Max Lucado Daily: CONSIDER THE SAMARITAN WOMAN
Consider the Samaritan woman. By the time Jesus met her, she was on a first-century version of a downward spiral. Five ex-husbands and decades of loose living had left her tattooed and tabooed. Gossipers wagged their tongues about her. How else can you explain her midday appearance at the water well? Other women filled their buckets at sunrise, but this woman preferred the heat of the sun over the heat of their scorn.
Were it not for the appearance of a stranger, her story would have been lost in the Samaritan sands. He entered her life with a promise of endless water and quenched thirst. A fresh start, a clean slate. Scripture says, “Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, ‘He told me everything I ever did” (John 4:39).
Jesus came for people like her. And He came for people like you and me.
From God is With You Every Day
2 Corinthians 12
Paul’s Vision and His Thorn
I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul’s Concern for the Corinthians
11 I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles,”[a] even though I am nothing. 12 I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles. 13 How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!
14 Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less? 16 Be that as it may, I have not been a burden to you. Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery! 17 Did I exploit you through any of the men I sent to you? 18 I urged Titus to go to you and I sent our brother with him. Titus did not exploit you, did he? Did we not walk in the same footsteps by the same Spirit?
19 Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? We have been speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ; and everything we do, dear friends, is for your strengthening. 20 For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 21 I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
Footnotes:
2 Corinthians 12:11 Or the most eminent apostles
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Read: 2 Chronicles 13:10–18
“But for the rest of us in Judah, we’re sticking with God. We have not traded him in for the latest model—we’re keeping the tried-and-true priests of Aaron to lead us to God and the Levites to lead us in worship by sacrificing Whole-Burnt-Offerings and aromatic incense to God at the daily morning and evening prayers, setting out fresh holy bread on a clean table, and lighting the lamps on the golden Lampstand every night. We continue doing what God told us to in the way he told us to do it; but you have rid yourselves of him.
12 “Can’t you see the obvious? God is on our side; he’s our leader. And his priests with trumpets are all ready to blow the signal to battle. O Israel—don’t fight against God, the God of your ancestors. You will not win this battle.”
13-18 While Abijah was speaking, Jeroboam had sent men around to take them by surprise from the rear: Jeroboam in front of Judah and the ambush behind. When Judah looked back, they saw they were attacked front and back. They prayed desperately to God, the priests blew their trumpets, and the soldiers of Judah shouted their battle cry. At the battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. The army of Israel scattered before Judah; God gave them the victory. Abijah and his troops slaughtered them—500,000 of Israel’s best fighters were killed that day. The army of Israel fell flat on its face—a humiliating defeat. The army of Judah won hands down because they trusted God, the God of their ancestors.
INSIGHT:
In the battle between the northern and southern kingdoms recounted in today’s reading, Abijah warned Israel that the Lord was on Judah’s side because the priests were “observing the requirements of the Lord our God” (2 Chron. 13:10–11). By keeping these requirements, the kingdom of Judah was following the instructions set out by Moses in the book of Leviticus. Judah’s victory over Israel, who greatly outnumbered them, demonstrates that God is a God who is faithful to His word.
That Thing You Do
By Tim Gustafson
The people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors. 2 Chronicles 13:18
As the convoy waited to roll out, a young marine rapped urgently on the window of his team leader’s vehicle. Irritated, the sergeant rolled down his window. “What?”
“You gotta do that thing,” the marine said. “What thing?” asked the sergeant. “You know, that thing you do,” replied the marine.
God will never turn away whoever turns to Him in faith.
Then it dawned on the sergeant. He always prayed for the convoy’s safety, but this time he hadn’t. So he dutifully climbed out of the Humvee and prayed for his marines. The marine understood the value of his praying leader.
In ancient Judah, Abijah doesn’t stand out as a great king. First Kings 15:3 tells us, “His heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God.” But as Judah prepared for war against Israel, outnumbered two to one, Abijah knew this much: Faithful people in his kingdom of Judah had continued worshiping God (2 Chron. 13:10–12), while the ten tribes of Israel had driven out the priests of God and worshiped pagan gods instead (vv. 8–9). So Abijah turned confidently to the one true God.
Surely Abijah’s checkered history had caused grave damage. But he knew where to turn in the crisis, and his army won soundly “because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors” (v. 18). Our God welcomes whoever comes to Him and relies on Him.
I know that prayer isn’t a good-luck charm. But I come to You now, Lord, because there’s no one better to talk to. I trust You with all of my circumstances today.
God will never turn away whoever turns to Him in faith.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Have You Ever Been Speechless with Sorrow?
When he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. —Luke 18:23
The rich young ruler went away from Jesus speechless with sorrow, having nothing to say in response to Jesus’ words. He had no doubt about what Jesus had said or what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow with no words with which to respond. Have you ever been there? Has God’s Word ever come to you, pointing out an area of your life, requiring you to yield it to Him? Maybe He has pointed out certain personal qualities, desires, and interests, or possibly relationships of your heart and mind. If so, then you have often been speechless with sorrow. The Lord will not go after you, and He will not plead with you. But every time He meets you at the place where He has pointed, He will simply repeat His words, saying, “If you really mean what you say, these are the conditions.”
“Sell all that you have…” (Luke 18:22). In other words, rid yourself before God of everything that might be considered a possession until you are a mere conscious human being standing before Him, and then give God that. That is where the battle is truly fought— in the realm of your will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Jesus Himself? If so, you are likely to hear one of His harsh and unyielding statements that will produce sorrow in you. What Jesus says is difficult— it is only easy when it is heard by those who have His nature in them. Beware of allowing anything to soften the hard words of Jesus Christ.
I can be so rich in my own poverty, or in the awareness of the fact that I am nobody, that I will never be a disciple of Jesus. Or I can be so rich in the awareness that I am somebody that I will never be a disciple. Am I willing to be destitute and poor even in my sense of awareness of my destitution and poverty? If not, that is why I become discouraged. Discouragement is disillusioned self-love, and self-love may be love for my devotion to Jesus— not love for Jesus Himself.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The truth is we have nothing to fear and nothing to overcome because He is all in all and we are more than conquerors through Him. The recognition of this truth is not flattering to the worker’s sense of heroics, but it is amazingly glorifying to the work of Christ. Approved Unto God, 4 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, August 18, 2016
From His Hand To Yours - #7724
It was one of those unrehearsed Presidential moments that capture America's Chief Executive in situations you might never otherwise see. This happened to be after George W. Bush's second inauguration. There was a prayer service at the National Cathedral, and an offering was taken for which the President was apparently unprepared. What the camera captured was his Father, Former President George H. W. Bush, reaching over his son's shoulder from the pew behind him. He was slipping the President of the United States some money to put in the offering plate. It all happened pretty quickly and pretty skillfully, but of course the camera got it, and you just had to smile.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "From His Hand To Yours."
All the President had to give that day was what his Father gave him. As a matter of fact, that's all any of us has to give – what our Heavenly Father gives us. Because, as the Bible says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father" (James 1:17).
In 1 Corinthians 4, where we find our word for today from the Word of God, the Lord asks this rhetorical question in verse 7: "What do you have that you did not receive?" Any ability you have, any money you have, any success you have, any insight, charisma, good looks or good health. You didn't achieve them – you received them! So pride is out the window. The verse goes on to press the point: "And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" Whatever we have to give was given to us by our Father. So you give without pride, without a need for recognition, without thinking that when you give, you have some right to control.
Earlier in this chapter, God says: "It is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful" (1 Corinthians 4:2). We've been trusted by God with things that are His. Like the master in Jesus' parable who "called his servants and entrusted his property to them" (Matthew 25:14). Notice – His property. You have no right to act as if it's yours any more than the bank where you put your money can say when you go to withdraw it, "Oh, I'm sorry – I've fallen in love with your money. Yes, it's mine now." For too many of us, an honest evaluation of how we spend our money, our talent, and our energy would reveal that that's exactly what we've done.
God has trusted each of us with some gifts from His hand. If it's not material things, it might be personal traits, personal abilities, influence that is just as valuable, or more valuable than money. Whatever you've been given, who are you using it for: for your advancement, your agenda, or God's agenda and the advancement of His kingdom? Notice, the President didn't pocket what his Father gave him to give. He put it where it belonged – in God's hands for God's work.
It seems obvious that some of us must have pocketed for ourselves what God gave us to give away. You can tell by how much of God's work on earth is constantly under-funded and understaffed. Surely, God is sending the money and the talent and the leadership His work requires. But is the supply line breaking down because some of us are keeping what we're supposed to be investing in His work?
It's about money, but it's about so much more than money – all the kinds of gifts that the Heavenly Father gives to His children. And it's about the reason He gave them to us. It's a trust. He's trusting that we will give back to Him what He's given to us for the things He cares about, and to do it with humility. You can do it with joy. Anything else, in the ancient words of the prophet Malachi, "is robbing God."
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Isaiah 4, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: TAKE THE INITIATIVE
You may find this hard to believe, but not everyone likes the preacher. There are times when I misstep or misspeak and incur the displeasure of a parishioner. In the early years of my ministry, when I got wind of someone’s unhappiness, I just dismissed the problem. If he doesn’t bring it to me, then I have no hand in the matter, I thought.
But then I read Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:23-24: “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.” Jesus commands the offender, even if unintentional, to take the initiative. I have found without fail this step has resulted in restoration. When Scripture is mixed with obedience, a healing elixir results!
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 4
That will be the day when seven women
will gang up on one man, saying,
“We’ll take care of ourselves,
get our own food and clothes.
Just give us a child. Make us pregnant
so we’ll have something to live for!”
God’s Branch
2-4 And that’s when God’s Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel’s survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they’ll hold their heads high! Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as “holy”—alive and therefore precious. God will give Zion’s women a good bath. He’ll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment.
5-6 Then God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Read: Romans 16:1–4,13,21–23
Be sure to welcome our friend Phoebe in the way of the Master, with all the generous hospitality we Christians are famous for. I heartily endorse both her and her work. She’s a key representative of the church at Cenchrea. Help her out in whatever she asks. She deserves anything you can do for her. She’s helped many a person, including me.
3-5 Say hello to Priscilla and Aquila, who have worked hand in hand with me in serving Jesus. They once put their lives on the line for me. And I’m not the only one grateful to them. All the non-Jewish gatherings of believers also owe them plenty, to say nothing of the church that meets in their house.
21 And here are some more greetings from our end. Timothy, my partner in this work, Lucius, and my cousins Jason and Sosipater all said to tell you hello.
22 I, Tertius, who wrote this letter at Paul’s dictation, send you my personal greetings.
23 Gaius, who is host here to both me and the whole church, wants to be remembered to you.
Erastus, the city treasurer, and our good friend Quartus send their greetings.
INSIGHT:
The letter to the Romans is arguably Paul’s most intensely theological letter. Yet in Romans 16, he issues more personal greetings than in any other letter—twenty-seven! These personal greetings, included at the close of a theological letter about the nature of the gospel, serve as a significant reminder. The message of the death and resurrection of Jesus is not merely a piece of intellectual information. The doctrines that form the foundation for our rescue in Christ are not an academic exercise. These truths describe the love of God for human beings who have names and faces and struggles and victories. The gospel is the story of God’s unfailing love for people—people like those listed here. People like you and me.
The Swagger
By Anne Cetas
Encourage one another and build each other up. 1 Thessalonians 5:11
In the summer of 2015, Hunter (aged 15) carried his brother Braden (8) for a fifty-seven-mile walk to raise awareness of the needs of people with cerebral palsy. Braden weighs sixty pounds, so Hunter needed frequent rest stops where others helped him stretch his muscles, and he wore special harnesses to disperse Braden’s weight. Hunter says that while the harnesses helped with the physical discomfort, what helped him most were the people along the way. “If it weren’t for everyone cheering and walking with us, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. . . . My legs were sore, but my friends picked me up and I made it through . . . .” His mom named the arduous trek “The Cerebral Palsy Swagger.”
The apostle Paul, who we think of as strong and courageous, also needed to be “picked up.” In Romans 16 he lists a number of people who did just that for him. They served alongside him, encouraged him, met his needs, and prayed for him. He mentions Phoebe; Priscilla and Aquila, who were co-workers; Rufus’s mother, who had been like a mother to him as well; Gaius, who showed him hospitality; and many more.
Encouragers pick others up when troubles weigh them down.
We all need friends who pick us up, and we all know of others who need our encouragement. As Jesus helps and carries us, let us help one another.
Lord, in Your wisdom You established Your church as a place for us to love and care for each other. Help me to extend the grace I've received to others.
Encouragers pick others up when troubles weigh them down.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Are You Discouraged or Devoted?
…Jesus…said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have…and come, follow Me." But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. —Luke 18:22-23
Have you ever heard the Master say something very difficult to you? If you haven’t, I question whether you have ever heard Him say anything at all. Jesus says a tremendous amount to us that we listen to, but do not actually hear. And once we do hear Him, His words are harsh and unyielding.
Jesus did not show the least concern that this rich young ruler should do what He told him, nor did Jesus make any attempt to keep this man with Him. He simply said to him, “Sell all that you have…and come, follow Me.” Our Lord never pleaded with him; He never tried to lure him— He simply spoke the strictest words that human ears have ever heard, and then left him alone.
Have I ever heard Jesus say something difficult and unyielding to me? Has He said something personally to me to which I have deliberately listened— not something I can explain for the sake of others, but something I have heard Him say directly to me? This man understood what Jesus said. He heard it clearly, realizing the full impact of its meaning, and it broke his heart. He did not go away as a defiant person, but as one who was sorrowful and discouraged. He had come to Jesus on fire with zeal and determination, but the words of Jesus simply froze him. Instead of producing enthusiastic devotion to Jesus, they produced heartbreaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, but let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly well that once His word is truly heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. What is so terrible is that some of us prevent His words from bearing fruit in our present life. I wonder what we will say when we finally make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain— He will never throw our past failures back in our faces.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
The Single Question on Your Final Exam - #7723
Dr. Henry was one of the most challenging professors I had in college. And I anticipated the final exam in his class was going to be a monumental challenge. Who knows what questions Dr. Henry could throw at us from his incredible intellect! Well, word began to leak out about his final from the first students that took it. They didn't give any details-they just shared one surprising, tantalizing fact. They said, "There's only one question on the exam!" Well, most of us took that news as encouragement as we stood on the edge of academic survival. But when Dr. Henry set the exam in front of us, we weren't quite as encouraged. This entire semester of theology class had been devoted to what the Bible says about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The professor's question? "Describe the Person and work of the Holy Spirit." Oh come on! One question, but what a question!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Single Question on Your Final Exam."
You may have been out of school a while. I'm sure you don't miss final exams, but you still have one more. We all do. The day your heart beats its last and you stand before the God who made you; the day when, as the old timers used to say, you "meet your Maker." And it appears from God's Word, the Bible, that there will only be one question on your final exam. But what a question!
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 John 5:11-12, "God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." God says the human race is divided into two groups, and only two. Those who have Jesus and therefore have eternal life-they will go to heaven when they die. And those who do not have Jesus and therefore do not have eternal life-they'll go to eternal separation from God at a place Jesus called hell when they die. In the words of John 3:36, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
Now there's no question where God wants you to be forever-with Him in heaven. That's why He paid such a high price to remove what would keep you out of heaven-the sin of your life; all those countless times you've done it your way instead of God's way. You can't get into heaven with sin. And it won't work just trying to repay the wrong we've done with religion or being good. Sin has to be removed. And that seems impossible when the penalty for running our own lives is an eternal death penalty.
But God loves you so much that, according to John 3:16, "He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." God sent His Son to carry all the guilt and all the dying of your sin-to literally die your death penalty. So you shouldn't be surprised when you stand before God and He asks you that one question on His final exam-the one that determines where you'll be forever. "What did you do with My Son?" Not, "What good things did you do?" Not, "Did you believe the right things?" Not, "What religion were you?" God is interested in only one thing,
"What did you do with His Son who gave His life for you?"
Now it won't be enough to say, "Well, I liked Your Son" or "I spent a lot of time around Your Son" or "I agreed with everything about Your Son." The only answer that will open the gates of heaven to you is, "Lord, I invited Your Son, Jesus, into my heart and I put my total trust in Him to be my Rescuer from my sin."
Has there ever been a time when you've done that? If you're not sure, please let today be your Jesus-day. Tell Him you want to be His-you want to belong to Him. "Jesus, I believe when You died on that cross it was my sin You were paying for. And, Jesus, I'm putting all my trust in You to be my Rescuer from my sin. I am Yours."
Our website is there to help you to cross over from death to life this very day. I hope you'll go there – ANewStory.com.
You do have a final exam coming-God has already set the time. He's let us know what the question will be so you can be ready. "What did you do with My Son?" I pray you'll be able to point to this very day as the day you reached out and you took for yourself what His Son died to give you.
You may find this hard to believe, but not everyone likes the preacher. There are times when I misstep or misspeak and incur the displeasure of a parishioner. In the early years of my ministry, when I got wind of someone’s unhappiness, I just dismissed the problem. If he doesn’t bring it to me, then I have no hand in the matter, I thought.
But then I read Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:23-24: “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.” Jesus commands the offender, even if unintentional, to take the initiative. I have found without fail this step has resulted in restoration. When Scripture is mixed with obedience, a healing elixir results!
From God is With You Every Day
Isaiah 4
That will be the day when seven women
will gang up on one man, saying,
“We’ll take care of ourselves,
get our own food and clothes.
Just give us a child. Make us pregnant
so we’ll have something to live for!”
God’s Branch
2-4 And that’s when God’s Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel’s survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they’ll hold their heads high! Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as “holy”—alive and therefore precious. God will give Zion’s women a good bath. He’ll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment.
5-6 Then God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Read: Romans 16:1–4,13,21–23
Be sure to welcome our friend Phoebe in the way of the Master, with all the generous hospitality we Christians are famous for. I heartily endorse both her and her work. She’s a key representative of the church at Cenchrea. Help her out in whatever she asks. She deserves anything you can do for her. She’s helped many a person, including me.
3-5 Say hello to Priscilla and Aquila, who have worked hand in hand with me in serving Jesus. They once put their lives on the line for me. And I’m not the only one grateful to them. All the non-Jewish gatherings of believers also owe them plenty, to say nothing of the church that meets in their house.
21 And here are some more greetings from our end. Timothy, my partner in this work, Lucius, and my cousins Jason and Sosipater all said to tell you hello.
22 I, Tertius, who wrote this letter at Paul’s dictation, send you my personal greetings.
23 Gaius, who is host here to both me and the whole church, wants to be remembered to you.
Erastus, the city treasurer, and our good friend Quartus send their greetings.
INSIGHT:
The letter to the Romans is arguably Paul’s most intensely theological letter. Yet in Romans 16, he issues more personal greetings than in any other letter—twenty-seven! These personal greetings, included at the close of a theological letter about the nature of the gospel, serve as a significant reminder. The message of the death and resurrection of Jesus is not merely a piece of intellectual information. The doctrines that form the foundation for our rescue in Christ are not an academic exercise. These truths describe the love of God for human beings who have names and faces and struggles and victories. The gospel is the story of God’s unfailing love for people—people like those listed here. People like you and me.
The Swagger
By Anne Cetas
Encourage one another and build each other up. 1 Thessalonians 5:11
In the summer of 2015, Hunter (aged 15) carried his brother Braden (8) for a fifty-seven-mile walk to raise awareness of the needs of people with cerebral palsy. Braden weighs sixty pounds, so Hunter needed frequent rest stops where others helped him stretch his muscles, and he wore special harnesses to disperse Braden’s weight. Hunter says that while the harnesses helped with the physical discomfort, what helped him most were the people along the way. “If it weren’t for everyone cheering and walking with us, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. . . . My legs were sore, but my friends picked me up and I made it through . . . .” His mom named the arduous trek “The Cerebral Palsy Swagger.”
The apostle Paul, who we think of as strong and courageous, also needed to be “picked up.” In Romans 16 he lists a number of people who did just that for him. They served alongside him, encouraged him, met his needs, and prayed for him. He mentions Phoebe; Priscilla and Aquila, who were co-workers; Rufus’s mother, who had been like a mother to him as well; Gaius, who showed him hospitality; and many more.
 |
| Hunter and Branden |
Encouragers pick others up when troubles weigh them down.
We all need friends who pick us up, and we all know of others who need our encouragement. As Jesus helps and carries us, let us help one another.
Lord, in Your wisdom You established Your church as a place for us to love and care for each other. Help me to extend the grace I've received to others.
Encouragers pick others up when troubles weigh them down.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Are You Discouraged or Devoted?
…Jesus…said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have…and come, follow Me." But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. —Luke 18:22-23
Have you ever heard the Master say something very difficult to you? If you haven’t, I question whether you have ever heard Him say anything at all. Jesus says a tremendous amount to us that we listen to, but do not actually hear. And once we do hear Him, His words are harsh and unyielding.
Jesus did not show the least concern that this rich young ruler should do what He told him, nor did Jesus make any attempt to keep this man with Him. He simply said to him, “Sell all that you have…and come, follow Me.” Our Lord never pleaded with him; He never tried to lure him— He simply spoke the strictest words that human ears have ever heard, and then left him alone.
Have I ever heard Jesus say something difficult and unyielding to me? Has He said something personally to me to which I have deliberately listened— not something I can explain for the sake of others, but something I have heard Him say directly to me? This man understood what Jesus said. He heard it clearly, realizing the full impact of its meaning, and it broke his heart. He did not go away as a defiant person, but as one who was sorrowful and discouraged. He had come to Jesus on fire with zeal and determination, but the words of Jesus simply froze him. Instead of producing enthusiastic devotion to Jesus, they produced heartbreaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, but let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly well that once His word is truly heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. What is so terrible is that some of us prevent His words from bearing fruit in our present life. I wonder what we will say when we finally make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain— He will never throw our past failures back in our faces.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
The Single Question on Your Final Exam - #7723
Dr. Henry was one of the most challenging professors I had in college. And I anticipated the final exam in his class was going to be a monumental challenge. Who knows what questions Dr. Henry could throw at us from his incredible intellect! Well, word began to leak out about his final from the first students that took it. They didn't give any details-they just shared one surprising, tantalizing fact. They said, "There's only one question on the exam!" Well, most of us took that news as encouragement as we stood on the edge of academic survival. But when Dr. Henry set the exam in front of us, we weren't quite as encouraged. This entire semester of theology class had been devoted to what the Bible says about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The professor's question? "Describe the Person and work of the Holy Spirit." Oh come on! One question, but what a question!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Single Question on Your Final Exam."
You may have been out of school a while. I'm sure you don't miss final exams, but you still have one more. We all do. The day your heart beats its last and you stand before the God who made you; the day when, as the old timers used to say, you "meet your Maker." And it appears from God's Word, the Bible, that there will only be one question on your final exam. But what a question!
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 John 5:11-12, "God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." God says the human race is divided into two groups, and only two. Those who have Jesus and therefore have eternal life-they will go to heaven when they die. And those who do not have Jesus and therefore do not have eternal life-they'll go to eternal separation from God at a place Jesus called hell when they die. In the words of John 3:36, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."
Now there's no question where God wants you to be forever-with Him in heaven. That's why He paid such a high price to remove what would keep you out of heaven-the sin of your life; all those countless times you've done it your way instead of God's way. You can't get into heaven with sin. And it won't work just trying to repay the wrong we've done with religion or being good. Sin has to be removed. And that seems impossible when the penalty for running our own lives is an eternal death penalty.
But God loves you so much that, according to John 3:16, "He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." God sent His Son to carry all the guilt and all the dying of your sin-to literally die your death penalty. So you shouldn't be surprised when you stand before God and He asks you that one question on His final exam-the one that determines where you'll be forever. "What did you do with My Son?" Not, "What good things did you do?" Not, "Did you believe the right things?" Not, "What religion were you?" God is interested in only one thing,
"What did you do with His Son who gave His life for you?"
Now it won't be enough to say, "Well, I liked Your Son" or "I spent a lot of time around Your Son" or "I agreed with everything about Your Son." The only answer that will open the gates of heaven to you is, "Lord, I invited Your Son, Jesus, into my heart and I put my total trust in Him to be my Rescuer from my sin."
Has there ever been a time when you've done that? If you're not sure, please let today be your Jesus-day. Tell Him you want to be His-you want to belong to Him. "Jesus, I believe when You died on that cross it was my sin You were paying for. And, Jesus, I'm putting all my trust in You to be my Rescuer from my sin. I am Yours."
Our website is there to help you to cross over from death to life this very day. I hope you'll go there – ANewStory.com.
You do have a final exam coming-God has already set the time. He's let us know what the question will be so you can be ready. "What did you do with My Son?" I pray you'll be able to point to this very day as the day you reached out and you took for yourself what His Son died to give you.
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