Max Lucado Daily: LEGALISM VERSUS GRACE
Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Pharisees measured spirituality by outer appearance, rules and standards. Legalism versus grace. The legalist looks at salvation as a wage earned on deeds done. Grace sees salvation as a gift based on Christ’s death.
Jesus told Nicodemus, “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.” Nicodemus had never heard such words, but they bore fruit. We see him again in John 19:39-42, and this time he appears in the light of day. He and Joseph of Arimathea claimed the body of Jesus and placed it in the tomb. The one who had received the seed of grace now plants the greatest seed of all—Jesus, the seed of eternal life.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
John 12:1-26
Six days before Passover, Jesus entered Bethany where Lazarus, so recently raised from the dead, was living. Lazarus and his sisters invited Jesus to dinner at their home. Martha served. Lazarus was one of those sitting at the table with them. Mary came in with a jar of very expensive aromatic oils, anointed and massaged Jesus’ feet, and then wiped them with her hair. The fragrance of the oils filled the house.
4-6 Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, even then getting ready to betray him, said, “Why wasn’t this oil sold and the money given to the poor? It would have easily brought three hundred silver pieces.” He said this not because he cared two cents about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of their common funds, but also embezzled them.
7-8 Jesus said, “Let her alone. She’s anticipating and honoring the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you. You don’t always have me.”
9-11 Word got out among the Jews that he was back in town. The people came to take a look, not only at Jesus but also at Lazarus, who had been raised from the dead. So the high priests plotted to kill Lazarus because so many of the Jews were going over and believing in Jesus on account of him.
12-15 The next day the huge crowd that had arrived for the Feast heard that Jesus was entering Jerusalem. They broke off palm branches and went out to meet him. And they cheered:
Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in God’s name!
Yes! The King of Israel!
Jesus got a young donkey and rode it, just as the Scripture has it:
No fear, Daughter Zion: See how your king comes, riding a donkey’s colt.
16 The disciples didn’t notice the fulfillment of many Scriptures at the time, but after Jesus was glorified, they remembered that what was written about him matched what was done to him.
17-19 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead, was there giving eyewitness accounts. It was because they had spread the word of this latest God-sign that the crowd swelled to a welcoming parade. The Pharisees took one look and threw up their hands: “It’s out of control. The world’s in a stampede after him.”
20-21 There were some Greeks in town who had come up to worship at the Feast. They approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee: “Sir, we want to see Jesus. Can you help us?”
22-23 Philip went and told Andrew. Andrew and Philip together told Jesus. Jesus answered, “Time’s up. The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
24-25 “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.
26 “If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you’ll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment’s notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: 2 Timothy 1:3-7
Every time I say your name in prayer—which is practically all the time—I thank God for you, the God I worship with my whole life in the tradition of my ancestors. I miss you a lot, especially when I remember that last tearful good-bye, and I look forward to a joy-packed reunion.
5-7 That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith—and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you! And the special gift of ministry you received when I laid hands on you and prayed—keep that ablaze! God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.
Insight
We know a fair amount about Timothy from Scripture. He was relatively young (1 Timothy 4:12), and we can infer he had a “nervous” stomach and was prone to illness (5:23). But we also know some more significant things. For instance, we see the importance of family in his coming to faith in Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 1:5). He traveled with Paul and helped him establish churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea (Acts 16:1–17:14). He was a sincere student of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:14–15), and Paul trusted him with a variety of ministry challenges: He sent him to Thessalonica to encourage the believers there (1 Thessalonians 3:2). He sent him to the church in Corinth to ensure that Paul’s instructions were being followed (Paul had a rocky relationship with the Corinthians, see 1 Corinthians 16:10–11). And he gave him the task of confronting and correcting false teachers in Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3). By: J.R. Hudberg
Marked by Momma
Continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it. 2 Timothy 3:14
Her name was long but her years were even longer. Madeline Harriet Orr Jackson Williams lived to be 101 years old, outliving two husbands. Both were preachers. Madeline was my grandmother, and we knew her as Momma. My siblings and I got to know her well; we lived in her home until her second husband whisked her away. Even then she was less than fifty miles away from us. Our grandmother was a hymn-singing, catechism-reciting, piano-playing, God-fearing woman, and my siblings and I have been marked by her faith.
According to 2 Timothy 1:3–7, Timothy’s grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice had a huge impact on his life. Their living and teaching were rooted in the soil of Scripture (v. 5; 2 Timothy 3:14–16) and eventually their faith blossomed in Timothy’s heart. His biblically based upbringing was not only foundational for his relationship with God, but it was also vital to his usefulness in the Lord’s service (1:6–7).
Today, as well as in Timothy’s time, God uses faithful women and men to mark future generations. Our prayers, words, actions, and service can be powerfully used by the Lord while we live and after we’re gone. That’s why my siblings and I still rehearse things that were passed on to us from Momma. My prayer is that Momma’s legacy will not stop with us. By Arthur Jackson
Today's Reflection
How are you using your prayer, words, actions, and service to grow others in Jesus? What would you like your legacy to be?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Abraham’s Life of Faith
He went out, not knowing where he was going. —Hebrews 11:8
In the Old Testament, a person’s relationship with God was seen by the degree of separation in that person’s life. This separation is exhibited in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his family. When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not have a personal relationship with God, but to be separated mentally and morally from their viewpoints. This is what Jesus Christ was referring to in Luke 14:26.
Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason— a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world.
The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles’ wings, but is a life of day-in and day-out consistency; a life of walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31). It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith— a faith, tested and true, built on the true God. “Abraham believed God…” (Romans 4:3).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Re-state to yourself what you believe, then do away with as much of it as possible, and get back to the bedrock of the Cross of Christ. My Utmost for His Highest, November 25, 848 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Plastic Wars - #8397
Our son brought a playful little Shih Tzu puppy into our house. She loved to play with bubbles. Yeah, she would chase those bubbles that we would blow on the floor, and it was crazy to watch. And she also loved bottles. You know, the plastic bottles? She would enjoy a good battle with any two-liter plastic soda pop bottle, and we'd throw it on the floor. She'd attack that thing! You could hear it all through the house! Here's this plastic bottle being thrown into the air, she forces it up against the wall, it thuds along the floor, (Oh, it was great when you're trying to sleep, let me tell you.). Finally she would fight that thing until she was just totally exhausted. And then you'd hear nothing. You'd go in and she was totally flopped on the kitchen floor. There she was, flat out, almost out cold it looked like. She had literally worked herself totally out of energy in combat with a dumb, plastic bottle.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Plastic Wars."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke chapter 17, beginning with verse 26. Jesus says, "Just as it was in the days of Noah so it also will be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying, being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the Ark." Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying, selling, planting and building, but the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed, He said. God says those last days, just before He comes back, will be just like the times of Noah and Lot.
Was there something terribly wrong about eating, drinking, marrying, planting, building, buying, selling? See, those things aren't patently wrong. But I think God might be saying they were living in important times with really important issues to consider - important battles to fight. And meanwhile, they were just like trapped in the trivia of life. Fighting with plastic bottles; getting all worn out and stressed out while life and death battles were all around them and they were left un-fought.
Sounds like many of us. Some of us are so concerned with our business, our career, our pursuit of success - by the survival of life itself - that we just end up seeking last the Kingdom of God instead of doing what Jesus said, "seeking it first." There's little time left to do God's work, to build relationships with lost people.
We've got very little money left to put into the great battles God's fighting around the world. And too many Christians are caught up in fighting micro-battles while we're losing the macro-battles for people's ever-living and never-dying souls.
We fight over denominational distinctions and that 10% that divides us instead of focusing on the 90% that unites us. We split hairs over the don'ts of the Christian life, or music styles, or eventually we end up getting known more for what we're against than what we're for.
Some of us are pretty aloof from other believers because we're more spiritual than they are; at least by our definition of spirituality. Some of us are getting all worn out on plastic wars; fighting fiercely over issues that make us miss the dying people all around us. The doctrine is very important. Righteous behavior is very important. But we just dare not lose sight of the greatest battle of all. It's the battle for eternal souls - for people's lives, for people's eternities.
Let's not be so busy just purifying the faith or making a political point, making sure that every "i" is dotted and every "t" is crossed, that we lose our focus on bringing multitudes to Christ. See, that's the life or death battle. We can't afford to be fighting each other over some plastic bottle when there's a life or death war going on all around us.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Monday, March 18, 2019
Psalm 38, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: LOVEBURSTS
Lovebursts. We all have them. Spontaneous affection. Tender moments of radiant love. They remind you about what matters.
Jesus had lovebursts…lots of them. One of them happened when four men lowered their paralytic friend through a roof to reach Jesus. And faith got God’s attention. Mark 2:5 says, “When Jesus say the faith of these people, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Young man, your sins are forgiven.’”
To heal the man’s body took a simple command. To forgive the man’s sins took Jesus’ blood. Jesus already knew the price of forgiveness. But he offered it anyway. Love burst his heart. By the way, he hasn’t changed. What happened then happens today. All of heaven must pause as another burst of love declares the only words that really do matter: “Your sins are forgiven.”
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 37
A David Psalm
38 1-2 Take a deep breath, God; calm down—
don’t be so hasty with your punishing rod.
Your sharp-pointed arrows of rebuke draw blood;
my backside smarts from your caning.
3-4 I’ve lost twenty pounds in two months
because of your accusation.
My bones are brittle as dry sticks
because of my sin.
I’m swamped by my bad behavior,
collapsed under gunnysacks of guilt.
5-8 The cuts in my flesh stink and grow maggots
because I’ve lived so badly.
And now I’m flat on my face
feeling sorry for myself morning to night.
All my insides are on fire,
my body is a wreck.
I’m on my last legs; I’ve had it—
my life is a vomit of groans.
9-16 Lord, my longings are sitting in plain sight,
my groans an old story to you.
My heart’s about to break;
I’m a burned-out case.
Cataracts blind me to God and good;
old friends avoid me like the plague.
My cousins never visit,
my neighbors stab me in the back.
My competitors blacken my name,
devoutly they pray for my ruin.
But I’m deaf and mute to it all,
ears shut, mouth shut.
I don’t hear a word they say,
don’t speak a word in response.
What I do, God, is wait for you,
wait for my Lord, my God—you will answer!
I wait and pray so they won’t laugh me off,
won’t smugly strut off when I stumble.
17-20 I’m on the edge of losing it—
the pain in my gut keeps burning.
I’m ready to tell my story of failure,
I’m no longer smug in my sin.
My enemies are alive and in action,
a lynch mob after my neck.
I give out good and get back evil
from God-haters who can’t stand a God-lover.
21-22 Don’t dump me, God;
my God, don’t stand me up.
Hurry and help me;
I want some wide-open space in my life!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, March 18, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Habakkuk 3:16-19
God, is it River you’re mad at?
Angry at old River?
Were you raging at Sea when you rode
horse and chariot through to salvation?
You unfurled your bow
and let loose a volley of arrows.
You split Earth with rivers.
Mountains saw what was coming.
They twisted in pain.
Flood Waters poured in.
Ocean roared and reared huge waves.
Sun and Moon stopped in their tracks.
Your flashing arrows stopped them,
your lightning-strike spears impaled them.
Angry, you stomped through Earth.
Furious, you crushed the godless nations.
You were out to save your people,
to save your specially chosen people.
You beat the stuffing
out of King Wicked,
Stripped him naked
from head to toe,
Set his severed head on his own spear
and blew away his army.
Scattered they were to the four winds—
and ended up food for the sharks!
You galloped through the Sea on your horses,
racing on the crest of the waves.
When I heard it, my stomach did flips.
I stammered and stuttered.
My bones turned to water.
I staggered and stumbled.
I sit back and wait for Doomsday
to descend on our attackers.
17-19 Though the cherry trees don’t blossom
and the strawberries don’t ripen,
Though the apples are worm-eaten
and the wheat fields stunted,
Though the sheep pens are sheepless
and the cattle barns empty,
I’m singing joyful praise to God.
I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.
Counting on God’s Rule to prevail,
I take heart and gain strength.
I run like a deer.
I feel like I’m king of the mountain!
(For congregational use, with a full orchestra.)
Insight
In the book of Habakkuk, the prophet Habakkuk wrestles with God’s justice in disciplining Israel through the actions of a nation even more corrupt than they (1:12–13). Habakkuk’s struggle illustrates a theme seen throughout Scripture of honestly wrestling with God. Anguish, doubt, and even anger at God aren’t seen as problems to be suppressed. Rather, truly walking with God means being willing to place all of our humanity, our whole heart, honestly before Him.
Habakkuk’s transformation—from the anguished “how long” of 1:2–4 to the confidence, joy, and awe of 3:16–19—illustrates the biblical principle that honest wrestling with God is rewarded by deeper transformation. Like Job, through honestly bringing his pain and anger before God, Habakkuk was transformed, not so much by easily understandable explanations, but by encountering face-to-face the overwhelming goodness, power, and beauty of God (vv. 3–15). By: Monica Brands
Joy in Hard Places
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:18
Whenever she was unable to take my phone call, my friend’s voicemail recording invited me to leave her a message. The recording cheerfully concluded, “Make it a great day!” As I reflected on her words, I realized that it’s not within our power to make every day “great”—some circumstances truly are devastating. But a closer look might reveal something redeeming and beautiful in my day, whether things are going well or poorly.
Habakkuk wasn’t experiencing easy circumstances. As a prophet, God had shown him coming days when none of the crops or livestock—on which God’s people depended—would be fruitful (3:17). It would take more than mere optimism to endure the coming hardships. As a people group, Israel would be in extreme poverty. Habakkuk experienced heart-pounding, lip-quivering, leg-trembling fear (v. 16).
Yet despite that, Habakkuk said he would “rejoice in the Lord” and “be joyful” (v. 18). He proclaimed His hope in the God who provides the strength to walk in difficult places (v. 19).
Sometimes we go through seasons of deep pain and hardship. But no matter what we’ve lost, or wanted but never had, we can, like Habakkuk, rejoice in our relationship with a loving God. Even when it feels like we have nothing else, He will never fail or abandon us (Hebrews 13:5). He, the One who “provide[s] for those who grieve,” is our ultimate reason for joy (Isaiah 61:3). By Kirsten Holmberg
Today's Reflection
What about your relationship with Jesus brings you the greatest joy? How has He met you recently in a time of hardship or grief?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 18, 2019
Will I Bring Myself Up to This Level?
…perfecting holiness in the fear of God. —2 Corinthians 7:1
“Therefore, having these promises….” I claim God’s promises for my life and look to their fulfillment, and rightly so, but that shows only the human perspective on them. God’s perspective is that through His promises I will come to recognize His claim of ownership on me. For example, do I realize that my “body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,” or am I condoning some habit in my body which clearly could not withstand the light of God on it? (1 Corinthians 6:19). God formed His Son in me through sanctification, setting me apart from sin and making me holy in His sight (see Galatians 4:19). But I must begin to transform my natural life into spiritual life by obedience to Him. God instructs us even in the smallest details of life. And when He brings you conviction of sin, do not “confer with flesh and blood,” but cleanse yourself from it at once (Galatians 1:16). Keep yourself cleansed in your daily walk.
I must cleanse myself from all filthiness in my flesh and my spirit until both are in harmony with the nature of God. Is the mind of my spirit in perfect agreement with the life of the Son of God in me, or am I mentally rebellious and defiant? Am I allowing the mind of Christ to be formed in me? (see Philippians 2:5). Christ never spoke of His right to Himself, but always maintained an inner vigilance to submit His spirit continually to His Father. I also have the responsibility to keep my spirit in agreement with His Spirit. And when I do, Jesus gradually lifts me up to the level where He lived— a level of perfect submission to His Father’s will— where I pay no attention to anything else. Am I perfecting this kind of holiness in the fear of God? Is God having His way with me, and are people beginning to see God in my life more and more?
Be serious in your commitment to God and gladly leave everything else alone. Literally put God first in your life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed. Our Brilliant Heritage, 946 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, March 18, 2019
The Stain is Gone - #8396
My wife, like many women, was like "wonder woman" when it came to rescuing clothes that seemed to be ruined by a big stain. Like our sons' high school football uniforms. Okay, our colors were blue and white. I said white. The idea was to have those white pants as dirty as possible at the end of the game, of course, to prove that you played hard. But the idea also was to have those pants really white at the beginning of the next game. So, home they came with these pants that seemed terminally stained with dirt and mud and grass stains. Now the only way my very intelligent wife would let them play football was if they agreed to wash their own uniforms. Right, smart lady. But she showed them how to get those stains out with her magic combination of regular detergent and dishwasher detergent. No matter how dirty those things had been, somehow they came out clean. And yes, those stains were all gone.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Stain is Gone."
You know, God is in the stain-removing business. And someone listening today needs to take advantage of this restoring miracle that only God can do.
Here's the word for today from the Word of God in Romans 8:1. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." That is really good news. Imagine, no matter what you've done, no matter how far you've fallen, no matter who've you hurt, no matter how dirty you've gotten, if you belong to Jesus, you are clean - the stain is gone! No matter what your feelings tell you. No matter what people say about you. No matter what the devil tries to tell you. "No condemnation" is no condemnation! That's what the Bible says! The stain is gone.
If you've been to the cross of Jesus to get your sins forgiven, are you living like there's "no condemnation" on you? Not if you're taking your cue from the people who know what you were; who remember all that junk in your past and won't let you forget. You won't believe you're "un-condemned" if you believe the feelings you have sometimes; feelings of shame and unworthiness because of the stuff you've done in the past. Actually, one of the devil's favorite strategies for bringing us down is this cycle of shame to make you feel ashamed for where you've failed so you'll give up and do more things you'll feel ashamed for. Sound familiar?
You may even be tripped up on this by judgmental Christians who seem to specialize in making other believers feel like failures, or by flashbacks of the old you. You'll pick up that old backpack full of your past, the one you left at the cross of Jesus, and you're going to start carrying it again. You're going to be all bent over like you used to be.
If you define who you are by your past, you will always be "The Sinner." If you define who you are by the pain you've been through, you'll always be "The Victim." But if you decide to define who you are by your relationship with Jesus Christ, you will be "The Forgiven" and you will keep pursuing the new you instead of reverting to the old you. What a holy God has forgiven, no one has a right to hold against you - including you. He says you're clean. You're clean. Now start living like it!
And if you've never given yourself to Jesus to be your personal Savior from your personal sin, you could do that this very day. And you could experience a spiritual shower that only the man who died for you can give you. Or as so many people have described it, this hundred pound weight being lifted off your back the minute you come to Jesus to have it all forgiven. Maybe you woke up again this day guilty and dirty, but you can go to sleep tonight clean! You want that? That's what Jesus does for people.
If you want to begin your relationship with Him, you want to experience His forgiving for yourself, tell Him right now, "Jesus, I believe you died for my sins. I believe you walked out of your grave. You're alive to walk into my life. Beginning today I am yours." At that point it's great for you to go to our website, ANewStory.com, and get there the biblical information that will show you your guarantee that you belong to Jesus.
It doesn't matter how dirty you've gotten. It doesn't matter how deep the stain is. When Jesus makes you clean, you are really clean, and the stain is gone.
Lovebursts. We all have them. Spontaneous affection. Tender moments of radiant love. They remind you about what matters.
Jesus had lovebursts…lots of them. One of them happened when four men lowered their paralytic friend through a roof to reach Jesus. And faith got God’s attention. Mark 2:5 says, “When Jesus say the faith of these people, he said to the paralyzed man, ‘Young man, your sins are forgiven.’”
To heal the man’s body took a simple command. To forgive the man’s sins took Jesus’ blood. Jesus already knew the price of forgiveness. But he offered it anyway. Love burst his heart. By the way, he hasn’t changed. What happened then happens today. All of heaven must pause as another burst of love declares the only words that really do matter: “Your sins are forgiven.”
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 37
A David Psalm
38 1-2 Take a deep breath, God; calm down—
don’t be so hasty with your punishing rod.
Your sharp-pointed arrows of rebuke draw blood;
my backside smarts from your caning.
3-4 I’ve lost twenty pounds in two months
because of your accusation.
My bones are brittle as dry sticks
because of my sin.
I’m swamped by my bad behavior,
collapsed under gunnysacks of guilt.
5-8 The cuts in my flesh stink and grow maggots
because I’ve lived so badly.
And now I’m flat on my face
feeling sorry for myself morning to night.
All my insides are on fire,
my body is a wreck.
I’m on my last legs; I’ve had it—
my life is a vomit of groans.
9-16 Lord, my longings are sitting in plain sight,
my groans an old story to you.
My heart’s about to break;
I’m a burned-out case.
Cataracts blind me to God and good;
old friends avoid me like the plague.
My cousins never visit,
my neighbors stab me in the back.
My competitors blacken my name,
devoutly they pray for my ruin.
But I’m deaf and mute to it all,
ears shut, mouth shut.
I don’t hear a word they say,
don’t speak a word in response.
What I do, God, is wait for you,
wait for my Lord, my God—you will answer!
I wait and pray so they won’t laugh me off,
won’t smugly strut off when I stumble.
17-20 I’m on the edge of losing it—
the pain in my gut keeps burning.
I’m ready to tell my story of failure,
I’m no longer smug in my sin.
My enemies are alive and in action,
a lynch mob after my neck.
I give out good and get back evil
from God-haters who can’t stand a God-lover.
21-22 Don’t dump me, God;
my God, don’t stand me up.
Hurry and help me;
I want some wide-open space in my life!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, March 18, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Habakkuk 3:16-19
God, is it River you’re mad at?
Angry at old River?
Were you raging at Sea when you rode
horse and chariot through to salvation?
You unfurled your bow
and let loose a volley of arrows.
You split Earth with rivers.
Mountains saw what was coming.
They twisted in pain.
Flood Waters poured in.
Ocean roared and reared huge waves.
Sun and Moon stopped in their tracks.
Your flashing arrows stopped them,
your lightning-strike spears impaled them.
Angry, you stomped through Earth.
Furious, you crushed the godless nations.
You were out to save your people,
to save your specially chosen people.
You beat the stuffing
out of King Wicked,
Stripped him naked
from head to toe,
Set his severed head on his own spear
and blew away his army.
Scattered they were to the four winds—
and ended up food for the sharks!
You galloped through the Sea on your horses,
racing on the crest of the waves.
When I heard it, my stomach did flips.
I stammered and stuttered.
My bones turned to water.
I staggered and stumbled.
I sit back and wait for Doomsday
to descend on our attackers.
17-19 Though the cherry trees don’t blossom
and the strawberries don’t ripen,
Though the apples are worm-eaten
and the wheat fields stunted,
Though the sheep pens are sheepless
and the cattle barns empty,
I’m singing joyful praise to God.
I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.
Counting on God’s Rule to prevail,
I take heart and gain strength.
I run like a deer.
I feel like I’m king of the mountain!
(For congregational use, with a full orchestra.)
Insight
In the book of Habakkuk, the prophet Habakkuk wrestles with God’s justice in disciplining Israel through the actions of a nation even more corrupt than they (1:12–13). Habakkuk’s struggle illustrates a theme seen throughout Scripture of honestly wrestling with God. Anguish, doubt, and even anger at God aren’t seen as problems to be suppressed. Rather, truly walking with God means being willing to place all of our humanity, our whole heart, honestly before Him.
Habakkuk’s transformation—from the anguished “how long” of 1:2–4 to the confidence, joy, and awe of 3:16–19—illustrates the biblical principle that honest wrestling with God is rewarded by deeper transformation. Like Job, through honestly bringing his pain and anger before God, Habakkuk was transformed, not so much by easily understandable explanations, but by encountering face-to-face the overwhelming goodness, power, and beauty of God (vv. 3–15). By: Monica Brands
Joy in Hard Places
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:18
Whenever she was unable to take my phone call, my friend’s voicemail recording invited me to leave her a message. The recording cheerfully concluded, “Make it a great day!” As I reflected on her words, I realized that it’s not within our power to make every day “great”—some circumstances truly are devastating. But a closer look might reveal something redeeming and beautiful in my day, whether things are going well or poorly.
Habakkuk wasn’t experiencing easy circumstances. As a prophet, God had shown him coming days when none of the crops or livestock—on which God’s people depended—would be fruitful (3:17). It would take more than mere optimism to endure the coming hardships. As a people group, Israel would be in extreme poverty. Habakkuk experienced heart-pounding, lip-quivering, leg-trembling fear (v. 16).
Yet despite that, Habakkuk said he would “rejoice in the Lord” and “be joyful” (v. 18). He proclaimed His hope in the God who provides the strength to walk in difficult places (v. 19).
Sometimes we go through seasons of deep pain and hardship. But no matter what we’ve lost, or wanted but never had, we can, like Habakkuk, rejoice in our relationship with a loving God. Even when it feels like we have nothing else, He will never fail or abandon us (Hebrews 13:5). He, the One who “provide[s] for those who grieve,” is our ultimate reason for joy (Isaiah 61:3). By Kirsten Holmberg
Today's Reflection
What about your relationship with Jesus brings you the greatest joy? How has He met you recently in a time of hardship or grief?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, March 18, 2019
Will I Bring Myself Up to This Level?
…perfecting holiness in the fear of God. —2 Corinthians 7:1
“Therefore, having these promises….” I claim God’s promises for my life and look to their fulfillment, and rightly so, but that shows only the human perspective on them. God’s perspective is that through His promises I will come to recognize His claim of ownership on me. For example, do I realize that my “body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,” or am I condoning some habit in my body which clearly could not withstand the light of God on it? (1 Corinthians 6:19). God formed His Son in me through sanctification, setting me apart from sin and making me holy in His sight (see Galatians 4:19). But I must begin to transform my natural life into spiritual life by obedience to Him. God instructs us even in the smallest details of life. And when He brings you conviction of sin, do not “confer with flesh and blood,” but cleanse yourself from it at once (Galatians 1:16). Keep yourself cleansed in your daily walk.
I must cleanse myself from all filthiness in my flesh and my spirit until both are in harmony with the nature of God. Is the mind of my spirit in perfect agreement with the life of the Son of God in me, or am I mentally rebellious and defiant? Am I allowing the mind of Christ to be formed in me? (see Philippians 2:5). Christ never spoke of His right to Himself, but always maintained an inner vigilance to submit His spirit continually to His Father. I also have the responsibility to keep my spirit in agreement with His Spirit. And when I do, Jesus gradually lifts me up to the level where He lived— a level of perfect submission to His Father’s will— where I pay no attention to anything else. Am I perfecting this kind of holiness in the fear of God? Is God having His way with me, and are people beginning to see God in my life more and more?
Be serious in your commitment to God and gladly leave everything else alone. Literally put God first in your life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
There is no condition of life in which we cannot abide in Jesus. We have to learn to abide in Him wherever we are placed. Our Brilliant Heritage, 946 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, March 18, 2019
The Stain is Gone - #8396
My wife, like many women, was like "wonder woman" when it came to rescuing clothes that seemed to be ruined by a big stain. Like our sons' high school football uniforms. Okay, our colors were blue and white. I said white. The idea was to have those white pants as dirty as possible at the end of the game, of course, to prove that you played hard. But the idea also was to have those pants really white at the beginning of the next game. So, home they came with these pants that seemed terminally stained with dirt and mud and grass stains. Now the only way my very intelligent wife would let them play football was if they agreed to wash their own uniforms. Right, smart lady. But she showed them how to get those stains out with her magic combination of regular detergent and dishwasher detergent. No matter how dirty those things had been, somehow they came out clean. And yes, those stains were all gone.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Stain is Gone."
You know, God is in the stain-removing business. And someone listening today needs to take advantage of this restoring miracle that only God can do.
Here's the word for today from the Word of God in Romans 8:1. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." That is really good news. Imagine, no matter what you've done, no matter how far you've fallen, no matter who've you hurt, no matter how dirty you've gotten, if you belong to Jesus, you are clean - the stain is gone! No matter what your feelings tell you. No matter what people say about you. No matter what the devil tries to tell you. "No condemnation" is no condemnation! That's what the Bible says! The stain is gone.
If you've been to the cross of Jesus to get your sins forgiven, are you living like there's "no condemnation" on you? Not if you're taking your cue from the people who know what you were; who remember all that junk in your past and won't let you forget. You won't believe you're "un-condemned" if you believe the feelings you have sometimes; feelings of shame and unworthiness because of the stuff you've done in the past. Actually, one of the devil's favorite strategies for bringing us down is this cycle of shame to make you feel ashamed for where you've failed so you'll give up and do more things you'll feel ashamed for. Sound familiar?
You may even be tripped up on this by judgmental Christians who seem to specialize in making other believers feel like failures, or by flashbacks of the old you. You'll pick up that old backpack full of your past, the one you left at the cross of Jesus, and you're going to start carrying it again. You're going to be all bent over like you used to be.
If you define who you are by your past, you will always be "The Sinner." If you define who you are by the pain you've been through, you'll always be "The Victim." But if you decide to define who you are by your relationship with Jesus Christ, you will be "The Forgiven" and you will keep pursuing the new you instead of reverting to the old you. What a holy God has forgiven, no one has a right to hold against you - including you. He says you're clean. You're clean. Now start living like it!
And if you've never given yourself to Jesus to be your personal Savior from your personal sin, you could do that this very day. And you could experience a spiritual shower that only the man who died for you can give you. Or as so many people have described it, this hundred pound weight being lifted off your back the minute you come to Jesus to have it all forgiven. Maybe you woke up again this day guilty and dirty, but you can go to sleep tonight clean! You want that? That's what Jesus does for people.
If you want to begin your relationship with Him, you want to experience His forgiving for yourself, tell Him right now, "Jesus, I believe you died for my sins. I believe you walked out of your grave. You're alive to walk into my life. Beginning today I am yours." At that point it's great for you to go to our website, ANewStory.com, and get there the biblical information that will show you your guarantee that you belong to Jesus.
It doesn't matter how dirty you've gotten. It doesn't matter how deep the stain is. When Jesus makes you clean, you are really clean, and the stain is gone.
Sunday, March 17, 2019
Psalm 37, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: The Universal Symbol of Christianity
The cross is the universal symbol of Christianity. An odd choice, don’t you think? Strange that a tool of torture would come to embody a movement of hope. Its design could not be simpler. One beam horizontal—the other vertical. One reaches out like God’s love. The other reaches up, as does God’s holiness. One represents the width of His love; the other the height of His holiness. The cross is the intersection. The cross is where God forgave His children without lowering His standards. God treated His Son as a sinner, so that Christ could make us acceptable to God.
Why would He? John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world.” Aren’t you glad the verse doesn’t read: For God so loved the rich?. . .the famous? The sober or the successful? No, it simply reads: “For God so loved the world!”
From He Chose the Nails
Psalm 37
A David Psalm
37 1-2 Don’t bother your head with braggarts
or wish you could succeed like the wicked.
In no time they’ll shrivel like grass clippings
and wilt like cut flowers in the sun.
3-4 Get insurance with God and do a good deed,
settle down and stick to your last.
Keep company with God,
get in on the best.
5-6 Open up before God, keep nothing back;
he’ll do whatever needs to be done:
He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day
and stamp you with approval at high noon.
7 Quiet down before God,
be prayerful before him.
Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder,
who elbow their way to the top.
8-9 Bridle your anger, trash your wrath,
cool your pipes—it only makes things worse.
Before long the crooks will be bankrupt;
God-investors will soon own the store.
10-11 Before you know it, the wicked will have had it;
you’ll stare at his once famous place and—nothing!
Down-to-earth people will move in and take over,
relishing a huge bonanza.
12-13 Bad guys have it in for the good guys,
obsessed with doing them in.
But God isn’t losing any sleep; to him
they’re a joke with no punch line.
14-15 Bullies brandish their swords,
pull back on their bows with a flourish.
They’re out to beat up on the harmless,
or mug that nice man out walking his dog.
A banana peel lands them flat on their faces—
slapstick figures in a moral circus.
16-17 Less is more and more is less.
One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,
For the wicked are moral weaklings
but the righteous are God-strong.
18-19 God keeps track of the decent folk;
what they do won’t soon be forgotten.
In hard times, they’ll hold their heads high;
when the shelves are bare, they’ll be full.
20 God-despisers have had it;
God’s enemies are finished—
Stripped bare like vineyards at harvest time,
vanished like smoke in thin air.
21-22 Wicked borrows and never returns;
Righteous gives and gives.
Generous gets it all in the end;
Stingy is cut off at the pass.
23-24 Stalwart walks in step with God;
his path blazed by God, he’s happy.
If he stumbles, he’s not down for long;
God has a grip on his hand.
25-26 I once was young, now I’m a graybeard—
not once have I seen an abandoned believer,
or his kids out roaming the streets.
Every day he’s out giving and lending,
his children making him proud.
27-28 Turn your back on evil,
work for the good and don’t quit.
God loves this kind of thing,
never turns away from his friends.
28-29 Live this way and you’ve got it made,
but bad eggs will be tossed out.
The good get planted on good land
and put down healthy roots.
30-31 Righteous chews on wisdom like a dog on a bone,
rolls virtue around on his tongue.
His heart pumps God’s Word like blood through his veins;
his feet are as sure as a cat’s.
32-33 Wicked sets a watch for Righteous,
he’s out for the kill.
God, alert, is also on watch—
Wicked won’t hurt a hair of his head.
34 Wait passionately for God,
don’t leave the path.
He’ll give you your place in the sun
while you watch the wicked lose it.
35-36 I saw Wicked bloated like a toad,
croaking pretentious nonsense.
The next time I looked there was nothing—
a punctured bladder, vapid and limp.
37-38 Keep your eye on the healthy soul,
scrutinize the straight life;
There’s a future
in strenuous wholeness.
But the willful will soon be discarded;
insolent souls are on a dead-end street.
39-40 The spacious, free life is from God,
it’s also protected and safe.
God-strengthened, we’re delivered from evil—
when we run to him, he saves us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, March 17, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Deuteronomy 31:1-8
Moses went on and addressed these words to all Israel. He said, “I’m 120 years old today. I can’t get about as I used to. And God told me, ‘You’re not going to cross this Jordan River.’
3-5 “God, your God, will cross the river ahead of you and destroy the nations in your path so that you may dispossess them. (And Joshua will cross the river before you, as God said he would.) God will give the nations the same treatment he gave the kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, and their land; he’ll destroy them. God will hand the nations over to you, and you’ll treat them exactly as I have commanded you.
6 “Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.”
7-8 Then Moses summoned Joshua. He said to him with all Israel watching, “Be strong. Take courage. You will enter the land with this people, this land that God promised their ancestors that he’d give them. You will make them the proud possessors of it. God is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t worry.”
Insight
The call to courage in Deuteronomy 31:1–8 came at a critical time in the history of Israel. Egypt was behind them; the Land of Promise was before them; and Moses, the only leader the newly constituted nation had known, was at the end of his life (vv. 1–2). God’s people were in transition, which can be a time of uncertainty, vulnerability, and instability. Yet, even at such a crucial hour, the repeated call to courage (vv. 6–8) was well grounded. How so? The Lord’s presence was going before them and His power would be evident in the destruction of opposing nations (vv. 3–5). And the Lord had already designated and commissioned Joshua as Moses’s successor (Numbers 27:12–23). By: Arthur Jackson
Standing with Courage
Be strong and courageous. . . . Do not be afraid or terrified. Deuteronomy 31:6, 8
While most German church leaders gave in to Hitler, theologian and pastor Martin Niemöller was among the brave souls who resisted Nazi evil. I read a story describing how in the 1970s a group of older Germans stood outside a large hotel while what appeared to be a younger man bustled about with the group’s luggage. Someone asked who the group was. “German pastors,” came the answer. “And the younger man?” “That’s Martin Niemöller—he’s eighty. But he has stayed young because he is unafraid.”
Niemöller wasn’t able to resist fear because he possessed some superhuman antifear gene, but because of God’s grace. In fact, he had once held anti-Semitic views. But he had repented and God restored him and helped him speak and live out the truth.
Moses encouraged the Israelites to resist fear and follow God in truth. When they’d become fearful after learning Moses would soon be taken from them, the leader had an unflinching word for them: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified . . . for the Lord your God goes with you” (Deuteronomy 31:6). There was no reason to tremble before an uncertain future because of one reason: God was with them.
Whatever darkness looms for you, whatever terrors bombard you—God is with you. By God’s mercy, may you face your fears with the knowledge that God “will never leave you nor forsake you” (vv. 6, 8). By Winn Collier
Today's Reflection
What fears are you facing? How does God’s presence bring courage to your heart?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, March 17, 2019
The Servant’s Primary Goal
We make it our aim…to be well pleasing to Him. —2 Corinthians 5:9
“We make it our aim….” It requires a conscious decision and effort to keep our primary goal constantly in front of us. It means holding ourselves to the highest priority year in and year out; not making our first priority to win souls, or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but seeking only “to be well pleasing to Him.” It is not a lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but a lack of working to keep our eyes focused and on the right goal. At least once a week examine yourself before God to see if your life is measuring up to the standard He has for you. Paul was like a musician who gives no thought to audience approval, if he can only catch a look of approval from his Conductor.
Any goal we have that diverts us even to the slightest degree from the central goal of being “approved to God” (2 Timothy 2:15) may result in our rejection from further service for Him. When you discern where the goal leads, you will understand why it is so necessary to keep “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2). Paul spoke of the importance of controlling his own body so that it would not take him in the wrong direction. He said, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest…I myself should become disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27).
I must learn to relate everything to the primary goal, maintaining it without interruption. My worth to God publicly is measured by what I really am in my private life. Is my primary goal in life to please Him and to be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how lofty it may sound?
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, 903 R
The cross is the universal symbol of Christianity. An odd choice, don’t you think? Strange that a tool of torture would come to embody a movement of hope. Its design could not be simpler. One beam horizontal—the other vertical. One reaches out like God’s love. The other reaches up, as does God’s holiness. One represents the width of His love; the other the height of His holiness. The cross is the intersection. The cross is where God forgave His children without lowering His standards. God treated His Son as a sinner, so that Christ could make us acceptable to God.
Why would He? John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world.” Aren’t you glad the verse doesn’t read: For God so loved the rich?. . .the famous? The sober or the successful? No, it simply reads: “For God so loved the world!”
From He Chose the Nails
Psalm 37
A David Psalm
37 1-2 Don’t bother your head with braggarts
or wish you could succeed like the wicked.
In no time they’ll shrivel like grass clippings
and wilt like cut flowers in the sun.
3-4 Get insurance with God and do a good deed,
settle down and stick to your last.
Keep company with God,
get in on the best.
5-6 Open up before God, keep nothing back;
he’ll do whatever needs to be done:
He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day
and stamp you with approval at high noon.
7 Quiet down before God,
be prayerful before him.
Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder,
who elbow their way to the top.
8-9 Bridle your anger, trash your wrath,
cool your pipes—it only makes things worse.
Before long the crooks will be bankrupt;
God-investors will soon own the store.
10-11 Before you know it, the wicked will have had it;
you’ll stare at his once famous place and—nothing!
Down-to-earth people will move in and take over,
relishing a huge bonanza.
12-13 Bad guys have it in for the good guys,
obsessed with doing them in.
But God isn’t losing any sleep; to him
they’re a joke with no punch line.
14-15 Bullies brandish their swords,
pull back on their bows with a flourish.
They’re out to beat up on the harmless,
or mug that nice man out walking his dog.
A banana peel lands them flat on their faces—
slapstick figures in a moral circus.
16-17 Less is more and more is less.
One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,
For the wicked are moral weaklings
but the righteous are God-strong.
18-19 God keeps track of the decent folk;
what they do won’t soon be forgotten.
In hard times, they’ll hold their heads high;
when the shelves are bare, they’ll be full.
20 God-despisers have had it;
God’s enemies are finished—
Stripped bare like vineyards at harvest time,
vanished like smoke in thin air.
21-22 Wicked borrows and never returns;
Righteous gives and gives.
Generous gets it all in the end;
Stingy is cut off at the pass.
23-24 Stalwart walks in step with God;
his path blazed by God, he’s happy.
If he stumbles, he’s not down for long;
God has a grip on his hand.
25-26 I once was young, now I’m a graybeard—
not once have I seen an abandoned believer,
or his kids out roaming the streets.
Every day he’s out giving and lending,
his children making him proud.
27-28 Turn your back on evil,
work for the good and don’t quit.
God loves this kind of thing,
never turns away from his friends.
28-29 Live this way and you’ve got it made,
but bad eggs will be tossed out.
The good get planted on good land
and put down healthy roots.
30-31 Righteous chews on wisdom like a dog on a bone,
rolls virtue around on his tongue.
His heart pumps God’s Word like blood through his veins;
his feet are as sure as a cat’s.
32-33 Wicked sets a watch for Righteous,
he’s out for the kill.
God, alert, is also on watch—
Wicked won’t hurt a hair of his head.
34 Wait passionately for God,
don’t leave the path.
He’ll give you your place in the sun
while you watch the wicked lose it.
35-36 I saw Wicked bloated like a toad,
croaking pretentious nonsense.
The next time I looked there was nothing—
a punctured bladder, vapid and limp.
37-38 Keep your eye on the healthy soul,
scrutinize the straight life;
There’s a future
in strenuous wholeness.
But the willful will soon be discarded;
insolent souls are on a dead-end street.
39-40 The spacious, free life is from God,
it’s also protected and safe.
God-strengthened, we’re delivered from evil—
when we run to him, he saves us.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, March 17, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Deuteronomy 31:1-8
Moses went on and addressed these words to all Israel. He said, “I’m 120 years old today. I can’t get about as I used to. And God told me, ‘You’re not going to cross this Jordan River.’
3-5 “God, your God, will cross the river ahead of you and destroy the nations in your path so that you may dispossess them. (And Joshua will cross the river before you, as God said he would.) God will give the nations the same treatment he gave the kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, and their land; he’ll destroy them. God will hand the nations over to you, and you’ll treat them exactly as I have commanded you.
6 “Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.”
7-8 Then Moses summoned Joshua. He said to him with all Israel watching, “Be strong. Take courage. You will enter the land with this people, this land that God promised their ancestors that he’d give them. You will make them the proud possessors of it. God is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t worry.”
Insight
The call to courage in Deuteronomy 31:1–8 came at a critical time in the history of Israel. Egypt was behind them; the Land of Promise was before them; and Moses, the only leader the newly constituted nation had known, was at the end of his life (vv. 1–2). God’s people were in transition, which can be a time of uncertainty, vulnerability, and instability. Yet, even at such a crucial hour, the repeated call to courage (vv. 6–8) was well grounded. How so? The Lord’s presence was going before them and His power would be evident in the destruction of opposing nations (vv. 3–5). And the Lord had already designated and commissioned Joshua as Moses’s successor (Numbers 27:12–23). By: Arthur Jackson
Standing with Courage
Be strong and courageous. . . . Do not be afraid or terrified. Deuteronomy 31:6, 8
While most German church leaders gave in to Hitler, theologian and pastor Martin Niemöller was among the brave souls who resisted Nazi evil. I read a story describing how in the 1970s a group of older Germans stood outside a large hotel while what appeared to be a younger man bustled about with the group’s luggage. Someone asked who the group was. “German pastors,” came the answer. “And the younger man?” “That’s Martin Niemöller—he’s eighty. But he has stayed young because he is unafraid.”
Niemöller wasn’t able to resist fear because he possessed some superhuman antifear gene, but because of God’s grace. In fact, he had once held anti-Semitic views. But he had repented and God restored him and helped him speak and live out the truth.
Moses encouraged the Israelites to resist fear and follow God in truth. When they’d become fearful after learning Moses would soon be taken from them, the leader had an unflinching word for them: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified . . . for the Lord your God goes with you” (Deuteronomy 31:6). There was no reason to tremble before an uncertain future because of one reason: God was with them.
Whatever darkness looms for you, whatever terrors bombard you—God is with you. By God’s mercy, may you face your fears with the knowledge that God “will never leave you nor forsake you” (vv. 6, 8). By Winn Collier
Today's Reflection
What fears are you facing? How does God’s presence bring courage to your heart?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, March 17, 2019
The Servant’s Primary Goal
We make it our aim…to be well pleasing to Him. —2 Corinthians 5:9
“We make it our aim….” It requires a conscious decision and effort to keep our primary goal constantly in front of us. It means holding ourselves to the highest priority year in and year out; not making our first priority to win souls, or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but seeking only “to be well pleasing to Him.” It is not a lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but a lack of working to keep our eyes focused and on the right goal. At least once a week examine yourself before God to see if your life is measuring up to the standard He has for you. Paul was like a musician who gives no thought to audience approval, if he can only catch a look of approval from his Conductor.
Any goal we have that diverts us even to the slightest degree from the central goal of being “approved to God” (2 Timothy 2:15) may result in our rejection from further service for Him. When you discern where the goal leads, you will understand why it is so necessary to keep “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2). Paul spoke of the importance of controlling his own body so that it would not take him in the wrong direction. He said, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest…I myself should become disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27).
I must learn to relate everything to the primary goal, maintaining it without interruption. My worth to God publicly is measured by what I really am in my private life. Is my primary goal in life to please Him and to be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how lofty it may sound?
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, 903 R
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Psalm 36, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Atonement for Sins
Christ lived the life we could not live, and took the punishment we could not take, to offer the hope we cannot resist. Why? Jesus was angry enough to purge the temple, distraught enough to weep in public, winsome enough to attract kids, poor enough to sleep on dirt, responsible enough to care for his mother, tempted enough to know the smell of Satan. Why? Why would heaven's finest son endure earth's toughest pain? So you would know that he is able. . .able to to run to the cry of those who are being tempted, tested and tried.
Whatever you're facing, he knows how you feel. When you turn to him for help, he runs to you to help. Why? Because he has been there. He's not ashamed of you. Your actions don't bewilder him. Your tilted halo doesn't trouble him. So go to him!
From On Calvary's Hill
Psalm 36
A David Psalm
36 1-4 The God-rebel tunes in to sedition—
all ears, eager to sin.
He has no regard for God,
he stands insolent before him.
He has smooth-talked himself
into believing
That his evil
will never be noticed.
Words gutter from his mouth,
dishwater dirty.
Can’t remember when he
did anything decent.
Every time he goes to bed,
he fathers another evil plot.
When he’s loose on the streets,
nobody’s safe.
He plays with fire
and doesn’t care who gets burned.
5-6 God’s love is meteoric,
his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic,
his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness
nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse,
slips through the cracks.
7-9 How exquisite your love, O God!
How eager we are to run under your wings,
To eat our fill at the banquet you spread
as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water.
You’re a fountain of cascading light,
and you open our eyes to light.
10-12 Keep on loving your friends;
do your work in welcoming hearts.
Don’t let the bullies kick me around,
the moral midgets slap me down.
Send the upstarts sprawling
flat on their faces in the mud.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Today's Scripture: 2 Samuel 23:13–17 (NIV)
One day during harvest, the Three parted from the Thirty and joined David at the Cave of Adullam. A squad of Philistines had set up camp in the Valley of Rephaim. While David was holed up in the Cave, the Philistines had their base camp in Bethlehem. David had a sudden craving and said, “Would I ever like a drink of water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem!” So the Three penetrated the Philistine lines, drew water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But David wouldn’t drink it; he poured it out as an offering to God, saying, “There is no way, God, that I’ll drink this! This isn’t mere water, it’s their life-blood—they risked their very lives to bring it!” So David refused to drink it.
This is the sort of thing that the Three did.
Insight
David had a group of elite soldiers collectively known as “the Thirty” (2 Samuel 23:13, 23–24) comprised of some thirty-seven “chief warriors” who led his army (v. 39). Totally loyal to David, they were credited as men God used to fulfill His purpose of making David king of the entire land of Israel (1 Chronicles 11:10–47). In 2 Samuel 23:13–17, David honored the devotion of three men (known as “the Three,” vv. 8, 13–19, 23) by not drinking the water they had risked their lives to obtain. “Instead, [David] poured it out before the Lord” (v. 16). David was not being callous. Rather, in deepest humility and gratefulness, he deemed this water as symbolically representing the blood of his three men (v. 17). Mindful that “the blood is the life,” David poured out the water as an offering to God (Deuteronomy 12:23–24), acknowledging that He—not David—was the one for whom the men should sacrifice their lives. By: K. T. Sim
More than a Symbol
In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3–4
On the verge of making team history, University of Iowa basketball star Jordan Bohannon intentionally missed the free throw that would have broken a twenty-five-year-old school record. Why? In 1993, days after Iowa’s Chris Street had made thirty-four free throws in a row, he lost his life in a car crash. Bohannon chose to honor Street’s memory by not breaking his record.
Bohannon showed a keen awareness of things more important than his own advancement. We see similar values in the life of the young warrior David. Hiding in a cave with his ragtag army, David longed for a drink from the well in his hometown of Bethlehem, but the dreaded Philistines occupied the area (2 Samuel 23:14–15).
In a stunning act of bravery, three of David’s warriors “broke through the Philistine lines,” got the water, and brought it to David. But David couldn’t bring himself to drink it. Instead, he “poured it out before the Lord,” saying, “Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?” (vv. 16–17).
In a world that often rewards those who seize whatever they can grasp, how powerful acts of love and sacrifice can be! Such deeds are much more than mere symbols. By Tim Gustafson
Today's Reflection
Instead of advancing your own agenda, how can you celebrate someone else and their efforts? How do our acts of love reflect God’s own?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, March 16, 2019
The Master Will Judge
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ… —2 Corinthians 5:10
Paul says that we must all, preachers and other people alike, “appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” But if you will learn here and now to live under the scrutiny of Christ’s pure light, your final judgment will bring you only delight in seeing the work God has done in you. Live constantly reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ, and walk in the knowledge of the holiness He has given you. Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment of another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it immediately into the light and confess, “Oh, Lord, I have been guilty there.” If you don’t, your heart will become hardened through and through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin.
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6). The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Putting Clean On Over Dirty - #8392
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
It was a simple order, "Get dressed." When Mom said it, our five-year-old grandson did what she asked. Moments later, he emerged from his room dressed for the day. That's good. It wasn't until he was undressing that night that Mom noticed a slight anomaly in how he had gotten dressed. He had two pairs of underwear on! When Mom asked him about it, he answered with a bemused look on his face: "Oh, I just put clean underwear on over the dirty underwear." Not good.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Putting Clean On Over Dirty."
Unfortunately, that is an all too common practice among God's children that is. Instead of taking off some things in our life that are dirty, we keep those and just put some clean stuff over the dirty. It may make you feel better about the dirty stuff, it may be covered up from most people, but the dirty is still there. And you've got trouble with God.
There's a game all too many of us church folks play. It's described in Isaiah 29:13-15. It's our word for today from the Word of God where "The Lord says: 'These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me ... Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, 'Who sees us? Who will know?'" Of course, God knows. He's not impressed with all those Christian words we say and Christian meetings we go to and the Christian causes we support. He's interested in what's really going on in your heart, in the real you.
There are a lot of nice people who have some very not-nice things going on beneath the nice. Nice Christians who are poisoning their soul with pornography, seemingly unaware that Jesus is standing there all the time. Nice Christians who still have a serious problem with their temper, whose rage is so hurtful, but known only to a few. There are nice Christians who are hiding a pattern of abuse, or a heart full of bitterness, a life of lying, a relationship that our culture calls an affair but God calls adultery, a secret but sinful addiction. Maybe they're covering up an agenda of revenge, or sex outside of God's fence of marriage; so many secrets Christians cover with a layer of clean.
Maybe the lie we want to believe is that the good we put on over the bad somehow excuses or makes up for the bad. Not with a holy God. That's a lie that may stave off the judgment of your own conscience but it will only compound the judgment of God. And about it being a secret, Romans 2:16 describes the day "when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ." If you're covering up sin with spiritual stuff, you are sponsoring an unholy coexistence that is an insult to a Savior who gave His life on the cross (it says) "so that we might die to sins", (1 Peter 2:24) not hide our sins.
In Ephesians 4, God commands us to "put off your old self" and "to be made new," to "put on the new self." It goes on to tell us to put off lying and put on truth, put off trash talk and put on uplifting talk, put off anger and bitterness and put on forgiveness and compassion, put off any kind of sexual immorality and put on purity.
So you are at a crossroads. God brought us together today to tell you that covering up your dirty with a layer of clean isn't going to cut it. It's self-deception. It's living a lie. It's defying God, and it's building up judgment. Don't you think it's time to come clean even if it hurts? It will hurt a whole lot more not to come clean. You know you're sick of that battle inside you. It's tearing you apart-the guilt, the fear of getting caught, the shame. And you know God is sick of this charade, too.
While God is speaking to you, while your heart is open to the truth, right now run to that cross where everything you're hiding was paid for with the blood of Jesus. If you've never been there to get the sins of your life forgiven, you could be clean today. Don't miss what He died for. Today tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours. You're my only hope of forgiveness."
Go to our website. It's called ANewStory.com because it's where your new story could begin. The information is there that will help you belong to Jesus and know you do.
Leave that dirty stuff, once and for all, at the foot of His old rugged cross.
Christ lived the life we could not live, and took the punishment we could not take, to offer the hope we cannot resist. Why? Jesus was angry enough to purge the temple, distraught enough to weep in public, winsome enough to attract kids, poor enough to sleep on dirt, responsible enough to care for his mother, tempted enough to know the smell of Satan. Why? Why would heaven's finest son endure earth's toughest pain? So you would know that he is able. . .able to to run to the cry of those who are being tempted, tested and tried.
Whatever you're facing, he knows how you feel. When you turn to him for help, he runs to you to help. Why? Because he has been there. He's not ashamed of you. Your actions don't bewilder him. Your tilted halo doesn't trouble him. So go to him!
From On Calvary's Hill
Psalm 36
A David Psalm
36 1-4 The God-rebel tunes in to sedition—
all ears, eager to sin.
He has no regard for God,
he stands insolent before him.
He has smooth-talked himself
into believing
That his evil
will never be noticed.
Words gutter from his mouth,
dishwater dirty.
Can’t remember when he
did anything decent.
Every time he goes to bed,
he fathers another evil plot.
When he’s loose on the streets,
nobody’s safe.
He plays with fire
and doesn’t care who gets burned.
5-6 God’s love is meteoric,
his loyalty astronomic,
His purpose titanic,
his verdicts oceanic.
Yet in his largeness
nothing gets lost;
Not a man, not a mouse,
slips through the cracks.
7-9 How exquisite your love, O God!
How eager we are to run under your wings,
To eat our fill at the banquet you spread
as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water.
You’re a fountain of cascading light,
and you open our eyes to light.
10-12 Keep on loving your friends;
do your work in welcoming hearts.
Don’t let the bullies kick me around,
the moral midgets slap me down.
Send the upstarts sprawling
flat on their faces in the mud.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Today's Scripture: 2 Samuel 23:13–17 (NIV)
One day during harvest, the Three parted from the Thirty and joined David at the Cave of Adullam. A squad of Philistines had set up camp in the Valley of Rephaim. While David was holed up in the Cave, the Philistines had their base camp in Bethlehem. David had a sudden craving and said, “Would I ever like a drink of water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem!” So the Three penetrated the Philistine lines, drew water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But David wouldn’t drink it; he poured it out as an offering to God, saying, “There is no way, God, that I’ll drink this! This isn’t mere water, it’s their life-blood—they risked their very lives to bring it!” So David refused to drink it.
This is the sort of thing that the Three did.
Insight
David had a group of elite soldiers collectively known as “the Thirty” (2 Samuel 23:13, 23–24) comprised of some thirty-seven “chief warriors” who led his army (v. 39). Totally loyal to David, they were credited as men God used to fulfill His purpose of making David king of the entire land of Israel (1 Chronicles 11:10–47). In 2 Samuel 23:13–17, David honored the devotion of three men (known as “the Three,” vv. 8, 13–19, 23) by not drinking the water they had risked their lives to obtain. “Instead, [David] poured it out before the Lord” (v. 16). David was not being callous. Rather, in deepest humility and gratefulness, he deemed this water as symbolically representing the blood of his three men (v. 17). Mindful that “the blood is the life,” David poured out the water as an offering to God (Deuteronomy 12:23–24), acknowledging that He—not David—was the one for whom the men should sacrifice their lives. By: K. T. Sim
More than a Symbol
In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Philippians 2:3–4
On the verge of making team history, University of Iowa basketball star Jordan Bohannon intentionally missed the free throw that would have broken a twenty-five-year-old school record. Why? In 1993, days after Iowa’s Chris Street had made thirty-four free throws in a row, he lost his life in a car crash. Bohannon chose to honor Street’s memory by not breaking his record.
Bohannon showed a keen awareness of things more important than his own advancement. We see similar values in the life of the young warrior David. Hiding in a cave with his ragtag army, David longed for a drink from the well in his hometown of Bethlehem, but the dreaded Philistines occupied the area (2 Samuel 23:14–15).
In a stunning act of bravery, three of David’s warriors “broke through the Philistine lines,” got the water, and brought it to David. But David couldn’t bring himself to drink it. Instead, he “poured it out before the Lord,” saying, “Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?” (vv. 16–17).
In a world that often rewards those who seize whatever they can grasp, how powerful acts of love and sacrifice can be! Such deeds are much more than mere symbols. By Tim Gustafson
Today's Reflection
Instead of advancing your own agenda, how can you celebrate someone else and their efforts? How do our acts of love reflect God’s own?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, March 16, 2019
The Master Will Judge
We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ… —2 Corinthians 5:10
Paul says that we must all, preachers and other people alike, “appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” But if you will learn here and now to live under the scrutiny of Christ’s pure light, your final judgment will bring you only delight in seeing the work God has done in you. Live constantly reminding yourself of the judgment seat of Christ, and walk in the knowledge of the holiness He has given you. Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are. One carnal judgment of another person only serves the purposes of hell in you. Bring it immediately into the light and confess, “Oh, Lord, I have been guilty there.” If you don’t, your heart will become hardened through and through. One of the penalties of sin is our acceptance of it. It is not only God who punishes for sin, but sin establishes itself in the sinner and takes its toll. No struggling or praying will enable you to stop doing certain things, and the penalty of sin is that you gradually get used to it, until you finally come to the place where you no longer even realize that it is sin. No power, except the power that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, can change or prevent the inherent consequences of sin.
“If we walk in the light as He is in the light…” (1 John 1:7). For many of us, walking in the light means walking according to the standard we have set up for another person. The deadliest attitude of the Pharisees that we exhibit today is not hypocrisy but that which comes from unconsciously living a lie.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Civilization is based on principles which imply that the passing moment is permanent. The only permanent thing is God, and if I put anything else as permanent, I become atheistic. I must build only on God (John 14:6). The Highest Good—Thy Great Redemption, 565 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Putting Clean On Over Dirty - #8392
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
It was a simple order, "Get dressed." When Mom said it, our five-year-old grandson did what she asked. Moments later, he emerged from his room dressed for the day. That's good. It wasn't until he was undressing that night that Mom noticed a slight anomaly in how he had gotten dressed. He had two pairs of underwear on! When Mom asked him about it, he answered with a bemused look on his face: "Oh, I just put clean underwear on over the dirty underwear." Not good.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Putting Clean On Over Dirty."
Unfortunately, that is an all too common practice among God's children that is. Instead of taking off some things in our life that are dirty, we keep those and just put some clean stuff over the dirty. It may make you feel better about the dirty stuff, it may be covered up from most people, but the dirty is still there. And you've got trouble with God.
There's a game all too many of us church folks play. It's described in Isaiah 29:13-15. It's our word for today from the Word of God where "The Lord says: 'These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me ... Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, 'Who sees us? Who will know?'" Of course, God knows. He's not impressed with all those Christian words we say and Christian meetings we go to and the Christian causes we support. He's interested in what's really going on in your heart, in the real you.
There are a lot of nice people who have some very not-nice things going on beneath the nice. Nice Christians who are poisoning their soul with pornography, seemingly unaware that Jesus is standing there all the time. Nice Christians who still have a serious problem with their temper, whose rage is so hurtful, but known only to a few. There are nice Christians who are hiding a pattern of abuse, or a heart full of bitterness, a life of lying, a relationship that our culture calls an affair but God calls adultery, a secret but sinful addiction. Maybe they're covering up an agenda of revenge, or sex outside of God's fence of marriage; so many secrets Christians cover with a layer of clean.
Maybe the lie we want to believe is that the good we put on over the bad somehow excuses or makes up for the bad. Not with a holy God. That's a lie that may stave off the judgment of your own conscience but it will only compound the judgment of God. And about it being a secret, Romans 2:16 describes the day "when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ." If you're covering up sin with spiritual stuff, you are sponsoring an unholy coexistence that is an insult to a Savior who gave His life on the cross (it says) "so that we might die to sins", (1 Peter 2:24) not hide our sins.
In Ephesians 4, God commands us to "put off your old self" and "to be made new," to "put on the new self." It goes on to tell us to put off lying and put on truth, put off trash talk and put on uplifting talk, put off anger and bitterness and put on forgiveness and compassion, put off any kind of sexual immorality and put on purity.
So you are at a crossroads. God brought us together today to tell you that covering up your dirty with a layer of clean isn't going to cut it. It's self-deception. It's living a lie. It's defying God, and it's building up judgment. Don't you think it's time to come clean even if it hurts? It will hurt a whole lot more not to come clean. You know you're sick of that battle inside you. It's tearing you apart-the guilt, the fear of getting caught, the shame. And you know God is sick of this charade, too.
While God is speaking to you, while your heart is open to the truth, right now run to that cross where everything you're hiding was paid for with the blood of Jesus. If you've never been there to get the sins of your life forgiven, you could be clean today. Don't miss what He died for. Today tell Him, "Jesus, I'm yours. You're my only hope of forgiveness."
Go to our website. It's called ANewStory.com because it's where your new story could begin. The information is there that will help you belong to Jesus and know you do.
Leave that dirty stuff, once and for all, at the foot of His old rugged cross.
Friday, March 15, 2019
John 11:30-57, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: WHEN YOU ARE OUT OF CHOICES
In the fifth chapter of John we find the story of an invalid. He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t work. He couldn’t even get into the pool of Bethesda. He was out of options. But God’s efforts are strongest when our efforts are useless. Jesus told the man, “Stand up. Pick up your mat and walk.” And the man immediately obeyed.
I wish we would do that. I wish we would take Jesus at his word. What is this peculiar paralysis that confines us—this stubborn unwillingness to be healed? When he says we’re forgiven, let’s unload the guilt. When he says we’re valuable, let’s believe him. When he says we’re provided for, let’s stop worrying. When he says, “Stand up,” let’s do it.
Is this your story? A gentle stranger has stepped into your hurting world and offered you a hand. Now it’s up to you to take it.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
John 11:30-57
The moment she heard that, she jumped up and ran out to him. Jesus had not yet entered the town but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When her sympathizing Jewish friends saw Mary run off, they followed her, thinking she was on her way to the tomb to weep there. Mary came to where Jesus was waiting and fell at his feet, saying, “Master, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33-34 When Jesus saw her sobbing and the Jews with her sobbing, a deep anger welled up within him. He said, “Where did you put him?”
34-35 “Master, come and see,” they said. Now Jesus wept.
36 The Jews said, “Look how deeply he loved him.”
37 Others among them said, “Well, if he loved him so much, why didn’t he do something to keep him from dying? After all, he opened the eyes of a blind man.”
38-39 Then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb. It was a simple cave in the hillside with a slab of stone laid against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”
The sister of the dead man, Martha, said, “Master, by this time there’s a stench. He’s been dead four days!”
40 Jesus looked her in the eye. “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
41-42 Then, to the others, “Go ahead, take away the stone.”
They removed the stone. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed, “Father, I’m grateful that you have listened to me. I know you always do listen, but on account of this crowd standing here I’ve spoken so that they might believe that you sent me.”
43-44 Then he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And he came out, a cadaver, wrapped from head to toe, and with a kerchief over his face.
Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him loose.”
45-48 That was a turnaround for many of the Jews who were with Mary. They saw what Jesus did, and believed in him. But some went back to the Pharisees and told on Jesus. The high priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Jewish ruling body. “What do we do now?” they asked. “This man keeps on doing things, creating God-signs. If we let him go on, pretty soon everyone will be believing in him and the Romans will come and remove what little power and privilege we still have.”
49-52 Then one of them—it was Caiaphas, the designated Chief Priest that year—spoke up, “Don’t you know anything? Can’t you see that it’s to our advantage that one man dies for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed?” He didn’t say this of his own accord, but as Chief Priest that year he unwittingly prophesied that Jesus was about to die sacrificially for the nation, and not only for the nation but so that all God’s exile-scattered children might be gathered together into one people.
53-54 From that day on, they plotted to kill him. So Jesus no longer went out in public among the Jews. He withdrew into the country bordering the desert to a town called Ephraim and secluded himself there with his disciples.
55-56 The Jewish Passover was coming up. Crowds of people were making their way from the country up to Jerusalem to get themselves ready for the Feast. They were curious about Jesus. There was a lot of talk of him among those standing around in the Temple: “What do you think? Do you think he’ll show up at the Feast or not?”
57 Meanwhile, the high priests and Pharisees gave out the word that anyone getting wind of him should inform them. They were all set to arrest him.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, March 15, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Exodus 10:21-29
God said to Moses: “Stretch your hand to the skies. Let darkness descend on the land of Egypt—a darkness so dark you can touch it.”
22-23 Moses stretched out his hand to the skies. Thick darkness descended on the land of Egypt for three days. Nobody could see anybody. For three days no one could so much as move. Except for the Israelites: they had light where they were living.
24 Pharaoh called in Moses: “Go and worship God. Leave your flocks and herds behind. But go ahead and take your children.”
25-26 But Moses said, “You have to let us take our sacrificial animals and offerings with us so we can sacrifice them in worship to our God. Our livestock has to go with us with not a hoof left behind; they are part of the worship of our God. And we don’t know just what will be needed until we get there.”
27 But God kept Pharaoh stubborn as ever. He wouldn’t agree to release them.
28 Pharaoh said to Moses: “Get out of my sight! And watch your step. I don’t want to ever see you again. If I lay eyes on you again, you’re dead.”
29 Moses said, “Have it your way. You won’t see my face again.”
Insight
The plagues that befell Egypt occurred within a significant context. Each of them was a direct attack upon the false gods of Egypt. For example, the first plague in which the Nile River was turned to blood was directed at one of Egypt’s most significant deities—the Nile itself! (Exodus 7:14–24). Seen as the source of life-giving water for their crops, turning the Nile to blood was a powerful image. Similarly, the ninth plague—darkness—showed the superiority of the God of the Hebrews over Ra, the sun god, another major deity in Egypt’s system of multiple gods (10:21–23). In each case, the power of the one true God was demonstrated over the false gods of the Egyptians.
For more, read Knowing God Through Exodus at discoveryseries.org/SB112. By: Bill Crowder
Keep On Going
By faith [Moses] left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. Hebrews 11:27
Working in the corporate world allowed me to interact with many talented and levelheaded people. However, one project led by an out-of-town supervisor was an exception. Regardless of our team’s progress, this manager harshly criticized our work and demanded more effort during each weekly status phone call. These run-ins left me discouraged and fearful. At times, I wanted to quit.
It’s possible that Moses felt like quitting when he encountered Pharaoh during the plague of darkness. God had hurled eight other epic disasters at Egypt, and Pharaoh finally exploded, “[Moses,] get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die” (Exodus 10:28).
Despite this threat, Moses eventually was used by God to free the Israelites from Pharaoh’s control. “[By faith] Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27 nlt). Moses overcame Pharaoh by believing that God would keep His promise of deliverance (Exodus 3:17).
Today, we can rely on the promise that God is with us in every situation, supporting us through His Holy Spirit. He helps us resist the pressure of intimidation and wrong responses to it by granting us supernatural power, love, and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). The Spirit provides the courage we need to keep going and to follow God’s leading in our lives. By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
Today's Reflection
What types of situations upset you? How can you rely on God?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, March 15, 2019
The Discipline of Dismay
As they followed they were afraid. —Mark 10:32
At the beginning of our life with Jesus Christ, we were sure we knew all there was to know about following Him. It was a delight to forsake everything else and to throw ourselves before Him in a fearless statement of love. But now we are not quite so sure. Jesus is far ahead of us and is beginning to seem different and unfamiliar— “Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed” (Mark 10:32).
There is an aspect of Jesus that chills even a disciple’s heart to its depth and makes his entire spiritual life gasp for air. This unusual Person with His face set “like a flint” (Isaiah 50:7) is walking with great determination ahead of me, and He strikes terror right through me. He no longer seems to be my Counselor and Friend and has a point of view about which I know nothing. All I can do is stand and stare at Him in amazement. At first I was confident that I understood Him, but now I am not so sure. I begin to realize that there is a distance between Jesus and me and I can no longer be intimate with Him. I have no idea where He is going, and the goal has become strangely distant.
Jesus Christ had to understand fully every sin and sorrow that human beings could experience, and that is what makes Him seem unfamiliar. When we see this aspect of Him, we realize we really don’t know Him. We don’t recognize even one characteristic of His life, and we don’t know how to begin to follow Him. He is far ahead of us, a Leader who seems totally unfamiliar, and we have no friendship with Him.
The discipline of dismay is an essential lesson which a disciple must learn. The danger is that we tend to look back on our times of obedience and on our past sacrifices to God in an effort to keep our enthusiasm for Him strong (see Isaiah 50:10-11). But when the darkness of dismay comes, endure until it is over, because out of it will come the ability to follow Jesus truly, which brings inexpressibly wonderful joy.
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
Friday, March 15, 2019
Resting in an Awesome Room - #8395
There's nothing I appreciate more than a good night's sleep, because sleep is something I don't get a lot of. Deprivation creates value, you know. Frankly, if the bed is decent, I don't care too much about the surroundings. A night's sleep is a night's sleep and the whole time I'm asleep I don't know where I am anyway, right? So that's my philosophy of sleep. Aren't you impressed? Now, apparently, some nights' sleep are a big deal to some people, especially if it means sleeping in the historic Lincoln bedroom in the White House. You know, over the years, there's been a lot of discussion about major contributions to Presidential campaigns and those who have given a lot, being given the privilege to spend the night at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue; or as one senator called it, Motel 1600. I guess if any place to sleep is special, being in the White House, just down the hall from the President and the First Lady, that would be it. People come away from that experience, even rich and powerful people who have seen and done it all, really impressed by being in that historic, powerful place for just a night. I've never stayed at the White House, but wait until you hear where I just came from!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Resting in an Awesome Room."
Well, the friends of the President sleeping in the White House. That's nothing. The friends of Jesus have access to the Throne Room from which a hundred billion galaxies are governed! And they can rest there whenever they want, for as long as they want! I just came from there not long ago – the Throne Room of the living God. Actually, you know, I joined a brother and a sister just a few minutes ago. I've joined people 2,000 miles away by phone, and together we've gone into that awesome room to ask God to open some closed doors and move some large mountains. The access to this powerful place is, of course, called prayer.
Ephesians 3:12, our word for today from the Word of God: "In Christ Jesus and through faith in Him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." Because Jesus removed the sin-wall between us and God on the cross, we who belong to Him can walk right into God's Throne Room and talk to Him boldly about anything.
Paul goes on in this passage to express his awe at who he's with when he's praying. He says, "I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name." Because he focuses on the majesty of the God he's with, he dares to pray for God-sized things, culminating with this lid-blowing truth. "He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work in us."
People who have access to the White House know how special a privilege that is. Do you have that same feeling about prayer? When you pray, are you conscious of the awesome One you are with; the awesome place you are? It all begins in His Throne Room; it all runs right from there. So, when you come to God, come with amazement over this awe-inspiring God you're with. With expectancy that He'll do God-sized things, not man-sized. By the way, when's the last time you trusted Him for something so big only He could do it? Come with specifics, too. God's told you to come to Him with specific requests and needs.
Bottom line, prayer is focusing all the unlimited power of the living God on one specific person or situation right here on earth. With that kind of access to the central power of God, there is no excuse for that worry, those moods, that spiritual mediocrity, all that stress you're carrying. You can turn loose all the power and love of the Most High God on that stuff!
We don't have to give anything to have the privilege of finding rest in the awesome Throne Room of God. Jesus did all the giving. So, if you ever meet someone who's excited because they've stayed at the White House, you can say to them, "Well, you should hear where I've just been, because I can go to God's Throne Room anytime!"
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Psalm 35, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: DO OUR PRAYERS MATTER?
“If you can do anything for him, please have pity on us and help us.” This prayer in Mark 9:22 doesn’t sound courageous or confident. It was the prayer of a desperate parent with a demon-possessed son in need of a miracle.
Most of our prayer lives could use a tune-up. Some prayer lives lack consistency. Others need sincerity. And some honestly wonder if prayer makes a difference. We are tempted to wait to pray until we know how to pray.
Notice that Jesus responded to the man’s prayer. God is more moved by our hurt than our eloquence. Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 35
A David Psalm
35 1-3 Harass these hecklers, God,
punch these bullies in the nose.
Grab a weapon, anything at hand;
stand up for me!
Get ready to throw the spear, aim the javelin,
at the people who are out to get me.
Reassure me; let me hear you say,
“I’ll save you.”
4-8 When those thugs try to knife me in the back,
make them look foolish.
Frustrate all those
who are plotting my downfall.
Make them like cinders in a high wind,
with God’s angel working the bellows.
Make their road lightless and mud-slick,
with God’s angel on their tails.
Out of sheer cussedness they set a trap to catch me;
for no good reason they dug a ditch to stop me.
Surprise them with your ambush—
catch them in the very trap they set,
the disaster they planned for me.
9-10 But let me run loose and free,
celebrating God’s great work,
Every bone in my body laughing, singing, “God,
there’s no one like you.
You put the down-and-out on their feet
and protect the unprotected from bullies!”
11-12 Hostile accusers appear out of nowhere,
they stand up and badger me.
They pay me back misery for mercy,
leaving my soul empty.
13-14 When they were sick, I dressed in black;
instead of eating, I prayed.
My prayers were like lead in my gut,
like I’d lost my best friend, my brother.
I paced, distraught as a motherless child,
hunched and heavyhearted.
15-16 But when I was down
they threw a party!
All the nameless riffraff of the town came
chanting insults about me.
Like barbarians desecrating a shrine,
they destroyed my reputation.
17-18 God, how long are you going
to stand there doing nothing?
Save me from their brutalities;
everything I’ve got is being thrown to the lions.
I will give you full credit
when everyone gathers for worship;
When the people turn out in force
I will say my Hallelujahs.
19-21 Don’t let these liars, my enemies,
have a party at my expense,
Those who hate me for no reason,
winking and rolling their eyes.
No good is going to come
from that crowd;
They spend all their time cooking up gossip
against those who mind their own business.
They open their mouths
in ugly grins,
Mocking, “Ha-ha, ha-ha, thought you’d get away with it?
We’ve caught you hands down!”
22 Don’t you see what they’re doing, God?
You’re not going to let them
Get by with it, are you? Not going to walk off
without doing something, are you?
23-26 Please get up—wake up! Tend to my case.
My God, my Lord—my life is on the line.
Do what you think is right, God, my God,
but don’t make me pay for their good time.
Don’t let them say to themselves,
“Ha-ha, we got what we wanted.”
Don’t let them say,
“We’ve chewed him up and spit him out.”
Let those who are being hilarious
at my expense
Be made to look ridiculous.
Make them wear donkey’s ears;
Pin them with the donkey’s tail,
who made themselves so high and mighty!
27-28 But those who want
the best for me,
Let them have the last word—a glad shout!—
and say, over and over and over,
“God is great—everything works
together for good for his servant.”
I’ll tell the world how great and good you are,
I’ll shout Hallelujah all day, every day.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Genesis 29:31-35
When God realized that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb. But Rachel was barren. Leah became pregnant and had a son. She named him Reuben (Look-It’s-a-Boy!). “This is a sign,” she said, “that God has seen my misery; and a sign that now my husband will love me.”
33-35 She became pregnant again and had another son. “God heard,” she said, “that I was unloved and so he gave me this son also.” She named this one Simeon (God-Heard). She became pregnant yet again—another son. She said, “Now maybe my husband will connect with me—I’ve given him three sons!” That’s why she named him Levi (Connect). She became pregnant a final time and had a fourth son. She said, “This time I’ll praise God.” So she named him Judah (Praise-God). Then she stopped having children.
Insight
The story of Rachel and Leah is a sad one, but one we need to understand in its cultural context. Genesis 29:1–30 tells the story of Jacob coming to Laban’s family (who were his own extended family) and falling in love with and asking to marry Rachel. However, the custom of the time was that the eldest daughter married first; and since Rachel was the younger, she couldn’t marry before her sister Leah (v. 26).
When our text says “the Lord saw that Leah was not loved” (v. 31), it’s continuing the story of the elder sister who was given to a man who wanted her sister instead. Leah thought that children would earn her the love of her husband, but her children helped her realize that it was the Lord she should pursue (v. 35). By: J.R. Hudberg
Life Beyond Compare
She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.”
Genesis 29:35
In a TV program, young adults posed as high school students to better understand the lives of teenagers. They discovered that social media plays a central role in how teens measure their self-worth. One participant observed, “[The students’] self-value is attached to social media—it’s dependent on how many ‘likes’ they get on a photo.” This need for acceptance by others can drive young people to extreme behavior online.
The longing for being accepted by others has always been there. In Genesis 29, Leah understandably yearns for the love of her husband Jacob. It’s reflected in the names of her first three sons—all capturing her loneliness (vv. 31–34). But, sadly, there’s no indication that Jacob ever gave her the acceptance she craved.
With the birth of her fourth child, Leah turned to God instead of her husband, naming her fourth son Judah, which means, “praise” (v. 35). Leah, it seems, finally chose to find her significance in God. She became part of God’s salvation story: Judah was the ancestor of King David and, later, Jesus.
We can try to find our significance in many ways and things, but only in Jesus do we find our identity as children of God, co-heirs with Christ, and those who will dwell eternally with our heavenly Father. As Paul wrote, nothing in this world compares with the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ” (Philippians 3:8). By Peter Chin
Today's Reflection
In what or whom have you been striving to gain your value and acceptance? How does faith in Jesus open the door to your true identity?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Yielding
…you are that one’s slaves whom you obey… —Romans 6:16
The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.
If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth. There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is— “I must have it now,” whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. “…He has anointed Me…to proclaim liberty to the captives…” (Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1).
When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, “Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like,” you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, “He will break every fetter,” while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Whatever it Takes to Save a Life - #8394
I've had the chance to meet some fascinating people with our Native American outreaches when I go out with our On Eagles' Wings Teams. One of those would have to be Chad. He was raised to actually be the last traditional chief in his tribe and a spiritual shaman. Like many Native Americans over the years, he was sent to a religious boarding school, and in Christ's name he was forced to dress, look and speak like a white man, and punished if he accidentally spoke a word of his own language. The anger that built up in him made him a most unlikely candidate to ever give his heart to the one that he was sure was "the white man's God." Chad actually said he wanted to die, so he went to Vietnam, hoping someone would kill him. He became one of the few good that were good enough to be called a Navy Seal and then he went through the horrors of being a prisoner of war. What a story! When he returned from the war, he became a gang leader in a major city with some 10,000 people in his organization. Stabbed twice, shot three times, and one night he found himself on an operating table with surgeons fighting very long odds to save his life.
Chad remembers vividly the near-death experience he had. He actually found himself looking down on his own life-or-death surgery. As he looked down on the operating room, Chad testifies that a big man with shoulder-length hair appeared next to him-a man wearing a long white robe with a gold sash around it. He spoke to Chad and He said, "I died for you, Chad. I want you to give your life to me." What blew Chad away was that this man spoke to him in his own native language! That night Chad realized this Jesus could not just be a white man's God. As Chad said, "No white man's God would have spoken to me in my language!" Well, that was way back in 1996, but since then he's been a powerful leader for Jesus Christ among native people, and now a great friend and partner with us in reaching his people.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Whatever it Takes to Save a Life."
Our friend Chad is living proof of something about our Jesus that you might need for your own encouragement right now. He will do whatever it takes to find and rescue someone He died for. Including that one you've been praying for who shows absolutely no signs of ever caring about Jesus. They don't come much harder than Chad, and Jesus knew exactly what it would take to change his heart and He did it.
Matthew 18:12-14, it's our word for today from the Word of God. It's a vivid picture of what Jesus is doing right now on behalf of someone you're praying for, someone you care about who's far from Him right now. The Bible says "If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go out to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it ... he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off." I can tell you that Jesus is actively, lovingly, and skillfully pursuing the lost person you have on your heart as I've been talking about it. Or you might be that lost person and He's pursuing you right now.
In Peter's words, God does not "want anyone to perish" (2 Peter 3:9). He knows exactly what will get their attention, exactly what kind of messenger they will listen to. So, maybe the prayer needs to be, "Lord Jesus, please rescue this one I care about, whatever it takes, within your will." There are no limits to His saving love, no limits to His saving power, no limits to His creativity and persistence in reaching them where they are.
The question may be: how far are you willing to go to rescue them? What's God waiting for you to do, to be part of the answer to your own prayers? Please do whatever He asks you to do, whatever that takes, whatever that costs to assist in the rescue. And don't stop praying for them, don't give up, don't stop loving them, don't stop believing God for their eternal soul. As long as there's breath, there's hope, especially with our Jesus pursuing them with His stubborn love.
And if you're the one He's been pursuing, it could be that He's found you right here, and He's offering His nail-pierced hand for you to grab. You've lived long enough without Him. You could tell Him this very day, "Jesus, I'm yours." We'd love to help you get connected with Him if you'll go to our website. It is ANewStory.com. I hope you'll go there today.
He's come really close to you right now. This is your day to grab His hand.
“If you can do anything for him, please have pity on us and help us.” This prayer in Mark 9:22 doesn’t sound courageous or confident. It was the prayer of a desperate parent with a demon-possessed son in need of a miracle.
Most of our prayer lives could use a tune-up. Some prayer lives lack consistency. Others need sincerity. And some honestly wonder if prayer makes a difference. We are tempted to wait to pray until we know how to pray.
Notice that Jesus responded to the man’s prayer. God is more moved by our hurt than our eloquence. Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 35
A David Psalm
35 1-3 Harass these hecklers, God,
punch these bullies in the nose.
Grab a weapon, anything at hand;
stand up for me!
Get ready to throw the spear, aim the javelin,
at the people who are out to get me.
Reassure me; let me hear you say,
“I’ll save you.”
4-8 When those thugs try to knife me in the back,
make them look foolish.
Frustrate all those
who are plotting my downfall.
Make them like cinders in a high wind,
with God’s angel working the bellows.
Make their road lightless and mud-slick,
with God’s angel on their tails.
Out of sheer cussedness they set a trap to catch me;
for no good reason they dug a ditch to stop me.
Surprise them with your ambush—
catch them in the very trap they set,
the disaster they planned for me.
9-10 But let me run loose and free,
celebrating God’s great work,
Every bone in my body laughing, singing, “God,
there’s no one like you.
You put the down-and-out on their feet
and protect the unprotected from bullies!”
11-12 Hostile accusers appear out of nowhere,
they stand up and badger me.
They pay me back misery for mercy,
leaving my soul empty.
13-14 When they were sick, I dressed in black;
instead of eating, I prayed.
My prayers were like lead in my gut,
like I’d lost my best friend, my brother.
I paced, distraught as a motherless child,
hunched and heavyhearted.
15-16 But when I was down
they threw a party!
All the nameless riffraff of the town came
chanting insults about me.
Like barbarians desecrating a shrine,
they destroyed my reputation.
17-18 God, how long are you going
to stand there doing nothing?
Save me from their brutalities;
everything I’ve got is being thrown to the lions.
I will give you full credit
when everyone gathers for worship;
When the people turn out in force
I will say my Hallelujahs.
19-21 Don’t let these liars, my enemies,
have a party at my expense,
Those who hate me for no reason,
winking and rolling their eyes.
No good is going to come
from that crowd;
They spend all their time cooking up gossip
against those who mind their own business.
They open their mouths
in ugly grins,
Mocking, “Ha-ha, ha-ha, thought you’d get away with it?
We’ve caught you hands down!”
22 Don’t you see what they’re doing, God?
You’re not going to let them
Get by with it, are you? Not going to walk off
without doing something, are you?
23-26 Please get up—wake up! Tend to my case.
My God, my Lord—my life is on the line.
Do what you think is right, God, my God,
but don’t make me pay for their good time.
Don’t let them say to themselves,
“Ha-ha, we got what we wanted.”
Don’t let them say,
“We’ve chewed him up and spit him out.”
Let those who are being hilarious
at my expense
Be made to look ridiculous.
Make them wear donkey’s ears;
Pin them with the donkey’s tail,
who made themselves so high and mighty!
27-28 But those who want
the best for me,
Let them have the last word—a glad shout!—
and say, over and over and over,
“God is great—everything works
together for good for his servant.”
I’ll tell the world how great and good you are,
I’ll shout Hallelujah all day, every day.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Genesis 29:31-35
When God realized that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb. But Rachel was barren. Leah became pregnant and had a son. She named him Reuben (Look-It’s-a-Boy!). “This is a sign,” she said, “that God has seen my misery; and a sign that now my husband will love me.”
33-35 She became pregnant again and had another son. “God heard,” she said, “that I was unloved and so he gave me this son also.” She named this one Simeon (God-Heard). She became pregnant yet again—another son. She said, “Now maybe my husband will connect with me—I’ve given him three sons!” That’s why she named him Levi (Connect). She became pregnant a final time and had a fourth son. She said, “This time I’ll praise God.” So she named him Judah (Praise-God). Then she stopped having children.
Insight
The story of Rachel and Leah is a sad one, but one we need to understand in its cultural context. Genesis 29:1–30 tells the story of Jacob coming to Laban’s family (who were his own extended family) and falling in love with and asking to marry Rachel. However, the custom of the time was that the eldest daughter married first; and since Rachel was the younger, she couldn’t marry before her sister Leah (v. 26).
When our text says “the Lord saw that Leah was not loved” (v. 31), it’s continuing the story of the elder sister who was given to a man who wanted her sister instead. Leah thought that children would earn her the love of her husband, but her children helped her realize that it was the Lord she should pursue (v. 35). By: J.R. Hudberg
Life Beyond Compare
She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.”
Genesis 29:35
In a TV program, young adults posed as high school students to better understand the lives of teenagers. They discovered that social media plays a central role in how teens measure their self-worth. One participant observed, “[The students’] self-value is attached to social media—it’s dependent on how many ‘likes’ they get on a photo.” This need for acceptance by others can drive young people to extreme behavior online.
The longing for being accepted by others has always been there. In Genesis 29, Leah understandably yearns for the love of her husband Jacob. It’s reflected in the names of her first three sons—all capturing her loneliness (vv. 31–34). But, sadly, there’s no indication that Jacob ever gave her the acceptance she craved.
With the birth of her fourth child, Leah turned to God instead of her husband, naming her fourth son Judah, which means, “praise” (v. 35). Leah, it seems, finally chose to find her significance in God. She became part of God’s salvation story: Judah was the ancestor of King David and, later, Jesus.
We can try to find our significance in many ways and things, but only in Jesus do we find our identity as children of God, co-heirs with Christ, and those who will dwell eternally with our heavenly Father. As Paul wrote, nothing in this world compares with the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ” (Philippians 3:8). By Peter Chin
Today's Reflection
In what or whom have you been striving to gain your value and acceptance? How does faith in Jesus open the door to your true identity?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Yielding
…you are that one’s slaves whom you obey… —Romans 6:16
The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.
If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth. There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is— “I must have it now,” whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. “…He has anointed Me…to proclaim liberty to the captives…” (Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1).
When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, “Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like,” you will know you can’t. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, “He will break every fetter,” while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person’s life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon. When God has brought us into the relationship of disciples, we have to venture on His word; trust entirely to Him and watch that when He brings us to the venture, we take it.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Whatever it Takes to Save a Life - #8394
I've had the chance to meet some fascinating people with our Native American outreaches when I go out with our On Eagles' Wings Teams. One of those would have to be Chad. He was raised to actually be the last traditional chief in his tribe and a spiritual shaman. Like many Native Americans over the years, he was sent to a religious boarding school, and in Christ's name he was forced to dress, look and speak like a white man, and punished if he accidentally spoke a word of his own language. The anger that built up in him made him a most unlikely candidate to ever give his heart to the one that he was sure was "the white man's God." Chad actually said he wanted to die, so he went to Vietnam, hoping someone would kill him. He became one of the few good that were good enough to be called a Navy Seal and then he went through the horrors of being a prisoner of war. What a story! When he returned from the war, he became a gang leader in a major city with some 10,000 people in his organization. Stabbed twice, shot three times, and one night he found himself on an operating table with surgeons fighting very long odds to save his life.
Chad remembers vividly the near-death experience he had. He actually found himself looking down on his own life-or-death surgery. As he looked down on the operating room, Chad testifies that a big man with shoulder-length hair appeared next to him-a man wearing a long white robe with a gold sash around it. He spoke to Chad and He said, "I died for you, Chad. I want you to give your life to me." What blew Chad away was that this man spoke to him in his own native language! That night Chad realized this Jesus could not just be a white man's God. As Chad said, "No white man's God would have spoken to me in my language!" Well, that was way back in 1996, but since then he's been a powerful leader for Jesus Christ among native people, and now a great friend and partner with us in reaching his people.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Whatever it Takes to Save a Life."
Our friend Chad is living proof of something about our Jesus that you might need for your own encouragement right now. He will do whatever it takes to find and rescue someone He died for. Including that one you've been praying for who shows absolutely no signs of ever caring about Jesus. They don't come much harder than Chad, and Jesus knew exactly what it would take to change his heart and He did it.
Matthew 18:12-14, it's our word for today from the Word of God. It's a vivid picture of what Jesus is doing right now on behalf of someone you're praying for, someone you care about who's far from Him right now. The Bible says "If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go out to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it ... he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off." I can tell you that Jesus is actively, lovingly, and skillfully pursuing the lost person you have on your heart as I've been talking about it. Or you might be that lost person and He's pursuing you right now.
In Peter's words, God does not "want anyone to perish" (2 Peter 3:9). He knows exactly what will get their attention, exactly what kind of messenger they will listen to. So, maybe the prayer needs to be, "Lord Jesus, please rescue this one I care about, whatever it takes, within your will." There are no limits to His saving love, no limits to His saving power, no limits to His creativity and persistence in reaching them where they are.
The question may be: how far are you willing to go to rescue them? What's God waiting for you to do, to be part of the answer to your own prayers? Please do whatever He asks you to do, whatever that takes, whatever that costs to assist in the rescue. And don't stop praying for them, don't give up, don't stop loving them, don't stop believing God for their eternal soul. As long as there's breath, there's hope, especially with our Jesus pursuing them with His stubborn love.
And if you're the one He's been pursuing, it could be that He's found you right here, and He's offering His nail-pierced hand for you to grab. You've lived long enough without Him. You could tell Him this very day, "Jesus, I'm yours." We'd love to help you get connected with Him if you'll go to our website. It is ANewStory.com. I hope you'll go there today.
He's come really close to you right now. This is your day to grab His hand.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Psalm 31, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: DEALING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT
There is a line, a fine line, which once crossed can be fatal. It’s the line between disappointment and anger. If you are nearing that line, I urge you not to cross it.
When God doesn’t do what we want, it’s not easy. Never has been. Never will be. But faith is the conviction that God knows more than we do about this life, and he will get us through it. Remember, disappointment is caused by unmet expectations. And disappointment is cured by revamped expectations.
God is still in control. Life’s mishaps and tragedies are not a reason to bail out. They are simply a reason to sit tight. Next time you are disappointed, don’t panic. Don’t jump out. Don’t give up. Just be patient and let God remind you he’s still in control. It ain’t over till it’s over.
Read more He Still Move Stones
Psalm 31
A David Psalm
31 1-2 I run to you, God; I run for dear life.
Don’t let me down!
Take me seriously this time!
Get down on my level and listen,
and please—no procrastination!
Your granite cave a hiding place,
your high cliff aerie a place of safety.
3-5 You’re my cave to hide in,
my cliff to climb.
Be my safe leader,
be my true mountain guide.
Free me from hidden traps;
I want to hide in you.
I’ve put my life in your hands.
You won’t drop me,
you’ll never let me down.
6-13 I hate all this silly religion,
but you, God, I trust.
I’m leaping and singing in the circle of your love;
you saw my pain,
you disarmed my tormentors,
You didn’t leave me in their clutches
but gave me room to breathe.
Be kind to me, God—
I’m in deep, deep trouble again.
I’ve cried my eyes out;
I feel hollow inside.
My life leaks away, groan by groan;
my years fade out in sighs.
My troubles have worn me out,
turned my bones to powder.
To my enemies I’m a monster;
I’m ridiculed by the neighbors.
My friends are horrified;
they cross the street to avoid me.
They want to blot me from memory,
forget me like a corpse in a grave,
discard me like a broken dish in the trash.
The street-talk gossip has me
“criminally insane”!
Behind locked doors they plot
how to ruin me for good.
14-18 Desperate, I throw myself on you:
you are my God!
Hour by hour I place my days in your hand,
safe from the hands out to get me.
Warm me, your servant, with a smile;
save me because you love me.
Don’t embarrass me by not showing up;
I’ve given you plenty of notice.
Embarrass the wicked, stand them up,
leave them stupidly shaking their heads
as they drift down to hell.
Gag those loudmouthed liars
who heckle me, your follower,
with jeers and catcalls.
19-22 What a stack of blessing you have piled up
for those who worship you,
Ready and waiting for all who run to you
to escape an unkind world.
You hide them safely away
from the opposition.
As you slam the door on those oily, mocking faces,
you silence the poisonous gossip.
Blessed God!
His love is the wonder of the world.
Trapped by a siege, I panicked.
“Out of sight, out of mind,” I said.
But you heard me say it,
you heard and listened.
23 Love God, all you saints;
God takes care of all who stay close to him,
But he pays back in full
those arrogant enough to go it alone.
24 Be brave. Be strong. Don’t give up.
Expect God to get here soon.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Hebrews 2:9-18
5-9 God didn’t put angels in charge of this business of salvation that we’re dealing with here. It says in Scripture,
What is man and woman that you bother with them;
why take a second look their way?
You made them not quite as high as angels,
bright with Eden’s dawn light;
Then you put them in charge
of your entire handcrafted world.
When God put them in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. But we don’t see it yet, don’t see everything under human jurisdiction. What we do see is Jesus, made “not quite as high as angels,” and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory “bright with Eden’s dawn light.” In that death, by God’s grace, he fully experienced death in every person’s place.
10-13 It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat them as family, saying,
I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know about you;
I’ll join them in worship and praise to you.
Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says,
Even I live by placing my trust in God.
And yet again,
I’m here with the children God gave me.
14-15 Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
16-18 It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed.
Insight
Biblical scholars are uncertain about the identity of the author of Hebrews and of the author’s intended audience. But it’s clear the author is writing to a group of Christians (perhaps of Jewish background) who have suffered because of their faith, including persecution and loss of property, and yet who’ve shown compassion (10:32–34). The author encourages them to hold on to their “confidence” in God and to endure and continue doing His will (vv. 35–36). By: Alyson Kieda
Homeless by Choice
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:18
Keith Wasserman has chosen to be homeless for a few days every year since 1989 in order to grow in love and compassion. “I go to live on the streets to expand my perspective and understanding” of people who have no homes to live in, says Keith, executive director of Good Works, Inc.
I’m wondering whether Keith’s approach to become one with those he’s serving might be a small picture of what Jesus did for us. God Himself, the Creator of the universe, chose to confine Himself to the vulnerable state of a baby, to live as a human, to experience what we all experience, and to ultimately die at the hand of humans so that we can experience a relationship with God.
The writer of the book of Hebrews stated that Jesus “shared in [our] humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil” (2:14). Jesus was made lower than the angels, even though He’s their Creator (v. 9). He became human and died, even though He’s immortal. And He suffered for us, even though He’s the all-powerful God. Why would He do this? So that He could help us when we go through temptations and bring reconciliation between us and God (vv. 17–18).
May we experience His love today, knowing He understands our humanity and has already provided the way for us to be cleansed from our sins. By Estera Pirosca Escobar
Today's Reflection
Have you come to Jesus and experienced His love and forgiveness? If yes, how does this reality affect your life today? If not, will you receive Him today?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
God’s Total Surrender to Us
For God so loved the world that He gave… —John 3:16
Salvation does not mean merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. The salvation which comes from God means being completely delivered from myself, and being placed into perfect union with Him. When I think of my salvation experience, I think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness. But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself. And as I am caught up into total surrender to God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself.
To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is actually part of the effect of His wonderful and total surrender to us.
If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us. In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us— totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
The Healing Power of Making a Difference - #8393
Bob was one senior who was a tremendous blessing to our ministry. He'd been the kind of volunteer who had been there for every kind of project you could imagine. His whole life-it seems like he's been a warrior for the Lord. But then, he had some illnesses and an accident that slowed him down-even to the point of walking with a cane and honestly looking a little more stooped than usual. We asked him if he could help oversee this important remodeling project at our Headquarters. Before we could finish the tour of the area that needed work, Bob was spouting out ideas about how it could be done. Later I actually saw Bob in the hallway-walking tall, walking fast, without his cane, like a man half his age!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Healing Power of Making a Difference."
A new spark, a new spring in his step–what made this almost overnight difference in our friend? At least in part, I think it was the prospect of making a difference again! He was re-energized by having a mission. You know what? That might be just what the doctor-I mean, The Doctor-ordered for someone who's listening right now.
In Proverbs 11:24 and 25, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible spells out this healing power of making a difference for other people. Here's what it says. "One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed."
When you're all focused on yourself, your world is small, your hurts are big, you're claustrophobic, you're sometimes bitter and self-pitying. But when you're focused on people who need you, on things you can do to make a difference, it's literally life-giving. Jesus described this strange but ever-true equation: "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it" (Luke 9:24).
Hold onto your life, you lose it. Give your life away, you find it. I've seen that proven true from teenagers to people way up in years. We all need a mission. It begins by looking around your world and just asking, "Who needs me around here? Who can I help with what I know? Who can I help with what I've been through?" Often we're looking for someone to help us instead of someone to help. We're focused on who could meet our needs instead of whose needs we could help meet. And we're miserable. Nobody wants to come to our pity parties, and life looks ugly because we keep looking through a dirty window, and that window is called "It's all about me."
Maybe it's time for you to think more about "giving your life away"-about a mission you could become involved in. You might have some very real limitations, some hurts, some handicaps. But there is someone you can help with what you know; whether it's in person, or letters, or emails, with the phone, or at least you can tell them about your Jesus and help them be in heaven with you.
A young man once wrote to Mother Teresa, and he was asking how he could have the kind of significance with his life that she was experiencing as she ministered to dying people in Calcutta's worst slums. She wrote back just a four-word reply: "Find your own Calcutta." That's the answer. Find a place where you are needed, where you can pour yourself into someone other than yourself, into something bigger than yourself. And, when you do, prepare to experience the awesome healing power of making a difference!
There is a line, a fine line, which once crossed can be fatal. It’s the line between disappointment and anger. If you are nearing that line, I urge you not to cross it.
When God doesn’t do what we want, it’s not easy. Never has been. Never will be. But faith is the conviction that God knows more than we do about this life, and he will get us through it. Remember, disappointment is caused by unmet expectations. And disappointment is cured by revamped expectations.
God is still in control. Life’s mishaps and tragedies are not a reason to bail out. They are simply a reason to sit tight. Next time you are disappointed, don’t panic. Don’t jump out. Don’t give up. Just be patient and let God remind you he’s still in control. It ain’t over till it’s over.
Read more He Still Move Stones
Psalm 31
A David Psalm
31 1-2 I run to you, God; I run for dear life.
Don’t let me down!
Take me seriously this time!
Get down on my level and listen,
and please—no procrastination!
Your granite cave a hiding place,
your high cliff aerie a place of safety.
3-5 You’re my cave to hide in,
my cliff to climb.
Be my safe leader,
be my true mountain guide.
Free me from hidden traps;
I want to hide in you.
I’ve put my life in your hands.
You won’t drop me,
you’ll never let me down.
6-13 I hate all this silly religion,
but you, God, I trust.
I’m leaping and singing in the circle of your love;
you saw my pain,
you disarmed my tormentors,
You didn’t leave me in their clutches
but gave me room to breathe.
Be kind to me, God—
I’m in deep, deep trouble again.
I’ve cried my eyes out;
I feel hollow inside.
My life leaks away, groan by groan;
my years fade out in sighs.
My troubles have worn me out,
turned my bones to powder.
To my enemies I’m a monster;
I’m ridiculed by the neighbors.
My friends are horrified;
they cross the street to avoid me.
They want to blot me from memory,
forget me like a corpse in a grave,
discard me like a broken dish in the trash.
The street-talk gossip has me
“criminally insane”!
Behind locked doors they plot
how to ruin me for good.
14-18 Desperate, I throw myself on you:
you are my God!
Hour by hour I place my days in your hand,
safe from the hands out to get me.
Warm me, your servant, with a smile;
save me because you love me.
Don’t embarrass me by not showing up;
I’ve given you plenty of notice.
Embarrass the wicked, stand them up,
leave them stupidly shaking their heads
as they drift down to hell.
Gag those loudmouthed liars
who heckle me, your follower,
with jeers and catcalls.
19-22 What a stack of blessing you have piled up
for those who worship you,
Ready and waiting for all who run to you
to escape an unkind world.
You hide them safely away
from the opposition.
As you slam the door on those oily, mocking faces,
you silence the poisonous gossip.
Blessed God!
His love is the wonder of the world.
Trapped by a siege, I panicked.
“Out of sight, out of mind,” I said.
But you heard me say it,
you heard and listened.
23 Love God, all you saints;
God takes care of all who stay close to him,
But he pays back in full
those arrogant enough to go it alone.
24 Be brave. Be strong. Don’t give up.
Expect God to get here soon.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Hebrews 2:9-18
5-9 God didn’t put angels in charge of this business of salvation that we’re dealing with here. It says in Scripture,
What is man and woman that you bother with them;
why take a second look their way?
You made them not quite as high as angels,
bright with Eden’s dawn light;
Then you put them in charge
of your entire handcrafted world.
When God put them in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. But we don’t see it yet, don’t see everything under human jurisdiction. What we do see is Jesus, made “not quite as high as angels,” and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory “bright with Eden’s dawn light.” In that death, by God’s grace, he fully experienced death in every person’s place.
10-13 It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat them as family, saying,
I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know about you;
I’ll join them in worship and praise to you.
Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says,
Even I live by placing my trust in God.
And yet again,
I’m here with the children God gave me.
14-15 Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
16-18 It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed.
Insight
Biblical scholars are uncertain about the identity of the author of Hebrews and of the author’s intended audience. But it’s clear the author is writing to a group of Christians (perhaps of Jewish background) who have suffered because of their faith, including persecution and loss of property, and yet who’ve shown compassion (10:32–34). The author encourages them to hold on to their “confidence” in God and to endure and continue doing His will (vv. 35–36). By: Alyson Kieda
Homeless by Choice
Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:18
Keith Wasserman has chosen to be homeless for a few days every year since 1989 in order to grow in love and compassion. “I go to live on the streets to expand my perspective and understanding” of people who have no homes to live in, says Keith, executive director of Good Works, Inc.
I’m wondering whether Keith’s approach to become one with those he’s serving might be a small picture of what Jesus did for us. God Himself, the Creator of the universe, chose to confine Himself to the vulnerable state of a baby, to live as a human, to experience what we all experience, and to ultimately die at the hand of humans so that we can experience a relationship with God.
The writer of the book of Hebrews stated that Jesus “shared in [our] humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil” (2:14). Jesus was made lower than the angels, even though He’s their Creator (v. 9). He became human and died, even though He’s immortal. And He suffered for us, even though He’s the all-powerful God. Why would He do this? So that He could help us when we go through temptations and bring reconciliation between us and God (vv. 17–18).
May we experience His love today, knowing He understands our humanity and has already provided the way for us to be cleansed from our sins. By Estera Pirosca Escobar
Today's Reflection
Have you come to Jesus and experienced His love and forgiveness? If yes, how does this reality affect your life today? If not, will you receive Him today?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
God’s Total Surrender to Us
For God so loved the world that He gave… —John 3:16
Salvation does not mean merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. The salvation which comes from God means being completely delivered from myself, and being placed into perfect union with Him. When I think of my salvation experience, I think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness. But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself. And as I am caught up into total surrender to God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself.
To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is actually part of the effect of His wonderful and total surrender to us.
If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us. In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us— totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Always keep in contact with those books and those people that enlarge your horizon and make it possible for you to stretch yourself mentally. The Moral Foundations of Life, 721 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
The Healing Power of Making a Difference - #8393
Bob was one senior who was a tremendous blessing to our ministry. He'd been the kind of volunteer who had been there for every kind of project you could imagine. His whole life-it seems like he's been a warrior for the Lord. But then, he had some illnesses and an accident that slowed him down-even to the point of walking with a cane and honestly looking a little more stooped than usual. We asked him if he could help oversee this important remodeling project at our Headquarters. Before we could finish the tour of the area that needed work, Bob was spouting out ideas about how it could be done. Later I actually saw Bob in the hallway-walking tall, walking fast, without his cane, like a man half his age!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Healing Power of Making a Difference."
A new spark, a new spring in his step–what made this almost overnight difference in our friend? At least in part, I think it was the prospect of making a difference again! He was re-energized by having a mission. You know what? That might be just what the doctor-I mean, The Doctor-ordered for someone who's listening right now.
In Proverbs 11:24 and 25, our word for today from the Word of God, the Bible spells out this healing power of making a difference for other people. Here's what it says. "One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed."
When you're all focused on yourself, your world is small, your hurts are big, you're claustrophobic, you're sometimes bitter and self-pitying. But when you're focused on people who need you, on things you can do to make a difference, it's literally life-giving. Jesus described this strange but ever-true equation: "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it" (Luke 9:24).
Hold onto your life, you lose it. Give your life away, you find it. I've seen that proven true from teenagers to people way up in years. We all need a mission. It begins by looking around your world and just asking, "Who needs me around here? Who can I help with what I know? Who can I help with what I've been through?" Often we're looking for someone to help us instead of someone to help. We're focused on who could meet our needs instead of whose needs we could help meet. And we're miserable. Nobody wants to come to our pity parties, and life looks ugly because we keep looking through a dirty window, and that window is called "It's all about me."
Maybe it's time for you to think more about "giving your life away"-about a mission you could become involved in. You might have some very real limitations, some hurts, some handicaps. But there is someone you can help with what you know; whether it's in person, or letters, or emails, with the phone, or at least you can tell them about your Jesus and help them be in heaven with you.
A young man once wrote to Mother Teresa, and he was asking how he could have the kind of significance with his life that she was experiencing as she ministered to dying people in Calcutta's worst slums. She wrote back just a four-word reply: "Find your own Calcutta." That's the answer. Find a place where you are needed, where you can pour yourself into someone other than yourself, into something bigger than yourself. And, when you do, prepare to experience the awesome healing power of making a difference!
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Psalm 29, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: HOW TO LOVE GROWING OLD
The dawning of old age. Empty nest. Bifocals. Everything hurts when you wake up. And what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t work. Regret can become a major pastime and may lead to rebellion against whatever ties you down.
Growing old can be dangerous, so you need to be prepared. Luke 17:33 advises, “Whoever tries to keep his life safe will lose it, and the man who is prepared to lose his life will preserve it.” The wisest are not the ones with the most years in their lives, but the most life in their years.
You can take the safe route, or you can hear the voice of God’s adventure. Follow God’s impulses. Adopt the child. Move overseas. Teach the class. Change careers. Make a difference. Your last chapters can be your best chapters. God’s oldest have always been among his choicest.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 29
A David Psalm
29 1-2 Bravo, God, bravo!
Gods and all angels shout, “Encore!”
In awe before the glory,
in awe before God’s visible power.
Stand at attention!
Dress your best to honor him!
3 God thunders across the waters,
Brilliant, his voice and his face, streaming brightness—
God, across the flood waters.
4 God’s thunder tympanic,
God’s thunder symphonic.
5 God’s thunder smashes cedars,
God topples the northern cedars.
6 The mountain ranges skip like spring colts,
The high ridges jump like wild kid goats.
7-8 God’s thunder spits fire.
God thunders, the wilderness quakes;
He makes the desert of Kadesh shake.
9 God’s thunder sets the oak trees dancing
A wild dance, whirling; the pelting rain strips their branches.
We fall to our knees—we call out, “Glory!”
10 Above the floodwaters is God’s throne
from which his power flows,
from which he rules the world.
11 God makes his people strong.
God gives his people peace.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Proverbs 16:1-3
Mortals make elaborate plans,
but God has the last word.
2 Humans are satisfied with whatever looks good;
God probes for what is good.
3 Put God in charge of your work,
then what you’ve planned will take place.
Insight
The proverbs are not step-by-step instructions on what to do in each and every moment. Rather, they give us general principles for wise living. They show us how to interact with our fellow human beings and how to keep from being foolish—or how to stop being foolish. When we practice the wisdom of the proverbs, we’re far less likely to rush into ill-conceived plans. We learn to leverage the resources God has already given us. In the process we grow, and we spare ourselves untold disaster. The proverbs don’t tell us what plans to make; they teach us to make wise plans and commit them to the Lord (Proverbs 16:3). By: Tim Gustafson
Expect Delays
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9
Are you kidding me? I was already late. But the road sign ahead instructed me to adjust my expectations: “Expect Delays,” it announced. Traffic was slowing down.
I had to laugh: I expect things to work on my ideal timeline; I don’t expect road construction.
On a spiritual level, few of us plan for crises that slow us down or reroute our lives. Yet, if I think about it, I can recall many times when circumstances redirected me—in big ways and small. Delays happen.
Solomon never saw a sign that said, “Expect Delays.” But in Proverbs 16, he does contrast our plans with God’s providential guidance. The Message paraphrases verse 1 as follows: “Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word.” Solomon restates that idea in verse 9, where he adds that even though we “plan [our] course . . . the Lord establishes [our] steps.” In other words, we have ideas about what’s supposed to happen, but sometimes God has another path for us.
How do I lose track of this spiritual truth? I make my plans, sometimes forgetting to ask Him what His plans are. I get frustrated when interruptions interfere.
But in place of that worrying, we could, as Solomon teaches, grow in simply trusting that God guides us, step-by-step, as we prayerfully seek Him, await His leading, and—yes—allow Him to continually redirect us. By Adam Holz
Today's Reflection
How do you typically face unexpected delays and detours? When frustrations come, what will help you lean into God and trust Him more?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Total Surrender
Peter began to say to Him, "See, we have left all and followed You." —Mark 10:28
Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is “for My sake and the gospel’s” (Mark 10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, “I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.” Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ‘This is what God has done for me.’ ” Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse— “Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further” (see Luke 9:57-62). “Then,” Jesus says, “you ‘cannot be My disciple’ ” (see Luke 14:26-33).
True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” We all have faith in good principles, in good management, in good common sense, but who amongst us has faith in Jesus Christ? Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes. The Highest Good, 544 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, March 12, 2019 (2015)
Peace Within Your Reach - #7349
Sister is a dog. No, I didn't say my sister was a dog. My friend, Curtis, has a dog he named Sister, which leads to some very amusing sentences. When Curtis' Sister first arrived in our area, Sister lived in this big, fenced-in area around the house. But Curtis got a nice dog house for Sister, the dog that is, and went to work making it a nice winter home for her. He installed two inches of insulation, put in a new floor, and even put a waterbed heater under the floor and some zip lock bags of water for the heater to heat. Sister basically had her own home with her own waterbed.
But for the first couple of weeks after her home was completed, she wouldn't go in it. Curtis was away for the weekend. He asked a friend to check on Sister. It was one of those days was when a powerful Nor'easter storm hit our area with drenching rain. And when Curtis' friend visited Sister, there was that dog running around outside the dog house in the wind and the pouring rain, still refusing to go in that home that had been provided for her.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Peace Within Your Reach."
Curtis said he was frustrated. He said, "Here I lovingly prepared a warm, safe place, and she insists on staying outside in the cold and the rain." That frustration is one that Jesus knows very well.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 19:21. "As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it. He said, 'If you only would have known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. You did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.'" This kind of grieving in the heart of Jesus isn't limited to that one time and that one place. It happens every time another person keeps running in the rain when they could be living in the safety and warmth that He has prepared for them.
Jesus makes very clear what He wants to give us; what the result will be if we respond to Him. He talks about what would "bring you peace." And peace is what's at stake in what you do with Jesus; personal peace, peace with God, peace for all eternity. Jesus may actually have shed some tears for you. So many times He's given you the opportunity to come into that wonderful peace of a personal relationship with Him, but you have refused to enter.
The results: You're alone out in the storm, feeling unnecessary loneliness because you're living outside His never-leaving love. Unnecessary stress because you're trying to handle life without His peace. You're feeling unnecessary pain because you're trying to carry the load without His great strength, and maybe unnecessary emptiness because you're trying to make life make sense without the One who gave you your life. And Jesus is saying, "If you only knew what I can do for you if you'll just come inside."
The spiritual shelter Jesus invites you to has been very lovingly prepared for you, very expensively prepared for you. There was no way into a God relationship as long as the death penalty for our sins stood between us and God. We're spiritual orphans in this world. We're separated from our Father because of our sins. But the Bible says, speaking of the suffering and crucifixion of God's Son, "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities." All that because of how much Jesus loves you.
And the result of this incredible love? Here's what it says, "The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." The peace that has eluded you for your whole life can finally be yours today if you'll give yourself to the One who gave His life for you on a cross. He said of the people who had missed Him, "You did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." That time for you might be today.
He's come to you. He's knocking on the door of your heart. Would you open up? Let Him in and let Him take the wheel of your life from this day on. If you're tired of being in the storm without the peace that He wants to give you, that He died to give you, would you say to Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
I'd love to help you with that. Go to our website. We'll take it from there - AnewStory.com. You don't need to run alone in the rain any more. You know which way is home and Jesus is there.
The dawning of old age. Empty nest. Bifocals. Everything hurts when you wake up. And what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t work. Regret can become a major pastime and may lead to rebellion against whatever ties you down.
Growing old can be dangerous, so you need to be prepared. Luke 17:33 advises, “Whoever tries to keep his life safe will lose it, and the man who is prepared to lose his life will preserve it.” The wisest are not the ones with the most years in their lives, but the most life in their years.
You can take the safe route, or you can hear the voice of God’s adventure. Follow God’s impulses. Adopt the child. Move overseas. Teach the class. Change careers. Make a difference. Your last chapters can be your best chapters. God’s oldest have always been among his choicest.
Read more He Still Moves Stones
Psalm 29
A David Psalm
29 1-2 Bravo, God, bravo!
Gods and all angels shout, “Encore!”
In awe before the glory,
in awe before God’s visible power.
Stand at attention!
Dress your best to honor him!
3 God thunders across the waters,
Brilliant, his voice and his face, streaming brightness—
God, across the flood waters.
4 God’s thunder tympanic,
God’s thunder symphonic.
5 God’s thunder smashes cedars,
God topples the northern cedars.
6 The mountain ranges skip like spring colts,
The high ridges jump like wild kid goats.
7-8 God’s thunder spits fire.
God thunders, the wilderness quakes;
He makes the desert of Kadesh shake.
9 God’s thunder sets the oak trees dancing
A wild dance, whirling; the pelting rain strips their branches.
We fall to our knees—we call out, “Glory!”
10 Above the floodwaters is God’s throne
from which his power flows,
from which he rules the world.
11 God makes his people strong.
God gives his people peace.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight: Proverbs 16:1-3
Mortals make elaborate plans,
but God has the last word.
2 Humans are satisfied with whatever looks good;
God probes for what is good.
3 Put God in charge of your work,
then what you’ve planned will take place.
Insight
The proverbs are not step-by-step instructions on what to do in each and every moment. Rather, they give us general principles for wise living. They show us how to interact with our fellow human beings and how to keep from being foolish—or how to stop being foolish. When we practice the wisdom of the proverbs, we’re far less likely to rush into ill-conceived plans. We learn to leverage the resources God has already given us. In the process we grow, and we spare ourselves untold disaster. The proverbs don’t tell us what plans to make; they teach us to make wise plans and commit them to the Lord (Proverbs 16:3). By: Tim Gustafson
Expect Delays
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps. Proverbs 16:9
Are you kidding me? I was already late. But the road sign ahead instructed me to adjust my expectations: “Expect Delays,” it announced. Traffic was slowing down.
I had to laugh: I expect things to work on my ideal timeline; I don’t expect road construction.
On a spiritual level, few of us plan for crises that slow us down or reroute our lives. Yet, if I think about it, I can recall many times when circumstances redirected me—in big ways and small. Delays happen.
Solomon never saw a sign that said, “Expect Delays.” But in Proverbs 16, he does contrast our plans with God’s providential guidance. The Message paraphrases verse 1 as follows: “Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word.” Solomon restates that idea in verse 9, where he adds that even though we “plan [our] course . . . the Lord establishes [our] steps.” In other words, we have ideas about what’s supposed to happen, but sometimes God has another path for us.
How do I lose track of this spiritual truth? I make my plans, sometimes forgetting to ask Him what His plans are. I get frustrated when interruptions interfere.
But in place of that worrying, we could, as Solomon teaches, grow in simply trusting that God guides us, step-by-step, as we prayerfully seek Him, await His leading, and—yes—allow Him to continually redirect us. By Adam Holz
Today's Reflection
How do you typically face unexpected delays and detours? When frustrations come, what will help you lean into God and trust Him more?
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Total Surrender
Peter began to say to Him, "See, we have left all and followed You." —Mark 10:28
Our Lord replies to this statement of Peter by saying that this surrender is “for My sake and the gospel’s” (Mark 10:29). It was not for the purpose of what the disciples themselves would get out of it. Beware of surrender that is motivated by personal benefits that may result. For example, “I’m going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.” Being delivered from sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is certainly not the true nature of Christianity. Our motive for surrender should not be for any personal gain at all. We have become so self-centered that we go to God only for something from Him, and not for God Himself. It is like saying, “No, Lord, I don’t want you; I want myself. But I do want You to clean me and fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to be on display in Your showcase so I can say, ‘This is what God has done for me.’ ” Gaining heaven, being delivered from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a consideration in real surrender. Genuine total surrender is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
Where does Jesus Christ figure in when we have a concern about our natural relationships? Most of us will desert Him with this excuse— “Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my family needs me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go any further” (see Luke 9:57-62). “Then,” Jesus says, “you ‘cannot be My disciple’ ” (see Luke 14:26-33).
True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we will only give up, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Beware of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. Most of us have only a vision of what this really means, but have never truly experienced it.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
“When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” We all have faith in good principles, in good management, in good common sense, but who amongst us has faith in Jesus Christ? Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes. The Highest Good, 544 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, March 12, 2019 (2015)
Peace Within Your Reach - #7349
Sister is a dog. No, I didn't say my sister was a dog. My friend, Curtis, has a dog he named Sister, which leads to some very amusing sentences. When Curtis' Sister first arrived in our area, Sister lived in this big, fenced-in area around the house. But Curtis got a nice dog house for Sister, the dog that is, and went to work making it a nice winter home for her. He installed two inches of insulation, put in a new floor, and even put a waterbed heater under the floor and some zip lock bags of water for the heater to heat. Sister basically had her own home with her own waterbed.
But for the first couple of weeks after her home was completed, she wouldn't go in it. Curtis was away for the weekend. He asked a friend to check on Sister. It was one of those days was when a powerful Nor'easter storm hit our area with drenching rain. And when Curtis' friend visited Sister, there was that dog running around outside the dog house in the wind and the pouring rain, still refusing to go in that home that had been provided for her.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Peace Within Your Reach."
Curtis said he was frustrated. He said, "Here I lovingly prepared a warm, safe place, and she insists on staying outside in the cold and the rain." That frustration is one that Jesus knows very well.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke 19:21. "As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it. He said, 'If you only would have known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. You did not recognize the time of God's coming to you.'" This kind of grieving in the heart of Jesus isn't limited to that one time and that one place. It happens every time another person keeps running in the rain when they could be living in the safety and warmth that He has prepared for them.
Jesus makes very clear what He wants to give us; what the result will be if we respond to Him. He talks about what would "bring you peace." And peace is what's at stake in what you do with Jesus; personal peace, peace with God, peace for all eternity. Jesus may actually have shed some tears for you. So many times He's given you the opportunity to come into that wonderful peace of a personal relationship with Him, but you have refused to enter.
The results: You're alone out in the storm, feeling unnecessary loneliness because you're living outside His never-leaving love. Unnecessary stress because you're trying to handle life without His peace. You're feeling unnecessary pain because you're trying to carry the load without His great strength, and maybe unnecessary emptiness because you're trying to make life make sense without the One who gave you your life. And Jesus is saying, "If you only knew what I can do for you if you'll just come inside."
The spiritual shelter Jesus invites you to has been very lovingly prepared for you, very expensively prepared for you. There was no way into a God relationship as long as the death penalty for our sins stood between us and God. We're spiritual orphans in this world. We're separated from our Father because of our sins. But the Bible says, speaking of the suffering and crucifixion of God's Son, "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities." All that because of how much Jesus loves you.
And the result of this incredible love? Here's what it says, "The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him." The peace that has eluded you for your whole life can finally be yours today if you'll give yourself to the One who gave His life for you on a cross. He said of the people who had missed Him, "You did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." That time for you might be today.
He's come to you. He's knocking on the door of your heart. Would you open up? Let Him in and let Him take the wheel of your life from this day on. If you're tired of being in the storm without the peace that He wants to give you, that He died to give you, would you say to Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
I'd love to help you with that. Go to our website. We'll take it from there - AnewStory.com. You don't need to run alone in the rain any more. You know which way is home and Jesus is there.
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