Max Lucado Daily: GOD’S SALVATION SONG
The ultimate disaster is carrying your sins to your casket. Christ responds to universal sin with a universal sacrifice, taking on the sins of the entire world. But God’s salvation song has two verses. One, He took your place on the cross, which is the first stanza: God’s work for you. But he also takes his place in your heart, which is the second stanza: God’s work in you.
Paul explains, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). This has powerful implications. Sin may touch you, but it cannot claim you. It cannot condemn you. Trust this truth. Take frequent, refreshing drinks from his well of grace. Your heart is his home, and he is your master. Live with a smile, a skip, and a sparkle in your eye…because of Jesus Christ.
Read more Come Thirsty
Proverbs 30
The Words of Agur Ben Yakeh
The skeptic swore, “There is no God!
No God!—I can do anything I want!
I’m more animal than human;
so-called human intelligence escapes me.
3-4 “I flunked ‘wisdom.’
I see no evidence of a holy God.
Has anyone ever seen Anyone
climb into Heaven and take charge?
grab the winds and control them?
gather the rains in his bucket?
stake out the ends of the earth?
Just tell me his name, tell me the names of his sons.
Come on now—tell me!”
5-6 The believer replied, “Every promise of God proves true;
he protects everyone who runs to him for help.
So don’t second-guess him;
he might take you to task and show up your lies.”
7-9 And then he prayed, “God, I’m asking for two things
before I die; don’t refuse me—
Banish lies from my lips
and liars from my presence.
Give me enough food to live on,
neither too much nor too little.
If I’m too full, I might get independent,
saying, ‘God? Who needs him?’
If I’m poor, I might steal
and dishonor the name of my God.”
10 Don’t blow the whistle on your fellow workers
behind their backs;
They’ll accuse you of being underhanded,
and then you’ll be the guilty one!
11 Don’t curse your father
or fail to bless your mother.
12 Don’t imagine yourself to be quite presentable
when you haven’t had a bath in weeks.
13 Don’t be stuck-up
and think you’re better than everyone else.
14 Don’t be greedy,
merciless and cruel as wolves,
Tearing into the poor and feasting on them,
shredding the needy to pieces only to discard them.
15-16 A leech has twin daughters
named “Gimme” and “Gimme more.”
Three things are never satisfied,
no, there are four that never say, “That’s enough, thank you!”—
hell,
a barren womb,
a parched land,
a forest fire.
17 An eye that disdains a father
and despises a mother—
that eye will be plucked out by wild vultures
and consumed by young eagles.
18-19 Three things amaze me,
no, four things I’ll never understand—
how an eagle flies so high in the sky,
how a snake glides over a rock,
how a ship navigates the ocean,
why adolescents act the way they do.
20 Here’s how a prostitute operates:
she has sex with her client,
Takes a bath,
then asks, “Who’s next?”
21-23 Three things are too much for even the earth to bear,
yes, four things shake its foundations—
when the janitor becomes the boss,
when a fool gets rich,
when a whore is voted “woman of the year,”
when a “girlfriend” replaces a faithful wife.
24-28 There are four small creatures,
wisest of the wise they are—
ants—frail as they are,
get plenty of food in for the winter;
marmots—vulnerable as they are,
manage to arrange for rock-solid homes;
locusts—leaderless insects,
yet they strip the field like an army regiment;
lizards—easy enough to catch,
but they sneak past vigilant palace guards.
29-31 There are three solemn dignitaries,
four that are impressive in their bearing—
a lion, king of the beasts, deferring to none;
a rooster, proud and strutting;
a billy goat;
a head of state in stately procession.
32-33 If you’re dumb enough to call attention to yourself
by offending people and making rude gestures,
Don’t be surprised if someone bloodies your nose.
Churned milk turns into butter;
riled emotions turn into fist fights.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, June 05, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 13:44-46
“God’s kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.
45-46 “Or, God’s kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it.
Insight
Jesus compares the “kingdom of heaven” to treasure and what a person will do to acquire it (Matthew 13:44). We might be tempted to focus on an earthbound understanding of treasure, but Jesus is emphasizing the sacrifice involved. The one who found this great treasure “sold all he had” just to obtain it. At another point Jesus noted, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (16:26). Living by Christ’s values means that everything else pales in comparison. The kingdom of heaven demands our total commitment to Jesus.
Finding Treasure
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. Matthew 13:44
John and Mary were walking their dog on their property when they stumbled on a rusty can partially unearthed by recent rains. They took the can home and opened it, discovering a cache of gold coins over a century old! The couple returned to the spot and located seven more cans containing 1,427 coins in all. Then they protected their treasure by reburying it elsewhere.
The cache of coins (valued at $10 million) is called the Saddle Ridge Hoard, the largest find of its kind in US history. The story is strikingly reminiscent of a parable Jesus told: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matthew 13:44).
Tales of buried treasure have captured imaginations for centuries, though such discoveries rarely happen. But Jesus tells of a treasure accessible to all who confess their sins and receive and follow Him (John 1:12).
We’ll never come to an end of that treasure. As we leave our old lives and pursue God and His purposes, we encounter His worth. Through “the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7), God offers us treasure beyond imagination—new life as His sons and daughters, new purpose on earth, and the incomprehensible joy of eternity with Him. By James Banks
Reflect & Pray
How are you treasuring your relationship with God? How can you share that treasure with others?
You are my greatest treasure, Jesus. I praise You for giving Your life for me on the cross, so that I could find forgiveness and new life in You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, June 05, 2019
God’s Assurance
He Himself has said….So we may boldly say… —Hebrews 13:5-6
My assurance is to be built upon God’s assurance to me. God says, “I will never leave you,” so that then I “may boldly say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear’ ” (Hebrews 13:5-6). In other words, I will not be obsessed with apprehension. This does not mean that I will not be tempted to fear, but I will remember God’s words of assurance. I will be full of courage, like a child who strives to reach the standard his father has set for him. The faith of many people begins to falter when apprehensions enter their thinking, and they forget the meaning of God’s assurance— they forget to take a deep spiritual breath. The only way to remove the fear from our lives is to listen to God’s assurance to us.
What are you fearing? Whatever it may be, you are not a coward about it— you are determined to face it, yet you still have a feeling of fear. When it seems that there is nothing and no one to help you, say to yourself, “But ‘The Lord is my helper’ this very moment, even in my present circumstance.” Are you learning to listen to God before you speak, or are you saying things and then trying to make God’s Word fit what you have said? Take hold of the Father’s assurance, and then say with strong courage, “I will not fear.” It does not matter what evil or wrong may be in our way, because “He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you….’ ”
Human frailty is another thing that gets between God’s words of assurance and our own words and thoughts. When we realize how feeble we are in facing difficulties, the difficulties become like giants, we become like grasshoppers, and God seems to be nonexistent. But remember God’s assurance to us— “I will never…forsake you.” Have we learned to sing after hearing God’s keynote? Are we continually filled with enough courage to say, “The Lord is my helper,” or are we yielding to fear?
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, 1459 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, June 05, 2019
Being Someone's Miracle - #8453
I think my fascination started at a historic old life-saving station on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was there that I learned about the heroism of those crews who once manned those life-saving stations all along the maritime Atlantic coast. Their heroism actually gave birth to what we know today as the United States Coast Guard. Their motto says it all: "So others may live." Some of that modern-day heroism was portrayed in a movie called "The Guardian." It's a story about that elite group of 280 men and women who are known as rescue swimmers - the first responders who jump from choppers into violent seas to rescue people who otherwise would die there. In the movie, a veteran rescuer shows a film of a burning ship from which he helped to rescue some desperate crewmen. He frames the essence of their mission in some sobering words: "They're looking for a miracle to save them. You have to find a way to be that miracle."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Being Someone's Miracle."
Now, I can just imagine Jesus saying those words to me and to you about the people who are part of our lives day after day. "They're looking for a miracle to save them, and you have to find a way to be that miracle." Because they are, in God's words from the Bible, "lost" (Luke 19:10), also "condemned" it says (John 3:18). Another place says they "are being led away to death" (Proverbs 24:16). Ephesians says they are "without hope and without God in the world" (Ephesians 2:12). That's people you know, people you see every day.
The folks around you probably don't realize they're dying spiritually. But they do know that something's missing, that life isn't working, that they don't have personal peace, or that they are living as one writer said, "lives of quiet desperation." They need a miracle to save them - they need a miracle with skin on. Someone close enough to rescue them from a life and an eternity without Christ. A spiritual rescuer who will take whatever risks necessary to bring them to the real Rescuer, Jesus Christ.
They need you. Just as another man in need of a miracle needed the people who could get him to Jesus. In fact that story is in Mark 2, beginning with verse 3 - it's our word for today from the Word of God. And in many ways, it's your story. It's the story of someone you know who has never met Jesus. "Some men came, bringing to Him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus, because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was on. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'" Later He told the paralyzed man to take up his mat and walk, and the miracle man, it says, "walked out in full view of them all."
But no life-changing can happen here, unless someone cares enough about this guy to get him to Jesus. You know people like that, and you've been divinely placed in their life to be God's designated bringer. It starts when you ask God for the passion of those four, through-the-roof friends, "I've got to get him to Jesus whatever it takes."
What does it mean to be their miracle? You pray daily for God to open up natural opportunities for you to talk about Jesus. Then you look for those opportunities as you go through the day. Don't count on getting them to a meeting because you need to reach them where they are. They may never come to our meeting. Use the power of your personal hope story to open their heart...your story of the difference that Jesus is making in your life. Most of all, pray every day by name for the lost people God has planted around you.
Yes, you'll be afraid. Yes, there will be obstacles. Yes, it may take a lot of patience and perseverance. But lives are at stake - every bit as much as they are for those people going down in those stormy seas. They need a miracle to save them. By God's grace, find a way to be that miracle!
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Acts 5:1-21, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE INFECTION OF SIN IS UNIVERSAL
No culture, no nation, no person sidesteps the infection of sin. You can blame the plague of sin on a godless decision. Adam and Eve ignored God’s will…and sin, with death on its coattails, entered the world. The sinful mind dismisses God and becomes self-centered. Sin, for a season, quenches thirst. But, given time, the thirst returns, more demanding than ever.
God refuses to compromise the spiritual purity of heaven. Here’s the awful truth. Lead a godless life, and expect a godless eternity. Spend life telling God to leave you alone, and he will. So what can we do? Acts 16:31 says, “Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus.” Christ not only became the sin offering, he overcame the punishment for sin—death—through his glorious resurrection from the dead.
Read more Come Thirsty
Acts 5:1-21
But a man named Ananias—his wife, Sapphira, conniving in this with him—sold a piece of land, secretly kept part of the price for himself, and then brought the rest to the apostles and made an offering of it.
3-4 Peter said, “Ananias, how did Satan get you to lie to the Holy Spirit and secretly keep back part of the price of the field? Before you sold it, it was all yours, and after you sold it, the money was yours to do with as you wished. So what got into you to pull a trick like this? You didn’t lie to men but to God.”
5-6 Ananias, when he heard those words, fell down dead. That put the fear of God into everyone who heard of it. The younger men went right to work and wrapped him up, then carried him out and buried him.
7-8 Not more than three hours later, his wife, knowing nothing of what had happened, came in. Peter said, “Tell me, were you given this price for your field?”
“Yes,” she said, “that price.”
9-10 Peter responded, “What’s going on here that you connived to conspire against the Spirit of the Master? The men who buried your husband are at the door, and you’re next.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than she also fell down, dead. When the young men returned they found her body. They carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
11 By this time the whole church and, in fact, everyone who heard of these things had a healthy respect for God. They knew God was not to be trifled with.
12-16 Through the work of the apostles, many God-signs were set up among the people, many wonderful things done. They all met regularly and in remarkable harmony on the Temple porch named after Solomon. But even though people admired them a lot, outsiders were wary about joining them. On the other hand, those who put their trust in the Master were added right and left, men and women both. They even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on stretchers and bedrolls, hoping they would be touched by Peter’s shadow when he walked by. They came from the villages surrounding Jerusalem, throngs of them, bringing the sick and bedeviled. And they all were healed.
17-20 Provoked mightily by all this, the Chief Priest and those on his side, mainly the sect of Sadducees, went into action, arrested the apostles and put them in the town jail. But during the night an angel of God opened the jailhouse door and led them out. He said, “Go to the Temple and take your stand. Tell the people everything there is to say about this Life.”
Promptly obedient, they entered the Temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.
21-23 Meanwhile, the Chief Priest and his cronies convened the High Council, Israel’s senate, and sent to the jail to have the prisoners brought in. When the police got there, they couldn’t find them anywhere in the jail. They went back and reported, “We found the jail locked tight as a drum and the guards posted at the doors, but when we went inside we didn’t find a soul.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 14:25-31
“I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.
28 “You’ve heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, and I’m coming back.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m on my way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of my life.
29-31 “I’ve told you this ahead of time, before it happens, so that when it does happen, the confirmation will deepen your belief in me. I’ll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry—he has nothing on me, no claim on me. But so the world might know how thoroughly I love the Father, I am carrying out my Father’s instructions right down to the last detail.
“Get up. Let’s go. It’s time to leave here.”
Insight
John 13–17 is known as the Upper Room Discourse or our Lord’s Farewell Discourse. After three years of ministry, the time for Christ’s departure had come (13:1). Within the next twenty-four hours He would be crucified, and within weeks He would return to His Father in heaven (14:3–4). Therefore, He seized this very special time to console, instruct, and encourage the men He had chosen to carry on His work. Not only did Jesus tell them that He would send the Holy Spirit (14:16–17, 26; 15:26; 16:7–11) to be their Advocate (one who would come alongside to aid and assist them), He shared other truths that would strengthen them as His representatives. Truths about serving and loving one another (13:1–15, 34–35; 15:12–17), about abiding in Him and bearing fruit (15:1–11), and about being hated and persecuted by the world (15:18–16:4).
Can We Relax?
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27
Darnell entered the physical therapist’s office knowing he would experience a lot of pain. The therapist stretched and bent his arm and held it in positions it hadn’t been in for months since his injury. After holding each uncomfortable position for a few seconds, she gently told him: “Okay, you can relax.” He said later, “I think I heard that at least fifty times in each therapy session: ‘Okay, you can relax.’ ”
Thinking of those words, Darnell realized they could apply to the rest of his life as well. He could relax in God’s goodness and faithfulness instead of worrying.
As Jesus neared His death, He knew His disciples would need to learn this. They’d soon face a time of upheaval and persecution. To encourage them, Jesus said He would send the Holy Spirit to live with them and remind them of what He had taught (John 14:26). And so He could say, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. . . . Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (v. 27).
There’s plenty we could be uptight about in our everyday lives. But we can grow in our trust in God by reminding ourselves that His Spirit lives in us—and He offers us His peace. As we draw on His strength, we can hear Him in the therapist’s words: “Okay, you can relax.” By Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
What causes you stress? What characteristics of God can help you learn to trust Him more?
Teach me, Jesus, to trust Your faithfulness, to know Your presence, to experience Your peace—to relax.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
The Never-forsaking God
He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." —Hebrews 13:5
What line of thinking do my thoughts take? Do I turn to what God says or to my own fears? Am I simply repeating what God says, or am I learning to truly hear Him and then to respond after I have heard what He says? “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’ ” (Hebrews 13:5-6).
“I will never leave you…”— not for any reason; not my sin, selfishness, stubbornness, nor waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never leave me? If I have not truly heard this assurance of God, then let me listen again.
“I will never…forsake you.” Sometimes it is not the difficulty of life but the drudgery of it that makes me think God will forsake me. When there is no major difficulty to overcome, no vision from God, nothing wonderful or beautiful— just the everyday activities of life— do I hear God’s assurance even in these?
We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing— that He is preparing and equipping us for some extraordinary work in the future. But as we grow in His grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, at this very moment. If we have God’s assurance behind us, the most amazing strength becomes ours, and we learn to sing, glorifying Him even in the ordinary days and ways of life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
Rudderless - #8452
Our friends Roy and Judy have been married for almost 30 years. But there are two words that took a beating early in their marriage and they still get a rise out of Judy to this day believe it or not. The words "trust me." You know there's got to be a story here. Years ago, Roy decided to try his hand sailing one of those little Sunfish type sailboats. He wanted Judy to go with him. Her back was really bothering her, but he assured her that he knew what he was doing. Of course, every guy does! "Trust me," he said. One problem: as they sailed away, the rudder kept coming off. That's all. That's rudder, as in what steers the boat. Well, Judy was extremely unhappy when rudderlessness ultimately led them to capsizing - a boat with a ten-foot mast stuck upside down in six feet of water. Beautiful picture huh? So much for "trust me."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Rudderless."
That poor young husband! It's tough to be trying to sail without a rudder to guide you. It's actually a feeling a lot of folks know, even if they've never been on a sailboat in their life. In fact, it's our lives that often seem rudderless - drifting with no real sense of direction. It doesn't matter how big or how small your life is, it can still feel rudderless.
There's this feeling that I call pointlessness - the recurring sense that my life, however full and however successful, just seems so pointless...missing the meaning that makes it all make sense. And along the way, there have been people and things that have seemed to say, "Trust me" but they let us down. We're victims of disappointed trust, all of us, aren't we? Not sure where the rudder is that will help us find some direction.
The Bible explains our sense of rudderlessness, our sense of pointlessness when it says, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). We were created in such a way that our life can only make sense when the One who created us is running it. But we've taken command instead, happy to let God run the universe, but unwilling to let Him run us. So we're drifting, sometimes even shipwrecked. Away from the only person who has the plan for our life. We are, to use the Bible's word for it, "lost."
Then along comes Jesus. He said He had come to "seek and save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). That saving involved the total sacrifice of His life for us, dying on the cross to absorb the awful death penalty for our spiritual rebellion. His cross became the bridge to the Creator that we've been lonely for all these years. So, in John 10:10, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus is able to say, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." In other words, the life you were made for.
When Jesus says, "Trust Me," you can, because this man loved you enough to die for you, He will never do you wrong. But you're rudderless until you anchor your life to Him. You do that by putting your total trust in Him to forgive every wrong thing you have ever done and to remove forever that wall between you and God. There's no religion involved here. This is a life-giving love relationship with Jesus Christ which you can begin right now, right where you are.
If you want to begin a relationship with Jesus, would you tell Him right now, "Jesus, I'm done running my life. I've tried that. I want to do it Your way. I believe You died for me. I believe You rose from the dead, You walked out of Your grave and I want You to walk into my life today. No one's ever loved me like You have. And beginning right now, I'm Yours."
Our website is for exactly someone like you at a moment like this and I would encourage you to go there and get the information from God's word that will help you be sure you belong to Jesus. That website is ANewStory.com.
The pointless voyage can end today if you'll let Jesus take the helm of your life. You know what will happen? He'll take you where you were made to be.
No culture, no nation, no person sidesteps the infection of sin. You can blame the plague of sin on a godless decision. Adam and Eve ignored God’s will…and sin, with death on its coattails, entered the world. The sinful mind dismisses God and becomes self-centered. Sin, for a season, quenches thirst. But, given time, the thirst returns, more demanding than ever.
God refuses to compromise the spiritual purity of heaven. Here’s the awful truth. Lead a godless life, and expect a godless eternity. Spend life telling God to leave you alone, and he will. So what can we do? Acts 16:31 says, “Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus.” Christ not only became the sin offering, he overcame the punishment for sin—death—through his glorious resurrection from the dead.
Read more Come Thirsty
Acts 5:1-21
But a man named Ananias—his wife, Sapphira, conniving in this with him—sold a piece of land, secretly kept part of the price for himself, and then brought the rest to the apostles and made an offering of it.
3-4 Peter said, “Ananias, how did Satan get you to lie to the Holy Spirit and secretly keep back part of the price of the field? Before you sold it, it was all yours, and after you sold it, the money was yours to do with as you wished. So what got into you to pull a trick like this? You didn’t lie to men but to God.”
5-6 Ananias, when he heard those words, fell down dead. That put the fear of God into everyone who heard of it. The younger men went right to work and wrapped him up, then carried him out and buried him.
7-8 Not more than three hours later, his wife, knowing nothing of what had happened, came in. Peter said, “Tell me, were you given this price for your field?”
“Yes,” she said, “that price.”
9-10 Peter responded, “What’s going on here that you connived to conspire against the Spirit of the Master? The men who buried your husband are at the door, and you’re next.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than she also fell down, dead. When the young men returned they found her body. They carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
11 By this time the whole church and, in fact, everyone who heard of these things had a healthy respect for God. They knew God was not to be trifled with.
12-16 Through the work of the apostles, many God-signs were set up among the people, many wonderful things done. They all met regularly and in remarkable harmony on the Temple porch named after Solomon. But even though people admired them a lot, outsiders were wary about joining them. On the other hand, those who put their trust in the Master were added right and left, men and women both. They even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on stretchers and bedrolls, hoping they would be touched by Peter’s shadow when he walked by. They came from the villages surrounding Jerusalem, throngs of them, bringing the sick and bedeviled. And they all were healed.
17-20 Provoked mightily by all this, the Chief Priest and those on his side, mainly the sect of Sadducees, went into action, arrested the apostles and put them in the town jail. But during the night an angel of God opened the jailhouse door and led them out. He said, “Go to the Temple and take your stand. Tell the people everything there is to say about this Life.”
Promptly obedient, they entered the Temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.
21-23 Meanwhile, the Chief Priest and his cronies convened the High Council, Israel’s senate, and sent to the jail to have the prisoners brought in. When the police got there, they couldn’t find them anywhere in the jail. They went back and reported, “We found the jail locked tight as a drum and the guards posted at the doors, but when we went inside we didn’t find a soul.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
John 14:25-31
“I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.
28 “You’ve heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, and I’m coming back.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m on my way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of my life.
29-31 “I’ve told you this ahead of time, before it happens, so that when it does happen, the confirmation will deepen your belief in me. I’ll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry—he has nothing on me, no claim on me. But so the world might know how thoroughly I love the Father, I am carrying out my Father’s instructions right down to the last detail.
“Get up. Let’s go. It’s time to leave here.”
Insight
John 13–17 is known as the Upper Room Discourse or our Lord’s Farewell Discourse. After three years of ministry, the time for Christ’s departure had come (13:1). Within the next twenty-four hours He would be crucified, and within weeks He would return to His Father in heaven (14:3–4). Therefore, He seized this very special time to console, instruct, and encourage the men He had chosen to carry on His work. Not only did Jesus tell them that He would send the Holy Spirit (14:16–17, 26; 15:26; 16:7–11) to be their Advocate (one who would come alongside to aid and assist them), He shared other truths that would strengthen them as His representatives. Truths about serving and loving one another (13:1–15, 34–35; 15:12–17), about abiding in Him and bearing fruit (15:1–11), and about being hated and persecuted by the world (15:18–16:4).
Can We Relax?
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27
Darnell entered the physical therapist’s office knowing he would experience a lot of pain. The therapist stretched and bent his arm and held it in positions it hadn’t been in for months since his injury. After holding each uncomfortable position for a few seconds, she gently told him: “Okay, you can relax.” He said later, “I think I heard that at least fifty times in each therapy session: ‘Okay, you can relax.’ ”
Thinking of those words, Darnell realized they could apply to the rest of his life as well. He could relax in God’s goodness and faithfulness instead of worrying.
As Jesus neared His death, He knew His disciples would need to learn this. They’d soon face a time of upheaval and persecution. To encourage them, Jesus said He would send the Holy Spirit to live with them and remind them of what He had taught (John 14:26). And so He could say, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. . . . Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (v. 27).
There’s plenty we could be uptight about in our everyday lives. But we can grow in our trust in God by reminding ourselves that His Spirit lives in us—and He offers us His peace. As we draw on His strength, we can hear Him in the therapist’s words: “Okay, you can relax.” By Anne Cetas
Reflect & Pray
What causes you stress? What characteristics of God can help you learn to trust Him more?
Teach me, Jesus, to trust Your faithfulness, to know Your presence, to experience Your peace—to relax.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
The Never-forsaking God
He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." —Hebrews 13:5
What line of thinking do my thoughts take? Do I turn to what God says or to my own fears? Am I simply repeating what God says, or am I learning to truly hear Him and then to respond after I have heard what He says? “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’ ” (Hebrews 13:5-6).
“I will never leave you…”— not for any reason; not my sin, selfishness, stubbornness, nor waywardness. Have I really let God say to me that He will never leave me? If I have not truly heard this assurance of God, then let me listen again.
“I will never…forsake you.” Sometimes it is not the difficulty of life but the drudgery of it that makes me think God will forsake me. When there is no major difficulty to overcome, no vision from God, nothing wonderful or beautiful— just the everyday activities of life— do I hear God’s assurance even in these?
We have the idea that God is going to do some exceptional thing— that He is preparing and equipping us for some extraordinary work in the future. But as we grow in His grace we find that God is glorifying Himself here and now, at this very moment. If we have God’s assurance behind us, the most amazing strength becomes ours, and we learn to sing, glorifying Him even in the ordinary days and ways of life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is the only Book that gives us any indication of the true nature of sin, and where it came from. The Philosophy of Sin, 1107 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
Rudderless - #8452
Our friends Roy and Judy have been married for almost 30 years. But there are two words that took a beating early in their marriage and they still get a rise out of Judy to this day believe it or not. The words "trust me." You know there's got to be a story here. Years ago, Roy decided to try his hand sailing one of those little Sunfish type sailboats. He wanted Judy to go with him. Her back was really bothering her, but he assured her that he knew what he was doing. Of course, every guy does! "Trust me," he said. One problem: as they sailed away, the rudder kept coming off. That's all. That's rudder, as in what steers the boat. Well, Judy was extremely unhappy when rudderlessness ultimately led them to capsizing - a boat with a ten-foot mast stuck upside down in six feet of water. Beautiful picture huh? So much for "trust me."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Rudderless."
That poor young husband! It's tough to be trying to sail without a rudder to guide you. It's actually a feeling a lot of folks know, even if they've never been on a sailboat in their life. In fact, it's our lives that often seem rudderless - drifting with no real sense of direction. It doesn't matter how big or how small your life is, it can still feel rudderless.
There's this feeling that I call pointlessness - the recurring sense that my life, however full and however successful, just seems so pointless...missing the meaning that makes it all make sense. And along the way, there have been people and things that have seemed to say, "Trust me" but they let us down. We're victims of disappointed trust, all of us, aren't we? Not sure where the rudder is that will help us find some direction.
The Bible explains our sense of rudderlessness, our sense of pointlessness when it says, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6). We were created in such a way that our life can only make sense when the One who created us is running it. But we've taken command instead, happy to let God run the universe, but unwilling to let Him run us. So we're drifting, sometimes even shipwrecked. Away from the only person who has the plan for our life. We are, to use the Bible's word for it, "lost."
Then along comes Jesus. He said He had come to "seek and save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). That saving involved the total sacrifice of His life for us, dying on the cross to absorb the awful death penalty for our spiritual rebellion. His cross became the bridge to the Creator that we've been lonely for all these years. So, in John 10:10, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus is able to say, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." In other words, the life you were made for.
When Jesus says, "Trust Me," you can, because this man loved you enough to die for you, He will never do you wrong. But you're rudderless until you anchor your life to Him. You do that by putting your total trust in Him to forgive every wrong thing you have ever done and to remove forever that wall between you and God. There's no religion involved here. This is a life-giving love relationship with Jesus Christ which you can begin right now, right where you are.
If you want to begin a relationship with Jesus, would you tell Him right now, "Jesus, I'm done running my life. I've tried that. I want to do it Your way. I believe You died for me. I believe You rose from the dead, You walked out of Your grave and I want You to walk into my life today. No one's ever loved me like You have. And beginning right now, I'm Yours."
Our website is for exactly someone like you at a moment like this and I would encourage you to go there and get the information from God's word that will help you be sure you belong to Jesus. That website is ANewStory.com.
The pointless voyage can end today if you'll let Jesus take the helm of your life. You know what will happen? He'll take you where you were made to be.
Monday, June 3, 2019
Proverbs 28, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE DEHYDRATED HEART
Your body is 80 percent fluid. Stop drinking and see what happens. Coherent thoughts vanish, skin grows clammy, and vital organs wrinkle.
Deprive your heart of spiritual water, and your dehydrated heart will send desperate messages—hopelessness, loneliness, resentment. Where do you find water for your soul? Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).
Let Christ be the water of your soul. Church activities might hide a thirst, but only Christ quenches it. Drink him. Receive Christ’s work on the cross, the energy of his Spirit, his lordship over your life, his unending, unfailing love. Drink deeply and often. And out of you will flow rivers of living water.
Read more Come Thirsty
Proverbs 28
The wicked are edgy with guilt, ready to run off
even when no one’s after them;
Honest people are relaxed and confident,
bold as lions.
2 When the country is in chaos,
everybody has a plan to fix it—
But it takes a leader of real understanding
to straighten things out.
3 The wicked who oppress the poor
are like a hailstorm that beats down the harvest.
4 If you desert God’s law, you’re free to embrace depravity;
if you love God’s law, you fight for it tooth and nail.
5 Justice makes no sense to the evilminded;
those who seek God know it inside and out.
6 It’s better to be poor and direct
than rich and crooked.
7 Practice God’s law—get a reputation for wisdom;
hang out with a loose crowd—embarrass your family.
8 Get as rich as you want
through cheating and extortion,
But eventually some friend of the poor
is going to give it all back to them.
9 God has no use for the prayers
of the people who won’t listen to him.
10 Lead good people down a wrong path
and you’ll come to a bad end;
do good and you’ll be rewarded for it.
11 The rich think they know it all,
but the poor can see right through them.
12 When good people are promoted, everything is great,
but when the bad are in charge, watch out!
13 You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it;
you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.
14 A tenderhearted person lives a blessed life;
a hardhearted person lives a hard life.
15 Lions roar and bears charge—
and the wicked lord it over the poor.
16 Among leaders who lack insight, abuse abounds,
but for one who hates corruption, the future is bright.
17 A murderer haunted by guilt
is doomed—there’s no helping him.
18 Walk straight—live well and be saved;
a devious life is a doomed life.
19 Work your garden—you’ll end up with plenty of food;
play and party—you’ll end up with an empty plate.
20 Committed and persistent work pays off;
get-rich-quick schemes are ripoffs.
21 Playing favorites is always a bad thing;
you can do great harm in seemingly harmless ways.
22 A miser in a hurry to get rich
doesn’t know that he’ll end up broke.
23 In the end, serious reprimand is appreciated
far more than bootlicking flattery.
24 Anyone who robs father and mother
and says, “So, what’s wrong with that?”
is worse than a pirate.
25 A grasping person stirs up trouble,
but trust in God brings a sense of well-being.
26 If you think you know it all, you’re a fool for sure;
real survivors learn wisdom from others.
27 Be generous to the poor—you’ll never go hungry;
shut your eyes to their needs, and run a gauntlet of curses.
28 When corruption takes over, good people go underground,
but when the crooks are thrown out, it’s safe to come out.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, June 03, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 63:1-8
A David Psalm, When He Was out in the Judean Wilderness
God—you’re my God!
I can’t get enough of you!
I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for God,
traveling across dry and weary deserts.
2-4 So here I am in the place of worship, eyes open,
drinking in your strength and glory.
In your generous love I am really living at last!
My lips brim praises like fountains.
I bless you every time I take a breath;
My arms wave like banners of praise to you.
5-8 I eat my fill of prime rib and gravy;
I smack my lips. It’s time to shout praises!
If I’m sleepless at midnight,
I spend the hours in grateful reflection.
Because you’ve always stood up for me,
I’m free to run and play.
I hold on to you for dear life,
and you hold me steady as a post.
Insight
The introductory note to Psalm 63 states, “A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.” Psalms 61–63 were probably written when David sought refuge in the wilderness during his son Absalom’s rebellion (2 Samuel 15–18). What do we know about Absalom? And why did he revolt against his father? Absalom, the son of David and Maakah (3:3), was a handsome man noted for his long, thick hair (14:25–26). When his beautiful sister Tamar was cruelly raped by their half-brother Amnon, Absalom took in his sister and waited for their father to punish Amnon. Two years later, after Absalom’s anger had simmered unabated and David still hadn’t intervened, Absalom ordered his brother killed and then fled. Eventually father and son were reunited, but it was far too late. David’s inaction ultimately led to Absalom’s attempt to usurp the throne.
Night Watches
On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Psalm 63:6
During my college days, my summers were spent working at a guest ranch in the stunningly beautiful mountains of Colorado. On a rotating basis, staff members were assigned “night watch” duty—to keep an eye out for forest fires in order to protect the guests as they slept. What initially seemed to be an exhausting and thankless task became a unique opportunity for me to be still, reflect, and find solace in the majesty of God’s presence.
King David earnestly sought and thirsted for the presence of God (Psalm 63:1), even from his bed and through the “watches of the night” (v. 6). The psalm makes it clear David was troubled. It’s possible the words contained in it reflect his deep sadness over the rebellion of his son Absalom. Yet the night became a time for David to find help and restoration in the “shadow of [God’s] wings” (v. 7)—in His power and presence.
Perhaps you’re dealing with some crisis or difficulty in your life, and the night watches have been anything but comforting. Perhaps your own “Absalom” weighs heavy on your heart and soul. Or other burdens of family, work, or finances plague your times of rest. If so, consider these sleepless moments to be opportunities to call out and cling to God—allowing His loving hand to uphold you (v. 8).
Reflect & Pray
How do God’s promises encourage you when you face challenges that keep you awake at night? How can the night watches draw you closer to Him?
Dear God, thank You for always being awake and present with me in every night watch.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, June 03, 2019
“The Secret of the Lord”
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him… —Psalm 25:14
What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you. Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself— to get us in touch with His purposes. Are we so intimately united to Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer— “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10)— that we catch the secrets of God? What makes God so dear to us is not so much His big blessings to us, but the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us— He knows every detail of each of our individual lives.
“Him shall He teach in the way He chooses” (Psalm 25:12). At first, we want the awareness of being guided by God. But then as we grow spiritually, we live so fully aware of God that we do not even need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing another way will never occur to us. If we are saved and sanctified, God guides us by our everyday choices. And if we are about to choose what He does not want, He will give us a sense of doubt or restraint, which we must heed. Whenever there is doubt, stop at once. Never try to reason it out, saying, “I wonder why I shouldn’t do this?” God instructs us in what we choose; that is, He actually guides our common sense. And when we yield to His teachings and guidance, we no longer hinder His Spirit by continually asking, “Now, Lord, what is Your will?”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him. The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, June 03, 2019
When a Planet Becomes Your Sun - #8451
You are probably a believer in heliocentricity, right? Now that is not some new denomination. It just means the sun is the center of our solar system and the planets, including the little tennis ball we live on, are revolving around the sun. We do sound a little confused about this sometimes, like when we say, "Isn't that a beautiful sunset?" Actually, the sun isn't going anywhere, we're the ones who are moving. But who wants to go for a romantic walk to watch a beautiful earthset? It doesn't have the same ring. But apparently, not everyone's got this orbit thing straight even today. The American Scientific Association did a survey a few years ago and they found that 21% (that's one out of every five Americans) that they surveyed thought the sun orbited around the earth, and seven percent said they didn't know.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When a Planet Becomes Your Sun."
So, there's some confusion about the fact that the planets revolve around the sun, not the sun around the planets. That's not just a scientific issue. It's a real spiritual issue. Because a whole lot of us have forgotten what is supposed to be the "sun" at the center of our life. We've put one of the "planets" of our life at the center, and in reality, everything is revolving around it. The Bible has a word for that. We don't like it but it's the word "idol." An idol.
Someone listening today is living in violation of the very First Commandment. It's recorded in our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 20:3. Heading the fundamental Law of God, the Ten Commandments, is this imperative: "You shall have no other gods before Me." Our instinctive response is: "Well, excuse me. I don't have any little images in my closet that I'm praying to." That's blatant, overt idolatry. But idolatry is far more than that. That's why, for example, greed is called idolatry in Colossians 3:5.
In real terms, your "god" isn't what you say you believe in, it's whatever you revolve your life around, what you think about most of the time, what you spend your time and money on, whatever is your bottom line in your life-choices. Obviously, the Bible says we are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deuteronomy 6:5). In other words, He is supposed to be the sun in the universe of every part of our life. Everyone and everything else is just a planet that is supposed to revolve around Him, and our beliefs agree with that. It's our everyday behavior that's the problem, not our beliefs. It could be that at this moment in your life, you're actually revolving around one of the planets in your life, and you're treating Jesus like He should revolve around that really important thing you have, too.
Maybe the real "sun" in your personal universe is your children. They're supposed to be very important to you, but not the center of your life. Maybe your marriage or your strong desire to be married is what you've put at the center. Your business or your career - that could become an idol. A relationship, your stuff, your plans, even your ministry can become an idol - you've started serving the work instead of serving the Lord, maybe.
If the sun were ever to leave its place at the center of our solar system, it would mess up everything. When you put what's supposed to be a "planet" in your life at the center of your life, nothing is going to work right. And it could be that Jesus is not really the sun around which everything in your life is revolving right now and the result is going to be chaos, confusion, and collapse.
That's why this wakeup call from God - to put the sun...actually, the Son of God - back at the center of everything you're about. Remember God's first order to the human race: "No other gods." And you pray with the hymn writer, "The dearest idol I have known, help me to tear it from the throne and worship only Thee."
Yout know the Bible says we are created by Jesus and for Jesus and maybe you have never put Him at the center of your life in the first place. He put you at the center when He died on a cross for your sin. And today, this could be your day to begin a relationship with Him, with the One who made you, where He belongs - on the throne of your life. Just tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
Go to our website, get more information - ANewStory.com, and make sure that Jesus is the sun that you revolve around.
Your body is 80 percent fluid. Stop drinking and see what happens. Coherent thoughts vanish, skin grows clammy, and vital organs wrinkle.
Deprive your heart of spiritual water, and your dehydrated heart will send desperate messages—hopelessness, loneliness, resentment. Where do you find water for your soul? Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).
Let Christ be the water of your soul. Church activities might hide a thirst, but only Christ quenches it. Drink him. Receive Christ’s work on the cross, the energy of his Spirit, his lordship over your life, his unending, unfailing love. Drink deeply and often. And out of you will flow rivers of living water.
Read more Come Thirsty
Proverbs 28
The wicked are edgy with guilt, ready to run off
even when no one’s after them;
Honest people are relaxed and confident,
bold as lions.
2 When the country is in chaos,
everybody has a plan to fix it—
But it takes a leader of real understanding
to straighten things out.
3 The wicked who oppress the poor
are like a hailstorm that beats down the harvest.
4 If you desert God’s law, you’re free to embrace depravity;
if you love God’s law, you fight for it tooth and nail.
5 Justice makes no sense to the evilminded;
those who seek God know it inside and out.
6 It’s better to be poor and direct
than rich and crooked.
7 Practice God’s law—get a reputation for wisdom;
hang out with a loose crowd—embarrass your family.
8 Get as rich as you want
through cheating and extortion,
But eventually some friend of the poor
is going to give it all back to them.
9 God has no use for the prayers
of the people who won’t listen to him.
10 Lead good people down a wrong path
and you’ll come to a bad end;
do good and you’ll be rewarded for it.
11 The rich think they know it all,
but the poor can see right through them.
12 When good people are promoted, everything is great,
but when the bad are in charge, watch out!
13 You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it;
you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.
14 A tenderhearted person lives a blessed life;
a hardhearted person lives a hard life.
15 Lions roar and bears charge—
and the wicked lord it over the poor.
16 Among leaders who lack insight, abuse abounds,
but for one who hates corruption, the future is bright.
17 A murderer haunted by guilt
is doomed—there’s no helping him.
18 Walk straight—live well and be saved;
a devious life is a doomed life.
19 Work your garden—you’ll end up with plenty of food;
play and party—you’ll end up with an empty plate.
20 Committed and persistent work pays off;
get-rich-quick schemes are ripoffs.
21 Playing favorites is always a bad thing;
you can do great harm in seemingly harmless ways.
22 A miser in a hurry to get rich
doesn’t know that he’ll end up broke.
23 In the end, serious reprimand is appreciated
far more than bootlicking flattery.
24 Anyone who robs father and mother
and says, “So, what’s wrong with that?”
is worse than a pirate.
25 A grasping person stirs up trouble,
but trust in God brings a sense of well-being.
26 If you think you know it all, you’re a fool for sure;
real survivors learn wisdom from others.
27 Be generous to the poor—you’ll never go hungry;
shut your eyes to their needs, and run a gauntlet of curses.
28 When corruption takes over, good people go underground,
but when the crooks are thrown out, it’s safe to come out.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, June 03, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 63:1-8
A David Psalm, When He Was out in the Judean Wilderness
God—you’re my God!
I can’t get enough of you!
I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for God,
traveling across dry and weary deserts.
2-4 So here I am in the place of worship, eyes open,
drinking in your strength and glory.
In your generous love I am really living at last!
My lips brim praises like fountains.
I bless you every time I take a breath;
My arms wave like banners of praise to you.
5-8 I eat my fill of prime rib and gravy;
I smack my lips. It’s time to shout praises!
If I’m sleepless at midnight,
I spend the hours in grateful reflection.
Because you’ve always stood up for me,
I’m free to run and play.
I hold on to you for dear life,
and you hold me steady as a post.
Insight
The introductory note to Psalm 63 states, “A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.” Psalms 61–63 were probably written when David sought refuge in the wilderness during his son Absalom’s rebellion (2 Samuel 15–18). What do we know about Absalom? And why did he revolt against his father? Absalom, the son of David and Maakah (3:3), was a handsome man noted for his long, thick hair (14:25–26). When his beautiful sister Tamar was cruelly raped by their half-brother Amnon, Absalom took in his sister and waited for their father to punish Amnon. Two years later, after Absalom’s anger had simmered unabated and David still hadn’t intervened, Absalom ordered his brother killed and then fled. Eventually father and son were reunited, but it was far too late. David’s inaction ultimately led to Absalom’s attempt to usurp the throne.
Night Watches
On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Psalm 63:6
During my college days, my summers were spent working at a guest ranch in the stunningly beautiful mountains of Colorado. On a rotating basis, staff members were assigned “night watch” duty—to keep an eye out for forest fires in order to protect the guests as they slept. What initially seemed to be an exhausting and thankless task became a unique opportunity for me to be still, reflect, and find solace in the majesty of God’s presence.
King David earnestly sought and thirsted for the presence of God (Psalm 63:1), even from his bed and through the “watches of the night” (v. 6). The psalm makes it clear David was troubled. It’s possible the words contained in it reflect his deep sadness over the rebellion of his son Absalom. Yet the night became a time for David to find help and restoration in the “shadow of [God’s] wings” (v. 7)—in His power and presence.
Perhaps you’re dealing with some crisis or difficulty in your life, and the night watches have been anything but comforting. Perhaps your own “Absalom” weighs heavy on your heart and soul. Or other burdens of family, work, or finances plague your times of rest. If so, consider these sleepless moments to be opportunities to call out and cling to God—allowing His loving hand to uphold you (v. 8).
Reflect & Pray
How do God’s promises encourage you when you face challenges that keep you awake at night? How can the night watches draw you closer to Him?
Dear God, thank You for always being awake and present with me in every night watch.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, June 03, 2019
“The Secret of the Lord”
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him… —Psalm 25:14
What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you. Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself— to get us in touch with His purposes. Are we so intimately united to Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer— “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10)— that we catch the secrets of God? What makes God so dear to us is not so much His big blessings to us, but the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us— He knows every detail of each of our individual lives.
“Him shall He teach in the way He chooses” (Psalm 25:12). At first, we want the awareness of being guided by God. But then as we grow spiritually, we live so fully aware of God that we do not even need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing another way will never occur to us. If we are saved and sanctified, God guides us by our everyday choices. And if we are about to choose what He does not want, He will give us a sense of doubt or restraint, which we must heed. Whenever there is doubt, stop at once. Never try to reason it out, saying, “I wonder why I shouldn’t do this?” God instructs us in what we choose; that is, He actually guides our common sense. And when we yield to His teachings and guidance, we no longer hinder His Spirit by continually asking, “Now, Lord, what is Your will?”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The vital relationship which the Christian has to the Bible is not that he worships the letter, but that the Holy Spirit makes the words of the Bible spirit and life to him. The Psychology of Redemption, 1066 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, June 03, 2019
When a Planet Becomes Your Sun - #8451
You are probably a believer in heliocentricity, right? Now that is not some new denomination. It just means the sun is the center of our solar system and the planets, including the little tennis ball we live on, are revolving around the sun. We do sound a little confused about this sometimes, like when we say, "Isn't that a beautiful sunset?" Actually, the sun isn't going anywhere, we're the ones who are moving. But who wants to go for a romantic walk to watch a beautiful earthset? It doesn't have the same ring. But apparently, not everyone's got this orbit thing straight even today. The American Scientific Association did a survey a few years ago and they found that 21% (that's one out of every five Americans) that they surveyed thought the sun orbited around the earth, and seven percent said they didn't know.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When a Planet Becomes Your Sun."
So, there's some confusion about the fact that the planets revolve around the sun, not the sun around the planets. That's not just a scientific issue. It's a real spiritual issue. Because a whole lot of us have forgotten what is supposed to be the "sun" at the center of our life. We've put one of the "planets" of our life at the center, and in reality, everything is revolving around it. The Bible has a word for that. We don't like it but it's the word "idol." An idol.
Someone listening today is living in violation of the very First Commandment. It's recorded in our word for today from the Word of God in Exodus 20:3. Heading the fundamental Law of God, the Ten Commandments, is this imperative: "You shall have no other gods before Me." Our instinctive response is: "Well, excuse me. I don't have any little images in my closet that I'm praying to." That's blatant, overt idolatry. But idolatry is far more than that. That's why, for example, greed is called idolatry in Colossians 3:5.
In real terms, your "god" isn't what you say you believe in, it's whatever you revolve your life around, what you think about most of the time, what you spend your time and money on, whatever is your bottom line in your life-choices. Obviously, the Bible says we are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deuteronomy 6:5). In other words, He is supposed to be the sun in the universe of every part of our life. Everyone and everything else is just a planet that is supposed to revolve around Him, and our beliefs agree with that. It's our everyday behavior that's the problem, not our beliefs. It could be that at this moment in your life, you're actually revolving around one of the planets in your life, and you're treating Jesus like He should revolve around that really important thing you have, too.
Maybe the real "sun" in your personal universe is your children. They're supposed to be very important to you, but not the center of your life. Maybe your marriage or your strong desire to be married is what you've put at the center. Your business or your career - that could become an idol. A relationship, your stuff, your plans, even your ministry can become an idol - you've started serving the work instead of serving the Lord, maybe.
If the sun were ever to leave its place at the center of our solar system, it would mess up everything. When you put what's supposed to be a "planet" in your life at the center of your life, nothing is going to work right. And it could be that Jesus is not really the sun around which everything in your life is revolving right now and the result is going to be chaos, confusion, and collapse.
That's why this wakeup call from God - to put the sun...actually, the Son of God - back at the center of everything you're about. Remember God's first order to the human race: "No other gods." And you pray with the hymn writer, "The dearest idol I have known, help me to tear it from the throne and worship only Thee."
Yout know the Bible says we are created by Jesus and for Jesus and maybe you have never put Him at the center of your life in the first place. He put you at the center when He died on a cross for your sin. And today, this could be your day to begin a relationship with Him, with the One who made you, where He belongs - on the throne of your life. Just tell Him today, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
Go to our website, get more information - ANewStory.com, and make sure that Jesus is the sun that you revolve around.
Sunday, June 2, 2019
Proverbs 29, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: God Gets Us Through Stuff
Whatever it is-you'll get through this! You think you won't. But we all do. We fear the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave. We wonder, will this gray sky ever brighten? Will we ever exit this pit?
Yes…yes! Deliverance is to the Bible what jazz music is to Mardi Gras: big, bold, and everywhere. Out of the lion's den for Daniel, the prison for Peter, the whale's belly for Jonah, the grave for Lazarus, and the shackles for Paul. God gets us through stuff. Through the wilderness, through the valley of the shadow of death. Through is a favorite word of God's. Isaiah 4:32 says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned. . ."
You will get through this!
Proverbs 29
For people who hate discipline
and only get more stubborn,
There’ll come a day when life tumbles in and they break,
but by then it’ll be too late to help them.
2 When good people run things, everyone is glad,
but when the ruler is bad, everyone groans.
3 If you love wisdom, you’ll delight your parents,
but you’ll destroy their trust if you run with whores.
4 A leader of good judgment gives stability;
an exploiting leader leaves a trail of waste.
5 A flattering neighbor is up to no good;
he’s probably planning to take advantage of you.
6 Evil people fall into their own traps;
good people run the other way, glad to escape.
7 The good-hearted understand what it’s like to be poor;
the hardhearted haven’t the faintest idea.
8 A gang of cynics can upset a whole city;
a group of sages can calm everyone down.
9 A sage trying to work things out with a fool
gets only scorn and sarcasm for his trouble.
10 Murderers hate honest people;
moral folks encourage them.
11 A fool lets it all hang out;
a sage quietly mulls it over.
12 When a leader listens to malicious gossip,
all the workers get infected with evil.
13 The poor and their abusers have at least something in common:
they can both see—their sight, God’s gift!
14 Leadership gains authority and respect
when the voiceless poor are treated fairly.
15 Wise discipline imparts wisdom;
spoiled adolescents embarrass their parents.
16 When degenerates take charge, crime runs wild,
but the righteous will eventually observe their collapse.
17 Discipline your children; you’ll be glad you did—
they’ll turn out delightful to live with.
18 If people can’t see what God is doing,
they stumble all over themselves;
But when they attend to what he reveals,
they are most blessed.
19 It takes more than talk to keep workers in line;
mere words go in one ear and out the other.
20 Observe the people who always talk before they think—
even simpletons are better off than they are.
21 If you let people treat you like a doormat,
you’ll be quite forgotten in the end.
22 Angry people stir up a lot of discord;
the intemperate stir up trouble.
23 Pride lands you flat on your face;
humility prepares you for honors.
24 Befriend an outlaw
and become an enemy to yourself.
When the victims cry out,
you’ll be included in their curses
if you’re a coward to their cause in court.
25 The fear of human opinion disables;
trusting in God protects you from that.
26 Everyone tries to get help from the leader,
but only God will give us justice.
27 Good people can’t stand the sight of deliberate evil;
the wicked can’t stand the sight of well-chosen goodness.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, June 02, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Genesis 1:26-31
God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
29-30 Then God said, “I’ve given you
every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
given them to you for food.
To all animals and all birds,
everything that moves and breathes,
I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.”
And there it was.
31 God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Six.
Insight
Today’s reading contains two significant ideas. First, humanity is set apart from all other living creatures because we’re made in the image of God. Second, our first God-given assignment was to rule over creation (Genesis 1:26). There’s been much debate over what constitutes being made in God’s image. It may refer to intellect, morality, or spirituality. But what’s interesting is the phrase “so that they may rule over [all other creatures]” (v. 26). Being made in God’s image enables us to fulfill our task to rule over the rest of creation.
To learn more about the Old Testament, visit christianuniversity.org/OT128.
In God’s Image
God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
When her beautiful brown skin started losing its color, a young woman felt frightened, as if she were disappearing or losing her “self.” With heavy makeup, she covered up “my spots,” as she called them—patches of lighter skin caused by a condition called vitiligo. It’s a loss of skin pigment, melanin, which gives skin its tone.
Then one day, she asked herself: Why hide? Relying on God’s strength to accept herself, she stopped wearing heavy makeup. Soon she began gaining attention for her self-confidence. Eventually she became the first spokesmodel with vitiligo for a global cosmetics brand.
“It’s such a blessing,” she told a TV news host, adding that her faith, family, and friends are the ways she finds encouragement.
This woman’s story invites us to remember that we each are created in God’s image. “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). No matter what we look like on the outside, all of us are image-bearers of God. As His created persons, we reflect His glory; and as believers in Jesus we are being transformed to represent Him in the world.
Do you struggle to love the skin you’re in? Today, look in the mirror and smile for God. He created you in His image. By Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What’s more important to you—how people see you or if they see God in you? What are ways you can represent His image to others?
Help me accept how You’ve made me, Creator God. Reign in my heart so others can see You in me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, June 02, 2019
Are You Obsessed by Something?
Who is the man that fears the Lord? —Psalm 25:12
Are you obsessed by something? You will probably say, “No, by nothing,” but all of us are obsessed by something— usually by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our own experience of the Christian life. But the psalmist says that we are to be obsessed by God. The abiding awareness of the Christian life is to be God Himself, not just thoughts about Him. The total being of our life inside and out is to be absolutely obsessed by the presence of God. A child’s awareness is so absorbed in his mother that although he is not consciously thinking of her, when a problem arises, the abiding relationship is that with the mother. In that same way, we are to “live and move and have our being” in God (Acts 17:28), looking at everything in relation to Him, because our abiding awareness of Him continually pushes itself to the forefront of our lives.
If we are obsessed by God, nothing else can get into our lives— not concerns, nor tribulation, nor worries. And now we understand why our Lord so emphasized the sin of worrying. How can we dare to be so absolutely unbelieving when God totally surrounds us? To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy.
“He himself shall dwell in prosperity…” (Psalm 25:13). God will cause us to “dwell in prosperity,” keeping us at ease, even in the midst of tribulation, misunderstanding, and slander, if our “life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). We rob ourselves of the miraculous, revealed truth of this abiding companionship with God. “God is our refuge…” (Psalm 46:1). Nothing can break through His shelter of protection.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God, or with the conception of an amiable Being who says, “Oh well, sin doesn’t matter much”? Disciples Indeed, 389 L
Whatever it is-you'll get through this! You think you won't. But we all do. We fear the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave. We wonder, will this gray sky ever brighten? Will we ever exit this pit?
Yes…yes! Deliverance is to the Bible what jazz music is to Mardi Gras: big, bold, and everywhere. Out of the lion's den for Daniel, the prison for Peter, the whale's belly for Jonah, the grave for Lazarus, and the shackles for Paul. God gets us through stuff. Through the wilderness, through the valley of the shadow of death. Through is a favorite word of God's. Isaiah 4:32 says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned. . ."
You will get through this!
Proverbs 29
For people who hate discipline
and only get more stubborn,
There’ll come a day when life tumbles in and they break,
but by then it’ll be too late to help them.
2 When good people run things, everyone is glad,
but when the ruler is bad, everyone groans.
3 If you love wisdom, you’ll delight your parents,
but you’ll destroy their trust if you run with whores.
4 A leader of good judgment gives stability;
an exploiting leader leaves a trail of waste.
5 A flattering neighbor is up to no good;
he’s probably planning to take advantage of you.
6 Evil people fall into their own traps;
good people run the other way, glad to escape.
7 The good-hearted understand what it’s like to be poor;
the hardhearted haven’t the faintest idea.
8 A gang of cynics can upset a whole city;
a group of sages can calm everyone down.
9 A sage trying to work things out with a fool
gets only scorn and sarcasm for his trouble.
10 Murderers hate honest people;
moral folks encourage them.
11 A fool lets it all hang out;
a sage quietly mulls it over.
12 When a leader listens to malicious gossip,
all the workers get infected with evil.
13 The poor and their abusers have at least something in common:
they can both see—their sight, God’s gift!
14 Leadership gains authority and respect
when the voiceless poor are treated fairly.
15 Wise discipline imparts wisdom;
spoiled adolescents embarrass their parents.
16 When degenerates take charge, crime runs wild,
but the righteous will eventually observe their collapse.
17 Discipline your children; you’ll be glad you did—
they’ll turn out delightful to live with.
18 If people can’t see what God is doing,
they stumble all over themselves;
But when they attend to what he reveals,
they are most blessed.
19 It takes more than talk to keep workers in line;
mere words go in one ear and out the other.
20 Observe the people who always talk before they think—
even simpletons are better off than they are.
21 If you let people treat you like a doormat,
you’ll be quite forgotten in the end.
22 Angry people stir up a lot of discord;
the intemperate stir up trouble.
23 Pride lands you flat on your face;
humility prepares you for honors.
24 Befriend an outlaw
and become an enemy to yourself.
When the victims cry out,
you’ll be included in their curses
if you’re a coward to their cause in court.
25 The fear of human opinion disables;
trusting in God protects you from that.
26 Everyone tries to get help from the leader,
but only God will give us justice.
27 Good people can’t stand the sight of deliberate evil;
the wicked can’t stand the sight of well-chosen goodness.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, June 02, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Genesis 1:26-31
God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God’s nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
“Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
29-30 Then God said, “I’ve given you
every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
given them to you for food.
To all animals and all birds,
everything that moves and breathes,
I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.”
And there it was.
31 God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Six.
Insight
Today’s reading contains two significant ideas. First, humanity is set apart from all other living creatures because we’re made in the image of God. Second, our first God-given assignment was to rule over creation (Genesis 1:26). There’s been much debate over what constitutes being made in God’s image. It may refer to intellect, morality, or spirituality. But what’s interesting is the phrase “so that they may rule over [all other creatures]” (v. 26). Being made in God’s image enables us to fulfill our task to rule over the rest of creation.
To learn more about the Old Testament, visit christianuniversity.org/OT128.
In God’s Image
God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
When her beautiful brown skin started losing its color, a young woman felt frightened, as if she were disappearing or losing her “self.” With heavy makeup, she covered up “my spots,” as she called them—patches of lighter skin caused by a condition called vitiligo. It’s a loss of skin pigment, melanin, which gives skin its tone.
Then one day, she asked herself: Why hide? Relying on God’s strength to accept herself, she stopped wearing heavy makeup. Soon she began gaining attention for her self-confidence. Eventually she became the first spokesmodel with vitiligo for a global cosmetics brand.
“It’s such a blessing,” she told a TV news host, adding that her faith, family, and friends are the ways she finds encouragement.
This woman’s story invites us to remember that we each are created in God’s image. “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). No matter what we look like on the outside, all of us are image-bearers of God. As His created persons, we reflect His glory; and as believers in Jesus we are being transformed to represent Him in the world.
Do you struggle to love the skin you’re in? Today, look in the mirror and smile for God. He created you in His image. By Patricia Raybon
Reflect & Pray
What’s more important to you—how people see you or if they see God in you? What are ways you can represent His image to others?
Help me accept how You’ve made me, Creator God. Reign in my heart so others can see You in me.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, June 02, 2019
Are You Obsessed by Something?
Who is the man that fears the Lord? —Psalm 25:12
Are you obsessed by something? You will probably say, “No, by nothing,” but all of us are obsessed by something— usually by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our own experience of the Christian life. But the psalmist says that we are to be obsessed by God. The abiding awareness of the Christian life is to be God Himself, not just thoughts about Him. The total being of our life inside and out is to be absolutely obsessed by the presence of God. A child’s awareness is so absorbed in his mother that although he is not consciously thinking of her, when a problem arises, the abiding relationship is that with the mother. In that same way, we are to “live and move and have our being” in God (Acts 17:28), looking at everything in relation to Him, because our abiding awareness of Him continually pushes itself to the forefront of our lives.
If we are obsessed by God, nothing else can get into our lives— not concerns, nor tribulation, nor worries. And now we understand why our Lord so emphasized the sin of worrying. How can we dare to be so absolutely unbelieving when God totally surrounds us? To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy.
“He himself shall dwell in prosperity…” (Psalm 25:13). God will cause us to “dwell in prosperity,” keeping us at ease, even in the midst of tribulation, misunderstanding, and slander, if our “life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). We rob ourselves of the miraculous, revealed truth of this abiding companionship with God. “God is our refuge…” (Psalm 46:1). Nothing can break through His shelter of protection.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Am I becoming more and more in love with God as a holy God, or with the conception of an amiable Being who says, “Oh well, sin doesn’t matter much”? Disciples Indeed, 389 L
Saturday, June 1, 2019
Proverbs 27, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: Never Give Up
How do we flourish in the midst of tragedy? Remember Joseph? Genesis records his story. It says his brothers “hated him.” They put him into a pit, leaving him for dead. And then they covered up what they’d done. Joseph’s story got worse before it got better. Abandonment led to enslavement, then entrapment, and finally imprisonment. He was sold out. Mistreated. Yet he never gave up. His heart never hardened; his resolve never vanished.
He not only survived—he thrived! Speaking years later to the brothers who had betrayed him he said, “As for you…you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result” (Genesis 50:20).
In God’s hands intended evil becomes eventual good!
From You’ll Get Through This
Proverbs 27
Don’t brashly announce what you’re going to do tomorrow;
you don’t know the first thing about tomorrow.
2 Don’t call attention to yourself;
let others do that for you.
3 Carrying a log across your shoulders
while you’re hefting a boulder with your arms
Is nothing compared to the burden
of putting up with a fool.
4 We’re blasted by anger and swamped by rage,
but who can survive jealousy?
5 A spoken reprimand is better
than approval that’s never expressed.
6 The wounds from a lover are worth it;
kisses from an enemy do you in.
7 When you’ve stuffed yourself, you refuse dessert;
when you’re starved, you could eat a horse.
8 People who won’t settle down, wandering hither and yon,
are like restless birds, flitting to and fro.
9 Just as lotions and fragrance give sensual delight,
a sweet friendship refreshes the soul.
10 Don’t leave your friends or your parents’ friends
and run home to your family when things get rough;
Better a nearby friend
than a distant family.
11 Become wise, dear child, and make me happy;
then nothing the world throws my way will upset me.
12 A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks;
a simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered.
13 Hold tight to collateral on any loan to a stranger;
be wary of accepting what a transient has pawned.
14 If you wake your friend in the early morning
by shouting “Rise and shine!”
It will sound to him
more like a curse than a blessing.
15-16 A nagging spouse is like
the drip, drip, drip of a leaky faucet;
You can’t turn it off,
and you can’t get away from it.
17 You use steel to sharpen steel,
and one friend sharpens another.
18 If you care for your orchard, you’ll enjoy its fruit;
if you honor your boss, you’ll be honored.
19 Just as water mirrors your face,
so your face mirrors your heart.
20 Hell has a voracious appetite,
and lust just never quits.
21 The purity of silver and gold is tested
by putting them in the fire;
The purity of human hearts is tested
by giving them a little fame.
22 Pound on a fool all you like—
you can’t pound out foolishness.
23-27 Know your sheep by name;
carefully attend to your flocks;
(Don’t take them for granted;
possessions don’t last forever, you know.)
And then, when the crops are in
and the harvest is stored in the barns,
You can knit sweaters from lambs’ wool,
and sell your goats for a profit;
There will be plenty of milk and meat
to last your family through the winter.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, June 01, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Philippians 3:7-14
The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.
10-11 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.
12-14 I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.
Insight
In Philippians 3:13, Paul says he’s committed to doing “one thing.” Ironically, he then goes on to list three things and each one of them has significance. First, he wants to “[forget] what is behind.” This may refer to the things that constituted his past “confidence in the flesh” (vv. 4–6), derived from living out Judaism in its full force. Second, Paul wants to reach to what’s ahead. While he doesn’t explain himself, this statement would make a nice parallel to Philippians 1:21, where Paul says that to live is Christ but to die is gain. Finally, he’s committed to pressing on toward the goal for the “prize” (3:14)—an analogy to the award received by the winner in the Greek athletic games. Taken together, Paul’s ultimate goal is to accomplish all that he’s been called to in Christ.
Objects in Mirror
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14
“Must. Go. Faster.” That’s what Dr. Ian Malcolm, played by Jeff Goldblum, says in an iconic scene from the 1993 movie Jurassic Park as he and two other characters flee in a Jeep from a rampaging tyrannosaurus. When the driver looks in the rearview mirror, he sees the raging reptile’s jaw—right above the words: “OBJECTS IN MIRROR MAY BE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.”
The scene is a masterful combination of intensity and grim humor. But sometimes the “monsters” from our past feel like they’ll never stop pursuing us. We look in the “mirror” of our lives and see mistakes looming right there, threatening to consume us with guilt or shame.
The apostle Paul understood the past’s potentially paralyzing power. He’d spent years trying to live perfectly apart from Christ, and even persecuted Christians (Philippians 3:1–9). Regret over his past could easily have crippled him.
But Paul found such beauty and power in his relationship with Christ that he was compelled to let go of his old life (vv. 8–9). That freed him to look forward in faith instead of backward in fear or regret: “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal” (vv. 13–14).
Our redemption in Christ has freed us to live for Him. We don’t have to let those “objects in (our) mirror” dictate our direction as we continue forward. By Adam Holz
Reflect & Pray
How do Paul’s insights on Christ's forgiveness of us speak into those issues in your life? If you’re struggling with a past choice, who might you talk to for help to “press on”
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, June 01, 2019
The Staggering Question
He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" —Ezekiel 37:3
Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can a twisted life be made right? There is only one appropriate answer— “O Lord God, You know” (Ezekiel 37:3). Never forge ahead with your religious common sense and say, “Oh, yes, with just a little more Bible reading, devotional time, and prayer, I see how it can be done.”
It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we see the activity and mistake panic for inspiration. That is why we see so few fellow workers with God, yet so many people working for God. We would much rather work for God than believe in Him. Do I really believe that God will do in me what I cannot do? The degree of hopelessness I have for others comes from never realizing that God has done anything for me. Is my own personal experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never have a sense of hopelessness for anyone else I see? Has any spiritual work been accomplished in me at all? The degree of panic activity in my life is equal to the degree of my lack of personal spiritual experience.
“Behold, O My people, I will open your graves…” (Ezekiel 37:12). When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He will only do this when His Spirit is at work in you), then you know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as you yourself could be without His grace. My “grave” has been opened by God and “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells” (Romans 7:18). God’s Spirit continually reveals to His children what human nature is like apart from His grace.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest. Disciples Indeed, 395 L
Friday, May 31, 2019
Acts 4:23-37, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: TO HEAR THE APPLAUSE OF HEAVEN
The Beatitudes end with this compelling promise— “Great is your reward in heaven!” (Matthew 5:12).
The Book of Revelation could be called the Book of Homecoming. In Revelation 21 verse 2, John describes heaven as a “bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” Verse 4 says “there will be no more death.” The most hopeful words are in verse 5 , “I am making everything new.” The Master Builder will pull out the original plan and restore the vigor, the energy, the hope, and the soul.
Each step you take brings you closer to home. Before you know it, you’ll enter the City. You’ll hear your name spoken by those who love you. And maybe, just maybe—in the back, behind the crowds—the One who would rather die than live without you will remove his pierced hands from his heavenly robe and…applaud.
Read more Applause of Heaven
Acts 4:23-37
As soon as Peter and John were let go, they went to their friends and told them what the high priests and religious leaders had said. Hearing the report, they lifted their voices in a wonderful harmony in prayer: “Strong God, you made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. By the Holy Spirit you spoke through the mouth of your servant and our father, David:
Why the big noise, nations?
Why the mean plots, peoples?
Earth’s leaders push for position,
Potentates meet for summit talks,
The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers!
27-28 “For in fact they did meet—Herod and Pontius Pilate with nations and peoples, even Israel itself!—met in this very city to plot against your holy Son Jesus, the One you made Messiah, to carry out the plans you long ago set in motion.
29-30 “And now they’re at it again! Take care of their threats and give your servants fearless confidence in preaching your Message, as you stretch out your hand to us in healings and miracles and wonders done in the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 While they were praying, the place where they were meeting trembled and shook. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak God’s Word with fearless confidence.
32-33 The whole congregation of believers was united as one—one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, “That’s mine; you can’t have it.” They shared everything. The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus, and grace was on all of them.
34-35 And so it turned out that not a person among them was needy. Those who owned fields or houses sold them and brought the price of the sale to the apostles and made an offering of it. The apostles then distributed it according to each person’s need.
36-37 Joseph, called by the apostles “Barnabas” (which means “Son of Comfort”), a Levite born in Cyprus, sold a field that he owned, brought the money, and made an offering of it to the apostles.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 31, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Deuteronomy 15:7-11
When you happen on someone who’s in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don’t look the other way pretending you don’t see him. Don’t keep a tight grip on your purse. No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs. Don’t count the cost. Don’t listen to that selfish voice saying, “It’s almost the seventh year, the year of All-Debts-Are-Canceled,” and turn aside and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch, refusing to help him. He’ll call God’s attention to you and your blatant sin.
10-11 Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.
Insight
God’s decree to Israel to care for the poor in their midst was represented by a trio of the poorest of the poor—widows, orphans, and aliens. Because the Israelites were blessed with material prosperity, they were commanded to share with the economically vulnerable (Deuteronomy 16:9–12; 26:8–11). Part of the command to be generous included allowing the poor to feed on their lands under the law of gleanings (Leviticus 19:9–10; Deuteronomy 24:19–21). They were also to set aside a tenth of their harvests every third year as part of their social responsibility “so that [the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow] may eat in your towns and be satisfied” (Deuteronomy 26:12).
Here for You
I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.
Deuteronomy 15:11
On the outskirts of Paris, as in other cities around the globe, people are coming to the aid of the homeless in their communities. Clothing, covered in waterproof bags, is hung on designated fences for those living on the streets to take according to their needs. The bags are labeled, “I’m not lost; I’m for you if you’re cold.” The effort not only warms those without shelter, but also teaches those in the community the importance of assisting the needy among them.
The Bible highlights the importance of caring for those who are poor, instructing us to be “openhanded” toward them (Deuteronomy 15:11). We might be tempted to avert our eyes to the plight of the poor, holding tightly to our resources instead of sharing them. Yet God challenges us to recognize that we will always be surrounded by those who have needs and therefore to respond to them with generosity, not a “grudging heart” (v. 10). Jesus says that in giving to the poor we receive an enduring treasure in heaven (Luke 12:33).
Our generosity may not be recognized by anyone other than God. Yet when we give freely, we not only meet the needs of those around us but we also experience the joy God intends for us in providing for others. Help us, Lord, to have open eyes and open hands to supply the needs of those You place in our paths! By Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
Are you holding too tightly to your resources? If yes, why? What need can you fill today?
Generosity displays confidence in God’s loving and faithful provision.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 31, 2019
Put God First
Jesus did not commit Himself to them…for He knew what was in man. —John 2:24-25
Put Trust in God First. Our Lord never put His trust in any person. Yet He was never suspicious, never bitter, and never lost hope for anyone, because He put His trust in God first. He trusted absolutely in what God’s grace could do for others. If I put my trust in human beings first, the end result will be my despair and hopelessness toward everyone. I will become bitter because I have insisted that people be what no person can ever be— absolutely perfect and right. Never trust anything in yourself or in anyone else, except the grace of God.
Put God’s Will First. “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:9).
A person’s obedience is to what he sees to be a need— our Lord’s obedience was to the will of His Father. The rallying cry today is, “We must get to work! The heathen are dying without God. We must go and tell them about Him.” But we must first make sure that God’s “needs” and His will in us personally are being met. Jesus said, “…tarry…until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The purpose of our Christian training is to get us into the right relationship to the “needs” of God and His will. Once God’s “needs” in us have been met, He will open the way for us to accomplish His will, meeting His “needs” elsewhere.
Put God’s Son First. “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” (Matthew 18:5).
God came as a baby, giving and entrusting Himself to me. He expects my personal life to be a “Bethlehem.” Am I allowing my natural life to be slowly transformed by the indwelling life of the Son of God? God’s ultimate purpose is that His Son might be exhibited in me.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 31, 2019
Speeding by the Cross - #8450
We were speeding along the interstate in Texas, and suddenly there it was - a huge, illuminated metal cross. It just dominated the landscape, especially on the flatlands of Texas. That cross is actually 19 stories high and it can be seen from 20 miles away. They claim it's the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. We've been by there before, but this was the first time we ever stopped and looked at it more closely.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Speeding by the Cross."
We had been like most people, we'd never stopped to check it out. As impressive as that cross is, most folks just speed right by it, which is okay with that cross. But it's dangerous to do that with the cross - the one where Jesus died to pay for every wrong thing you and I have ever done.
But for all its eternal importance in determining our heaven or our hell, too many of us just glance briefly at Jesus' death on the cross, think it's nice, and drive on by. Maybe you've made many stops on your life-journey, looking for that spiritual or emotional fill-up that would satisfy your soul. But nothing ever has: none of those relationships, none of those accomplishments, none of your religious or spiritual experiences. So you keep speeding along on your journey, looking for a better place to stop, maybe driving right by the only place where your lifelong search will end.
In our word for today from the Word of God in Mark 15:39, we see what a life-changing thing it can be to stand at Jesus' cross. The man we're about to read about was a Roman officer. He was the man actually in charge of the execution of the Son of God. But before this day ends, this hardened executioner has a dramatic change of heart. Let me just tell you what the Bible says, "When the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus...saw how He died, he said, 'Surely this man was the Son of God!'"
What happened here? This man comes to this hill to execute Jesus and apparently leaves believing in Jesus. What in the world! What was it about "how He died" that changed this man's heart? It had to be the things Jesus said from that cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they're doing" ... "Today," He said to a thief next to him "you will be with Me in paradise." Just before His last breaths he said "It is finished!" Jesus was forgiving the very people who were responsible for Him being on that cross. In a very real way, that's me - that's you. Because it was our sins that Jesus went there to pay for. And now He can say to anyone who puts their trust in Him, "You will be with Me in paradise. I'm taking you to heaven with Me!"
Maybe you've never stopped at the cross. You know about it, maybe you think it's nice. It might be part of your religious beliefs, but you've never stopped there to make your peace with God. Would you stop today finally? maybe right now right where you are tell Him, "Jesus, I get it now. Some of those sins you were dying for there were the things that I've done. You died for me and I've never responded. Jesus, I'm going to give you today what you died for. I'm giving You me."
Now, you want to begin that relationship with Him, reach out to Him? Do it right now. Just say, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
I would love to help you cross that finish line into beginning that relationship with Him and that's why I'm inviting you to our website, ANewStory.com. It could begin for you today, your new story. Please go to ANewStory.com. A lot of people have gone there and come away knowing they belong to Jesus.
There's so many miles you've traveled, and maybe so many times you've breezed by the Son of God who died for you. But this is your day to stop and experience for yourself what Jesus died on the cross to give you. I can tell you this, you will never be the same.
The Beatitudes end with this compelling promise— “Great is your reward in heaven!” (Matthew 5:12).
The Book of Revelation could be called the Book of Homecoming. In Revelation 21 verse 2, John describes heaven as a “bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” Verse 4 says “there will be no more death.” The most hopeful words are in verse 5 , “I am making everything new.” The Master Builder will pull out the original plan and restore the vigor, the energy, the hope, and the soul.
Each step you take brings you closer to home. Before you know it, you’ll enter the City. You’ll hear your name spoken by those who love you. And maybe, just maybe—in the back, behind the crowds—the One who would rather die than live without you will remove his pierced hands from his heavenly robe and…applaud.
Read more Applause of Heaven
Acts 4:23-37
As soon as Peter and John were let go, they went to their friends and told them what the high priests and religious leaders had said. Hearing the report, they lifted their voices in a wonderful harmony in prayer: “Strong God, you made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. By the Holy Spirit you spoke through the mouth of your servant and our father, David:
Why the big noise, nations?
Why the mean plots, peoples?
Earth’s leaders push for position,
Potentates meet for summit talks,
The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers!
27-28 “For in fact they did meet—Herod and Pontius Pilate with nations and peoples, even Israel itself!—met in this very city to plot against your holy Son Jesus, the One you made Messiah, to carry out the plans you long ago set in motion.
29-30 “And now they’re at it again! Take care of their threats and give your servants fearless confidence in preaching your Message, as you stretch out your hand to us in healings and miracles and wonders done in the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 While they were praying, the place where they were meeting trembled and shook. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak God’s Word with fearless confidence.
32-33 The whole congregation of believers was united as one—one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, “That’s mine; you can’t have it.” They shared everything. The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus, and grace was on all of them.
34-35 And so it turned out that not a person among them was needy. Those who owned fields or houses sold them and brought the price of the sale to the apostles and made an offering of it. The apostles then distributed it according to each person’s need.
36-37 Joseph, called by the apostles “Barnabas” (which means “Son of Comfort”), a Levite born in Cyprus, sold a field that he owned, brought the money, and made an offering of it to the apostles.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, May 31, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Deuteronomy 15:7-11
When you happen on someone who’s in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don’t look the other way pretending you don’t see him. Don’t keep a tight grip on your purse. No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs. Don’t count the cost. Don’t listen to that selfish voice saying, “It’s almost the seventh year, the year of All-Debts-Are-Canceled,” and turn aside and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch, refusing to help him. He’ll call God’s attention to you and your blatant sin.
10-11 Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbors.
Insight
God’s decree to Israel to care for the poor in their midst was represented by a trio of the poorest of the poor—widows, orphans, and aliens. Because the Israelites were blessed with material prosperity, they were commanded to share with the economically vulnerable (Deuteronomy 16:9–12; 26:8–11). Part of the command to be generous included allowing the poor to feed on their lands under the law of gleanings (Leviticus 19:9–10; Deuteronomy 24:19–21). They were also to set aside a tenth of their harvests every third year as part of their social responsibility “so that [the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow] may eat in your towns and be satisfied” (Deuteronomy 26:12).
Here for You
I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.
Deuteronomy 15:11
On the outskirts of Paris, as in other cities around the globe, people are coming to the aid of the homeless in their communities. Clothing, covered in waterproof bags, is hung on designated fences for those living on the streets to take according to their needs. The bags are labeled, “I’m not lost; I’m for you if you’re cold.” The effort not only warms those without shelter, but also teaches those in the community the importance of assisting the needy among them.
The Bible highlights the importance of caring for those who are poor, instructing us to be “openhanded” toward them (Deuteronomy 15:11). We might be tempted to avert our eyes to the plight of the poor, holding tightly to our resources instead of sharing them. Yet God challenges us to recognize that we will always be surrounded by those who have needs and therefore to respond to them with generosity, not a “grudging heart” (v. 10). Jesus says that in giving to the poor we receive an enduring treasure in heaven (Luke 12:33).
Our generosity may not be recognized by anyone other than God. Yet when we give freely, we not only meet the needs of those around us but we also experience the joy God intends for us in providing for others. Help us, Lord, to have open eyes and open hands to supply the needs of those You place in our paths! By Kirsten Holmberg
Reflect & Pray
Are you holding too tightly to your resources? If yes, why? What need can you fill today?
Generosity displays confidence in God’s loving and faithful provision.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, May 31, 2019
Put God First
Jesus did not commit Himself to them…for He knew what was in man. —John 2:24-25
Put Trust in God First. Our Lord never put His trust in any person. Yet He was never suspicious, never bitter, and never lost hope for anyone, because He put His trust in God first. He trusted absolutely in what God’s grace could do for others. If I put my trust in human beings first, the end result will be my despair and hopelessness toward everyone. I will become bitter because I have insisted that people be what no person can ever be— absolutely perfect and right. Never trust anything in yourself or in anyone else, except the grace of God.
Put God’s Will First. “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:9).
A person’s obedience is to what he sees to be a need— our Lord’s obedience was to the will of His Father. The rallying cry today is, “We must get to work! The heathen are dying without God. We must go and tell them about Him.” But we must first make sure that God’s “needs” and His will in us personally are being met. Jesus said, “…tarry…until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The purpose of our Christian training is to get us into the right relationship to the “needs” of God and His will. Once God’s “needs” in us have been met, He will open the way for us to accomplish His will, meeting His “needs” elsewhere.
Put God’s Son First. “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” (Matthew 18:5).
God came as a baby, giving and entrusting Himself to me. He expects my personal life to be a “Bethlehem.” Am I allowing my natural life to be slowly transformed by the indwelling life of the Son of God? God’s ultimate purpose is that His Son might be exhibited in me.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The life of Abraham is an illustration of two things: of unreserved surrender to God, and of God’s complete possession of a child of His for His own highest end. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, May 31, 2019
Speeding by the Cross - #8450
We were speeding along the interstate in Texas, and suddenly there it was - a huge, illuminated metal cross. It just dominated the landscape, especially on the flatlands of Texas. That cross is actually 19 stories high and it can be seen from 20 miles away. They claim it's the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. We've been by there before, but this was the first time we ever stopped and looked at it more closely.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Speeding by the Cross."
We had been like most people, we'd never stopped to check it out. As impressive as that cross is, most folks just speed right by it, which is okay with that cross. But it's dangerous to do that with the cross - the one where Jesus died to pay for every wrong thing you and I have ever done.
But for all its eternal importance in determining our heaven or our hell, too many of us just glance briefly at Jesus' death on the cross, think it's nice, and drive on by. Maybe you've made many stops on your life-journey, looking for that spiritual or emotional fill-up that would satisfy your soul. But nothing ever has: none of those relationships, none of those accomplishments, none of your religious or spiritual experiences. So you keep speeding along on your journey, looking for a better place to stop, maybe driving right by the only place where your lifelong search will end.
In our word for today from the Word of God in Mark 15:39, we see what a life-changing thing it can be to stand at Jesus' cross. The man we're about to read about was a Roman officer. He was the man actually in charge of the execution of the Son of God. But before this day ends, this hardened executioner has a dramatic change of heart. Let me just tell you what the Bible says, "When the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus...saw how He died, he said, 'Surely this man was the Son of God!'"
What happened here? This man comes to this hill to execute Jesus and apparently leaves believing in Jesus. What in the world! What was it about "how He died" that changed this man's heart? It had to be the things Jesus said from that cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they're doing" ... "Today," He said to a thief next to him "you will be with Me in paradise." Just before His last breaths he said "It is finished!" Jesus was forgiving the very people who were responsible for Him being on that cross. In a very real way, that's me - that's you. Because it was our sins that Jesus went there to pay for. And now He can say to anyone who puts their trust in Him, "You will be with Me in paradise. I'm taking you to heaven with Me!"
Maybe you've never stopped at the cross. You know about it, maybe you think it's nice. It might be part of your religious beliefs, but you've never stopped there to make your peace with God. Would you stop today finally? maybe right now right where you are tell Him, "Jesus, I get it now. Some of those sins you were dying for there were the things that I've done. You died for me and I've never responded. Jesus, I'm going to give you today what you died for. I'm giving You me."
Now, you want to begin that relationship with Him, reach out to Him? Do it right now. Just say, "Jesus, I'm Yours."
I would love to help you cross that finish line into beginning that relationship with Him and that's why I'm inviting you to our website, ANewStory.com. It could begin for you today, your new story. Please go to ANewStory.com. A lot of people have gone there and come away knowing they belong to Jesus.
There's so many miles you've traveled, and maybe so many times you've breezed by the Son of God who died for you. But this is your day to stop and experience for yourself what Jesus died on the cross to give you. I can tell you this, you will never be the same.
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Proverbs 26, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A KINGDOM MESSAGE
Some months ago, I was late to catch a plane out of the San Antonio airport. I wasn’t terribly late but I was late enough to be bumped and have my seat given to a standby passenger. When the ticket agent told me I would have to miss the flight, I put to work my best persuasive powers. “But the flight hasn’t left yet!” “Yes, but you are here too late” she responded. “But m’am” I pleaded, “I’ve got to be in Houston by this evening.” She was patient but firm. “I’m sorry sir.” “I know what the rules say,” I said. “I’m not asking for justice, I’m asking for mercy.” She didn’t give it to me.
But God does. Even though by the book I’m guilty, by God’s love, I get another chance. Even though by the Law I’m indicted, by mercy, I’m given a fresh start. For it is by grace, you have been saved. And not by works, so that no one can boast.
Read more Applause of Heaven
Proverbs 26
We no more give honors to fools
than pray for snow in summer or rain during harvest.
2 You have as little to fear from an undeserved curse
as from the dart of a wren or the swoop of a swallow.
3 A whip for the racehorse, a tiller for the sailboat—
and a stick for the back of fools!
4 Don’t respond to the stupidity of a fool;
you’ll only look foolish yourself.
5 Answer a fool in simple terms
so he doesn’t get a swelled head.
6 You’re only asking for trouble
when you send a message by a fool.
7 A proverb quoted by fools
is limp as a wet noodle.
8 Putting a fool in a place of honor
is like setting a mud brick on a marble column.
9 To ask a moron to quote a proverb
is like putting a scalpel in the hands of a drunk.
10 Hire a fool or a drunk
and you shoot yourself in the foot.
11 As a dog eats its own vomit,
so fools recycle silliness.
12 See that man who thinks he’s so smart?
You can expect far more from a fool than from him.
13 Loafers say, “It’s dangerous out there!
Tigers are prowling the streets!”
and then pull the covers back over their heads.
14 Just as a door turns on its hinges,
so a lazybones turns back over in bed.
15 A shiftless sluggard puts his fork in the pie,
but is too lazy to lift it to his mouth.
16 Dreamers fantasize their self-importance;
they think they are smarter
than a whole college faculty.
17 You grab a mad dog by the ears
when you butt into a quarrel that’s none of your business.
18-19 People who shrug off deliberate deceptions,
saying, “I didn’t mean it, I was only joking,”
Are worse than careless campers
who walk away from smoldering campfires.
20 When you run out of wood, the fire goes out;
when the gossip ends, the quarrel dies down.
21 A quarrelsome person in a dispute
is like kerosene thrown on a fire.
22 Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy;
do you want junk like that in your belly?
23 Smooth talk from an evil heart
is like glaze on cracked pottery.
24-26 Your enemy shakes hands and greets you like an old friend,
all the while conniving against you.
When he speaks warmly to you, don’t believe him for a minute;
he’s just waiting for the chance to rip you off.
No matter how cunningly he conceals his malice,
eventually his evil will be exposed in public.
27 Malice backfires;
spite boomerangs.
28 Liars hate their victims;
flatterers sabotage trust.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 John 4:7-12
My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
Insight
The New Testament uses four different words for love: phileo, storge, eros, and agape. Agape is the only word for love used in 1 John 4:7–12, and it’s used thirteen times. This is surprising since there are two subjects doing the loving: humans and God.
This means that John is telling us to love God and each other with the same kind of love with which God loves us. Agape love is born out of our hearts because of the preciousness of the thing that’s loved. It has the idea of prizing something and has nothing to do with the merit of the object being loved.
Fearless Love
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19
For years I wore a shield of fear to protect my heart. It became an excuse to avoid trying new things, following my dreams, and obeying God. But fear of loss, heartache, and rejection hindered me from developing loving relationships with God and others. Fear made me an insecure, anxious, and jealous wife, and an overprotective, worrying mother. As I continue learning how much God loves me, however, He’s changing the way I relate to Him and to others. Because I know God will care for me, I feel more secure and willing to place the needs of others before mine.
God is love (1 John 4:7–8). Christ’s death on the cross—the ultimate demonstration of love—displays the depth of His passion for us (vv. 9–10). Because God loves us and lives in us, we can love others based on who He is and what He’s done (vv. 11–12).
When we receive Jesus as our Savior, He gives us His Holy Spirit (vv. 13–15). As the Spirit helps us know and rely on God’s love, He makes us more like Jesus (vv. 16–17). Growing in trust and faith can gradually eliminate fear, simply because we know without a doubt that God loves us deeply and completely (vv. 18–19).
As we experience God’s personal and unconditional love for us, we grow and can risk relating to Him and others with fearless love. By Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
What fears are found in your heart? As you ponder God’s great love for you, how does this help alleviate them?
Lord, thank You for pouring limitless love into us so we can love You and others without fear.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Yes—But…!
Lord, I will follow You, but... —Luke 9:61
Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about…?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”
Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.
By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him. So Send I You, 1301 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 30, 2019
What Does All This Make? - #8449
If you want a unique dining experience, you could try my wife's Javanese Dinner recipe. Actually now my daughter has picked up that and I had it at her house just a couple days ago. Actually it's from a friend's recipe, but man it is a smash hit once people figure out what it is. I love to see people's reactions when they see all the ingredients that get spread out in bowls on the table. Your first impression is, "What does all this make?" There's rice, there's some chicken, there's a bowl of pineapple, there's celery over there, grated cheese, onions, there's a bowl of coconut, there are almonds, a bowl of crunchy noodles, and there's hot broth. I'm hungry now. Our guests invariably look kind of dubious, but we assure them they'll love it when it's all put together. And they always do! In fact, they always come back for more. Well, I do.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What Does All This Make?"
If you're looking for a recipe from this program, don't call - don't write. We can't be in the recipe business. But you may be looking at an interesting recipe of ingredients in your life right now. And you're asking the same question that our guests ask when they try that dinner, "What does all this make?"
God's ancient people were asking that when Jesus wrote our word for today from the Word of God in Jeremiah 29:11. I'm thinking the Jews didn't particularly like the ingredients God was putting in front of them. They had been carried into captivity in Babylon, they were forced to relocate, they were in strange surroundings, it was a hostile environment, and they were facing an uncertain future. Other than that it was great! "What does all this make, Lord?" Listen to what He says, "'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" Translation: "You'll love it when it's all put together."
Let's look at that strange recipe of ingredients in your life right now. I remember a day our son came home and rehearsed a jumble of recent events - a major athletic injury, the emergence of his new musical ministry, rapid changes in his attitudes and his social life. It was a confusing, sometimes contradictory, swirl of events. And he asked one simple question that day, "Where is all this going?"
Today we know how to answer that a little better. God allowed that frustrating season-ending sports injury to turn our son to Him, and then to developing his music as an alternative to sports. That music has become a powerful tool in the unique ministry God has given him. For many years he had a Native American band that traveled all over and reached so many young people. Now he composes and does some incredible Warrior Worship projects that are reaching out to Native Americans all over the continent. And you know all those swirling social changes he was going through were actually preparing him ultimately for the wonderful life partner God eventually gave him. The daughter he brought to us. "I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you." Now, the ingredients may not make sense, but what they're going to make will be amazing some day.
Meanwhile, will you relax in God's wisdom and His goodness, and go with His flow? I remember the day I was climbing a mountain trail with my family, and I was pushing everyone to get to the top. All I cared about was - of course, I'm a guy - my destination. And my wife said, "Honey, why don't you enjoy the process, not just the result?" God may be saying that to you right now. He said it to me. In fact, I think God's more interested in what you may become through the process than He even is in the result. So, don't just trust Him for the outcome, trust the process God is taking you through, too.
God's recipe for your future is a lot like that Javanese Dinner. It's a mixture of ingredients that don't seem to fit and maybe right now don't even seem too appetizing. But you are going to love what God is making!
Some months ago, I was late to catch a plane out of the San Antonio airport. I wasn’t terribly late but I was late enough to be bumped and have my seat given to a standby passenger. When the ticket agent told me I would have to miss the flight, I put to work my best persuasive powers. “But the flight hasn’t left yet!” “Yes, but you are here too late” she responded. “But m’am” I pleaded, “I’ve got to be in Houston by this evening.” She was patient but firm. “I’m sorry sir.” “I know what the rules say,” I said. “I’m not asking for justice, I’m asking for mercy.” She didn’t give it to me.
But God does. Even though by the book I’m guilty, by God’s love, I get another chance. Even though by the Law I’m indicted, by mercy, I’m given a fresh start. For it is by grace, you have been saved. And not by works, so that no one can boast.
Read more Applause of Heaven
Proverbs 26
We no more give honors to fools
than pray for snow in summer or rain during harvest.
2 You have as little to fear from an undeserved curse
as from the dart of a wren or the swoop of a swallow.
3 A whip for the racehorse, a tiller for the sailboat—
and a stick for the back of fools!
4 Don’t respond to the stupidity of a fool;
you’ll only look foolish yourself.
5 Answer a fool in simple terms
so he doesn’t get a swelled head.
6 You’re only asking for trouble
when you send a message by a fool.
7 A proverb quoted by fools
is limp as a wet noodle.
8 Putting a fool in a place of honor
is like setting a mud brick on a marble column.
9 To ask a moron to quote a proverb
is like putting a scalpel in the hands of a drunk.
10 Hire a fool or a drunk
and you shoot yourself in the foot.
11 As a dog eats its own vomit,
so fools recycle silliness.
12 See that man who thinks he’s so smart?
You can expect far more from a fool than from him.
13 Loafers say, “It’s dangerous out there!
Tigers are prowling the streets!”
and then pull the covers back over their heads.
14 Just as a door turns on its hinges,
so a lazybones turns back over in bed.
15 A shiftless sluggard puts his fork in the pie,
but is too lazy to lift it to his mouth.
16 Dreamers fantasize their self-importance;
they think they are smarter
than a whole college faculty.
17 You grab a mad dog by the ears
when you butt into a quarrel that’s none of your business.
18-19 People who shrug off deliberate deceptions,
saying, “I didn’t mean it, I was only joking,”
Are worse than careless campers
who walk away from smoldering campfires.
20 When you run out of wood, the fire goes out;
when the gossip ends, the quarrel dies down.
21 A quarrelsome person in a dispute
is like kerosene thrown on a fire.
22 Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy;
do you want junk like that in your belly?
23 Smooth talk from an evil heart
is like glaze on cracked pottery.
24-26 Your enemy shakes hands and greets you like an old friend,
all the while conniving against you.
When he speaks warmly to you, don’t believe him for a minute;
he’s just waiting for the chance to rip you off.
No matter how cunningly he conceals his malice,
eventually his evil will be exposed in public.
27 Malice backfires;
spite boomerangs.
28 Liars hate their victims;
flatterers sabotage trust.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 John 4:7-12
My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
Insight
The New Testament uses four different words for love: phileo, storge, eros, and agape. Agape is the only word for love used in 1 John 4:7–12, and it’s used thirteen times. This is surprising since there are two subjects doing the loving: humans and God.
This means that John is telling us to love God and each other with the same kind of love with which God loves us. Agape love is born out of our hearts because of the preciousness of the thing that’s loved. It has the idea of prizing something and has nothing to do with the merit of the object being loved.
Fearless Love
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19
For years I wore a shield of fear to protect my heart. It became an excuse to avoid trying new things, following my dreams, and obeying God. But fear of loss, heartache, and rejection hindered me from developing loving relationships with God and others. Fear made me an insecure, anxious, and jealous wife, and an overprotective, worrying mother. As I continue learning how much God loves me, however, He’s changing the way I relate to Him and to others. Because I know God will care for me, I feel more secure and willing to place the needs of others before mine.
God is love (1 John 4:7–8). Christ’s death on the cross—the ultimate demonstration of love—displays the depth of His passion for us (vv. 9–10). Because God loves us and lives in us, we can love others based on who He is and what He’s done (vv. 11–12).
When we receive Jesus as our Savior, He gives us His Holy Spirit (vv. 13–15). As the Spirit helps us know and rely on God’s love, He makes us more like Jesus (vv. 16–17). Growing in trust and faith can gradually eliminate fear, simply because we know without a doubt that God loves us deeply and completely (vv. 18–19).
As we experience God’s personal and unconditional love for us, we grow and can risk relating to Him and others with fearless love. By Xochitl Dixon
Reflect & Pray
What fears are found in your heart? As you ponder God’s great love for you, how does this help alleviate them?
Lord, thank You for pouring limitless love into us so we can love You and others without fear.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Yes—But…!
Lord, I will follow You, but... —Luke 9:61
Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about…?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”
Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.
By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
No one could have had a more sensitive love in human relationship than Jesus; and yet He says there are times when love to father and mother must be hatred in comparison to our love for Him. So Send I You, 1301 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, May 30, 2019
What Does All This Make? - #8449
If you want a unique dining experience, you could try my wife's Javanese Dinner recipe. Actually now my daughter has picked up that and I had it at her house just a couple days ago. Actually it's from a friend's recipe, but man it is a smash hit once people figure out what it is. I love to see people's reactions when they see all the ingredients that get spread out in bowls on the table. Your first impression is, "What does all this make?" There's rice, there's some chicken, there's a bowl of pineapple, there's celery over there, grated cheese, onions, there's a bowl of coconut, there are almonds, a bowl of crunchy noodles, and there's hot broth. I'm hungry now. Our guests invariably look kind of dubious, but we assure them they'll love it when it's all put together. And they always do! In fact, they always come back for more. Well, I do.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What Does All This Make?"
If you're looking for a recipe from this program, don't call - don't write. We can't be in the recipe business. But you may be looking at an interesting recipe of ingredients in your life right now. And you're asking the same question that our guests ask when they try that dinner, "What does all this make?"
God's ancient people were asking that when Jesus wrote our word for today from the Word of God in Jeremiah 29:11. I'm thinking the Jews didn't particularly like the ingredients God was putting in front of them. They had been carried into captivity in Babylon, they were forced to relocate, they were in strange surroundings, it was a hostile environment, and they were facing an uncertain future. Other than that it was great! "What does all this make, Lord?" Listen to what He says, "'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" Translation: "You'll love it when it's all put together."
Let's look at that strange recipe of ingredients in your life right now. I remember a day our son came home and rehearsed a jumble of recent events - a major athletic injury, the emergence of his new musical ministry, rapid changes in his attitudes and his social life. It was a confusing, sometimes contradictory, swirl of events. And he asked one simple question that day, "Where is all this going?"
Today we know how to answer that a little better. God allowed that frustrating season-ending sports injury to turn our son to Him, and then to developing his music as an alternative to sports. That music has become a powerful tool in the unique ministry God has given him. For many years he had a Native American band that traveled all over and reached so many young people. Now he composes and does some incredible Warrior Worship projects that are reaching out to Native Americans all over the continent. And you know all those swirling social changes he was going through were actually preparing him ultimately for the wonderful life partner God eventually gave him. The daughter he brought to us. "I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you." Now, the ingredients may not make sense, but what they're going to make will be amazing some day.
Meanwhile, will you relax in God's wisdom and His goodness, and go with His flow? I remember the day I was climbing a mountain trail with my family, and I was pushing everyone to get to the top. All I cared about was - of course, I'm a guy - my destination. And my wife said, "Honey, why don't you enjoy the process, not just the result?" God may be saying that to you right now. He said it to me. In fact, I think God's more interested in what you may become through the process than He even is in the result. So, don't just trust Him for the outcome, trust the process God is taking you through, too.
God's recipe for your future is a lot like that Javanese Dinner. It's a mixture of ingredients that don't seem to fit and maybe right now don't even seem too appetizing. But you are going to love what God is making!
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Proverbs 25, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: THE NEW KINGDOM
Jesus sent a message to an imprisoned John the Baptist. “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, and the deaf hear” (Matthew 11:5). Jesus sent John a message about a unique, invisible kingdom, where the rejected are received: the blind, the lame, the lepers, and the deaf. They had no place, no name, no value.
In Revelation 21:2-5 John describes Heaven as a “bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” There will be no more death. God is making everything new! The master builder will pull out the original plan and restore the vigor, the energy, the hope, the soul. Jesus told John that a new kingdom was coming where people have value, not because of what they do, but because of whose they are. It was great news then, and it’s great news still!
Read more Applause of Heaven
Proverbs 25
Further Wise Sayings of Solomon
There are also these proverbs of Solomon,
collected by scribes of Hezekiah, king of Judah.
2 God delights in concealing things;
scientists delight in discovering things.
3 Like the horizons for breadth and the ocean for depth,
the understanding of a good leader is broad and deep.
4-5 Remove impurities from the silver
and the silversmith can craft a fine chalice;
Remove the wicked from leadership
and authority will be credible and God-honoring.
6-7 Don’t work yourself into the spotlight;
don’t push your way into the place of prominence.
It’s better to be promoted to a place of honor
than face humiliation by being demoted.
8 Don’t jump to conclusions—there may be
a perfectly good explanation for what you just saw.
9-10 In the heat of an argument,
don’t betray confidences;
Word is sure to get around,
and no one will trust you.
11-12 The right word at the right time
is like a custom-made piece of jewelry,
And a wise friend’s timely reprimand
is like a gold ring slipped on your finger.
13 Reliable friends who do what they say
are like cool drinks in sweltering heat—refreshing!
14 Like billowing clouds that bring no rain
is the person who talks big but never produces.
15 Patient persistence pierces through indifference;
gentle speech breaks down rigid defenses.
16-17 When you’re given a box of candy, don’t gulp it all down;
eat too much chocolate and you’ll make yourself sick;
And when you find a friend, don’t outwear your welcome;
show up at all hours and he’ll soon get fed up.
18 Anyone who tells lies against the neighbors
in court or on the street is a loose cannon.
19 Trusting a double-crosser when you’re in trouble
is like biting down on an abscessed tooth.
20 Singing light songs to the heavyhearted
is like pouring salt in their wounds.
21-22 If you see your enemy hungry, go buy him lunch;
if he’s thirsty, bring him a drink.
Your generosity will surprise him with goodness,
and God will look after you.
23 A north wind brings stormy weather,
and a gossipy tongue stormy looks.
24 Better to live alone in a tumbledown shack
than share a mansion with a nagging spouse.
25 Like a cool drink of water when you’re worn out and weary
is a letter from a long-lost friend.
26 A good person who gives in to a bad person
is a muddied spring, a polluted well.
27 It’s not smart to stuff yourself with sweets,
nor is glory piled on glory good for you.
28 A person without self-control
is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 28:16-20
Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.
18-20 Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”
Insight
Matthew 28:19–20 (often called the “Great Commission”) is structured like an Old Testament prophetic call: first there’s an encounter with God followed by doubts (v. 17); then the doubts are overcome through reassurance and empowerment by God (vv. 18–20; Isaiah 6:1–8).
By following this structure, Matthew emphasizes that believers in Christ are called to be a witness to the joy of life in Christ’s kingdom. Although Jesus has already defeated evil and rules with “all authority” (28:18), He doesn’t immediately remove all evil. Instead, Jesus gently draws others “by slow means and quick, under the rule of his life-giving love” (N.T. Wright)—until one day when death itself is fully destroyed and the world follows Him. Christ’s victory reveals itself now through the obedience of those willing to learn a new way of life, through the power of His loving presence (v. 20).
The Empty Bed
Go and make disciples of all nations. Matthew 28:19
I was eager to return to St. James Infirmary in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and reconnect with Rendell, who two years earlier had learned about Jesus’s love for him. Evie, a teenager in the high school choir I travel with each spring, had read Scripture with Rendell and explained the gospel, and he personally received Jesus as his Savior.
When I entered the men’s section of the home and looked toward Rendell’s bed, however, I found it was empty. I went to the nurse’s station, and was told what I didn’t want to hear. He had passed away—just five days before we arrived.
Through tears, I texted Evie the sad news. Her response was simple: “Rendell is celebrating with Jesus.” Later she said, “It’s a good thing we told him about Jesus when we did.”
Her words reminded me of the importance of being ready to lovingly share with others the hope we have in Christ. No, it’s not always easy to proclaim the gospel message about the One who will be with us always (Matthew 28:20), but when we think about the difference it made for us and for people like Rendell, perhaps we’ll be encouraged to be even more ready to “make disciples” wherever we go (v. 19).
I’ll never forget the sadness of seeing that empty bed—and also the joy of knowing what a difference one faithful teen made in Rendell’s forever life. By Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
What are some things you can do to introduce people to Jesus today? As you share your faith, how does it encourage you to know Jesus is “with you always” (Matthew 28:20)?
God, we know that people need You. Help us to overcome our fear of telling others about You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Untroubled Relationship
In that day you will ask in My name…for the Father Himself loves you… —John 16:26-27
“In that day you will ask in My name…,” that is, in My nature. Not “You will use My name as some magic word,” but— “You will be so intimate with Me that you will be one with Me.” “That day” is not a day in the next life, but a day meant for here and now. “…for the Father Himself loves you…”— the Father’s love is evidence that our union with Jesus is complete and absolute. Our Lord does not mean that our lives will be free from external difficulties and uncertainties, but that just as He knew the Father’s heart and mind, we too can be lifted by Him into heavenly places through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so that He can reveal the teachings of God to us.
“…whatever you ask the Father in My name…” (John 16:23). “That day” is a day of peace and an untroubled relationship between God and His saint. Just as Jesus stood unblemished and pure in the presence of His Father, we too by the mighty power and effectiveness of the baptism of the Holy Spirit can be lifted into that relationship— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22).
“…He will give you” (John 16:23). Jesus said that because of His name God will recognize and respond to our prayers. What a great challenge and invitation— to pray in His name! Through the resurrection and ascension power of Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit He has sent, we can be lifted into such a relationship. Once in that wonderful position, having been placed there by Jesus Christ, we can pray to God in Jesus’ name— in His nature. This is a gift granted to us through the Holy Spirit, and Jesus said, “…whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.” The sovereign character of Jesus Christ is tested and proved by His own statements.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Is He going to help Himself to your life, or are you taken up with your conception of what you are going to do? God is responsible for our lives, and the one great keynote is reckless reliance upon Him. Approved Unto God, 10 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
The Big Man Behind You - #8448
Roger was assistant manager of a buffet restaurant. He used to serve on our ministry team, and at one point he was telling me about a special memory from that job early in his working career. It seems there was a male customer who had been really abusive to the waitress. So Roger, being the ranking officer in the restaurant at the time, had the joy of trying to confront this gentleman - well, this man anyway. Unfortunately, this abusive customer was young, strong, all muscular and bulked up. And Roger, like me, well...not exactly Goliath. But he walked into the lion's jaws and he bravely asked that man to leave. Initially, the customer was ready for a fight. Then suddenly, unexplainably, this guy raised the white flag and he just left, leaving Roger a little baffled as to why this man had suddenly given up. That's when my friend turned around and saw one of the chefs who had been - unbeknownst to Roger - standing behind him all that time. And the chef, now he was a Goliath! Roger said, "Suddenly I understood that it was the big guy behind me that made the difference!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Big Man Behind You."
Right now you may be facing a challenge that's a whole lot bigger than you are, than your resources to meet it. Frankly, it's a mismatch, except for the big Man behind you which changes everything.
In our word for today from the Word of God, the Lord is preparing Joshua to lead His people into the Promised Land, a land brimming with challenges and challengers that looked pretty unbeatable. The huge walls of Jericho, a fierce barbarian people who had no intention of moving out so the Jews could move in, intimidating giants in the land, and a flooded river they had to somehow get across before they could even tackle the other challenges! It was enough to frighten and discourage anyone; maybe like what's in front of you right now.
In Joshua 1:9, God gives this directive to Joshua, and maybe to you: "...Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged..." Fear and discouragement, that's exactly what we feel when the obstacle, or the problem, or the task is overwhelming. "God, why shouldn't I be terrified? Why shouldn't I be discouraged?" His answer: "...For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." God says, don't look at the problems that are bigger than you are; concentrate on the God who is bigger than the problems and march boldly in the confidence that your awesome God will not send you anywhere that He will not go with you.
Eleven times in the Old Testament story of His plans for His people God gives this same directive, "Don't be afraid or discouraged because your Lord is with you." I'm telling you, that's all you need to know to turn fear into faith and discouragement into courage. Listen to this incredible promise from Isaiah 43:2 - "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned..." Again, the difference is the "big Man behind you." The big man has a name and His name is Jesus.
When Jesus was sending out eleven frightened men to tell the whole world about Him, He made this Mission Impossible into Mission Possible with this simple promise, "I will be with you always" (Matthew 28:20). That's what He's trying to say to you today. Because of this all-powerful person who's with you, you can go on, you can tackle what's bigger than you are, you can challenge Satan's dominion, and you can beat what has always beaten you.
If it was up to how big and strong you are, you'd better run out the back door. But you have the biggest person in the universe behind you, and He will make the difference!
Jesus sent a message to an imprisoned John the Baptist. “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, and the deaf hear” (Matthew 11:5). Jesus sent John a message about a unique, invisible kingdom, where the rejected are received: the blind, the lame, the lepers, and the deaf. They had no place, no name, no value.
In Revelation 21:2-5 John describes Heaven as a “bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” There will be no more death. God is making everything new! The master builder will pull out the original plan and restore the vigor, the energy, the hope, the soul. Jesus told John that a new kingdom was coming where people have value, not because of what they do, but because of whose they are. It was great news then, and it’s great news still!
Read more Applause of Heaven
Proverbs 25
Further Wise Sayings of Solomon
There are also these proverbs of Solomon,
collected by scribes of Hezekiah, king of Judah.
2 God delights in concealing things;
scientists delight in discovering things.
3 Like the horizons for breadth and the ocean for depth,
the understanding of a good leader is broad and deep.
4-5 Remove impurities from the silver
and the silversmith can craft a fine chalice;
Remove the wicked from leadership
and authority will be credible and God-honoring.
6-7 Don’t work yourself into the spotlight;
don’t push your way into the place of prominence.
It’s better to be promoted to a place of honor
than face humiliation by being demoted.
8 Don’t jump to conclusions—there may be
a perfectly good explanation for what you just saw.
9-10 In the heat of an argument,
don’t betray confidences;
Word is sure to get around,
and no one will trust you.
11-12 The right word at the right time
is like a custom-made piece of jewelry,
And a wise friend’s timely reprimand
is like a gold ring slipped on your finger.
13 Reliable friends who do what they say
are like cool drinks in sweltering heat—refreshing!
14 Like billowing clouds that bring no rain
is the person who talks big but never produces.
15 Patient persistence pierces through indifference;
gentle speech breaks down rigid defenses.
16-17 When you’re given a box of candy, don’t gulp it all down;
eat too much chocolate and you’ll make yourself sick;
And when you find a friend, don’t outwear your welcome;
show up at all hours and he’ll soon get fed up.
18 Anyone who tells lies against the neighbors
in court or on the street is a loose cannon.
19 Trusting a double-crosser when you’re in trouble
is like biting down on an abscessed tooth.
20 Singing light songs to the heavyhearted
is like pouring salt in their wounds.
21-22 If you see your enemy hungry, go buy him lunch;
if he’s thirsty, bring him a drink.
Your generosity will surprise him with goodness,
and God will look after you.
23 A north wind brings stormy weather,
and a gossipy tongue stormy looks.
24 Better to live alone in a tumbledown shack
than share a mansion with a nagging spouse.
25 Like a cool drink of water when you’re worn out and weary
is a letter from a long-lost friend.
26 A good person who gives in to a bad person
is a muddied spring, a polluted well.
27 It’s not smart to stuff yourself with sweets,
nor is glory piled on glory good for you.
28 A person without self-control
is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 28:16-20
Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.
18-20 Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”
Insight
Matthew 28:19–20 (often called the “Great Commission”) is structured like an Old Testament prophetic call: first there’s an encounter with God followed by doubts (v. 17); then the doubts are overcome through reassurance and empowerment by God (vv. 18–20; Isaiah 6:1–8).
By following this structure, Matthew emphasizes that believers in Christ are called to be a witness to the joy of life in Christ’s kingdom. Although Jesus has already defeated evil and rules with “all authority” (28:18), He doesn’t immediately remove all evil. Instead, Jesus gently draws others “by slow means and quick, under the rule of his life-giving love” (N.T. Wright)—until one day when death itself is fully destroyed and the world follows Him. Christ’s victory reveals itself now through the obedience of those willing to learn a new way of life, through the power of His loving presence (v. 20).
The Empty Bed
Go and make disciples of all nations. Matthew 28:19
I was eager to return to St. James Infirmary in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and reconnect with Rendell, who two years earlier had learned about Jesus’s love for him. Evie, a teenager in the high school choir I travel with each spring, had read Scripture with Rendell and explained the gospel, and he personally received Jesus as his Savior.
When I entered the men’s section of the home and looked toward Rendell’s bed, however, I found it was empty. I went to the nurse’s station, and was told what I didn’t want to hear. He had passed away—just five days before we arrived.
Through tears, I texted Evie the sad news. Her response was simple: “Rendell is celebrating with Jesus.” Later she said, “It’s a good thing we told him about Jesus when we did.”
Her words reminded me of the importance of being ready to lovingly share with others the hope we have in Christ. No, it’s not always easy to proclaim the gospel message about the One who will be with us always (Matthew 28:20), but when we think about the difference it made for us and for people like Rendell, perhaps we’ll be encouraged to be even more ready to “make disciples” wherever we go (v. 19).
I’ll never forget the sadness of seeing that empty bed—and also the joy of knowing what a difference one faithful teen made in Rendell’s forever life. By Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
What are some things you can do to introduce people to Jesus today? As you share your faith, how does it encourage you to know Jesus is “with you always” (Matthew 28:20)?
God, we know that people need You. Help us to overcome our fear of telling others about You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Untroubled Relationship
In that day you will ask in My name…for the Father Himself loves you… —John 16:26-27
“In that day you will ask in My name…,” that is, in My nature. Not “You will use My name as some magic word,” but— “You will be so intimate with Me that you will be one with Me.” “That day” is not a day in the next life, but a day meant for here and now. “…for the Father Himself loves you…”— the Father’s love is evidence that our union with Jesus is complete and absolute. Our Lord does not mean that our lives will be free from external difficulties and uncertainties, but that just as He knew the Father’s heart and mind, we too can be lifted by Him into heavenly places through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so that He can reveal the teachings of God to us.
“…whatever you ask the Father in My name…” (John 16:23). “That day” is a day of peace and an untroubled relationship between God and His saint. Just as Jesus stood unblemished and pure in the presence of His Father, we too by the mighty power and effectiveness of the baptism of the Holy Spirit can be lifted into that relationship— “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22).
“…He will give you” (John 16:23). Jesus said that because of His name God will recognize and respond to our prayers. What a great challenge and invitation— to pray in His name! Through the resurrection and ascension power of Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit He has sent, we can be lifted into such a relationship. Once in that wonderful position, having been placed there by Jesus Christ, we can pray to God in Jesus’ name— in His nature. This is a gift granted to us through the Holy Spirit, and Jesus said, “…whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.” The sovereign character of Jesus Christ is tested and proved by His own statements.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Is He going to help Himself to your life, or are you taken up with your conception of what you are going to do? God is responsible for our lives, and the one great keynote is reckless reliance upon Him. Approved Unto God, 10 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
The Big Man Behind You - #8448
Roger was assistant manager of a buffet restaurant. He used to serve on our ministry team, and at one point he was telling me about a special memory from that job early in his working career. It seems there was a male customer who had been really abusive to the waitress. So Roger, being the ranking officer in the restaurant at the time, had the joy of trying to confront this gentleman - well, this man anyway. Unfortunately, this abusive customer was young, strong, all muscular and bulked up. And Roger, like me, well...not exactly Goliath. But he walked into the lion's jaws and he bravely asked that man to leave. Initially, the customer was ready for a fight. Then suddenly, unexplainably, this guy raised the white flag and he just left, leaving Roger a little baffled as to why this man had suddenly given up. That's when my friend turned around and saw one of the chefs who had been - unbeknownst to Roger - standing behind him all that time. And the chef, now he was a Goliath! Roger said, "Suddenly I understood that it was the big guy behind me that made the difference!"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Big Man Behind You."
Right now you may be facing a challenge that's a whole lot bigger than you are, than your resources to meet it. Frankly, it's a mismatch, except for the big Man behind you which changes everything.
In our word for today from the Word of God, the Lord is preparing Joshua to lead His people into the Promised Land, a land brimming with challenges and challengers that looked pretty unbeatable. The huge walls of Jericho, a fierce barbarian people who had no intention of moving out so the Jews could move in, intimidating giants in the land, and a flooded river they had to somehow get across before they could even tackle the other challenges! It was enough to frighten and discourage anyone; maybe like what's in front of you right now.
In Joshua 1:9, God gives this directive to Joshua, and maybe to you: "...Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged..." Fear and discouragement, that's exactly what we feel when the obstacle, or the problem, or the task is overwhelming. "God, why shouldn't I be terrified? Why shouldn't I be discouraged?" His answer: "...For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." God says, don't look at the problems that are bigger than you are; concentrate on the God who is bigger than the problems and march boldly in the confidence that your awesome God will not send you anywhere that He will not go with you.
Eleven times in the Old Testament story of His plans for His people God gives this same directive, "Don't be afraid or discouraged because your Lord is with you." I'm telling you, that's all you need to know to turn fear into faith and discouragement into courage. Listen to this incredible promise from Isaiah 43:2 - "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned..." Again, the difference is the "big Man behind you." The big man has a name and His name is Jesus.
When Jesus was sending out eleven frightened men to tell the whole world about Him, He made this Mission Impossible into Mission Possible with this simple promise, "I will be with you always" (Matthew 28:20). That's what He's trying to say to you today. Because of this all-powerful person who's with you, you can go on, you can tackle what's bigger than you are, you can challenge Satan's dominion, and you can beat what has always beaten you.
If it was up to how big and strong you are, you'd better run out the back door. But you have the biggest person in the universe behind you, and He will make the difference!
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