Max Lucado Daily: IT’S TIME TO GROW UP
Children have a tendency to say, “Look at me!” On the tricycle: “Look at me go!” On the trampoline: “Look at me bounce!” On the swing set: “Look at me swing!” Such behavior is acceptable for children. Yet many adults spend their grown-up years saying the same thing. “Look at me drive this fancy car!” “Look at me make money!” “Look at me wear provocative clothes, or use big words, or flex my muscles. Look at me!”
Isn’t it time we grew up? We were made to live a life that says, “Look at God!” People are to look at us and see not US but the image of our Maker. This is God’s plan. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “We. . .are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” Because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 5:17-39
One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and religion teachers were sitting around. They had come from nearly every village in Galilee and Judea, even as far away as Jerusalem, to be there. The healing power of God was on him.
18-20 Some men arrived carrying a paraplegic on a stretcher. They were looking for a way to get into the house and set him before Jesus. When they couldn’t find a way in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof, removed some tiles, and let him down in the middle of everyone, right in front of Jesus. Impressed by their bold belief, he said, “Friend, I forgive your sins.”
21 That set the religion scholars and Pharisees buzzing. “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemous talk! God and only God can forgive sins.”
22-26 Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking and said, “Why all this gossipy whispering? Which is simpler: to say ‘I forgive your sins,’ or to say ‘Get up and start walking’? Well, just so it’s clear that I’m the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both. . . .” He now spoke directly to the paraplegic: “Get up. Take your bedroll and go home.” Without a moment’s hesitation, he did it—got up, took his blanket, and left for home, giving glory to God all the way. The people rubbed their eyes, incredulous—and then also gave glory to God. Awestruck, they said, “We’ve never seen anything like that!”
27-28 After this he went out and saw a man named Levi at his work collecting taxes. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” And he did—walked away from everything and went with him.
29-30 Levi gave a large dinner at his home for Jesus. Everybody was there, tax men and other disreputable characters as guests at the dinner. The Pharisees and their religion scholars came to his disciples greatly offended. “What is he doing eating and drinking with crooks and ‘sinners’?”
31-32 Jesus heard about it and spoke up, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.”
33 They asked him, “John’s disciples are well-known for keeping fasts and saying prayers. Also the Pharisees. But you seem to spend most of your time at parties. Why?”
34-35 Jesus said, “When you’re celebrating a wedding, you don’t skimp on the cake and wine. You feast. Later you may need to pull in your belt, but this isn’t the time. As long as the bride and groom are with you, you have a good time. When the groom is gone, the fasting can begin. No one throws cold water on a friendly bonfire. This is Kingdom Come!
36-39 “No one cuts up a fine silk scarf to patch old work clothes; you want fabrics that match. And you don’t put wine in old, cracked bottles; you get strong, clean bottles for your fresh vintage wine. And no one who has ever tasted fine aged wine prefers unaged wine.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 13, 2018
Read: Luke 6:37–38
Judging Others
37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
INSIGHT
Time is a precious commodity that we can waste, spend, or invest. Moses prayed, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). In a sense, nothing more clearly requires—or displays—a heart of wisdom than the way we use our time. This may be why Jesus—pressed by the crowds, confronted by the needs around Him, and threatened by the religious establishment—is never described in the Gospels as being in a hurry. Instead, He saw time as having a part in the Father’s purposes. At the wedding feast in Galilee, He said to His mother, “My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). As He drew ever closer to the cross, however, He saw that time coming to culmination. In John 12:27 He affirmed, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.” Living wisely is rooted in understanding that our loving Father has a purpose behind our seconds, minutes, hours, and days.- Bill Crowder
The Gift of Time
By James Banks
A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Proverbs 11:25
I headed into the post office in a big hurry. I had a number of things on my to-do list, but as I entered I was frustrated to find a long line backing up all the way to the door. “Hurry up and wait,” I muttered, glancing at my watch.
My hand was still on the door when an elderly stranger approached me. “I can’t get this copier to work,” he said, pointing to the machine behind us. “It took my money and I don’t know what to do.” Immediately I knew what God wanted me to do. I stepped out of line and was able to fix the problem in ten minutes.
The man thanked me and then left. As I turned to get back in line, it was gone. I walked straight to the service counter.
My experience that day reminds me of Jesus’s words: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38).
My wait seemed shorter because God interrupted my hurry. By turning my eyes to others’ needs and helping me give of my time, He gave me a gift. It’s a lesson I hope to remember, next time I look at my watch.
Heavenly Father, all of the time I have is in Your hands, a gift from You. Please show me how to use it to bring glory and honor to You.
Sometimes our to-do list needs to wait.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 13, 2018
“Do Not Quench the Spirit”
Do not quench the Spirit. —1 Thessalonians 5:19
The voice of the Spirit of God is as gentle as a summer breeze— so gentle that unless you are living in complete fellowship and oneness with God, you will never hear it. The sense of warning and restraint that the Spirit gives comes to us in the most amazingly gentle ways. And if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice, you will quench it, and your spiritual life will be impaired. This sense of restraint will always come as a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12), so faint that no one except a saint of God will notice it.
Beware if in sharing your personal testimony you continually have to look back, saying, “Once, a number of years ago, I was saved.” If you have put your “hand to the plow” and are walking in the light, there is no “looking back”— the past is instilled into the present wonder of fellowship and oneness with God (Luke 9:62 ; also see 1 John 1:6-7). If you get out of the light, you become a sentimental Christian, and live only on your memories, and your testimony will have a hard metallic ring to it. Beware of trying to cover up your present refusal to “walk in the light” by recalling your past experiences when you did “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). When-ever the Spirit gives you that sense of restraint, call a halt and make things right, or else you will go on quenching and grieving Him without even knowing it.
Suppose God brings you to a crisis and you almost endure it, but not completely. He will engineer the crisis again, but this time some of the intensity will be lost. You will have less discernment and more humiliation at having disobeyed. If you continue to grieve His Spirit, there will come a time when that crisis cannot be repeated, because you have totally quenched Him. But if you will go on through the crisis, your life will become a hymn of praise to God. Never become attached to anything that continues to hurt God. For you to be free of it, God must be allowed to hurt whatever it may be.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence. Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 13, 2018
Spreading Your Germs - #8241
You can have some say in what seat you get on an airplane. In fact, I try to reserve the kind of seat I want in advance. But you don't have any say in who your neighbors will be. No, like the children who were in the seat behind me on one flight. My first clue that it was going to be an interesting flight was their squealing and crying and we hadn't even taken off yet. Mom just didn't seem to have her young daughter and her younger son under control, but she was trying. As we took off, I heard her tell her daughter loudly, "Don't squeeze your brother's head!" That's a good idea. That sounded like a pretty reasonable request to me. Then she gave a reason, "You know he's got a fever and he keeps throwing up!" Oh, good! Great, great! For some strange reason, I instinctively ducked. Well, the way I figured it, a straight trajectory would carry anything that came from that boy's mouth right to my head. (And that's enough of that discussion.) I looked at the passenger next to me and we both just kind of shrugged and bent our heads down. Well, nothing terribly gross happened, but all during the flight I kept thinking about those flu germs flying all around me and I hoped I'd taken enough Vitamin C that morning!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Spreading Your Germs."
Most of us don't get too excited about someone spreading their germs all over us, right? In fact, if you're considerate and it's possible, you'll stay home and keep your germs to yourself.
That's what Miriam should have done – keep her germs to herself. Her story is in Numbers 12:1 in our word for today from the Word of God, "Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife. 'Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?' they asked. 'Hasn't he also spoken through us?' And the Lord heard this. At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, 'Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you.' So the three of them came out. Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and (He) summoned Aaron and Miriam."
God goes ahead and confronts them for the critical germs that they were spreading. Verse 9 says, "The anger of the Lord burned against them and he left them." Ultimately the Lord's instructions to Moses were these, "Confine (Miriam) outside the camp for seven days." Sounds a little like quarantine, doesn't it?
It's obvious that God is very unhappy, very angry, when we start spreading our emotional and spiritual germs around. After all, we know it's just courtesy to cover our mouth when we cough or sneeze, to stay away from people when we have a fever, to do everything we can to protect others from being infected with our germs. We need to think that way about the germs we spread with our words, with our attitude. We've got a complaint, so we cough that complaint all over everybody else. We've got a criticism of someone, or a conflict, or a frustration with someone.
Do we cover our mouth and keep it to ourselves? Not usually. We spread those germs to other people who should never be affected by them. We're feeling depressed, or down, or tired, or stressed, but we have no right to infect others with that infection, too!
You say, "What do I do with all this junk then?" Well, there's someone asking for your germs, who's ready to take them. Psalm 142:1-2, "I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble." Take your germs to the Doctor! Dr. Jesus that is.
Dump your complaints, dump your frustrations, your anger, your hurt on the only one who can really fix things and who can really change people, the One who can give you perspective, and give you the joy again. Your germs can't infect Him, but they can certainly poison the people around you.
If you're not feeling well emotionally or spiritually, please keep your germs to yourself!
Monday, August 13, 2018
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Deuteronomy 19 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: What's More Important?
I remember receiving an invitation to speak at a church in the Midwest. I turned it down. If I had gone, I would have had the attention of a great number of people for an hour. The opportunity to speak about Jesus to some people who didn't know Him.
Is a Tuesday evening at home with three children and a spouse more important than preaching to an audience? I decided to make a list of what I had to lose by saying no to my family one night. I would not have been there to hold Andrea when her finger got slammed in the door. I wouldn't have been there to answer Jenna's question, "Daddy what's a handicapped person?" I would have missed Jenna telling the story of Jesus on the cross during our family devotional.
There are a hundred speakers who could have addressed that crowd, but my girls just have one dad! I made the right choice.
From In the Eye of the Storm
Deuteronomy 19
When God, your God, throws the nations out of the country that God, your God, is giving you and you settle down in their cities and houses, you are to set aside three easily accessible cities in the land that God, your God, is giving you as your very own. Divide your land into thirds, this land that God, your God, is giving you to possess, and build roads to the towns so that anyone who accidentally kills another can flee there.
4-7 This is the guideline for the murderer who flees there to take refuge: He has to have killed his neighbor without premeditation and with no history of bad blood between them. For instance, a man goes with his neighbor into the woods to cut a tree; he swings the ax, the head slips off the handle and hits his neighbor, killing him. He may then flee to one of these cities and save his life. If the city is too far away, the avenger of blood racing in hot-blooded pursuit might catch him since it’s such a long distance, and kill him even though he didn’t deserve it. It wasn’t his fault. There was no history of hatred between them. Therefore I command you: Set aside the three cities for yourselves.
8-10 When God, your God, enlarges your land, extending its borders as he solemnly promised your ancestors, by giving you the whole land he promised them because you are diligently living the way I’m commanding you today, namely, to love God, your God, and do what he tells you all your life; and when that happens, then add three more to these three cities so that there is no chance of innocent blood being spilled in your land. God, your God, is giving you this land as an inheritance—you don’t want to pollute it with innocent blood and bring bloodguilt upon yourselves.
11-13 On the other hand, if a man with a history of hatred toward his neighbor waits in ambush, then jumps him, mauls and kills him, and then runs to one of these cities, that’s a different story. The elders of his own city are to send for him and have him brought back. They are to hand him over to the avenger of blood for execution. Don’t feel sorry for him. Clean out the pollution of wrongful murder from Israel so that you’ll be able to live well and breathe clean air.
14 Don’t move your neighbor’s boundary markers, the longstanding landmarks set up by your pioneer ancestors defining their property.
15 You cannot convict anyone of a crime or sin on the word of one witness. You need two or three witnesses to make a case.
16-21 If a hostile witness stands to accuse someone of a wrong, then both parties involved in the quarrel must stand in the Presence of God before the priests and judges who are in office at that time. The judges must conduct a careful investigation; if the witness turns out to be a false witness and has lied against his fellow Israelite, give him the same medicine he intended for the other party. Clean the polluting evil from your company. People will hear of what you’ve done and be impressed; that will put a stop to this kind of evil among you. Don’t feel sorry for the person: It’s life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Read: Joshua 10:6–15
And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, saying, “Do not relax your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country are gathered against us.” 7 So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. 8 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you.” 9 So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. 10 And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who[a] struck them with a great blow at Gibeon and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. 11 And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.
12 At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,
“Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.
Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. 14 There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.
15 So Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.
Footnotes:
Joshua 10:10 Or and he
INSIGHT
The Gibeonites feared Israel’s God, so they tricked Joshua and the Israelites into becoming their allies (Joshua 9). So when Gibeon called Israel for help (10:6), they were ultimately calling on God.
Do we wait for a crisis to turn to Him? - Tim Gustafson
Help from Heaven
By Lisa Samra
Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel! Joshua 10:14
SOS, the Morse code signal, was created in 1905 because sailors needed a way to indicate extreme distress. The signal gained notoriety in 1910 when used by the sinking ship Steamship Kentucky, saving all forty-six people aboard.
While SOS may be a more recent invention, the urgent cry for help is as old as humanity. We hear it often in the Old Testament story of Joshua, who faced opposition from fellow Israelites (Joshua 9:18) and challenging terrain (3:15–17) for more than fourteen years as the Israelites slowly conquered and settled the land God had promised them. During this struggle “the Lord was with Joshua” (6:27).
In Joshua 10, the Israelites go to the aid of the Gibeonites, allies of Israel who were being attacked by five kings. Joshua knew that he needed the Lord’s help to defeat so many powerful enemies (v. 12). God responded with a hailstorm, even stopping the sun in the middle of the sky to give Israel more time to defeat the enemy. Joshua 10:14 recounts, “Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!”
If you are in the midst of a challenging situation, you can send out an SOS to God. Although help will look different than the assistance Joshua received, perhaps help comes through an unexpected job, an understanding doctor, or peace in the midst of grief. Be encouraged that these are ways He is responding to your call for help and fighting for you.
Thank You, Father, for walking with me on this difficult journey and hearing me when I cry out to You.
As we cry out to God for help, we can trust that He will be with us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, August 12, 2018
The Theology of Resting in God
Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? —Matthew 8:26
When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point, then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of those people who do not even know God. We come to our wits’ end, showing that we don’t have even the slightest amount of confidence in Him or in His sovereign control of the world. To us He seems to be asleep, and we can see nothing but giant, breaking waves on the sea ahead of us.
“…O you of little faith!” What a stinging pain must have shot through the disciples as they surely thought to themselves, “We missed the mark again!” And what a sharp pain will go through us when we suddenly realize that we could have produced complete and utter joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, in spite of what we were facing.
There are times when there is no storm or crisis in our lives, and we do all that is humanly possible. But it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to place our trust in Him, the crisis will reveal that we can go to the point of breaking, yet without breaking our confidence in Him.
We have been talking quite a lot about sanctification, but what will be the result in our lives? It will be expressed in our lives as a peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness with Him. And this oneness will make us not only blameless in His sight, but also a profound joy to Him.
I remember receiving an invitation to speak at a church in the Midwest. I turned it down. If I had gone, I would have had the attention of a great number of people for an hour. The opportunity to speak about Jesus to some people who didn't know Him.
Is a Tuesday evening at home with three children and a spouse more important than preaching to an audience? I decided to make a list of what I had to lose by saying no to my family one night. I would not have been there to hold Andrea when her finger got slammed in the door. I wouldn't have been there to answer Jenna's question, "Daddy what's a handicapped person?" I would have missed Jenna telling the story of Jesus on the cross during our family devotional.
There are a hundred speakers who could have addressed that crowd, but my girls just have one dad! I made the right choice.
From In the Eye of the Storm
Deuteronomy 19
When God, your God, throws the nations out of the country that God, your God, is giving you and you settle down in their cities and houses, you are to set aside three easily accessible cities in the land that God, your God, is giving you as your very own. Divide your land into thirds, this land that God, your God, is giving you to possess, and build roads to the towns so that anyone who accidentally kills another can flee there.
4-7 This is the guideline for the murderer who flees there to take refuge: He has to have killed his neighbor without premeditation and with no history of bad blood between them. For instance, a man goes with his neighbor into the woods to cut a tree; he swings the ax, the head slips off the handle and hits his neighbor, killing him. He may then flee to one of these cities and save his life. If the city is too far away, the avenger of blood racing in hot-blooded pursuit might catch him since it’s such a long distance, and kill him even though he didn’t deserve it. It wasn’t his fault. There was no history of hatred between them. Therefore I command you: Set aside the three cities for yourselves.
8-10 When God, your God, enlarges your land, extending its borders as he solemnly promised your ancestors, by giving you the whole land he promised them because you are diligently living the way I’m commanding you today, namely, to love God, your God, and do what he tells you all your life; and when that happens, then add three more to these three cities so that there is no chance of innocent blood being spilled in your land. God, your God, is giving you this land as an inheritance—you don’t want to pollute it with innocent blood and bring bloodguilt upon yourselves.
11-13 On the other hand, if a man with a history of hatred toward his neighbor waits in ambush, then jumps him, mauls and kills him, and then runs to one of these cities, that’s a different story. The elders of his own city are to send for him and have him brought back. They are to hand him over to the avenger of blood for execution. Don’t feel sorry for him. Clean out the pollution of wrongful murder from Israel so that you’ll be able to live well and breathe clean air.
14 Don’t move your neighbor’s boundary markers, the longstanding landmarks set up by your pioneer ancestors defining their property.
15 You cannot convict anyone of a crime or sin on the word of one witness. You need two or three witnesses to make a case.
16-21 If a hostile witness stands to accuse someone of a wrong, then both parties involved in the quarrel must stand in the Presence of God before the priests and judges who are in office at that time. The judges must conduct a careful investigation; if the witness turns out to be a false witness and has lied against his fellow Israelite, give him the same medicine he intended for the other party. Clean the polluting evil from your company. People will hear of what you’ve done and be impressed; that will put a stop to this kind of evil among you. Don’t feel sorry for the person: It’s life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Read: Joshua 10:6–15
And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, saying, “Do not relax your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country are gathered against us.” 7 So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor. 8 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you.” 9 So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. 10 And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who[a] struck them with a great blow at Gibeon and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. 11 And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.
12 At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,
“Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.
Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. 14 There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.
15 So Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.
Footnotes:
Joshua 10:10 Or and he
INSIGHT
The Gibeonites feared Israel’s God, so they tricked Joshua and the Israelites into becoming their allies (Joshua 9). So when Gibeon called Israel for help (10:6), they were ultimately calling on God.
Do we wait for a crisis to turn to Him? - Tim Gustafson
Help from Heaven
By Lisa Samra
Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel! Joshua 10:14
SOS, the Morse code signal, was created in 1905 because sailors needed a way to indicate extreme distress. The signal gained notoriety in 1910 when used by the sinking ship Steamship Kentucky, saving all forty-six people aboard.
While SOS may be a more recent invention, the urgent cry for help is as old as humanity. We hear it often in the Old Testament story of Joshua, who faced opposition from fellow Israelites (Joshua 9:18) and challenging terrain (3:15–17) for more than fourteen years as the Israelites slowly conquered and settled the land God had promised them. During this struggle “the Lord was with Joshua” (6:27).
In Joshua 10, the Israelites go to the aid of the Gibeonites, allies of Israel who were being attacked by five kings. Joshua knew that he needed the Lord’s help to defeat so many powerful enemies (v. 12). God responded with a hailstorm, even stopping the sun in the middle of the sky to give Israel more time to defeat the enemy. Joshua 10:14 recounts, “Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!”
If you are in the midst of a challenging situation, you can send out an SOS to God. Although help will look different than the assistance Joshua received, perhaps help comes through an unexpected job, an understanding doctor, or peace in the midst of grief. Be encouraged that these are ways He is responding to your call for help and fighting for you.
Thank You, Father, for walking with me on this difficult journey and hearing me when I cry out to You.
As we cry out to God for help, we can trust that He will be with us.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, August 12, 2018
The Theology of Resting in God
Why are you fearful, O you of little faith? —Matthew 8:26
When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point, then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of those people who do not even know God. We come to our wits’ end, showing that we don’t have even the slightest amount of confidence in Him or in His sovereign control of the world. To us He seems to be asleep, and we can see nothing but giant, breaking waves on the sea ahead of us.
“…O you of little faith!” What a stinging pain must have shot through the disciples as they surely thought to themselves, “We missed the mark again!” And what a sharp pain will go through us when we suddenly realize that we could have produced complete and utter joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, in spite of what we were facing.
There are times when there is no storm or crisis in our lives, and we do all that is humanly possible. But it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to place our trust in Him, the crisis will reveal that we can go to the point of breaking, yet without breaking our confidence in Him.
We have been talking quite a lot about sanctification, but what will be the result in our lives? It will be expressed in our lives as a peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness with Him. And this oneness will make us not only blameless in His sight, but also a profound joy to Him.
Saturday, August 11, 2018
Deuteronomy 18, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily:Great Opportunities
There's only so much sand in the hourglass. Who gets it? You know what I'm talking about, don't you? Each June I put my calendar together for the coming year. Decisions to be made. You may not stockpile your requests until June, but your situation is every bit as real. It's tug-of-war, and you're the rope. On one side are the requests for your time and energy. They call. They compliment. They're valid and good. Great opportunities to do good things. If they were evil, it'd be easy to say no. But they aren't, so it's easy to rationalize.
On the other side are the loved ones in your world. They don't ask you to consult your calendar. They don't use terms like "appointment" and "engagement" or "do lunch."They don't want you for what you can do for them; they want you for who you are. Are you making time for them?
From In the Eye of the Storm
Deuteronomy 18
The Levitical priests—that’s the entire tribe of Levi—don’t get any land-inheritance with the rest of Israel. They get the Fire-Gift-Offerings of God—they will live on that inheritance. But they don’t get land-inheritance like the rest of their kinsmen. God is their inheritance.
3-5 This is what the priests get from the people from any offering of an ox or a sheep: the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach. You must also give them the firstfruits of your grain, wine, and oil and the first fleece of your sheep, because God, your God, has chosen only them and their children out of all your tribes to be present and serve always in the name of God, your God.
6-8 If a Levite moves from any town in Israel—and he is quite free to move wherever he desires—and comes to the place God designates for worship, he may serve there in the name of God along with all his brother Levites who are present and serving in the Presence of God. And he will get an equal share to eat, even though he has money from the sale of his parents’ possessions.
9-12 When you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you, don’t take on the abominable ways of life of the nations there. Don’t you dare sacrifice your son or daughter in the fire. Don’t practice divination, sorcery, fortunetelling, witchery, casting spells, holding séances, or channeling with the dead. People who do these things are an abomination to God. It’s because of just such abominable practices that God, your God, is driving these nations out before you.
13-14 Be completely loyal to God, your God. These nations that you’re about to run out of the country consort with sorcerers and witches. But not you. God, your God, forbids it.
15-16 God, your God, is going to raise up a prophet for you. God will raise him up from among your kinsmen, a prophet like me. Listen obediently to him. This is what you asked God, your God, for at Horeb on the day you were all gathered at the mountain and said, “We can’t hear any more from God, our God; we can’t stand seeing any more fire. We’ll die!”
17-19 And God said to me, “They’re right; they’ve spoken the truth. I’ll raise up for them a prophet like you from their kinsmen. I’ll tell him what to say and he will pass on to them everything I command him. And anyone who won’t listen to my words spoken by him, I will personally hold responsible.
20 “But any prophet who fakes it, who claims to speak in my name something I haven’t commanded him to say, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.”
21-22 You may be wondering among yourselves, “How can we tell the difference, whether it was God who spoke or not?” Here’s how: If what the prophet spoke in God’s name doesn’t happen, then obviously God wasn’t behind it; the prophet made it up. Forget about him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, August 11, 2018
Read: Colossians 3:18–23
Rules for Christian Households
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters,[a] not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
Footnotes:
Colossians 3:22 Or your masters according to the flesh
INSIGHT
In his letters, the apostle Paul will often soar in the atmosphere of heavy theology, and then at other times he brings it down to everyday life with practical instructions. Today’s passage is an example of the latter. The list of instructions given in Colossians 3:18–23 and a similar list in Ephesians 5:22–6:4 are known as household codes. In these passages Paul describes how to relate to each other in our various roles—as a spouse, child, father, slave, or master. Colossians 3:23 caps this code with a well-known verse that many of us use to remind us to work for the Lord at our jobs—whether the boss is difficult or in our corner, whether our coworkers support us or are trying to undermine our efforts. Working for the Lord, however, is not restricted to our places of work. Wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and masters are to fulfill their roles as to the Lord.
What might it mean for you to work for the Lord with joy as a spouse, child, or parent? - J.R. Hudberg
That Smiling Man
By Adam Holz
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Colossians 3:23
Going to the grocery store isn’t something I particularly enjoy. It’s just a mundane part of life—something that has to be done.
But there is one part of this task I’ve unexpectedly come to look forward to: checking out in Fred’s lane. Fred, you see, turns checkout into show time. He’s amazingly fast, always has a big smile, and even dances (and sometimes sings!) as he acrobatically flips (unbreakable) purchases into a plastic bag. Fred clearly enjoys a job that could be seen as one of the most tedious around. And for just a moment, his cheerful spirit brightens the lives of people in his checkout lane.
The way Fred does his job has won my respect and admiration. His cheerful attitude, desire to serve, and attention to detail all line up well with the apostle Paul’s description of how we are to work in Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord.”
When we’re in relationship with Jesus, any job we have to do gives us an opportunity to reflect His presence in our lives. No task is too small . . . or too big! Tackling our responsibilities—whatever they may be—with joy, creativity, and excellence gives us an opportunity to influence those around us, no matter our job.
Lord, help me to tackle everything on my plate today with grace, enthusiasm, and joy, knowing that my attitude may affect others in ways I’m not even aware of.
The best way to do satisfying work is to do it for the Lord.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, August 11, 2018
This Experience Must Come
Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha…saw him no more. —2 Kings 2:11-12
It is not wrong for you to depend on your “Elijah” for as long as God gives him to you. But remember that the time will come when he must leave and will no longer be your guide and your leader, because God does not intend for him to stay. Even the thought of that causes you to say, “I cannot continue without my ‘Elijah.’ ” Yet God says you must continue.
Alone at Your “Jordan” (2 Kings 2:14). The Jordan River represents the type of separation where you have no fellowship with anyone else, and where no one else can take your responsibility from you. You now have to put to the test what you learned when you were with your “Elijah.” You have been to the Jordan over and over again with Elijah, but now you are facing it alone. There is no use in saying that you cannot go— the experience is here, and you must go. If you truly want to know whether or not God is the God your faith believes Him to be, then go through your “Jordan” alone.
Alone at Your “Jericho” (2 Kings 2:15). Jericho represents the place where you have seen your “Elijah” do great things. Yet when you come alone to your “Jericho,” you have a strong reluctance to take the initiative and trust in God, wanting, instead, for someone else to take it for you. But if you remain true to what you learned while with your “Elijah,” you will receive a sign, as Elisha did, that God is with you.
Alone at Your “Bethel” (2 Kings 2:23). At your “Bethel” you will find yourself at your wits’ end but at the beginning of God’s wisdom. When you come to your wits’ end and feel inclined to panic— don’t! Stand true to God and He will bring out His truth in a way that will make your life an expression of worship. Put into practice what you learned while with your “Elijah”— use his mantle and pray (see 2 Kings 2:13-14). Make a determination to trust in God, and do not even look for Elijah anymore.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
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
Friday, August 10, 2018
Deuteronomy 17, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: WORTH DYING FOR
Has someone called you a lost cause? A failure? Has someone dismissed you as insignificant? Don’t listen to them. They don’t know what they’re talking about. You were conceived by God before you were conceived by your parents. You were loved in heaven before you were known on earth. You aren’t an accident.
When you say yes to God you are being made into God’s image. Print that on your resume! In the eyes of God you are worth dying for. Would you let this truth define the way you see yourself? Would you let this truth define the way you see other people? Every person you see was created by God to bear his image and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. This is God’s plan. This is God’s promise. And he will fulfill it! Because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Deuteronomy 17
And don’t sacrifice to God, your God, an ox or sheep that is defective or has anything at all wrong with it. That’s an abomination, an insult to God, your God.
2-5 If you find anyone within the towns that God, your God, is giving you doing what is wrong in God’s eyes, breaking his covenant by going off to worship other gods, bowing down to them—the sun, say, or the moon, or any rebel sky-gods—look at the evidence and investigate carefully. If you find that it is true, that, in fact, an abomination has been committed in Israel, then you are to take the man or woman who did this evil thing outside your city gates and stone the man or the woman. Hurl stones at the person until dead.
6-7 But only on the testimony of two or three witnesses may a person be put to death. No one may be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The witnesses must throw the first stones in the execution, then the rest of the community joins in. You have to purge the evil from your community.
8-9 When matters of justice come up that are too much for you—hard cases regarding homicides, legal disputes, fights—take them up to the central place of worship that God, your God, has designated. Bring them to the Levitical priests and the judge who is in office at the time. Consult them and they will hand down the decision for you.
10-13 Then carry out their verdict at the place designated by God, your God. Do what they tell you, in exactly the way they tell you. Follow their instructions precisely: Don’t leave out anything; don’t add anything. Anyone who presumes to override or twist the decision handed down by the priest or judge who was acting in the Presence of God, your God, is as good as dead—root him out, rid Israel of the evil. Everyone will take notice and be impressed. That will put an end to presumptuous behavior.
14-17 When you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you and take it over and settle down, and then say, “I’m going to get me a king, a king like all the nations around me,” make sure you get yourself a king whom God, your God, chooses. Choose your king from among your kinsmen; don’t take a foreigner—only a kinsman. And make sure he doesn’t build up a war machine, amassing military horses and chariots. He must not send people to Egypt to get more horses, because God told you, “You’ll never go back there again!” And make sure he doesn’t build up a harem, collecting wives who will divert him from the straight and narrow. And make sure he doesn’t pile up a lot of silver and gold.
18-20 This is what must be done: When he sits down on the throne of his kingdom, the first thing he must do is make himself a copy of this Revelation on a scroll, copied under the supervision of the Levitical priests. That scroll is to remain at his side at all times; he is to study it every day so that he may learn what it means to fear his God, living in reverent obedience before these rules and regulations by following them. He must not become proud and arrogant, changing the commands at whim to suit himself or making up his own versions. If he reads and learns, he will have a long reign as king in Israel, he and his sons.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, August 10, 2018
Read: Lamentations 3:49–58
“My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,
50 until the Lord from heaven
looks down and sees;
51 my eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
52 “I have been hunted like a bird
by those who were my enemies without cause;
53 they flung me alive into the pit
and cast stones on me;
54 water closed over my head;
I said, ‘I am lost.’
55 “I called on your name, O Lord,
from the depths of the pit;
56 you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
your ear to my cry for help!’
57 You came near when I called on you;
you said, ‘Do not fear!’
58 “You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life.
INSIGHT
The prophet Jeremiah had prophesied for over forty years to a disobedient, disbelieving Judah (627–580 bc). Now in five emotionally charged “funeral laments” he writes as an eyewitness, lamenting the destruction and devastation of Jerusalem, the temple, and the people as they are forcefully exiled to Babylon. He includes the reasons why God would use the Babylonians to discipline His idolatrous people (Lamentations 1:5–8; see 1 Kings 9:6–9; Jeremiah 2:11–13, 18:15–17).
For two years the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem. Jeremiah witnessed the uncensored horrors of war (2 Kings 25:1-4; Jeremiah 52:12–27; Lamentations 2:20; 4:10). But he also wrote of hope in the midst of despair (3:21–33) and of the restoration that would come (5:19–22). Jeremiah reminded the Jewish people that the Lord, who has judged Judah rightly for her sins, is the Lord of hope (3:21, 24–25), compassion (v. 22), faithfulness (v. 23), and salvation (v. 26). Jeremiah calls the people to repent and to trust in the goodness of God (vv. 25–26; 5:21).
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation,” says the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 7:10). How has this been true in your own life? - K. T. Sim
A Hopeful Lament
By Amy Peterson
I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit. Lamentations 3:55
To visit Clifton Heritage National Park in Nassau, Bahamas, is to revisit a tragic era in history. Where the land meets the water, stone steps lead up a cliff. Slaves brought to the Bahamas by ship in the eighteenth century would ascend these steps, often leaving family behind and entering a life of inhumane treatment. At the top, there is a memorial to those slaves. Cedar trees have been carved into the shapes of women looking out to sea toward the homeland and family members they’ve lost. Each sculpture is scarred with marks of the slave captain’s whip.
These sculptures of women mourning what they’ve lost remind me of the importance of recognizing the injustices and broken systems in the world, and lamenting them. Lamenting does not mean that we are without hope; rather, it’s a way of being honest with God. It should be a familiar posture for Christians; about forty percent of the Psalms are psalms of lament, and in the book of Lamentations, God’s people cry out to Him after their city has been destroyed by invaders (3:55).
Lament is a legitimate response to the reality of suffering, and it engages God in the context of pain and trouble. Ultimately, lament is hopeful: when we lament what is not right, we call ourselves and others to be active in seeking change.
And that’s why the sculpture garden in Nassau has been named “Genesis”—the place of lament is recognized as the place of new beginnings.
We can trust God to bring something new out of our seasons of lament.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 10, 2018
The Holy Suffering of the Saint
Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good… —1 Peter 4:19
Choosing to suffer means that there must be something wrong with you, but choosing God’s will— even if it means you will suffer— is something very different. No normal, healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he simply chooses God’s will, just as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not. And no saint should ever dare to interfere with the lesson of suffering being taught in another saint’s life.
The saint who satisfies the heart of Jesus will make other saints strong and mature for God. But the people used to strengthen us are never those who sympathize with us; in fact, we are hindered by those who give us their sympathy, because sympathy only serves to weaken us. No one better understands a saint than the saint who is as close and as intimate with Jesus as possible. If we accept the sympathy of another saint, our spontaneous feeling is, “God is dealing too harshly with me and making my life too difficult.” That is why Jesus said that self-pity was of the devil (see Matthew 16:21-23). We must be merciful to God’s reputation. It is easy for us to tarnish God’s character because He never argues back; He never tries to defend or vindicate Himself. Beware of thinking that Jesus needed sympathy during His life on earth. He refused the sympathy of people because in His great wisdom He knew that no one on earth understood His purpose (see Matthew 16:23). He accepted only the sympathy of His Father and the angels (see Luke 15:10).
Look at God’s incredible waste of His saints, according to the world’s judgment. God seems to plant His saints in the most useless places. And then we say, “God intends for me to be here because I am so useful to Him.” Yet Jesus never measured His life by how or where He was of the greatest use. God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that may be.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried. He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 10, 2018
Hope For Banged Up Lives - #8240
It was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and then a major motion picture. It was the story of one of the most famous race horses of all time, Seabiscuit. While many of us may not be excited about horse racing, the story, set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, illustrates some things that are pretty inspiring. Seabiscuit was the son of a champion but he was definitely not like his father. He had been forced to run with better horses so they would gain confidence by beating him. When he raced, he did what he was trained to do – lose. Because of the poor treatment Seabiscuit received, he became an angry, almost uncontrollable horse. Until he was given a chance by a trainer many considered to be too old and a young man most thought was too big to be a jockey – a man blind in one eye and bitter from his parents' abandonment.
But Seabiscuit thrived in the care of people who believed in him and became one of the greatest horses of all time – along with his jockey. The trainer sees in the horse something others have missed. He says when Seabiscuit's eventual owner is deciding whether to buy this apparent loser, "You don't throw a life away just because it's been banged up a little." And when the trainer wants to fire his jockey, the owner reminds him, "You don't throw a life away just because it's been banged up a little." I like that.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope For Banged Up Lives."
Maybe you're one of those lives. You've been treated poorly, you've been made to feel that you never measure up, that you're a loser, people have undervalued you, they've passed you by, and maybe you've ended up pretty hard and angry. But, you know, there is someone who has never thrown away a banged up life, who sees beyond what's on the outside to the wounds on the inside and the potential He built into you when He made you. Jesus is your hope of a new beginning where the future doesn't have to be just an extension of a broken past.
In Isaiah 61:1, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says of Jesus, "The Lord...has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners...to provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes - a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."
Jesus has done that for millions of hurt people, devalued people, banged up people for two thousand years. He can do it for you because He died for every sin ever done by you or against you. The Bible says of His death on the cross: "He carried our sorrows...He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities...and by His wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4, 5).
With someone who loves you so unconditionally, so completely, you don't ever again have to trash yourself, trash other people, or trash your future. You can tear up that name tag that identifies you as "victim" and replace it with the new identity Jesus gives you – "child of the King" if you'll surrender the steering wheel of your life and put the rest of your life in the hands of the man who died for you.
He is ready to take all the mess, all the sin, all the hurt, all the scars, and make this a day of forgiving, healing, and new beginning. You just tell Him, "Jesus, I'm done. I'm yours." Our website is called ANewStory.com, because that's what it's about; how today can be chapter one of the new story of your life in Jesus. I encourage you to go there and get some hope and some help.
Jesus, God's one and only Son, sacrificed Himself to become the ultimate banged up life for you. However much you have been betrayed, you can trust Him. However much you have been hurt and rejected, you can count on His "never leave you" love. And your new beginning? Well, how about today?
Has someone called you a lost cause? A failure? Has someone dismissed you as insignificant? Don’t listen to them. They don’t know what they’re talking about. You were conceived by God before you were conceived by your parents. You were loved in heaven before you were known on earth. You aren’t an accident.
When you say yes to God you are being made into God’s image. Print that on your resume! In the eyes of God you are worth dying for. Would you let this truth define the way you see yourself? Would you let this truth define the way you see other people? Every person you see was created by God to bear his image and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. This is God’s plan. This is God’s promise. And he will fulfill it! Because God’s promises are unbreakable our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Deuteronomy 17
And don’t sacrifice to God, your God, an ox or sheep that is defective or has anything at all wrong with it. That’s an abomination, an insult to God, your God.
2-5 If you find anyone within the towns that God, your God, is giving you doing what is wrong in God’s eyes, breaking his covenant by going off to worship other gods, bowing down to them—the sun, say, or the moon, or any rebel sky-gods—look at the evidence and investigate carefully. If you find that it is true, that, in fact, an abomination has been committed in Israel, then you are to take the man or woman who did this evil thing outside your city gates and stone the man or the woman. Hurl stones at the person until dead.
6-7 But only on the testimony of two or three witnesses may a person be put to death. No one may be put to death on the testimony of one witness. The witnesses must throw the first stones in the execution, then the rest of the community joins in. You have to purge the evil from your community.
8-9 When matters of justice come up that are too much for you—hard cases regarding homicides, legal disputes, fights—take them up to the central place of worship that God, your God, has designated. Bring them to the Levitical priests and the judge who is in office at the time. Consult them and they will hand down the decision for you.
10-13 Then carry out their verdict at the place designated by God, your God. Do what they tell you, in exactly the way they tell you. Follow their instructions precisely: Don’t leave out anything; don’t add anything. Anyone who presumes to override or twist the decision handed down by the priest or judge who was acting in the Presence of God, your God, is as good as dead—root him out, rid Israel of the evil. Everyone will take notice and be impressed. That will put an end to presumptuous behavior.
14-17 When you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you and take it over and settle down, and then say, “I’m going to get me a king, a king like all the nations around me,” make sure you get yourself a king whom God, your God, chooses. Choose your king from among your kinsmen; don’t take a foreigner—only a kinsman. And make sure he doesn’t build up a war machine, amassing military horses and chariots. He must not send people to Egypt to get more horses, because God told you, “You’ll never go back there again!” And make sure he doesn’t build up a harem, collecting wives who will divert him from the straight and narrow. And make sure he doesn’t pile up a lot of silver and gold.
18-20 This is what must be done: When he sits down on the throne of his kingdom, the first thing he must do is make himself a copy of this Revelation on a scroll, copied under the supervision of the Levitical priests. That scroll is to remain at his side at all times; he is to study it every day so that he may learn what it means to fear his God, living in reverent obedience before these rules and regulations by following them. He must not become proud and arrogant, changing the commands at whim to suit himself or making up his own versions. If he reads and learns, he will have a long reign as king in Israel, he and his sons.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, August 10, 2018
Read: Lamentations 3:49–58
“My eyes will flow without ceasing,
without respite,
50 until the Lord from heaven
looks down and sees;
51 my eyes cause me grief
at the fate of all the daughters of my city.
52 “I have been hunted like a bird
by those who were my enemies without cause;
53 they flung me alive into the pit
and cast stones on me;
54 water closed over my head;
I said, ‘I am lost.’
55 “I called on your name, O Lord,
from the depths of the pit;
56 you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
your ear to my cry for help!’
57 You came near when I called on you;
you said, ‘Do not fear!’
58 “You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life.
INSIGHT
The prophet Jeremiah had prophesied for over forty years to a disobedient, disbelieving Judah (627–580 bc). Now in five emotionally charged “funeral laments” he writes as an eyewitness, lamenting the destruction and devastation of Jerusalem, the temple, and the people as they are forcefully exiled to Babylon. He includes the reasons why God would use the Babylonians to discipline His idolatrous people (Lamentations 1:5–8; see 1 Kings 9:6–9; Jeremiah 2:11–13, 18:15–17).
For two years the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem. Jeremiah witnessed the uncensored horrors of war (2 Kings 25:1-4; Jeremiah 52:12–27; Lamentations 2:20; 4:10). But he also wrote of hope in the midst of despair (3:21–33) and of the restoration that would come (5:19–22). Jeremiah reminded the Jewish people that the Lord, who has judged Judah rightly for her sins, is the Lord of hope (3:21, 24–25), compassion (v. 22), faithfulness (v. 23), and salvation (v. 26). Jeremiah calls the people to repent and to trust in the goodness of God (vv. 25–26; 5:21).
“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation,” says the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 7:10). How has this been true in your own life? - K. T. Sim
A Hopeful Lament
By Amy Peterson
I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit. Lamentations 3:55
To visit Clifton Heritage National Park in Nassau, Bahamas, is to revisit a tragic era in history. Where the land meets the water, stone steps lead up a cliff. Slaves brought to the Bahamas by ship in the eighteenth century would ascend these steps, often leaving family behind and entering a life of inhumane treatment. At the top, there is a memorial to those slaves. Cedar trees have been carved into the shapes of women looking out to sea toward the homeland and family members they’ve lost. Each sculpture is scarred with marks of the slave captain’s whip.
These sculptures of women mourning what they’ve lost remind me of the importance of recognizing the injustices and broken systems in the world, and lamenting them. Lamenting does not mean that we are without hope; rather, it’s a way of being honest with God. It should be a familiar posture for Christians; about forty percent of the Psalms are psalms of lament, and in the book of Lamentations, God’s people cry out to Him after their city has been destroyed by invaders (3:55).
Lament is a legitimate response to the reality of suffering, and it engages God in the context of pain and trouble. Ultimately, lament is hopeful: when we lament what is not right, we call ourselves and others to be active in seeking change.
And that’s why the sculpture garden in Nassau has been named “Genesis”—the place of lament is recognized as the place of new beginnings.
We can trust God to bring something new out of our seasons of lament.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, August 10, 2018
The Holy Suffering of the Saint
Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good… —1 Peter 4:19
Choosing to suffer means that there must be something wrong with you, but choosing God’s will— even if it means you will suffer— is something very different. No normal, healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he simply chooses God’s will, just as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not. And no saint should ever dare to interfere with the lesson of suffering being taught in another saint’s life.
The saint who satisfies the heart of Jesus will make other saints strong and mature for God. But the people used to strengthen us are never those who sympathize with us; in fact, we are hindered by those who give us their sympathy, because sympathy only serves to weaken us. No one better understands a saint than the saint who is as close and as intimate with Jesus as possible. If we accept the sympathy of another saint, our spontaneous feeling is, “God is dealing too harshly with me and making my life too difficult.” That is why Jesus said that self-pity was of the devil (see Matthew 16:21-23). We must be merciful to God’s reputation. It is easy for us to tarnish God’s character because He never argues back; He never tries to defend or vindicate Himself. Beware of thinking that Jesus needed sympathy during His life on earth. He refused the sympathy of people because in His great wisdom He knew that no one on earth understood His purpose (see Matthew 16:23). He accepted only the sympathy of His Father and the angels (see Luke 15:10).
Look at God’s incredible waste of His saints, according to the world’s judgment. God seems to plant His saints in the most useless places. And then we say, “God intends for me to be here because I am so useful to Him.” Yet Jesus never measured His life by how or where He was of the greatest use. God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that may be.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Seeing is never believing: we interpret what we see in the light of what we believe. Faith is confidence in God before you see God emerging; therefore the nature of faith is that it must be tried. He Shall Glorify Me, 494 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, August 10, 2018
Hope For Banged Up Lives - #8240
It was #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and then a major motion picture. It was the story of one of the most famous race horses of all time, Seabiscuit. While many of us may not be excited about horse racing, the story, set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, illustrates some things that are pretty inspiring. Seabiscuit was the son of a champion but he was definitely not like his father. He had been forced to run with better horses so they would gain confidence by beating him. When he raced, he did what he was trained to do – lose. Because of the poor treatment Seabiscuit received, he became an angry, almost uncontrollable horse. Until he was given a chance by a trainer many considered to be too old and a young man most thought was too big to be a jockey – a man blind in one eye and bitter from his parents' abandonment.
But Seabiscuit thrived in the care of people who believed in him and became one of the greatest horses of all time – along with his jockey. The trainer sees in the horse something others have missed. He says when Seabiscuit's eventual owner is deciding whether to buy this apparent loser, "You don't throw a life away just because it's been banged up a little." And when the trainer wants to fire his jockey, the owner reminds him, "You don't throw a life away just because it's been banged up a little." I like that.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Hope For Banged Up Lives."
Maybe you're one of those lives. You've been treated poorly, you've been made to feel that you never measure up, that you're a loser, people have undervalued you, they've passed you by, and maybe you've ended up pretty hard and angry. But, you know, there is someone who has never thrown away a banged up life, who sees beyond what's on the outside to the wounds on the inside and the potential He built into you when He made you. Jesus is your hope of a new beginning where the future doesn't have to be just an extension of a broken past.
In Isaiah 61:1, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible says of Jesus, "The Lord...has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners...to provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes - a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."
Jesus has done that for millions of hurt people, devalued people, banged up people for two thousand years. He can do it for you because He died for every sin ever done by you or against you. The Bible says of His death on the cross: "He carried our sorrows...He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities...and by His wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:4, 5).
With someone who loves you so unconditionally, so completely, you don't ever again have to trash yourself, trash other people, or trash your future. You can tear up that name tag that identifies you as "victim" and replace it with the new identity Jesus gives you – "child of the King" if you'll surrender the steering wheel of your life and put the rest of your life in the hands of the man who died for you.
He is ready to take all the mess, all the sin, all the hurt, all the scars, and make this a day of forgiving, healing, and new beginning. You just tell Him, "Jesus, I'm done. I'm yours." Our website is called ANewStory.com, because that's what it's about; how today can be chapter one of the new story of your life in Jesus. I encourage you to go there and get some hope and some help.
Jesus, God's one and only Son, sacrificed Himself to become the ultimate banged up life for you. However much you have been betrayed, you can trust Him. However much you have been hurt and rejected, you can count on His "never leave you" love. And your new beginning? Well, how about today?
Thursday, August 9, 2018
Luke 5:1-16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: YOU BEAR A RESEMBLANCE TO HIM
Pop psychology is wrong when it tells you to look inside yourself and find your value! According to the Bible you are good simply because God made you in his image. Period. He cherishes you because you bear a resemblance to him. And you will only be satisfied when you engage in your role as an image bearer of God. Such was the view of King David. “As for me,” he said, “I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).
How much sadness would evaporate if every person simply chose to believe this: I was made for God’s glory and am being made into his image. Why does God love you with an everlasting love? It has everything to do with whose you are. You are his. And because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 5:1-16
Push Out into Deep Water
5 1-3 Once when he was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, the crowd was pushing in on him to better hear the Word of God. He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. He climbed into the boat that was Simon’s and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there, using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd.
4 When he finished teaching, he said to Simon, “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.”
5-7 Simon said, “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch.
8-10 Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell to his knees before Jesus. “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.” When they pulled in that catch of fish, awe overwhelmed Simon and everyone with him. It was the same with James and John, Zebedee’s sons, coworkers with Simon.
10-11 Jesus said to Simon, “There is nothing to fear. From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.” They pulled their boats up on the beach, left them, nets and all, and followed him.
Invitation to a Changed Life
12 One day in one of the villages there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus he fell down before him in prayer and said, “If you want to, you can cleanse me.”
13 Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there his skin was smooth, the leprosy gone.
14-16 Jesus instructed him, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed self to the priest, along with the offering ordered by Moses. Your cleansed and obedient life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.” But the man couldn’t keep it to himself, and the word got out. Soon a large crowd of people had gathered to listen and be healed of their ailments. As often as possible Jesus withdrew to out-of-the-way places for prayer.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, August 09, 2018
Read: Psalm 63
My Soul Thirsts for You
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go down into the depths of the earth;
10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
they shall be a portion for jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who swear by him shall exult,
for the mouths of liars will be stopped.
INSIGHT
Do you ever wonder whether your faith could endure during hard times? Psalm 63 describes a relationship with God that is deep enough to sustain times so difficult that—literally or metaphorically—we experience life as a “dry and parched land where there is no water” (v. 1).
A faith that is long-lasting is one in which experiencing God’s love is so precious it’s “better than life” (v. 3). Such an intimate relationship is sustained through ongoing communication “through the watches of the night” (v. 6)—a time which in the psalms points to vulnerable communication with God (see, for example, 4:4; 16:7; 119:55).
Through cultivating such a relationship with God, when hard times come we will have a rich history to remember and cherish (63:2, 6). In this way we can trust God enough to cling to Him (vv. 7–8), confident that He’ll deliver us once more (vv. 9–11). - Monica Brands
A Good Daddy
By Xochitl Dixon
On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Psalm 63:6
When our son, Xavier, was younger, business trips often pulled my husband away from home. Though his father called often, there were rough nights when the calls alone didn’t comfort Xavier. To help soothe our son when he felt he needed his dad, I’d pull out our photo albums as he prepared for bedtime. I’d point out the images that showed them spending time together and ask, “Do you remember this?”
Memory after memory encouraged our son, who often said, “I have a good daddy.”
I understood Xavier’s need to be reminded of his father’s love when he couldn’t see him. Whenever I’m going through tough or lonely times, I too long to know I’m loved, especially by my heavenly Father.
David proclaimed his deep yearning for God as he hid from his enemies in the desert (Psalm 63:1). Remembering his personal encounters with God’s limitless power and satisfying love led him to praise (vv. 2–5). Through his most difficult nights, David could still rejoice in his dependable Father’s loving care (vv. 6–8).
During our dark times, when we feel as if God’s not there for us, we need reminders of who God is and how He’s demonstrated His love. Reflecting on our personal experiences with Him, as well as His actions recorded in Scripture, can affirm the countless ways our good Abba Father loves us.
Lord, thanks for demonstrating Your endless love to Your people, in our lives and through the words You preserved in Scripture.
Remembering God’s works, which reveal His character, reassures us of His love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, August 09, 2018
Prayer in the Father’s Hearing
Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me." —John 11:41
When the Son of God prays, He is mindful and consciously aware of only His Father. God always hears the prayers of His Son, and if the Son of God has been formed in me (see Galatians 4:19) the Father will always hear my prayers. But I must see to it that the Son of God is exhibited in my human flesh. “…your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 6:19), that is, your body is the Bethlehem of God’s Son. Is the Son of God being given His opportunity to work in me? Is the direct simplicity of His life being worked out in me exactly as it was worked out in His life while here on earth? When I come into contact with the everyday occurrences of life as an ordinary human being, is the prayer of God’s eternal Son to His Father being prayed in me? Jesus says, “In that day you will ask in My name…” (John 16:26). What day does He mean? He is referring to the day when the Holy Spirit has come to me and made me one with my Lord.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ being abundantly satisfied by your life, or are you exhibiting a walk of spiritual pride before Him? Never let your common sense become so prominent and forceful that it pushes the Son of God to one side. Common sense is a gift that God gave to our human nature— but common sense is not the gift of His Son. Supernatural sense is the gift of His Son, and we should never put our common sense on the throne. The Son always recognizes and identifies with the Father, but common sense has never yet done so and never will. Our ordinary abilities will never worship God unless they are transformed by the indwelling Son of God. We must make sure that our human flesh is kept in perfect submission to Him, allowing Him to work through it moment by moment. Are we living at such a level of human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being exhibited moment by moment in us?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. Biblical Psychology, 189 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, August 09, 2018
Eight Questions To Get It Right - #8239
Our sons both played lineman positions on their high school football team – which means they had to take their share of jokes about being big and dumb. Linemen's numbers are usually like seventy-something, and they were number 75 and 76. You know what the word was? Yeah, that the linemen wore their I. Q. on their jerseys. (Yeah, my apologies. Some linemen listening; listen, this is a joke. I didn't say this. I don't believe this. No, no, no.) It's probably a good thing most of us were never told what our Intelligence Quotient is and it's really a good thing it wasn't advertised on our jersey! But after all is said and done, there's a measurement of your capabilities that's far more important anyway.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Eight Questions To Get It Right."
Your W.Q. is so much more important than your I.Q. That's your Wisdom Quotient! Intelligence is about how much information you have. Wisdom is about how much insight you have. In simple words, Biblical wisdom is God-think – the ability to see what He sees in a situation or a person.
And all you need to do is download God's wisdom upon request. His promise is in James 1:5, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all." And then it adds: "When he asks, he must believe and not doubt..." (vs. 6) As a parent, a leader, a friend, just as a daily decision-maker, you need so much wisdom, and here's how you get it.
First, be desperate for it. You've got to confess how much you need it. That's a desperate admission that you don't have the resources to figure it out, so you're totally depending on God giving you His insight. Secondly, beg for it. That's actually the sense of that word "ask" in this verse. Ask Him for it. Beg for it. Finally, believe for it. Proceed with the confidence that God will keep His promise and you'll be directed what to do.
Then in our word for today from the Word of God, He tells us what wisdom looks like. Here's how you can measure how wise you really are by the eight characteristics of wisdom spelled out in James 3:17. I'm going to turn them into questions that we need to be asking about any choice we need to make. Let's call it eight questions to get it right.
James says, "The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure..." So ask yourself, "What's the pure, uncompromised thing to do?" Then it says heaven's wisdom is "peace-loving." So, "What will lead to peace instead of conflict?" Choices that continually result in conflict are probably not God-think. Next, God's wisdom it says is "considerate" Question 3, "How will this affect other people?"
Considering others when you decide. That's an important step. And God's wisdom it says is "submissive," or "easy to be entreated." This is about being teachable and approachable. So here's the question, "Have I considered the input of others?"
Then that wisdom is "Full of mercy and good fruit" – that's what this verse says about real wisdom. Two more questions then – "What's the merciful thing to do?" and "Is this getting results?" God also says His wisdom is "impartial." That leads us to ask, "What's most fair to everybody here?" Finally, that wisdom is "sincere." That means without hypocrisy. So the last "get it right" question is: "What's the honest and transparent thing to do?" Eight questions that lead us to decisions that are wise in heaven's eyes
Ultimately, there's one trait that looms large in a truly wise man or woman. James 3:13 talks about "the humility that comes from wisdom." When you go for God's insight, when you have God's insight, it produces a truly humble person, not a proud person. No looking down on others, no putting down others, no proceeding in arrogance and self-reliance. Wise people are very unimpressed with themselves and totally impressed with God and their need of Him.
So go for the wisdom that gives you God's perspective on what's going on. And for all those you influence, you will be a personal agent of the ways of God in their lives!
Pop psychology is wrong when it tells you to look inside yourself and find your value! According to the Bible you are good simply because God made you in his image. Period. He cherishes you because you bear a resemblance to him. And you will only be satisfied when you engage in your role as an image bearer of God. Such was the view of King David. “As for me,” he said, “I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).
How much sadness would evaporate if every person simply chose to believe this: I was made for God’s glory and am being made into his image. Why does God love you with an everlasting love? It has everything to do with whose you are. You are his. And because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Luke 5:1-16
Push Out into Deep Water
5 1-3 Once when he was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, the crowd was pushing in on him to better hear the Word of God. He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. He climbed into the boat that was Simon’s and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there, using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd.
4 When he finished teaching, he said to Simon, “Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.”
5-7 Simon said, “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch.
8-10 Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell to his knees before Jesus. “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.” When they pulled in that catch of fish, awe overwhelmed Simon and everyone with him. It was the same with James and John, Zebedee’s sons, coworkers with Simon.
10-11 Jesus said to Simon, “There is nothing to fear. From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.” They pulled their boats up on the beach, left them, nets and all, and followed him.
Invitation to a Changed Life
12 One day in one of the villages there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus he fell down before him in prayer and said, “If you want to, you can cleanse me.”
13 Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there his skin was smooth, the leprosy gone.
14-16 Jesus instructed him, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed self to the priest, along with the offering ordered by Moses. Your cleansed and obedient life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.” But the man couldn’t keep it to himself, and the word got out. Soon a large crowd of people had gathered to listen and be healed of their ailments. As often as possible Jesus withdrew to out-of-the-way places for prayer.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, August 09, 2018
Read: Psalm 63
My Soul Thirsts for You
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go down into the depths of the earth;
10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
they shall be a portion for jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who swear by him shall exult,
for the mouths of liars will be stopped.
INSIGHT
Do you ever wonder whether your faith could endure during hard times? Psalm 63 describes a relationship with God that is deep enough to sustain times so difficult that—literally or metaphorically—we experience life as a “dry and parched land where there is no water” (v. 1).
A faith that is long-lasting is one in which experiencing God’s love is so precious it’s “better than life” (v. 3). Such an intimate relationship is sustained through ongoing communication “through the watches of the night” (v. 6)—a time which in the psalms points to vulnerable communication with God (see, for example, 4:4; 16:7; 119:55).
Through cultivating such a relationship with God, when hard times come we will have a rich history to remember and cherish (63:2, 6). In this way we can trust God enough to cling to Him (vv. 7–8), confident that He’ll deliver us once more (vv. 9–11). - Monica Brands
A Good Daddy
By Xochitl Dixon
On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Psalm 63:6
When our son, Xavier, was younger, business trips often pulled my husband away from home. Though his father called often, there were rough nights when the calls alone didn’t comfort Xavier. To help soothe our son when he felt he needed his dad, I’d pull out our photo albums as he prepared for bedtime. I’d point out the images that showed them spending time together and ask, “Do you remember this?”
Memory after memory encouraged our son, who often said, “I have a good daddy.”
I understood Xavier’s need to be reminded of his father’s love when he couldn’t see him. Whenever I’m going through tough or lonely times, I too long to know I’m loved, especially by my heavenly Father.
David proclaimed his deep yearning for God as he hid from his enemies in the desert (Psalm 63:1). Remembering his personal encounters with God’s limitless power and satisfying love led him to praise (vv. 2–5). Through his most difficult nights, David could still rejoice in his dependable Father’s loving care (vv. 6–8).
During our dark times, when we feel as if God’s not there for us, we need reminders of who God is and how He’s demonstrated His love. Reflecting on our personal experiences with Him, as well as His actions recorded in Scripture, can affirm the countless ways our good Abba Father loves us.
Lord, thanks for demonstrating Your endless love to Your people, in our lives and through the words You preserved in Scripture.
Remembering God’s works, which reveal His character, reassures us of His love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, August 09, 2018
Prayer in the Father’s Hearing
Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me." —John 11:41
When the Son of God prays, He is mindful and consciously aware of only His Father. God always hears the prayers of His Son, and if the Son of God has been formed in me (see Galatians 4:19) the Father will always hear my prayers. But I must see to it that the Son of God is exhibited in my human flesh. “…your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 6:19), that is, your body is the Bethlehem of God’s Son. Is the Son of God being given His opportunity to work in me? Is the direct simplicity of His life being worked out in me exactly as it was worked out in His life while here on earth? When I come into contact with the everyday occurrences of life as an ordinary human being, is the prayer of God’s eternal Son to His Father being prayed in me? Jesus says, “In that day you will ask in My name…” (John 16:26). What day does He mean? He is referring to the day when the Holy Spirit has come to me and made me one with my Lord.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ being abundantly satisfied by your life, or are you exhibiting a walk of spiritual pride before Him? Never let your common sense become so prominent and forceful that it pushes the Son of God to one side. Common sense is a gift that God gave to our human nature— but common sense is not the gift of His Son. Supernatural sense is the gift of His Son, and we should never put our common sense on the throne. The Son always recognizes and identifies with the Father, but common sense has never yet done so and never will. Our ordinary abilities will never worship God unless they are transformed by the indwelling Son of God. We must make sure that our human flesh is kept in perfect submission to Him, allowing Him to work through it moment by moment. Are we living at such a level of human dependence upon Jesus Christ that His life is being exhibited moment by moment in us?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone; you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what God wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of God’s own children, and you will soon find how God alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts; He alters them. Biblical Psychology, 189 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, August 09, 2018
Eight Questions To Get It Right - #8239
Our sons both played lineman positions on their high school football team – which means they had to take their share of jokes about being big and dumb. Linemen's numbers are usually like seventy-something, and they were number 75 and 76. You know what the word was? Yeah, that the linemen wore their I. Q. on their jerseys. (Yeah, my apologies. Some linemen listening; listen, this is a joke. I didn't say this. I don't believe this. No, no, no.) It's probably a good thing most of us were never told what our Intelligence Quotient is and it's really a good thing it wasn't advertised on our jersey! But after all is said and done, there's a measurement of your capabilities that's far more important anyway.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Eight Questions To Get It Right."
Your W.Q. is so much more important than your I.Q. That's your Wisdom Quotient! Intelligence is about how much information you have. Wisdom is about how much insight you have. In simple words, Biblical wisdom is God-think – the ability to see what He sees in a situation or a person.
And all you need to do is download God's wisdom upon request. His promise is in James 1:5, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all." And then it adds: "When he asks, he must believe and not doubt..." (vs. 6) As a parent, a leader, a friend, just as a daily decision-maker, you need so much wisdom, and here's how you get it.
First, be desperate for it. You've got to confess how much you need it. That's a desperate admission that you don't have the resources to figure it out, so you're totally depending on God giving you His insight. Secondly, beg for it. That's actually the sense of that word "ask" in this verse. Ask Him for it. Beg for it. Finally, believe for it. Proceed with the confidence that God will keep His promise and you'll be directed what to do.
Then in our word for today from the Word of God, He tells us what wisdom looks like. Here's how you can measure how wise you really are by the eight characteristics of wisdom spelled out in James 3:17. I'm going to turn them into questions that we need to be asking about any choice we need to make. Let's call it eight questions to get it right.
James says, "The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure..." So ask yourself, "What's the pure, uncompromised thing to do?" Then it says heaven's wisdom is "peace-loving." So, "What will lead to peace instead of conflict?" Choices that continually result in conflict are probably not God-think. Next, God's wisdom it says is "considerate" Question 3, "How will this affect other people?"
Considering others when you decide. That's an important step. And God's wisdom it says is "submissive," or "easy to be entreated." This is about being teachable and approachable. So here's the question, "Have I considered the input of others?"
Then that wisdom is "Full of mercy and good fruit" – that's what this verse says about real wisdom. Two more questions then – "What's the merciful thing to do?" and "Is this getting results?" God also says His wisdom is "impartial." That leads us to ask, "What's most fair to everybody here?" Finally, that wisdom is "sincere." That means without hypocrisy. So the last "get it right" question is: "What's the honest and transparent thing to do?" Eight questions that lead us to decisions that are wise in heaven's eyes
Ultimately, there's one trait that looms large in a truly wise man or woman. James 3:13 talks about "the humility that comes from wisdom." When you go for God's insight, when you have God's insight, it produces a truly humble person, not a proud person. No looking down on others, no putting down others, no proceeding in arrogance and self-reliance. Wise people are very unimpressed with themselves and totally impressed with God and their need of Him.
So go for the wisdom that gives you God's perspective on what's going on. And for all those you influence, you will be a personal agent of the ways of God in their lives!
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Deuteronomy 16, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: IN GOD’S IMAGE AND LIKENESS
We are all made in God’s image and in his likeness! Sin has distorted this image but it has not destroyed it. Our moral purity has been tainted but do not think for a moment that God has rescinded his promise or altered his plan. He still creates people in his image to bear his likeness and reflect his glory.
As we fellowship with God, read his Word, obey his commands, and seek to reflect his character, something wonderful emerges. We say things God would say. We do things God would do. We forgive, we share, and we love. In time an image begins to appear. God’s goal is simply to rub away anything that is not of him so the inborn image of God can be seen in us! Because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Deuteronomy 16
Observe the month of Abib by celebrating the Passover to God, your God. It was in the month of Abib that God, your God, delivered you by night from Egypt. Offer the Passover-Sacrifice to God, your God, at the place God chooses to be worshiped by establishing his name there. Don’t eat yeast bread with it; for seven days eat it with unraised bread, hard-times bread, because you left Egypt in a hurry—that bread will keep the memory fresh of how you left Egypt for as long as you live. There is to be no sign of yeast anywhere for seven days. And don’t let any of the meat that you sacrifice in the evening be left over until morning.
5-7 Don’t sacrifice the Passover in any of the towns that God, your God, gives you other than the one God, your God, designates for worship; there and there only you will offer the Passover-Sacrifice at evening as the sun goes down, marking the time that you left Egypt. Boil and eat it at the place designated by God, your God. Then, at daybreak, turn around and go home.
8 Eat unraised bread for six days. Set aside the seventh day as a holiday; don’t do any work.
9-11 Starting from the day you put the sickle to the ripe grain, count out seven weeks. Celebrate the Feast-of-Weeks to God, your God, by bringing your Freewill-Offering—give as generously as God, your God, has blessed you. Rejoice in the Presence of God, your God: you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, the Levite who lives in your neighborhood, the foreigner, the orphan and widow among you; rejoice at the place God, your God, will set aside to be worshiped.
12 Don’t forget that you were once a slave in Egypt. So be diligent in observing these regulations.
13-15 Observe the Feast-of-Booths for seven days when you gather the harvest from your threshing-floor and your wine-vat. Rejoice at your festival: you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, the Levite, the foreigner, and the orphans and widows who live in your neighborhood. Celebrate the Feast to God, your God, for seven days at the place God designates. God, your God, has been blessing you in your harvest and in all your work, so make a day of it—really celebrate!
16-17 All your men must appear before God, your God, three times each year at the place he designates: at the Feast-of-Unraised-Bread (Passover), at the Feast-of-Weeks, and at the Feast-of-Booths. No one is to show up in the Presence of God empty-handed; each man must bring as much as he can manage, giving generously in response to the blessings of God, your God.
18-19 Appoint judges and officers, organized by tribes, in all the towns that God, your God, is giving you. They are to judge the people fairly and honestly. Don’t twist the law. Don’t play favorites. Don’t take a bribe—a bribe blinds even a wise person; it undermines the intentions of the best of people.
20 The right! The right! Pursue only what’s right! It’s the only way you can really live and possess the land that God, your God, is giving you.
21-22 Don’t plant fertility Asherah trees alongside the Altar of God, your God, that you build. Don’t set up phallic sex pillars—God, your God, hates them.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, August 08, 2018
Read: Romans 9:1–5
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,[a] my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Footnotes:
Romans 9:3 Or brothers and sisters
INSIGHT
Paul’s concern that his Jewish brothers and sisters would come to Christ echoes the heart and plan of the Father for both Jew and Gentile. Hebrews 2:9 tells us that Jesus “was made lower than the angels for a little while, [and is] now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” God’s concern is for all to come to Him through the sacrifice of His Son. This idea resonates with Peter, who declared, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Notice God’s great concern for this broken, rebellious world. Not only has He provided in Jesus a sufficient sacrifice, He also extends patient love to people who do not know Him. Truly, as John 3:16 says, this is evidence of a God who so loved this world that He would pay the greatest possible price to satisfy His desire to reach to us. This is the great good news of the gospel! - Bill Crowder
Dedicated to Love
By Tim Gustafson
My heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. Romans 10:1
As a convert to Jesus Christ, Nabeel Qureshi has written books to help his readers understand the people in the religion he left. His tone is respectful, and Qureshi always displays a heart of love for his people.
Qureshi dedicated one of his books to his sister, who has not yet put her faith in Jesus. The dedication is brief, but powerful. “I am begging God for the day that we can worship him together,” he wrote.
We get a sense of that kind of love as we read Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. “My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief,” he said, “for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them” (Romans 9:2–3 nlt).
Paul loved the Jewish people so much that he would have chosen separation from God if only they would accept Christ. He understood that by rejecting Jesus, his people were rejecting the one true God. This motivated him to appeal to his readers to share the good news of Jesus with everyone (10:14–15).
Today, may we prayerfully dedicate ourselves to the love that aches for those close to us!
Father, we ask You to fill our hearts with Your love for others. We hold ______ up to You and beg for them to see the truth about Your Son Jesus.
We must love those for whom Christ died as well as those in whom Christ lives.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, August 08, 2018
Prayer in the Father’s Honor
…that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. —Luke 1:35
If the Son of God has been born into my human flesh, then am I allowing His holy innocence, simplicity, and oneness with the Father the opportunity to exhibit itself in me? What was true of the Virgin Mary in the history of the Son of God’s birth on earth is true of every saint. God’s Son is born into me through the direct act of God; then I as His child must exercise the right of a child— the right of always being face to face with my Father through prayer. Do I find myself continually saying in amazement to the commonsense part of my life, “Why did you want me to turn here or to go over there? ‘Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?’ ” (Luke 2:49). Whatever our circumstances may be, that holy, innocent, and eternal Child must be in contact with His Father.
Am I simple enough to identify myself with my Lord in this way? Is He having His wonderful way with me? Is God’s will being fulfilled in that His Son has been formed in me (see Galatians 4:19), or have I carefully pushed Him to one side? Oh, the noisy outcry of today! Why does everyone seem to be crying out so loudly? People today are crying out for the Son of God to be put to death. There is no room here for God’s Son right now— no room for quiet, holy fellowship and oneness with the Father.
Is the Son of God praying in me, bringing honor to the Father, or am I dictating my demands to Him? Is He ministering in me as He did in the time of His manhood here on earth? Is God’s Son in me going through His passion, suffering so that His own purposes might be fulfilled? The more a person knows of the inner life of God’s most mature saints, the more he sees what God’s purpose really is: to “…fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ…” (Colossians 1:24). And when we think of what it takes to “fill up,” there is always something yet to be done.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God, or with the conception of an amiable Being who says, “Oh well, sin doesn’t matter much”? Disciples Indeed, 389 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, August 08, 2018
The Names in the Foundation - #8238
One of the large churches in our area started a new building and they announced it would be for community outreach. But they did something I've never seen a church do before. They gathered the congregation around the just-completed foundation of that new building and they asked them to throw something into the foundation. Now you've no doubt seen people's names on the outside of a building's foundation, especially on the cornerstone. But these folks were actually putting names inside the foundation-the names of people they care about who don't belong to Jesus yet; people they are hoping and praying will be in heaven with them some day.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Names in the Foundation."
That's what should be at the foundation of every church, every ministry, every child of God-the names of specific lost people who we want to rescue. Here's a great example of how it's supposed to work. It's in our word for today from the Word of God.
In John 1:41-42, we find that a young fisherman named Andrew has just discovered Jesus Christ. Notice his very first instinct: "The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah'...And he brought him to Jesus." Notice the first thing that happened was that Andrew had a name laid on his heart, a specific person he wanted to have meet Jesus as he had. And we all know what a world-changer Simon Peter turned out to be because of someone who loved him enough to bring him to Jesus.
There's someone like that in your life; someone who may never make it to Jesus if you don't bring them. And God is trying to plant their name deep in the foundation of your heart, so that person becomes your own personal spiritual mission from God. You need to begin to pray what I call the 3-open prayer on their behalf right now: First, "Lord, open a door." That's a natural opportunity for you to bring up your personal relationship with Jesus. Then, "Lord, open their heart." In other words, do things in that person's heart or life that will make them surprisingly ready to hear about You. And, finally, "Lord, open my mouth." Give me the courage, the words, the tone, and the approach. Let's try those: "Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth." By the way, you don't have to pray, "If it be Your will." It is.
It's one thing to talk and pray generally about all those people out there. It's something else to have a burden with a name; a burden that acknowledges your personal responsibility to be the one to introduce that person to Jesus. That's why Jesus put you in their life in the first place! You've been divinely assigned to them.
And lost people should be the consuming passion of every Christian church, every Christian ministry. Our Lord's personal mission statement was to "seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). How can ours be anything less than that?
For all of us, it's just so easy to fall into doing what's easy-which is to have a ministry that's "all about us", "by us", "to us", "with us". But Jesus is all about "them." We've got to ask Him to help us see what He sees when He looks at the people all around us. They are the future inhabitants of hell, unless someone intervenes with the love and the hope that only Jesus has.
So would you make the names of some lost people that you want to be in heaven with you part of the foundation of your life, your priorities, your passion, your prayer. They're why He came, and they are why He put you where you are.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Deuteronomy 15 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
We all ask the question, “Am I somebody important?” It’s easy to feel anything but important when your ex takes your energy, or old age takes your dignity. Somebody important? Hardly. But remember this promise of God: you were created by God, in God’s image, for God’s glory.
God spoke. “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature, so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea; the birds in the air; the cattle; and, yes, the Earth itself and every animal that moves on the face of the Earth” (Genesis 1:26). God never declared, “Let us make oceans in our image,” or “birds in our likeness.” The heavens above reflect the glory of God, but they are not made in the image of God. Yet, you are! And because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope in unshakable.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Deuteronomy 15
At the end of every seventh year, cancel all debts. This is the procedure: Everyone who has lent money to a neighbor writes it off. You must not press your neighbor or his brother for payment: All-Debts-Are-Canceled—God says so. You may collect payment from foreigners, but whatever you have lent to your fellow Israelite you must write off.
4-6 There must be no poor people among you because God is going to bless you lavishly in this land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, your very own land. But only if you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, diligently observing every commandment that I command you today. Oh yes—God, your God, will bless you just as he promised. You will lend to many nations but won’t borrow from any; you’ll rule over many nations but none will rule over you.
7-9 When you happen on someone who’s in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don’t look the other way pretending you don’t see him. Don’t keep a tight grip on your purse. No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs. Don’t count the cost. Don’t listen to that selfish voice saying, “It’s almost the seventh year, the year of All-Debts-Are-Canceled,” and turn aside and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch, refusing to help him. He’ll call God’s attention to you and your blatant sin.
10-11 Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.
12-15 If a Hebrew man or Hebrew woman was sold to you and has served you for six years, in the seventh year you must set him or her free, released into a free life. And when you set them free don’t send them off empty-handed. Provide them with some animals, plenty of bread and wine and oil. Load them with provisions from all the blessings with which God, your God, has blessed you. Don’t for a minute forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, redeemed you from that slave world.
For that reason, this day I command you to do this.
16-17 But if your slave, because he loves you and your family and has a good life with you, says, “I don’t want to leave you,” then take an awl and pierce through his earlobe into the doorpost, marking him as your slave forever. Do the same with your women slaves who want to stay with you.
18 Don’t consider this an unreasonable hardship, this setting your slave free. After all, he’s worked six years for you at half the cost of a hired hand.
Believe me, God, your God, will bless you in everything you do.
19-23 Consecrate to God, your God, all the firstborn males in your herds and flocks. Don’t use the firstborn from your herds as work animals; don’t shear the firstborn from your flocks. These are for you to eat every year, you and your family, in the Presence of God, your God, at the place that God designates for worship. If the animal is defective, lame, say, or blind—anything wrong with it—don’t slaughter it as a sacrifice to God, your God. Stay at home and eat it there. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat it, the same as with a gazelle or a deer. Only you must not eat its blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, August 07, 2018
Read: 1 Kings 17:15–24
And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
Elijah Raises the Widow's Son
17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” 19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. 20 And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child's life[a] come into him again.” 22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” 24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
Footnotes:
1 Kings 17:21 Or soul; also verse 22
INSIGHT
It can be easy to think that life will go well if we do everything we’re supposed to do. But today’s story reminds us that life isn’t a formula. The widow was faithful and obedient, and yet her son died. But we can be encouraged that there’s nothing too hard for God, for He is the one who can even bring the dead back to life (v. 23).
Are you feeling overwhelmed? Commit your situation to our faithful God.
For more about the book of Kings, check out our free online course at christianuniversity.org/OT219. - J.R. Hudberg
When the Bottom Drops Out
By Poh Fang Chia
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16
During the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, more people were looking for work than there were jobs available. I was one of those job seekers. After nine anxious months, I landed employment as a copywriter. But the company soon fell on bad times and I was jobless again.
Ever been there? It seems like the worst is over when suddenly the bottom drops out on you. The widow at Zarephath could relate (1 Kings 17:12). Due to a famine, she was preparing the last meal for herself and her son when the prophet Elijah requested a bite to eat. She reluctantly agreed and God provided a continuous supply of flour and oil (vv. 10–16).
But then her son fell ill. His health declined until he stopped breathing. The widow cried out, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” (v. 18).
At times, we may want to respond like the widow—wondering if God is punishing us. We forget that bad things can happen in this fallen world.
Elijah took the concern to God, praying earnestly and honestly for the boy, and God raised him up! (vv. 20–22).
When the bottom drops out on us, may we—like Elijah—realize that the faithful One will not desert us! We can rest in God’s purposes as we pray for understanding.
For help on the topic of peace, read discoveryseries.org/q1126.
God is good in both the good times and the bad.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, August 07, 2018
Prayer in the Father’s House
…they found Him in the temple….And He said to them, "…Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?" —Luke 2:46, 49
Our Lord’s childhood was not immaturity waiting to grow into manhood— His childhood is an eternal fact. Am I a holy, innocent child of God as a result of my identification with my Lord and Savior? Do I look at my life as being in my Father’s house? Is the Son of God living in His Father’s house within me?
The only abiding reality is God Himself, and His order comes to me moment by moment. Am I continually in touch with the reality of God, or do I pray only when things have gone wrong— when there is some disturbance in my life? I must learn to identify myself closely with my Lord in ways of holy fellowship and oneness that some of us have not yet even begun to learn. “…I must be about My Father’s business”— and I must learn to live every moment of my life in my Father’s house.
Think about your own circumstances. Are you so closely identified with the Lord’s life that you are simply a child of God, continually talking to Him and realizing that everything comes from His hands? Is the eternal Child in you living in His Father’s house? Is the grace of His ministering life being worked out through you in your home, your business, and in your circle of friends? Have you been wondering why you are going through certain circumstances? In fact, it is not that you have to go through them. It is because of your relationship with the Son of God who comes, through the providential will of His Father, into your life. You must allow Him to have His way with you, staying in perfect oneness with Him.
The life of your Lord is to become your vital, simple life, and the way He worked and lived among people while here on earth must be the way He works and lives in you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed. So Send I You, 1330 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, August 07, 2018
When God Says It's Time to Move - #8237
When our son and his family lived in another state, man, we cherished visits from him, his wife and our beautiful granddaughter. She was two at the time, but she seemed to have the vocabulary of like a five-year-old. Besides being unexplainably beautiful (being my granddaughter, that's miraculous), she really knew how to communicate – with words, with gestures, with facial expressions. We loved our time with her, and she seemed to love her time with us. But, well, this wasn't home. They lived many miles from here. She needed to be home ultimately, sleeping in her bed, playing with her toys, being around the people she loves there, and enjoying her personal world. This is where she visited. That's where she lived. She was in the car with Mommy and Daddy, all strapped in her toddler seat and ready to pull out of the driveway to head home. Oh how she cried! She begged me to get in. She begged me to sit down. Her crying broke a grandparent's heart. But once she was home she loved being where she lived. It's just that leaving is so hard.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When God Says It's Time to Move."
The reason so many of us never get where we're supposed to be in life is because we don't want to leave where we are. And leaving is just too hard; it's too scary. It's the deal-breaker. So even when God says, "It's time to make a move," we just hold on tight and say, "I can't leave." But so often in the plans of God, leaving is the door to your destiny.
You can see that in the amazing life of one of God's great heroes, Abraham. Ahead of him was the fathering of the Jewish nation and an exciting place of leadership in the purposes of God. But first he had to leave. In fact, God's first recorded word to Abraham – called Abram at this point – is "leave." Listen to Genesis 12:1-2, our word for today from the Word of God. "The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.'" Imagine! Leave the people you know and love, the place you know, and the security you have – for "a land that I will show you." Not even a brochure. Not even a briefing from someone who's been there. Just leaving the known for the unknown.
The New Testament describes Abraham's life-changing response this way: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8). If you don't leave when God says leave, you miss His best and you just settle for what's safe. If you decide based on what's safe and comfortable, you will almost surely miss God's great plans for you. Jesus had to leave heaven to become our Savior. Simon left his fishing business and became the apostle Peter; Levi left his tax collector's office and became the apostle Matthew. Leaving is so often the door to your destiny, if it's God who's asking you to leave, not just your restlessness or your discontentment.
Maybe God's summoning you to something unknown but unbelievable. But you can't go there without leaving – maybe leaving a relationship, a position, a sin, your comfort zone, the way you've always done things, without leaving your addiction to controlling everything. Why would you take this hard step? Early in our ministry, God called a dedicated young woman from a lucrative job with one of the most prestigious modeling firms in the world to join us in rescuing the lost. On her application, under reason for leaving this dream job, she simply wrote one word: "Jesus."
That's why you leave. Because He left heaven for you. Because your life now belongs to Him. And because anyone who loved you enough to die for you will never do you wrong. If He's asking you to leave behind the known for the unknown, don't miss your destiny by holding on. Remember, those who never get out of the boat never know what it is to walk on water!
We all ask the question, “Am I somebody important?” It’s easy to feel anything but important when your ex takes your energy, or old age takes your dignity. Somebody important? Hardly. But remember this promise of God: you were created by God, in God’s image, for God’s glory.
God spoke. “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature, so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea; the birds in the air; the cattle; and, yes, the Earth itself and every animal that moves on the face of the Earth” (Genesis 1:26). God never declared, “Let us make oceans in our image,” or “birds in our likeness.” The heavens above reflect the glory of God, but they are not made in the image of God. Yet, you are! And because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope in unshakable.
Read more Unshakable Hope
Deuteronomy 15
At the end of every seventh year, cancel all debts. This is the procedure: Everyone who has lent money to a neighbor writes it off. You must not press your neighbor or his brother for payment: All-Debts-Are-Canceled—God says so. You may collect payment from foreigners, but whatever you have lent to your fellow Israelite you must write off.
4-6 There must be no poor people among you because God is going to bless you lavishly in this land that God, your God, is giving you as an inheritance, your very own land. But only if you listen obediently to the Voice of God, your God, diligently observing every commandment that I command you today. Oh yes—God, your God, will bless you just as he promised. You will lend to many nations but won’t borrow from any; you’ll rule over many nations but none will rule over you.
7-9 When you happen on someone who’s in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don’t look the other way pretending you don’t see him. Don’t keep a tight grip on your purse. No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs. Don’t count the cost. Don’t listen to that selfish voice saying, “It’s almost the seventh year, the year of All-Debts-Are-Canceled,” and turn aside and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch, refusing to help him. He’ll call God’s attention to you and your blatant sin.
10-11 Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.
12-15 If a Hebrew man or Hebrew woman was sold to you and has served you for six years, in the seventh year you must set him or her free, released into a free life. And when you set them free don’t send them off empty-handed. Provide them with some animals, plenty of bread and wine and oil. Load them with provisions from all the blessings with which God, your God, has blessed you. Don’t for a minute forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, redeemed you from that slave world.
For that reason, this day I command you to do this.
16-17 But if your slave, because he loves you and your family and has a good life with you, says, “I don’t want to leave you,” then take an awl and pierce through his earlobe into the doorpost, marking him as your slave forever. Do the same with your women slaves who want to stay with you.
18 Don’t consider this an unreasonable hardship, this setting your slave free. After all, he’s worked six years for you at half the cost of a hired hand.
Believe me, God, your God, will bless you in everything you do.
19-23 Consecrate to God, your God, all the firstborn males in your herds and flocks. Don’t use the firstborn from your herds as work animals; don’t shear the firstborn from your flocks. These are for you to eat every year, you and your family, in the Presence of God, your God, at the place that God designates for worship. If the animal is defective, lame, say, or blind—anything wrong with it—don’t slaughter it as a sacrifice to God, your God. Stay at home and eat it there. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat it, the same as with a gazelle or a deer. Only you must not eat its blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, August 07, 2018
Read: 1 Kings 17:15–24
And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
Elijah Raises the Widow's Son
17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” 19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. 20 And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child's life[a] come into him again.” 22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” 24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
Footnotes:
1 Kings 17:21 Or soul; also verse 22
INSIGHT
It can be easy to think that life will go well if we do everything we’re supposed to do. But today’s story reminds us that life isn’t a formula. The widow was faithful and obedient, and yet her son died. But we can be encouraged that there’s nothing too hard for God, for He is the one who can even bring the dead back to life (v. 23).
Are you feeling overwhelmed? Commit your situation to our faithful God.
For more about the book of Kings, check out our free online course at christianuniversity.org/OT219. - J.R. Hudberg
When the Bottom Drops Out
By Poh Fang Chia
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16
During the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, more people were looking for work than there were jobs available. I was one of those job seekers. After nine anxious months, I landed employment as a copywriter. But the company soon fell on bad times and I was jobless again.
Ever been there? It seems like the worst is over when suddenly the bottom drops out on you. The widow at Zarephath could relate (1 Kings 17:12). Due to a famine, she was preparing the last meal for herself and her son when the prophet Elijah requested a bite to eat. She reluctantly agreed and God provided a continuous supply of flour and oil (vv. 10–16).
But then her son fell ill. His health declined until he stopped breathing. The widow cried out, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” (v. 18).
At times, we may want to respond like the widow—wondering if God is punishing us. We forget that bad things can happen in this fallen world.
Elijah took the concern to God, praying earnestly and honestly for the boy, and God raised him up! (vv. 20–22).
When the bottom drops out on us, may we—like Elijah—realize that the faithful One will not desert us! We can rest in God’s purposes as we pray for understanding.
For help on the topic of peace, read discoveryseries.org/q1126.
God is good in both the good times and the bad.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, August 07, 2018
Prayer in the Father’s House
…they found Him in the temple….And He said to them, "…Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?" —Luke 2:46, 49
Our Lord’s childhood was not immaturity waiting to grow into manhood— His childhood is an eternal fact. Am I a holy, innocent child of God as a result of my identification with my Lord and Savior? Do I look at my life as being in my Father’s house? Is the Son of God living in His Father’s house within me?
The only abiding reality is God Himself, and His order comes to me moment by moment. Am I continually in touch with the reality of God, or do I pray only when things have gone wrong— when there is some disturbance in my life? I must learn to identify myself closely with my Lord in ways of holy fellowship and oneness that some of us have not yet even begun to learn. “…I must be about My Father’s business”— and I must learn to live every moment of my life in my Father’s house.
Think about your own circumstances. Are you so closely identified with the Lord’s life that you are simply a child of God, continually talking to Him and realizing that everything comes from His hands? Is the eternal Child in you living in His Father’s house? Is the grace of His ministering life being worked out through you in your home, your business, and in your circle of friends? Have you been wondering why you are going through certain circumstances? In fact, it is not that you have to go through them. It is because of your relationship with the Son of God who comes, through the providential will of His Father, into your life. You must allow Him to have His way with you, staying in perfect oneness with Him.
The life of your Lord is to become your vital, simple life, and the way He worked and lived among people while here on earth must be the way He works and lives in you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We are not to preach the doing of good things; good deeds are not to be preached, they are to be performed. So Send I You, 1330 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, August 07, 2018
When God Says It's Time to Move - #8237
When our son and his family lived in another state, man, we cherished visits from him, his wife and our beautiful granddaughter. She was two at the time, but she seemed to have the vocabulary of like a five-year-old. Besides being unexplainably beautiful (being my granddaughter, that's miraculous), she really knew how to communicate – with words, with gestures, with facial expressions. We loved our time with her, and she seemed to love her time with us. But, well, this wasn't home. They lived many miles from here. She needed to be home ultimately, sleeping in her bed, playing with her toys, being around the people she loves there, and enjoying her personal world. This is where she visited. That's where she lived. She was in the car with Mommy and Daddy, all strapped in her toddler seat and ready to pull out of the driveway to head home. Oh how she cried! She begged me to get in. She begged me to sit down. Her crying broke a grandparent's heart. But once she was home she loved being where she lived. It's just that leaving is so hard.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When God Says It's Time to Move."
The reason so many of us never get where we're supposed to be in life is because we don't want to leave where we are. And leaving is just too hard; it's too scary. It's the deal-breaker. So even when God says, "It's time to make a move," we just hold on tight and say, "I can't leave." But so often in the plans of God, leaving is the door to your destiny.
You can see that in the amazing life of one of God's great heroes, Abraham. Ahead of him was the fathering of the Jewish nation and an exciting place of leadership in the purposes of God. But first he had to leave. In fact, God's first recorded word to Abraham – called Abram at this point – is "leave." Listen to Genesis 12:1-2, our word for today from the Word of God. "The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.'" Imagine! Leave the people you know and love, the place you know, and the security you have – for "a land that I will show you." Not even a brochure. Not even a briefing from someone who's been there. Just leaving the known for the unknown.
The New Testament describes Abraham's life-changing response this way: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8). If you don't leave when God says leave, you miss His best and you just settle for what's safe. If you decide based on what's safe and comfortable, you will almost surely miss God's great plans for you. Jesus had to leave heaven to become our Savior. Simon left his fishing business and became the apostle Peter; Levi left his tax collector's office and became the apostle Matthew. Leaving is so often the door to your destiny, if it's God who's asking you to leave, not just your restlessness or your discontentment.
Maybe God's summoning you to something unknown but unbelievable. But you can't go there without leaving – maybe leaving a relationship, a position, a sin, your comfort zone, the way you've always done things, without leaving your addiction to controlling everything. Why would you take this hard step? Early in our ministry, God called a dedicated young woman from a lucrative job with one of the most prestigious modeling firms in the world to join us in rescuing the lost. On her application, under reason for leaving this dream job, she simply wrote one word: "Jesus."
That's why you leave. Because He left heaven for you. Because your life now belongs to Him. And because anyone who loved you enough to die for you will never do you wrong. If He's asking you to leave behind the known for the unknown, don't miss your destiny by holding on. Remember, those who never get out of the boat never know what it is to walk on water!
Monday, August 6, 2018
Deuteronomy 14, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: GOD’S PROMISES ARE GREAT
According to Peter, God’s promises aren’t just great, they are “very great.” They aren’t just valuable; they are “precious” (2 Peter 1:4). It is God’s great and precious promises that lead us into a new reality, a holy environment. They are direction signs intended to guide us away from the toxic swampland and into the clean air of heaven. They are strong boulders that form the bridge over which we walk from our sin to salvation. Promises that are the stitching in the spine of the Bible.
Receive them. Allow them to soak you like a spring shower. Let’s be what we were intended to be—people of the Promise. Fill your heart with hope, and let the devil himself hear you declare your belief in God’s goodness! Because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Deuteronomy 14
1-2 You are children of God, your God, so don’t mutilate your bodies or shave your heads in funeral rites for the dead. You only are a people holy to God, your God; God chose you out of all the people on Earth as his cherished personal treasure.
3-8 Don’t eat anything abominable. These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goat, deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, mountain sheep—any animal that has a cloven hoof and chews the cud. But you may not eat camels, rabbits, and rock badgers because they chew the cud but they don’t have a cloven hoof—that makes them ritually unclean. And pigs: Don’t eat pigs—they have a cloven hoof but don’t chew the cud, which makes them ritually unclean. Don’t even touch a pig’s carcass.
9-10 This is what you may eat from the water: anything that has fins and scales. But if it doesn’t have fins or scales, you may not eat it. It’s ritually unclean.
11-18 You may eat any ritually clean bird. These are the exceptions, so don’t eat these: eagle, vulture, black vulture, kite, falcon, the buzzard family, the raven family, ostrich, nighthawk, the hawk family, little owl, great owl, white owl, pelican, osprey, cormorant, stork, the heron family, hoopoe, bat.
19-20 Winged insects are ritually unclean; don’t eat them. But ritually clean winged creatures are permitted.
21 Because you are a people holy to God, your God, don’t eat anything that you find dead. You can, though, give it to a foreigner in your neighborhood for a meal or sell it to a foreigner.
Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
22-26 Make an offering of ten percent, a tithe, of all the produce which grows in your fields year after year. Bring this into the Presence of God, your God, at the place he designates for worship and there eat the tithe from your grain, wine, and oil and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. In this way you will learn to live in deep reverence before God, your God, as long as you live. But if the place God, your God, designates for worship is too far away and you can’t carry your tithe that far, God, your God, will still bless you: exchange your tithe for money and take the money to the place God, your God, has chosen to be worshiped. Use the money to buy anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, or beer—anything that looks good to you. You and your family can then feast in the Presence of God, your God, and have a good time.
27 Meanwhile, don’t forget to take good care of the Levites who live in your towns; they won’t get any property or inheritance of their own as you will.
28-29 At the end of every third year, gather the tithe from all your produce of that year and put it aside in storage. Keep it in reserve for the Levite who won’t get any property or inheritance as you will, and for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow who live in your neighborhood. That way they’ll have plenty to eat and God, your God, will bless you in all your work.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 06, 2018
Read: 1 Thessalonians 5:12–24
Final Instructions and Benediction
12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle,[a] encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Footnotes:
1 Thessalonians 5:14 Or disorderly, or undisciplined
INSIGHT
Do you ever feel that you’re always on the giving end? Or do you feel you’re always taking and receiving—with nothing to offer others but your own neediness? Take another look at Paul’s words to the Thessalonians. See if you can hear the wisdom of someone who knows there’s a time to give and a time to receive.
If you sense that you’re receiving more than your fair share of help, does Paul give you any idea about what you have to give even while receiving? Can you see that in acknowledging graciously the hard work of those who are caring for you, God can actually use you to encourage them?
If you seem to be giving to the point of exhaustion, see if you can hear any gentle wisdom here for yourself. - Mart DeHaan
The Joy of Giving
By Leslie Koh
Encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 1 Thessalonians 5:14
It was a dreary week. I had been feeling lethargic and listless, although I couldn’t figure out why.
Near the end of the week, I found out that an aunt had kidney failure. I knew I had to visit her—but to be honest, I felt like postponing the visit. Still, I made my way to her place, where we had dinner, chatted, and prayed together. An hour later, I left her home feeling upbeat for the first time in days. Focusing on someone else rather than myself had somehow improved my mood.
Psychologists have found that the act of giving can produce satisfaction, which comes when the giver sees the recipient’s gratitude. Some experts even believe that humans are wired to be generous!
Perhaps that’s why Paul, when encouraging the church in Thessalonica to build up their faith community, urged them to “help the weak” (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Earlier, he had also cited Jesus’s words, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). While this was said in the context of giving financially, it applies as well to the giving of time and effort.
When we give, we get an insight into how God feels. We understand why He’s so delighted to give us His love, and we share in His joy and the satisfaction of blessing others. I think I’ll be visiting my aunt again soon.
Father, You have made me to give to others just as You have given to me. Teach me to give so that I can truly reflect Your character and be more like You today.
The giver is the greatest recipient.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 06, 2018
The Cross in Prayer
In that day you will ask in My name… —John 16:26
We too often think of the Cross of Christ as something we have to get through, yet we get through for the purpose of getting into it. The Cross represents only one thing for us— complete, entire, absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ— and there is nothing in which this identification is more real to us than in prayer.
“Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Then why should we ask? The point of prayer is not to get answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him. If we pray only because we want answers, we will become irritated and angry with God. We receive an answer every time we pray, but it does not always come in the way we expect, and our spiritual irritation shows our refusal to identify ourselves truly with our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove that God answers prayer, but to be living trophies of God’s grace.
“…I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you…” (John 16:26-27). Have you reached such a level of intimacy with God that the only thing that can account for your prayer life is that it has become one with the prayer life of Jesus Christ? Has our Lord exchanged your life with His vital life? If so, then “in that day” you will be so closely identified with Jesus that there will be no distinction.
When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to place the blame on someone else. That is always a trap of Satan. When you seem to have no answer, there is always a reason— God uses these times to give you deep personal instruction, and it is not for anyone else but you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 06, 2018
The Myth of Secret Sin - #8236
It's one of the most popular convention locations in the United States-Las Vegas. We can each guess as to what some of the reasons for its popularity might be. But it's become a popular destination for people other than conventioneers. You know, you might remember that advertising campaign; they were advertising Las Vegas as the place to go if you want to get away with something. Using some scenes that suggest some covert relationships and secret romantic liaisons, the tantalizing promise that flashes across the screen says: "What happens here stays here." Wrong!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Myth of Secret Sin."
This isn't about a particular city or an advertising campaign. It's about that dark side of all of us that the idea of "getting away with it" appeals to. There's this instinct in us that seems to say, "What you do when you're alone, or when you're away from home, when you're kind of 'off duty,' when no one knows you, you can do it and no one will ever know. It doesn't count." That's a lie!
Hebrews 4:13, our word for today from the Word of God, assures us that "nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." That couldn't be more blunt. God has seen it all. And if God knows, and He does, you're caught. Oh, the consequences, the judgment may not come instantaneously, but be sure they'll come. In the words of Numbers 32:23, "Be sure your sin will find you out." There's no such thing as anonymous sin or as sin you get away with.
What we just read describes God, the great Creator of the universe and the Creator of you, as "Him to whom we must give account." In other words, you'll stand before God one day, and no one knows when their appointment with God is going to be. There will be no excuses, no rationalizations, no cover-ups, no plea bargains-just reckoning. What you think is a secret isn't a secret with the only One who really matters. Romans 2:16, "God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ" (Romans 2:16). Maybe you've fooled everyone. You can't fool Him.
The thought of facing the judgment of the God against whom we've all rebelled is nothing short of terrifying. As the Bible says, "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). But the amazing good news Jesus brought is that you and I don't have to pay that awful death penalty for our sin. Someone already did. Jesus did. In the words of the Bible, "He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Imagine, God's love for you is so great He poured the hell for your sin against Him on His own Son so you would never have to pay for it yourself; so you could spend eternity in the heaven that you could never deserve rather than the hell that we all deserve. He really, really loves you. He went a long way to forgive you.
But you have to first face your sin and see it for what it is. It's the defiant hijacking of your life from the God who made you. That's what it is. Then you have to decide that you're ready to turn from the sin that killed Jesus and place your life in His hands, which is where you were created to be anyway. And the weight of a lifetime of sinning, the weight of a lifetime of secrets and darkness can come off your shoulders this very day because, as the Bible says, "The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). He is alive today. You can tell Him right now, "Jesus, Your death for my sin is my only hope and I am Yours starting today."
Next step, would you go to our website, ANewStory.com, and let me show you there how you can be sure that you belong to Jesus Christ and that every sin you've ever committed can be erased from God's book today.
This can be the day of your new beginning, when God's spiritual shower makes you clean and every sin of your life is erased from His book. This could be the day that your judgment is cancelled.
According to Peter, God’s promises aren’t just great, they are “very great.” They aren’t just valuable; they are “precious” (2 Peter 1:4). It is God’s great and precious promises that lead us into a new reality, a holy environment. They are direction signs intended to guide us away from the toxic swampland and into the clean air of heaven. They are strong boulders that form the bridge over which we walk from our sin to salvation. Promises that are the stitching in the spine of the Bible.
Receive them. Allow them to soak you like a spring shower. Let’s be what we were intended to be—people of the Promise. Fill your heart with hope, and let the devil himself hear you declare your belief in God’s goodness! Because God’s promises are unbreakable, our hope is unshakable!
Read more Unshakable Hope
Deuteronomy 14
1-2 You are children of God, your God, so don’t mutilate your bodies or shave your heads in funeral rites for the dead. You only are a people holy to God, your God; God chose you out of all the people on Earth as his cherished personal treasure.
3-8 Don’t eat anything abominable. These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goat, deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, mountain sheep—any animal that has a cloven hoof and chews the cud. But you may not eat camels, rabbits, and rock badgers because they chew the cud but they don’t have a cloven hoof—that makes them ritually unclean. And pigs: Don’t eat pigs—they have a cloven hoof but don’t chew the cud, which makes them ritually unclean. Don’t even touch a pig’s carcass.
9-10 This is what you may eat from the water: anything that has fins and scales. But if it doesn’t have fins or scales, you may not eat it. It’s ritually unclean.
11-18 You may eat any ritually clean bird. These are the exceptions, so don’t eat these: eagle, vulture, black vulture, kite, falcon, the buzzard family, the raven family, ostrich, nighthawk, the hawk family, little owl, great owl, white owl, pelican, osprey, cormorant, stork, the heron family, hoopoe, bat.
19-20 Winged insects are ritually unclean; don’t eat them. But ritually clean winged creatures are permitted.
21 Because you are a people holy to God, your God, don’t eat anything that you find dead. You can, though, give it to a foreigner in your neighborhood for a meal or sell it to a foreigner.
Don’t boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
22-26 Make an offering of ten percent, a tithe, of all the produce which grows in your fields year after year. Bring this into the Presence of God, your God, at the place he designates for worship and there eat the tithe from your grain, wine, and oil and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. In this way you will learn to live in deep reverence before God, your God, as long as you live. But if the place God, your God, designates for worship is too far away and you can’t carry your tithe that far, God, your God, will still bless you: exchange your tithe for money and take the money to the place God, your God, has chosen to be worshiped. Use the money to buy anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, or beer—anything that looks good to you. You and your family can then feast in the Presence of God, your God, and have a good time.
27 Meanwhile, don’t forget to take good care of the Levites who live in your towns; they won’t get any property or inheritance of their own as you will.
28-29 At the end of every third year, gather the tithe from all your produce of that year and put it aside in storage. Keep it in reserve for the Levite who won’t get any property or inheritance as you will, and for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow who live in your neighborhood. That way they’ll have plenty to eat and God, your God, will bless you in all your work.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, August 06, 2018
Read: 1 Thessalonians 5:12–24
Final Instructions and Benediction
12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle,[a] encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
Footnotes:
1 Thessalonians 5:14 Or disorderly, or undisciplined
INSIGHT
Do you ever feel that you’re always on the giving end? Or do you feel you’re always taking and receiving—with nothing to offer others but your own neediness? Take another look at Paul’s words to the Thessalonians. See if you can hear the wisdom of someone who knows there’s a time to give and a time to receive.
If you sense that you’re receiving more than your fair share of help, does Paul give you any idea about what you have to give even while receiving? Can you see that in acknowledging graciously the hard work of those who are caring for you, God can actually use you to encourage them?
If you seem to be giving to the point of exhaustion, see if you can hear any gentle wisdom here for yourself. - Mart DeHaan
The Joy of Giving
By Leslie Koh
Encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 1 Thessalonians 5:14
It was a dreary week. I had been feeling lethargic and listless, although I couldn’t figure out why.
Near the end of the week, I found out that an aunt had kidney failure. I knew I had to visit her—but to be honest, I felt like postponing the visit. Still, I made my way to her place, where we had dinner, chatted, and prayed together. An hour later, I left her home feeling upbeat for the first time in days. Focusing on someone else rather than myself had somehow improved my mood.
Psychologists have found that the act of giving can produce satisfaction, which comes when the giver sees the recipient’s gratitude. Some experts even believe that humans are wired to be generous!
Perhaps that’s why Paul, when encouraging the church in Thessalonica to build up their faith community, urged them to “help the weak” (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Earlier, he had also cited Jesus’s words, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). While this was said in the context of giving financially, it applies as well to the giving of time and effort.
When we give, we get an insight into how God feels. We understand why He’s so delighted to give us His love, and we share in His joy and the satisfaction of blessing others. I think I’ll be visiting my aunt again soon.
Father, You have made me to give to others just as You have given to me. Teach me to give so that I can truly reflect Your character and be more like You today.
The giver is the greatest recipient.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, August 06, 2018
The Cross in Prayer
In that day you will ask in My name… —John 16:26
We too often think of the Cross of Christ as something we have to get through, yet we get through for the purpose of getting into it. The Cross represents only one thing for us— complete, entire, absolute identification with the Lord Jesus Christ— and there is nothing in which this identification is more real to us than in prayer.
“Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8). Then why should we ask? The point of prayer is not to get answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him. If we pray only because we want answers, we will become irritated and angry with God. We receive an answer every time we pray, but it does not always come in the way we expect, and our spiritual irritation shows our refusal to identify ourselves truly with our Lord in prayer. We are not here to prove that God answers prayer, but to be living trophies of God’s grace.
“…I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you…” (John 16:26-27). Have you reached such a level of intimacy with God that the only thing that can account for your prayer life is that it has become one with the prayer life of Jesus Christ? Has our Lord exchanged your life with His vital life? If so, then “in that day” you will be so closely identified with Jesus that there will be no distinction.
When prayer seems to be unanswered, beware of trying to place the blame on someone else. That is always a trap of Satan. When you seem to have no answer, there is always a reason— God uses these times to give you deep personal instruction, and it is not for anyone else but you.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great point of Abraham’s faith in God was that he was prepared to do anything for God.
Not Knowing Whither
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, August 06, 2018
The Myth of Secret Sin - #8236
It's one of the most popular convention locations in the United States-Las Vegas. We can each guess as to what some of the reasons for its popularity might be. But it's become a popular destination for people other than conventioneers. You know, you might remember that advertising campaign; they were advertising Las Vegas as the place to go if you want to get away with something. Using some scenes that suggest some covert relationships and secret romantic liaisons, the tantalizing promise that flashes across the screen says: "What happens here stays here." Wrong!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Myth of Secret Sin."
This isn't about a particular city or an advertising campaign. It's about that dark side of all of us that the idea of "getting away with it" appeals to. There's this instinct in us that seems to say, "What you do when you're alone, or when you're away from home, when you're kind of 'off duty,' when no one knows you, you can do it and no one will ever know. It doesn't count." That's a lie!
Hebrews 4:13, our word for today from the Word of God, assures us that "nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." That couldn't be more blunt. God has seen it all. And if God knows, and He does, you're caught. Oh, the consequences, the judgment may not come instantaneously, but be sure they'll come. In the words of Numbers 32:23, "Be sure your sin will find you out." There's no such thing as anonymous sin or as sin you get away with.
What we just read describes God, the great Creator of the universe and the Creator of you, as "Him to whom we must give account." In other words, you'll stand before God one day, and no one knows when their appointment with God is going to be. There will be no excuses, no rationalizations, no cover-ups, no plea bargains-just reckoning. What you think is a secret isn't a secret with the only One who really matters. Romans 2:16, "God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ" (Romans 2:16). Maybe you've fooled everyone. You can't fool Him.
The thought of facing the judgment of the God against whom we've all rebelled is nothing short of terrifying. As the Bible says, "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). But the amazing good news Jesus brought is that you and I don't have to pay that awful death penalty for our sin. Someone already did. Jesus did. In the words of the Bible, "He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Imagine, God's love for you is so great He poured the hell for your sin against Him on His own Son so you would never have to pay for it yourself; so you could spend eternity in the heaven that you could never deserve rather than the hell that we all deserve. He really, really loves you. He went a long way to forgive you.
But you have to first face your sin and see it for what it is. It's the defiant hijacking of your life from the God who made you. That's what it is. Then you have to decide that you're ready to turn from the sin that killed Jesus and place your life in His hands, which is where you were created to be anyway. And the weight of a lifetime of sinning, the weight of a lifetime of secrets and darkness can come off your shoulders this very day because, as the Bible says, "The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). He is alive today. You can tell Him right now, "Jesus, Your death for my sin is my only hope and I am Yours starting today."
Next step, would you go to our website, ANewStory.com, and let me show you there how you can be sure that you belong to Jesus Christ and that every sin you've ever committed can be erased from God's book today.
This can be the day of your new beginning, when God's spiritual shower makes you clean and every sin of your life is erased from His book. This could be the day that your judgment is cancelled.
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