor, just an elevator ride away!”

“Because life there was so comfortable, I often wanted to keep to myself, thinking I didn’t need anyone,” Amie shares. “But the residents are so warm. They look out for each other. I learned that they need me, and I need them.”

Like Amie, we may at times want to keep to ourselves and avoid community. The latter seems less stressful! But Scripture says that a believer in Jesus should have a healthy balance of solitude and fellowship with other believers. The apostle Paul likens the body of believers to the human body. Just as each body part has a distinct function, every believer has a distinct role (Romans 12:4). Just as a body part can’t exist alone, a believer can’t live the life of faith in isolation (v. 5). It’s in the midst of community that we use our gifts (vv. 6-8; 1 Peter 4:10) and grow to be like Jesus (Romans 12:9-21).

We need one another; our togetherness is in Christ (v. 5). With His help, as we “look out for each other,” we can cultivate a deeper relationship with Him and show others His love. By:  Karen Huang

Reflect & Pray

How has community in Jesus helped you in your walk with God? How have other believers encouraged you?

Dear God, thank You for my brothers and sisters in Christ.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

The “Go” of Preparation

If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. — Matthew 5:23–24

It’s easy to imagine that someday we’ll get to a place where we are complete and ready. But preparation isn’t accomplished suddenly; it’s a process that must be steadily maintained. Our lives must be preparation and preparation. To be in a settled state of experience is a dangerous thing.

A sense of heroic sacrifice appeals readily to young Christians; humanly speaking, what attracts us to Jesus Christ is our sense that he was a heroic figure. But the words our Lord speaks in Matthew 5:23–24 soon put our enthusiasm to the test. Don’t come to the altar in a moment of enthusiasm, Jesus says. “First go” and reconcile yourself to your brother or sister; first prepare yourself to make your offering. The “go” of preparation involves submitting yourself in advance to the scrutiny of Jesus’s words. Simply having a sense of heroic sacrifice isn’t enough.

Do you have anything to hide from God? Let him search you with his light. If you are harboring within you the disposition that can never work in his service, his Spirit will detect it and reveal it. When he reveals sin, don’t admit it; confess it. Never ignore the Spirit’s conviction. If it’s important enough for the Spirit of God to have brought it to your mind, it’s something God wishes you to confess. Perhaps you were looking for something big to give up, but God has pointed out something tiny. No matter what it is, God is telling you about it because beneath it lies the great stronghold of obstinacy: “I won’t give up my right to myself.” This is the very thing God intends you to give up if you are going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Are you willing to obey your Lord, whatever the humiliation to your right to yourself may be?

Song of Solomon 4-5; Galatians 3

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Both nations and individuals have tried Christianity and abandoned it, because it has been found too difficult; but no man has ever gone through the crisis of deliberately making Jesus Lord and found Him to be a failure.

The Love of God—The Making of a Christian, 680 R

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

MEN ON THE EDGE - #9837

It used to be pretty uncommon to see a headline about suicide. Not so much today. Athletes, celebrities, a lot of famous people, musicians. We keep hearing about people who have died by their own choice. Sometimes it's people we know and people close to us. We often wonder, "Why?"

There was that prominent official in the White House some years ago who committed suicide. Remembering that made me think about why this is particularly a problem for us guys. A national news magazine turned the spotlight on a disturbing fact after that high profile suicide. And it said, "wounded men with no place to bleed."

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Men on the Edge."

I know from years of walking through crises with many guys, that we men often stuff it rather than share it. We live with the lie that being strong means never showing weakness, never showing a soft or hurting heart, and always being in control of course.

So we bleed inside where there's nothing to stop the bleeding or treat the wound. The pressure builds like lava in a volcano. Or like a beach ball pushed farther and farther under the water. The farther down you push it, the higher it ultimately goes when it can't be held down anymore. Suddenly, often inexplicably, there's an explosion of anger or violence or depression, or self-destruction.

But the strongest man who ever lived offered us guys a better way. The shortest verse in the Bible - only two words, John 11:35, "Jesus wept" at a friend's grave. The Bible says, when He saw a crowd of hurting people, "He was moved with compassion because they were...like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36). I'm pretty sure He wasn't afraid to smile or laugh either. The children loved to sit on His lap, and I know my grandchildren don't want anything to do with grouches.

Jesus wasn't afraid to let His friends know He was really hurting. Just before what He knew was going to be His awful torture and crucifixion, He asked His main guys to be with Him in the garden. He told them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me" (Matthew 26:38). Though He was God in the flesh - the ultimate Man - He wasn't afraid to say He needed people.

So, wounded men do have a place to bleed. With the One who bled for them. As one high-powered enemy-turned-follower of Jesus said in our word for today from the Word of God in Galatians 2:20, He "loved me and gave Himself for me." We would be lost in this life and horribly lost forever if Jesus hadn't paid the price to cure our terminal spiritual cancer called sin.

Guys get what sin is. It means, "I've gotta drive. You ride, God, but I'm driving." That's spiritual hijacking. Controlling a life that was made by God and for God and taking it where we want it to go instead. Sadly, we're like my four-year-old grandson standing behind the wheel of his daddy's parked car. He was never meant to drive.

Neither were we. And if we do, we'll ultimately crash, taking people we love with us. That's why God lets a man run into something he can't fix, or change, or control. We never really were in control. So we see that we're created to have the One who gave us our life running our life.

To be blunt, we need a Savior. We need Jesus. Not a religion. Jesus. We need Him to forgive all our junk, to open up this closed and wounded heart. To give us the power to be the man we want to be. And to fill us with the exhilaration of living our life for the one cause that's worth everything a guy's got.

A man can totally trust himself to Jesus, because He loved you enough to die for you and He will never let you down. This might be the day to choose Jesus as the Savior from your sin. This could be your new beginning.

That's why our website is called ANewStory.com. I wish you'd go there today guys.

No longer does your heart have to be lonely and hurting. You're not alone. You have a place to bleed. Remember, with the Man who bled for you.