Max Lucado Daily: RESPONDING TO YOUR OPPOSITE YOU
Matthew was an apostle, a gospel writer. But before he was Matthew he was Levi, a Jew who worked for the Roman IRS. As long as Rome got its part, the tax collectors could take as much as they wanted. They got rich by making people poor.
One of the most difficult relationship questions is “What do we do with a Levi?” Your Levi is the person with whom you fundamentally disagree. You follow different value systems. Your Levi is your “opposite you.” What if your “opposite you” is your boss? Your parent or child?
How does God want us to respond to the Levis of the world? I wonder if the best answer might be found in this verse: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” (Romans 15:7 NIV). This is how happiness happens.
Philippians 4 The Message (MSG)
My dear, dear friends! I love you so much. I do want the very best for you. You make me feel such joy, fill me with such pride. Don’t waver. Stay on track, steady in God.
2 I urge Euodia and Syntyche to iron out their differences and make up. God doesn’t want his children holding grudges.
3 And, oh, yes, Syzygus, since you’re right there to help them work things out, do your best with them. These women worked for the Message hand in hand with Clement and me, and with the other veterans—worked as hard as any of us. Remember, their names are also in the Book of Life.
4-5 Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!
6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
10-14 I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don’t mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.
15-17 You Philippians well know, and you can be sure I’ll never forget it, that when I first left Macedonia province, venturing out with the Message, not one church helped out in the give-and-take of this work except you. You were the only one. Even while I was in Thessalonica, you helped out—and not only once, but twice. Not that I’m looking for handouts, but I do want you to experience the blessing that issues from generosity.
18-20 And now I have it all—and keep getting more! The gifts you sent with Epaphroditus were more than enough, like a sweet-smelling sacrifice roasting on the altar, filling the air with fragrance, pleasing God no end. You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes.
21-22 Give our regards to every follower of Jesus you meet. Our friends here say hello. All the Christians here, especially the believers who work in the palace of Caesar, want to be remembered to you.
23 Receive and experience the amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, deep, deep within yourselves.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 08, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Exodus 33:12–23
Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
21 Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Insight
Moses had a unique relationship with God. In Exodus 33:11 we read, “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.” Yet in verse 20 God told Moses, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” The interaction Moses had with God was personal while still maintaining the separation necessary for a Creator and His creature. In the incarnation (Christ coming to earth as both God and a human being), Jesus bridged that gap. Creator became creature so we might again have a relationship with Him.
Shelter from the Storm
When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Exodus 33:22
As the story goes, in 1763, a young minister, traveling on a cliffside road in Somerset, England, ducked into a cave to escape the flashes of lightning and pounding rain. As he looked out at Cheddar Gorge, he pondered the gift of finding shelter and peace in God. Waiting there, he began to write a hymn, “Rock of Ages,” with its memorable opening lines: “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.”
We don’t know if Augustus Toplady thought about Moses’s experience in the cleft of a rock while writing the hymn (Exodus 33:22), but perhaps he did. The Exodus account tells of Moses seeking God’s reassurance and God’s response. When Moses asked God to reveal His glory to him, God answered graciously, knowing that “no one may see me and live” (v. 20). He tucked Moses into the rocks when He passed by, letting Moses only see His back. And Moses knew that God was with him.
We can trust that just as God said to Moses, “My Presence will go with you” (v. 14), so too we can find refuge in Him. We may experience many storms in our lives, as did Moses and the English minister in the story, but when we cry out to Him, He will give us the peace of His presence. By: Amy Boucher Pye
Reflect & Pray
As you look back at various seasons of your life, how do you see God’s loving presence during the storms? How do you experience His presence today?
Father God, help me to trust that You’re with me, even during the storms of life.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 08, 2019
Coming to Jesus
Come to Me… —Matthew 11:28
Isn’t it humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things about which we will not come to Jesus Christ. If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words— “Come to Me….” In every dimension in which you are not real, you will argue or evade the issue altogether rather than come; you will go through sorrow rather than come; and you will do anything rather than come the last lap of the race of seemingly unspeakable foolishness and say, “Just as I am, I come.” As long as you have even the least bit of spiritual disrespect, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do something very big, and yet all He is telling you to do is to “Come….”
“Come to Me….” When you hear those words, you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, and it will involve anything that will uproot whatever is preventing you from getting through to Jesus. And you will never get any further until you are willing to do that very thing. The Holy Spirit will search out that one immovable stronghold within you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him do so.
How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away thinking, “I’ve really received what I wanted this time!” And yet you go away with nothing, while all the time God has stood with His hands outstretched not only to take you but also for you to take Him. Just think of the invincible, unconquerable, and untiring patience of Jesus, who lovingly says, “Come to Me….”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
When a man’s heart is right with God the mysterious utterances of the Bible are spirit and life to him. Spiritual truth is discernible only to a pure heart, not to a keen intellect. It is not a question of profundity of intellect, but of purity of heart. Bringing Sons Unto Glory, 231 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 08, 2019
Alone - Under Fire - and Okay - #8542
Years ago, not long after the Gulf War actually, an Air Force chaplain planted this mental picture in my head. It's still there! He told me what he considered to be the ultimate example of loneliness. The chaplain said, "To me, lonely is a fighter pilot in his F-16, on a night mission over enemy territory." The only light is this eerie glow from his instrument panel - and his instruments indicate that his plane has just been, as they say, "painted" as a target for, in this case, an Iraqi missile. The only sound he heard in that ultimately lonely moment was a song playing in his headset - "God Bless the USA."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Alone - Under Fire - and Okay."
Now, you're not a fighter pilot, but you may understand some of the feelings a pilot must feel at a moment like I just described. Because you know what it is to feel alone. You know what it is to feel under attack - scared of what may happen next - beyond human help. As you try to complete your mission here, what your heart is listening to may be all you have to sustain you - like a combat pilot playing the music that reminds him of what this is all for.
The Old Testament Jeremiah, was in the middle of his mission when he became nearly overwhelmed by feelings of fear and loneliness and discouragement. Until he, in a sense, heard the music that filled his cockpit. He writes about being alone, under fire, and okay in our word for today from the Word of God in Lamentations 3:19. Listen to the struggle: "I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall - and my soul is downcast within me."
Then, suddenly, this depressing tune that focused on the hurts, and the failures, and the discouragements was replaced by a better tune. "My soul is downcast within me. Yet I call this to mind and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."
When you're feeling alone, under attack, scared and beyond human help, you've got to fill your heart with some incredibly encouraging truths about the God who is in that cockpit with you. First, God will not let you be, as Jeremiah says, "consumed" - "Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed." In other words, God has promised that, "He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear" (1 Corinthians 10:13). Nothing is going to come into your life that has not been Father-filtered first - signed off on by a Heavenly Father who loves you deeply and knows your limits. Now, he may allow you to be taken to the edge, but never over the edge - to face what is hard to bear, but never what is unbearable.
The second encouragement in a dark moment is that God will never give you a day without the resources you need to handle it. His love just isn't some theology or theory - it's concretely expressed "every new morning" with His "mercies" - His "compassions." These are the resources you need to meet this day's challenges - the emotional resources, the material resources, the people you need, the protection you need, the miracles you need for this moment.
No matter how dark it seems, no matter how alone you feel, God has guaranteed that He will never let you be taken past the breaking point and He will never allow a challenge without giving you the resources to meet it. That is His promise. That is His character! That is His love for you!
Corrie ten Boom, who suffered and lost so much in a Nazi concentration camp for harboring Jews in World War II, said it so beautifully, "With Jesus, the worst may happen, but the best remains." You may be alone - you may be under fire - but, because of the Lord's "great love" you're okay!
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Monday, October 7, 2019
Psalm 95, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: A MODEL OF SERVANTHOOD
In the hallway of my memory hangs a photograph. It’s a picture of two people— a man and a woman in the seventh decade of life. The man lies in a hospital bed in the living room, not in a hospital room. His body, for all practical purposes, is useless. Muscles have been ravaged by ALS. And even though his body is ineffective, his eyes scan the room for his partner, a woman whose age is concealed by her youthful vigor.
She willingly goes about taking care of her husband. With unswerving loyalty she does what she’s done for the past two years: shave him, bathe him, feed him, comb his hair, and brush his teeth.
On the day we buried my father, I thanked my mom for modeling the servant spirit of Christ– quiet servanthood.
Psalm 95
Come, let’s shout praises to God,
raise the roof for the Rock who saved us!
Let’s march into his presence singing praises,
lifting the rafters with our hymns!
3-5 And why? Because God is the best,
High King over all the gods.
In one hand he holds deep caves and caverns,
in the other hand grasps the high mountains.
He made Ocean—he owns it!
His hands sculpted Earth!
6-7 So come, let us worship: bow before him,
on your knees before God, who made us!
Oh yes, he’s our God,
and we’re the people he pastures, the flock he feeds.
7-11 Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks:
“Don’t turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising,
As on the day of the Wilderness Test,
when your ancestors turned and put me to the test.
For forty years they watched me at work among them,
as over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked—oh, was I provoked!
‘Can’t they keep their minds on God for five minutes?
Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?’
Exasperated, I exploded,
‘They’ll never get where they’re headed,
never be able to sit down and rest.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 07, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Genesis 38:16–26
Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”
“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.
17 “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.
“Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.
18 He said, “What pledge should I give you?”
“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. 19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.
20 Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. 21 He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”
“There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.
22 So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’”
23 Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”
24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”
Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”
25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”
26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.
Insight
There isn’t a Hebrew word that directly translates hypocrite, but the Greek word hypokrites is used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) to render the word godless. The word hypokrites actually means “play actor.” It was a reference to the fact that Greek actors played their parts behind masks—implying that a hypocrite is one who deceives by masking their true intentions. By: Bill Crowder
God’s Heart for Hypocrites
She is more righteous than I. Genesis 38:26
“I’d be very disappointed if one of our team members did that,” said a cricket player, referring to a South African cricketer who’d cheated in a match in 2016. But only two years later, that same player was caught in a nearly identical scandal.
Few things rankle us more than hypocrisy. But in the story of Judah in Genesis 38, Judah’s hypocritical behavior nearly had deadly consequences. After two of his sons died soon after marrying Tamar, Judah had quietly abandoned his duty to provide for her needs (vv. 8–11). In desperation, Tamar disguised herself by wearing a prostitute’s veil, and Judah slept with her (vv. 15–16).
Yet when Judah learned that his widowed daughter-in-law was pregnant, his reaction was murderous. “Bring her out and have her burned to death!” he demanded (v. 24). But Tamar had proof that Judah was the father (v. 25).
Judah could have denied the truth. Instead he admitted his hypocrisy, and also accepted his responsibility to care for her, saying, “She is more righteous than I” (v. 26).
And God wove even this dark chapter of Judah and Tamar’s story into His story of our redemption. Tamar’s children (vv. 29–30) would become ancestors of Jesus (Matthew 1:2–3).
Why is Genesis 38 in the Bible? One reason is because it’s the story of our hypocritical human hearts—and of God’s heart of love, grace, and mercy. By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
How do you react when you become aware of your hypocrisy? What would happen if we all became truly transparent with each other?
Help me to see, Father, that at the heart of the matter, we’re all hypocrites who need Your forgiveness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 07, 2019
The Nature of Reconciliation
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. —2 Corinthians 5:21
Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.
The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son “to be sin” that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us…” and by so doing He placed salvation for the entire human race solely on the basis of redemption. Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be. And now anyone can experience that reconciliation, being brought into oneness with God, on the basis of what our Lord has done on the cross.
A man cannot redeem himself— redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete. And its application to individual people is a matter of their own individual action or response to it. A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 07, 2019
One "Unloseable" Hope - #8541
The train left Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, at 7:30 in the morning, headed for a popular resort area along the Indian Ocean. The train never made it. It was suddenly hit by this massive wall of water. It was a killer tsunami. It had devastated much of South Asia that day. The force of the waves actually tore the wheels off of some cars and leveled the train in this grove of palm trees. In one of those countless heart-wrenching scenes that come out of scenes like a tsunami, one young man at the train site wept in the arms of his friends as the body of his girlfriend was buried. He spoke out to his sweetheart who had died on that train: "We met in university. Is this the fate we hoped for?" Then, as he began to sob even more, he said, "My darling, you were the only hope for me." Tragic picture!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One 'Unloseable' Hope."
It's hard to think of a more devastating feeling than losing what you had put all your hopes in. Maybe that's a feeling you know if you've lost your health, or maybe like me - the love of your life, your job, your retirement. Maybe you've lost an anchor person in your life, or the thing you've invested so much in, the thing - or the person - that's sort of been the glue holding your life together. You know, I have friends who have been told by their marriage partner of decades, "I don't love you anymore." When I asked one of those friends how he's doing, he just said, "I'm crushed."
So many of us either lost, or will lose, someone or something that we've put a lot of our hopes in. Hope is snatched away by death, or divorce, or desertion, disease, disaster. Suddenly, our life is thrown into confusion and anxiety, even despair. What we need is something to put our hope in that's going to be "unloseable" - something that can't be touched by death or disease, or can't be touched by divorce or disaster; something that will never desert us. Actually, someone who will never desert us. Surprisingly, many people have discovered that in losing their source of hope, they finally found the one hope they could never lose. It could happen to you.
That hope is spelled out beautifully in Psalm 62, beginning with verse 1, our word for today from the Word of God. "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress; I will never be shaken...Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him."
The only life-anchor, the only life-hope you can never lose is a personal love relationship with God and God alone. Not a religion, but a relationship. It's possible to have a lot of religion and totally miss the relationship with God that you were made for. Any hope we get from anyone or anything on earth is just an unsatisfying substitute for belonging to God. When you belong to Him and you know you do, your soul can finally, as the psalmist said, "rest." But until you're belonging to God, your soul is rest-less.
That unloseable relationship with God comes one way and only one, because we're away from the God we need so much - away by our choice, certainly not His. We've repeatedly chosen our way instead of His way and that's built this wall between us and God. A wall that God Himself acted to tear down by sending His only Son, Jesus, to pay for all our sins when He died on the cross.
And then He rose from His grave, came back to life so He could come into your life today. He loves you enough to have died for you. That's how much He wants you. But you've got to want Him bad enough to say, "I'm sorry for my sin, God. I don't want it to be this way anymore. I'm putting all my hope and all my trust in Your Son who gave His life so I could belong to You."
You know, our website is set up for just a moment like this where you need this information to know how to totally belong to Him and know that you do. And I hope you'll go to ANewStory.com today.
That hope you've lost and the emptiness you feel could actually lead you today to the hope you'll never lose. Because hope has a name, and His name is Jesus.
In the hallway of my memory hangs a photograph. It’s a picture of two people— a man and a woman in the seventh decade of life. The man lies in a hospital bed in the living room, not in a hospital room. His body, for all practical purposes, is useless. Muscles have been ravaged by ALS. And even though his body is ineffective, his eyes scan the room for his partner, a woman whose age is concealed by her youthful vigor.
She willingly goes about taking care of her husband. With unswerving loyalty she does what she’s done for the past two years: shave him, bathe him, feed him, comb his hair, and brush his teeth.
On the day we buried my father, I thanked my mom for modeling the servant spirit of Christ– quiet servanthood.
Psalm 95
Come, let’s shout praises to God,
raise the roof for the Rock who saved us!
Let’s march into his presence singing praises,
lifting the rafters with our hymns!
3-5 And why? Because God is the best,
High King over all the gods.
In one hand he holds deep caves and caverns,
in the other hand grasps the high mountains.
He made Ocean—he owns it!
His hands sculpted Earth!
6-7 So come, let us worship: bow before him,
on your knees before God, who made us!
Oh yes, he’s our God,
and we’re the people he pastures, the flock he feeds.
7-11 Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks:
“Don’t turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising,
As on the day of the Wilderness Test,
when your ancestors turned and put me to the test.
For forty years they watched me at work among them,
as over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked—oh, was I provoked!
‘Can’t they keep their minds on God for five minutes?
Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?’
Exasperated, I exploded,
‘They’ll never get where they’re headed,
never be able to sit down and rest.’”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Monday, October 07, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Genesis 38:16–26
Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”
“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.
17 “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.
“Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.
18 He said, “What pledge should I give you?”
“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. 19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.
20 Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. 21 He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”
“There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.
22 So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’”
23 Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”
24 About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”
Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”
25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”
26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.
Insight
There isn’t a Hebrew word that directly translates hypocrite, but the Greek word hypokrites is used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) to render the word godless. The word hypokrites actually means “play actor.” It was a reference to the fact that Greek actors played their parts behind masks—implying that a hypocrite is one who deceives by masking their true intentions. By: Bill Crowder
God’s Heart for Hypocrites
She is more righteous than I. Genesis 38:26
“I’d be very disappointed if one of our team members did that,” said a cricket player, referring to a South African cricketer who’d cheated in a match in 2016. But only two years later, that same player was caught in a nearly identical scandal.
Few things rankle us more than hypocrisy. But in the story of Judah in Genesis 38, Judah’s hypocritical behavior nearly had deadly consequences. After two of his sons died soon after marrying Tamar, Judah had quietly abandoned his duty to provide for her needs (vv. 8–11). In desperation, Tamar disguised herself by wearing a prostitute’s veil, and Judah slept with her (vv. 15–16).
Yet when Judah learned that his widowed daughter-in-law was pregnant, his reaction was murderous. “Bring her out and have her burned to death!” he demanded (v. 24). But Tamar had proof that Judah was the father (v. 25).
Judah could have denied the truth. Instead he admitted his hypocrisy, and also accepted his responsibility to care for her, saying, “She is more righteous than I” (v. 26).
And God wove even this dark chapter of Judah and Tamar’s story into His story of our redemption. Tamar’s children (vv. 29–30) would become ancestors of Jesus (Matthew 1:2–3).
Why is Genesis 38 in the Bible? One reason is because it’s the story of our hypocritical human hearts—and of God’s heart of love, grace, and mercy. By: Tim Gustafson
Reflect & Pray
How do you react when you become aware of your hypocrisy? What would happen if we all became truly transparent with each other?
Help me to see, Father, that at the heart of the matter, we’re all hypocrites who need Your forgiveness.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, October 07, 2019
The Nature of Reconciliation
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. —2 Corinthians 5:21
Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.
The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son “to be sin” that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us…” and by so doing He placed salvation for the entire human race solely on the basis of redemption. Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be. And now anyone can experience that reconciliation, being brought into oneness with God, on the basis of what our Lord has done on the cross.
A man cannot redeem himself— redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete. And its application to individual people is a matter of their own individual action or response to it. A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. My Utmost for His Highest, March 19, 761 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, October 07, 2019
One "Unloseable" Hope - #8541
The train left Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, at 7:30 in the morning, headed for a popular resort area along the Indian Ocean. The train never made it. It was suddenly hit by this massive wall of water. It was a killer tsunami. It had devastated much of South Asia that day. The force of the waves actually tore the wheels off of some cars and leveled the train in this grove of palm trees. In one of those countless heart-wrenching scenes that come out of scenes like a tsunami, one young man at the train site wept in the arms of his friends as the body of his girlfriend was buried. He spoke out to his sweetheart who had died on that train: "We met in university. Is this the fate we hoped for?" Then, as he began to sob even more, he said, "My darling, you were the only hope for me." Tragic picture!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One 'Unloseable' Hope."
It's hard to think of a more devastating feeling than losing what you had put all your hopes in. Maybe that's a feeling you know if you've lost your health, or maybe like me - the love of your life, your job, your retirement. Maybe you've lost an anchor person in your life, or the thing you've invested so much in, the thing - or the person - that's sort of been the glue holding your life together. You know, I have friends who have been told by their marriage partner of decades, "I don't love you anymore." When I asked one of those friends how he's doing, he just said, "I'm crushed."
So many of us either lost, or will lose, someone or something that we've put a lot of our hopes in. Hope is snatched away by death, or divorce, or desertion, disease, disaster. Suddenly, our life is thrown into confusion and anxiety, even despair. What we need is something to put our hope in that's going to be "unloseable" - something that can't be touched by death or disease, or can't be touched by divorce or disaster; something that will never desert us. Actually, someone who will never desert us. Surprisingly, many people have discovered that in losing their source of hope, they finally found the one hope they could never lose. It could happen to you.
That hope is spelled out beautifully in Psalm 62, beginning with verse 1, our word for today from the Word of God. "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress; I will never be shaken...Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him."
The only life-anchor, the only life-hope you can never lose is a personal love relationship with God and God alone. Not a religion, but a relationship. It's possible to have a lot of religion and totally miss the relationship with God that you were made for. Any hope we get from anyone or anything on earth is just an unsatisfying substitute for belonging to God. When you belong to Him and you know you do, your soul can finally, as the psalmist said, "rest." But until you're belonging to God, your soul is rest-less.
That unloseable relationship with God comes one way and only one, because we're away from the God we need so much - away by our choice, certainly not His. We've repeatedly chosen our way instead of His way and that's built this wall between us and God. A wall that God Himself acted to tear down by sending His only Son, Jesus, to pay for all our sins when He died on the cross.
And then He rose from His grave, came back to life so He could come into your life today. He loves you enough to have died for you. That's how much He wants you. But you've got to want Him bad enough to say, "I'm sorry for my sin, God. I don't want it to be this way anymore. I'm putting all my hope and all my trust in Your Son who gave His life so I could belong to You."
You know, our website is set up for just a moment like this where you need this information to know how to totally belong to Him and know that you do. And I hope you'll go to ANewStory.com today.
That hope you've lost and the emptiness you feel could actually lead you today to the hope you'll never lose. Because hope has a name, and His name is Jesus.
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Psalm 94, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: From Glory to Glory
Do you sense a disconnect between the promises of the Bible and the reality of your life? Jesus offers abundant joy, yet you live with oppressive grief. Romans 8:37 promises we are more than conquerors-yet you are commonly conquered by temptations or weaknesses. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 you can live from glory to glory. The deed to your new life is already signed. From dry land to the Promised Land; from manna to feasts.
Joshua 21:43-45 says, "So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which he had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it." You can personalize that promise! You can realize your Glory Days! I invite you to join me in a Glory Days Scripture Memory Challenge and take to heart Joshua 21: 43-45. Let's memorize these verses together at GloryDaysToday.com!
Psalm 94
God, put an end to evil;
avenging God, show your colors!
Judge of the earth, take your stand;
throw the book at the arrogant.
3-4 God, the wicked get away with murder—
how long will you let this go on?
They brag and boast
and crow about their crimes!
5-7 They walk all over your people, God,
exploit and abuse your precious people.
They take out anyone who gets in their way;
if they can’t use them, they kill them.
They think, “God isn’t looking,
Jacob’s God is out to lunch.”
8-11 Well, think again, you idiots,
fools—how long before you get smart?
Do you think Ear-Maker doesn’t hear,
Eye-Shaper doesn’t see?
Do you think the trainer of nations doesn’t correct,
the teacher of Adam doesn’t know?
God knows, all right—
knows your stupidity,
sees your shallowness.
12-15 How blessed the man you train, God,
the woman you instruct in your Word,
Providing a circle of quiet within the clamor of evil,
while a jail is being built for the wicked.
God will never walk away from his people,
never desert his precious people.
Rest assured that justice is on its way
and every good heart put right.
16-19 Who stood up for me against the wicked?
Who took my side against evil workers?
If God hadn’t been there for me,
I never would have made it.
The minute I said, “I’m slipping, I’m falling,”
your love, God, took hold and held me fast.
When I was upset and beside myself,
you calmed me down and cheered me up.
20-23 Can Misrule have anything in common with you?
Can Troublemaker pretend to be on your side?
They ganged up on good people,
plotted behind the backs of the innocent.
But God became my hideout,
God was my high mountain retreat,
Then boomeranged their evil back on them:
for their evil ways he wiped them out,
our God cleaned them out for good.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, October 06, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
James 1:22–25
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Insight
In the Bible, various metaphors are used to describe the truth of the Scriptures: a mirror (James 1:23); fire and a hammer (Jeremiah 23:29), a lamp (Psalm 119:105), water (Ephesians 5:26), a seed (1 Peter 1:23), food (Job 23:12), and milk (1 Peter 2:2). Scripture reveals, consumes, breaks, illuminates, purifies, convicts, regenerates, satisfies, and nourishes the believer. It’s not enough to know the Bible; we need to obey it (James 1:22–25).
Do What It Says
Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it. Luke 11:28
Brian was scheduled to be an usher at his brother’s wedding, but he was a no-show. Understandably, family members were disappointed, including his sister Jasmine who was the Scripture reader for the occasion. At the ceremony she flawlessly read from the well-known Scripture passage about love in 1 Corinthians 13. But after the wedding when her father asked her to deliver a birthday gift to Brian, she hesitated. She found it harder to live the words about love than to read them. Before the evening was over, however, she had a change of mind and admitted, “I can’t stand and read Scripture about love and not practice it.”
Have you ever been convicted by Scripture that you read or heard but found it difficult to carry out? You’re not alone. It’s easier to read and listen to God’s Word than to obey it. That’s why James’s challenge is so fitting: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). His mirror illustration makes us smile because we know what it means to observe something about ourselves that needs attention. But we’re deceived if we think that observing alone is enough. When James nudges us to “[look] intently into” and “[continue] in” God’s truth (v. 25), he encourages us to do what Jasmine was compelled to do—live it. God’s Word calls for it, and He deserves nothing less. By: Arthur Jackson
Reflect & Pray
When did you make a change in your life after looking intently into the Scriptures? How was your life enriched?
Heavenly Father, help me to better understand what it means to look intently into Your Word and live out what I read.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 06, 2019
The Nature of Regeneration
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.
The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “…until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you…” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.
Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.
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
Do you sense a disconnect between the promises of the Bible and the reality of your life? Jesus offers abundant joy, yet you live with oppressive grief. Romans 8:37 promises we are more than conquerors-yet you are commonly conquered by temptations or weaknesses. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 you can live from glory to glory. The deed to your new life is already signed. From dry land to the Promised Land; from manna to feasts.
Joshua 21:43-45 says, "So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which he had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it." You can personalize that promise! You can realize your Glory Days! I invite you to join me in a Glory Days Scripture Memory Challenge and take to heart Joshua 21: 43-45. Let's memorize these verses together at GloryDaysToday.com!
Psalm 94
God, put an end to evil;
avenging God, show your colors!
Judge of the earth, take your stand;
throw the book at the arrogant.
3-4 God, the wicked get away with murder—
how long will you let this go on?
They brag and boast
and crow about their crimes!
5-7 They walk all over your people, God,
exploit and abuse your precious people.
They take out anyone who gets in their way;
if they can’t use them, they kill them.
They think, “God isn’t looking,
Jacob’s God is out to lunch.”
8-11 Well, think again, you idiots,
fools—how long before you get smart?
Do you think Ear-Maker doesn’t hear,
Eye-Shaper doesn’t see?
Do you think the trainer of nations doesn’t correct,
the teacher of Adam doesn’t know?
God knows, all right—
knows your stupidity,
sees your shallowness.
12-15 How blessed the man you train, God,
the woman you instruct in your Word,
Providing a circle of quiet within the clamor of evil,
while a jail is being built for the wicked.
God will never walk away from his people,
never desert his precious people.
Rest assured that justice is on its way
and every good heart put right.
16-19 Who stood up for me against the wicked?
Who took my side against evil workers?
If God hadn’t been there for me,
I never would have made it.
The minute I said, “I’m slipping, I’m falling,”
your love, God, took hold and held me fast.
When I was upset and beside myself,
you calmed me down and cheered me up.
20-23 Can Misrule have anything in common with you?
Can Troublemaker pretend to be on your side?
They ganged up on good people,
plotted behind the backs of the innocent.
But God became my hideout,
God was my high mountain retreat,
Then boomeranged their evil back on them:
for their evil ways he wiped them out,
our God cleaned them out for good.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, October 06, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
James 1:22–25
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Insight
In the Bible, various metaphors are used to describe the truth of the Scriptures: a mirror (James 1:23); fire and a hammer (Jeremiah 23:29), a lamp (Psalm 119:105), water (Ephesians 5:26), a seed (1 Peter 1:23), food (Job 23:12), and milk (1 Peter 2:2). Scripture reveals, consumes, breaks, illuminates, purifies, convicts, regenerates, satisfies, and nourishes the believer. It’s not enough to know the Bible; we need to obey it (James 1:22–25).
Do What It Says
Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it. Luke 11:28
Brian was scheduled to be an usher at his brother’s wedding, but he was a no-show. Understandably, family members were disappointed, including his sister Jasmine who was the Scripture reader for the occasion. At the ceremony she flawlessly read from the well-known Scripture passage about love in 1 Corinthians 13. But after the wedding when her father asked her to deliver a birthday gift to Brian, she hesitated. She found it harder to live the words about love than to read them. Before the evening was over, however, she had a change of mind and admitted, “I can’t stand and read Scripture about love and not practice it.”
Have you ever been convicted by Scripture that you read or heard but found it difficult to carry out? You’re not alone. It’s easier to read and listen to God’s Word than to obey it. That’s why James’s challenge is so fitting: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). His mirror illustration makes us smile because we know what it means to observe something about ourselves that needs attention. But we’re deceived if we think that observing alone is enough. When James nudges us to “[look] intently into” and “[continue] in” God’s truth (v. 25), he encourages us to do what Jasmine was compelled to do—live it. God’s Word calls for it, and He deserves nothing less. By: Arthur Jackson
Reflect & Pray
When did you make a change in your life after looking intently into the Scriptures? How was your life enriched?
Heavenly Father, help me to better understand what it means to look intently into Your Word and live out what I read.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 06, 2019
The Nature of Regeneration
When it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me… —Galatians 1:15-16
If Jesus Christ is going to regenerate me, what is the problem He faces? It is simply this— I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair. But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator, someone who can put His own heredity of holiness into me, then I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature— His teaching is meant to be applied to the life which He puts within us. The proper action on my part is simply to agree with God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.
The New Testament teaching about regeneration is that when a person is hit by his own sense of need, God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his personal spirit will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God— “…until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a totally new life. When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my own limitations, then Jesus says, “Blessed are you…” (Matthew 5:11). But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me, the responsible moral person that I am, the nature that was in Jesus Christ unless I am aware of my need for it.
Just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19). And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin, and that through Jesus Christ I can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit.
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
Saturday, October 5, 2019
Psalm 93, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: The Life God Has Given You
In the schoolroom of ancient societies Israel was the kid with the black eye, bullied and beat up. Except for the Glory Days of Israel-seven years between the difficult days of Exodus and the dark days of the judges. Seven years in which the Jordan River opened up and the Jericho walls fell down. Joshua 21:43-45 are verses I invite you to memorize in our Glory Days Scripture Memory Challenge this week.
"So the Lord gave Israel all the land He had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. The Lord gave them rest on every side just as He had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord handed all their enemies over to them. Not one of the Lord's good promises to Israel failed. Every one was fulfilled."
From Glory Days
Psalm 93
God is King, robed and ruling,
God is robed and surging with strength.
And yes, the world is firm, immovable,
Your throne ever firm—you’re Eternal!
3-4 Sea storms are up, God,
Sea storms wild and roaring,
Sea storms with thunderous breakers.
Stronger than wild sea storms,
Mightier than sea-storm breakers,
Mighty God rules from High Heaven.
5 What you say goes—it always has.
“Beauty” and “Holy” mark your palace rule,
God, to the very end of time.
94 1-2 God, put an end to evil;
avenging God, show your colors!
Judge of the earth, take your stand;
throw the book at the arrogant.
3-4 God, the wicked get away with murder—
how long will you let this go on?
They brag and boast
and crow about their crimes!
5-7 They walk all over your people, God,
exploit and abuse your precious people.
They take out anyone who gets in their way;
if they can’t use them, they kill them.
They think, “God isn’t looking,
Jacob’s God is out to lunch.”
8-11 Well, think again, you idiots,
fools—how long before you get smart?
Do you think Ear-Maker doesn’t hear,
Eye-Shaper doesn’t see?
Do you think the trainer of nations doesn’t correct,
the teacher of Adam doesn’t know?
God knows, all right—
knows your stupidity,
sees your shallowness.
12-15 How blessed the man you train, God,
the woman you instruct in your Word,
Providing a circle of quiet within the clamor of evil,
while a jail is being built for the wicked.
God will never walk away from his people,
never desert his precious people.
Rest assured that justice is on its way
and every good heart put right.
16-19 Who stood up for me against the wicked?
Who took my side against evil workers?
If God hadn’t been there for me,
I never would have made it.
The minute I said, “I’m slipping, I’m falling,”
your love, God, took hold and held me fast.
When I was upset and beside myself,
you calmed me down and cheered me up.
20-23 Can Misrule have anything in common with you?
Can Troublemaker pretend to be on your side?
They ganged up on good people,
plotted behind the backs of the innocent.
But God became my hideout,
God was my high mountain retreat,
Then boomeranged their evil back on them:
for their evil ways he wiped them out,
our God cleaned them out for good.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 05, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 Samuel 17:34–39
But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off.
Insight
David’s fearsome opponent was Goliath, a Philistine. Philistia bordered the Mediterranean Sea and was west of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Philistines had long been a thorn in the side of the Israelites. Goliath was from the city of Gath in Philistia, and was sent by the Philistines to battle against one of the Israelites in Saul’s army. Whoever was the victor would decide the fate of the entire army (1 Samuel 17:8–11). Decked out in impressively heavy armor, Goliath was a giant of a man—“six cubits and a span,” about 9'9" tall! (vv. 4–7). When young David stepped up to battle, he did so under God’s power (v. 45). By: Alyson Kieda
Trust Your Armor
Go, and the Lord be with you. 1 Samuel 17:37
As a young writer I was often unsure of myself when I was in writing workshops. I would look around and see rooms filled with giants, if you will—people with formal training or years of experience. I had neither. But what I did have was an ear formed by the language and tone and cadences of the King James Version of the Bible. It was very much my armor, so to speak, what I was used to, and allowing it to inform my writing style and voice has become a joy to me, and I hope to others.
We don’t get the impression that David the young shepherd was unsure of himself when it came to wearing Saul’s armor to fight Goliath (1 Samuel 17:38–39). He simply couldn’t move around in it. David realized one man’s armor can be another man’s prison—“I cannot go in these” (v. 39). So he trusted what he knew. God had prepared him for that moment with just what was needed (vv. 34–35). The sling and stones were what David was used to, his armor, and God used them to bring joy to the ranks of Israel that day.
Have you ever felt unsure of yourself, thinking If I just had what someone else has, then my life would be different? Consider the gifts or experiences God has given specifically to you. Trust your God-given armor. By: John Blase
Reflect & Pray
What’s an example of someone else’s armor that’s been a matter of comparison or even jealousy for you? How might your armor be just what’s needed for this day?
Sovereign God, at times it’s easy to feel unsure of myself, especially in situations where challenges feel like giants. Help me to trust that You’ve given me just what I need. You’ve crafted my life’s story.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 05, 2019
The Nature of Degeneration
Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned… —Romans 5:12
The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26). The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which leads us to say, “I am my own god.” This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis— my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man (see John 2:25).
Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch— only God touches sin through redemption. It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “This is the condemnation [and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light…” (John 3:19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1449 L
In the schoolroom of ancient societies Israel was the kid with the black eye, bullied and beat up. Except for the Glory Days of Israel-seven years between the difficult days of Exodus and the dark days of the judges. Seven years in which the Jordan River opened up and the Jericho walls fell down. Joshua 21:43-45 are verses I invite you to memorize in our Glory Days Scripture Memory Challenge this week.
"So the Lord gave Israel all the land He had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. The Lord gave them rest on every side just as He had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord handed all their enemies over to them. Not one of the Lord's good promises to Israel failed. Every one was fulfilled."
From Glory Days
Psalm 93
God is King, robed and ruling,
God is robed and surging with strength.
And yes, the world is firm, immovable,
Your throne ever firm—you’re Eternal!
3-4 Sea storms are up, God,
Sea storms wild and roaring,
Sea storms with thunderous breakers.
Stronger than wild sea storms,
Mightier than sea-storm breakers,
Mighty God rules from High Heaven.
5 What you say goes—it always has.
“Beauty” and “Holy” mark your palace rule,
God, to the very end of time.
94 1-2 God, put an end to evil;
avenging God, show your colors!
Judge of the earth, take your stand;
throw the book at the arrogant.
3-4 God, the wicked get away with murder—
how long will you let this go on?
They brag and boast
and crow about their crimes!
5-7 They walk all over your people, God,
exploit and abuse your precious people.
They take out anyone who gets in their way;
if they can’t use them, they kill them.
They think, “God isn’t looking,
Jacob’s God is out to lunch.”
8-11 Well, think again, you idiots,
fools—how long before you get smart?
Do you think Ear-Maker doesn’t hear,
Eye-Shaper doesn’t see?
Do you think the trainer of nations doesn’t correct,
the teacher of Adam doesn’t know?
God knows, all right—
knows your stupidity,
sees your shallowness.
12-15 How blessed the man you train, God,
the woman you instruct in your Word,
Providing a circle of quiet within the clamor of evil,
while a jail is being built for the wicked.
God will never walk away from his people,
never desert his precious people.
Rest assured that justice is on its way
and every good heart put right.
16-19 Who stood up for me against the wicked?
Who took my side against evil workers?
If God hadn’t been there for me,
I never would have made it.
The minute I said, “I’m slipping, I’m falling,”
your love, God, took hold and held me fast.
When I was upset and beside myself,
you calmed me down and cheered me up.
20-23 Can Misrule have anything in common with you?
Can Troublemaker pretend to be on your side?
They ganged up on good people,
plotted behind the backs of the innocent.
But God became my hideout,
God was my high mountain retreat,
Then boomeranged their evil back on them:
for their evil ways he wiped them out,
our God cleaned them out for good.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Saturday, October 05, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
1 Samuel 17:34–39
But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”
38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.
“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off.
Insight
David’s fearsome opponent was Goliath, a Philistine. Philistia bordered the Mediterranean Sea and was west of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Philistines had long been a thorn in the side of the Israelites. Goliath was from the city of Gath in Philistia, and was sent by the Philistines to battle against one of the Israelites in Saul’s army. Whoever was the victor would decide the fate of the entire army (1 Samuel 17:8–11). Decked out in impressively heavy armor, Goliath was a giant of a man—“six cubits and a span,” about 9'9" tall! (vv. 4–7). When young David stepped up to battle, he did so under God’s power (v. 45). By: Alyson Kieda
Trust Your Armor
Go, and the Lord be with you. 1 Samuel 17:37
As a young writer I was often unsure of myself when I was in writing workshops. I would look around and see rooms filled with giants, if you will—people with formal training or years of experience. I had neither. But what I did have was an ear formed by the language and tone and cadences of the King James Version of the Bible. It was very much my armor, so to speak, what I was used to, and allowing it to inform my writing style and voice has become a joy to me, and I hope to others.
We don’t get the impression that David the young shepherd was unsure of himself when it came to wearing Saul’s armor to fight Goliath (1 Samuel 17:38–39). He simply couldn’t move around in it. David realized one man’s armor can be another man’s prison—“I cannot go in these” (v. 39). So he trusted what he knew. God had prepared him for that moment with just what was needed (vv. 34–35). The sling and stones were what David was used to, his armor, and God used them to bring joy to the ranks of Israel that day.
Have you ever felt unsure of yourself, thinking If I just had what someone else has, then my life would be different? Consider the gifts or experiences God has given specifically to you. Trust your God-given armor. By: John Blase
Reflect & Pray
What’s an example of someone else’s armor that’s been a matter of comparison or even jealousy for you? How might your armor be just what’s needed for this day?
Sovereign God, at times it’s easy to feel unsure of myself, especially in situations where challenges feel like giants. Help me to trust that You’ve given me just what I need. You’ve crafted my life’s story.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Saturday, October 05, 2019
The Nature of Degeneration
Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned… —Romans 5:12
The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26). The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which leads us to say, “I am my own god.” This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis— my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man (see John 2:25).
Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch— only God touches sin through redemption. It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “This is the condemnation [and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light…” (John 3:19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Sincerity means that the appearance and the reality are exactly the same. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 1449 L
Friday, October 4, 2019
Philippians 3, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: IT’S YOUR SERVE
“And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27–28).
Jesus came to serve. Suppose you took that role. Be the family member who offers to wash the dishes after dinner. Be the neighbor who mows the grass of the elderly people. Find happiness in serving others. Doing good does the doer good.
What would happen if everyone took on the role of a servant? How many marriages would be blessed? If politicians set out to serve people more than serve themselves, would their country benefit? If churches were populated by sincere servants, how many people would hear the invitation of a lifetime? Service… it’s how happiness happens.
Philippians 3
And that’s about it, friends. Be glad in God!
I don’t mind repeating what I have written in earlier letters, and I hope you don’t mind hearing it again. Better safe than sorry—so here goes.
2-6 Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.
7-9 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.
15-16 So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it.
17-19 Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal. There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I’ve warned you of them many times; sadly, I’m having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ’s Cross. But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites.
20-21 But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.
The Message (MSG)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 04, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 14:23–33
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Insight
The gospels of Matthew and Mark describe two separate occasions when Jesus, in the presence of His frightened disciples, calms a storm on the lake of Galilee. In the first of these events, Jesus is asleep in the bow of the boat when a storm threatens to sink it (Matthew 8:23–27; Mark 4:35–41). In the second, the disciples are crossing the lake by themselves when Jesus comes to them in the storm walking on the waves (Matthew 14:22–33; Mark 6:45–51).
Although Luke describes only the occasion when Jesus was asleep in the boat (8:22–25) and John describes only the storm that occurred while He walked on water (6:16–21), the accounts in Matthew and Mark show us that by the time Christ stepped into the boat and calmed a storm with His presence, the disciples had already seen Him calm a storm with His command. By: Mart DeHaan
He Calms the Storms
But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Matthew 14:27
Jim was frantically sharing about problems he was encountering with his work team: division, judgmental attitudes, and misunderstandings. After an hour of patiently listening to his concerns, I suggested, “Let’s ask Jesus what He would have us do in this situation.” We sat quietly for five minutes. Then something amazing happened. We both felt God’s peace cover us like a blanket. We were more relaxed as we experienced His presence and guidance, and we felt confident to wade back into the difficulties.
Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples, needed God’s comforting presence. One night he and the other disciples were sailing across the Sea of Galilee when a strong storm arose. All of a sudden, Jesus showed up walking on water! Naturally, this took the disciples by surprise. He reassured them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (Matthew 14:27). Peter impulsively asked Jesus if he could join Him. He stepped out of the boat and walked toward Jesus. But he soon lost focus, became aware of the dangerous and humanly impossible circumstance he was in, and started sinking. He cried out, “Lord, save me!” and Jesus lovingly rescued him (vv. 30–31).
Like Peter, we can learn that Jesus, the Son of God, is with us even in the storms of life! By: Estera Pirosca Escobar
Reflect & Pray
What storm of life are you going through today? What can you do to shift your focus from the storm to the One who can calm it?
Jesus, thank You that You have the power and authority to calm the storms in our lives. Help us to trust You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 04, 2019
The Vision and The Reality
…to those who are…called to be saints… —1 Corinthians 1:2
Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.
Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation— “I AM WHO I AM…has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The place for the comforter is not that of one who preaches, but of the comrade who says nothing, but prays to God about the matter. The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is not to talk platitudes, not to ask questions, but to get into contact with God, and the “greater works” will be done by prayer (see John 14:12–13). Baffled to Fight Better, 56 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 04, 2019
How to Be Sure You'll Make it Home - #8540
Our friend commuted in his private plane hundreds of times. He flew from a little airfield near his house to the community where his office was. Well, knowing that he wanted to get home one day before the weather set in, he left his office earlier than usual and he headed for his plane. As he was boarding, he told a friend, "I'm going home!" Those may have been his last words. As he landed a few minutes later, the plane went into a skid and slammed into a tree. He probably died instantly, but he still made it home.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Be Sure You'll Make it Home."
Our friend had made it known to a lot of people that he cared about that he had placed his total trust in Jesus Christ to forgive his sins and take him to heaven when he died. And while it was his home on earth he thought he was heading for, his last words had more meaning than he could have ever known. He really was going home - to the eternal home in heaven that we all hope we'll go to when we take our last flight.
I hope you have that kind of security. I hope you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are, in the words of the Bible, "prepared to meet your God" (Amos 4:12). That you are going to heaven when you die. It has nothing to do with being good enough to be in heaven. It has everything to do with what Jesus did when He died to remove the only thing that will keep you out of heaven, which is all the sins of your life.
There's a peace and a security that is beyond words in knowing that death no longer has any hold over you. It is, in reality, a non-issue because of Jesus. In Hebrews 2:14, our word for today from the Word of God, God says that Jesus "shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Or as another Bible writer says, "Christ Jesus...has destroyed death" (2 Timothy 1:10).
The Bible doesn't take death lightly. In fact, it refers to death as "the last enemy to be destroyed" (1 Corinthians 15:26). But it goes on to say that "death has been swallowed up in victory" by Jesus blowing the doors off death when He rose from the dead on Easter morning.
One Easter Sunday morning, Dr. Adrian Rogers' daughter read an amazing poem in their church service. King Death and Father Time are talking outside of Jesus' tomb. Death tells Time that he is "guarding just one grave" because Jesus has threatened to challenge him. And Death says, "When I steps in to cut 'em down, it's for eternity." But three days later, Time finds Death quivering on the ground.
When Time asks what happened, Death says, "He came and got ahold of me and He threw me to the ground. He put His foot here on my neck and He took my keys and crown. Two angels came to talk with Him. They glistened like the sun. He said, 'The job's all finished, boys. Redemption's work is done.'" Wow! And Death concludes by saying, "I'm just a lowly servant now. I've little time to roam. I open up the soul gate and help the saints go home."
That's the only thing death can do now is take you to heaven if you know Jesus Christ personally. Maybe you've never grabbed Jesus as your only hope. Eternity is just too long to risk one more day without Him. Today why don't you tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours. I believe I was made by You and I was made for You, but I've wandered away from You. I've done things that have broken Your laws and broken Your heart. And I believe You loved me so much that when You died on the cross, some of that sin You were dying for was my sin. And I believe You're alive today, and I want You to be alive in me. I want to belong to You from this day on."
You know, if that's where your heart is right now, you're feeling that tug of Jesus his direction, I want to ask you to make one of your next steps to go to our website and find there, the information that will help you get this settled once and for all. That site is ANewStory.com.
Beginning this day, you can know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are going to heaven when you die. Why? Because you've put yourself in the hands of the only One who can take you there. And whenever your last day on earth is, you'll just be going home.
“And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:27–28).
Jesus came to serve. Suppose you took that role. Be the family member who offers to wash the dishes after dinner. Be the neighbor who mows the grass of the elderly people. Find happiness in serving others. Doing good does the doer good.
What would happen if everyone took on the role of a servant? How many marriages would be blessed? If politicians set out to serve people more than serve themselves, would their country benefit? If churches were populated by sincere servants, how many people would hear the invitation of a lifetime? Service… it’s how happiness happens.
Philippians 3
And that’s about it, friends. Be glad in God!
I don’t mind repeating what I have written in earlier letters, and I hope you don’t mind hearing it again. Better safe than sorry—so here goes.
2-6 Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.
7-9 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.
15-16 So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—you’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it.
17-19 Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal. There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I’ve warned you of them many times; sadly, I’m having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ’s Cross. But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites.
20-21 But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.
The Message (MSG)
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Friday, October 04, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Matthew 14:23–33
After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Insight
The gospels of Matthew and Mark describe two separate occasions when Jesus, in the presence of His frightened disciples, calms a storm on the lake of Galilee. In the first of these events, Jesus is asleep in the bow of the boat when a storm threatens to sink it (Matthew 8:23–27; Mark 4:35–41). In the second, the disciples are crossing the lake by themselves when Jesus comes to them in the storm walking on the waves (Matthew 14:22–33; Mark 6:45–51).
Although Luke describes only the occasion when Jesus was asleep in the boat (8:22–25) and John describes only the storm that occurred while He walked on water (6:16–21), the accounts in Matthew and Mark show us that by the time Christ stepped into the boat and calmed a storm with His presence, the disciples had already seen Him calm a storm with His command. By: Mart DeHaan
He Calms the Storms
But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Matthew 14:27
Jim was frantically sharing about problems he was encountering with his work team: division, judgmental attitudes, and misunderstandings. After an hour of patiently listening to his concerns, I suggested, “Let’s ask Jesus what He would have us do in this situation.” We sat quietly for five minutes. Then something amazing happened. We both felt God’s peace cover us like a blanket. We were more relaxed as we experienced His presence and guidance, and we felt confident to wade back into the difficulties.
Peter, one of Jesus’s disciples, needed God’s comforting presence. One night he and the other disciples were sailing across the Sea of Galilee when a strong storm arose. All of a sudden, Jesus showed up walking on water! Naturally, this took the disciples by surprise. He reassured them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (Matthew 14:27). Peter impulsively asked Jesus if he could join Him. He stepped out of the boat and walked toward Jesus. But he soon lost focus, became aware of the dangerous and humanly impossible circumstance he was in, and started sinking. He cried out, “Lord, save me!” and Jesus lovingly rescued him (vv. 30–31).
Like Peter, we can learn that Jesus, the Son of God, is with us even in the storms of life! By: Estera Pirosca Escobar
Reflect & Pray
What storm of life are you going through today? What can you do to shift your focus from the storm to the One who can calm it?
Jesus, thank You that You have the power and authority to calm the storms in our lives. Help us to trust You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Friday, October 04, 2019
The Vision and The Reality
…to those who are…called to be saints… —1 Corinthians 1:2
Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.
Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation— “I AM WHO I AM…has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The place for the comforter is not that of one who preaches, but of the comrade who says nothing, but prays to God about the matter. The biggest thing you can do for those who are suffering is not to talk platitudes, not to ask questions, but to get into contact with God, and the “greater works” will be done by prayer (see John 14:12–13). Baffled to Fight Better, 56 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Friday, October 04, 2019
How to Be Sure You'll Make it Home - #8540
Our friend commuted in his private plane hundreds of times. He flew from a little airfield near his house to the community where his office was. Well, knowing that he wanted to get home one day before the weather set in, he left his office earlier than usual and he headed for his plane. As he was boarding, he told a friend, "I'm going home!" Those may have been his last words. As he landed a few minutes later, the plane went into a skid and slammed into a tree. He probably died instantly, but he still made it home.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Be Sure You'll Make it Home."
Our friend had made it known to a lot of people that he cared about that he had placed his total trust in Jesus Christ to forgive his sins and take him to heaven when he died. And while it was his home on earth he thought he was heading for, his last words had more meaning than he could have ever known. He really was going home - to the eternal home in heaven that we all hope we'll go to when we take our last flight.
I hope you have that kind of security. I hope you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are, in the words of the Bible, "prepared to meet your God" (Amos 4:12). That you are going to heaven when you die. It has nothing to do with being good enough to be in heaven. It has everything to do with what Jesus did when He died to remove the only thing that will keep you out of heaven, which is all the sins of your life.
There's a peace and a security that is beyond words in knowing that death no longer has any hold over you. It is, in reality, a non-issue because of Jesus. In Hebrews 2:14, our word for today from the Word of God, God says that Jesus "shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." Or as another Bible writer says, "Christ Jesus...has destroyed death" (2 Timothy 1:10).
The Bible doesn't take death lightly. In fact, it refers to death as "the last enemy to be destroyed" (1 Corinthians 15:26). But it goes on to say that "death has been swallowed up in victory" by Jesus blowing the doors off death when He rose from the dead on Easter morning.
One Easter Sunday morning, Dr. Adrian Rogers' daughter read an amazing poem in their church service. King Death and Father Time are talking outside of Jesus' tomb. Death tells Time that he is "guarding just one grave" because Jesus has threatened to challenge him. And Death says, "When I steps in to cut 'em down, it's for eternity." But three days later, Time finds Death quivering on the ground.
When Time asks what happened, Death says, "He came and got ahold of me and He threw me to the ground. He put His foot here on my neck and He took my keys and crown. Two angels came to talk with Him. They glistened like the sun. He said, 'The job's all finished, boys. Redemption's work is done.'" Wow! And Death concludes by saying, "I'm just a lowly servant now. I've little time to roam. I open up the soul gate and help the saints go home."
That's the only thing death can do now is take you to heaven if you know Jesus Christ personally. Maybe you've never grabbed Jesus as your only hope. Eternity is just too long to risk one more day without Him. Today why don't you tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours. I believe I was made by You and I was made for You, but I've wandered away from You. I've done things that have broken Your laws and broken Your heart. And I believe You loved me so much that when You died on the cross, some of that sin You were dying for was my sin. And I believe You're alive today, and I want You to be alive in me. I want to belong to You from this day on."
You know, if that's where your heart is right now, you're feeling that tug of Jesus his direction, I want to ask you to make one of your next steps to go to our website and find there, the information that will help you get this settled once and for all. That site is ANewStory.com.
Beginning this day, you can know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are going to heaven when you die. Why? Because you've put yourself in the hands of the only One who can take you there. And whenever your last day on earth is, you'll just be going home.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Psalm 92, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: JESUS SERVED HIS DISCIPLES
The disciples were on the Sea of Galilee when they heard Jesus call out from the shore. When they reached the beach, they saw the most extraordinary sight. Jesus was cooking! He told them, “Come and eat breakfast” (John 21:12).
Shouldn’t the roles be reversed? Jesus had just ripped the gates of hell off their hinges. He’d made a deposit of grace that forever offsets our debt of sin. He, the unrivaled Commander of the Universe, wore the apron? Even more, he has yet to remove it. He promises a feast in heaven at which “he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them” (Luke 12:37).
Can you imagine the sight? Someone asks, “Has anyone seen Jesus?” “Yes, He’s on the other side of the banquet room serving ice tea.” This is how happiness happens.
Psalm 92
A Sabbath Song
What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
the full-bodied music of strings.
4-9 You made me so happy, God
I saw your work and I shouted for joy.
How magnificent your work, God!
How profound your thoughts!
Dullards never notice what you do;
fools never do get it.
When the wicked popped up like weeds
and all the evil men and women took over,
You mowed them down,
finished them off once and for all.
You, God, are High and Eternal.
Look at your enemies, God!
Look at your enemies—ruined!
Scattered to the winds, all those hirelings of evil!
10-14 But you’ve made me strong as a charging bison,
you’ve honored me with a festive parade.
The sight of my critics going down is still fresh,
the rout of my malicious detractors.
My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:
“Good people will prosper like palm trees,
Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;
transplanted to God’s courtyard,
They’ll grow tall in the presence of God,
lithe and green, virile still in old age.”
15 Such witnesses to upright God!
My Mountain, my huge, holy Mountain!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 03, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 139:1–10
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Insight
A simple definition of the word theology is “the study of God.” In Psalm 139, David didn’t set out to write a mini-course on theology, but his prayer-filled composition is just that. Verses 1–18 include three unique characteristics of the God of the Bible: He is omniscient (all-knowing, vv. 1–6), omnipresent (always present, vv. 7–12), and omnipotent (all-powerful, vv. 13–18). It’s staggering when we think of God in the way Psalm 139 depicts Him. The psalmist’s writing is very personal (notice the number of first-person pronouns). David doesn’t leave us with abstract thoughts about a distant God, but his reflections lead to personal application: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23–24).
To learn more about basic Christian beliefs visit christianuniversity.org/ST101. By: Arthur Jackson
Love’s Long Reach
Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Romans 11:33
Mary Lee is a sixteen-foot, 3,500-pound great white shark tagged by oceanographers off the east coast of the US in 2012. The transmitter attached to her dorsal fin would be tracked by satellite when she surfaced. For the next five years Mary Lee’s movements were observed online by everyone from researchers to surfers, up and down the coast. She was tracked for nearly 40,000 miles until one day her signal stopped—probably because the battery on her transmitter expired.
Human knowledge and technology reach only so far. Those “following” Mary Lee lost track of her, but you and I can never evade God’s awareness throughout every moment of our lives. David prayed, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there” (Psalm 139:7–8). “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,” he exclaims gratefully (v. 6).
God chooses to know us because He loves us. He cares enough not only to observe our lives but also to enter into them and make them new. He drew near through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, so we could know Him in return and love Him for eternity. We can never go beyond the reach of God’s love. By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
How does the thought that God knows and loves us completely encourage you? How will you reach out to others with His love today?
Thank You for always seeing me, Father! Help me to live today with a growing awareness of Your presence and perfect love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 03, 2019
The Place of Ministry
He said to them, "This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." —Mark 9:29
“His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ ” (Mark 9:28). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “This kind can come out by nothing but” concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him.
When you are brought face to face with a difficult situation and nothing happens externally, you can still know that freedom and release will be given because of your continued concentration on Jesus Christ. Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very problem itself, and all that you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way that you will never know until you see Him face to face.
We must be able to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and what he was referring to were mostly humiliating things. And yet it is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say, “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 03, 2019
Out of Sight - #8539
I had been going through this basement closet. I found some buried treasure. Actually, it was a little suitcase filled with the love letters that my wife and I had exchanged over two years of our courtship and engagement - and no you can't see them. It was pretty moving for me to read them again after all these years. As I relived our early romance through those letters, I had an idea, why not put some of these in a scrapbook and give them as a gift to my wife. Small problem: how am I going to do this and keep it a surprise? I actually set up a partition in the back half of our basement. I moved some big furniture around to further obstruct the view, and I made myself a secret "No Trespassing" workshop! Finally, one day I presented to my Honey this book entitled "Chronicles of a Lifetime Love." She had no idea what I'd been working on for her, because, see, I did all the work on it out of her sight!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Out of Sight."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 11:1 - I think you'll see what this has to do with it. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Why is it so important to understand what faith is all about? Well, chapter 11 verse 6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Faith is the way to God's heart. Faith is "...being certain of what we do not see." This is not how we're wired to think. Right? Instinctively, we're only sure of what we can see - what we can hold. We're slaves to the visible - the tangible. God is like me working on that scrapbook in the basement, He's doing something really special, but He's doing it mostly out of our sight.
Faith isn't based on the evidence that you can see. It's based on the character of the God you're trusting. In chapter 11 verse 3 in Hebrews it says, "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command." Hello! If He can do that, isn't your situation like a piece of cake compared to forming the universe? It could be that what you can see right now is pretty discouraging: 'I can't see where the money is going to come from, the place I need, the person I need, the strength, the healing I need.' What's in your hand or even in your reach isn't going to do it. But, remember much of God's greatest work is done out of your sight.
The flowers that burst and bloom in the spring? Well, they've been germinating out of sight for a long time before that. That new born baby you hold in your hands has been developing out of sight for months. In fact, it takes a test to find out that that little person's even there at first. God does some awesome work invisibly, and He's doing invisible work for you right now. If you react or you decide, based on just what you can see, you're going to be proceeding on incomplete data, and you're likely to make a mistake!
Faith reaches beyond the visible and it says, "God is going to keep His promises." He always does. The God factor radically changes the whole equation. He's working right now on the answer that will bring Him the most glory and me the most good.
Now look, I don't need to panic, I'm not going to abandon ship, I'm not going to act as if things are out of control. Run around and try to fix it myself. Why? Because faith is being certain of what we do not see because of the kind of God we have.
My wife had no idea what was going on behind that screen in the basement, but she trusted me. Behind the screen, God is working on a gift for you that is very special, and you'll see it when it's done. Until then, trust in the One whose work you cannot see, but whose love you should never doubt.
The disciples were on the Sea of Galilee when they heard Jesus call out from the shore. When they reached the beach, they saw the most extraordinary sight. Jesus was cooking! He told them, “Come and eat breakfast” (John 21:12).
Shouldn’t the roles be reversed? Jesus had just ripped the gates of hell off their hinges. He’d made a deposit of grace that forever offsets our debt of sin. He, the unrivaled Commander of the Universe, wore the apron? Even more, he has yet to remove it. He promises a feast in heaven at which “he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them” (Luke 12:37).
Can you imagine the sight? Someone asks, “Has anyone seen Jesus?” “Yes, He’s on the other side of the banquet room serving ice tea.” This is how happiness happens.
Psalm 92
A Sabbath Song
What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks,
to sing an anthem to you, the High God!
To announce your love each daybreak,
sing your faithful presence all through the night,
Accompanied by dulcimer and harp,
the full-bodied music of strings.
4-9 You made me so happy, God
I saw your work and I shouted for joy.
How magnificent your work, God!
How profound your thoughts!
Dullards never notice what you do;
fools never do get it.
When the wicked popped up like weeds
and all the evil men and women took over,
You mowed them down,
finished them off once and for all.
You, God, are High and Eternal.
Look at your enemies, God!
Look at your enemies—ruined!
Scattered to the winds, all those hirelings of evil!
10-14 But you’ve made me strong as a charging bison,
you’ve honored me with a festive parade.
The sight of my critics going down is still fresh,
the rout of my malicious detractors.
My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:
“Good people will prosper like palm trees,
Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;
transplanted to God’s courtyard,
They’ll grow tall in the presence of God,
lithe and green, virile still in old age.”
15 Such witnesses to upright God!
My Mountain, my huge, holy Mountain!
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, October 03, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Psalm 139:1–10
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Insight
A simple definition of the word theology is “the study of God.” In Psalm 139, David didn’t set out to write a mini-course on theology, but his prayer-filled composition is just that. Verses 1–18 include three unique characteristics of the God of the Bible: He is omniscient (all-knowing, vv. 1–6), omnipresent (always present, vv. 7–12), and omnipotent (all-powerful, vv. 13–18). It’s staggering when we think of God in the way Psalm 139 depicts Him. The psalmist’s writing is very personal (notice the number of first-person pronouns). David doesn’t leave us with abstract thoughts about a distant God, but his reflections lead to personal application: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23–24).
To learn more about basic Christian beliefs visit christianuniversity.org/ST101. By: Arthur Jackson
Love’s Long Reach
Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Romans 11:33
Mary Lee is a sixteen-foot, 3,500-pound great white shark tagged by oceanographers off the east coast of the US in 2012. The transmitter attached to her dorsal fin would be tracked by satellite when she surfaced. For the next five years Mary Lee’s movements were observed online by everyone from researchers to surfers, up and down the coast. She was tracked for nearly 40,000 miles until one day her signal stopped—probably because the battery on her transmitter expired.
Human knowledge and technology reach only so far. Those “following” Mary Lee lost track of her, but you and I can never evade God’s awareness throughout every moment of our lives. David prayed, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there” (Psalm 139:7–8). “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,” he exclaims gratefully (v. 6).
God chooses to know us because He loves us. He cares enough not only to observe our lives but also to enter into them and make them new. He drew near through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, so we could know Him in return and love Him for eternity. We can never go beyond the reach of God’s love. By: James Banks
Reflect & Pray
How does the thought that God knows and loves us completely encourage you? How will you reach out to others with His love today?
Thank You for always seeing me, Father! Help me to live today with a growing awareness of Your presence and perfect love.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, October 03, 2019
The Place of Ministry
He said to them, "This kind [of unclean spirit] can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." —Mark 9:29
“His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ ” (Mark 9:28). The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. “This kind can come out by nothing but” concentrating on Him, and then doubling and redoubling that concentration on Him. We can remain powerless forever, as the disciples were in this situation, by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him.
When you are brought face to face with a difficult situation and nothing happens externally, you can still know that freedom and release will be given because of your continued concentration on Jesus Christ. Your duty in service and ministry is to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there anything between you and Jesus even now? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it as an irritation, or by going up and over it, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very problem itself, and all that you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way that you will never know until you see Him face to face.
We must be able to “mount up with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and in the living that is done in the valley. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) and what he was referring to were mostly humiliating things. And yet it is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say, “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they really are destroy my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, October 03, 2019
Out of Sight - #8539
I had been going through this basement closet. I found some buried treasure. Actually, it was a little suitcase filled with the love letters that my wife and I had exchanged over two years of our courtship and engagement - and no you can't see them. It was pretty moving for me to read them again after all these years. As I relived our early romance through those letters, I had an idea, why not put some of these in a scrapbook and give them as a gift to my wife. Small problem: how am I going to do this and keep it a surprise? I actually set up a partition in the back half of our basement. I moved some big furniture around to further obstruct the view, and I made myself a secret "No Trespassing" workshop! Finally, one day I presented to my Honey this book entitled "Chronicles of a Lifetime Love." She had no idea what I'd been working on for her, because, see, I did all the work on it out of her sight!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Out of Sight."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Hebrews 11:1 - I think you'll see what this has to do with it. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Why is it so important to understand what faith is all about? Well, chapter 11 verse 6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Faith is the way to God's heart. Faith is "...being certain of what we do not see." This is not how we're wired to think. Right? Instinctively, we're only sure of what we can see - what we can hold. We're slaves to the visible - the tangible. God is like me working on that scrapbook in the basement, He's doing something really special, but He's doing it mostly out of our sight.
Faith isn't based on the evidence that you can see. It's based on the character of the God you're trusting. In chapter 11 verse 3 in Hebrews it says, "By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command." Hello! If He can do that, isn't your situation like a piece of cake compared to forming the universe? It could be that what you can see right now is pretty discouraging: 'I can't see where the money is going to come from, the place I need, the person I need, the strength, the healing I need.' What's in your hand or even in your reach isn't going to do it. But, remember much of God's greatest work is done out of your sight.
The flowers that burst and bloom in the spring? Well, they've been germinating out of sight for a long time before that. That new born baby you hold in your hands has been developing out of sight for months. In fact, it takes a test to find out that that little person's even there at first. God does some awesome work invisibly, and He's doing invisible work for you right now. If you react or you decide, based on just what you can see, you're going to be proceeding on incomplete data, and you're likely to make a mistake!
Faith reaches beyond the visible and it says, "God is going to keep His promises." He always does. The God factor radically changes the whole equation. He's working right now on the answer that will bring Him the most glory and me the most good.
Now look, I don't need to panic, I'm not going to abandon ship, I'm not going to act as if things are out of control. Run around and try to fix it myself. Why? Because faith is being certain of what we do not see because of the kind of God we have.
My wife had no idea what was going on behind that screen in the basement, but she trusted me. Behind the screen, God is working on a gift for you that is very special, and you'll see it when it's done. Until then, trust in the One whose work you cannot see, but whose love you should never doubt.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Psalm 89, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: QUIET SERVANTS
“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).
Quiet servants. The supporting cast of the kingdom of God. They seek to do what is right. They cook dinners. They visit the sick. It was the servant spirit of Mary that led God to select her to be the mother of Jesus. She was simple. She said, “I am the servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say” (Luke 1:38).
When God wants to bring Christ into the world, he looks for servants. No diploma, specific bloodline, prestigious birthplace, or fat bank account required. Let all unassuming people of the world be reminded: God can use you. This is how happiness happens.
Psalm 89
An Ethan Prayer
Your love, God, is my song, and I’ll sing it!
I’m forever telling everyone how faithful you are.
I’ll never quit telling the story of your love—
how you built the cosmos
and guaranteed everything in it.
Your love has always been our lives’ foundation,
your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
You once said, “I joined forces with my chosen leader,
I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying,
‘Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life;
I’ll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.’”
5-18 God! Let the cosmos praise your wonderful ways,
the choir of holy angels sing anthems to your faithful ways!
Search high and low, scan skies and land,
you’ll find nothing and no one quite like God.
The holy angels are in awe before him;
he looms immense and august over everyone around him.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who is like you,
powerful and faithful from every angle?
You put the arrogant ocean in its place
and calm its waves when they turn unruly.
You gave that old hag Egypt the back of your hand,
you brushed off your enemies with a flick of your wrist.
You own the cosmos—you made everything in it,
everything from atom to archangel.
You positioned the North and South Poles;
the mountains Tabor and Hermon sing duets to you.
With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel—
nobody trifles with you!
The Right and Justice are the roots of your rule;
Love and Truth are its fruits.
Blessed are the people who know the passwords of praise,
who shout on parade in the bright presence of God.
Delighted, they dance all day long; they know
who you are, what you do—they can’t keep it quiet!
Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside us—
you’ve been so good to us! We’re walking on air!
All we are and have we owe to God,
Holy God of Israel, our King!
19-37 A long time ago you spoke in a vision,
you spoke to your faithful beloved:
“I’ve crowned a hero,
I chose the best I could find;
I found David, my servant,
poured holy oil on his head,
And I’ll keep my hand steadily on him,
yes, I’ll stick with him through thick and thin.
No enemy will get the best of him,
no scoundrel will do him in.
I’ll weed out all who oppose him,
I’ll clean out all who hate him.
I’m with him for good and I’ll love him forever;
I’ve set him on high—he’s riding high!
I’ve put Ocean in his one hand, River in the other;
he’ll call out, ‘Oh, my Father—my God, my Rock of Salvation!’
Yes, I’m setting him apart as the First of the royal line,
High King over all of earth’s kings.
I’ll preserve him eternally in my love,
I’ll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
I’ll guarantee his family tree
and underwrite his rule.
If his children refuse to do what I tell them,
if they refuse to walk in the way I show them,
If they spit on the directions I give them
and tear up the rules I post for them—
I’ll rub their faces in the dirt of their rebellion
and make them face the music.
But I’ll never throw them out,
never abandon or disown them.
Do you think I’d withdraw my holy promise?
or take back words I’d already spoken?
I’ve given my word, my whole and holy word;
do you think I would lie to David?
His family tree is here for good,
his sovereignty as sure as the sun,
Dependable as the phases of the moon,
inescapable as weather.”
38-51 But God, you did walk off and leave us,
you lost your temper with the one you anointed.
You tore up the promise you made to your servant,
you stomped his crown in the mud.
You blasted his home to kingdom come,
reduced his city to a pile of rubble
Picked clean by wayfaring strangers,
a joke to all the neighbors.
You declared a holiday for all his enemies,
and they’re celebrating for all they’re worth.
Angry, you opposed him in battle,
refused to fight on his side;
You robbed him of his splendor, humiliated this warrior,
ground his kingly honor in the dirt.
You took the best years of his life
and left him an impotent, ruined husk.
How long do we put up with this, God?
Are you gone for good? Will you hold this grudge forever?
Remember my sorrow and how short life is.
Did you create men and women for nothing but this?
We’ll see death soon enough. Everyone does.
And there’s no back door out of hell.
So where is the love you’re so famous for, Lord?
What happened to your promise to David?
Take a good look at your servant, dear Lord;
I’m the butt of the jokes of all nations,
The taunting jokes of your enemies, God,
as they dog the steps of your dear anointed.
52 Blessed be God forever and always!
Yes. Oh, yes.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 5:1–13
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.[a] 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.
Footnotes:
Ephesians 5:5 Or kingdom of the Messiah and God
Insight
Today’s passage flows seamlessly out of chapter 4, in which Paul tells us how to live our lives in Christ. First he notes the futile thinking of those who live apart from God. “They are darkened in their understanding” (Ephesians 4:18) and so “indulge in every kind of impurity” (v. 19). But we’re to “put on the new self, created to be like God” (v. 24). This means a lifestyle of honesty and integrity, usefulness and generosity (vv. 25–28). Above all, it’s marked by kindness, compassion, and forgiveness (v. 32). Such Christlike behavior starkly contrasts with the darkness we once lived in. “As children of light” (5:8) we reflect the One who is the Light (see 1 John 1:5–7). By: Tim Gustafson
Catching Foxes
Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards. Song of Songs 2:15
The first time a bat invaded our home we dismissed it as a fluke. But after a second nighttime visit, I read up on the little critters and discovered they don’t need much of an opening to pay humans a visit. In fact, if they find a gap as small as the side of a coin they’ll let themselves in.
So I loaded up my caulk gun and went on a mission. I went around the house and closed up every tiny opening I could find.
In Songs of Songs 2:15, Solomon mentions another troublesome mammal. He writes of the danger of “little foxes,” which can “ruin the vineyards.” Symbolically, he’s speaking of threats that can enter a relationship and ruin it. Now I don’t mean to offend bat-lovers or fox-lovers, but keeping bats out of the house and foxes out of the vineyard is a bit like dealing with sin in our lives (Ephesians 5:3). By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit works within us so that we don’t have to “live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). By the Spirit’s power we can resist the temptation to sin.
Praise God that, in Christ, we’re now “light in the Lord” and can live in a way that “pleases” Him (Ephesians 5:8–10). The Spirit helps us catch those little foxes. By: Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
When you’re tempted to sin, how can you lean into the Holy Spirit’s power to resist it? What little foxes can the Spirit help you deal with today?
God, use Your power to give me the strength to resist sinning and damaging my relationship with You and others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
The Place of Humiliation
If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. —Mark 9:22
After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see Mark 9:5-6, Mark 9:14-23).
“If you can do anything….” It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
One Life-or-Death Moment - #8538
Our friend Jack was heading out on a canoe trip with some friends, totally undaunted by a river that was rising from the heavy rains. No sooner had they pushed off into the water but the stronger-than-expected current dumped their canoe. All their supplies for the weekend, "See you!" - headed downstream. Instinctively, Jack started swimming after the supplies to retrieve them. Well, you know what happened? Yeah, he got caught in the current, and he was caught off guard at how cold that water was. In no time, he was beginning to feel the first indications of hypothermia with no way to get out. At that seemingly hopeless moment, a life jacket floated by. Jack knew this was his chance. He grabbed that life jacket in that one moment of hope. Good news. It saved his life.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Life-or-Death Moment."
That's what my friend had on the river. He had an opportunity to reach out and grab the only thing that could save him. It's the kind of opportunity that is talked about, actually, in our word for today from the Word of God. It is a chance to grab what is our only hope of being saved.
Here is God's important statement in Isaiah 55:6. "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near." Implication: God will put His spiritual life preserver within your reach, but you need to grab it while the opportunity is there. Because, apparently, there will be a time when He can't be found, when He's no longer near.
The spiritual rescue that God has sent to us is nothing less than His one and only Son. God explains Jesus' life-saving mission very clearly in 1 John 4:9-10. "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. He loves us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
See, that's the life-or-death issue - the penalty for a lifetime of living pretty much our way instead of God's way. Our culture may not take sin very seriously, but God has said since the Garden of Eden, that sin would cost our relationship with Him and our eternity in heaven. It is called spiritual death. There's no way to escape the deadly current of sin and hell in our own strength.
You can be sure if there was any other way that we could be forgiven, any other way we could go to heaven, God would have never had His Son go through what He did on the cross. But all the goodness, all the spirituality, all the religion in the world can't pay our spiritual death penalty. Somebody's got to die to pay a death penalty and somebody did. You and I did the sinning, but Jesus did the dying. He's your only hope, and He's offering you a chance to reach out and grab Him as your Savior today. He could be found today. He's near today. Tomorrow, there's no guarantee.
If you've never grabbed Jesus with all the faith you've got, it's just not something to put off. Not if He's working in your heart right now to come to Him right now, because you don't come to Jesus when you're ready. You come when He's ready. And if you feel that tug His direction, He is ready right now. The Bible says that "No one can come to Him unless the Father is drawing him." And you're experiencing that right now.
Your eternal rescue happens when you say, "Jesus, I have no other hope of rescue but You and Your death on that cross for my sins. And I know you're alive. You walked out of your grave. I want you to walk into my life today. I'm grabbing You today with all the faith I've got to be my Savior from my sin."
I hope this is your day if it hasn't been before. Don't wait another day. In fact, let me suggest you go to our website, and I think it will help you get this nailed down and settled once and for all. That's why it's there. It's ANewStory.com. Go there as soon as you can.
Life is within your reach right now. It won't always be. So, call on the Lord while He is near.
“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).
Quiet servants. The supporting cast of the kingdom of God. They seek to do what is right. They cook dinners. They visit the sick. It was the servant spirit of Mary that led God to select her to be the mother of Jesus. She was simple. She said, “I am the servant of the Lord. Let this happen to me as you say” (Luke 1:38).
When God wants to bring Christ into the world, he looks for servants. No diploma, specific bloodline, prestigious birthplace, or fat bank account required. Let all unassuming people of the world be reminded: God can use you. This is how happiness happens.
Psalm 89
An Ethan Prayer
Your love, God, is my song, and I’ll sing it!
I’m forever telling everyone how faithful you are.
I’ll never quit telling the story of your love—
how you built the cosmos
and guaranteed everything in it.
Your love has always been our lives’ foundation,
your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
You once said, “I joined forces with my chosen leader,
I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying,
‘Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life;
I’ll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.’”
5-18 God! Let the cosmos praise your wonderful ways,
the choir of holy angels sing anthems to your faithful ways!
Search high and low, scan skies and land,
you’ll find nothing and no one quite like God.
The holy angels are in awe before him;
he looms immense and august over everyone around him.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who is like you,
powerful and faithful from every angle?
You put the arrogant ocean in its place
and calm its waves when they turn unruly.
You gave that old hag Egypt the back of your hand,
you brushed off your enemies with a flick of your wrist.
You own the cosmos—you made everything in it,
everything from atom to archangel.
You positioned the North and South Poles;
the mountains Tabor and Hermon sing duets to you.
With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel—
nobody trifles with you!
The Right and Justice are the roots of your rule;
Love and Truth are its fruits.
Blessed are the people who know the passwords of praise,
who shout on parade in the bright presence of God.
Delighted, they dance all day long; they know
who you are, what you do—they can’t keep it quiet!
Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside us—
you’ve been so good to us! We’re walking on air!
All we are and have we owe to God,
Holy God of Israel, our King!
19-37 A long time ago you spoke in a vision,
you spoke to your faithful beloved:
“I’ve crowned a hero,
I chose the best I could find;
I found David, my servant,
poured holy oil on his head,
And I’ll keep my hand steadily on him,
yes, I’ll stick with him through thick and thin.
No enemy will get the best of him,
no scoundrel will do him in.
I’ll weed out all who oppose him,
I’ll clean out all who hate him.
I’m with him for good and I’ll love him forever;
I’ve set him on high—he’s riding high!
I’ve put Ocean in his one hand, River in the other;
he’ll call out, ‘Oh, my Father—my God, my Rock of Salvation!’
Yes, I’m setting him apart as the First of the royal line,
High King over all of earth’s kings.
I’ll preserve him eternally in my love,
I’ll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
I’ll guarantee his family tree
and underwrite his rule.
If his children refuse to do what I tell them,
if they refuse to walk in the way I show them,
If they spit on the directions I give them
and tear up the rules I post for them—
I’ll rub their faces in the dirt of their rebellion
and make them face the music.
But I’ll never throw them out,
never abandon or disown them.
Do you think I’d withdraw my holy promise?
or take back words I’d already spoken?
I’ve given my word, my whole and holy word;
do you think I would lie to David?
His family tree is here for good,
his sovereignty as sure as the sun,
Dependable as the phases of the moon,
inescapable as weather.”
38-51 But God, you did walk off and leave us,
you lost your temper with the one you anointed.
You tore up the promise you made to your servant,
you stomped his crown in the mud.
You blasted his home to kingdom come,
reduced his city to a pile of rubble
Picked clean by wayfaring strangers,
a joke to all the neighbors.
You declared a holiday for all his enemies,
and they’re celebrating for all they’re worth.
Angry, you opposed him in battle,
refused to fight on his side;
You robbed him of his splendor, humiliated this warrior,
ground his kingly honor in the dirt.
You took the best years of his life
and left him an impotent, ruined husk.
How long do we put up with this, God?
Are you gone for good? Will you hold this grudge forever?
Remember my sorrow and how short life is.
Did you create men and women for nothing but this?
We’ll see death soon enough. Everyone does.
And there’s no back door out of hell.
So where is the love you’re so famous for, Lord?
What happened to your promise to David?
Take a good look at your servant, dear Lord;
I’m the butt of the jokes of all nations,
The taunting jokes of your enemies, God,
as they dog the steps of your dear anointed.
52 Blessed be God forever and always!
Yes. Oh, yes.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Ephesians 5:1–13
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.[a] 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. 7 Therefore do not be partners with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.
Footnotes:
Ephesians 5:5 Or kingdom of the Messiah and God
Insight
Today’s passage flows seamlessly out of chapter 4, in which Paul tells us how to live our lives in Christ. First he notes the futile thinking of those who live apart from God. “They are darkened in their understanding” (Ephesians 4:18) and so “indulge in every kind of impurity” (v. 19). But we’re to “put on the new self, created to be like God” (v. 24). This means a lifestyle of honesty and integrity, usefulness and generosity (vv. 25–28). Above all, it’s marked by kindness, compassion, and forgiveness (v. 32). Such Christlike behavior starkly contrasts with the darkness we once lived in. “As children of light” (5:8) we reflect the One who is the Light (see 1 John 1:5–7). By: Tim Gustafson
Catching Foxes
Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards. Song of Songs 2:15
The first time a bat invaded our home we dismissed it as a fluke. But after a second nighttime visit, I read up on the little critters and discovered they don’t need much of an opening to pay humans a visit. In fact, if they find a gap as small as the side of a coin they’ll let themselves in.
So I loaded up my caulk gun and went on a mission. I went around the house and closed up every tiny opening I could find.
In Songs of Songs 2:15, Solomon mentions another troublesome mammal. He writes of the danger of “little foxes,” which can “ruin the vineyards.” Symbolically, he’s speaking of threats that can enter a relationship and ruin it. Now I don’t mean to offend bat-lovers or fox-lovers, but keeping bats out of the house and foxes out of the vineyard is a bit like dealing with sin in our lives (Ephesians 5:3). By the grace of God, the Holy Spirit works within us so that we don’t have to “live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). By the Spirit’s power we can resist the temptation to sin.
Praise God that, in Christ, we’re now “light in the Lord” and can live in a way that “pleases” Him (Ephesians 5:8–10). The Spirit helps us catch those little foxes. By: Dave Branon
Reflect & Pray
When you’re tempted to sin, how can you lean into the Holy Spirit’s power to resist it? What little foxes can the Spirit help you deal with today?
God, use Your power to give me the strength to resist sinning and damaging my relationship with You and others.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
The Place of Humiliation
If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. —Mark 9:22
After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see Mark 9:5-6, Mark 9:14-23).
“If you can do anything….” It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
Our danger is to water down God’s word to suit ourselves. God never fits His word to suit me; He fits me to suit His word. Not Knowing Whither, 901 R
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
One Life-or-Death Moment - #8538
Our friend Jack was heading out on a canoe trip with some friends, totally undaunted by a river that was rising from the heavy rains. No sooner had they pushed off into the water but the stronger-than-expected current dumped their canoe. All their supplies for the weekend, "See you!" - headed downstream. Instinctively, Jack started swimming after the supplies to retrieve them. Well, you know what happened? Yeah, he got caught in the current, and he was caught off guard at how cold that water was. In no time, he was beginning to feel the first indications of hypothermia with no way to get out. At that seemingly hopeless moment, a life jacket floated by. Jack knew this was his chance. He grabbed that life jacket in that one moment of hope. Good news. It saved his life.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "One Life-or-Death Moment."
That's what my friend had on the river. He had an opportunity to reach out and grab the only thing that could save him. It's the kind of opportunity that is talked about, actually, in our word for today from the Word of God. It is a chance to grab what is our only hope of being saved.
Here is God's important statement in Isaiah 55:6. "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near." Implication: God will put His spiritual life preserver within your reach, but you need to grab it while the opportunity is there. Because, apparently, there will be a time when He can't be found, when He's no longer near.
The spiritual rescue that God has sent to us is nothing less than His one and only Son. God explains Jesus' life-saving mission very clearly in 1 John 4:9-10. "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. He loves us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
See, that's the life-or-death issue - the penalty for a lifetime of living pretty much our way instead of God's way. Our culture may not take sin very seriously, but God has said since the Garden of Eden, that sin would cost our relationship with Him and our eternity in heaven. It is called spiritual death. There's no way to escape the deadly current of sin and hell in our own strength.
You can be sure if there was any other way that we could be forgiven, any other way we could go to heaven, God would have never had His Son go through what He did on the cross. But all the goodness, all the spirituality, all the religion in the world can't pay our spiritual death penalty. Somebody's got to die to pay a death penalty and somebody did. You and I did the sinning, but Jesus did the dying. He's your only hope, and He's offering you a chance to reach out and grab Him as your Savior today. He could be found today. He's near today. Tomorrow, there's no guarantee.
If you've never grabbed Jesus with all the faith you've got, it's just not something to put off. Not if He's working in your heart right now to come to Him right now, because you don't come to Jesus when you're ready. You come when He's ready. And if you feel that tug His direction, He is ready right now. The Bible says that "No one can come to Him unless the Father is drawing him." And you're experiencing that right now.
Your eternal rescue happens when you say, "Jesus, I have no other hope of rescue but You and Your death on that cross for my sins. And I know you're alive. You walked out of your grave. I want you to walk into my life today. I'm grabbing You today with all the faith I've got to be my Savior from my sin."
I hope this is your day if it hasn't been before. Don't wait another day. In fact, let me suggest you go to our website, and I think it will help you get this nailed down and settled once and for all. That's why it's there. It's ANewStory.com. Go there as soon as you can.
Life is within your reach right now. It won't always be. So, call on the Lord while He is near.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Philippians 2, Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals
Max Lucado Daily: HAPPINESS IN INTERCESSORY MINISTRY
Nothing activates happiness like intercessory ministry. The scripture says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1).
So you come, not as a stranger, but as an heir to the promise. You are his ambassador. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf to be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Our King will listen to our request. After all, you are a member of his priesthood. Peter said, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people” (1 Peter 2:9). So in our intercession we function as priests, standing in the gap between the people of earth and God. This is how happiness happens.
Philippians 2
If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
12-13 What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.
14-16 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.
17-18 Even if I am executed here and now, I’ll rejoice in being an element in the offering of your faith that you make on Christ’s altar, a part of your rejoicing. But turnabout’s fair play—you must join me in my rejoicing. Whatever you do, don’t feel sorry for me.
19-24 I plan (according to Jesus’ plan) to send Timothy to you very soon so he can bring back all the news of you he can gather. Oh, how that will do my heart good! I have no one quite like Timothy. He is loyal, and genuinely concerned for you. Most people around here are looking out for themselves, with little concern for the things of Jesus. But you know yourselves that Timothy’s the real thing. He’s been a devoted son to me as together we’ve delivered the Message. As soon as I see how things are going to fall out for me here, I plan to send him off. And then I’m hoping and praying to be right on his heels.
25-27 But for right now, I’m dispatching Epaphroditus, my good friend and companion in my work. You sent him to help me out; now I’m sending him to help you out. He has been wanting in the worst way to get back with you. Especially since recovering from the illness you heard about, he’s been wanting to get back and reassure you that he is just fine. He nearly died, as you know, but God had mercy on him. And not only on him—he had mercy on me, too. His death would have been one huge grief piled on top of all the others.
28-30 So you can see why I’m so delighted to send him on to you. When you see him again, hale and hearty, how you’ll rejoice and how relieved I’ll be. Give him a grand welcome, a joyful embrace! People like him deserve the best you can give. Remember the ministry to me that you started but weren’t able to complete? Well, in the process of finishing up that work, he put his life on the line and nearly died doing it.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Exodus 16:14–18
When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer[a] for each person you have in your tent.’”
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
Footnotes:
Exodus 16:16 That is, possibly about 3 pounds or about 1.4 kilograms; also in verses 18, 32, 33 and 36
Insight
The Hebrew word for manna means “what is it?” Manna looked like white flakes of frost on the ground and tasted “like wafers made with honey” (Exodus 16:14, 31). The poetic language of Psalm 78:24 tells us, “[God] rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.” This image of manna as bread is picked up in the New Testament. In John 6, the people said it was “bread from heaven” (v. 31), then Jesus lifted this bread up to its highest level as a picture of Himself (vv. 32–33)! Christ called Himself “the bread that came down from heaven” (v. 41). Jesus said, “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die” (vv. 49–50). By: Bill Crowder
Eat and Repeat
We have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna! Numbers 11:6
When Kerry and Paul got married, neither one knew how to cook. But one night Kerry decided to try her hand at spaghetti—making so much that the couple had it for dinner again the next day. On the third day, Paul volunteered to cook, doubling the amount of pasta and sauce, hoping the huge pot would last through the weekend. As the couple sat down for dinner that night, however, it was Kerry who confessed, “I’m sick of spaghetti.”
Just imagine eating the same meal as the Israelites did—for forty years. Each morning they gathered the sweet “super food” God supplied and cooked it (no leftovers unless the next day was the Sabbath, Exodus 16:23–26). Sure, they got creative—baking it, boiling it (v. 23). But, oh, how they missed the good food they had enjoyed in Egypt (v. 3; Numbers 11:1–9), even though that nourishment had come at the high cost of cruelty and enslavement!
We too may sometimes resent that our life isn’t what it once was. Or perhaps the “sameness” of life has caused us to be discontent. But Exodus 16 tells of God’s faithful provision to the Israelites, causing them to trust and depend on His care each day.
God promises to give us everything we need. He satisfies our longings and fills up our soul with “good things” (Psalm 107:9 esv). By: Cindy Hess Kasper
Reflect & Pray
In what ways has God provided for you in the past? What longing is keeping you from trusting Him more?
Father, thank You for Your promise to faithfully care for me and provide what I need.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
The Place of Exaltation
…Jesus took…them up on a high mountain apart by themselves… —Mark 9:2
We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.
We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, “What’s the use of this experience?” We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If a man cannot prove his religion in the valley, it is not worth anything. Shade of His Hand, 1200 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
Hanging Up Your Black Robe - #8537
You know, things can become pretty nasty when it comes to settling whose land a certain piece of ground is. Actually, we have some friends who have an interest in a controversy like that and the stakes are pretty high. And the judge has to decide who really owns this particular property; how it should be handled. And honestly, there's a lot of rumors, a lot of drama in the air; intrigue. Before the legal proceedings start, the judge has suddenly recused himself from that case. In other words, he's stepped down on this one because for some reason - maybe a conflict of interest - he's basically saying, "I don't think I should be the one to judge this one."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'd like to have A Word With You today about "Hanging Up Your Black Robe."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 12:18-20. Brace yourself for some radical relationship advice from God that really flies in the face of what we feel like doing. Here's what it says, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink."
Some Scripture, you know, you can sort of sit back, smile and say, "Oh, isn't that nice. I'll do that." But this is one of those that makes an honest person say, "Wait a minute! Woah! You want me to give up the idea of retaliating? Of getting even? You want me to minister to that person that hurt me?" God says, "Yes." See, that's the Jesus-difference.
There may be someone about whom you have some pretty negative feelings, angry feelings and maybe for real reasons. And it's very natural - it's sinfully natural - to want to even the score or to respond in like kind. There might be someone you're having a hard time forgiving. God's orders, if I can paraphrase, "Hang up your black robe." Recuse yourself from the case.
When we have unforgiveness toward someone, we tend to put on our black judge's robe and sit in judgment of them. We sit in judgment of their actions, their motives, of what should happen to them because of what they've done. In our hearts, we pass judgment on their guilt and we decide what kind of penalty they should receive for what they've done.
But God's instructions - the ones we just read - they tell us that there's only one Judge qualified to rule on this case. And it isn't you. It isn't me. It's God, of course. We all look silly in His big black robe. It's way too big for you or me, and so is the task of judging another sinner like yourself.
We want to fix this thing. We want to make things right. And when we do, all we seem to do is interfere with the perfect justice that God is working on giving that person. "Do not take revenge...leave room for God's wrath," the Bible says. Fascinating words. He will arrange a payback for the guilty person that is better than anything you could ever devise. He says, "I will repay." That means you don't repay what was done.
God is the Master at making things right. You've got to trust God for His justice in this situation and don't mess things up by sticking your hands in it. God's justice may take longer than yours would, but be patient. Justice delayed is not justice canceled. And when God is finished, I think you'll be amazed at how skillfully, how totally He did what needed to be done without you doing something that He will have to judge you for.
So trade in your black robe for a servant's uniform. Your job is to serve the one that you'd like to judge. That's what God will judge you for. So excuse yourself from this case. This is one for The Judge to do His way.
Nothing activates happiness like intercessory ministry. The scripture says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1).
So you come, not as a stranger, but as an heir to the promise. You are his ambassador. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf to be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Our King will listen to our request. After all, you are a member of his priesthood. Peter said, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people” (1 Peter 2:9). So in our intercession we function as priests, standing in the gap between the people of earth and God. This is how happiness happens.
Philippians 2
If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
12-13 What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.
14-16 Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing.
17-18 Even if I am executed here and now, I’ll rejoice in being an element in the offering of your faith that you make on Christ’s altar, a part of your rejoicing. But turnabout’s fair play—you must join me in my rejoicing. Whatever you do, don’t feel sorry for me.
19-24 I plan (according to Jesus’ plan) to send Timothy to you very soon so he can bring back all the news of you he can gather. Oh, how that will do my heart good! I have no one quite like Timothy. He is loyal, and genuinely concerned for you. Most people around here are looking out for themselves, with little concern for the things of Jesus. But you know yourselves that Timothy’s the real thing. He’s been a devoted son to me as together we’ve delivered the Message. As soon as I see how things are going to fall out for me here, I plan to send him off. And then I’m hoping and praying to be right on his heels.
25-27 But for right now, I’m dispatching Epaphroditus, my good friend and companion in my work. You sent him to help me out; now I’m sending him to help you out. He has been wanting in the worst way to get back with you. Especially since recovering from the illness you heard about, he’s been wanting to get back and reassure you that he is just fine. He nearly died, as you know, but God had mercy on him. And not only on him—he had mercy on me, too. His death would have been one huge grief piled on top of all the others.
28-30 So you can see why I’m so delighted to send him on to you. When you see him again, hale and hearty, how you’ll rejoice and how relieved I’ll be. Give him a grand welcome, a joyful embrace! People like him deserve the best you can give. Remember the ministry to me that you started but weren’t able to complete? Well, in the process of finishing up that work, he put his life on the line and nearly died doing it.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Exodus 16:14–18
When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer[a] for each person you have in your tent.’”
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
Footnotes:
Exodus 16:16 That is, possibly about 3 pounds or about 1.4 kilograms; also in verses 18, 32, 33 and 36
Insight
The Hebrew word for manna means “what is it?” Manna looked like white flakes of frost on the ground and tasted “like wafers made with honey” (Exodus 16:14, 31). The poetic language of Psalm 78:24 tells us, “[God] rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven.” This image of manna as bread is picked up in the New Testament. In John 6, the people said it was “bread from heaven” (v. 31), then Jesus lifted this bread up to its highest level as a picture of Himself (vv. 32–33)! Christ called Himself “the bread that came down from heaven” (v. 41). Jesus said, “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die” (vv. 49–50). By: Bill Crowder
Eat and Repeat
We have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna! Numbers 11:6
When Kerry and Paul got married, neither one knew how to cook. But one night Kerry decided to try her hand at spaghetti—making so much that the couple had it for dinner again the next day. On the third day, Paul volunteered to cook, doubling the amount of pasta and sauce, hoping the huge pot would last through the weekend. As the couple sat down for dinner that night, however, it was Kerry who confessed, “I’m sick of spaghetti.”
Just imagine eating the same meal as the Israelites did—for forty years. Each morning they gathered the sweet “super food” God supplied and cooked it (no leftovers unless the next day was the Sabbath, Exodus 16:23–26). Sure, they got creative—baking it, boiling it (v. 23). But, oh, how they missed the good food they had enjoyed in Egypt (v. 3; Numbers 11:1–9), even though that nourishment had come at the high cost of cruelty and enslavement!
We too may sometimes resent that our life isn’t what it once was. Or perhaps the “sameness” of life has caused us to be discontent. But Exodus 16 tells of God’s faithful provision to the Israelites, causing them to trust and depend on His care each day.
God promises to give us everything we need. He satisfies our longings and fills up our soul with “good things” (Psalm 107:9 esv). By: Cindy Hess Kasper
Reflect & Pray
In what ways has God provided for you in the past? What longing is keeping you from trusting Him more?
Father, thank You for Your promise to faithfully care for me and provide what I need.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
The Place of Exaltation
…Jesus took…them up on a high mountain apart by themselves… —Mark 9:2
We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life— those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.
We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, “What’s the use of this experience?” We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
If a man cannot prove his religion in the valley, it is not worth anything. Shade of His Hand, 1200 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
Hanging Up Your Black Robe - #8537
You know, things can become pretty nasty when it comes to settling whose land a certain piece of ground is. Actually, we have some friends who have an interest in a controversy like that and the stakes are pretty high. And the judge has to decide who really owns this particular property; how it should be handled. And honestly, there's a lot of rumors, a lot of drama in the air; intrigue. Before the legal proceedings start, the judge has suddenly recused himself from that case. In other words, he's stepped down on this one because for some reason - maybe a conflict of interest - he's basically saying, "I don't think I should be the one to judge this one."
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'd like to have A Word With You today about "Hanging Up Your Black Robe."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Romans 12:18-20. Brace yourself for some radical relationship advice from God that really flies in the face of what we feel like doing. Here's what it says, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink."
Some Scripture, you know, you can sort of sit back, smile and say, "Oh, isn't that nice. I'll do that." But this is one of those that makes an honest person say, "Wait a minute! Woah! You want me to give up the idea of retaliating? Of getting even? You want me to minister to that person that hurt me?" God says, "Yes." See, that's the Jesus-difference.
There may be someone about whom you have some pretty negative feelings, angry feelings and maybe for real reasons. And it's very natural - it's sinfully natural - to want to even the score or to respond in like kind. There might be someone you're having a hard time forgiving. God's orders, if I can paraphrase, "Hang up your black robe." Recuse yourself from the case.
When we have unforgiveness toward someone, we tend to put on our black judge's robe and sit in judgment of them. We sit in judgment of their actions, their motives, of what should happen to them because of what they've done. In our hearts, we pass judgment on their guilt and we decide what kind of penalty they should receive for what they've done.
But God's instructions - the ones we just read - they tell us that there's only one Judge qualified to rule on this case. And it isn't you. It isn't me. It's God, of course. We all look silly in His big black robe. It's way too big for you or me, and so is the task of judging another sinner like yourself.
We want to fix this thing. We want to make things right. And when we do, all we seem to do is interfere with the perfect justice that God is working on giving that person. "Do not take revenge...leave room for God's wrath," the Bible says. Fascinating words. He will arrange a payback for the guilty person that is better than anything you could ever devise. He says, "I will repay." That means you don't repay what was done.
God is the Master at making things right. You've got to trust God for His justice in this situation and don't mess things up by sticking your hands in it. God's justice may take longer than yours would, but be patient. Justice delayed is not justice canceled. And when God is finished, I think you'll be amazed at how skillfully, how totally He did what needed to be done without you doing something that He will have to judge you for.
So trade in your black robe for a servant's uniform. Your job is to serve the one that you'd like to judge. That's what God will judge you for. So excuse yourself from this case. This is one for The Judge to do His way.
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